| The email below is from Charmaine Givens-Thomas, a CREDO activist and Walmart associate in Evergreen Park, Illinois. Charmaine started a petition on CREDO Mobilize, where activists can launch their own campaigns for progressive change. Will you help Charmaine pressure President Obama to meet with her and other Walmart strikers by signing her petition and sharing it with your friends and family? | ||
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| Tell President Obama to meet with Walmart strikers | ||
Scraping together enough money to afford a Thanksgiving dinner on Walmart wages is tough. But instead of paying workers like me decent wages so we don't have to worry about breaking the bank just to spend a day with family, managers at an Ohio Walmart came up with a heartless idea -- asking low wage workers to use their own money to donate food to their co-workers. Walmart executives know that employees like us don't make enough to make ends meet -- they just don't want to be held responsible for changing that fact. Since earlier this month, my fellow Walmart workers and our supporters have been taking it to the streets to speak out for fair wages, adequate hours and respect in the workplace. While we’re keeping the pressure up throughout the holiday season leading up to Black Friday, we need your help to take this fight to the next level. That's why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to President Obama, says the following: President Obama, we ask you to make good on your promise to stand up for working people by meeting with the courageous workers who are risking termination or other disciplinary action by joining together as Organization United for Respect at Walmart. We would like you to hear firsthand why they are appealing for respect and calling on Walmart to pay them enough to feed and support their families. Tell President Obama to stand with Walmart strikers fighting for decent wages and respect. As a 61-year-old African-American grandmother who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and hope on the day President Obama was inaugurated. Like many others, I felt we were closer to realizing King’s dream of good jobs and freedom. But as an associate at a Walmart store in Evergreen Park, Illinois, I've seen firsthand how the country’s largest employer is helping to hold America back from this dream. At an event in 2008, then-candidate Obama said, “I don't mind standing up for workers and letting Walmart know they need to pay a decent wage and let folks organize. ...This is about reminding [Walmart] that...the well-being of their workers and other workers should matter to them.” But five years later, Walmart still refuses to pay me and my co-workers enough to get by or treat us with respect. With $16 billion in profits and wealth equal to the bottom 42% of Americans combined in their pockets, the Walton family, which owns Walmart, can afford to create good jobs. Yet Walmart continues to trap workers in poverty, forcing us to rely on taxpayer-funded programs and live in fear of losing our jobs if we speak out. Our country is at a crossroads. We no longer have segregation by law but we have it in practice, thanks to the economic realities of our country. For people to sit at the same lunch counter, regardless of race or upbringing, they have to be able to afford the same lunch. That's why I'm speaking out and asking you to join me in calling on President Obama to keep his promise and stand up for working people by meeting with me and my fellow Walmart workers. If you sign my petition and put pressure on our president to stand with us, we'll be able to put even more pressure on America’s largest private employer to pay workers like me a living wage and treat us with respect. Will you join me and add your name to my petition to President Obama to meet with Walmart strikers fighting for fair wages and respect? Thank you for your support. Charmaine Givens-Thomas
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