May, 2008

Retail, Walmart

>Wal-Mart’s Mixed Message for Mom

May 09, 2008

>Over the last couple of days you were likely to find an advertisement from Wal-Mart stuffed in your mailbox —twenty pages of smiling women and gift ideas for Mother’s Day. Beneath the surface of those glossy ads is the unfortunate truth: Wal-Mart is quite possibly the most anti-family, anti-mother corporation in America.

Wal-Mart faces the largest gender-discrimination lawsuit of all time, with 1.6 million women suing over unequal pay and unequal opportunities. Its managers have told women they “don’t belong in management” and that they “can’t manage men.” More recently, Wal-Mart has repeatedly denied military moms leave to see their children before they deploy to war zones.

Instead of printing more 20 page “Mom’s day” ads, Wal-Mart should be printing 20 page apologies to every woman hurt by its unfair policies.

Today, we need to ensure that Wal-Mart respects the hardworking mothers employed in their stores. This Mother’s day, join our mission to change Wal-Mart’s anti-family policies for the betterment of women and mothers across America. Add your name to our petition to CEO Lee Scott and 3 demands for change.

Click this link to sign our petition

Change won’t come on its own. We’ve seen time and again that Wal-Mart has little respect for mothers, or the sacrifices they make for their families. Just ask Olga Sanchez or Susan Lyons, two long-time Wal-Mart workers.

When Olga’s son, Mark, was deployed to Iraq, she requested leave to see him off. Her request was denied. Wal-Mart told Olga that, as a department manager, her commitment was to the company. At Wal-Mart, unfair scheduling policies often take precedence over families, and over the morale of America’s armed service members.

Olga’s story is just the beginning. Last September, Susan Lyons learned her daughter would be on leave from Iraq during the following December. Susan requested a mere two days of vacation time to see her. Wal-Mart denied the request because of the holiday shopping season. When she expressed her disappointment, Wal-Mart told Susan that if her daughter’s deployment upset her so much, her daughter “should not have joined the Air Force.”

These stories are a slap in the face to mothers, and they insult the dignity of the armed service members we also celebrate in May.

Don’t let Wal-Mart continue to treat mothers this way. Sign our petition today. Keep the pressure on Wal-Mart to change and you can make these outrageous policies history.

Sign on to our 3 demands for change, add your name to our petition today

Thanks for taking action, and have a happy Mother’s Day.

Uncategorized

>Guest Blog: Young Workers Are the Future

May 08, 2008

>Today’s guest blog was written by Ryan Brunet, Local 1102 RWDSU

Young workers are the future of our unions today.

It is important that we involve them as much as possible, for they will be tomorrow’s leaders. Young workers are creative, productive, and have high expectations of being empowered to take on challenges. They have a strong desire to succeed at these challenges especially when there’s a high level of personal involvement. Young workers want to be involved. They feel a great sense of pride when they can contribute to the decision-making process.

Young workers generally do not have many avenues that allow them to make a real impact in their work place. Involving young workers in unions and union activities directly empowers them and gives them a say in the work place. It allows them to have a voice that can be heard.

To engage young workers, you need to empower them. We can do this by giving them a way to communicate with other young workers who share common interests. Asking them for feedback on specific questions allows us to see things from their point of view. I am a young worker myself and have grown up in the age of technology. This technology has changed the way we communicate. In earlier years mass mailing or leafleting may have been the best way to spread the word. Today we email, text message, and instant message. I believe that it is important that we have well created websites where young workers can go to easily learn more about unions. Websites, message boards, and blogs give the young worker the ability to reach out, ask questions, and receive answers all from the comfort of their homes. They can contribute their thoughts and ideas without feeling “put on the spot”. These forums allow them to share their prospective and interests with other young workers.