JACKSONVILLE, FL. -- Many Wal-Mart employees plan to walk out on the biggest shopping day of the year.
Terry Buckenmeyer is a member of St. Augustine's Industrial Workers of the World. The protest organizer says the idea is to hit Wal-Mart where it hurts on the biggest shopping day of the year by asking workers to walk out.
Protests are planned across the country to send Wal-Mart a message that workers need better pay and benefits.
"We are doing a picket to show solidarity with the organization United for Respect of Wal-Mart," said Buckenmeyer. "It's to show people that there are members of the community who support them in their legal right to organize for better conditions, pay, respect."
Most Wal-Marts are already open 24 hours, so employees were going to have to be here on Thanksgiving anyways, as in years past.
Wal-Mart's not the only big box store facing criticism. For the second year in a row, employees of Target and Toys R Us are signing online petitions at Change.org calling for Thanksgiving Day off. The Target petition had collect more than 300,000 online signatures as of Saturday night.
Toys R Us led the pack last year opening at 9 p.m. This year they'll open at 8 p.m. Target is opening at 9 p.m.
"To me, Christmas has never been about things. It's been about the whole peace on Earth and everybody love everybody and when you see what happens at some of these stores on Black Friday, it's like the total opposite."
Last year's calls for retailers to change their hours were unsuccessful.
Target stated on its Web site about the decision to open at 9 p.m. was a result of feedback heard from guests and cited a "highly competitive" holiday season.
