Albertson’s flimsy excuse from doing this has been that we can’t require people who claim an ADA medical exemption from wearing a mask. What they fail to mention to employees is that the ADA does not cover exemptions that put others in danger. Not wearing a mask in public places others in direct harm and should not be allowed.

We are essential workers, "superheroes" by corporate's own admission. They gave us t-shirts that say so, it must be official! The t-shirts request people to stay 6 feet away from workers on the floor. This is not enforced. Wearing a mask is not enforced. Our front line employees are being verbally abused and harassed by people not wearing masks. Our lives are in danger every day, every time we clock in. This isn't metaphorical, it is a scientific fact. If MoC cannot enforce the actions necessary to keep us safe, the VERY LEAST they can do is help us be financially more secure to offset the very real health insecurity we must endure simply to earn a paycheck, especially with the distribution of racial minorities within MoC to the lower paid departments.

When we completed our employee training, we were each deemed "certified sex nerds" but you might know us better as SESAs. The sex educator/sales associates of Good Vibrations Brookline and Cambridge have been proudly providing non-judgmental sex education to their communities for years. We have striven to create sex positive spaces which battle shame with empowerment and now we need your help to create a workplace that feels safe and empowering for us. The collective employees of these two Good Vibes locations known as Solidarity with East Coast Sex Educators or SECSE (yes, it IS pronounced 'sexy') have come together to demand consent and communication in how the company is run amidst this pandemic and beyond it. We want to amplify our voices on the ground and demand that our needs be addressed directly in the decision-making processes of this company. We love our jobs and many of us have proudly served our communities for 3+ years, learning as we teach others and working to continuously reassess accessibility and representation within our spaces. When we put our company name behind supporting LGBTQIA+, black, brown, disabled, sex worker, and otherwise marginalized voices, we at SECSE believe that the company should extend this support to their employees just as much as we provide it to our communities. Our west coast corporate office doesn't agree that our demands address problems which require immediate action. Good Vibrations cannot claim to serve these communities until they support EVERYONE in these communities including the very people who champion their cause during dangerous times. Stand up for quality sex education, stand up for LGBTQIA+ workers, stand up for consent and communication not just in our personal lives but our professional lives as well. Stand with SECSE!

Big Burrito laid off a large percentage of their hourly staff without warning and without addressing our safety concerns, leaving dozens of employees without their employer healthcare in the middle of a global pandemic. In the weeks since the lay off, they’ve publicly begun hiring for positions in their restaurant group and have required former employees to reapply and go through a review process with no guarantee that they will be rehired to their former position or rehired at the same wage. Despite their rhetoric of care and concern, the company has made no effort to change their internal operating procedures to prioritize the safety of their staff or their customers. This is dangerous for both employees and patrons. We don’t want any returning or future employees to have their health and well-being jeopardized in the same manner many of us were during the company’s first attempt at reopening at the beginning of June.

This letter is a Petition for Immediate Measures to be taken in order to protect and improve the lives of Fullbeauty fulfillment center workers during the COVID-19 crisis. At Fullbeauty we work hard, we look out for each other, and we are invested in the success of the company. We are Proud to work at Fullbeauty. However, Fullbeauty workers are currently subject to unfair, mandatory overtime that can leave us physically exhausted and more susceptible to Coronavirus infection. Furthermore, the excessive mandatory overtime is creating havoc in many of our households, as school schedules are in flux, and high quality, affordable, reliable child care is often difficult to find. Additionally, many of us without school aged children are feeling the pinch as we take on increased roles as caregivers for sick and elderly family members. In short, the current, unfair, mandatory overtime situation is hurting everybody. To make matters even worse, Fullbeauty has taken away our Hazard Pay despite the fact that contraction is again spiking in Indiana and all workers are at continued, serious risk of infection. With over $500 Million in annual revenue, Fullbeauty can certainly afford to reinstate Hazard Pay in recognition of our sacrifice to the company . Consequently, we the undersigned demand that Fullbeauty be a better corporate citizen during this health crisis by: Immediately suspending mandatory overtime for its distribution center employees and Immediately reinstating Hazard Pay for all workers We engage in this collective, concerted activity under the protection of Federal Law, specifically, Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. We are also prepared to engage in further actions that are also protected by the Act, as well as collective action designed to safeguard our immediate health and well-being from imminent danger as defined by OSHA, Standard number 1977.12 (b) (2). We anxiously await your response to our demand.

Grinnell has stated that they want to maintain a high quality college experience and education, even though we face an international crisis. With that in mind, they are asking us to pay the same amount of tuition and take on the same amount of debt. Grinnell works because we do, and that hasn't changed because of the pandemic. Now more than ever, we need paid remote positions so we can pay for our education, broaden our post-graduate opportunities, and provide ourselves and our peers with the same academic, social, and structural support during a time when most things feel uncertain and unsafe.

To protect both Starbucks partners and customers as the spread of COVID-19 continues to occur throughout the United States.

