UNIONISTS SUPPORT WOMAN WAL-MART WORKERS
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—As attorneys for Wal-Mart’s working women argued their landmark class-action suit inside the U.S. Supreme Court on March 29, unionists and their allies made their position clear in the plaza in front of the court’s portico:
They’re on the side of the working women.
The unionists made up a significant part of the several hundred pro-women’s rights, pro-equal pay demonstrators outside the High Court. The crowd estimated at from 150-300, included men and women from the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the United Food and Commercial Workers, Jobs With Justice, a large contingent from the Transport Workers Union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the IBEW, the Teachers, The Newspaper Guild and the Communications Workers.
The signs and the chants were colorful. One chant, first used at the long-running demonstrations against Right Wing Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., and his union-smashing agenda, was repeated: “This is what Democracy looks like!”
Others were more specific to Wal-Mart, equal pay, or both. One example: “1-2-3-4, We won’t take this any more. 5-6-7-8, Fair pay cannot wait. 8-7-6-5, Fair pay, it’s how we thrive. 4-3-2-1: We won’t stop until we’ve won.” And “We don’t want charity. We want parity.” Signs included: “Wal-Mart: Not too big to pay fair.”
“CLUW has been supportive of equal pay for years, and the plaintiffs” – the woman Wal-Mart workers – “are to be admired. They’re truly courageous,” said CLUW Executive Director Carol Rosenblatt as she joined the crowd outside the court.
“This is the right issue, at the right time and the right judges, we hope, to make a fair choice,” Rosenblatt added.
“Women have been fighting for a long time for equal pay and this is one way we can demonstrate how we feel about it,” said AFT Vice President Connie Cordovilla. “The unity of women of all ages and demographics here is important.”
Male unionists agreed. The woman Wal-Mart workers “were cheated of their wages,” said Bruce Burton of the IBEW. “This is as much a wage-and-hour case as it is an equal pay case.”
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