Should Stores Forgo Early Black Friday Hours in Consideration of Workers?

Walmart workers across the country are striking due to the stores opening earlier this year for the Black Friday weekend. Before Thanksgiving, more than 1,000 worksite actions are expected to take place nationwide.

Walmart employees all over the country have been striking for the past few months in protest to various complaint such as "being silenced, long hours and little pay and issues with healthcare."

"This is happening at about 250 stores and there are just as many workers who have walked off their jobs,” said Beth Pointer, an organizer for Making Change at Walmart.

In October, associates leading the strikes originally gave Walmart until Black Friday to meet their demands, including an opportunity to discuss their concerns with management and the end of alleged retaliations for speaking out. However, Walmart employees have continued to strike at different locations across the country.

Target has also gotten some backlash after announcing they would open stores at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. According to DailyFinance, employees and supporters started a petition against the early opening at online petition site Change.org.

Last week, Target responded to the campaign on "A Bullseye View," its official blog. The post explains that the early Thanksgiving Day opening plan was created after they received feedback from customers, who said they would prefer shopping right after Thanksgiving dinner instead of in the early hours on Friday. It also insists that Target employees' preferences were considered in making Thanksgiving work schedules.

Unlike Walmart, Target isn't facing organized labor actions during the Black Friday weekend, so at the moment, they're not budging on their early holiday openings.

So do you think that these stores should give more consideration to workers than customers during the holidays?