Walmart employees began walking off the job this week in advance of Black Friday, when three-union backed groups expect thousands of protests nationwide.

In October, a strike at a Walmart in Los Angeles spread to stores in 12 other cities, with local and national leaders holding protests at more than 200 stores for better pay, fairer schedules and more affordable health care. Since that time, workers have since walked off the job in Dallas and Richmond, Calif., and other upcoming strikes and protests are expected at stores in Chicago, Miami, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.

Charlene Fletcher, who works with her husband William at a Walmart in Duarte, Calif., became enraged when she learned that both were scheduled to work on Thanksgiving, missing the holiday with their children, ages 2 and 5.

“It’s heartbreaking to miss the holiday with them, and it’s just one more way that Walmart is showing its disregard for our families,” Fletcher said in a statement. “But when our co-workers speak out about problems like these, Walmart turns their schedules upside down, cuts their hours and even fires people. We’re going on strike for an end to Walmart’s attempts to silence its workers.”

Three groups — Making Change at Walmart, OUR Walmart and watchdog group Corporate Action Network — are now calling on the nation’s largest employer to end what they claim are retaliatory tactics against employees who seek out better working conditions.

In a statement to FoxNews.com, Walmart spokesman Dan Fogleman characterized the movement as "another exaggerated publicity campaign aimed at generating headlines to mislead" customers and employees.

"We have a great group of associates at Walmart," the statement read. "We’ll have more than one million associates working throughout the holiday weekend and they’re excited about our Black Friday plans this year. This is the Super Bowl for retailers and we’re ready.

"We’ve been working on our Black Friday plans for almost a year now and we’re prepared to have a great event. Our associates care about providing a great customer experience on Black Friday and we’re confident that’s what customers will have at Walmart this year."

Protests were held Thursday at Walmart stores in Eastvale and in Mira Loma, where six people were arrested for blocking traffic, KTLA reports.

Many customers, however, told KTLA they weren’t so convinced by the workers’ plans.

"If you come into a workplace knowing that's an agreement you might have to make, then that's your choice to have that job," shopper Rae Luce told the station.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/16/walmart-walkout-workers-mount-black-friday-job-action/#ixzz2CT8ZpM4v

This pisses me off. Every employee at Walmart knows when they are hired Black Friday is one of the days employee's are required to work as well as the day after Christmas. If you don't like it find another job outside of retail. I have been in retail all of my working life and I understand that is part of the job.

Most of them are hired for just this season and are informed upfront. If they have been with the company a while then they know to expect it. These are people who understand that and once they got the job they try and pull this. I have dealt with this for years with employee's and it makes me angry the sense of entitlement. I hope Walmart stands their ground!

I feel sorry for people with jobs that have to work Christmas or Thanksgiving. Those days should be sacrosanct.

So what if we miss out on one or two shopping days? I only have so much money to spend anyways.

I would think they have enough employees not to have both parents working on a holiday,,,,


sometimes because you can doesnt mean you should if there are better options,,,

How many holidays have service members missed?
These people need to shut the heII up and go to work or get a different job.

Right, but for that to happen, it would mean Walmart would try to even care about its employees.

Excellent point!

You know first hand they don't care about their employees?

Walmart should fire anyone who walks out or protests on their property.
They signed on knowing the deal.
I'm sure there are many conseevatives who would happily take their places.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.

With as many people without jobs the people who have them take their jobs for granted. They should be glad they are working!

You can never have enough on Black Friday. They are probably even working different shifts and i'm sure they work in different departments.

Agreed! They need to be thankful they have a job and that is one of the reasons I don't feel sorry for them. There are many people who would kill for that job and wouldn't bit$% and complain and cry like a crybaby when they don't get what they want when they are damn lucky just to have a job in general, have you seen the type of people Walmart hires? It is as close to trash as you will ever see in your life. Walmart hires all the losers that other places would never hire in a million years.

If they were here in Nevada they could, it is a right to work state. I have a hunch though it is against their policy even if they were allowed to do that by law...............

Folks, until I became physically disabled, I was a full-time Walmart associate. Yes, I had to work on Thanksgiving. I knew that I would when I accepted my job. When you have a family to feed, you learn to make sacrifices.

As for the complaints about work hours . . . well . . . the complainers work in retail, but they want consistent hours of people who work in manufacturing, but such consistency is not realistic in retail.

A Walmart associate's work schedule is made two weeks in advance, based on a business forecast, and that forecast varies from week to week.

That is true about the service members. Often time people complain about things that really do not mean a lot. Sad.
Good to have a job these days.

Good point Singmesweet!

Walmart is closed on Christmas. Walmart is open on Thanksgiving Day (USA) because too many Americans insist on shopping at Walmart on that day. If there were no demand, then there would be no supply.



Obviously, you are talking about Walmart as an outsider, which means that you are assuming something that isn't necessarily true. Upon applying for a job at Walmart, a person can specify what times and days of the week that the person is available to work. Thus, two parents can arrange to work at separate times of the day, which would enable at least one parent to be home when children are there.

be happy with whatever they give you

its an employers market (since when hasnt it been)

we should just be glad we arent slaves,,,(or are we?)., then again, even they had room and board,, so perhaps they should have been happy too,,,


cause it was 'better than nothing'


,<sarcasm>

Sarcasm noted; I would truly like to see how much of a "big baby" some of these folks would be if they had to try and make a living working for places like Wally world.

Have you ever done so? I have.

Yes I have. And I've done jobs a lot worse for a lot less money.
I've also done my time in the military. So I guess I've earned the
right to my opinion about corporate America.