UFCW Officials Plan Black Friday Protests
https://nilrr.org/wp-admin/post-new.phpHiding behind the name OUR Walmart, union officials are planning to disrupt Black Friday sales by engineering hundreds of protests across the country. While the name, OUR Walmart, implies the movement enjoys the support of Walmart employees, but the distinct lack of involvement among Walmart workers is clearly evident. Bill McMorris has the story in the Washington Free Beacon.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union has sponsored protests at hundreds of Walmart locations across the country over the past two years. Those protests have elicited the support of a number of labor unions and agitators, but have been criticized for lacking the support of actual Walmart employees.
Glenn Spencer, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce’s Workforce Freedom Initiative, said in a statement that UFCW subsidiary OUR Walmart stands for union interests, rather than workers.
“OUR Walmart doesn’t represent employees, they represent the United Food and Commercial Workers union. No amount of street theater and run-ins with the law changes that,†he said.
Ryan Williams of Worker Center Watch, said that the anti-Walmart movement is showing its true stripes as a liberal political movement, rather than the pro-worker protest it claims to be.
“Worker centers are working hand in hand with radical environmental groups to replenish Big Labor’s depleted coffers instead of actually helping to provide economic opportunity for working families,†he said.
The OUR Walmart protests have caused controversy and unrest in the past. The pro-union National Labor Relations Board has been forced to intervene to bar protesters from several Walmart locations. An NLRB judge ordered the UFCW to “cease and desist†from protesting at a Dearborn, Michigan, store after labor agitators stalked female employees in the bathroom and intimidated store employees.
A Walmart location in Texas obtained a restraining order against the union and its front group after a set of disruptive protests in Tarrant County.
“Walmart has demonstrated … that immediate and irreparable injury, loss and damage (for which Walmart has no adequate remedy at law) will result to Walmart in the absence of the requested Temporary Restraining Order,†the court found.
Judges in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, and Maryland have granted the company similar relief from the overzealous protesters.
UFCW protest organizers say that this year’s protests will be the largest to date, no matter the limitations imposed by state courts and federal labor regulators. The union and its allies plan on staging “flash mobs, marches and prayer vigils†at Walmart locations across the country.