Big-box retailers like Walmart pushed their Black Friday sales to new extremes this year, but retail workers and their supporters are pushing back.
More than 200 protesters lined the sidewalk outside Walmart’s University Avenue location in St. Paul Friday. They pledged to stand with Walmart associates like Gabriel Teneyuque, who protested the company’s low wages and unfair working conditions by walking off the job on Black Friday.
Teneyuque, who works at the Walmart in Apple Valley, is among a growing number of courageous associates nationwide who are speaking out despite Walmart’s record of retaliating against workers who try to organize in the workplace.
“When Walmart associates speak out, Walmart retaliates,” Teneyuque told supporters. “I’m here today to say I will not be silenced.”
Teneyuque and other striking associates have formed a grassroots campaign, OUR Walmart, to pressure the company into raising its wages, providing greater access to health care benefits and ending its campaign of intimidation and retaliation against workers who look to organize.
Don Seaquist, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, said his union is committed to fighting for any Walmart associate who stands up for better working conditions.
If turnout at the Black Friday protest is any indication, the community is committed to that fight as well. The St. Paul Walmart has been a frequent target of UFCW protests over the last decade. None drew as large a crowd as the Black Friday event, which brought together union activists, families and members of the faith community.
“Workers deserve dignity, and our faith traditions call us to speak out for justice at work and rights of workers to organize,” said Doug Mork, a pastor at Cross of Glory Lutheran Church in Brooklyn Center, who said the Twin Cities faith community would stand behind striking Walmart associates. “We’re with you.”
Teneyuque said associates will need all the community support they can get.
“Our fight doesn’t end today,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”
Michael Moore edits The Union Advocate, the official publication of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation.
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Big-box retailers like Walmart pushed their Black Friday sales to new extremes this year, but retail workers and their supporters are pushing back.
More than 200 protesters lined the sidewalk outside Walmart’s University Avenue location in St. Paul Friday. They pledged to stand with Walmart associates like Gabriel Teneyuque, who protested the company’s low wages and unfair working conditions by walking off the job on Black Friday.
Teneyuque, who works at the Walmart in Apple Valley, is among a growing number of courageous associates nationwide who are speaking out despite Walmart’s record of retaliating against workers who try to organize in the workplace.
“When Walmart associates speak out, Walmart retaliates,” Teneyuque told supporters. “I’m here today to say I will not be silenced.”
Teneyuque and other striking associates have formed a grassroots campaign, OUR Walmart, to pressure the company into raising its wages, providing greater access to health care benefits and ending its campaign of intimidation and retaliation against workers who look to organize.
Don Seaquist, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, said his union is committed to fighting for any Walmart associate who stands up for better working conditions.
If turnout at the Black Friday protest is any indication, the community is committed to that fight as well. The St. Paul Walmart has been a frequent target of UFCW protests over the last decade. None drew as large a crowd as the Black Friday event, which brought together union activists, families and members of the faith community.
“Workers deserve dignity, and our faith traditions call us to speak out for justice at work and rights of workers to organize,” said Doug Mork, a pastor at Cross of Glory Lutheran Church in Brooklyn Center, who said the Twin Cities faith community would stand behind striking Walmart associates. “We’re with you.”
Teneyuque said associates will need all the community support they can get.
“Our fight doesn’t end today,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”
Michael Moore edits The Union Advocate, the official publication of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation.