Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday. It has assimilated into our culture as the one day out of the year to be thankful for the things and people we have in our lives. It is also the day that we conveniently forget about the colonization and imperialization of indigenous people, but I digress. However, the most interesting aspect of Thanksgiving to me is not the holiday itself, but the day after. The popularization of one of the most intrinsically capitalist days of the year, or Black Friday, happens to land they day right after we're supposed to be grateful for everything we already have. Year-after-year the lines start queuing earlier in the day as a result of stores opening their doors earlier in the evening. It's come to the point where retail associates, like those working for Walmart, cannot celebrate Thanksgiving at all because of the hours that Walmart stays open before, during, and after the holiday. 

This past Black Friday, the Organization United for Respect (OUR Walmart) carried out one of the biggest national anti-Walmart protests in the country. Approximately 1,448 store actions were done in 46 states, and the amount of press-coverage was far-reaching. OUR Walmart was created when a group of Walmart associates realized that they were the life-blood of the multi-billion dollar corporation, and weren't getting the dignity and respect they deserved. For example, many Walmart associates are making minimum wages, have no health-insurance, are not given full-time hours, and in-turn are having to rely on government assistance programs just to get by. It is clear that Walmart associates are tired of Walmart's unfair labor practices, but the community is also starting to realize the high cost of low prices.

Here are some facts that you might not have known about Walmart:

• Store employees are the top recipients of Medicaid
• 80% of workers are on food-stamps
• Most of Walmart's U.S. workforce are women (~70%) and earn less than the federal poverty wage guidelines for a family of three
• Women are statistically underpaid and more likely to be under promoted at Walmart despite the female majority in the company workforce.
• Only around 41-46 percent of Walmart employees get health-insurance from Walmart's health-insurance plan.
• “Part-time employees never can buy coverage under the Wal-Mart plan for their family members, and family coverage disappears if a worker slips from full-time to part-time status.” (Making Change at WalMart, 2013).

 

There is a disconnect in our communities when the CEOs of a company, in this case the Walton family, make more per MINUTE ($25,000) than the majority of Walmart employees make in a year. There is also a disconnect when you're working for a company that profits billions of dollars per year in sales and your associates cannot afford to feed their families or buy health-insurance among other things. That was the reality for thousands of Walmart Employees this Thanksgiving. However, I'll end by saying that I was thankful for the abundance of activists and protesters this Black Friday, and I can only hope that the necessity to organize against Walmart is no longer needed next year.

 

To read more about why Walmart workers are under-insured please click the link to the report created by the AFL-CIO provided below:

http://walmartwatch.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/pdf/afl-cio_uninsured.pdf

More information on OurWalmart:
http://forrespect.org/
https://www.facebook.com/OURWMT