Workers at a Walmart store in Dayton staged a one-day strike Monday to protest what they say are violations of their rights. Some employees of the company are accusing the retail giant of retaliating against them for speaking out about wages and hours.
Labor groups and city and state legislators joined Walmart employees in a crowd of about 70 outside the York Commons Shopping Center in Dayton.
Scott Stringer has been a Walmart employee for five years.
“We’re actually going on strike here in just a few minutes to stop retaliation," he said. Stringer added that another purpose of the protest was to "make Walmart a better place for everybody.”
Stringer and other workers say their schedules have been changed or cut in retaliation for complaints about hours and pay, and they accuse managers of harassing workers.
But Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg says the company has a strict anti-retaliation policy in place.
“If there is an associate out there who has a concern, or has been retaliated against, we would absolutely want to know about that so that we can look in to it and find out what’s going on," he said over the phone Monday. "That’s not who Walmart is, and that’s not what Walmart does.”
Striking Walmart workers will be back to work Tuesday, but criticism over Walmart’s labor practices aren’t likely to go away anytime soon.
