Minnesota
Related: About this forumBlack Friday, 11/12, 11am St Paul. Protest Walmart and Target
Friday, November 29, 2013
11:00am
University Ave & N. Griggs St. St. Paul, MN
Last year more than $20 billion was spent during the Black Friday weekend, resulting in giant profits for corporations like Target and Walmart, yet the workers who make Black Friday and holiday shopping happen are often forced to work for poverty wages. Minnesotans are standing up and saying that this isn't right. We believe the employees who make Black Friday happen deserve better pay and working conditions.
Who will be standing together on Black Friday?
-Retail janitors aligned with CTUL who have set a strike deadline with the contractors they work for to clean stores like Target.
-OurWalmart workers who joining Walmart employees across the country in demanding change from the biggest retailer in the world.
-Workers and allies who are fighting with TakeAction Minnesota who are organizing to raise wages for workers across the state.
-Minnesotans from faith, labor and community organizations who know that the workers who make Black Friday happen deserve better than the poverty wages that many are paid from corporations making billions of dollars in profits.
-You?
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progree
(10,864 posts)I understand there's a Walmart about 5 blocks west of Griggs and 3 blocks east of Snelling on University Ave.
which came from:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017160638
Griggs is about 7 blocks east of Snelling and about 2 blocks east of Hamline in case anyone is wondering about where it is -- I had to look it up..
The event's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/181751968692143
On edit, 706p CT - I see that Target is 1 1/2 blocks west of Griggs, on Hamline.
progree
(10,864 posts)Yup, our Brooklyn Center. Video.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/9568709-walmart-workers-in-brooklyn-center-walk-out-protest-low-wages/
geardaddy
(24,924 posts)Possibly in Latest Breaking news.
annm4peace
(6,119 posts)Great turn out, some good Corp News coverage on channel 5 (surprising), and some coverage on 11 and 4.
On Sunday at 10am news, will be more video and they are suppose to talk about wages.
Of course Bill Sorem with the Uptake gives much better news coverage than corp news.
http://www.theuptake.org/2013/11/29/fight-for-living-wages-ends-in-26-black-friday-arrests-in-st-paul/
(I had to work till noon today and when got off the freeway, the police had shut down the Snelling 3 blocks from this action and 3 blocks on either on either side of University also, I had to go 3 streets over and around a barracked to get near Snelling. I got to the corner just has police started to arrest the activists. Thankfully the police did it one at a time and slowly. I think it took about 1/2 hour and then off marching past Walmart and Target, all in 20 degree weather.)
Story for The UpTake by Sheila Regan/Video by Bill Sorem
One of those arrested at University and Snelling was Jessica English of Take Action Minnesota, who said she once became homeless working in retail as a single mom. Im here to fight to make sure that doesnt happen to other moms, she said.
Twenty-six people were arrested Friday during the March to end Poverty Wages, the culmination of a week of Black Friday actions pressing for better pay and working conditions and the right to organize for retail, janitorial and other low-wage workers in Minnesota. Fridays afternoons march along University Avenue, which circled the Midway Super Target and Walmart stores, drew a crowd estimated at anywhere between 400 to about 1,000 people who marched to the intersection Snelling and University Avenues the busiest intersection in the Twin Cities. It was in the intersection, on the busiest shopping day of the year, that 26 workers and supporters locked arms and sat in the street, waiting to be arrested by the St. Paul police.
The arrests marked a dramatic end to a week of actions fighting for low-income workers, including a Walmart strike earlier in the week in Brooklyn Center, worker-led demonstrations at a St. Cloud temporary hiring agency on Tuesday, a protest at the airport for people who work for contract cleaning firm and a picket in front of the downtown Minneapolis Target store Friday morning demanding better pay and the right to organize for Target janitorial workers who are hired by contracting firms. Organizations involved in the weeks activities included SEIU, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), OurWalmart, Minnesotans for a Fair Economy and TakeAction Minnesota, all of which are organizing to raise wages for workers across the state.
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http://advocate.stpaulunions.org/2013/11/29/call-to-end-poverty-wages-rings-out-at-twin-cities-black-friday-protests/
Hundreds of people flocked to the Midway Walmart in St. Paul today, but it wasnt deep discounts or door-buster deals they wanted. It was justice for workers who make the holiday season happen.
Members of the non-union worker group CTUL who clean area retail stores march in St. Paul. They picketed outside Target in Minneapolis earlier in the day.
Black Friday protests in the Twin Cities took on a renewed vigor this year, as activists from labor, faith and community groups capped off a week of demonstrations calling out low-wage employers like Walmart and Target and building momentum for a legislative push to raise the states minimum wage.
The protests began early this morning, when janitors who clean Target stores throughout the metro area went on strike. Picketing outside the companys flagship store downtown Minneapolis drew more than 100 supporters.
The action then shifted to University Avenue in St. Paul. Demonstrators marched past Target and Walmart stores on their way to the Snelling Avenue intersection. As hundreds of supporters cheered from the sidewalk, 26 people linked arms and sat down in the middle of the intersection. They were arrested, one by one, in acts of civil disobedience.
Organizers estimated turnout for the march was 1,000 people. St. Paul Police shut down several blocks of University, Snelling and other streets to accommodate the large crowd.
Walmart worker Mike Ahles (green shirt), who was disciplined by the company for participating in a strike earlier this year, prepares to take part in an act of civil disobedience.