A pro-union website is promoting walkouts and protests at Walmart stores, and the company has filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board to stop it.

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© UFCW Local 400Protesters gather outside of a Walmart store near the company's headquarters in Bentonville, AR.
The site, MakingChangeAtWalmart.org, encourages employees of the retail giant to join Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). The group had about 30,000 Facebook followers and 2,600 Twitter followers by Monday night.

The charge filed by the company Nov. 16 claims OUR Walmart is illegally acting as an agent or affiliate of United Food and Commercial Workers, which the union disputes.

The board is expected to rule on the claim quickly, according to Bloomberg Business Week.

The company wants a judgement to stop protests that would disrupt shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping times of the year for retailers.

Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, told The Nation that employees asked the company to do something about the union's "publicity stunts."

The website claims it is unfair for workers and their families to have the store open Thanksgiving Day.

Also, demonstrations are expected to take place nationwide Thursday. However, some Walmart employees already began protesting the company's policies.

In addition to a repeal of the Thanksgiving opening, employees at stores and distribution centers are asking for a minimum hourly wage of $13 and an increase in full-time employment.

Workers are asking for more affordable healthcare as well, after Walmart decided to reduce its contribution to the employee insurance plan. Premium costs for the workers are expected to increase by as much as 36 percent.

Walmart, which employs 1.4 million workers in the U.S., has already prevented multiple efforts by organizers to unionize the retailer's workforce.

Publicity for the protests was raised further by a petition published on MoveOn.org that asks Walmart not to force its employees to work Thanksgiving.

"I am disappointed at the announcement that Walmart stores will start sales at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day to get a few steps in front of the competition," wrote petitioner Mary Pat Tifft. "Walmart makes profits of more than $16 billion yearly. The company can afford to give its employees this holiday to spend with their families."

Tifft, who worked at a Walmart in Kenosha, WI, for 24 years, added she believes the Thanksgiving Day opening shows the company's disregard for its employees.

"As the largest employer in the country, Walmart could be setting a standard for businesses to value families," she wrote. "But instead, this is another Walmart policy decision that hurts the families of workers at its store."

More than 33,000 people had signed the petition by Tuesday morning. Organizers are seeking a total of 40,000 signees before it is delivered to Walmart President Rob Walton.

Walmart is headquartered in Bentonville, AR, and operates more than 10,500 stores in 27 countries.

The retailer employs 2.2 million people worldwide and has an average full-time hourly wage of $12.57. It recorded net sales of $443.9 billion in 2011, an increase of 5.9 percent from the pervious year.