Walmart: Rehire Ismael and stop retaliating against workers

On January 26th, I was terminated by Kelly Cooper, the manager for Walmart store #1772 in Klamath Falls, Oregon, in what I believe was retaliation for my efforts to speak out for a better workplace.

I worked at Walmart for 11 years and didn’t have problems until I started getting involved along with other employees across the country in campaigns for better wages, better benefits and other improvements at Walmart. Since then, I have participated in some rallies and events and I joined a nationwide strike at the end of last year.

The management at my store knew I’ve been a part of these efforts and have discouraged my coworkers from getting involved.

Recently, things got worse. First, I was given a coaching because a manager said I left eggs out of refrigeration for two hours. Later, she changed her story and said it was for 40 minutes. I kept working after the incident, but on January 15, 2015 I was coached by an assistant manager at my store about half an hour before I was scheduled to clock out on my overnight shift because he said I wasn’t doing all of my work. The problem is that those of us who work overnight shifts are given more work and are responsible for more sections of the store than any one person could reasonably be expected to handle.

I told him that I was scheduled to work another half hour to 7AM and he walked away. All of a sudden, he had called the police and had them escort me outside the story. He told me I would be arrested if I came back. Without knowing anything about what this meant for my employment, I was told five hours later that I would be suspended without pay until the store manager came back from vacation. When my manager returned several days later, she said she would open an investigation. Just a few days later, she called me in and told me I would be terminated over the egg incident many weeks before -- for which I had already been coached.

This doesn’t make sense. To me, it’s clear that the real reason why I was terminated is because of my involvement with OUR Walmart. I’ve heard of other workers being retaliated against for speaking out about how Walmart treats us and I want this to stop. Please join me in asking Walmart to give me my job back and to stop retaliating against employees who speak out about their jobs.

In addition to signing on to this petition, you can call Walmart Store #1772 in Klamath Falls, Oregon at 541-885-6890 and tell store manager Kelly Cooper to put me back to work and to do the right thing and be fair to us workers.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.