SACRAMENTO –California is on the verge of enacting a state-wide paid sick leave law and a second law that extends worker rights and protections to millions of temps and subcontracted workers, a top womens’ rights group and the state labor federation report. The state legislature cleared both measures in August and sent them to Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who is […]

WASHINGTON –Carmella Salinas believes in kids – in her own and in teaching other peoples’ kids, too. But she doesn’t get paid enough for it.

Fed up with low wages, part-time hours, lousy benefits and lack of respect on the job, hundreds of “Wal-Mart Moms” descended on the monster retailer’s annual meeting June 5 in Bentonville, Ark. That came after a day of Wal-Mart worker walkouts from stores nationwide. Another protest, led by the AFL-CIO, was in D.C., on June 6.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. –Opening a new front in their long campaign to improve Wal-Mart, the “Wal-Mart moms,” members of the employee group Our Wal-Mart, are taking on the company’s chairman and namesake, Rob Walton. And their demands, including a shareholder resolution by the Teamsters calling for an independent chairman at the monster retailer, have enthusiastic backing of the nation’s unions. The […]

SAN JOSE –Barack Obama’s praising Wal-Mart again, and union leaders Maria Elena Durazo and Joe Hansen don’t like that one bit. The Democratic president traveled on May 9 to a Wal-Mart in San Jose, Calif., to laud the firm for committing to solar energy technology to power hundreds of its stores and for being a leader in that movement.  That […]

Some 568 workers who toiled in a Mira Loma, Calif., warehouse for Schneider Logistics, a subcontractor that handles Wal-Mart’s goods, will share in a $4.68 million class action settlement of their claims for unpaid wages for meal times, break times and denied overtime, a federal judge ruled on Dec. 4.

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. —Wal-Mart shoppers in the Twin Cities suburb of Brooklyn Center were surprised on Dec. 14 when about a dozen Our Walmart organizers and supporters descended on the checkout lanes in a flash mob to bring attention to low wages and poor working conditions.  The response?  Widespread glee and support from customers – and a bum’s rush from […]