skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

FL Walmart Workers Join Fight for Better Wages, Working Conditions

play audio
Play

Monday, November 24, 2014   

TAMPA, Fla. - Shoppers will be out this week in search of deep discounts at Florida's big-box stores, but some workers at the world's largest private employer want to remind shoppers that, in their view, Walmart's low prices come at a cost.

Starting today, employees of some central Florida Walmarts plan to walk off their jobs in protest of what they say are low wages and unfair working conditions. Nancy Reynolds has worked at the Merritt Island Walmart for seven years and says she wants shoppers to consider what goes on behind the scenes when they shop.

"The customers should realize we are being done this way because they keep shopping there," says Reynolds. "And they aren't putting pressure on Walmart as well."

Reynolds is diabetic and says she's routinely scheduled for long shifts without meal breaks. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is coordinating the actions across Florida this week. In published reports, Walmart has said the protesters represent a small percentage of its' workforce of 1.3 million in the U.S.

Angela Williamson is the lead organizer for United Food and Commercial Workers in central Florida, and a former Walmart employee. She says she was also treated poorly and lost her job after an illness. She thinks changes at Walmart could be the "tipping point" to better working conditions and wages for people across the country.

"If we could change Walmart and uphold them to better standards and working conditions, then it would change retail and grocery basically, and service industry across the country," she says.

Williamson says more employees are volunteering to strike this weekend than ever before, saying they're tired of low wages and employer retaliation when they complain.

"That's probably one of the biggest things workers say, is that they're not respected at work," says Williamson. "Whether it's with their pay, with having benefits taken away, how they're treated as a person inside the store. They're just not respected."

According to a report by Americans for Tax Fairness, the U.S. supports Walmart's low-wage workers with more than $6 billion annually in public assistance in the form of SNAP benefits, Medicaid and subsidized housing.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021