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

Health!

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

Do you agree that the workers that do your meals deserve the right to choose to form a union? Chartwells doesn’t want our food service and custodial workers to have a union. They are part of the UTA family and a union will help build a more equal workplace, better wages, and better benefits.

Over three thousand employees at Google recently wrote a letter to their CEO explaining their opposition to Project Maven [1], after learning that their work was part of a US Department of Defense contract being considered. We are employees of the tech industry who invite all supporters to join us in amplifying their demand to break these contracts across the industry. The DoD contracts under consideration by Google, and similar contracts at IBM, Microsoft [2] and Amazon [3] break user trust, and signal a dangerous alliance between the US military and the tech industry. Tech companies that have vast quantities of sensitive data from users across the globe shouldn’t build offensive technology for one country’s military. Google says its technology will only be used to “non-offensive” ends. Our last few years working in the tech industry has issued reminder after painful reminder of the unintended outcomes of even benignly-designed tech. We can no longer ignore our industry’s and our technologies’ harmful biases, large scale breaches of trust, and lack of ethical safeguards. These are life and death stakes. We risk potentially catastrophic outcomes if we continue to deploy global technical systems without care, deliberation, and a clear understanding of our significant responsibility. In signing this petition, we represent a growing network of tech workers who commit to never “just follow orders”, but to hold ourselves, each other, and the industry accountable. Sign on and join us as we demand that Google break its contract with the DoD, urge our employers at IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon to stay out of the business of war, and call upon our peers to adopt binding ethical standards for the use of AI. 1. "‘The Business of War’: Google Employees Protest Work for the Pentagon" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/google-letter-ceo-pentagon-project.html 2. "Ungrateful Google Plebes Somehow Not Excited to Work on Military Industrial Complex Death Machines" https://futurism.com/google-maven-drones-military-contract/ 3. "Google is Pursuing the Pentagon’s Giant Cloud Contract Quietly, Fearing An Employee Revolt" https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/04/google-pursuing-pentagons-giant-cloud-contract-quietly-fearing-employee-revolt/147407/ *No names will be visible on the petition until the petition reaches 100 signatures. At that point your first name and last initial only will appear, not your workplace. Tech Workers Coalition may reach out to you on the basis of your workplace.*

This promotes: 1. A sustainable wage for independent contractors working for ride-share companies. 2. Fewer C20 emissions in each city due to an extreme and unnecessary number of drivers in cities worldwide. 3. The integrity and respect of the drivers who do the majority of work for billion dollar companies. Overall, we all love our Rideshare companies. I, myself, have been both a driver and a passenger of Uber in particular. However, the work of these companies is not done, and this petition could help Rideshare companies prove that they not only care about their passengers well being, but the drivers well being as well, who help make their companies just what it is--awesome.