NYCHA staff have worked diligently in the field and remotely since the outbreak of the pandemic to maintain NYCHA housing, and will continue to do so. Safety, however, is paramount for the sake of the workers, the residents, and the people of city. NYCHA developments have been hit hard by the coronavirus, which has had a disproportionate effect on working people and communities of color. The age and condition of residential buildings and offices have made social distancing difficult. Many staff and residents had health and safety issue with NYCHA even before the outbreak.  We need to know that NYCHA is following city-wide guidelines and all applicable safety standards are being met so staff can safely provide services and the employees, residents and neighborhoods are protected.

Bank employees continue to be at risk to exposure to COVID-19, especially since states have eased lockdown restrictions and now the virus is surging. If workers are expected to perform in these hazardous conditions they should be compensated with hazard pay. Furthermore, the hazard pay should not have a set timeline, it should be provided for the duration of this pandemic.

Team members at LeadVenture have noticed that we provide our website and digital marketing services to a predominantly white, male industry. The images and marketing material our OEMs provide us with strictly reflects this. We believe this spreads the message that the outdoors (in recreation and work) only holds space for white men. Since we provide our marketing services to companies that encourage people to get outside, we are at the forefront of being able to advocate for inclusion in the outdoors. To better serve our clients and their customers, we need to ensure that all feel welcome. We believe it is of the utmost importance for LeadVenture to publicly and actively support the Black Lives Matter movement. We would like to see more diversity among our coworkers to help provide new insight, fresh ideas, and to offer a better overall product for the customers. We would also like to coordinate with our OEMs to provide us with imagery and material that feature people who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, and marginalized genders and sexualities with their products. Manufacturers (whose products we market) like Harley-Davidson, Polaris, Honda, and John Deere have already pledged their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. There is nothing that should hold us back from encouraging them as well as other OEMs to help us reach and embolden a more diverse audience in the outdoor industry. We need your support to help fight racism and discrimination in the industries that we serve. We cannot allow an opportunity for betterment to pass us by. Join us and sign our petition to have LeadVenture take action towards making a more inclusive and diverse workplace and outdoor space for all. For a few actions we’d like to see in particular, please see below. We Ask That: - LeadVenture commit to making an active, ongoing effort to improve hiring practices to promote a diverse team. - LeadVenture and sub companies publicly announce their support of BLM on social media and internal emails - LeadVenture match employee donations to NAACP when feasible - LeadVenture use their already established connections to OEM’s to request more diverse stock images and marketing material - LeadVenture sponsor voting day off for employees to go vote, or a ballot drop box in vote-by-mail states Sources: Harley-Davidson: https://www.visordown.com/news/general/harley-davidson-stands-george-floyd Polaris: https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/polaris-dealer-losses-store-racist-black-lives-matter-posts-200623145146510.html Honda (and other automotive brands): https://thenewswheel.com/auto-industry-response-to-black-lives-matter-protests/ John Deere: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/john-deere_together-we-will-create-lasting-change-activity-6677215397114064897-eNPo

Amazon has made numerous statements in the recent pass saying that it supports Black lives - for instance in a twitter post it wrote: "The inequitable and brutal treatment of Black people in our country must stop. Together we stand in solidarity with the Black community — our employees, customers, and partners — in the fight against systemic racism and injustice." Black and Latinx people are significantly more likely to be impacted by coronavirus than people of other backgrounds. This is the result of the systemic racism and injustice Amazon claims to stand in solidarity with us against. If that's the case, they should be willing to forego the service of this facility long enough to ensure that workers are as safe as they possibly can be. 1 preventable death is unacceptable. Shut down this facility in defense of Black lives!

