In recent months, parts of Walmart’s outsourced warehouse supply chain in the US have been hit by strikes and demonstrations, causing disruption and pulling Walmart’s policies into the spotlight.
Now, as reported in UK newspaper, The Guardian, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has written to shipping owners and ship captains who carry Walmart goods and asked them to contact the gigantic global company and express support for the protesting workers.
Meanwhile, the retailer is preparing for the possibility of a continuation of the strikes and walkouts orchestrated by union-supported groups over poor pay and benefits, as ‘Black Friday’ looms, the busiest single shopping day in the US calendar.
Walmart has been affected by a series of walkouts and protests by several union-supported groups seeking to highlight what they say are low pay, poor benefits and retaliatory measures against those employees who speak out.
Walmart has accused unions of seeking to cause trouble and organise its workforce. It has said previously that only a tiny minority of its 1.3 million US staff are joining the protests and has defended its wages and benefits as offering good jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans.
“Walmart workers taking industrial action know that their jobs are at risk. The least we can do to help is use our expertise at sea and relations with the shipping industry to back them in any way we can,” ITF representatives wrote in a statement.
The ITF is a global union federation representing around four and a half million transport workers worldwide.
