For the safety of all Taco Bell employees, customers and their families. We the undersigned workers of Taco Bell are concerned about the Covid 19 Health Crisis, and we are worried about how our current work situation is putting us and others directly in harm’s way. Taco Bell hasn’t even considered any sort of bonus or hazard pay raise during this COVID-19 outbreak. McDonald’s, Subway, Arby’s, and most other fast food restaurants that have now been deemed “essential” are getting $2-3 pay raises. Some jobs have given their employees hazard pay and they aren’t working either because the business closed. We’re put at risk and putting our families at risk every day that we go to work for Taco Bell. We are told to change gloves and wash hands between the customers. However, we aren’t given enough staffing to allow us to take these precautions and maintain the company’s desired drive through times without getting questioned about why we aren’t working fast enough. We asked our store manager if we can wear a face mask at work to protect ourselves and he said the regional general manager told him that if an employee feels uncomfortable enough to wear a face mask then that is on them and they need to go home. The regional general manager indicated this is because wearing masks “creates panic and fear”. We say NO! WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC right now and people are being advised by the CDC to wear masks to protect themselves. Finally, Taco Bell recently had a “Free taco for every customer (obviously in the car) WITHOUT PURCHASE NECESSARY”. Those of us that worked that day know it was the busiest we’ve seen the store since the Corona pandemic began and we have recently been informed they’re going to have another one on the 7th! Corporate is literally encouraging people to come to their store in the midst of the pandemic! April 2nd in the morning there was one case in Dixon, as of 4pm that day there were two and due to what we know about asymptomatic carriers there are likely many more than that. A business losing a few weeks to a month of business isn’t as important as endangering our lives and the lives of our children. By signing this petition we are standing together to demand management make changes before something happens to one of us. If one of us gets sick, we all get sick! Consequently, we respectfully and formally request that Taco Bell make immediate improvements to our paid time off and workplace health and safety policies. Specifically, we want to request: That, ideally, the store close until further notice and provide everyone paid leave until reopening. If the business would be existentially threatened by our first improvement then we request that management support employees and workplace safety by providing a month paid leave to stay home for any employees who have been exposed to COVID-19, show symptoms of COVID-19, test positive for COVID-19, have underlying conditions putting them at greater risk, or live with children or elderly individuals at greater risk. For those that continue to work we request proper personal protective equipment such as abundant latex gloves, face masks, and hand sanitizer in the store. We also request a $3 hazard pay increase for all those that choose to work during this crisis. We engage in this collective, concerted activity under the protection of Federal Law, specifically, Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. We are also prepared to engage in further actions that are also protected by the Act, as well as collective action designed to safeguard our immediate health and wellbeing from imminent danger as defined by OSHA, Standard number 1977.12 (b) (2).

CORT has not provided our New Jersey warehouse with adequate protections from the spread of COVID-19. We did not receive gloves or eye protection until March 20, 2020, and closing business on Wednesdays will not reduce transmission among employees. Contracted trucks are not reducing our risk of exposure as the furniture they are unloading may carry coronavirus. Many of our requests are practices recommended by the CDC. We trust that you will do the right thing to protect the health of CORT employees, our families, and our customers.

We are exposing ourselves (and our loved ones) to COVID-19. We aren’t being paid for the extra work we’re doing or the risk we’re undertaking. We are terrified. We need our company to have our back by introducing hazard pay at the rate of time and a half, plus guaranteeing forced closure pay. Workers who are typically scheduled a certain number of hours per week need to be guaranteed that if their store closes, they will continue receiving pay equal to their average scheduled wages. For example, someone scheduled full time would receive a biweekly check totalling how much they would earn for 70 hours of work — that is two weeks of 40-hours, minus ten 1-hour lunch breaks through those two weeks. Why is this important? According to the UN, hazard pay is “a form of compensation granted to staff members who have been requested to remain and report for work in duty stations where very hazardous conditions, such as war or active hostilities, prevailed and where the evacuation of families and nonessential staff had taken place.” We are in the middle of a global crisis. PetPeople — and any necessity supply stores at large — are ensuring our communities can safely and comfortably quarantine/self-isolate. But the workers stocking the shelves have not received any sort of security from PetPeople, that we can be compensated for the essential service we are providing. PetPeople is telling us to stay home if we have a fever. That is insufficient — it requires workers to work until they get sick before they can receive any compensation for putting their lives in danger, and it does nothing to answer concerns of part-time or new team members who don’t qualify for medical insurance should they become ill. Retail grocery/necessity stores and hospitals are on the frontlines right now, but retail workers don’t have access to the same precautions and resources as hospital workers. Hazard pay and guaranteed closure pay provides security, comfort, and increased morale knowing our company has our backs.

The world is experiencing a global pandemic. Countries around the globe are shutting their borders, enforcing curfews and imposing quarantines on their citizens in an attempt to quell the rise of this new virus. With estimates that 1 in 2 Americans will contract COVID-19 in the next year and the duration of enforced time off from work, Buddy Boy needs to adequately protect their employees that are putting themselves at risk for the company. All the responsibility now falls on us to adequately protect ourselves, which we cannot do if the company we work for will not provide for us. Hazard pay and guaranteed closure leave provide security, comfort and the increased morality of know our company has our backs during this global crisis.

