Striking Walmart Workers Could Cripple Black Friday

There's been a lot of talk lately about Black Friday since it is quickly approaching this Friday and also talk about the fairness of making employees work on Thanksgiving Day. Walmart workers started to walk off the job last week in Southern California and Seattle, protesting low wages, spiking healthcare premiums, and alleged retaliation from management.  The workers, who are part of a union-backed employee coalition called Making Change at Wal-Mart, say this is the beginning of a wave of protests and strikes leading up to Black Friday.  A thousand store protests are planned in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C.

Walmart plans to open stores at 8 p.m. (Oneonta included) on Thanksgiving night. Employees said they weren’t given a choice as to whether they would work on Thanksgiving and were told to do so with little warning.  With 1.4 million US workers, Walmart is the U.S.’s largest private employer.  It looks as if Walmart's plan to make more money by starting Black Friday early, could very well backfire.