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“If we band together and act as one, we can change Walmart.”
Los Angeles (15 Oct. 2012) - A new global coalition of workers was launched in Los Angeles, in conjunction with the strikes organized by Walmart workers to protest unfair treatment, wages and working conditions. The UNI Walmart Global Union Alliance is an international network of union members fighting for fairness, decent working conditions, and ensuring the right to join a union for all Walmart employees.
As one of its first initiatives, the newly formed Alliance released a report called Walmart’s Global Strategy: Undercutting Workers’ Rights which outlines the depth of Walmart’s anti-worker and anti-union stance and calls for the company to change.
Representatives from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada joined striking workers in the U.S. from October 3 to 5 to support the workers in their campaign for change at Walmart.
The activists from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Nicaragua, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zambia were welcomed by UFCW International President Joe Hansen who encouraged the Alliance to always remember, “If we band together and act as one, we can change Walmart.”
In addition to releasing the new report, the new Global Union Alliance established a world-wide communications network, ratified a Statement of Purpose, and built a strategic work plan for moving the effort forward.
Throughout the three-day conference, members of the Global Alliance met with striking Walmart Workers, and on October 5 they assembled in Pico Rivera to loudly march with the protesting Associates as they returned to work.
The Global Alliance then stood in solidarity with activists from the OUR Walmart campaign who held a press conference in front of Los Angeles City Hall, which received press coverage by a large number of media outlets.
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