Union Members Hold Employee Free Choice Act Vigil Outside Wal-Mart for 24 Straight Hours

Employee Free Choice Act Vigil

Event Held as Part of a Statewide Period of Action
in Support of the Proposed Labor Law

The Labor Council joined union members across the state May 6 and 7 for a 24-hour vigil in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

More than 150 union members and supporters participated in the event, which took place outside the Murphy Canyon Wal-Mart.

Similar events took place outside federal buildings in Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno and Los Angeles.

The San Diego event focused on Wal-Mart and other large corporations that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, and the right of workers to join a union without company interference.

The vigil kicked-off with a rally that highlighted Wal-Mart’s anti-union history, and how veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan need union jobs that allow them to help rebuild our economy. From that point, unions and community organizations took four-hour shifts manning the vigil just steps from the store’s entrance.

Candles were lit at dusk and continued until sunrise the following morning.

Volunteers handed out more than 4,000 flyers throughout the vigil, asking patrons, “If your signature is good enough to join the military, then why doesn’t Wal-Mart believe it’s good enough to join a union?”

Special thanks go out to those who covered a full shift, including UFCW Local 135, SEIU, Letter Carriers Branch 70, AFSCME, the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, Decorators Local 831 and the College Democrats at SDSU.