Black Friday: Walmart workers demand $15 an hour

Walmart workers fighting for $15 an hour and regular schedules, supported by unionists and others, organized spirited protests at Walmart stores in some dozen cities Nov. 27, the big “Black Friday” shopping day after Thanksgiving.

Some 100 people marched in front of the store in Pico Rivera, California, near Los Angeles, demanding reinstatement of workers who lost their jobs when the store closed in April and weren’t rehired when it reopened in November. Many of the workers who lost their jobs were members of Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). “The company retaliated and closed this store because the workers were organizing effectively,” Cecily Myart-Cruz, vice president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles, told the rally.

In Minneapolis, above, more than 200 low-wage workers marched through downtown for $15, full-time hours and paid sick leave and against the Nov. 15 cop killing of Jamar Clark there.

Protests also took place at Walmarts in Oakland, San Leandro and San Jose, California; Federal Way, Washington; Calgary, Alberta; and in New York in front of the residence of Walmart heiress Alice Walton.

— MAGGIE TROWE