We are a group of Arlingtonians, tech industry employees, and allies who are demanding a permanent end to any partnership negotiations between the Arlington County Police Department (ACPD) and Amazon’s Ring. We demand that you reinvest the funds that would be used in this partnership into programs like affordable housing, education, and mental health support. This will allow our communities to thrive and move away from a world where the police are needed. In this moment of uprising and protest in response to the despicable, racist attacks against Black people and the police murders of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and countless other Black people, we need our local government to take bold action to protect Black lives. Who, exactly, does Ring and this culture of policing and surveillance protect? Because of HQ2, Amazon’s greed is already displacing our Black and Brown neighbors with rising housing costs, we don’t need Amazon’s Ring to profit off of mass surveillance, racial profiling, and incarceration of Black Arlingtonians. We know how to take care of ourselves and our communities. We don't need the police, nor their racist technology. Ring’s partnership with the police violates our privacy and criminalizes people. As we have seen with facial recognition software, technology is not neutral, and in this case it amplifies the racist, violent behavior of the police as they terrorize our communities and encourages civilians to do the same[1] [2]. Users of these apps use code words like “suspicious”, “strangers”, and “I saw someone who looks like they don’t belong here”. This creates an arbitrary environment of policing each other, giving rich white people the power to decide who belongs. Ring claims that police are required to follow a protocol to view footage captured by Ring home surveillance cameras. However, Amazon’s Ring/Neighbors applications are available to anyone regardless of whether they own a Ring home “security” system. This allows law enforcement to bypass any legal requirement and directly access video footage from homeowners' Ring cameras. Furthermore, Ring’s privacy notice states that Amazon may share Ring users' information with their affiliates, subsidiaries, service providers, and business partners [3]. Furthermore, law enforcement can request neighborhood footage using a subpoena, even if the resident refused to provide those recordings [4]. ACPD and Amazon work together—maintained by citizen policing and complicit silence—to constantly watch, and thus police and incarcerate Black people in Arlington for profit. You do not want to be on the wrong side of history in this vital moment. Other government officials are acting right now to stop surveillance and racist facial recognition technology [5]: Senators are introducing a bill [6], while the Boston city council successfully voted on a ban [7]. Our demand is clear: immediately and permanently cancel any data sharing partnership and/or negotiations between the ACPD and Ring/Neighbors App and invest those funds to support Arlingtonians in need of affordable housing, education, and mental health support. Follow our Instagram @RacistTechOutOfVA + Twitter @NoRacistTechVA If you live outside Arlington, you can still sign and support! Sources: [1] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43kga3/amazon-is-coaching-cops-on-how-to-obtain-surveillance-footage-without-a-warrant [2] https://www.mercurynews.com/2015/09/01/nextdoor-when-a-neighborhood-website-turns-unneighborly/ [3] https://shop.ring.com/pages/privacy-notice [4] https://www.govtech.com/security/Amazons-Ring-Video-Camera-Alarms-Privacy-Advocates.html [5] https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/how-is-face-recognition-surveillance-technology-racist [6] https://www.govtech.com/policy/US-Senator-Pushes-for-Government-Ban-on-Facial-Recognition.html [7] https://www.masslive.com/boston/2020/06/boston-city-council-votes-to-become-largest-city-on-east-coast-to-ban-facial-recognition-technology.html

We are outraged over LA’s BEST’s decision to embolden bigotry and terminate Edwin Medina’s employment after 16 years of dedicated service. LA’s BEST fired an exceptional leader because he dressed in drag to our end-of-year Zoom costume meeting on June 12. Edwin’s termination completely contradicts OUR organizations’ values of “sparking curiosity, expanding horizons, and strengthening relationships”. This is especially unacceptable and inexcusable given the context: It is Pride month, and we are in the middle of a new wave of the Civil Rights movement. We have suffered loss, financial stress, and social isolation due to COVID19. LA’s BEST is in the middle of a budget crisis and making cuts where you can to the detriment of our organization’s values and mission. Pride, Drag, & Bad Bunny It was a “meaningful choice” for Edwin to show his PRIDE, especially when LA’s BEST has been startingly quiet on the social issues of the moment. Edwin dressed up in drag as Bad Bunny in “Yo Perreo Sola”. This music video was released March 27, and featured Bad Bunny in drag. Billboard describes the music video, and Bad Bunny’s drag, as “visually eye-opening (and) conscientious, talking about respect for women and highlighting the LGBTQ+ community, a departure for Latin urban music”. By removing one word from LA’s BEST’s BLM statement, the hypocrisy becomes clear: “Through our afterschool enrichment program, we strive to combat the disparities created by oppressive and systemic … inequities and work to prepare our students and staff to become changemakers in our communities. We are all deeply connected to each other, and we remain committed to strengthening those connections through compassionate, positive youth development.” That starts with how you treat your employees. “Drag” is borderline synonymous with “queer”, and we regret that our unnamed colleague and LA’s BEST decided to punish Edwin’s personal expression with termination. During this historical moment, the Supreme Court has ruled that an employer cannot fire someone for being homosexual or transgender. Gender identity and expression should now be protected in the workplace. Edwin Medina should not have been terminated. Leadership Edwin was a stellar leader at LA’s BEST. He did much of the “dirty work” during the COVID19 crisis, discussing budget cuts with us, giving reassurance, and helping us navigate the shift to distance learning. Moreover, relationships were Edwin’s specialty - with his staff and with our kids. He offered us guidance, and as his staff, we always knew we could go to Edwin. He supported us through short staffed days, taking on groups of his own. He advocated for our professional and personal development. Edwin Medina was one of the BEST advocates and leaders among us. Edwin was comfortable being himself, and he empowered us - adults and youth - “to explore and discover the opportunities in (our) lives”. He “inspired and prepared (us) to create lives full of choices”, and you fired him for his choice to wear drag to a costume party. Unfortunately, many of us do not feel safe at LA’s BEST anymore. We believe the actions of our unnamed colleague and of LA’s BEST are rooted in ignorance and bigotry. We do not feel comfortable working in an organization that emboldens ignorance. We especially share concern for the youth we work with, many of whom are or will be members of the LGBTQ+ community. Hate and discrimination do not belong in this organization.

