July 2012

Warehouse Workers United filed a complaint yesterday at the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration to bring attention to the dangerous working conditions for warehouse workers in a Riverside warehouse that moves all Walmart supplies.

Workers have been working in dark metal containers with little water and ventilation. They have had to deal with threats, injuries, and a lack of health security that comes from the lack of care for the workers. They state that there has been a black layer of soot on the floor of the warehouse which has reportedly led to nose bleeds and circulates through the open air facility.

“I’m not just doing this for me and my family,” said Jose Gonzalez. “I am doing this for everyone who works at the warehouse. What we deal with is not fair, it’s not humane. I am not afraid. We have to say something.”

National Partnership for Women and Families and Family Values @ Work brought organizations from around the country together this week to have a National Summit on Paid Sick Days and Paid Family Leave campaigns. Paid family and medical leave policies provide workers with a portion of their wages while they are away from work to address serious health conditions, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or care for a newborn, newly-adopted or newly-placed foster child, and protect the worker from retaliation for using paid leave. A diverse array of organizations including UFCW, 9to5, Jobs with Justice, ROC, and many others gathered in DC to discuss how to organize and grow their local campaigns around Paid Sick Days and Paid Family Leave. There was a panel around best practices and lessons from current paid sick days campaigns in New York, Florida, Oregon and Massachusetts. Campaigns around the country are using many different models to achieve paid leave policies. In Orange County a coalition is putting an initiative on the ballot, while other places like Philadelphia and Washington State are moving bills in local and state legislatures. Some places, like Minnesota and North Carolina, are building momentum for a campaign by doing education around the benefits of paid sick days and paid family leave for workers and employers.

As Walmart prepares to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, groups across the country have been organizing their own teach-ins and town halls to tell their own story about what 50 years of Walmart has meant to workers and communities. In Washington, DC the Respect DC had a community teach-in on Friday, July 29th. Speakers included Michael Mensan and Bertha Guillen, Walmart Associates from Laurel, MD and members of OUR Walmart, a national association of Walmart workers. Walmart has proposed six store locations in Wards 4, 5, 6, and 7 in Washington, DC, and has building permits for two of the locations. Respect DC has been demanding that Walmart sign a binding community benefits agreement before opening in DC. This demand is echoed nationally by members of OUR Walmart, who are calling on the company to provide a living wage and healthcare benefits, to sign a national community benefits agreement, and to sign a global agreement to ensure that they use responsible contractors and suppliers.

Walmart has been promising to create 1,800 new jobs in DC, but community members are concerned about the way Walmart has devastated other communities across the US and across the globe.