Most stores have scan guns, even little gas stations do.It will save the customer's backs as well as the cashiers and baggers.A lot of the time, customers will hold up their item waiting for us to zap it.

As the cost of living continues to rise, one in four St. Paul workers currently makes less than $15/hr. The food-service industry is one of the top three employers of low wage workers in the metro area and many of them are tipped workers. We are the people that serve your food, mix your drinks, make your coffee, and clear your tables; we are the backbone of the restaurant industry and we deserve a living wage. Right now, the restaurant industry employs six out of ten of the lowest wage jobs in our state, meanwhile the restaurant and food-service industry continues to grow. We want to keep our industry strong and support the workers that make St. Paul a desirable place to work and dine. We deserve the full minimum wage and our tips! Fair wages not only prevent poverty and wage theft, they also help to protect workers from sexual harassment and discrimination: when workers are more dependent on tips, we're more vulnerable to the biases and, at times, predatory behaviors of customers. On a daily basis, workers in our industry are forced to weigh our dignity against our take-home pay as we face indecent behavior from customers and coworkers. A tip penalty makes this dynamic worse by forcing workers to depend more on tips and less on guaranteed wages for our income. The Minnesota Restaurant Association claims that raising the minimum wage would hurt our industry. That's not true! The restaurant industry is the fastest growing industry in the country and has grown amidst raises to the state-wide minimum wage. They say that workers would lose tips, but tipping is norm in the highest-wage food-service industries in the country. They want to take workers tips to subsidize the cost of running their businesses. We say no! We know that tipped workers, that ALL workers, need a $15 Minimum wage with #1FairWage. Tell the City Council: No carve-outs, No tip-penalty!

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.

I am a former employee of Papa John's Pizza. I was encouraged, then agreed to be promoted, as AGM last year. I realized through our personal payroll program that I was not getting paid my promised wage. This was brought to my manager’s attention, as well the Area Supervisor’s, eliciting the same response that they will “take care of it.” A few weeks of patiently waiting for a correction and following the chain of command, there was none and I eventually had to call the payroll department myself for retroactive pay. Earlier this year leading up to this from an extremely poor, hostile work environment not only from coworkers, but managers, I was sexually assaulted by my superior while working as an AGM. After being refused from my store manager to Human Resources, I was never offered any paperwork or advice to file my claim for this incident. Following the proper procedure(s) of bringing this to my superior's attention multiple times, I was fired in retaliation and informally transferred to another store location. As a young female, this is a completely different generation that we are bringing into the workforce, speaking up about these issues. For the millions too afraid to truly express themselves, I would like to bring awareness towards this issue to prevent this from becoming a precedent. This is about the laws that we can’t ignore and especially stay silent about. This is not just about me. This is other people. The Department of Human Resources needs to be called out. There are thousands of employees getting hurt from the blind eye of this department not doing anything about these types of claims. They don’t care. Something needs to be done. I am seeking stories from any current/former employees who have experienced discrimination, been fired for retaliation, or anything similar: please come forward, comment below sharing your story, help bring action and create awareness for better employee policy change(s) at Papa John’s Pizza.

One of the most important economic policymaking positions in the country, the president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, is vacant. 10 years after the financial crash, we can’t afford to make the same mistakes of the past. We need an independent San Francisco Fed president who will fight for working people of color. Instead of filling this position with another Fed insider, we need someone who actually understands and represents workers and people of color in the largest Fed bank region in the country.

*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.

Many employees do not like that fact that our travel system is based on FCFS vs. Seniority. In making the changes stated above it reduces the pool of people competing for a seat and also serves as somewhat of a compromise. As the system stands now it is a discouragement to those employees who are not married and have no dependants. This change will enable these employees a chance to travel with their pass user who may also be a underaged grandchild, for example. Employees work for the benefit and therefore should have preference over non employees to use said benefits.

Protections for graduate employees are vital to their success, as well as the success of the university. We know that students who do not feel safe or protected may not reach their full potential or may leave due to the fear of persecution. If the UIC administration cares about its graduate employees then they should have no issue agreeing to write these protections into our collective bargaining agreement (the contract) as this will give graduate employees the strongest protections and set them up to succeed academically, professionally, and personally.

Ending worker exploitation in America is the right thing to do. Join us on Twitter Rideshare America @ridesharepay

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Can't afford to keep driving full time. Gas prices are driving us out of the rideshare industry. We need a rate increase! Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/m-i-k-e/

Being competitive in keeping trained associates and rewarding dedication. Role model work and service needs to be fairly compensated. Photo by CafeCredit (https://www.cafecredit.com) under Creative Commons 2.0