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.

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 have the employee feel like they're not being over worked, concentration work camp(quiktrip) or an equal rights work place ? If you're going to have us standing running around for 8 hours or more at least make up for it in pay .

Thousands of people have worked for years for Microsoft via contractors-vendors, without having any paid time off. We think Microsoft's new policy should be fully implemented as soon as possible and Memorial Day seems a perfect and very symbolic date to start providing paid leave. Considering the present compensation rate of the 37 or so Tier1 tester/reviewers working for Microsoft and paid via Lionbridge Technologies we estimate the cost for one paid leave day is $5204. In comparison, Lionbridge CEO, Rory Cowan made last year between $1.522.275 and $2.89 million (that's including part of his stock options). Taking into account his $1.5 million compensation, one paid leave day for the 37 employees represents less than one day of Cowan's income and less than 4 hours when choosing his $2.9 million income. For the first quarter of 2015, Lionbridge posted record earnings and bought back 254.000 shares of its common stock for $1.4 million. We don't see any technical or financial obstacle to providing Memorial Day as a holiday for all contract employees and it would be a tangible sign that Microsoft takes its commitment seriously and will implement it promptly.

"I served a party of 30 guests with another server. We waited on them during the dinner rush for over 2 hours. The whole party left a total of $13.” -Janine, Louisiana “I am an excellent, fast, and friendly server and I love my job but sometimes I get big parties who tell me that I did a great job but they only leave $20 on a $600 check. I have to tip out my partners based on my sales so after we split the tip we only make roughly $2 each when we waited on them our whole shift.” -Suzanne, New York “Without the gratuity added to parties I receive very low or no tips at all even though the parties would be there for hours. Quite a few times I have walked home with less than ten dollars in my pocket because of the loss of the autograt. This is just not right. It's disheartening.” -Lauren, PA --- Up until late 2013 we, the front of the house employees at Darden Restaurants, were able to add an automatic 18% gratuity onto the check(s) of parties of 8 or more. The auto-grat was included in large party checks for several reasons including, but not limited to: 1.Guests often do not tip when they are in large parties because they either forget to or assume the host will take care of it. 2. Servers of large parties usually have the rest of their section taken by someone else so they can focus on the party. 3. Darden mandates a tip-share policy with bussers and bartenders (who are also paid sub-minimum wages) and FOH staff get left with little to nothing even though we may work one party for an entire shift. Several wage workers have a stake in the tip on large parties which is why it makes sense to have an auto-gratuity to ensure that both guests and employees are well treated. A host of restaurants around the country provide their servers with autograt to make sure that their employees don’t leave their shifts with less than when they came in. So, why did Darden really get rid of autograt? Did Darden eliminate auto-grat to avoid extra payroll taxes? Therefore, we, the front of the house workers of Darden Restaurants, demand that Darden reinstate autograt.

BECAUSE GAS PRICES ARE GOING TO FAST. ITS NOW $3.60 FOR REGULAR. WE CANT AFFORD TO KEEP ON DRIVING AROUND AND NOT BEING ABLE TO PAY FOR OUR GAS. YOU COULD ISSUE OUT UBER GAS CARDS TO THE DRIVERS JUST LIKE PHONES

