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Workers to Hold Large Picket Line and Rally at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in Response to Increased Retaliation
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Dozens of warehouse workers will walk off the job at a Walmart-contracted warehouse at 8 am Wednesday morning to call for an end to continued retaliation. They will hold a large rally and picket line at 10:30 Thursday morning in the Jurupa Valley in Riverside County.
“We are standing up for ourselves to create a safe work environment, but we are continuously punished for it,” said Javier Rodriguez, a warehouse worker. “We decided to strike again because we are tired of the retaliation and then, like clockwork, instead of addressing our concerns the warehouse singled us out and punished us again.”
Warehouse workers first went on strike in September to protest unfair labor practices. They marched 50-miles from Southern California’s Inland Empire to Downtown Los Angeles to improve safety conditions at the warehouse. Since then some of the unsafe working conditions in the Walmart-contracted warehouse have improved, but workers have experienced continued retaliation including terminations, demotions and a drastic reduction in hours for speaking out.
The workers’ first strike sparked a chain reaction on a national scale, causing hundreds of workers at Walmart and its contacted warehouses and distribution centers to walk off the job to fight for safe working conditions and respect on the job.
The striking warehouse workers are employed by NFI and a temporary labor agency, Warestaff. One hundred percent of the merchandise that flows through the facility is destined for Walmart stores. As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart dictates the standards of operation in the logistics and distribution industry.