FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February 27, 2014
Contact: Greta Bergstrom, 651.336.6722, greta@takeactionminnesota.org
March spotlighted Monday’s termination of April Williams who was unfairly fired after participation in a strike last November at Walmart’s Brooklyn Center store
Brooklyn Center, MN – On Thursday afternoon, over a hundred marchers, the vast majority single-moms, their children and allies marched on Walmart’s Brooklyn Center store calling on management to pay living wages to its employees and enact family-friendly policies to lift women and their children out of poverty. The march spotlighted Monday’s termination of April Williams who was unfairly fired after participation in a one-day strike last November at Walmart’s Brooklyn Center store
With a disproportionately female front-line workforce, organizers of Thursday’s march say wealthy corporations like Walmart have a responsibility to pay their workers higher hourly wages and create better hours and scheduling for store associates working to balance work with providing for their families. Marchers also called on Walmart to stop retaliatory practices against workers for speaking out for better pay and working conditions.
April Williams, who started working at the Brooklyn Center Walmart during the summer of 2012, is a single mom who lives with her sister and also goes to school. On Monday, Williams was unfairly fired after participation in a strike last November at the Brooklyn Center store. The termination came just days before today’s scheduled march.
“Walmart has chosen to not only pay the majority of its workers poverty wages, it has also decided to retaliate against workers like me who dare to speak out. No matter what Walmart tries to do to me, I will continue to stand up and speak out for higher wages free from retaliation. If Walmart thought that by firing me they would shut me up they were mistaken. I am here to stay and my voice will be heard. Walmart you need to publically commit to raise wages and end retaliation against workers,” said Williams.
TakeAction Minnesota economy team leader, Jacquita Berens, a single mother of three, is a full-time student and works two full-time jobs, yet struggles daily to make ends meet. A low-income worker, Berens has friends and family that work minimum wage jobs at Walmart. “I and many others like me are working hard, long hour shifts daily, away from our children and families yet receive no benefits. As employees, we’re constantly put in situations where we’re forced to choose whether to care for our sick children or lose our jobs. Poverty wages just aren’t right.”
Berens delivered a letter from TakeAction Minnesota calling on Walmart to help solve Minnesota’s low-wage work crisis. The organization is asking Walmart to change its practices by publicly supporting H.F. 92, raising the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 per hour, indexed to inflation and to allow its workers to earn up to nine job-protected earned sick days each year to care for their own health or to provide care to a sick family member.
Another Walmart worker, Cantaré Davunt of Duluth, has worked at Walmart for nearly five years. A college graduate, Davunt only makes $8.05 per hour and has been unable to find a better job in today’s economy. Davunt has applied for promotions six times but has been denied every time including more recently as a customer service manager.
At the rally on Thursday, Davunt delivered an OUR Walmart petition to Walmart, calling on the company to give associates the hours and pay Walmart workers need to support their families. “I work for a company that made $17 billion last year and the fact that I do not know from day to day how I am going to put food on the table is unacceptable,” Duvant told the crowd. “While $9.50 an hour may not seem like a lot to many it would make the world of difference to me. It’s time to raise the wage.”
In Minnesota, seven out of ten minimum wage workers are women, and many are single mothers struggling to provide for themselves and their families. Many see their hours cut and face erratic scheduling by big box retail management that makes it hard to budget for food and housing expenses and to take care of their children.
Girshriela Green worked at Walmart for three years before she was unfairly fired for speaking out about working conditions in the store. Green founded “Respect the Bump” because she saw pregnant women working at Walmart being discriminated against. “Being a mother of seven, I know no pregnancy is the same. Walmart should respect pregnancy restrictions and treat women fairly on the job.”
Organizers of today’s march hope Walmart and other big box retailers profiting from their low-wage workforce will support higher wages and better working conditions for women, to lift mothers and their children out of poverty and help grow the economy. To read the letter that TakeAction Minnesota delivered to Walmart management today, please visit http://50.87.249.163/~takeacu7/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Letter-to-WMT-TAMN-2-27-14.pdf
# # #
TakeAction Minnesota is a statewide people’s network of individual and organizational members working together to motivate people to act publicly in order to advance economic and racial equity in our state. The organization has offices in St. Paul, Duluth and Grand Rapids.
The Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), is a group of thousands of former and current Walmart associates who are calling on the world’s largest private employer to publically commit to higher wages, respect on the job and an end to illegal retaliation against those who speak out for change at the company.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publicly commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as their representative of Walmart employees.
