On April 24 at 5 p.m. and on April 26 at 6 p.m. there will be one hour rallies for justice at five local Wal-Mart stores in Massachusetts. The rallies are being promoted by the western Massachusetts chapter of a union-supported group, Jobs With Justice www.jwj.org. The April 24 rallies will be at the Wal-Mart stores at:
- 1105 Boston Road in Springfield (RSVP: Jeff Jones 413-732-6209 jjones@ufcw1459.com);
- 180 North King Street in Northampton (RSVP: Rose Bookbinder 413-320-2028 rose.bookbinder@gmail.com and Edan Dhanraj sessionvoice@gmail.com);
- 337 Russell Street, Hadley (RSVP: Martha & Irwin Spiegelman, (413) 230-4334, spiegelman22@yahoo.com);
- 555 East Main Street, Orange (RSVP: Diane McAvoy 413-522-4194
dmcavoy22@sbcglobal.net).
The April 26 rally will be at the Wal-Mart at 591 Memorial Drive in Chicopee. (RSVP: Jon Weissman 413-250-5267 jon@wmjwj.org).
Wal-Mart, which is owned by the richest family in the world, pays its works barely above minimum wage. The company has fought its workers' efforts to form a union.
In recent decades, the richest Americans have gotten richer, while the middle class has gotten smaller and the ranks of the poor have swelled. Union workers in the U.S. make about 29 percent more money than non-union workers. That’s around $9,300 a year extra for the average worker who joins a union. For Latino workers, the union advantage is about 50 percent; for black workers, approximately 31 percent. This data is from www.bls.gov.
Millions of workers in the U.S. are union members, including workers at Stop and Shop and UPS.
Non-union workers can be fired at any time for no reason. Workers who belong to a union can only be fired for just cause.
More information about unions in the Valley is at:
More information about Wal-Mart is at:
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