Business & Tech
Strategy Behind Walmart Workers' Walkout
Employees at the store on San Leandro's Hesperian Boulevard are at the center of a campaign with far-reaching ramifications, one expert says.
Last week workers at the Walmart on Hesperian and Lewelling Boulevards took part in a symbolic walkout that challenged the 50-year-old non-union chain and threatened new activism in the holiday season.
What do workers want?
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Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein tells In These Times magazine that the top issue isn't pay:
"One of the competitive advantages of Walmart is their ability to deploy labor in ways that they refer to as “flexible.” Come in tonight, work three hours tomorrow, etc. For the workers, this is chaos. So a serious organizing success would be if, in the next six months, workers get more predictable shifts, or if store managers think twice before moving someone around from shift to shift."
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See more Patch coverage of local involvement in the unionizing effort.
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