Walmart’s going to feel some of that infamous Washington, D.C., summertime swamp heat Thursday, when 10 recently fired Walmart workers will be joined by community, faith and union supporters outside the low-wage retail giant’s D.C. federal lobbying offices.

The noon demonstration is the kickoff of a campaign by Walmart workers to end what they say is Walmart’s retaliation against workers for exercising their rights and freedoms, including the right to join unions.

Walmart reported last week that sales at its U.S. stores had unexpectedly declined. Walmart tried to explain its shrinking sales away by citing outside factors such as higher gas prices and payroll taxes.

But, say many market observers, the real cause lies within Walmart itself—the largest private-sector employer in the United States and the poster child for low-wages.  

I’ve seen some pretty outrageous anti-worker opinion pieces written about the contract negotiations at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) over the last two months. But nothing I’ve read is as infuriating as Friday’s San Francisco Chronicle op-ed from Chuck and Barbara McFadden.

In short, the McFaddens assert that workers like those at BART are not deserving of the middle-class wage their unions negotiate.

Retail giant Walmart reached an agreement with the Labor Department to make improvements at nearly 4,700 Walmart and Sam's Club locations after an Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection at a Rochester, N.Y., store in 2011 found numerous safety violations, USA Today reports. The company also will pay $190,000 in fines. Similar violations were found between 2008 and 2010 at stores in nine states.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray still hasn’t said if he will sign or veto the living wage bill for workers at big-box stores such as Walmart. So, as they say on public television telethons, “keep those phones ringing.”  All you need to do is click here and enter your phone number, ZIP code (you must be a D.C. resident) and email. Within a minute, you’ll get a phone call at the number you entered that will connect you directly to Gray’s office.

Whenever communities, lawmakers or activists question or criticize Walmart for the way it treats workers—the low-pay, the stores’ impact on the communities—the retail giant pulls out a well-worn script with a simple message, “Walmart creates jobs and if there’s one thing this economy needs, it’s more jobs.”   

Setting aside the quality of the jobs for another day, is Walmart telling the truth?

We still haven’t heard from Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray on if he plans to sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart that operate in the District of Columbia. So let’s give him a call and urge him to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray says he still hasn’t decided if he will sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart that operate in the District of Columbia. If you live in the district, here’s your chance to tell the mayor to do the right thing.

Click here to send Gray an email urging him to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

Walmart, the country’s largest private employer and huge wielder of political influence, is taking on their greatest challenge yet: A college junior writing an op-ed in her student newspaper. Georgetown University student Erin Riordan wrote a piece for The Hoya, the school’s student-run newspaper, in support of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), which would raise the minimum wage for big-box retail employees to $12.50 an hour.To deal with this threat, Walmart dispatched Steven Restivo, a senior director of communications at Walmart, to write a responding op-ed.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council in its July meeting released a statement commending the Washington, D.C., City Council's passage of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA). LRAA requires large retailers with more than $1 billion in annual sales with stores of more than 75,000 square feet to pay a living wage of $12.50 an hour.