United for Respect

The organization was originally a project of the UFCW and conducted several public relations demonstrations before being largely defunded by the UFCW in 2015.² The effectiveness of the organization and its campaigns has been questioned by other left-wing union organizers.³

The group has emerged as a supporter of far-left critical race theory inspired diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at Walmart, proposing shareholder resolutions calling for an internal “racial equity audit” and opposing the company’s efforts to get rid of DEI programs. ⁴

Background

United for Respect was formed in 2010 by the United Food and Commercial Workers, which had long been targeting Walmart as it is one of the larger corporations and employers in America. The campaign first saw publicity when it organized a demonstration at a Walmart shareholder meeting at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.⁵ The union campaign sought to compel Walmart to enact a $15 minimum wage, give part time workers more hours, and provide better healthcare.⁶ Critics suggested that the campaign was a front for unionizing Walmart under the UFCW,⁷ but the union disclaimed an organizational motive in an agreement with the Obama administration-led National Labor Relations Board.⁸

The group also held protests and demonstrations on the busiest in-person shopping day of the year during “Black Friday” sales that drew small numbers of workers. Even labor union-aligned liberals have noted that the number of employees United For Respect has organized is quite small and possibly insignificant compared to the 1.5 million employees of the company.³

Controversies

United for Respect drew criticism from labor union critics and Walmart for being a unionization front “worker center.” Organizing as an informal “worker center” rather than a formal labor union allows the group to avoid laws regulating unionization activities and union finances.⁹

In response to Walmart’s claim that United for Respect (OUR Walmart) is a union front, Andy Kroll of the left-wing magazine Mother Jones wrote that, “As for the union front claim, Walmart’s got a point: OUR Walmart was established by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, though UFCW officials insist it’s not a steppingstone for unionizing.”¹⁰

United for Respect (OUR Walmart) also faced criticism for its aggressive intimidation tactics. Glenn Spencer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted that “The UFCW-OUR Walmart protests can involve dozens of people descending on Walmart stores, damaging merchandise, harassing shoppers, provoking arrests and bullying workers. They have increasingly drawn the ire of judges and law enforcement. In one case in Michigan, OUR Walmart was charged with following a Walmart employee into a bathroom and harassing her (a charge that the group quickly settled).”¹

Along with criticisms from Walmart, many pro-union voices on the left criticized United for Respect’s effectiveness and questioned if it made an impact on Walmart phasing in a $10 minimum wage or launching a program to move more employees to full-time positions. After a leadership change at United for Respect’s parent organization, UFCW, the new union president openly asked why the union had poured so much money into the campaign without gaining any new members.²

In 2020, a United for Respect worker put out an article criticizing the group for its “media-intensive, organizing-deficient strategy” while claiming it was acting as a get out the vote (GOTV) effort for the Democratic Party. ¹¹ The article alleged, “Due to their failure to organize workers on the shop floor, they depend upon an earned media strategy where they organize press events with big names, such as prominent senators or celebrities, and then try to find workers whose stories fit into a predetermined narrative” ¹¹ This strategy was used in 2021, when a United for Respect and Amazon worker testified before the Senate on allegations of poor working conditions at Amazon. She also claimed there was racial bias in hiring and promoting as well as gender discrimination. ¹² United for Respect has been unsuccessful in achieving any of its goals for reform at Amazon, and has also abandoned similar campaigns at Forever21 and Lowe’s after pushback from workers of the company. ¹¹

Support for DEI

In November 2024, Walmart ended its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. The company announced that it would stop using the term DEI altogether, drop DEI trainings, no longer consider race and gender as a means to improve diversity when making offers to suppliers, and would not renew a racial equity center committed to addressing “the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people.”  ¹³

TaNeka Hightower, a Walmart employee and member of United for Respect, condemned Walmart’s decision. Hightower stated:  ⁴

I identify with all of the groups pretty much covered up under the DEI. I question, do I still want to work at Walmart because they don’t acknowledge the safety concerns. They don’t acknowledge, the livable wage concerns, and then now I’m being slapped in the face because the groups that I identify with are being told you are no longer protected by us.

Hightower and United for Respect had introduced a shareholder proposal at Walmart’s annual shareholder meetings for a third-party independent racial equity audit of the company. The proposal had failed to reach the 20 percent threshold for it to be discussed further and as of 2024 Hightower planned to reintroduce the proposal at the 2025 annual meeting. Bianca Agustin, co-executive director at United for Respect, also condemned the DEI policy changes, saying, “Given Walmart’s sheer size as the largest employer in the world, and the demographics of both their domestic workforce and their suppliers it was just very disappointing,” Agustin said. “This is just a huge regression I think in response to the Trump administration.”  ⁴

Agustin further claimed that Walmart cited the DEI policies that it eliminated in its opposition to the shareholder proposal and claimed that the company said it does an internal racial equity audit but it does not publicly release those results. Agustin claimed that the DEI rollback would encourage investors to co-sponsor the shareholder proposal. “We’re expecting a number of co-filers on this. I think a lot of investors were surprised, shocked and disappointed to see Walmart walk this back,” Agustin said. “Walmart has a real responsibility, given its scale, to track this, disclose this, and live up to the mission that they intended when they started the racial equity center, which was to address the root causes of inequality. This is just such a slap in the face, I think to the employees and to stakeholders that care.” ⁴

Federal Contracting Changes

In December 2023, United for Respect joined other labor union-aligned groups in sending a public comment to the Biden administration Office of Federal Financial Management in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to support its revision of contracting rules which would add support for left-of-center policies as criteria for receiving federal funds.  ¹⁴

The coalition wrote:  ¹⁴

Specifically, we strongly support the provisions explicitly allowing recipients to evaluate companies in relation to workforce practices, community benefits, racial and gender equity, and environmental sustainability. We write to recommend it be made explicit— in guidance accompanying the final rule— that local and state officials may also take responsible action to consider stock buyback expenditures, exorbitant CEO pay, and private equity-driven leveraged buyouts and drastic cost-cutting when awarding federal funds. Discouraging these practices will help ensure that corporate recipients of public funds provide high-quality services with broadly shared benefits. ¹⁴

Financials

According to United for Respect’s 2024 tax return, the group had $524,040 in revenue, expenses of $523,647, and total assets of $4,120. ¹⁵

According to its 2023-tax return, United for Respect reported a revenue of $17,594, expenses of $806,821, and total assets of $2,998. ¹⁶

Leadership

As of 2025, Bianca Agustin and Terrysa Guerra were serving as the co-executive directors of United for Respect. Agustin previously worked as a corporate accountability director as well as a research director for the organization since joining in 2019. Prior to United for Respect, Agustin worked in several positions with 32BJ SEIU  including as Deputy Director for the NY Metro Commerical Division and Director of Research.  ¹⁷

Guerra joined United for Respect in 2018, and as of 2025 was a board member of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR). She previously worked as a Democratic Party campaign strategist as well as a campaign manager for former Texas state Senator Wendy Davis (D), U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), and Texas state House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner (D).  ^{18 19}