"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.

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!!!

President Obama is scheduled to appear at the Nike company headquarters in Oregon on May 8, 2015 to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- a multinational agreement focused on trade between the U.S. and 11 other countries. Meanwhile, Nike’s management is putting pressure on its own employees to promote the agreement as well. In a memo sent to some employees this March, Nike’s General Counsel said: “We need to hear your voice as a Nike employee on this issue” and pushed employees to contact their members of Congress to approve the deal. Among other concerns, many are worried that an easing of trade restrictions without strong measures to ensure workers’ rights are protected could exacerbate a race to the bottom where companies have even more incentive to source from factories with the worst wages and conditions. Nike has a clear interest in this trade deal. Less than 1 percent of the more than 1 million workers who made the products that earned Nike $27.8 billion in revenue in 2014 were U.S. workers. Last year, one-third of Nike’s remaining 13,922 American production workers were cut. It has been reported that one-third of the supply chain workers who produce for Nike are in Vietnam -- a nation that would be part of the TPP. Vietnam bans independent unions, uses child and forced labor and pays minimum wages of less than 60 cents an hour. Nike took a lot of heat from anti-sweatshop activists and Vietnamese unions for poor factory conditions in the 1990s. While some conditions have improved since that time, wages in apparel and shoe production in Vietnam are still extremely low. TPP would not require companies like Nike to pay the workers who make their sneakers a living wage. It is unfair to pressure employees to lobby on behalf of the company’s desire to outsource production to the lowest wage workers in the world. Employees should be able to make up their own minds and speak their opinions without the company they work for telling them what to do. Nike should stop telling its workers what to believe and how to express their opinions. Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/people/31954284@N07/ http://www.bargainmoose.ca/

Workers on farms all over Australia are being forced to work up to 22 hours a day for cash payments as low as $4 an hour, picking and packing the fresh fruit and vegetables that we buy at the supermarket. Producers have taken advantage of weak labour standards in the industry and have outsourced to dodgy labour hire contractors. These Labour Hire Contractors – often just a person with a mobile phone and a bank account - routinely steal workers wages, provide them with substandard accommodation for exorbitant fees, and seek sexual and monetary favours for visas or preferential treatment. Workers who speak up are ignored, silenced and have their employment terminated. Exploitation is being driven by the purchasing decisions made by the two supermarkets at the top of the supply chain. As a duopoly, Coles and Woolworths have incredible buying power. Competition among producers to supply the supermarkets is immense. Coles and Woolworths exploit their market positon to demand that producers supply products at lower and lower cost. This price pressure pushes producers to look for ways to lower production costs, particularly labour costs. Once some producers do this, the whole industry is affected as others look for ways to keep up. Coles and Woolworths claim that their Ethical Sourcing Codes of conduct ensure that fresh food products are ethically produced. The reality facing workers on these farms proves that this is not true. Producers are told to comply with Codes of Conduct on one hand, then asked to provide cheaper and cheaper product on the other. When Producers are confronted with the choice between complying with Code standards and losing a supply contract with a big supermarket, they will always chose to cut corners. Without the active participation and oversight of workers in their union in policing conditions on farms, Codes of Conduct will never work. Workers who deliver our fresh food are putting out a call to clean up their industry, a call for a Fair Food Agreement to immediately outline standard conditions and rights that workers can collectively enact.

Here in Portland, Oregon you can't throw a stone without hitting a tattoo parlor. We have police, doctors and lawyers with visible tattoos all over their arms, even their necks, and who knows where else. But at My Goods Market -- a convenience store/gas station chain with hundreds of locations in Washington, Oregon, California and Colorado -- we are told that if we don't cover our visible tattoos there will be consequences. We could even lose our jobs because we don't want to put on a long sleeve shirt year round. It gets hot enough wearing long sleeves while working, but for those of us in states like Oregon where the gas pump is contingent on a service rep, employees will overheat in long sleeves while running in and out of the store during the hot summer months. Portland is an art-centric and EXTREMELY tattoo friendly city. Why would this be even remotely acceptable?. We need to fix this. It's 2015: I have met grandparents who have full sleeves. Tattoos are no longer indicative of negative elements of society. They are an expression of personal taste or an homage to something you care about. No one should be able to censor your body or how you choose to adorn it. That's why major national chains like Starbucks have recently changed their policies to allow visible tattoos at work. Please join me in asking My Goods Market to change its policy to allow visible tattoos at work.

