Yesterday, April 13, 2020, I came in on my first day as a new hire in MARTA's Customer Care Center. Before my first day, I asked the Senior Recruiting Officer in human resources what practices MARTA had in place for COVID-19. She told me that I could wear a mask, but she wasn't sure what the Customer Care Center's practices were. However, that is not what I saw when I showed up for duty. I got mean and nasty stares from several MARTA employees - even the front desk security guard. Worst, the Customer Care Center management - on top of stating they were not ready on how to go about training me during COVID-19, I had to endure rude and snide remarks where I was told I need to speak up and that this is a call center and I need to speak up. Mind you, I had to endure such insults and snide remarks despite the fact that I bring over seven years of experience in call center and customer service. Therefore, no frank and practical discussion was made to me about how my training would be conducted and whether or not I could wear the mask. The day culminated with the Customer Care Center director, Ms. De Jesus, accusing me of being "insubordinate" after I tried to speak louder to her and the other managers - because they repeatedly told me they could not hear me. I saw at the Customer Care Center that no one was wearing masks - including management. Their solution to comply with CDC guidelines was to rotate sending home some employees to work, and bringing them back into the office. However, my previous employer did not take such risks with our call center - they sent all employees to work virtually and did not place a requirement on us to return to the office. In sum, MARTA's management shamelessly had no issue with making false allegations of me being "insubordinate", so that they could wipe their hands free of being inconvenienced in having to allow me to wear a mask to work and/or make reasonable accommodations to protect its employees. Unfortunately, this is becoming a trend in many workplaces - where employers are not protecting their employees, and resorting to manufacturing incidents where they can remove someone under a subjective allegation of being "insubordinate"; and, with this pandemic - such illegal and immoral practices should be condemned.

Us drivers have been left alone, sitting for weeks in quarantine to save our lives with no pay and unable to work. We get cussed, hit, called names, guns in our faces and treated badly for you, so why arent you now there for us? We are losing homes, cars, all we worked for. Many dont have food, a safe place to stay. We for sure cant get the tests you require, many states there are none! As for a doctors note....we are quarantined and doctors are overwhelmed, and we shouldn't have to! We've toiled to make you billions! Please check out this amazing article to hear about other drivers in this difficult time: https://thehustle.co/coronavirus-uber-lyft-drivers/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Target-owned Shipt, a delivery service, is currently hiring thousands of new shoppers in cities across the United States to meet the rising demand for home delivery of essential goods during this crisis. Shipt workers shop for and deliver groceries, medications and household supplies from local retailers. During this global crisis, we shoppers are working on the frontlines and risking our safety. The current policy--providing 14 days of financial assistance to those who test positive for COVID-19--isn't enough. In many cases, access to tests is limited or unavailable. Shoppers may need to be--and some already are--under self-quarantine due to exposure to COVID-19 or due to a sick or at-risk family member. Shoppers need expanded paid leave to provide us with the crucial support needed to make the safest decisions for ourselves, for Shipt customers, and for the community at large. Many Shipt customers are high risk populations--elderly, immunocompromised, and those with underlying medical conditions. It is imperative that Shipt shoppers have the support that they need to make safe, informed decisions that keep everyone as safe as possible. Grocery store retailers--including Trader Joe's and H-E-B--have begun making movements in this direction, implementing hourly pay raises, expanding paid leave, and introducing new safety protocols. On March 20th, Target, Shipt's parent company, increased wages, provided bonuses to team leads, and extended paid leave for higher-risk Target employees. With more and more shelter-in-place orders being enacted around the country, our work is vital. Shipt workers must not be left behind. **To any Shipt shopper who wants to join in this effort, you're invited to The Shipt List, a facebook community for Shipt shoppers.

In August 2019, H&M management terminated sales associate Nick Gallant after he began exposing safety violations in the workplace and started educating his co-workers on their rights under the new fair work week laws in San Francisco and Emeryville, California. That’s why we need you to sign this petition and call on H&M to Bring Nick Back, to stop retaliating against workers, and to give all California H&M associates a Fair Workweek. **United for Respect (UFR) is a national non-profit organization. UFR is a multiracial movement of working people throughout the U.S. advancing a vision of an economy where our work is respected and our humanity recognized. UFR is not a labor union and does not intend or seek to represent retail employees over terms and conditions of employment, or to bargain with retail employers.

