Black Friday Strike? Wal-Mart Faces Possible Protests
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49888456
Published:
Monday, 19 Nov 2012 | 1:30 PM ET
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By: Bernice Napach
Just days before the biggest shopping day of the year, Wal-Mart
workers are threatening to walk off the job this Black Friday to
protest the company's labor practices. The company has responded with a
complaint filed at the National Labor Relations Bureau. Wal-mart is
asking for an injunction against the worker rallies, indicating that the
world's biggest retailer—and employer—takes these threats very
seriously.
The
workers are represented by OURWalmart—the Organization United for
Respect at Wal-mart, which formed in 2010 and is backed by the United
Food and Commercial Workers Union. Its web site says workers on Friday
will be protesting "Wal-mart's continuing retaliation against associates
who speak out for better pay, affordable healthcare, improved working
conditions, fair schedules, more hours, and most of all, respect."
Wal-mart's Black Friday starts Thanksgiving evening at 8pm.
In its NLRB filing, Wal-Mart [WMT
68.89
-0.11
(-0.16%)
]
argues that the protests Friday are illegal because they exceed the
30-day maximum time allowed for picketing from a union seeking
recognition and therefore a formal vote on unionization is required.
-0.11
(-0.16%)
]
argues that the protests Friday are illegal because they exceed the
30-day maximum time allowed for picketing from a union seeking
recognition and therefore a formal vote on unionization is required.
But
OURWalmart, which has sponsored past walkouts at Wal-mart stores,
argues that its organization, not the United Food and Commercial
Workers, is sponsoring the protests this week and the group is not
pushing for unionization.
The
question now, says Michael Santoli, Yahoo! Finance senior columnist,
is, "will a lot of people stay away from these stores because they don't
want to interact with these protests? Probably not."
The answer complicated by the fact that the Wal-mart shopper is often also the Wal-mart worker.
"At
the end of the day most people think 'if I can get a lower price at
Wal-mart for that same item, that's where I'm going to go,'" says the
Daily Ticker's Aaron Task.
Still,
the labor problems at Wal-Mart may not disappear anytime soon and could
be gaining momentum. Under the auspices of OURWalmart, 100 associates
representing thousands of employees presented executives at Bentonville,
Ark. headquarters with a petition for higher pay, affordable healthcare
and other demands in June 2011. And last month the organization
sponsored walkouts at stores in California and Dallas.
Santoli
says these complaints could be viewed in a broader context. "With
Obamacare coming in, there's a ton of focus now on the management of
hours for hourly workers, and whether you can actively deny people
getting enough hours for hourly benefits " in retail and restaurant
chains. At the same time, says Santoli and Task, it's not likely
Wal-Mart's 1.4 million workers will be unionized anytime soon. In the
meantime, Wal-Mart knows how to deal with deal with publicity problems.
"They don't blink," says Santoli.
In
a separate move, Wal-Mart today announced it will pay its 39.75 cents
dividend on December 27 instead of January 2 to to protect against
higher interest rates on capital gains in case Congress and the White
House can't agree to a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff.
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