Black Friday: It’s Coming
By Amanda Martinez and Erica Ayón, both of UC Santa Cruz Student Labor Action Project
November 17th, 2012, UC Santa Cruz SLAP chanted in protest of mistreated Walmart Associates in the checkout lanes of the Walmart store on Story Road located in San Jose. “We call on Walmart to change!” This protest came not only in backlash of the Walmart corporation forcing its employees to work the night of Black Friday, but also its wide-spread mistreatment of its workers nationally.
Quickly, the store manager appeared and suddenly what workers face daily became a reality. We had been told of our rights prior to the event and this is where I felt butterflies in my stomach. When we were told that they had no right to touch us, I became nervous. At this moment I grasped that this was a true protest and I was declaring my stance to fight for what I know is right. The manager went up to a SLAP member and began telling her she must go and that we were disrupting her store. But we weren’t leaving without first delivering our message to the community.
We finished our speech and what I found that was truly inspirational was the amount of support we received from the workers and shoppers. Workers on the floor were saying “do it again” and cheering after our words had been spoken over the megaphone. These workers took a stand in supporting us while their managers and bosses were merely feet away trying to shut us down. When passing out fliers to customers, all but one we approached took the paper. Local shoppers found an interest in our cause and had faith in the words we were saying.
As we walked out of the store with our heads held high, we were giddy with excitement at the uproar our simple words had caused. We saw how quickly our defiance gained attention by Walmart management and how agitated they became. That same manager that tried to make us leave followed us out to our cars while on the phone with Walmart’s corporate headquarters reporting the news of our uprising. Knowing that the headquarters of Walmart would find out what we had done in its store made us tremendously proud. We had created another level of support for struggling workers and knowing that we became part of a change was even more rewarding.
The Walmart action served as a prelude for what’s to happen this Black Friday. If the store managers were afraid of twenty students showing support for striking Walmart workers, imagine what the reactions will be Friday. Hundreds of Walmart actions will be happening during the busiest shopping day of the year while some workers walk out of the stores in strike to let Walmart know that they have had enough.
Associates are calling on Walmart to change their ways and stop retaliating against workers who speak up about the low wages, unaffordable healthcare, and indecent hours. It is important that these workers are not striking alone this Black Friday, but with the support of the community. We need to stand with striking Walmart workers and let Walmart know that they cannot mistreat people and our communities like this any longer.
Walmart is scared of us, they scrambled when trying to silence us twenty students, they are afraid of the community coming together to call on them to change. Together we can be stronger than Walmart, this Black Friday, the world will be watching and they won’t be able to ignore the thousands of actions happening across the country. Together we can make them change.
To find the nearest store action to you, click this link!