On or around Friday, June 19th, 2020, postings went up at Metro stating that masks with the words “I AM ESSENTIAL, NOT SACRIFICIAL” were political statements and not allowed to be worn while an employee was on paid time. Metro Management initially restricted drivers from wearing any masks at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in March; Deputy Manager Crystal Martin suggested that masks were ineffective and did not need to be worn at a meeting with employees. City services were shut down or went remote, but Transit Operators were required to continue working with the public without sufficient protections or hazard pay. When masks were finally allowed, Metro workers began circulating these masks with our Teamster union emblem and the phrase “I AM ESSENTIAL, NOT SACRIFICIAL” along with Teamsters at numerous other employers across the country, public and private. This is protected concerted activity under Wisconsin 111.70(2) RIGHTS OF MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES, “Municipal employees have the right of self-organization, and the right to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in lawful, concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” Teachers and other public servants have acted collectively, wearing buttons and other literature for their mutual aid and protection, upheld consistently by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission and the courts. Metro workers have had to push consistently for safe working conditions and respect, through lock down and now as the City reopens - WE ARE ESSENTIAL, NOT SACRIFICIAL.

Starbucks Happy Hours have become a well-known promotional event in the past few years for the company. Every few weeks from 2p-7p, customers can treat themselves with various offers that typically include getting a free drink or a drink at a discounted price. While these help boost store sales, they also put customers and Starbucks employees (partners) in danger during the COVID-19 pandemic. Starbucks relaunched Happy Hour on June 18th of this year when COVID-19 cases are beginning to increase again across the country. As a fellow barista who worked Happy Hour on June 18th, I encountered hundreds of customers in the Drive-Thru and inside of our cafe who were not wearing masks, not social distancing, and going in and out of our restrooms constantly. With recent labor cuts due to the COVID-19 crisis, we as baristas don’t have the opportunity to wash our hands frequently or sanitize the cafe during these few hours of extreme business influx. In many stores, cafe’s went hours without being sanitized due to the high volume of customers and low levels of staffing. Furthermore, Happy Hour is now being implemented again while hazard pay for all Starbucks partners has ended, even though the risk of contracting COVID-19 has not gone away and has even increased. We love our customers and communities but a global pandemic is not the time to be driving hundreds of extra customers to Starbucks stores to drive up profit and put your own customers and partners at risk. We as Starbucks partners insist that Happy Hour be cancelled for the remainder of 2020 across all US Starbucks locations and potentially delayed even longer into 2021 depending on the state of the pandemic within the U.S. Other promotional offers can be provided to Starbucks customers without the need to drive a huge amount of customers into stores at one specific time. Right now, partner and customer safety needs to be the top priority, not BOGO Frappuccino's and caramel macchiatos.

In addition to the pay increase period coming to an end, partner hours have recently been reduced. Many employees have had to resort to filing for partial unemployment to meet financial needs. Until conditions have returned to the pre-pandemic status that we were accustomed to, employees should be granted an hourly pay increase that would effectively provide financial stability.

Starbucks admits to being "committed to caring for the health and well-being of [their] partners," yet is failing to do so by removing the premium pay. This pandemic is not over.

