Protesters march outside the Walmart in Laurel, Md. (Photo via OUR Walmart)

Several Walmart stores in Maryland were among 100 of the company’s locations targeted by labor demonstrations today in support of improving working conditions at the world’s largest retail company.

Some 400 protesters marched in the parking lot of the Walmart in Laurel, while another 500 rallied outside the the store at the Capital Plaza shopping center in Hanover, according to a spokesman for United Food and Commercial Workers, a labor union that coordinated the demonstrations. The spokesman said those crowds included Walmart employees who walked off the job on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year.

With Walmart stores across the country stuffed with post-Thanksgiving shoppers who began jamming the aisles at midnight, organizers are hoping today’s protest scenes informed shoppers of workers’ demands. OUR Walmart, a labor campaign leading the demonstrations, calls for the company to pay its retail associates at least $13 per hour and to expand the percentage of staff that works full-time. Half of Walmart’s hourly employees at its U.S. locations earn less than $10 an hour, The Huffington Post reported last week.

Though UFCW said each Maryland crowd contained a handful of actively striking Walmart employees, the bulk of the protesters were regular activists, including many bused in from D.C. Members of D.C. Jobs for Justice, a labor coalition, and church groups, helped flesh out the rallies.

UFCW calls the anti-Walmart protests part of an “ongoing quest for respect.” Though no signs of retaliation have been reported today, the union said that in the past, Walmart has responded to workers who speak against the company by cutting hours or more drastic steps.

Walmart did not respond to requests for comment.

Protests and impromptu strikes also took place at Walmart stores in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Milwaukee, as well as locations across Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and Minnesota.

UPDATE, 2:15 p.m.: In a press release, Walmart says that the number of employees who participated in today’s rallies was far smaller than projected by the United Food and Commercial Workers. The company said only 50 workers across the country joined the protests.

Walmart also said that it monitored only 26 demonstrations when its stores opened at midnight for Black Friday shopping.