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Our Lady of $15 Wages Pray For Us

UFCW and allies invoke God, omit employees in Walmart protest literature

OUR Walmart protest in North Miami Beach, Fla. / AP
November 24, 2014

The union front groups organizing anti-Walmart protests across the country are recruiting the aid of a "Supreme Being" even as they forget to bring actual employees to their Black Friday demonstrations.

Organizers are also actively pursuing church groups of all denominations to participate in the protests by staging prayer vigils. They posted samples of prayers on a bulletin board hosted by the liberal nonprofit Action Network.

"We pray that their objectives may shift from high gross income to sharing wealth," one prayer reads. "We pray that the Walton family and Walmart executives live up to their moral responsibility of paying workers a living wage of $15 an hour with consistent full-time hours."

A separate stock prayer encourages attendees to flog themselves for neglecting Walmart employees.

"We confess: That our hurriedness and competition leads us to forget the struggles faced by our sisters and brothers who daily work to make businesses like Walmart so successful and profitable, while other small and medium business owners lose their homes and suffer terrible consequences.
 In your mercy, forgive us, O God," the prayer says. "We confess: Our silence, conformity, indifference and inaction, which, instead of exposing the sins of the system, foster inequities, give more credit to injustices and fail to demand a better and fairer distribution of the wealth. In your mercy, forgive us, O God."

The United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) and its subsidiary OUR Walmart are also circulating literature and protest signs to labor agitators online. Missing from the bulletin is any mention of how to get actual employees to turn out for the event.

"Show up on Black Friday at a Walmart near you to send Walmart a message. It could be you, you and a few friends, or you could recruit 20 people to have a rally with you if you’re ambitious," one flyer says.

The UFCW’s "Rules for a Successful Walmart Store Event" form gives activists a two page how-to on protest etiquette and the proper way to interact with the public. Walmart associates in the literature are treated as spectators rather than participants in the protest.

"The purpose for all events is to educate the public about the working conditions of associates and about how Walmart has attempted to silence and retaliate against associates who have spoken out for better jobs," the sign says. "Ask associates to read leaflets during breaks or after work."

It goes on to explain how protesters should interact with employees (briefly), managers (respectfully), and storegrounds (litter-free) in order to avoid the disruption that has seen the UFCW and its agitators banned from entering stores in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, and Texas. The NLRB ordered the union to cease and desist from holding similar protests in a Dearborn, Mich., location after protesters harassed female employees in the women’s bathroom and trapped other workers in an electronics department.

"Do not get into arguments, raise your voice or threaten anyone. Do not say anything insulting or intimidating. Stay sober and drug-free," the flyer says.

A sixth state, California, only prohibits "non-associate agents of the UFCW Int’l Union and OUR Walmart from holding events inside Walmart’s California stores." The document encourages protesters to stage protests in store parking lots, rather than advising them on how to recruit Walmart employees to attend the protest.

Event organizers said that the protests enjoy broad support from Walmart employees, pointing to online petitions circulated by OUR Walmart and ongoing protests leading up to Black Friday.

"Walmart workers are talking to their coworkers at stores across the country. Workers at more than 2200 stores have signed onto a petition for $15 and full-time work," an OUR Walmart spokeswoman said. "Workers have already started striking: last week in Ohio, and the first-ever sit down strike in LA."

Michael Saltsman, a spokesman at the Employment Policies Institute, said that the flyers demonstrate that the Black Friday protests are more popular among union officials and liberal protesters than Walmart associates.

"This year, the UFCW-organized Walmart protestors are taking their strategic cues from their SEIU-organized fast food counterparts: Stage as many protests as possible—no actual employees required," he said.

Other labor watchdogs have criticized the UFCW and OUR Walmart for misrepresenting the popularity of their cause.

Worker Center Watch released a video demonstrating how OUR Walmart uses "phony" tactics to inflate its reach. When someone signs the group’s petition, even under false identities, OUR Walmart uses the signature as proof that a store’s entire workforce has endorsed the cause, according to the video.

"Worker Centers including OUR Walmart are launching phony protests with paid actors and trained activists instead of real Walmart employees," Worker Center Watch spokesman Ryan Williams said. "They can’t recruit enough real employees for their dishonest street theater performances because the vast majority of Walmart workers want no part of their thinly veiled unionization campaign."

Saltsman said that the lack of workers, as well as the disingenuous tactics, could end up hurting the protests among shoppers and the general public.

"Large protests are expected in a handful of major cities where the union has a strong presence. Otherwise, Black Friday shoppers will likely be affected by these protests as much as restaurant patrons were affected this fall’s fast food ‘strikes’—which is to say, not at all."

Published under: Unions , Walmart