We need an income to support our family. Living off of what they pay isn't enough to pay all the bills, buy food and buy our kids their necessitys. I am the soul provider for a family of 5 and its very hard to have a decent living with what I get paid. I know many supervisors who feel the same way. We need to be valued and be showed appreciation for everything we do. Getting change as a raise is ridiculous when Starbucks is a multi million dollar company.

Up until a few months ago, I was employed at the Capalaba Sports Club. I received a call one day asking me to attend a meeting, where I was told workers at our site were being pushed onto a new agreement. By signing it, we were effectively giving them permission not to pay us penalty rates. If we didn't sign it, we were told we would no longer have a job. Losing my penalty rates would have cost me almost $5,000 a year and I couldn't afford to take that hit while working the same hours. I refused to sign the agreement. I lost my job. Many other workers at the Capalaba Sports Club relied on penalty rates to make ends meet and I know this has been a tough time for them financially. Capalaba Sports Club, by removing your workers' penalty rates, you've effectively slashed their take home pay and made it harder for them to put food on the table. For an organisation that's supposed to give back to the community, your actions are underhand and unfair.

As a huge fan of Netflix and a fairly new mom, I was so excited to hear Netflix announce a groundbreaking new parental leave policy for its employees: “an unlimited leave policy for new moms and dads that allows them to take off as much time as they want during the first year after a child’s birth or adoption.” But I’m disappointed to learn that not all Netflix employees will get this crucial benefit. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t mandate paid parental leave and the Department of Labor estimates that only 12% of U.S. private sector workers get paid family leave through their employer. That’s why it is such a big deal that companies like Netflix are taking the lead to ensure their employees have the time that is required to bond with their new children. But shortly after the fanfare about Netflix’s new policy, the company confirmed to The Huffington Post that hundreds of workers in the company’s DVD division aren’t eligible for the company’s new parental leave policy. Sure, the DVD service might be less popular these days, but it still brings in hundreds of millions of dollars for Netflix and is even MORE profitable than the company’s streaming services. More importantly, it’s wrong for Netflix to create two classes of employees. Already, there’s a divide between higher income earners (especially in the tech industry) and low wage workers in terms of access to important benefits like parental leave. Netflix shouldn’t be contributing to this inequality within its own company. The warehouse workers who handle the returning, sorting and shipping of DVDs deserve to benefit from the same “freedom and responsibility” culture Netflix says it works to create. Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/

My life is hectic but I manage to make it all work. I go to school at night and -- until July -- worked two part time jobs to make ends meet. One of my jobs was working as a barista for more than 2 years at a Starbucks in New Haven, CT. At Starbucks, I often worked back to back closing and then opening shifts - with 7 or 8 hours between shifts. Among Starbucks baristas this is known as a "clopening." Last year, my store didn’t have a manager so I was clopening more than 6 times a month! Lately, because of my second job, I clopened 1-2 times a month. And because of high turnover in the store, my boss started scheduling me wherever they needed me instead of taking into account my second job and school schedules. In July, I was called in to work at the last minute, even though I was needed at my other job. My manager wrote me up because I was unable to get a replacement for a time I wasn't even scheduled for. This isn’t right - my time counts. And when the store was understaffed on closing shifts, I was forced to stay even later than my scheduled shift in order to make sure the store was ready to open for the morning rush. Because I was frequently scheduled for clopening shifts, I got just 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night. I was doing all I could to get ahead, but Starbucks’ scheduling practices made me question whether that was possible and I parted ways with Starbucks. Even though I no longer work there, I know I am not the only partner struggling with these issues. I want to help all my former coworkers by asking the company to give workers 11 hours of rest between shifts in all U.S. stores, across the board so we aren’t at the mercy of individual managers Many of us have different experiences at Starbucks, depending on our manager. Please join me in asking Starbucks for consistent protections across the company, starting with healthy schedules across the board.

Bank workers, who have worked years in the same bank are finding themselves earning less than when they started. Employees experience constant changes to sales goals, bonus incentives, and benefits, resulting in job insecurity and a loss of wealth. Rather than rewarding employees for collecting money due to the bank, US Bank punishes them for not prolonging the debt payments. This incentive system is bad for workers, bad for customers and ultimately harmful to the company's future. Investing in US employees is not only good business but also huge cost savings technique over the long haul. Rather than feeling disposable and leaving the job, employees feel more ownership over the success of the bank leading to less turnover and subsequent costs associated with training an ever-changing workforce.

The SumTotal timekeeping system has created many problems for Local 1482 members working at Brooklyn Public Library. One of the biggest problems we experience is the requirement to clock out for meal breaks during daytime shifts. Most importantly, this policy interferes with our ability to provide quality customer service. We are routinely forced to choose between offering immediate assistance to a patron and finding a computer so that we can clock back in on time. For the same reason, we are often compelled to take less than the full 45 minutes of meal break time we are entitled to under the terms of our working conditions contract. Also, since members are not required to clock out for meal breaks during late night shifts we often forget to do so during daytime shifts. As a result, supervisors spend too much of their time in SumTotal fixing these honest mistakes as they occur. For all these reasons, we seek an end to a confusing, inconsistent, and burdensome policy that is not compatible with the nature of our work.

