[Via OccupyWallSt.org]

At the end of last year, on Black Friday, Walmart workers bravely went out on strike. The workers and their supporters held protests at over 1,000 stores across the country, shortly following an initial set of strikes by workers in Walmart’s warehouses. The actions were broadly hailed as historic, given Walmart’s long-time practice of crushing the rights of workers at home and across the globe. Walmart, predictably, wasted no time denying the importance of the strikes and protests. On Black Friday, Walmart downplayed the strikes, falsely claiming that “…fewer than five workers walked off the job” and "less than fifty," in other sources.

The massive Walmart PR team continued with the spin to hide the truth of unrest bubbling from our neighborhoods. Even though the strikers had never called for a boycott, Walmart immediately released sales numbers in a nervous attempt to demonstrate that the workers hadn’t impacted its bottom line. In fact, it further added that despite the strikes and protests, the company had its best Black Friday ever. Interestingly, recently leaked emails from Walmart executives tell another story about Walmart’s holiday season and sales following Black Friday. In the leaked emails, one executive asks, “Where are all the customers?” A look at Walmart’s fourth quarter sales reveals “anemic growth” in the market of the United States.

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In America, people who work hard should be able to afford basic necessities like groceries, rent, childcare and transportation. While fast food corporations reap the benefits of record profits, workers earn $7.25/hr and are barely getting by—many are forced to be on public assistance despite having a job. Raising pay for fast food workers will benefit workers and strengthen the overall economy.

On Thursday, NYC fast food workers from dozens of stores, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Domino’s, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Papa John’s held a walkout, in a historic one day strike for a fair unionization process, decent wages, reasonable scheduling, paid sick days and an end to retaliation.

Organizers from New York Communities for Change have been meeting with workers for months, and now workers are standing up and demanding respect at their jobs.

Put these multi-billion dollar corportations on notice: these workers do not stand alone.

Friday, Nov. 30th
Show solidarity with striking workers as they go back to for work. Collective action is protected under U.S. labor law, and the workers are asking the community to be on-site at fast food locations around the city to support them as they return to the job.

Sign up for a shift on Friday by RSVPing to gfries@unitedny.org. Two shifts are available: 5:30am-8:30am and 9:30am-12:30pm. Meet-up locations are all over the city, including Manhattan (310 W. 43rd St.) and Brooklyn (2-4 Nevins).

Save the Date: Thursday, Dec. 6

Join the movement to support New York City workers in moving FAST FOOD FORWARD: www.fastfoodforward.org

[Via 99Pickets]

Via "The We Party," as far as I can tell, this seems pretty accurate. The point of this graphic is to highlight the fact that minimum wage is not enough for a person to live on in this country, let alone a single-parent or a married couple with only one spouse working.

Animation: Joe Biden on Gay Marriage (Actual Audio) from scottbateman on Vimeo.

Good morning! It's Tuesday, May 8, 2012. Is your wireless provider verigreedy?

In December of last year, twelve union janitors were fired and replaced with nonunion janitors who make poverty wages and receive no affordable benefits. This greedy decision by Wangard Partners is bad for Milwaukee's economy. This is why the people are fighting back!

An occupy-inspired song from Gene Pfeiffer:

.. about the struggle of people to make ends meet working for less than a living wage ...about just enough ...about the change that is coming.

I started writing "A Living Wage" after my son lent me the book, "Nickel and Dimed." I finished the song after witnessing and participating in Occupy St. Louis marches and ally meetings.

We will donate the proceeds to the Occupy movement and to its Living Wage ally organizations.

What was life was like before unions? Men, women and children worked in sweatshops. They worked long hours each day, and in harmful or unsafe conditions. The video highlights how certain tragedies led to the need for unions.

Sadly, there are still sweatshops in the world today.