By Pat Fry
Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
Oct 18, 2014 – The fight for a $15 minimum hourly wage escalated in the streets of New York City Oct 17 with several hundred union and community allies demanding the right to organize and a living wage.
The two largest retail workers’ unions joined forces in support of organizing drives at Walmart, a campaign supported by the UFCW and Zara’s, a national women’s clothing store chain, where workers are organizing a union of the RWDSU.
The march in midtown Manhattan stopped at Zara’s across from Bloomingdale’s Dept Store whose workers are represented by RWDSU and delivered petitions to management in support of the union campaign.
The protesters then marched to the Park Avenue address of Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart fortune – worth an estimated $35 billion. In front of Walton’s posh penthouse building, protesters chanted, “Alice, Alice, You Can’t Hide – We Can See Your Greedy Side.”
A delegation attempted to deliver 1,600 signatures on a petition in support of Walmart workers. Then in planned civil disobedience several workers and supporters sat in the street until they were taken away by police.
The campaign now is gearing up for another Black Friday protest at Walmart stores around the country on Nov. 28, the biggest shopping day of the year “to hold Walmart and the Walton family publicly accountable for their poor treatment of Walmart workers!”