Despite pushback from CEO James Daunt, employees are organizing for better pay, dignity and working conditions.
Rat infestations, blocked fire exits, expired kids’ food, machete-wielding and watermelon-throwing shoppers and other nightmares at the biggest dollar chain in the US.
The growing solidarity between unions and the LGBTQ+ community is key component of the revitalization of the labor movement.
A federal board would first have to approve a walkout.
The catering workers, some of whom earn as little as $8.46 an hour, are asking for higher wage and less costly health insurance.
"If the American labor movement thinks that we can just go out there and start and control the organizing that takes place, we’re not going to be successful," says Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. "I think what we can do is create an environment in which organizing takes place... We have to think of ourselves less as an institution, and more as a movement."
Over 1 in 10 US jobs is in retail trade. The notion that these workers are mostly young, lazy and unskilled is false.
Bangladeshi police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of garment workers Monday as they demanded a wage hike at a protest in a manufacturing hub outside the capital Dhaka. Several European retailers have agreed to compensate victims' families, and sign onto the Fire and Building Safety Agreement, but U.S. retailers refuse. See the list of 14 North American retailers who refuse to sign on.
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