This is important because as retailers are rushing to open earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving day mostly to stay afloat in an evolved marketplace and stay competitive against the online retailers, they are losing their identities. Toys R Us was always a company that valued the family environment. It is a company that their whole livelihood is based on building a family and caring for it. If one would listen to those superficial statements and see the truth; they are just another company that values corporate greed at the expense of the very same people that build this company. We are not allowed to get any time off, and those that are in management positions within the stores are FORCED to work overtime and FORCED to have a 6 day work week. Is this the world we wanted for our families or the world that CEOs and corporate pigs want?

Thanksgiving is not Macys One Day sale its a day created to be thankful for your life, your family, your friends, and everything you should be thankful for. These CEO's are thankful that regular employees get to slave away on Thanksgiving while they're at home with their families. Why bother having Thanksgiving anymore if nobody gets to celebrate it anymore?

This is important because family is the basis of what made this country what it once was and should be again... A nation founded on belief in morality and the true values of what is important, other than the "Almighty dollar."

We understand that it is retail, and employees understand that they have to work hours on holidays. However, Kmart’s unnecessary hours are forcing its employees to miss out on important time with their families. With lives that are continuously busier and busier, it is more important now than ever to put an end to this before we no longer have holidays. There are other stores who have decided to close on Thanksgiving to give their employees time with their families. Why not be in the news in a positive light? The sales can wait a few more hours. Kmart covers its shameless act of greed by stating that it is giving its employees more time to make money. Kmart: have you even talked to your employees about your holiday hours and what they will be required to work? The answer is no. We are almost 2 weeks away from Kmart stores being open 42 hours straight, and employees - even after asking management about what hours they will be required to work - still have not received information about their schedules during this time. Kmart - You should not open your stores at 6am on Thanksgiving Day nor should your stores remain open for the subsequent 42 hours. Furthermore, you should be honest and advise your employees on their schedules so they can plan when to spend time with their families when you put this burden on them. Kmart has said that it will staff its stores using volunteers and seasonal employees. I’m calling on Kmart to commit to respecting the schedules of employees who request not to work on Thanksgiving Day. Kmart should close their stores early, or, at the very least, allow flexibility with scheduling to give their employees time to spend with their families.

We deserve to have holiday time with our families. It is very important to allow us to have Christmas and Thanksgiving off.

Many federal government employees dedicate their careers to advancing important social objectives such as protecting the environment, enforcing labor standards, encouraging responsible corporate behavior and advancing civil rights at home or human rights abroad. I have over 20 years with the federal government in various jobs and am now working at the Department of State. I would like to be sure that my retirement funds are invested in companies that reflect the values that are important to me. Nevertheless, unlike many state and local government workers, federal employees do not have the opportunity to invest their retirement monies in mutual funds that support these same objectives.   More than one out of every nine dollars in the United States– or $3.74 trillion - is invested according to sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) strategies. It's one of the fastest growing categories of investment. These mutual funds allow many employees across the country to ensure that their investments reflect their values on a broad range of issues from climate change and other environmental risks to human rights, decent workplaces, consumer protection, diversity and product safety.  While federal employees do not currently have the option to participate in this kind of investment for their retirement funds, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) has recently authorized the agency managing the Thrift Savings Plan to explore the creation of a "mutual fund window," which would allow TSP investors options to invest in mutual funds beyond those limited ones currently available through the TSP. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/11/18/tsp-moves-toward-opening-investment-window/. It is important to demonstrate to the TSP there there is substantial interest among TSP investors (both current and past federal employees) to provide socially responsible options if and when this window is created. Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/people/89228431@N06/

Having our members show their support for the employees of Capital Bikeshare is key; our main leverage is member relations - namely, you all. Having members sign the petition and show that they endorse the right of CaBi workers to unionize is huge. Please, tell Alta/REQX to voluntarily recognize the union we have formed with TWU Local 100 and to drop the motion to clarify, that is, allow everyone who wants to be in the Union a seat at the table. Thank you everyone to has signed the petition. However, it appears our work has just begun. At the NLRB hearing Jackson-Lewis successfully pushed our petition to unionize out. We are starting back from ground zero. We still need your support - letting them know that we, the public, those who use the bikes stand for workers rights will go a long way in our struggle. Thank You.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Woolworths warehouse workers are now officially working in Australia’s deadliest industry. We need real safety policies in Woolworths warehouses to ensure every worker goes home without injury. Workers are asking Woolworths, one of Australia’s best performing companies, to encourage a pro-active focus on safety, taking steps to implement industry-wide standards and best practices. Over the last few months, workers representatives at Woolworths from around Australia have been working together to discuss local and national health and safety issues. Unfortunately, workers in various facilities around the country have suffered back, shoulder and other injuries. Some workers will need to have ongoing treatment to live with these injuries. Woolworths health and safety standards can be insufficient, misunderstood or even simply ignored. They are often inadequate in protecting workers from harm. Woolworths warehouse workers do not yet have a national forum to adequately address health and safety matters in an effective and efficient manner. Now we want Woolworths senior management to meet with us to address and resolve our issues together. It's time for Woolworths to acknowledge this problem and support its employees in creating a national forum for safety on the job. Let's make all Woolworths warehouses safe places to work!

Whole Foods recently launched a campaign with the tagline "Values Matter". But when most of us need 2 or 3 jobs just to pay the rent and take care of our families, we are left wondering which values truly matter. We see the company opening up a new store almost every month, while we are told they can't afford to give us a full 40-hour week. Every year we are given the "opportunity" to vote on how to make deeper cuts to our health plan. We are at the point now where everyone knows getting sick means going into debt. We know it doesn’t have to be this way, that’s why we’ve come together to tell Whole Foods Market - We are Hungry for Better Lives!