As protests across the country call for elected officials to #DefundThePolice, Target uses its profits to do the opposite. As long as Target Corporation continues to invest in the very systems that perpetrate violence in Black communities, any statements it makes in solidarity with Black Lives Matter ring hollow. By providing funding and legitimacy to punitive policing strategies in Minneapolis and across the country, Target bears a unique responsibility for the circumstances that lead to the death of George Floyd and countless other victims of police brutality. According to Target’s own annual report, Target has awarded grants to more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. (1) Starting in 2003, Target Corporation launched its “SafeZone collaborative” program in Minneapolis. The origin of the program, according to Target, was, “a widespread feeling some years ago in the city of Minneapolis that the downtown business district was not a pleasant place to work or visit.” In order to make visiting its stores a more “pleasant experience,” Target provided $300,000 for a CCTV system across downtown Minneapolis, used by police to crack down on panhandlers and other “lifestyle offenders.” (2) By 2006, Target Corporation had expanded the program significantly and “SafeZone” became a registered 501(c)3 organization. Target even recruited one of its own executives to serve as the organization’s Executive Director and paid his salary as the organization got off the ground. The organization expanded to include more than 20 different safety programs including a text-based crime “tipping” system and a “Court Watch” program, “in which SafeZone partners attend court proceedings to ensure that judges are aware of how seriously the community considers the prob-lem of crime in the SafeZone.” Target eventually created its own forensic services lab, which provides forensic analysis and expert witnesses to local police departments free of charge. (3) Target’s “Safe Cities” program has expanded to more than 20 cities nationwide. While its operations and the flow of funds from Target Corporation to police departments remain somewhat opaque, it continues to provide direct funding to police departments across the country. Through its public safety grants program, Target donates to police foundations that acquire equipment for police departments through private funding channels, allowing them to bypass public oversight. A handful of Target’s executives sit on these foundation’s boards and facilitate the strategic funneling of resources to beef-up police responses to low-level offenses. In 2007, for example, the Los Angeles Police Foundation approached Target for a $200,000 donation to acquire state of the art surveillance software created by Palantir. (4) Target promptly provided the funds and advertised its new “unique public-private partnership” with the LAPD. In 2008, Target made a similar donation of $300,000 to the Baltimore Police Department to “portable command posts and enhance a cell-phone tracking system.” (5) In targeting “lifestyle offenders,” Target Corporation embraced the toxic “broken-windows” theory of policing that directly contributes to the criminalization of Black people specifically, and the working class, generally. Prioritizing these low level offenses leads to a massive increase in police confrontations (that can be deadly), arrests that funnel communities into the criminal justice system, and surveillance practices that undermine the privacy of the communities it claims to serve. (6) Sources: 1 - https://corporate.target.com/_media/TargetCorp/csr/pdf/2010_overview.pdf 2 - https://perf.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/Free_Online_Documents/Safe_Cities/targets%20safe%20city%20program%20-%20community%20leaders%20take%20the%20initiative%20in%20building%20partnerships%20with%20the%20police%202010.pdf 3 - https://perf.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/Free_Online_Documents/Safe_Cities/targets%20safe%20city%20program%20-%20community%20leaders%20take%20the%20initiative%20in%20building%20partnerships%20with%20the%20police%202010.pdf 4 - https://www.propublica.org/article/private-donors-supply-spy-gear-to-cops ; http://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/news_view/38662 5 -https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2008-09-17-0809160101-story.html 6 - https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1123&context=cl_pubs

On June 11, dozens of Trader Joe's Capitol Hill (Store #130 in Seattle) workers informed store management that they would be participating in the June 12 protest organized by the local chapter of Black Lives Matter. Store managers determined that broad participation in the protest would lead to staffing issues, and decided to close the store early on June 12. Store management assured workers participating in the protest that this would be considered an excused absence and would not result in any disciplinary measures. But on the morning of June 12, a representative from TJs corporate called the store to ask about the early closure. Unsatisfied with the rationale for the early closure, corporate informed store management that the store would be closed indefinitely, effective immediately. We, a group of Store #130 workers who wish to remain anonymous, believe it's no coincidence that the store was abruptly closed on the day that dozens of us took action in support of the movement for Black lives. We know that the company will try to avoid the appearance of being antagonistic to the movement. They will likely cite "personnel issues," “safety concerns,” or operating costs as rationale for the store closure. What they really mean when they cite "personnel issues" is that they saw our store as a hot spot for worker organizing. TJs corporate has aggressively squashed worker organizing for years and has a long record of retaliation. This is the most dramatic retaliation any TJs store has seen to date, but it is not an isolated incident. Prior to the abrupt store closure, we had been organizing to secure a living wage, health insurance for all workers, and basic protections against COVID-19. The large majority of us were already living paycheck to paycheck, and many of us were working without health insurance while risking steady exposure to the public in the midst of a pandemic. While Trader Joe’s has publicly voiced support for “Black crew members and customers,” the company has done nothing to tangibly support the movement for Black lives, and they have penalized employees for supporting the movement. While the company insists that they value crew member feedback and support crew-led solutions, they have consistently disregarded our insights and requests. We know what it would take for the store to run smoothly, and we want to be in conversation with store management about solutions. We are saddened by the store closure. For each of us, it means both a loss of community and a loss of financial security in the midst of an economic downturn. We recognize it's a loss for our neighborhood as well, and we hope you will join us in demanding that Trader Joe's reopen Store #130 and restore our jobs immediately. We've heard that TJs corporate will make a final decision about the closure this coming Monday. We'll be prepared with a response regardless of the decision.