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.

We each hail from Milwaukee – a city we love deeply. Yet every day, we're faced with the reality that systemic racism, police brutality, and a lack of good jobs have made our community home to both the highest incarceration rate for African Americans and the highest joblessness rate for Black men in the country.

 Roughly 40% of Starbucks' workforce are people of color – yet just 15% of its executives are of color. And in Milwaukee, which is a majority people of color city, African American employees are scarce in Howard Schultz's workforce. Clearly, there is plenty of work for Starbucks to do in its own house. We've each laid out some of our thoughts below.

 From Joe:

 I've worked at Starbucks for three years, and have lived and worked in Milwaukee for the past six months. My crew is excellent, and we support each other through tough days and busy shifts. The people in my store understand the challenges facing the patrons we serve. We are part of our community and we understand its needs. I also know that Starbucks – as a corporate entity – can do a lot more for its workers, customers and the communities it serves.

 During the week of March 16th, my manager distributed a roll of stickers and passed around a handout detailing the new "Race Together" initiative. I was shocked – it seemed so hypocritical when Starbucks employs thousands of baristas of color in jobs that pay poverty wages with too few hours to survive. Why not raise wages so that every barista makes at least $15 an hour and has access to stable, full-time work?
 If the company really cared about racial justice, they would look at the diversity of its workforce. Here in Milwaukee, it's hard to miss the fact that most of the Starbucks employees in this majority people of color city are white. Starbucks should be part of the solution by hiring more people of color in our city and giving these employees jobs that can support a family.

 From Nate:

 When we first learned of Starbucks' new "Race Together" campaign, we were kind of appalled. My brother, Dontre Hamilton, was shot 14 times by police after Starbucks employees repeatedly called the police on him. The people of Milwaukee have been protesting and petitioning for months for Starbucks to meet with us to discuss its role in the killing of my brother, and to help us heal and find a solution so that this tragedy never happens again. We've been asking the Starbucks CEO to speak out in support of our efforts, but have seen little in response.

 I've lived in Milwaukee most of my life and I feel Milwaukee can and must do better. What happened at the Red Arrow Starbucks is a symptom of the lack of investment and opportunity for black folks in Milwaukee. Starbucks has an important role to play here.

 By asking employees – without training or support – to engage in dialogue with total strangers about this deeply personal issue, you’re revealing just how little you understand about white privilege and systemic racism. My brother's tragic killing was an opportunity to initiate a frank conversation about the diversity of Starbucks employees, your policies and practices when dealing with diverse communities, and the impact racial bias, profiling and inequality have on your stores. Instead, corporate has done next to nothing but write #RaceTogether on a cup.

 Howard Schultz has announced that he's coming to Milwaukee on April 1st. I'd like Schultz to commit to real solutions during that visit – not gimmicks. The practices that led to the death of Dontre are being repeated in stores across the country. This isn't a Milwaukee problem, it's a company-wide problem. If Schultz wants to address racism he can start by making meaningful changes in his own business practices, by setting company wide protocols for dealing with diverse communities and by creating good jobs for our communities.

Many workers in our cafeteria have worked ten years, twenty years, or more, providing excellent food to our whole faculty and student community. Now that City College is considering a new food service contractor, many fear that they will lose their jobs, because the CCNY Auxiliary Enterprise Corporation's (AEC) Request for Proposals (RFP) only stipulates that a new "Contractor must interview all members of the previous food service vendor’s staff who are interested in working for Contractor" (RFP, Form 4-- Food Service Operations Contract, Section 5.2.10) [1], not that the new contractor must hire them. We need to quickly alleviate the stress and uncertainty that cafeteria workers and their friends and families are currently enduring and to ensure that principles of fair treatment and respect for workers' service are upheld within the CUNY community. This will show City College cafeteria workers in a very tangible way the great esteem in which our community holds them and their work. [1] http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/aec/upload/CCNY-RFP-Food-Only-123014.pdf

This is very important for generations to come. If we continue to produce waste day after day, month after month and year after year; our planet will be just that; a waste. Let's all work together and recycle more to give more generations a chance at life. Lead By Example. Actions Speak Louder Than Words.

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!