Uber initially marketed its transportation service as a seamless and cashless experience where the tip was included in the fare calculation. In fact, the fare calculation was, and is simply based upon time, distance, tolls, and surge charge. Notably absent is a gratuity. Eventually, Uber moved away from saying that the “tip is included in the fare” to a more ambiguous “there is no need to tip.” Based upon Uber’s global marketing, many Uber customers falsely believe that the Uber fare includes an automatic tip. While UberTaxi does include an automatic tip, the UberX, UberXL, UberPlus, UberBlack, and UberSUV platforms do NOT include any gratuity at all. Uber is fully aware of the confusion that exists in the marketplace regarding the tips. In fact, Uber’s present independent contractor agreement advises drivers that there is “no tipping.” But then, in the same sentence, advises drivers that Uber may, through advertising and marketing, communicate to customers that “tipping” is “’included in the Service Fee paid by the User.” In a recent commutation to an Uber customer, however, the Company clarified the tip issue by saying: “There’s no function that will allow riders to tip their drivers for vehicle options other than UberTaxi. That means for uberX, uberBlack, and the rest of the Uber services, you can’t leave a tip. And yes, the fare is simply a calculation of the base fare, time, distance, tolls, and surge rate.” Uber passengers deserve to know the truth and to have the option to tip within the app if they choose. In the past year, Uber has drastically reduced its fares, while at the same time increasing the commission it takes from each trip. For example, in December 2013, in Los Angeles, the uberX fare was $2.40 per mile, $0.60 per minute, with a base fare of $4.00. Of that fare, Uber would take a 5% commission. Today, an uberX driver will make $1.10 per mile, $0.21 per minute, with a base fare of $0.80. Of that reduced fare, Uber now takes a 25% commission. This means many of Uber drivers are taking home a lot less for our work than we used to, and we have to increase our hours behind the wheel by up to 50% in order to make up for the reduction in fares, and Uber's increased commission. Allowing a way for users to provide tips to drivers would make a huge difference to drivers and the families for which many of them are providing. It would also be a boost for driver morale and another incentive to great service. It shouldn’t be hard for Uber -- a tech company -- to create options within the app to allow customers to automatically tip their drivers. In fact, they are already doing it -- for uberTaxi, one of Uber’s services, users can request a ride from a regular cab through the app, and a default 20% tip is included in the fare (and app users can adjust that percentage online). If it can be done for uberTaxi, surely an innovative tech company like Uber could develop a solution for users to provide tips for drivers across all of its different services -- just like its competitor Lyft offers. Placing an automatic tip within the Uber app would be a win for both customers and drivers alike. Please join CADA in asking Uber to update its technology by adding a 20% default tip to ALL Uber fares. Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/people/afagen/

As a young child I wanted to have pink hair and was never able to due to my parents disapproval of an unnatural hair color. Once I was on my own I thought I would finally be able to go through with it. I soon found out that finding a job in which I could actually have pink hair was almost impossible. I now have my pink hair and I love it. However I have to wear an itchy wig to cover it up. I love my job and I love my regulars. I come by on my days off and people always compliment my "cotton candy" hair; it's something that makes me who I am and think I should be allowed to be that person always.

With the increasing focus on income inequality in the United States, Wells Fargo has an opportunity to be at the forefront of helping to reduce this disparity by setting a higher bar. I believe Wells Fargo could demonstrate to other large corporations that it is very possible to maintain a profitable company that not only looks out for its consumers and shareholders, but its employees as well. This year, Wells Fargo in its second quarter alone had a net income of $5.7 billion, and total revenue of $21.1 billion. These are very impressive numbers and it’s obvious that Wells Fargo is one of the most profitable company in the nation right now. Last year, Wells Fargo’s CEO, John Stumpf, pulled in over $19 million, more than most of the employees will see in our lifetimes. Meanwhile, the vast majority of employees barely make enough to live comfortably on their own. So, why not take some of this and distribute it to the rest of the employees? Sure, the company provides (while not great), some pretty good benefits, as well as discretionary profit sharing for those who partake in our 401k program. While the benefits are nice, the profit sharing through the 401k only goes to make the company itself and its shareholders more profitable rather than boost the income of the thousands of us here every day making this company the prestigious powerhouse that it is. My estimate is that Wells Fargo has roughly around 300,000 employees. My proposal is take $3 billion dollars, just a small fraction of what Wells Fargo pulls in annually, and raise every employee’s annual salary by $10,000. This equates to an hourly raise of about $4.71 per hour. Think, as well, of the positive publicity in a time of extreme consumer skepticism towards banks. By doing this, Wells Fargo will not only help to make its people -- its family -- more happy, productive, and financially stable, it will also show the rest of the United States, if not the world that, that big corporations can have a heart other than philanthropic endeavors. Each and every one of us plays an integral part in the success of this company. It is time that we ask to be rightfully compensated for the hard work that we accomplish, and for the great part we all have played in the success of this company. There are many of us out there who come to work every day and give it our all, yet, we struggle to make ends meet while our peers in upper management and company executives reap the majority of the rewards. One of our lowest scored TMCS questions is that our opinions matter. Well they do! While the voice of one person in a world as large as ours may seem only like a whisper, the combined voices of each and all of us can move mountains! Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/people/andrewbain. The license to this image can be found here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/