Whole Foods Employees Strike Against Working on Thanksgiving
If you are missing an ingredient for your Thanksgiving meal, you can just dash out to the grocery store, right? While more and more shops are opening their doors to shoppers on Thursday, some Chicago Whole Foods' employees are striking on Wednesday to protest the chain being open on the holiday and bring attention to the hardships for people who are scheduled to work. "They feel like they should have the right to be with their families on Thanksgiving," Deivid Rojas, communications director for the Workers of Organizing Committee of Chicago, a union of retailer and fast food workers, tells Yahoo Shine. "And they are concerned with the general trend of retailers being open on the holiday."
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The employees chose Wednesday to strike and stage a public protest because it's one of the biggest grocery shopping days of the year and will cause the most disruption. "The marketing at the store is all about being with your family on Thanksgiving," striker Trish Kahle tells Yahoo Shine. "But we still have to work. We think having the day off is important for all families, not just customers' families." About two-dozen employees from two stores, including Whole Foods' Chicago flagship in Lincoln Park, are participating in the protest.
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Whole Foods did not reply to Yahoo Shine's request for comment, but a said in a statement emailed to Salon, "As a company founded on the ideals of respect for the individual, self-empowerment, and free speech, Whole Foods Market supports fair wages and the rights of all workers, and we support groups who want to express their opinions and raise awareness for their cause…" She added the company, "takes pride in helping our shoppers for this special food-focused holiday, whether it's weeks or even minutes in advance," and pointed out that workers were paid time-and-a-half on Thursday. Kahle says that her store rakes in about $700,000 on Wednesday and the employees should be compensated with holiday pay on that day as well, especially given the crush of shoppers.
While relatively small in size, the Whole Foods employees are joining a growing number of workers who are protesting retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Sears for expanding their hours around the holiday to capture the frenzy of Black Friday deal shoppers. This year, Walmart bumped its opening hours up from 10 pm to 8 pm on Thanksgiving evening.
Long lines of customers clamoring for bargains may be legendary, but a recent poll by the Huffington Post indicates that the majority of Americans don't actually want the freedom to shop on the holiday-only 13 percent said they preferred stores to be open on Thursday and there are many online petitions are asking stores to keep their doors shut. Patricia Stumpff, an Ohio mom who is petitioning Target, explains that her daughter has had to work the Black Friday sales with her shift starting at 4 pm on Thursday for a number of years, disrupting their family's gathering. "I believe that the Thanksgiving holiday was instituted for us to take some time out of our often too busy lives to recognize, celebrate and be thankful for all the good things we have in this country." She adds, "I hope that others will join with me to help ensure that 'holidays' remain holidays for everyone and not just a select few." So far, she's received over 100,000 signatures.
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