Wal-Mart workers at 28 stores across 12 states have launched the first retail worker strike in the company’s 50-year history, protesting against the chain’s attempts to “silence and retaliate against workers for speaking out for improvements on the job.”

Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the country. Its employees are not unionized. “Democracy Now!” joins strikers in Bentonville, Ark., to learn about working conditions from Mike Compton, a Wal-Mart warehouse employee who is protesting outside the company’s headquarters.

Josh Eidelson, a writer for Salon who broke the story of the strikes last week, also comments.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

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