With the holidays rapidly approaching, Walmarts across the country are once again setting up food donation bins for its workers in need (aka almost all of them), reported Raw Story.
The employee advocate group Making Change at Walmart put up a photo on its Facebook page of one such donation box at an Oklahoma store.
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<div class=”fb-post” data-href=”https://www.facebook.com/MakingChangeWMT/photos/a.227597067268198.72171.221062987921606/926617040699527/?type=1″ data-width=”466″><div class=”fb-xfbml-parse-ignore”><a href=”https://www.facebook.com/MakingChangeWMT/photos/a.227597067268198.72171.221062987921606/926617040699527/?type=1″>Post</a> by <a href=”https://www.facebook.com/MakingChangeWMT”>Making Change</a>.</div></div>
Walmart was heavily chastised last year after donation bins at an Ohio store made the rounds online.
Making Change is helping to organize Black Friday protests over the giant chain’s treatment of its employees. According to their website, 2,232 stores are “standing for $15/hr and full time.”
A press release read, in part:
“As workers and their supporters finalize plans for the biggest Black Friday mobilization ever, they said the largest strikes and protests will be in: Baton Rouge, LA; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; New York, NY; Oakland, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Sacramento, CA; Seattle, WA; Tampa, FL; [and] Washington, DC.”
As Raw Story pointed out, a report by Americans for Tax Fairness report showed that taxpayers spend around $6.2 billion a year funding assistance programs used by Walmart employees, the majority of whom make less than $25,000 a year.
Walmart, of course, makes more than double that in profits from food stamp purchases, about $13.5 billion a year.
Instead of paying its workers an actual living wage with fair hours and benefits, the Walton family, who is worth an estimated $150 billion, continues to put the burden of caring for its employees on someone else.