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)