Moms

Walmart Moms On Strike

June 6, 2014 Making Change At Walmart, www.makingchangeatwalmart.org Resist! Activism, Labor, Moms, Strike, Walmart

Walmart moms—members of OUR Walmart—have been walking off the job since Friday in protest of the company’s illegal silencing of their co-workers who have been calling for better pay. Walmart mom Evelin Cruz of the Pico Rivera, CA store says: “I’m striking for Barbara, for Tiffany and for other moms who Walmart has tried to silence. Our families cannot continue to struggle on Walmart’s poverty pay and constantly changing schedules while Walmart and the Walton family make billions from our work.” The majority of Walmart moms are paid less than $25,000 a year – forcing many to rely on food stamps and other taxpayer-supported programs to survive. Working women – increasingly the breadwinners and decision makers in households – make up the majority of Walmart’s workforce and are often hit hardest by the company’s poverty pay. Walmart moms walked off the job this morning in Orlando (see photo), joining moms who have already walked off the job in Dallas, Pittsburgh, Southern California and the Bay area. More are expected to strike outside their stores in 20 cities today, including Tampa, Miami, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and the Bay area. The National Labor Relations Board’s historic trial prosecuting Walmart – which includes the illegal firing of moms like Barbara Collins – is currently underway. Barbara was trying to get more hours to put a few dollars aside for her daughter to go to college – when she was fired for striking against Walmart’s illegal retaliation against workers.

Walmart Moms’ Plan Strikes In 20 Cities Nationwide

May 31, 2014 Karen McVeigh, www.theguardian.com Resist! Activism, Moms, Strike, Walmart

Walmart workers and supporters in the trade union movement say they intend to stage a new series of protests over wages and conditions at America's largest private employer, in which they will target the firm's family-friendly ethic ahead of its annual shareholders meeting next week. Hundreds of so-called “Walmart moms” who work at stores across the US plan a number of strikes in 20 cities nationwide. Others will travel to Arkansas, the company’s home state, to provide a visual presence to shareholders, workers’ rights groups said on Thursday. The actions will follow a series of “Black Friday” rallies last year, which came after a House of Representatives committee report found taxpayers were subsidising workers at just one Walmart store to the tune of $1m a year in food stamps and other public-assistance programmes, because of the low wages they took home.

Moms To EPA: End Monsanto’s Poisoning Of America

May 29, 2014 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! Activism, Moms, Monsanto

It's time for Monsanto's Roundup to stop poisoning our food. That was the message brought to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday by a group of concerned mothers who say that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the widespread herbicide made by the chemical and biotechnology giant, is putting public health in jeopardy. The group of 11, which included scientists, a lawyer and health worker, urged the agency to look at the results of a recent pilot study commissioned by their group, Moms Across America, and Sustainable Pulse. Their study found glyphosate present in human breast milk, indicating — contrary to industry claims — that the herbicide may build up or "bioaccumulate" in women's bodies. The results of that study were "considerable and shocking," Zen Honeycutt, Founder and Director of Moms Across America, told Common Dreams. Honeycutt pointed to a previous study which looked at Roundup's negative effects on gut bacteria and pointed to possible links between those effects and a number of diseases. She said that in her group's breast milk study, the sample with the highest levels of Roundup detected had levels that were higher than was shown to destroy gut bacteria in the earlier study.

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