Walmart workers plan strike for Black Friday
Nov 20, 2012, 12:30 PM | Updated: 1:29 pm
These Walmart employees will be joined by community partners, labor unions, among others. (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
Black Friday should be the biggest shopping day of the year, but for some, it will be a day to protest working conditions.
Local Walmart employees are joining in with others around the country to protest the “illegal actions that Walmart has been taking against its workers,” said Tom Geiger, communications director for UFCW21, in a release.
These Walmart employees will be joined by community partners, labor unions, among others.
If you’re out shopping on Black Friday, you may see groups at three area locations: Mount Vernon Supercenter, 10:30 a.m. to noon; Port Angeles Supercenter, 9:30 to 11 a.m.; and the Renton Walmart, 9:30 to 11 a.m.
The protest-strikes follow walk-outs from six different Seattle-area Walmarts last Thursday. About 30 Walmart employees total participated in the protest of stores that planned to open early on Thanksgiving night.
Other employees have said they will refuse to come in for their Thanksgiving Day shifts.
The workers involved in Thursday’s protest, and those who will protest on Black Friday, are a part of an employee-coalition called “Making Change at Walmart.”
MyNorthwest.com’s Stephanie Klein contributed to this report.