You might not have heard of B&E Poultry but they’re quickly becoming one of the biggest poultry companies in Australia. They are involved in supplying chicken to Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, KFC and Pizza Hut. B&E Poultry and their subcontractors pay their employees wages that are below the legal minimum. Their workers are now owed tens of thousands of dollars in back pay and B&E is refusing to pay up. NUW backpackers here on working holidays are demanding back pay now! Here is one couple's story: We came to Australia for a working holiday. We wanted to earn some money and travel around Australia. We really wanted to see Uluru, Cairns, Sydney and Tasmania, but we haven't been able to see any of these. We haven’t been able to earn enough money to leave Victoria. In July 2014 we got a job with a man at a poultry factory. We regularly worked more than 10 hours a day, sometimes until midnight. We were paid $16 or $17 per hour cash-in-hand no matter what time of day it was or how long we worked. We didn't realise this was not legal in Australia. Lots of holiday makers were being paid this way. We signed a lot of paperwork, but it was never clear what it was. Our breaks changed all the time, sometimes when it was busy our smoke break would disappear. We would clock on and off, but our supervisor would pay what he thought instead of what our clock cards said. The work was hard and we felt very tired. We were pushed to work harder and faster and I was scared that I would be injured. I felt like my English wasn’t good enough so I wouldn't be able to get work anywhere else. It felt like discrimination. Taiwanese holiday makers were always forced to do overtime for the flat rate. Permanent workers didn't get offered overtime. We can understand how local workers are angry about this too. Somewhere along the line we became employees of a contractor called B&E poultry. It was always unclear who we were working for. One day we found out about the union through another backpacker. Organisers from the union came to our house and spoke to us. We realised what was happening wasn't right. We all decided to join the union. Through word of mouth and social media, working holiday visa workers in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney who work for B&E subcontractors heard what we were doing and joined us in demanding back pay and fair treatment. We would like all holiday makers in Australia to be treated with respect during their time in Australia and earn at least the legal minimum for the work they do. If we had been on minimum wage we would have been earning $25.44 , and maybe we would have been able to see Uluru. This petition is about equality and respect, something we have learned the union movement in Australia will fight for. **************************** 你在澳洲可能從未聽過 B&E 雞肉廠這家公司，但在他們在雞肉產業快速成長，他們所提供的勞動力遍佈全澳。他們上游的供應商包括知名的超市，Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, 等，大型速食業KFC 和Pizza Hut。這家人力仲介與他旗下的工頭聯手，以低薪價格來欺瞞背包客，現今，所有他們旗下的背包客共欠薪高達澳幣數十萬元，而他們還以拖延手段不願償還！NUW 代表這些工會裡的背包客要求B&E 立即清償所有欠薪！ 以下是來自兩個背包客的自述： 我們到澳洲打工度假，所參與的短期工作只是為了賺錢可以環遊澳洲，我們很想看烏魯魯的大石頭、雪梨、凱恩斯、和塔斯馬尼亞，但我們哪都沒去，我們根本沒賺到足夠的錢離開維多利亞州。 去年七月我們在雞肉廠找到一份工作 一開始時從下午一點半開始工作到晚上十點，有時甚至工作到半夜。老闆給我們一小時時薪$16-17元不等，而且都是領現金。我們不曉得這在澳洲是違法的，很多背包客的工作都是算小時直接領現金的，剛進入工廠時，我們簽屬了一堆文件，但從沒人跟我們解釋我們簽了甚麼。 我們的休息時間經常變動，很多時間當工廠訂單大時，我們連休息時間都被犧牲了，我們跟其他在地工人一樣，打卡上下班，但是我們的薪水從來沒有依照打卡時間來給付。 工作很辛苦而且我們常覺得很累，生產部門常常要我們做快一點，我常覺得不知道甚麼時候我就會在工作時發生意外，因為自己的英文能力有限，我覺得在別的地方會找不到工作。 常常在工作時，我都會感受到種族歧視，台灣的背包客總是被強迫加班，而且也沒有加班費，在地的工人因為全職的保障，起薪高加班費也加成，所以老闆不會給他們加班的機會，我也能理解到為何在地工人常常藉機找我們麻煩。 我常覺得就是因為我的薪水比別人低，所以經理常常使喚我們做東做西 在無意間我們得知，原來我們是受雇一家叫做B&E的雞肉處理廠仲介，之前我們根本不知道自己的雇主是誰。 透過其他的背包客我們才知道有工會的存在，這些工會的組織者到我們家跟我們解釋我們的工作權利，我們才知道原來一直以來我們拿的薪水連基本的薪資都不到，另一方面，連最基本的工作權利都被雇主故意忽略。 透過社群網路的宣傳力量，散落在全澳各地如墨爾本、雪梨或阿德等為B&E工作的背包客們，都紛紛加入了我們，除追訴欠薪外並要求再工作上最基本的尊重。而這些背包客所處理的雞肉供應跨及全澳，包括最大的量販賣場如Coles, Woolworths, 及其他速食業等。 我們希望所有在澳洲的打工度假者，在勞動市場中都能跟在地的工人一樣，享有最基本的工作權利，拿取法定基本的薪資。如果我們能拿到法定雞肉廠的時薪$25.44澳幣，我們就能完成去烏魯魯的夢想了。 這份聯署書是起草於尊重與平等，我們相信澳洲的工會運動會起而跟我們並肩作戰。

On Friday, Feb. 27th, union members overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement from UofT that did not increase the funding package and instead offered a wage "increase" that was far from keeping up with inflation. Teaching assistants, course instructors, and sessional faculty at the University of Toronto do 60% of the teaching, but earn only 3.5% of the budget. We deserve better. Our working conditions are students' learning conditions. We aren't at our best-- as students or as teachers-- when we are up late worried about paying the bills. Let us focus on the work we love doing- teaching! University of Toronto is Canada's largest university. The success of our efforts impacts teaching assistants, sessionals, and course instructors across the country. Help us send a message that no student workers or sessional (adjunct) faculty should live in poverty! We are now on strike and hoping for a fast resolution so we can get out of the cold and back to teaching- but we are willing to strike as long as it takes!

