Progressive Action New Hampshire

A K-Mart store owner in Plymouth, NH defies the corporate mandate from K-Mart by closing the doors of her store for Thanksgiving.  K-Mart, Sears, Wal-Mart and other giant retailers intend to ignore the national holiday and schedule their employees to report to work.  As everyone knows, retail workers’ pay falls substantially below the living wage mark.  In addition, retailers like to keep their workers part-time or near close to it, causing most to take whatever hours they can to get their take-home wage as high as possible.

In addition, most low wage work requires short training periods and the unemployment rate in the country still remains high.  Perfect conditions to remind workers that complaints about work schedules or hours will garner little sympathy and could cause one to be out the door.  So much for that old saw about the open market place of the job and worker choice.

The whoring of the holiday is evident with a google search “stores open on Thanksgiving” bringing up headliners such as:

Reuters: “Eyeing holiday sales, more US retailers to open on Thanksgiving...Meanwhile, many Wal-Mart Stores Inc U.S. locations will be open all day…”

Latino Fox News: “Can’t Wait For Black Friday? More Stores Than Ever Now Open On.‎While stores like Walmart have been open on Thanksgiving for the past 25 years, others like Macy’s are opening for the first time on Turkey Day …

Retailindustry.about.com: “Complete List of Retail Stores Open Thanksgiving Day – Pre-Black  Best U.S. Retail Promotions‎  Thanksgiving Day is the new Black Friday, with some of the largest U.S. retail chains opening their retail doors and starting their Black Friday sales promotions …”

Isn’t that wonderful? Thanksgiving Day is the new Black Friday!  Your corporate masters shall decide when you will rest and when you won’t! Get up slaves and work!

Think Progress has compiled a list of retailers that will stay closed on the holiday, Your Shopping Guide to Stores That Won’t Ruin Worker’s Thanksgivings

We at Progressive Action NH urge everyone to stay home, relax and spend the day with friends and family.   Happy Thanksgiving.

PLYMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — Many stores are planning to be open on Thanksgiving, but the owner of a Sears store in New Hampshire says her store is staying closed.

Franchise owner Holly Cassiano in Plymouth tells WMUR-TV (http://bit.ly/1ghrTuG) said she had one reaction when the Sears corporate office told her she had to be open on Thursday: anger.

She said she’s not going to let corporate retailers rule over family values on the holiday. She sent a letter to Sears with her reasons for staying closed, but hasn’t heard back yet.

‘‘I value my employees enough that I wouldn’t have them have to work on a day that’s mean to be spent with family,’’ she said. She’s also starting a petition calling on state legislators to pass a law allowing for franchise owners the flexibility to close on holidays.

She plans to open at 6 a.m. on Black Friday.

A Granite State Poll shows that a majority of New Hampshire residents don’t like the idea of stores opening on Thanksgiving. The poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center shows just 9 percent approved of stores opening on the holiday, while 54 percent disapproved.

Full Story: boston.com