DENVER, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Walmart workers around the country are reportedly planning the largest strike in company history as employees at 1,600 locations plan to picket on Black Friday for $15 an hour and improved working conditions.
"There have been many times my family can't even afford the gas to get me back and forth to work, so my husband had to wait in the car to take me home after work," Barbara Gertz, an employee at a Denver Walmart, told reporters Friday.
In addition to low pay, workers are also protesting Walmart's "illegal silencing of workers who are standing up for better jobs," according to OUR Walmart, the labor group organizing the strike.
"Every time one of us speaks out for change, we take the risk that Walmart will fire us," Gertz said. "That's not right and that's not legal. That's why we're going on strike."
The strike will come at a particularly volatile time for retail labor relations. Janitors in Minnesota plan to strike outside Home Depot and other big box retailers on Black Friday if those companies don't join Target in signing a "responsible contractor policy," ensuring living wages and decent working conditions for non-company store employees.
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