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?

I have to save some of my vacation every year just in case I get sick. I am a working partner who can't afford to stay home when I am sick.

Lisa's story: My name is Lisa Austin and I work in Apple Valley, MN at Walmart #2642. On December 28, 2014 I was disciplined for staying home to take care of my seven-month-old child while my husband was away training with the National Guard.* The training was on the weekend of December 7, 2014. Per Walmart policy, I requested the days off close to two months in advance but was still written up for the days missed. Now I am close to being terminated and am afraid I will lose my job if I have to miss work if Walmart doesn’t approve future dates that my husband is away. The store manager told me that “my absence was inexcusable and everyone has kids.” I was told that I cannot have another absence until June 14, 2015. Military families sacrifice on a daily basis when their spouse is deployed or away from their loved ones. Should a Military spouse sacrifice her child or her job for just needing a day off to care for their baby? Walmart can help associates like Lisa and show its respect for military families by amending its leave policy today. Please join us in showing your support by signing this petition for a national policy that helps all our military families who work at Walmart across the country. *Since I started working at Walmart in October 2014, I had not been working there long enough to qualify for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. LEGAL DISCLAIMER: UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.

Over the course of 2014, Starbucks Coffee was in the news on a regular basis. Whether it was a partner (aka, a Starbucks employee) that was struggling with her wages and hours, or a strangely uneven HBO Starbucks-produced tribute to America’s veterans, there’s been no shortage of media attention thrown the way of the coffee siren. Most notably Starbucks turned heads by changing its tattoo policy, finally allowing its employees the ability to show off their ink without having to cover them all day, every day. Much rejoicing was heard, it was an exciting time for many employees as most believed the archaic policy would never move. It did. Further steps were announced by Starbucks corporate. Pay would be changing. In the middle of the hype over the tattoo policy changes, and some calling for higher wages, Starbucks took the lead announcing that pay would increase for a large portion of its US employees. Excitement began to boil again. At a time in US history when stagnant worker wages are at an all time high, and protests are happening from coast to coast, the powers that be at Starbucks headquarters realized [and wisely so] that they had to move first. Move they did. At the end of January, news began to trickle out about these wages. Many Starbucks partners believed and hoped that wages would be raised significantly. Some defended the current wages as being enough. Reading through unofficial Starbucks partner Facebook pages, it became evident that for very few, the initial wage would be substantial, but for partners that have been employed for 1-3 years, they would be put at the new wage base level [which is different per state, per region]. Much of the work many partners put in for their wages would be wiped clean, even starting partners would be paid the same as they would, a gross inequality in a growing number of voices as seen through social media. THE BREAK DOWN (How it used to work) Typically, Starbucks employees were eligible for raises every six months, something no other company was doing up until that point. This system worked. What wasn't working were starting wages and wage caps. Starbucks as a company, like many other companies, falls far behind in paying their workers a livable wage. Many of its employees, struggle to pay their bills week to week. Many live with family or in roommate situations. (How it works now) Now, Starbucks baristas and shift supervisors are eligible for one raise a year, slowing down their rate of pay. The starting wages being reported are a good beginning for the multi-billion dollar company, but in their decision making process, they have failed to account for what will probably amount to tens of thousands of their employees who are now placed at the beginning of the wage system, just to get one raise a year. Tempers are hot. In the scheme of things, Starbucks gets most things right. They offer their employees health benefits, free drinks, a pound of coffee a week, stock options, and a competitive 401k among other things. Most American businesses should be looking at Starbucks as an example of how you treat the people who are actually responsible for the customer connection which brings in the record earnings every quarter. The new wage benefits are promising, a step in the right direction. It would be wise for the decision makers on a corporate level to not throw their mid-term or mid-tenure employees under the bus when premiering new wages. There was a lot of hype around the wage increase, but as you would see if you joined certain Starbucks barista social media groups, a bill of goods was sold and hyped that actually ended up slowing the pace of wage earning, and starting off experienced workers as if they were new. Starbucks now has a worker relations mess on their hands. This petition is to Starbucks for a fair wage increase for partners tenured one year or more. You do not have to be a barista to sign this petition. Although, if you are, I recommend that you share this with your fellow baristas, family and friends. You can share this petition by copying and pasting the link below. http://www.coworker.org/p/fairwageincrease A special thanks to Jill Deblasio!