1,000 Protest Wal-Mart Job Practices
in Southern California
By Karen Robes Meeks and Tracy Manzer, Staff Writers
Deputies ordered the protesters who flooded the parking lot to disperse after they spilled on to Lakewood and Century boulevards,
11/23/12 - Reitired pastor William P. Miller of the United Methodist Church was arrested for civil disobedience along with 8 others. Workers at the Walmart store in Paramount were some of many throughout Southern California that walked off their jobs today on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year as part of a nationwide union-organized protest. After a peaceful march where organizers broke the line to allow customers in and out of the store, 9 were arrested in a display of civil disobedience for refusing to exit the street. Photo by Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer
Martha Sellers, who has worked as a cashier at the Wal-Mart in Paramount for nine years, was among 17 co-workers who walked out of work early Friday.
"Sometimes you're on the register for three hours or four hours without a break. We just keep getting, `Do this, do that,"' she said. "So it's time for Wal-Mart to stand up and say, `OK, we're doing wrong.' I'm protesting to make them acknowledge that they're doing us wrong. It's time."
She and others stood by, chanting and throwing flowers onto the street as deputies arrested nine protesters who remained sitting in the southbound lanes of Lakewood Boulevard.
The arrests were peaceful. The protesters were booked at the sheriff's Lakewood Station on suspicion of refusing to disperse, a misdemeanor.
The protests, organized by United Food & Commercial Workers union, began about 5a.m. Friday. Organizers said about 50 people walked off the job at five Wal-Mart stores across Southern California, including Wal-Marts in Duarte and two in Los Angeles.
Protesters, several members of
A Walmart protestor is arrested Friday near the Paramount store by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies. (Brittany Murray/Staff Photographer)
However, Wal-Mart officials say that most of the people at the event weren't employees but union supporters.
Steven V. Restivo, Wal-Mart's senior director of community affairs, said Wal-Mart's "pay and benefits plans are as good as or better than our retail competitors, including those that are unionized."
He added that the company received 5 million job applications this year.
Wal-Mart has 250,000 employees who have worked for the company for more than 10 years, according to Restivo, and the retailer promoted 165,000 hourly employees last year.
In response to the UFCW's protests, Bill Simon, Wal-Mart U.S. president and chief executive officer, said in a written statement: "Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates."
Wal-Mart did not experience the walk-offs that were promised by the UFCW, according to the company.
"We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide. In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year," Simon said.
About 40 deputies and officers were deployed at Friday's protests, including Lakewood sheriff's station deputies, the Sheriff's Special Response Team, motorcycles, a helicopter, and Downey Police Department officers directing traffic for the nearby city of Downey.
Sgt. Dale Ryken said law enforcement agencies have been monitoring Internet activity that revealed protesters were looking for volunteers to get arrested at Friday's rally for refusal to disperse.
Momentum has indeed been building toward the Black Friday protest since Oct. 4, when the first group of workers went on strike in Pico Rivera, said Elizabeth Brennan, communications director of Warehouse Workers United.
"We're really been building to this major day to talk with consumers and get the attention of Wal-Mart to try to address some of these concerns that workers are talking about in terms of being retaliated against when they stand up about trying to work full time, get better wages, affordable health care," she said.
Although representatives from Wal-Mart U.S. touted record Black Friday events with larger crowds than last year, shoppers who were inside the Paramount store said it seemed empty and quiet inside.
"It wasn't really crowded," said South Gate resident Steve Alvizo. "We saw (the protest) when we parked. We just wanted to look at the deals, but there's not really any deals."
Alvizo said he will likely not return to Wal-Mart because of the protests.
"I think they deserve better pay than they are getting," he said.
Shoppers were almost evenly divided on whether they would cross a picket line, or a rally, outside a Wal-Mart, though the vast majority of people agreed workers earning less than $10 an hour without benefits had a right to be frustrated.
"I think the protest is a typical union ploy," said Mark White. "I understand the point of the employees, but I don't like getting unions involved. They should go get a job somewhere that pays better. ... If they aren't educated well enough, or trained, that's their responsibility."
Sellers, who works at the Paramount Wal-Mart, said she earns more than $8 an hour, but said it's not enough.
"I do make $13 an hour but I can barely make my rent," she said. "Now the scary part comes tomorrow when I go back to work."
City News Service contributed to this story.
karen.robes@presstelegram.com, 562-714-2088, twitter/com/KarenMeeksPT
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