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WalMarch Dispatch: Day 4

Dozens of farm workers from the Central Valley and Oxnard joined warehouse workers who are marching and calling on Walmart to take responsibility for the illegal and inhumane working conditions at its contracted warehouses in Southern California.

Bus loads of Central Valley farm workers led by United Farm Workers (UFW) President Arturo Rodriguez arrived today to support warehouse workers on the WalMarch. They then marched on to the Dolores Mission Church, where workers attended mass with their allies, before spending the night at the church.

A group of workers—who do not have a recognized union—walked off the job at a warehouse that is devoted to Walmart products to call for an end to retaliation and unfair labor practices committed by their employers, NFI and Warestaff, a staffing agency. Strikers, other workers and their supporters are participating in the WalMarch.

Want to know more? View the photos here and read more coverage.

Voices From the March

“I would like to tell the workers not to lose hope and to keep going. We fought for years to gain legal protections for workers. Sometimes people lose faith because things don’t change quickly, but we have to keep going.”
– Josefina Flores Delano (83-year-old Early Supporter of United Farm Workers who Marched with Ceasar Chavez)

 

“I would like to see those profiting off the warehouses to work one week, no one day, no one hour in these warehouses. Then these conditions would stop right away.”
– Jerry Ryan (President of the National Association of Letter Carriers)

 

“It’s meaningful that these workers are standing up for their rights.”
– Chen (East Los Angeles College Student)

“When Ceasar Chavez started working with the farm workers, it was something he had to bring to the communities. This is a way of carrying on that struggle.”
– Danny Ramirez (East Los Angeles College Student and MECHA member)

 

WalMarch Dispatch: Day 3

WalMarch Day 3

We started the third day of the WalMarch at St. Martha’s Episcopal Church in West Covina. Walmart Associates brought care packages for the marchers and then more Associates greeted us in front of the Walmart store in Baldwin Park. At the store we delivered more than 25,000 signatures in support of warehouse workers to the manager and then continued to El Monte.

Want to know more? View the photos here and read more coverage.

Voices From the March

“The warehouse workers’ pain is our pain. Your fight is our fight. We’ve seen the changes and under-staffing in our stores. We’re learning more about what’s going on with the warehouse workers. Now, more than ever, is the time for change at Walmart.”
– Angie Rodriguez (Walmart Associate, OUR Walmart Member)

 

“Today, I was marching in solidarity with these courageous workers who are raising issues about their work conditions. These conditions go beyond the Inland Empire. These are global issues throughout Walmart’s supply chain.”
– Dr. Jose Zapata Calderon (Professor Emeritus)

 

“I’m here today standing with warehouse and Walmart workers, because I see how Walmart’s treatment of workers throughout the supply chain is hurting our middles class in California and throughout the country. People in California deserve better. People across America deserve better. We deserve better.”
– Roger Hernandez (Assembly Member)

WalMarch Dispatch: Day 2

As WalMarch, the 50-mile, 6-day pilgrimage of warehouse workers, moves closer to Los Angeles and support grows, doctors, nurses and other health care professionals will hold a health clinic in West Covina.

Community organizations, including the United Healthcare Workers, East Valley Community Health Center, and others, will provide screening tests on asthma, glucose levels, BMI, blood pressure and other medical examinations for uninsured workers. Participants will also train warehouse workers on workplace health and safety procedures.

Warehouse workers, who do back-breaking labor in excessive heat, endure job-related injuries but most have no health care.

Want to know more? View the photos from the health clinic here. Read the powerful testimonial of one of the marchers here. Check out recent coverage of the WalMarch in the press.

Voices From the March

“I’m part of this pilgrimage because an injustice to one worker is an injustice to all workers.”
– Rosie (SEIU 721 Member)

 

“I am doing the entire pilgrimage because I want the warehouses workers to know that they have support from the students. We are also oppressed with all the budget cuts to public education and the only way for us to win is to support each other and fight together.”
– Cynthia (UCR student, MECHA member, United Students Against Sweatshops Member)

 

“On this second day of the pilgrimage I am tired, but I am doing this for my mother-in law who is a warehouse worker. She handles a lot of metals and chemicals without any gloves and she’s worked so hard that her hands are permanently damaged.”
– Jenny (Community Supporter)

 

Manolo Fernandez is 22 years old and has worked in the warehouses for 4 months. Before working in the warehouses, he was a gardener for 4 years. His mom is unemployed and his father retired 1 year ago. He and his older brother maintain the household.

During my time at the warehouses, I’ve noticed that there isn’t any clean water that’s provided by our bosses. Unless you bring your own water, your options are either to dehydrate or to drink the dirty water that smells like chlorine.

Also, we aren’t provided with enough carts to load boxes and workers are fighting over carts because more carts mean more production and more production means less harassment from management.

In the last four months, I’ve had the hardest time with harassment from management. They give us impossible goals like loading 400 boxes in an hour; they don’t even provide us with enough carts, and they are breathing down our necks the whole time pressuring us to work faster and harder.

One of the most humiliating moments for me at the warehouse was when I was given a goal of 400 boxes and I was given no carts. When I asked my lead for a cart he refused and continued to pressure me to upload more boxes. The heat in the warehouse was intolerable, there wasn’t any clean water, there weren’t any carts, and my lead kept pressuring me to load a ridiculous number of boxes.

I thought to myself: “I am not a machine to be producing 400 boxes in an hour especially without water and without carts! These people don’t care; they treat us like we don’t matter; like we don’t have any rights.”

The leads have even threatened to record less boxes than I’ve actually loaded. When I reported their threats, nothing happened. The supervisors believed the leads instead of me.

I joined Warehouse Workers United because I don’t get any respect at the warehouse and I want that to change. Now I am on strike to stop the retaliation we’ve faced when we tried to stand up for our rights.

Our 50-mile pilgrimage will help hold these warehouses and the contractors accountable. Si Se Puede!

WalMarch Dispatch: Day 1

With the support of community, clergy and elected leaders includg Asm. Norma Torres, warehouse workers launched the WalMarch, a 50-mile, 6-day pilgrimage from Southern California’s Inland Empire to Downtown Los Angeles.

Workers and their supporters are calling on Walmart to take responsibility for working conditions in its Inland Empire warehouses. As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart effectively dictates the standards of operation in the logistics and distribution industry, which impacts the lives of 85,000 warehouse workers in Southern California.

Want to know more? Check out yesterday’s photos from the picket line and today’s photos from the WalMarch. Read the press release here or see our coverage in the press. Watch the video here.

Voices From the March

“We are supporting warehouse workers today because we are struggling with the same oppression as Walmart Associates.”
– Maria Ledesma (Walmart Associate, OUR Walmart Member)

 

“Any company or organization that treats a human being less than civil should be confronted because the people who are mistreated are our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends, and family.”
– Alex Avila (Community Supporter)

 

“It’s critical that we support workers who are taking a risk to improve their working conditions.”
– Irv Hershenbaum (United Farm Worker First Vice President)

   

“I was a warehouse worker for 3-4 years as a temporary worker through Arrowstaffing agency and I’m supporting the warehouse workers today because I know what horrible conditions they are experiencing.”
– Michael Castillo (Community Supporter & Former Warehouse Worker)