Source: John Logan, New Labor Forum, Vol. 23 no. 1, Winter 2014
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The year 2012-2013 was a big year for Walmart workers and their allies fighting for better labor standards and an end to management retaliation. It saw the first-ever strikes in the history of the company, as well as the first strikes by warehouse workers contracted with Walmart; a campaign against abuses among Walmart suppliers and logistics chains; policy initiatives targeting the high cost to the public of the company’s poverty wages and benefits; and a vigorous international campaign for better standards at Walmart. These imaginative actions have ratcheted up the pressure on the company—which has become the poster child for the immiseration of workers in the first world and the exploitation of workers in developing countries—and laid the basis for further intensification in 2013-2014. ….