To: President Donald Trump
President Obama: Meet with Walmart Strikers
President Obama, we ask you to make good on your promise to stand up for working people by meeting with the courageous workers who have risked firing or other disciplinary action by joining together as part of Organization United for Respect at Walmart. We would like you to hear firsthand why they are appealing for respect and calling on Wal-Mart to pay them enough to feed and support their families.
Why is this important?
On November 7th, more than 50 Walmart workers and community supporters were arrested while committing an act of peaceful civil disobedience to challenge Walmart on its low wages. The day before, Walmart workers in Los Angeles went on strike to protest the company’s illegal retaliation against workers who have come together to speak out for fair wages, adequate hours and respect in the workplace.
This is just the first of the actions Walmart can expect throughout the holiday season and on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year.
While we’re keeping the pressure up at stores and in the streets, we need your help to take this fight to the next level. That’s why I’m asking you to join me in calling on President Obama to meet with us, the Walmart workers who are challenging America’s largest private employer to do better.
The day President Obama was inaugurated I, like many others, felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and hope. As a 60-year-old African American woman who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., I felt like we were closer to realizing King’s dream of good jobs and freedom.
Today, we may not have segregation by law, but we have it in practice thanks to the economic realities of our country. For people regardless of race or upbringing to sit at the same lunch counter, they have to be able to afford the same lunch.
Walmart, the country’s largest employer, is helping to hold America back from this dream.
Like too many Americans, I cannot promise my grandchildren that they will have a brighter future than I had – in our country a small elite is actively impoverishing the vast majority. More-and-more of us are struggling to nourish our children and to pay our bills. Dynasties like the Waltons, the richest offspring in America, hoard a bundle in cash equal to what 42% of every man, woman, and child in this country have combined. Walmart boasts $16 billion in worker-generated-profits and can afford to stop derailing our economy.
At an event in 2008, then-candidate Obama said, “I don't mind standing up for workers and letting Walmart know they need to pay a decent wage and let folks organize. …This is about reminding [Walmart] that… the well-being of their workers and other workers should matter to them.”
Our country is at a crossroads. Although our economy has started to improve especially for those on Wall St., many of us are still left without jobs or scrambling to survive on the much lower wages employers get away with offering.
It’s time for the President to meet with Walmart workers like me who are standing up to Walmart and hear about the reality of scraping by on Main Street.
This is just the first of the actions Walmart can expect throughout the holiday season and on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year.
While we’re keeping the pressure up at stores and in the streets, we need your help to take this fight to the next level. That’s why I’m asking you to join me in calling on President Obama to meet with us, the Walmart workers who are challenging America’s largest private employer to do better.
The day President Obama was inaugurated I, like many others, felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and hope. As a 60-year-old African American woman who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., I felt like we were closer to realizing King’s dream of good jobs and freedom.
Today, we may not have segregation by law, but we have it in practice thanks to the economic realities of our country. For people regardless of race or upbringing to sit at the same lunch counter, they have to be able to afford the same lunch.
Walmart, the country’s largest employer, is helping to hold America back from this dream.
Like too many Americans, I cannot promise my grandchildren that they will have a brighter future than I had – in our country a small elite is actively impoverishing the vast majority. More-and-more of us are struggling to nourish our children and to pay our bills. Dynasties like the Waltons, the richest offspring in America, hoard a bundle in cash equal to what 42% of every man, woman, and child in this country have combined. Walmart boasts $16 billion in worker-generated-profits and can afford to stop derailing our economy.
At an event in 2008, then-candidate Obama said, “I don't mind standing up for workers and letting Walmart know they need to pay a decent wage and let folks organize. …This is about reminding [Walmart] that… the well-being of their workers and other workers should matter to them.”
Our country is at a crossroads. Although our economy has started to improve especially for those on Wall St., many of us are still left without jobs or scrambling to survive on the much lower wages employers get away with offering.
It’s time for the President to meet with Walmart workers like me who are standing up to Walmart and hear about the reality of scraping by on Main Street.