—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Warehouse workers picket against Cal Cartage firings

WILMINGTON, California — Two dozen California Cartage Co. workers picketed the company’s warehouse at the Port of Los Angeles May 10, demanding to be directly hired by the company as full-time employees. Cal Cartage workers have struck three times in the last eight months demanding direct hiring, safety shoes, paid sick days and job placement by seniority. In retaliation, the company forced all temporary workers to apply to a new agency April 30.

Between 75 and 100 workers were not rehired, Javier Rodriguez, an organizer for the Warehouse Workers Resource Center, told the Militant. “This is the beginning of a big battle against the company,” he told pickets. “We won’t stop until our coworkers are back to work. We want the company to be responsible to hire everybody directly.”

— Bill Arth

Walmart worker speaks out against firing, gains support

LEDUC, Alberta — André Ouimet, 78, was fired from his job as a Walmart greeter here at the end of April. While at work April 23, he felt short of breath, left the store to get a fresh oxygen tank from his van and inadvertently put some toilet paper he had planned to buy in the vehicle. As soon as he realized the mistake, he informed management, paying for the item on his next break. On April 29, after being suspended without pay, he was told he would not be charged with theft, but was banned from all Walmart stores for two years.

Ouimet has used oxygen since shoveling snow in extreme winter cold in the Walmart parking lot a few years ago, his wife, Margit, told this reporter and Danyn Mitchell, both workers at another Walmart, who phoned to express solidarity May 5.

Coverage of the firing in the Leduc local paper and CBC Canada has won Ouimet support, and many workers protested on social media. One regular shopper who knows Ouimet started a GoFundMe page to raise money for him.

“He is extremely nice, always singing and friendly. He came right back and paid for it — you can’t find more honest than that,” Amanda Gilbert, a former Walmart worker, told the Militant. “I worked for Walmart for six years. They say they’re family oriented. They mean the family that owns Walmart.”

“I’m not a thief and I’m not a liar” Ouimet said by phone May 17, adding that while he was grocery shopping, a woman recognized him and told him she is no longer shopping at Walmart as a protest against his firing.

— Katy LeRougetel