Union Activists Picket Trump and Walmart's Shared Values in Buena Park

“Stop hate! Dump Trump!” picketers chanted outside a Walmart store at the Buena Park Mall yesterday afternoon. “Walmart, Walmart, you're no good! Never doing what you should!”

Dozens of union activists and faith-based leaders circled the entrance of the big box store with a twin message against Donald Trump's farcical pledge to “Make America Great Again,” and the corporation's tag line of “Save Money, Live Better.” But what does America's largest retailer and its biggest loudmouth have to do with each other? Plenty, according to United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 324 union members handing out leaflets to Walmart shoppers.

They chided Walmart for promising to invest $250 billion towards buying made-in-America products but remaining the U.S.'s top importer of foreign goods. Turning to the Donald, picketers point out that despite his presidential pledge to make America great, Trump builds his buildings with Chinese steel and sells ties and other goods made in foreign countries. 

But that's not all. The nationwide day of action, brought locally by Making Change at Walmart (MCAW) and UFCW Local 324, draws other parallels when it comes to the billionaire bigot paying no federal income tax for years and Walmart using tax havens to enrich themselves. Trump bragged about sexual assault and making unwanted advances on women. Walmart got hit with a YUGE! sex discrimination class action lawsuit.
The picketers called on Walmart to join other companies like Macy's and Serta in not selling products that promote his campaign. After a half-hour of chanting in circles, the union activists and faith-based leaders walked toward the parking lot to send their anti-Walmart, anti-Trump message over loudspeaker from a truck bed.

Rabbi Jonathan Klein of Clergy and Laity United For Economic Justice (CLUE) emceed the rally, joined by Los Amigos President Jose F. Moreno, Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development Executive Director Shakeel Syed, Buena Park city council candidate Susan Sonne and others, all sounding anti-Trump, anti-Walmart messages.

“What people do not know is that we vote every single day with our dollars,” said Julio Perez, Executive Director of the OC Labor Federation. “We ask all the people that here today shopping to think again.”

Mailers in support of Sharon Quirk-Silva have made a sport of comparing her opponent, current Assemblywoman Young Kim, to Trump on the issue of tax return releases. But Quirk-Silva had something else in mind on stage.

“When we look at the comparisons between Donald Trump and Walmart, they're similar,” she said. “We do not want to see that kind of leadership in our country. We want someone who's going to look at women and value them.”

With the presidential election just 12 days away, chants of “Dump Trump! Dump Trump!” ended the rally.

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