• Demand the FMCSA take immediate action on Sexual Misconduct in Truck Driver Training Fleets
    On July 23, 2019 the FMCSA posted a request for comments to study what they called a “serious pattern of harassment and assault related crimes against female and minority male truckers.”. For over a decade, harassment and sexual assault in entry-level driver training programs has been well-documented and grossly overlooked by the trucking industry and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the regulatory agency that is tasked with overseeing safety in the trucking industry. We need a plan of action to address this pattern of abuse and bring about meaningful change NOW! The FMCSA has ignored widely available public information and extensive reporting on rampant sexual assault and rape long-endemic to the trucking industry. The FMCSA should immediately place carriers where sexual assault and rape continue to occur on probation—and disallow repeat offenders from recruitment to their driver training programs until they clean up their act. Without a meaningful and urgent implementation plan, the FMCSA’s request for comments is without teeth—a simple stalling technique and a free pass for the trucking industry. My name is Desiree Wood and I am the President and Founder of REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. (RWIT), a 501 (c) (6) organization. I am also a truck driver myself that experienced sexual misconduct and several potentially violent situations during my truck driver training from 2007-2008 at Covenant Transport, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a student truck driver, I was badgered to discuss sex with a co-driver and I also experienced intimidation, culminating in a violent altercation in which bleach was sprayed at my face. During this altercation, my wrist was badly injured while I tried to send an SOS message to the company over the Qualcomm, the only communication device available to me to seek assistance from my company. My co-driver forcefully yanked from my arms to prevent me from calling for help. I was left behind in New Mexico for several days, a place where I knew no one, while my violent co-driver that had sprayed me with bleach was permitted to continue driving the tractor-trailer. He was highly intoxicated after consuming five Long Island Ice teas and was permitted to operate the commercial motor vehicle on Interstate 40 while I was left behind. When I reported the incident to the Human Resources department at Covenant Transport, they told me they would investigate—but they never did. Even though the incident was likely captured by security cameras and I had filed a police report—the company instead turned their attention to me as a troublemaker. I formed REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. (RWIT) with other lady truck drivers as a protest movement and in a response to the ENABLERS IN THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY AND THE ABSENCE OF AUTHENTIC REPRESENTATION FOR WOMEN WHO WORK AS TRUCK DRIVERS. Our mission is to deliver highway safety through leadership, mentorship, education and advocacy. RWIT has formed into a growing community of women truck drivers that offers support to new truck drivers and we demand change in the trucking industry. RWIT is known as the “go to” organization when it comes to sexual assault and harassment in truck driver training; we offer support and resources to women entering the industry when they otherwise would have nowhere to turn, but it’s not enough. Over the past decade, I’ve personally received weekly distress calls and email from hundreds of women across the country who have had similar or worse experiences during their driver training. In just the past two years, distress calls to our organization have INCREASED at an alarming rate. SEPERATING GENDERS IS NOT THE ANSWER TO THIS PROBLEM SINCE WOMEN HAVE REPORTED BEING ASSAULTED BY WOMEN BOTH PHYSICALLY AND SEXUALLY! The solution to this issue begins with removing rapists and harassers from truck driver training fleets along with the enablers that allow them to thrive. The FMCSA is directly responsible for overseeing entry-level truck driver training programs and they have blatantly ignored this issue long enough. No more paper tiger advisory committees and comment collections that deliver nothing and end up appointing known industry enablers to oversee the issues in these training fleets. Please sign this petition from the REAL Women in Trucking to call on the FMCSA to take immediate action.
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    Created by Desiree Wood Picture
  • Walmart associates deserve to feel safe coming to work
    The mass shooting in El Paso, Texas was an act of white supremacy and domestic terrorism. Walmart associates returned to work afraid, angry, devastated, and confused. We don’t feel safe in our stores. We support gun control and universal background checks to get weapons of war out of the hands of white supremacists, but let’s be clear that mass shootings are the symptom of a society built on xenophobia, toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and white supremacy. We’re calling for: 1) Walmart to reject the racism & bigotry that’s the root cause of these hate crimes 2) Walmart to change their policy to disallow open carry in all stores and provide clear signs at all entryways of this change 3) Walmart to stop the sale of guns in all stores We can’t wait any longer. We deserve to feel safe and free of violence in our stores. If you are experiencing emotional distress related to incidents of mass violence, call 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746 to connect with a trained crisis counselor. By signing up, you are agreeing to receive updates from United for Respect. You can unsubscribe or update your preferences at any time. Message and data rates may apply. Text HELP for more information. Text STOP to stop receiving messages.
