Walmart Workers Ask For Safe Work Environment, Walmart Calls Riot Police
A Monday afternoon protest in Illinois gets heated. Workers at Walmart contractor Roadlink have been on strike since Sept. 15.
About 650 people protested a major Walmart distribution center Monday in Elwood, Illinois, the Chicago Tribute reports.
At Walmart contractor Roadlink, workers have been on strike since mid-September, claiming unsafe working conditions and unfair wages. From the movement’s website:
No one should come to work and endure extreme temperatures, inhale dust and chemical residue, and lift thousands of boxes weighing up to 250lbs with no support. Workers never know how long the work day will be- sometimes its two hours, sometimes its 16 hours. Injuries are common, as is discrimination against women and illegal retaliation against workers who speak up for better treatment.
Reports from the protest vary, but photos show riot police restraining some protesters with zip-ties. The rally had apparently been declared an “unlawful assembly.” Pat Barcas of Fox Valley Labor News reports that 17 people were arrested.
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- Henry Kuurx Walmart Workers Ask For Safe Work Env... and thinks it’s LOL, Trashy & Old
- Josh Booxor Walmart Workers Ask For Safe Work Env... and thinks it’s WTF & LOL
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Stephen Gutowski 7 months agoOMG!!!! People where arrested for blocking roads during a protest! This is the biggest and most important news story of all time!
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- luchan thinks Walmart Workers Ask For Safe Work Env... is Shocking
- lah8e thinks Walmart Workers Ask For Safe Work Env... is Shocking
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gcs3 7 months agoThere is no right that your business will never be disrupted. Businesses get disrupted for all sorts of reasons…competitive innovation for example. If you don’t pay back your loans you default and if you treat your employees like crap they push back. On the other hand, the right to protest is protected. Dumbass.
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Chefcammie 7 months agoShopping @wallyworld gives me a panic attack and I try to shop locally or at target. Walmart treats its peeps like poop
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gpackardw 7 months agoAll of the employees at Wal-Mart are volunteers. If the working conditions are unsafe, they should contact OSHA. The right to disrupt a business is not mentioned in the constitution. BTW, on the rare occasions that I venture into a Wal-Mart, most of the customers are Obongo supporters.
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beansbytes 7 months ago
I’m surprised the “PikeMeister and His Pepper-Spray” Band (from UC Davis) was not invited to the party. Oh, Wal*Mart- you’re making mistakes now.
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bruceflannagans 7 months agoYes, those arrested were for unlawful assembly. Those that were picketing were using their rights to do so BUT when u sit in the middle of the road on private property then they were violating Walmarts rights to free commerce. So get ur panties out of a wad & look at the pix posted above & u can see what I’m talking about.
U cant just go round posting/re-posting stuff others posted without fact checking people. -
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Emily G. 7 months agoI like how a lot of people assume that people can just stop shopping at walmart. I’ve seen walmart move in and take over. It’s shut down most local grocery stores around here, and most people cannot afford to not shop there. Unfortunately some people have nowhere to shop BUT walmart. This is a failure when it comes to pandering towards big business and “success”. If you’re rich, most likely you’ve gotten your hands dirty. If people shopping there was the reason they’re still running, they would have shut down a long time ago if people had a choice in the matter. It’s a far deeper problem than that
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UBM 7 months agoI guess that is what FREEDOM means in the US. Big corps call the cops to suppress people’s right to demonstrate. How pathetic. But if this happens in another country, the outrage would be all over the news. Walmart is a modern slave keeper nothing else and whoever shops there is supporting those thugs of corporate s.
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laurenc29 7 months agoYou do not need to shop at walmart to save money.. here are a whole bunch of things you can do to save way more money than you would at walmart: - get into couponing: use a site like Living Rich with Coupons that matches deals for you. I regularly save 25-50% off my grocery bills and i don’t buy junk. - dumpster dive. you would be surprised at what upscale grocery stores throw out every single day rather than go through the trouble of donating. - learn to mend your clothing. you will receive far more compliments on something patched up and unique than something “cute” you bought because it was $4. - on that note, make your own fashion. you will keep clothes for years and years instead of throwing them out every season. - stop shopping for “fun”, it’s disgusting. get at least one hobby that costs NOTHING, like walking in your local forest, birdwatching, foraging for wild foods, volunteering somewhere. - grow your own food from seeds. even better, learn the wild foods that are native in your area and cultivate them in your yard (if you have one). native plants require almost no effort. even if you’re just making sprouts in a jar, you can add a lot of nutrition to your diet.. which brings us to.. - eat healthy: if you are living on a budget, make the bulk of your diet brown rice and beans, not mac & cheese/ramen noodles/cereal. you need the fiber along with healthy proteins and fats to feel full, which will keep you away from the vicious cycle of craving and buying junk food. - and always question rather you actually need something when you feel the desire to buy it. often, the answer is no.
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A.Leigh 6 months ago
What if you live in an area where Wal-Mart is the only store around that sells most items, or all the other stores cost 3x as much? If you live in an area that gets a lot of snow, how much good is growing stuff in your lawn going to do in the winter? (Note: in some places, it snows from October through April.) Most people who buy clothes at Wal-Mart do not “throw them out every season.” Most people who buy clothes at Wal-Mart do so because that’s all they can afford, and they wear them until they either don’t fit or aren’t in wearable condition.
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Darkling5499 7 months ago
this, sadly, is nothing new for walmart. they’ve been viciously anti-union since their inception, and have been using local police to break up any sort of “worker’s rights” demonstration for years.
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lucyrickyalex 7 months ago
“Unlawful assembly”? Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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