BETTY DUKES, WALMART, WOMEN, LATINOS, AND BLACK FRIDAY

Betty Dukes is a worker at Walmart who filed a discrimination suit against the company for discriminating against their female employees. I think she is a great inspiration to women everywhere. The video above is from the National Partnership for Women and Families who decided to put together a book letting her and the other women know how much we appreciate them. I wrote one of the messages that ended up in the book!

"Still four years shy of retirement, Dukes has now spent more than half of her Walmart career tangling in court with her employer. Many of her colleagues, she said, have grown more supportive since she first filed the suit in 2001, alleging that Walmart management discriminated against women over pay and promotions and violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

A lot of my coworkers at that time, they weren't all behind me," Dukes told The Huffington Post while in Washington to see lawmakers this week. "They have evolved over the years. I have tremendous support now.

Many of them, Dukes said, privately voiced their disappointment when the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision last summer that the lawsuit could not proceed, the conservative majority arguing that members of the huge class didn't share enough in common as plaintiffs.

Dukes said there have been improvements at Walmart since she originally filed her lawsuit. Job openings are visible to women in a way that they once were not, she said. There are women in high-ranking positions who weren't in them a decade ago, such as Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walmart's Sam's Club division, who was appointed to her position early this year. "A lot of doors opened up for women after the lawsuit," Dukes said, although she maintains in her new lawsuit that women are still facing discrimination."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/20/betty-dukes-walmart-supreme-court_n_1613305.html

It's not only their female employees who are being treated poorly, it's also minorities as well, specifically Latinos and African-Americans. Because of this a lot of activist groups are planning to boycott Walmart tomorrow for black friday. As presente.org states:

"In April 2011, Walmart settled a lawsuit brought on by nine employees of a California store who were called “f—-n’ wetbacks,” told Mexicans are only good for cleaning homes, and reported to immigration authorities by their managers despite having legal status."

This is a link to a group that is organizing protests all over the country at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores to stand in solidarity with the workers of Wal-Mart. A lot of their workers have decided to protest Wal-Mart's treatment of it's own workers by protesting on black friday. In case you are not from the U.S. black friday is by far the largest shopping day that we have here, and it takes place the day after thanksgiving.

http://sumofus.org/share/walmart-black-friday/?akid=1049.923603.65w7VP&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=1

Special thanks to Betty Dukes, and all the courageous women who stood up against this giant monster to makes things better for everyone.