By Katie Halper • @kthalps • 10 years ago

Watch this video, dance to the beat & protest Black Friday

It comes as no surprise that Walmart, which made news recently for asking for donations for the workers they underpay, exploits their workers. But the creative way these Walmart employees responded is original, to say the least. And it will inspire you to boycott this corporation on Black Friday.

The video above features Walmart workers who were fired (illegally) for daring to try to organize a union. As you see, these employees refuse to take this discrimination lying down. Instead, they step.

This abuse of workers is hardly an isolated incident. And recently Walmart has come under fire for its abhorrent behavior. Last Monday, the National Labor Review Board, the federal agency tasked with enforcing labor law, announced it would prosecute the company, which “unlawfully threatened, disciplined, and/or terminated employees for having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests” in “stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington.” Walmart’s tacky, shameless and oblivious decision to ask for donations for the very workers they were exploiting drew criticism from not only the usual suspects (whom we love) like Chris Hayes and Stephen Colbert, but the less usual ones, like Ashton Kutcher.

Even if you don’t have gazillion twitter followers on Twitter, a hit show on Comedy Central, or a presence on MSNBC and The Nation (#LeftyNerdSchwing), you can still support the employees Walmart is screwing over.

Check out OURWalmart (Organization United for Respect at Walmart).

If you’re a Walmart associate, sign the pledge and join the strike on Black Friday.

Support striking Walmart workers by sponsoring a striker.

Attend a Black Friday protest near you.

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Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie graduated from The Dalton School (where she teaches history) and Wesleyan University (where she learned that labels are for jars.) A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed at Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, all five Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! and has appeared with Lizz Winstead, Markos Moulitsas, The Yes Men, Cynthia Nixon and Jim Hightower. Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In These Times, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, Air America, GritTV, the Alan Colmes Show, Sirius radio (which hung up on her once) and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” Katie co-produced Tim Robbins’s film Embedded, (Venice Film Festival, Sundance Channel); Estela Bravo’s Free to Fly (Havana Film Festival, LA Latino Film Festival); was outreach director for The Take, Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis documentary about Argentine workers (Toronto & Venice Film Festivals, Film Forum); co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, a video for Museum of the City of NY exhibit, and wrote/directed viral satiric videos including Jews/ Women/ Gays for McCain.

Katie is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and New Yorker.

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