Why is it important? Sleeves get in the way of everything, doesn't matter if we are stocking or helping a customer get their perfect fit. We are your shoe experts and I don't see any other shoe company that I have been into other than Skechers that makes their employees cover up their tattoos. So why treats us differently when we are your experts when we chose your store, your company to work at. One thing I learned from when I worked at Gamestop is that the company is a family. I have that same feeling with Skechers, but why would you force family to cover up something that is who they are when it's not offensive that makes kids smile and that helps connect with the customers so much more? I know with the tattoo policy being looked at and done away with, as long as the tattoos aren't offensive, will being more customers in, will help employee moral, and will help us be over all better. Let us Show our Tattoos

The Bethel, Stockbridge and Rochester School Boards collected bids earlier this school year to hire private companies to run the food service programs and buses next year. In part citing state law (Act 153) and a need to cut costs, the school boards appear they may follow through and hire private companies next year instead of keeping the jobs employed by the school. Eliminating school-run programs to save a few dollars and in the process cutting the jobs of loyal food service and transportation employees is not fair. Act 153 does require individual school districts to move all transportation decisions for students from the districts to the Supervisory Union, but it does not require the hiring of a private company. Act 153 encourages Supervisory Unions to find ways to be as cost effective and efficient as possible with transportation expenses. Private companies cannot guarantee to offer to do the work for less than what the Supervisory Union pays as a direct employer without cutting corners, wages and benefits. Most of our school food service and transportation employees are long-term, loyal and committed employees. These staff members have played by the rules and worked hard for the districts. These employees often go above and beyond what they’re expected to do, especially for students in need. As members of the East Branch Education Association and Upper Valley Education Association, they’ve negotiated fairly with the school boards since a union formed over 15 years ago (Stockbridge 8 years ago). These employees are hourly workers. No one in these positions gets paid days they do not work during school year or receives unemployment over the summer. These people are our hard working neighbors with many not even making a livable wage. Farming out the work to a private company removes local control and authority over the hiring/supervision of employees who will be in our schools and driving our buses. Plus, using private companies to do the work currently done by the school districts does not guarantee that the work will be cheaper for the Supervisory Union. In fact, companies such as Butler Transportation, are in business to make money/profit. While a bid may come in lower to do the work, it usually means a cut in services or benefits/wages to the workers or both. Any short-term “deal” made with Butler or another company to hire current school-employed bus drivers (or food service workers) does not bind that employer long-term to keep the same wages/benefits for that individual. Again, these are businesses looking to make a profit, unlike our schools. If companies cut services or reduce the quality of school food program or transportation services, our students feel the impact. Private companies running food or transportation services in Vermont often offer no paid sick days or offer health insurance, making the jobs even less livable for working people, causing turn over in staff. High turnover in our kitchens and with our bus drivers hurts the relationships staff have with students. Ask the employees and/or parents of students in communities who use private companies like the Abbey Group or Butler Transportation. Low standards for the food program and transportation department and its employees are not consistent with our community’s values.

MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world. Mixed Martial Artists should be treated like professional athletes. Fighters should have the right to know how much money a promotion is making from an event. Fans should have the right to see the best possible fights through independent rankings. Extending the Ali Act to MMA would help professionalize the sport & stop the conflicts of interests that currently exist in the sport.

My name is Susan* and I work as a cleaner at a Myer store in Melbourne. Cleaners like me work around the clock keeping Myer stores clean and hygienic. But dodgy subcontractors are underpaying us by up to $20 an hour. We are denied basic rights like sick pay, weekend rates and superannuation. If we complain we can be sacked at any time – many of us are too frightened to join our union and speak out. A few weeks ago a Myer cleaner was sacked when he asked about his rights. So was his sister – and his partner. And they weren’t even there! Myer threw out its last contractor earlier this year because cleaners were being exploited. Now it’s happening again. We should be paid properly, and be able to work without fear or intimidation. The system is unjust and is failing us. Please stand with me and my fellow cleaners and tell Myer it needs to clean up its act and demand we are directly employed and receive our full legal pay. *Not my real name.

My name is Blanca de Leon. I started working at the Bubbles Salon located at 205 Pennsylvania Ave NW on March 9th, 2009 and worked there for 6 and a half years. I’m a stylist specializing in cuts and colors, as well as all areas relating to beauty. When I first started working at Bubbles, there were things about the company that I didn’t agree with but I stayed when I started to get to know the clients who are the best clients I’ve had in my whole career. One of the main issues was the way the management at Bubbles treated the staff, some better than others. Every time the Latino workers asked for something, they wouldn't listen to us. They even told us that we weren’t allowed to speak Spanish. There was also discrimination in who got the best appointments. Everyone except for the Latinos were given new clients, but they only gave us new clients when there were extra. But the hardest thing for me was that even though another non-Latino employee was allowed to use a mat under her styling chair, I was told that I wasn’t allowed to have one. I need the mat to help alleviate my back pain because I am on my feet all day. I told my managers about my back condition and the medication that I take to help it. I also asked them for something in writing about why I wasn’t allowed to have the mat even though another employee was, but they never gave me anything. On August 26th, I went to work and my managers called me in for a meeting. When I got there they said “We have bad news for you.” They told me that I hadn’t listened to my manager when I was told to remove the mat I used for back pain. Then they told me that I was fired. I asked if I could have 30 days so that I could look for a new job, but they refused. I wasn’t even allowed to finish the day with the rest of the clients I had scheduled. They only gave me half an hour to pick up my things and go. I filed a claim at the DC Office of Human Rights because I believe my employer discriminated against me. In six and a half years, I never had a single client complaint against me. I was a good coworker to everyone and I believe my termination was unjust. Being fired affected my life a lot. I am a single mother and I need to work to support my family. I suffered significant emotional distress after being so suddenly and unjustly fired. They must think that you don’t eat, that you don’t pay rent. Ratner Companies, which owns Bubbles Salons, owns over 1,000 salons in 16 states. I’m speaking out so that others won't have to go through what I did. Please demand that Bubbles establish a policy that requires that employees be given 30 days notice before being fired so that they can look for another job.