Some of us love what we do and count on this for our income. We would love to continue working here after everything is done and over with but we have to survive it first. Please help us so we can continue doing what we love when things get back to normal.

These health care providers are risking their lives along with the loved ones they go home to each night, while providing life saving care to coronavirus victims. They are not expected to work from home, practice safe distancing, or put their concerns first; instead, it’s all hands on deck for this group of health care providers. With barely enough money to cover monthly expenses and student loan debts, if they become infected by a + patient, the hospital loses a set of caring hands, but the employee risks so much more. Offer hazard pay to nurses and techs. They are dealing with a crisis and should be paid accordingly

Closing Starbucks, during this pandemic of the coronavirus is crucial. The virus itself is airborne, and although washing your hands frequently, and disinfecting the store is helpful, that won’t prevent the spread of said virus. Both customers AND partners are at risk of catching and spreading the virus. At this point in time, there is no way to know who has the coronavirus, due to the limited number of tests. Suspending all business hours, until further notice, WHILE continuing to pay both hourly, and salary workers, would be beneficial to both customers & partners. Most Starbucks locations are strategically placed near hospitals and schools/universities. Although most schools have closed, most hospitals have not, and will not close. This leaves most partners exposed. While Starbucks have put new policies into play, that doesn’t mitigate the entire risk of catching the virus. Partners and Customers can display no symptoms, while still being able to transmit the virus to others. Instead of waiting until a partners has been exposed or catch the virus, closing all stores would prevent anyone from getting the virus. At this current time, partners are on the frontlines, potentially being exposed and spreading the virus, unknowingly. The moral thing to do, would be to suspend business, while paying partners, until there is a grip on the virus.

Sprouts Farmers Market is unusual that it offers healthy food for relatively low cost, setting itself a part from the larger organic grocery outlets like Trader Joes and Whole Foods. What Sprouts fails at is loyalty to their lowest paid hourly staff. With the larger grocers, employees are protected by unions and practices that ensure a better working atmosphere and better hours. Sprouts Farmers Market is focused on growth. While there are opportunities for employees to take advantage of health insurance as part-time workers, very few are given the hours to pay for health benefits, much less pay their bills. There are employees that have worked for Sprouts Farmers Market for two years or more that are scheduled 8 hours a week. There is next to no assurance of hours on a weekly basis. Hourly employees are subject to hap-hazard schedules. In California cost of living is sky high. As an hourly worker at Sprouts Farmers Market it's a joke to believe that you can get enough hours to live on or pay your bills because of hours are unpredictable week to week. Sprouts Farmers Market experiences very high turnover. Employees quit their jobs because they do not feel valued. This feeling of being undervalued stretches across pay scales and allocated hours. Sprouts Farmers Market is one of the very best of the best for its customers, and one of the very worst work environments, with morale that's consistently low. This must change. Sprouts Farmers Market averages a 2.9 rating out of 5 via Glassdoor. Most of the company reviews center around communication of executive staff, scattered scheduling and poor wages.

As Game Workers Unite co-founder and tech industry labor organizer Emma Kinema said in her recent XOXO speech, Kickstarter's mission to democratize the way in which people create art, music, games, tech, and writing is a noble and important pursuit, and it is only natural that it is at Kickstarter where we are seeing one of the first tangible signs of democratizing a tech industry workplace through unionization. Workers throughout tech, games, and many traditionally unorganized industries are watching, cheering on, and standing with the workers of Kickstarter in solidarity. Kickstarter United has sparked all of our imaginations and have our fullest support. Stand with them today!

Making these changes would help cut down on food waste costs and labor costs across the company. And would ensure each store had a consistent and inviting pastry case display.

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.

Estes Express Lines is one of the largest freight trucking companies in the U.S. They currently have about 16,000 employees, more than 6,700 tractors and 30,000 trailers, and a network of 200+ terminals. They continue to grow bigger and bigger which is a good thing but a lot of us feel like the dock workers should be getting compensated for any overtime that is needed of us. We've been taking on so much freight this year that we have been put on mandatory 6th days. The fact we are having to work extra days that should be spent with our families, and we don't get paid overtime after 40 hours is a real kick in the gut. Not getting paid overtime after 40 hours makes us feel like we're getting taken advantage of. Every other position besides the dock worker gets some kind of compensation for working either over 40hrs a week or having to work a mandatory 6th day. Jockeys get overtime after 40hrs, office staff get overtime after 40hrs, management get compensation days. Why are the dock workers left out? We, the undersigned, respectfully call upon CEO Rob Estes to put into effect that all dock workers from Estes Express Lines get paid overtime after 40 hours in a work week. Surely the time has now come to see that this issue needs to be changed because the dock workers are not being treated equally. We submit this plea for the following reasons: 1. Everyone eles is paid overtime or gets a compensation day for a mandatory work day. 2. It's not treating us as equals as everyone else. 3. It would make having to work extra time or mandatory days not as bad. 4. It would boost the morale of the shifts. 5. It would cause better shifts to get created, so that all shifts are working more closely to the same amount of hours.