These barriers do not restrict contact among baristas at all, and do nothing to "protect" the partners against any form of germs. Baristas store-wide all share the same equipment and supplies. The plexi glass doesn't change that. The barriers slow down all orders and increase the wait time in drive through significantly. They increase the chance of injury behind the counter. They add a lot of stress and anxiety to already stressful situations on shift. Regularly there isn't enough staff to have a barista on each espresso bar, meaning that a single barista is left to dance around the barrier to try and cover both bars. Which again significantly slows service time, and distracts from the company's standard of excellent customer service and connection. It must be noted that these barriers have been installed at a time when many states are relaxing their restrictions and mandates as they phase into reopening. Why are these all of a sudden needed, when Starbucks has been without them for the entire 6 months of the pandemic? Starbucks, we sign this petition and ask that you remove these new physical barriers to the partners being able to provide excellent service and speed in delivering orders. And in removing them, know you are valuing partners mental health and well being by removing the excess stress the barriers cause.

Recently Whole Foods workers have been sent home for wearing Black Lives Matter paraphernalia at work, on the grounds that they are somehow controversial. Respectfully, we beg to differ. As an Amazon employee, and a Black American descendant of enslaved peoples in this country, I must say, that anyone who believes that the words Black Lives Matter, are controversial suffers from an unfortunate delusional state induced by years of conditioning in white supremacist ideology. Workers should not be forced to choose between earning a living, and asserting that the lives of other human beings have value. Whole Foods is wholly wrong to have ever enforced this policy. Nothing short of a full throated apology and a sincere commitment to sit down, shut up, and LISTEN to us, will do at this point. This is not a request. It is a demand. Words have meaning, and you can't claim to be in solidarity with the Black community, and then show the reckless indifference to Black and Latinx lives that Amazon is demonstrating currently. While you're here sign our petition to shut down DSF4 for deep cleaning. We've had 3 confirmed cases of COVID 19 reported in the last month and management is lax about enforcing social distancing unless it's to get rid of an organizers like Hibaq Mohamed or myself. Workers should not be retaliated against for speaking up for the safety of themselves and their colleagues. Standing in solidarity in the fight against systemic racism and injustice means being willing to say that Black Lives Matter AND act on that truth by treating Black employees with the dignity and respect that we deserve.

Covid-19 cases are on the rise and New Seasons has stopped our bonus pandemic pay. Every day we go to work we are put at risk of contracting coronavirus. As of now there is no end in sight of the pandemic. There have been confirmed cases at three of our stores, Orenco Station, Seven Corners and Williams. Workers are anxious that they could be the next to fall ill. Stores are busy adding to this anxiety, the produce departments for all stores were $270,000 over budget the sales week of July 8th to 14th. Stores are comping sales at a higher percentage over last year.

On June 10, President Zimmer announced austerity measures, including voluntary and mandatory furloughs and the suspension of University contributions to retirement plans. Union-represented staff have been asked to approve cuts to their retirement plans in order to avoid possible layoffs. This is on top of freezing all non-contractual raises across campus and cuts to our collections budget in the Library, which pays for resources like books and journals. The release of the budget is necessary to show how much has been spent, and is budgeted to be spent, on the UCPD. This information is needed to understand the fairness of the cuts to the Library and other units, and to understand the spending priorities of the University. Questions about police spending are more important than ever Much of the campus, city, and the nation understand this. We view the question of UCPD’s budget as directly relevant to the austerity measures that have been imposed upon us without our consent amidst calls from University administrators to embrace antiracism. If Provost Lee believes that “the Library reflects the University of Chicago’s aspiration to be the most dynamic research and learning environment in the world,” then we need a transparent budget to demonstrate that such professed priorities align with actual spending. If President Zimmer wants our community to do the work of “[a]ddressing racism and creating positive and sustainable change,” then we need immediate concrete steps to dismantle racist policies and policing on campus. We agree with #CareNotCops that UCPD has failed to create a safe environment on campus and the surrounding community. As library workers, we know firsthand the centrality of the library to research and education. We also know that many patrons consider the library a refuge from a toxic campus environment. But we acknowledge that the Library has failed to be a refuge for some. There must never again be a patron who is subjected to police brutality in the Library. Like #CareNotCops, we too want “the space to dream and build truly liberatory and collective safety for all.” As library workers, we are often placed in potentially dangerous situations. These situations are likely to be more common now that on site workers are responsible for enforcing social distancing regulations and patrons are more likely to be in heightened states of stress. We are not experts in de-escalation or mental health crises. Currently, if we are in immediate danger our choice is either to call armed law enforcement, who have a record of using violence and racial profiling, or to attempt to defuse the situation on our own, which could put ourselves or patrons in danger. We need a better option. We deserve a better option. For this reason, we also endorse the statement of the Maroon Editorial Board. The University must immediately transition to an unarmed, emergency management service that is aligned with anti-oppressive principles. If this University truly prioritizes research, education, and the safety and well-being of its community, then we demand that its leaders show this.

We as Baristas feel that no corporation may decide when a pandemic is over. Working every day is a high risk factor as many customers cannot be turned away when not wearing masks. The COVID-19 situation is still very real and partners should be paid accordingly if we are considered essential.