We thought that working for the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) meant that we would be free to question our employer. We were wrong. We, attorneys Richard Renner and Lindsey Williams, along with three of our co-workers, were fired after questioning our bosses about the NWC’s finances and trying to organize a union. It all started when the NWC announced the historic $104 million award granted to UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld. Shortly afterward, the NWC founders told us that despite our hard work and the influx of cash, they were unable to afford the raises they had repeatedly promised. This did not make any sense to us. After our questions were ignored, we attempted to organize a union as a way to force them to be more transparent with their finances. Retaliation was swift and harsh. We were all fired on November 5, 2012, one by voicemail. To add insult to injury, the severance agreements they offered included an appallingly broad gag clause. The proposed agreements said if we accepted the money we could “not, criticize, disparage, or say or do anything that casts [the employer] in a negative light” to “any other person.” There is huge financial pressure on employees to sign these types of gag clauses. In fact, The Whistleblower’s Handbook written by one of the NWC founders, Stephen M. Kohn, has an entire chapter encouraging employees not to sign gag clauses. Apparently, he did not mean that advice to apply to his own employees. Three of our co-workers signed the agreements. We refused because we believed that the gag clauses violated labor laws and NWC’s stated mission. We filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in January 2013. The NLRB investigated the charges and found enough evidence to proceed with prosecution against NWC for wrongful termination. We were finally able to reach a settlement shortly before the trial would have begun. As part of the settlement, the NWC agreed to remove all mention of our terminations from their records and post a notice to all employees that they would not be retaliated against for exercising their legal rights to work collectively to improve their wages and working conditions. We want the NWC Board of Directors to publicly state that gag clauses in severance agreements (or other employment agreements) are against the core mission of the organization, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, and, therefore, will not be used by the NWC in the future. We also want NWC to commit that existing gag clauses will not be enforced. We don’t want what happened to us to happen again. Our case serves as a reminder that any worker can have his or her legal rights violated – even lawyers. It also reminds us that every employer should be held accountable when they break the law – even the National Whistleblowers Center. For more information visit: www.fearinghonesty.org.

It's 2015, and having a beard will not obstruct the way customers will view a rental car company.

It's important because if you are struggling to earn a living, two or more jobs may be required. These call-in shifts require you to be available for their business needs, yet if they do not need you that day, you missed out on possibly having a guaranteed shift elsewhere. It makes it difficult for those who have school, need childcare, use public transportation, or just having a life outside of work in general. Please let's stop this unpredictable scheduling! It does not give us any value as employees as everything else solely revolves around business needs!

Working as a Postmate, you get more jobs the better your acceptance rate percentage is and if you have to constantly reject jobs because you want to be done for the day after the one you are currently on, then you will get less deliveries, and thus less money.

In the Vermont dairy industry, forty percent of dairy workers receive less than the VT minimum wage and twenty percent have their first wages withheld--this is wage theft. Thirty percent have to work seven or more hours without a break to eat, and the same number have had mostly preventable workplace injuries or illnesses. Many workers work 12-14 hour days without a day of rest, and significant numbers live in deplorable housing conditions. This is an unacceptable state of affairs for any supply chain, but it is particularly appalling to see this level of abuse in Ben and Jerry’s supply chain given the company's long standing commitment to social justice and corporate responsibility. The good news is we already know there is a solution that works and there are some farms that are demonstrating that dignified working conditions are possible. Migrant Justice is calling on Ben & Jerry's to create a worker-driven social responsibility program -- the Milk with Dignity Program -- fashioned after the globally acclaimed and highly effective Fair Food Program in Immokalee Florida. Many dairy farmers are also facing serious economic challenges and are in need of economic relief. The Milk with Dignity Program rewards those farms that have it right by having corporate participants pay more down the supply chain to both the farmer and the farmworker. We anticipate many farms to enthusiastically support this initiative. The Milk with Dignity program is in line with the mission of social responsibility on which Ben & Jerry’s has built its legacy, image, and financial success. Your customer base wants, and is already demanding, products that support dignified livelihoods for both farmworkers and farmers. The company has done this before for cows, consumers and the environment in its impressive work to eliminate RGBH from its supply chain. The company has done this for chickens with its commitment to cage-free eggs. Ben and Jerry's can do this for the workers facing inhumane workplace conditions while supplying the cream its company depends on. We urge Ben and Jerry's to sit at the table with VT dairy farmworkers to build a vibrant and much needed Milk with Dignity Program that respects workers leadership and ensures human rights in its dairy supply chain.

To keep Publix workers happy and to have the best customer service ever.