As Game Workers Unite co-founder and tech industry labor organizer Emma Kinema said in her recent XOXO speech, Kickstarter's mission to democratize the way in which people create art, music, games, tech, and writing is a noble and important pursuit, and it is only natural that it is at Kickstarter where we are seeing one of the first tangible signs of democratizing a tech industry workplace through unionization. Workers throughout tech, games, and many traditionally unorganized industries are watching, cheering on, and standing with the workers of Kickstarter in solidarity. Kickstarter United has sparked all of our imaginations and have our fullest support. Stand with them today!

On July 23, 2019 the FMCSA posted a request for comments to study what they called a “serious pattern of harassment and assault related crimes against female and minority male truckers.”. For over a decade, harassment and sexual assault in entry-level driver training programs has been well-documented and grossly overlooked by the trucking industry and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the regulatory agency that is tasked with overseeing safety in the trucking industry. We need a plan of action to address this pattern of abuse and bring about meaningful change NOW! The FMCSA has ignored widely available public information and extensive reporting on rampant sexual assault and rape long-endemic to the trucking industry. The FMCSA should immediately place carriers where sexual assault and rape continue to occur on probation—and disallow repeat offenders from recruitment to their driver training programs until they clean up their act. Without a meaningful and urgent implementation plan, the FMCSA’s request for comments is without teeth—a simple stalling technique and a free pass for the trucking industry. My name is Desiree Wood and I am the President and Founder of REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. (RWIT), a 501 (c) (6) organization. I am also a truck driver myself that experienced sexual misconduct and several potentially violent situations during my truck driver training from 2007-2008 at Covenant Transport, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a student truck driver, I was badgered to discuss sex with a co-driver and I also experienced intimidation, culminating in a violent altercation in which bleach was sprayed at my face. During this altercation, my wrist was badly injured while I tried to send an SOS message to the company over the Qualcomm, the only communication device available to me to seek assistance from my company. My co-driver forcefully yanked from my arms to prevent me from calling for help. I was left behind in New Mexico for several days, a place where I knew no one, while my violent co-driver that had sprayed me with bleach was permitted to continue driving the tractor-trailer. He was highly intoxicated after consuming five Long Island Ice teas and was permitted to operate the commercial motor vehicle on Interstate 40 while I was left behind. When I reported the incident to the Human Resources department at Covenant Transport, they told me they would investigate—but they never did. Even though the incident was likely captured by security cameras and I had filed a police report—the company instead turned their attention to me as a troublemaker. I formed REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. (RWIT) with other lady truck drivers as a protest movement and in a response to the ENABLERS IN THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY AND THE ABSENCE OF AUTHENTIC REPRESENTATION FOR WOMEN WHO WORK AS TRUCK DRIVERS. Our mission is to deliver highway safety through leadership, mentorship, education and advocacy. RWIT has formed into a growing community of women truck drivers that offers support to new truck drivers and we demand change in the trucking industry. RWIT is known as the “go to” organization when it comes to sexual assault and harassment in truck driver training; we offer support and resources to women entering the industry when they otherwise would have nowhere to turn, but it’s not enough. Over the past decade, I’ve personally received weekly distress calls and email from hundreds of women across the country who have had similar or worse experiences during their driver training. In just the past two years, distress calls to our organization have INCREASED at an alarming rate. SEPERATING GENDERS IS NOT THE ANSWER TO THIS PROBLEM SINCE WOMEN HAVE REPORTED BEING ASSAULTED BY WOMEN BOTH PHYSICALLY AND SEXUALLY! The solution to this issue begins with removing rapists and harassers from truck driver training fleets along with the enablers that allow them to thrive. The FMCSA is directly responsible for overseeing entry-level truck driver training programs and they have blatantly ignored this issue long enough. No more paper tiger advisory committees and comment collections that deliver nothing and end up appointing known industry enablers to oversee the issues in these training fleets. Please sign this petition from the REAL Women in Trucking to call on the FMCSA to take immediate action.

Because plastic bags and plastic, in general, are having a severely detrimental effect on the earth's ecosystems. We can all do our part of course in refusing plastic but our actions only go so far. We must demand businesses and corporations in leading the way to more clean energy and eco-friendly alternatives.