All workers deserve to be treated fairly. That's what we're asking for here.

We strongly request that Allysha Almada, RN and Vicki Lin, RN be reinstated to their positions immediately and that the rights of the nurses of Huntington Memorial Hospital to free speech be fully respected. We ask that Huntington administration immediately stop the culture of retaliation toward those RNs who collectively voice concerns about patient care and speak out about the Hospital’s treatment of Registered Nurses who seek Union representation.

My name is Diana Beaumont and I am a teacher at a public High School in Broadmeadows. The recent announcement by Woolworths to close the Hume Distribution Centre and lay off 680 of their staff by 2018 has angered many teachers and parents in the area. Current and former students at our school have parents that work at the Hume Woolworths shed, and I hate to think about the strain this will place on their families. The outer Northern metropolitan suburbs of Melbourne are renowned for insecure jobs. Some families have to move suburbs to find stable work, and this has a massive impact on students both socially and academically. But parents don't have a choice as they must go where the work is. Broadmeadows is one of the most disadvantaged suburbs in Melbourne with 26.4% unemployment. But people want to work! At a recent public meeting at the Broadmeadows Town Hall, the local community pledged to support workers to keep the Hume Woolworths shed open. The Hume Woolworths shed is full of active, proud union members -- people Woolworths is no doubt hoping to silence.

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.

By Darletta Scruggs I worked as a route coordinator at Brinks on the West side of Chicago since August 2014. Despite being the single mother of a three year old child, I was required to work a minimum of 50 hours a week. I was often told not to leave the building for my lunch break. Brinks pays most of its workers way under $15/hour, and taken away our annual raises, even though the company made $3.5 billion last year. Brinks cut workers' overtime pay last year, even though most workers work up to 16 hour days, often with no breaks. Then earlier this year, they took away workers' earned vacation time, implementing an accrue-as-you-go policy with no compensation for time that workers had saved under the old system. So when I told my co-workers about the April 15th national strike for $15 and a union, they were ready for action. Things got organized in just three days, and a big majority of the drivers and messengers walked out on April 15th! I was targeted and fired just one week after our a successful strike. Management gave no official communication as to why I was fired, but repeatedly intimidated and threatened me for supporting the drive for union recognition. Because I was a dispatcher and paid a salary instead of hourly pay, Brinks labels me as “management” and says I don’t have legal protection to fight for my rights or be represented by a union. But we’ve filed a legal challenge with the NLRB challenging their definition of management and their unjust decision to fire me. Since the strike, a majority of Brinks drivers and messengers have signed union cards, but management refuses to recognize the union or negotiate. Instead they are using the leverage of the economic hardship they can inflict on employees through reduced hours or termination. We must not allow companies like Brinks to just fire someone for speaking up against unfair working conditions or intimidate workers into submission while they pocket millions. We must fight back! Brinks provides service for many banks like Chase and Bank Of America, and large corporations like Walmart and McDonalds, companies known for opposing workers rights. It is time that workers are paid adequately and big businesses are held accountable for worker exploitation and intimidation tactics. That’s why I got active with 15 Now. We need to fight, because MONEY IS NOT MORE VALUABLE THAN HUMAN LIVES!!!

John has worked for Linfox/Coles for 37 years as a forklift driver. He has been a loyal employee with a great work record. John is now 65 years old and has been stood down without pay after a company doctor said that John cannot perform every job at the warehouse. John's personal doctor has said he is fit to return to the work. However, after so many year's of strenuous work, it would be crazy to expect John to lift heavy boxes at high speeds. John just wants a little bit of loyalty back after almost four decades of service. Finding a job that meets both the company's needs and John's would be an easy resolution, which Linfox Management should be making a priority. Linfox Management have left John in limbo, with no termination certificate he is unable to claim the pension. Workers at Linfox in Truganina make sure Victorians can access food on the shelves at Coles. It's time they were treated with some respect, not thrown on the scrap heap without concern.

On January 27, 2015, Australian employees of International Flavours & Fragrances (IFF) began occupying our factory in Dandenong. We were forced to take this action because local Australian management has pushed us to the brink. We believe matters cannot be resolved with local Australian management and we ask that IFF's leadership listen to us, the IFF workforce in Dandenong, because our voices are not being heard in Australia. All we want is to be heard and genuinely negotiate a workplace agreement, which benefits the interests of both the workers and the interests of the company. We, the workers, have a clear interest in IFF . In the past, and specifically during the negotiations of our last agreement, we were promised there would be a cultural change from management. But things have only gotten worse. Local management couldn't care less about us. There is no acknowledgement of the humanity involved in the process of running a business. We were also promised that, due to a break down with local management, we would have quarterly meetings with the Asia Pacific management team. However, we have had only one of these meetings over the last three years. We believe it is not difficult to treat people with respect. Unfortunately a culture of respect is not encouraged or practiced by management in Australia. Mr Koudijs, we call on you to intervene because we believe Australian management cannot or will not negotiate fairly or respectfully. So far, local management have continued to be provocative and combative, which is not conducive to an agreement being reached. There has been much talk of productivity from local management, and workers have gone to great lengths already, including moving to 24-hour production. Now it is also time to recognise that workers want security, not uncertainty and anxiety. This, not stealing workers' 10 minute breaks, will see an increase in productivity and the health and well being of the workforce. Mr Koudijs, to end this lockout and help deliver a swift and fair agreement, will you meet with workers?