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The workers, who do not have a recognized union, walked off the job at an NFI warehouse in Mira Loma, California to call for an end to retaliation and unfair labour practices. Workers have been fighting for more than a year for safe working conditions and for Walmart to take responsibility for conditions in the warehouse.

"When we spoke out to change terrible working conditions, workers were suspended, demoted and even fired. They spied on us and bullied us, all because we are fighting for dignity," said Limber Herrera, a warehouse worker for four years.

The strike began yesterday and today workers and their supporters begin a 80 km, six-day pilgrimage from the warehouses to Downtown Los Angeles.

Workers face inadequate access to clean water, work under scorching heat that reaches well over 100 degrees, and have little access to basic healthcare, regular breaks, and properly functioning equipment. Their wages are low -$8 per hour and $250 a week, or $12,000 per year. Workplace injury is common.

But when workers tried to offer solutions to fix these abuses, they have been met with illegal threats and intimidation by management. Workers are employed by NFI and a temporary labor agency, Warestaff. Both companies are Walmart subcontractors, but the retail giant has ignored repeated attempts by workers to meet and address the inhumane and illegal conditions in its contracted warehouses.

As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart dictates the standards of operation in the logistics and distribution industry.

"These workers have exhausted all options," said Guadalupe Palma, a director of Warehouse Workers United, an organization committed to improving warehousing jobs in Southern California's Inland Empire. "Walmart must stop ignoring warehouse workers and intervene to uphold its own stated "Standards for Suppliers," eliminate inhumane and illegal working conditions and sit down directly with warehouse workers to hear about their experiences in the warehouses and figure out how to improve working conditions."

More than 85,000 workers labour in warehouses in Southern California, unloading merchandise from shipping containers that enter through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and loading it onto trucks destined for retail stores like Walmart. The National Labor Relations Board is currently investigating numerous federal charges filed by the warehouse workers.

Help the warehouse workers by:

1. Visiting this link and signing a letter to Walmart, CEO Mike Duke, and then spread the petition widely across your networks.

2. Donating to the Warehouse Workers Relief Fund by visiting this link and clicking on the “Donate” button.