Next to members and residents, staff are the organization's most important asset and the key way the organization fulfills its mission. Like non-profit workers everywhere, we are committed to serving this mission, whether on the streets of Harlem or the halls of government, with great pride. But our current working environment is needlessly unsustainable. It is leading to high turnover and poor staff health, and impacting our programs and partnerships. As a staff made up of predominantly women, people of color, low-income, and residents of Northern Manhattan, we draw inspiration from our co-founders bold action on the West Side Highway in 1988. Their courageous example demonstrates that taking a stand for justice can sometimes be uncomfortable, but it is always the right thing to do. Through a union, we are reaffirming our commitment to WE ACT's mission. Together with management, we will find solutions to common challenges and reinvest in the organization's long-term success. More and more non-profit organizations are recognizing the value that a unionized workforce offers -- and we are confident that WE ACT will join this growing list soon. After all, New York City is a "Union Town." In view of our present climate crisis and the continued exclusion of low-income people of color from important political and environmental decisions, our members, supporters, and communities everywhere deserve only the best and strongest WE ACT we can build. WE are WE ACT and THIS is environmental justice!

For an industry that brings in $250 billion dollars in profits in NYS/NYC each year, there is plenty to go around and the successes of the industry should translate to greater flexibility and share of the profits by the workers. With your support, we can bring these issues to our city and state lawmakers and show employers that their consumer base wants them to do the right thing by their workers.

During my time at Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) the culture was extremely tolerant of a sexual environment and acceptable harassment. Many employees across the company in all different departments have expressed similar situations and environments. Several employees including supervisors attempted to report incidents to the Station Manager and human resource department. After reporting incidents, employees were fired, harassed and/or retaliated against. When this action by Delta was acceptable, other employees have felt powerless to speak up for themselves and address the situation. HR does not do enough to protect employees from workplace harm. One employee cannot fight against these big bullies alone. Employees cannot be afraid to speak up. I personally have lost my career and my life stopped once I was subjected to sexual assault at work. This should not have to happen to one more person! Delta must be held accountable for its harassment problem and create a safe, respectful work environment. (these are views and opinions of the author based on personal experience)

This is important because employees are not clear on what they're signing and are also not expecting to be harassed or discriminated against. Employees are completely unaware that they are signing away their rights to justice if ever they have negative experiences. Companies aren't creating an environment that will hold perpetrators for sexual harassment accountable for their actions, which makes them bold and fearless in their pursuits. I was an employee for 5 months at Longhorn Steakhouse. There were multiple of my coworkers that touched me inappropriately and spoke to me inappropriately. I was disgusted. But I was also not in a position to lose my job. There were times that I would be really aggravated with their continuous actions and speak up and I would be sent home early. Eventually my hours became shorter and shorter, to the point that I would be scheduled for only one or two days a week. If I would've known that when I signed those papers during orientation that I would not be able to get an attorney to represent me in court, and it exempts them from all legal responsibilities in such a case, I would have never signed. And I think anyone applying for a position at this company needs to know what they're signing.

*Added 1/21/19 The author of this petition ended up getting poked by a dirty needle themselves, after two other coworkers were poked in the same cafe, not long after starting this petition. Since then, the author went to local Seattle news crews, and only after their story aired did Starbucks put safe sharps disposals in six cafes in Seattle, but they were only the cafes that already had an L&I complaint and fine about this issue before. The author still has yet to hear directly from anyone at Starbucks Corporate. The author still fully intends on hand-delivering this petition to Starbucks HQ. The author is obnoxiously tenacious like that. Exposure to HIV/AIDS, Hep C, Hep B, etc. is a risk in Seattle where there is a heroin/hep c crisis--and an HIV outbreak in at the same time and in the same area that baristas were getting poked by used drug needles while at work. There is no vaccine for Hep C, the available treatment is not a 100% assured cure, and Starbucks refuses to comment to employees when employees mention this risk. Employees risk getting poked, and DO get poked, even when following "protocol" of using gloves and tongs to dispose of used needles left in bathrooms, tampon disposal boxes, and diaper changing stations. It costs almost two thousand dollars just for one round of after-exposure shots, not including other tests, shots, medications, etc. Employees have to pay out-of-pocket for this before being reimbursed until Starbucks's company insurance kicks in. Many baristas cannot afford that, instead resorting to loans and credit cards. Employees who are pregnant or already immuno-compromised have an added risk if poked by a used needle. Employees also have to then use added protection with their sexual partners/spouses for six months minimum/risk exposing them, too. Starbucks makes various excuses from "it looks bad" to "drug users will just take the boxes off the walls and steal the needles." Employees cannot legally be forced to remove needles, but when they ask to call hazmat, they're told "hazmat cost comes from the individual store budget" (a veiled threat of even less staff coverage on an already short-staffed floor because no money to pay them if it is used for hazmat). Making coffee should not come with this kind of easily detoured risk.