Wal-Mart protesters cite unfair working conditions
Posted at: 11/23/2012 4:39 PM
| Updated at: 11/23/2012 5:36 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitnes News 4
There were Wal-Mart protests around the country on Black Friday including one in Albuquerque.
The action, organized in part by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, was timed for the biggest shopping crowds of the year.
Protesters greeted shoppers through the morning at the Walmart on Carlisle near Menaul. The message: Wal-Mart Unfair to Workers!
No workers appeared to walk off the job to join the protest the way they did in some other cities, but a few Wal-Mart employees from Clovis did show up in Albuquerque to protest. One of them was Johnny Wilson, who proudly wore his Wal-Mart name badge.
"We want better pay, better benefits," Wilson said. "Wal-Mart retaliates against us for speaking up. We speak up, we get written up, we get extra work dumped on us. Our schedules get cut. We're tired of it."
"Wal-Mart employs over one million workers across the country," said Esther Lopez, who carred a union sign. "All of them had to come to work last night. They can't be with their families, they have to be here at work. They worked all night. They have to be here today."
At one point a Wal-Mart manager asked the protesters to leave the property and they moved to the sidewalk.
Wal-Mart's national media chief called the protests "an exagerrated publicity campaign" aimed at misleading customers and employees. The giant retail chain actually employs about 2.2 million people.
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