Nine Black Friday Protestors Arrested at Northern Virginia Walmart

Organizers of a Black Friday protest against Walmart’s treatment of workers in the metropolitan Washington, DC area shifted their plans after a court injunction blocked them from setting foot on store property in Maryland.

OUR Walmart, RESPECT DC, DC Jobs With Justice and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 opted not to violate an injunction against trespassing at Maryland Walmart stores. Instead, five busloads of protestors headed to a Walmart on Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia.

Several police cars were already there when protestors arrived. Nine people were arrested for blocking the intersection in front of the store. While they were being arrested, the crowd chanted, “No justice, no peace!”

Two Walmart employees joined the protest. One former employee in attendance claimed that she had been fired from the Laurel, MD store for taking part in a strike at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. All of them said that their co-workers wanted to be out there protesting with them, but feared recriminations.

Isaiah Beamon said he “overcame fear a long time ago” after going on strike three times for better wages and benefits. This morning, he delivered a letter to his manager outlining his concerns. His co-workers at the Capital Plaza Walmart have “a lot of fear,” he said. If they weren’t afraid of retaliation, he calculated that “the whole store” would be out there with them. Unfortunately, he said, “They think Walmart is the last resort for them.”

Tiffany Beroid, a customer service manager at the Laurel, MD Walmart, didn’t walk off the job today because she’ll be reporting for her shift later. She had gone on strike on Tuesday, however, “for respect, end of retaliation and better living wages.” She makes $10.70 an hour working 20 hours a week.

Asked how many co-workers she thought would be protesting with her today if she could get them to come out, she snorted derisively. “Probably the whole stores in every Walmart!” she said. “I really feel that that’s the atmosphere, because Walmart has been silencing its workers for years.” One way that management retaliates against workers who speak up, she said, is by cutting hours. “That’s the workers’ only job that they have to provide for their families.”

UPDATE: According to protest organizer Mike Wilson of RESPECT DC, one of those arrested was a Walmart employee from a store in Miami.