RAP Targets Retailers Open on Thanksgiving for Black Friday Actions

New York, NY –  Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, generating massive revenues for the growing retail industry. But this year, retailers like Walmart, Target, Kmart, Lord & Taylor, Banana Republic, GAP, Old Navy, and Ann Taylor are opening on Thanksgiving Thursday, ruining America’s family holiday for thousands of workers and our families. Retail workers and community allies with the Sustainable Scheduling Campaign are standing for predictable and livable work hours, including the right to spend Thanksgiving with our families instead of working.

Carrie Gleason, Retail Action Project’s Executive Director says, “When company policies state that Thanksgiving shifts are scheduled on a ‘volunteer’ basis, in fact employee input on holiday schedules remains very limited. Part-time low-wage hourly workers desperate to make ends meet will often volunteer for more hours since they don’t get enough year round. When workers are starved for hours year-round, is working Thanksgiving really ‘voluntary’?”

Retail workers across the country are rising up and fighting back – Walmart workers nationwide will be striking on Black Friday to protest their company’s anti-worker labor business policies and abusive employment practices, and Retail Action Project members are standing with them. Workers are joining together to push back against abusive scheduling practices that make workers choose between supporting their families or spending time with them.

Anne Dacres, a former worker of Gymboree and Kohl’s as well as RAP member leader, recalls entire black-out periods from November to January where no personal scheduling requests were allowed, and states, “Joining the Sustainable Scheduling Campaign has been so important to me, after years of working for retailers who prioritize holiday bargains over our family responsibilities. I finally feel like there’s something I can do about knowing when I will and won’t work. And that just doesn’t seem like a whole lot to ask.”

In New York and New Jersey on Black Friday, members of the Retail Action Project will build allied shopper support for workers taking action at Walmart and other retailers open on Thanksgiving. Allied shoppers will have the opportunity to distribute holiday cards to workers who couldn’t spend the holiday with their families, highlighting their right to have predictable family-friendly schedules. The Sustainable Scheduling coalition will be meeting on Friday, November 23rd at 8:30 am the corner of 34th and 7th avenue and move to several targeted retailers.

Matt Ryan, Executive Director of ALIGN which is also a leading member of the Walmart-Free  NYC Coalition, comments, “After supporting workers who had to work on Thanksgiving in Manhattan, we’re proud to stand with Walmart workers who are walking out to protect their right to organize, calling for an end to the company’s retaliation against worker leaders.”

Retail workers, industry analysts, and policy and labor leaders are all available for interview. Please contact Justin Hamano to join the coalition on Black Friday, or to schedule interviews.

The Sustainable Scheduling Campaign is supported by: Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU, UFCW), A Better Balance, ALIGN, The Black Institute, CLASP, Demos, Family Values at Work, Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), Interfaith Worker Justice, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ), Make the Road New York, Moms Rising, 9to5, National Association of Working Women, National Employment Law Project (NELP), National Partnership for Women and Families, NEDAP, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, Queers for Economic Justice, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), Women Employed, Working Families Party, Young Workers United