Workers Allege Walmart Closes Stores To Retaliate Against Strikes

thinkprogress.org/ - Venanzi Luna says she was given just four hours notice that she was losing her job at Walmart. That day, she says everyone came to work around 7:00 in the morning. “We actually ended up finding out around 1:00 in the afternoon,” she recounted. She and her fellow workers were told that their store in Pico Rivera, California was going to close for six months to a year to deal with plumbing issues. “They gave us a four-hour warning,” she said. After the meeting, “they sent everybody home.”

Pico Rivera isn’t the only store that’s been closed; four others, in California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas, have also been shut down. In total, 2,200 Walmart workers’ employment, including 500 from Luna’s store, is in limbo.

But the workers at her location have decided to take action. Over the weekend, the AFL-CIO and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union filed an injunction on their behalf with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Walmart. “The Board should seek injunctive relief compelling Walmart to rehire every one of the 2200 Associates who have been terminated in all 5 stores,” it says.

Luna says it’s been very hard on her. “I’m actually the breadwinner of my house. It affects me a lot,” she said. “How am I going to pay for my parents’ medication, how will I pay my bills? I get really stressed out quick, so for me it is a big deal.”

Walmart says the stores have to be shut down to fix serious building issues. “Due to ongoing plumbing issues that will require extensive repairs, we are temporarily closing five stores,” a spokesperson said. “Each of these five locations had more than 100 plumbing problems reported over the last two years, the most out of our more than 5,000 stores in the U.S.” He did not respond to a request for more information about what the plumbing issues entail or whether employees will be transferred to other stores. He added, “We don’t believe there is any basis for an injunction.”

Workers in Pico Rivera, however, contend that the closing is in retaliation for the extensive organizing action at that location. It was the first store to experience a strike in 2012, before workers began staging regular strikes against the company to demand higher pay and the right to form a union. “Walmart has targeted this store because the Associates have been among the most active Associates around the country to improve working conditions,” the injunction reads. “This unprecedented ‘closure’ to fix ‘plumbing’ is part of Walmart’s overall national strategy to punish Associates who stand up and speak out for better working conditions.” Full Story