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  • Ventilated Hoods For EVERYONE
    Many of our coworkers are becoming ill, overheating, and spending their time off with headaches due to the non-ventilated hoods. I have seen my co-workers continuously feeling faint/dizzy, having panic attacks, sweating profusely, and even vomiting. I’ve seen people have to leave the clean room for air because the unvented hoods are completely unbearable for the overwhelming majority of us. People are quitting their jobs over this. Those of us that are pregnant, susceptible to migraines, susceptible to vertigo, currently battling illness, etc. are at even more risk due to the implementation of non-ventilated hoods. Those of us who have no pre-existing conditions are experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion as well. This is only day 3! What are the long term effects of working like this? What research has been done on the safety of working in these types of hoods? No one in our leadership has been able to answer these questions. It is up to us to tell them what is safe and healthy for us! We need ventilated hoods for ALL clean-room workers, starting right now! This issue is not just a matter of us being inconvenienced or slightly uncomfortable, we believe this is a human rights violation and a violation of our OSHA rights. Help me let our policy-writers know that we are NOT okay with this!
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  • Amazon Management: Meet with DCH1 Amazonians United now!
    We work hard every night and day to make sure Amazon packages get delivered, but our working-conditions issues are never resolved. The issues speak for themselves. Our pay is inadequate. We need access to healthcare. And an "Excessive Heat Watch" is in effect this week, and the only step Amazon management has taken to combat heat exhaustion is to give us popsicles. We need real solutions. We need Domonic to meet with us now.
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    Created by DCH1 Amazonians United
  • Plastic Bag Ban
    Because plastic bags and plastic, in general, are having a severely detrimental effect on the earth's ecosystems. We can all do our part of course in refusing plastic but our actions only go so far. We must demand businesses and corporations in leading the way to more clean energy and eco-friendly alternatives.
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    Created by Stefan Trimm
  • We Support a Just & Healthy Workplace at WE ACT for Environmental Justice
    Next to members and residents, staff are the organization's most important asset and the key way the organization fulfills its mission. Like non-profit workers everywhere, we are committed to serving this mission, whether on the streets of Harlem or the halls of government, with great pride. But our current working environment is needlessly unsustainable. It is leading to high turnover and poor staff health, and impacting our programs and partnerships. As a staff made up of predominantly women, people of color, low-income, and residents of Northern Manhattan, we draw inspiration from our co-founders bold action on the West Side Highway in 1988. Their courageous example demonstrates that taking a stand for justice can sometimes be uncomfortable, but it is always the right thing to do. Through a union, we are reaffirming our commitment to WE ACT's mission. Together with management, we will find solutions to common challenges and reinvest in the organization's long-term success. More and more non-profit organizations are recognizing the value that a unionized workforce offers -- and we are confident that WE ACT will join this growing list soon. After all, New York City is a "Union Town." In view of our present climate crisis and the continued exclusion of low-income people of color from important political and environmental decisions, our members, supporters, and communities everywhere deserve only the best and strongest WE ACT we can build. WE are WE ACT and THIS is environmental justice!
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  • All stores should close and pay employees impacted by extreme weather
    We need a fair workweek so that when shifts get cancelled last minute we still have hours we can count on. That’s why we’re calling on some of the wealthiest corporations in our country like Starbucks, Walmart, Amazon and Target to provide disaster relief pay for employees who have had to miss work this week due to the cold. Our bills don’t stop just because it gets cold!
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  • Modern Self Expression
    Times are changing and I believe Publix is far behind in certain terms. Revising the dresscode won't change the satisfaction of your customers, nor should it affect the quality of your business and products, with that in mind I think you should be taking another look at your dress code. Like I said before, in these modern times this type of self expression is VERY important to some people. There's no point anymore in drawing out the past, and conforming people to this poorly out-dated dress code. When someone refuses to change their hair/etc. for Publix you're thinking they must not want to work there badly, but the message you're truly sending is that unless you give up your individuality you cannot work for our company. If someone decides they want to do something different for themselves they should be able to with out fear of losing their jobs.
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    Created by Hannah K
  • #ThePriceOfRetail for workers during the holidays
    For an industry that brings in $250 billion dollars in profits in NYS/NYC each year, there is plenty to go around and the successes of the industry should translate to greater flexibility and share of the profits by the workers. With your support, we can bring these issues to our city and state lawmakers and show employers that their consumer base wants them to do the right thing by their workers.
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  • Protect Employees And Customers By Placing Needle Disposal Boxes In High-Risk Bathrooms
    *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.
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    Created by Citizen Z
  • Protect Graduate Employees at UIC
    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.
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    Created by Veronica Shepp
  • We need Scan guns at Publix
    It would make our jobs a lot easier.There are a lot of heavy items such as 60 lb bag of peanuts, dog food, cases of water, kitty litter.That is very heavy to lift over the registers.Not only that, our customers would benefit as well, because they wouldn't have to lift the items.I mean come on even small gas stations have them.
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    Created by Autumn Peirson