BENTONVILLE - Wal-Mart’s firing of a dozen workers who claim unfair treatment by the retailer was brought up Tuesday in Yahoo’s 2013 shareholders meeting in Sunnyvale, Calif., as Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer tried to keep the focus on her company and away from the Wal-Mart board on which she sits.
On Monday, five activists with the union-funded Organization United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR Walmart, were arrested during a sit-in and march at Yahoo’s headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif.
Their goal, which they seemingly achieved Tuesday, was to carry their message to Mayer.
As many as a dozen Wal-Mart employees have been fired since participating in demonstrations during the Wal-Mart shareholders meeting earlier this month, a public relations firm representing OUR Walmart said in a news release on Monday. Most of the firings took place over the weekend, said spokesman Nick Sifuentes. Some who were not fired were disciplined. Names of those involved weren’t readily available, Sifuentes added.
A handful of OUR Walmart members gained access to the Yahoo shareholders meeting in Sunnyvale on Tuesday with proxies from Yahoo shareholders, said fired Wal-Mart cake-decorator Vanessa Serreira of St. Cloud, Fla. In the lobby before the meeting, Serreira and another member asked Mayer if she would pose for a photo with the pair and Mayer declined.
“We asked her if she would sit down and have a discussion because we believe she is a very powerful and smart woman,” Serreira said.
“We’re trying to find an avenue where someone will listen to us and bring their expertise and knowledge and work with us,” Serreria said. Attempts to contact Mayer through Yahoo and Wal-Mart were unsuccessful.
“All we want,” Serreria said, “is to be treated with respect, make a decent living wage, have full-time hours and have Wal-Mart commit to honoring the labor laws.”
The ousted associates said in the news release they were fired out of retaliation for activities related to OUR Walmart. Serreria said she was targeted by management because she is an OUR Walmart member and she was trying to “organize” in the store. She said she was told she was fired for taking extended breaks while at work. OUR Walmart, established in 2011, is paid with funds from the the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union.
“Like any company, we expect all of our associates to follow the rules. In Ms. Serreira’s case, she consistently abused the break privileges, in some cases taking twice the time allowed. During a 12-day period, we observed that she took nearly five hours in additional paid break time,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg.
He said the recent firings were not in retaliation for anything.
“Most of the associates in question violated our attendance policies, which include the multi-step progressive discipline process,” Lundberg said. “I will tell you that none of these associates were disciplined without prior repeated feedback, notices and warnings. Our decision had nothing to do with a specific protest.”
He said many associates who participated in some of the recent union activities were not disciplined because their absences - in their individual circumstances - did not trigger the attendance rules.
In the last month, more than 1,000 associates nationwide have been discharged for violating the retailer’s attendance policy. Wal-Mart employs 1.2 million in its U.S. Wal-Mart stores.
Business, Pages 26 on 06/26/2013