More labor unrest and activism at Wal-Mart today

Today in California.

Workers at two Wal-Mart stores in Southern California went on strike today. It was the first time in Wal-Mart's 50-year history that workers walked off the job in more than one store.

Three weeks ago, Wal-Mart warehouse workers  struck in Mira Loma, Calif.

Seventeen days ago,  Wal-Mart warehouse workers stopped work in Elwood, Ill.

Three months ago, eight guest workers struck a Wal-Mart seafood supplier in Louisiana because they were forced to work 24-hour shifts for less than minimum wage.

Perhaps this is the beginning of a national uprising of Wal-Mart workers who are finally tired of working hard and being poor.

Here's how abusive Wal-Mart contractors are: They won't even give warehouse employees water to drink, though they work in unbearable heat.

Warehouse workers in Illinois.

Josh Eidelson at Salon writes,

The striking store workers make up just a tiny percentage of Wal-Mart’s 1.6 million U.S. employees. But their strike, and those of their contracted counterparts, signal a new stage in Wal-Mart’s labor wars. They also come as the company faces new challenges on other fronts, including a congressional investigation of its Mexican bribery scandal and the failure of its latest bid to breach New York City limits. 

Eidelson calls today's action,

...the latest – and most dramatic – of the recent escalations in the decades-long struggle between organized labor and the largest private employer in the world... 

Wal-Mart strikers said yesterday that they expect the company will seek ways to punish them anyway. Already, photo department worker Victoria Martinez said yesterday, “Every time I go into work, I get panic attacks … I’m always wondering what are they going to try to do to me when I come in...”

Oh they'll retaliate all right. Look what's happened already. Earlier this week in Illinois, 200 people showed up at a rally to support the striking warehouse workers. Riot police showed up.  Truthout reported,

A planned civil disobedience action took a surprising turn for many of the assembled protesters when riot police equipped with a sound cannon came to arrest the 17 clergy and warehouse workers blocking a road near the distribution center.

The head of the LA Labor Federation, Maria Elena Durazo, put it best today:

Wal-Mart's biggest product is poverty.