Walmart: Meet with your Warehouse Workers

Dear Walmart CEO Mike Duke, Board of Directors and Walmart Executives:

As supporters of warehouse workers who move boxes of goods destined for Walmart stores across the U.S., we are asking Walmart executives to meet directly with the workers.

Marta injured her back because of the grueling pace inside the warehouses and now she is unable to work. Limber works under dangerous conditions, forced to use broken equipment and at risk of dehydration because of inadequate access to clean drinking water.

The work is unsafe, injuries are common, and the pay is so low workers cannot make ends meet. Right now, the temperatures in Riverside and San Bernardino top 100 degrees daily and inside the metal containers the temperature can get up to 120 degrees. There is little ventilation and the heat and pollutants workers inhale can make them vomit and bleed from the nose. Workers face intense retaliation from management if they say anything about the conditions.

Workers have tried several times to reach out to you, writing letters and using the channels that Walmart provides in its “Standards for Suppliers.” Even after filing official complaints about health and safety violations and notifying Walmart directly about illegal working conditions, you have ignored these workers. But this is not an isolated problem that will just go away: there are thousands of warehouse workers in Southern California, Chicago, New Jersey and elsewhere who labor to stock Walmart shelves – all facing similar conditions.

We, who have signed below, are asking you, Walmart executives and Board members, to sit down with the workers to learn about their experience moving your goods and to figure out how you can ensure all of Walmart’s contractors and suppliers follow the law and live up to your own standards. Walmart, you set the standards for the industry; with a little good will, you can help ensure humane working conditions for thousands of warehouse workers in your supply chain.

Sincerely,

Supporters of the Warehouse Workers