March down to Sherman Heights Market by Nadin Abbott
As
the marchers came down chants started to be heard. "Wallmart eschucha, estamos
en la lucha," (Walmart listen, we are in the fight). "1,2.3,4 we don't want
your Walmart store, 5,6,7,8, Walmart discriminates). "Los Pueblos unidos, james
seran vencidos." (The people united, will never be defeated.)
According
to Lorena Gonzales, Secretary-Treasurer CEO of the San Diego and Imperial Labor
Councils, there were close to a thousand people. They came from all trades, and
a large list of community groups. They came together to demand that Walmart
treat it's workers fairly.
Carlos Martinez by Nadin Abbott
I
had an opportunity to talk with Carlos Martinez, a warehouse worker at NFI in
Ontario. They are on strike because of the working conditions at the plant. You
may think that China has bad working conditions, this is in the United States.
Here are the major complaints from the workers, and they are very serious.
"Workers
do not have drinkable water, there is no ventilation in either the warehouse or
the trailers." Workers work for $8.00\hour, and nobody gets a forty hour week.
This way they avoid benefits. Moreover the schedules worked are unpredictable,
which means workers cannot plan to get a second job. Some shifts are two to
four hours longs, while others are four to eight. The week is either four or
five days long.
OSHA
mandates breaks, but workers at this facility do not get them, nor do they know
they can get them. As Martinez put it, "nobody knows they have a right to get
breaks." Even going to the bathroom is penalized, and workers are discriminated
for doing such.
The
company, MFI, just wants the trucks to come in and out.
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