Tuan is 31. He is a big Brisbane Broncos fan. He has worked at Alphapharm since 2007. Recently, not long after being married, Tuan was diagnosed with cancer. A month after he finished his treatment, his baby girl arrived. Tuan has so many good things to look forward to, but after 7 years of hard work at Alphapharm management would not support him in the process of getting back to full health. Any one of us could suffer a debilitating illness. Adding unnecessary financial burdens at a time like that is simply callous. Where will Don get future employment to support his young family if his employer of 7 years is not willing to assist him?

Lite n Easy workers are paid significantly below food processing industry standards in Australia, and the company has so far refused to offer a guaranteed annual pay rise for more than 1 year. Instead, Lite n Easy are promising to pass on any increases in the minimum wage (if there are any). This has real impacts on our life. Many of us just can't afford to be sick. Many of us don't have anything left after we have paid for rent, bills and food at the end of each week. We don't get to keep enough of the value we create to lead a decent quality of life.

In 2013, when I was 63 years old, Centennial Coal made me redundant. When people are made redundant, they rely on their entitlements to feed their families, stay in their homes, and pay for necessities. But Centennial Coal has refused to pay retrenched people like me -- anyone close to age 60 and over -- the full entitlements we’re owed. Centennial -- which started as a local company, but is now owed by a giant multinational company called Banpu -- is the only company in the Australian coal industry that does not pay proper entitlements to workers of my age. At the same time, Centennial Coal reported that its Australian operations brought in over $213 million (USD) profit in 2013. It is just not fair. To be honest, I feel like I was targeted for my age. I worked at the Myuna mine for over 31 years. I am fit and healthy and I wanted to keep working, but now that I’m unemployed and without my entitlements, I'm facing trouble in my old age. But this isn’t just about me and the other miners losing our jobs. Our families and communities are deeply impacted too. I have two children -- one of whom lives across the country with my two grandchildren. Centennial’s decision to deny us entitlements means that I’m not able to visit them as often and see them grow up. Work doesn’t stop at 60 and neither should the entitlements we’re owed. Please join me in calling on Centennial Coal to do the right thing and pay older workers the retrenchment entitlements we are owed.

My name is Olivia Guzman. For 17 years, my husband Fausto and I have been coming to the U.S. each season from our hometown in Mexico as H-2B guestworkers. We worked with thousands of other guestworkers who process and pack seafood for big retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods. The guestworker visa requires us to work for only one employer. The name of our boss is inscribed in our passport, and if we are fired or leave to seek work somewhere else we can be detained and deported by ICE. Our employers paid us a piece rate—by the weight of seafood we cleaned—that often came out to be less than the minimum wage no matter how fast we worked. They housed us in decrepit labor camps on company property where snakes crawled up through cracks in the floor. Bosses and managers surveilled us in the camps, humiliated us, and even physically abused us. To keep us silent, they constantly threatened us with firing, deportation, and blacklisting so we could no longer find work as guestworkers. There comes a time you can’t take the abuse any more, and in spite of the threats, you have to speak up. I did that when I became of member of the National Guestworker Alliance (NGA). I traveled across the Gulf Coast and organized my fellow guestworkers into committees to try to change conditions in the industry. I traveled to Washington, DC, and Mexico City to tell political leaders about the abuse. But when I hosted NGA meetings in my house, the recruiter spied on us. She said we were all trouble makers and threatened to have us blocked from coming back to the United States. And I learned that the threats were real, because this year, my employer blacklisted me in retaliation for my organizing. I was removed from the employment list, accused of being a trouble maker, and blocked from coming back on an H-2B visa to my employer. Walmart says it wants to stop forced labor on its supply chain, but continues to buy from suppliers who abuse guestworkers every day. Whole Foods tells customers all about where its fish were caught, but not that the fish were packed by workers who were trapped in severe labor abuse. Walmart and Whole Foods set the standards that thousands of suppliers follow. My fellow NGA members and I are calling on them to sign the NGA’s Forced Labor Prevention Accord. The Accord is a binding agreement that would ban retaliation and blacklisting, ensure basic labor standards, and create a binding dispute resolution process that includes employers and workers. We are urging retailers to sign the Accord to ensure that their suppliers don’t trap guestworkers in exploitation and forced labor.

Employees that are loyal and dedicated to the airline should be the first priority, Wherever we came from - Legacy AA, US, AWA, we will soon be one. The employees made the choice to miss holidays, birthdays and go the extra mile to keep the system operating on time. Pilots, Flight Attendants, Gate Agents, Rampers, Schedulers, Management, the list goes on to include every employee at the New American. We are the New American and our value and importance should be recognized as we move forward in becoming the largest and best airline in the industry

As it stands, active non-wholly owned crew members will go after Buddy Passes on stand-by. Be it wholly or non-wholly owned, we all operate under the American banner. It is important to the integrity of the entire operation. Commuting crew members need to get to work so they can operate American flights. In the past American Airlines hasn't had very many non-wholly owned employees, so this hasn't been much of an issue. The new American Airlines now has thousands of non-wholly owned commuting employees. It is to everyone's benefit that working crew go ahead of friends traveling on a pass. This is our Livelihood! Also, having priority on one's own metal has always been accepted as an industry standard. Under the new rules we will lose this. We ask that we retain the right to have priority on our company owned and operated aircraft.

Since Peter Gelb became General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in 2006, he has pushed for sweeping production changes that are radically altering the scope and cost of operations. He has a record-high of new productions that require more labor and hours; HD productions require more expensive and detailed visuals; and extravagant opera productions are driving costs up. This effectively puts the Met on the road to a financial crisis, albeit with good intentions. Many of the men and women who work behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Opera are the most talented in their professions. Six local unions of the IATSE represent backstage employees at the Met, all of whom have made the Opera their life’s work: • Local 1 represents skilled craftsmen who are experts with carpentry, lighting, sound, props, set and building construction. • Local 764 includes costume shop employees who create the costumes, along with dressers who assist the performers with their costumes. • Local 751 are the workers who most frequently interact with the public, box office employees such as Treasurers and Ticket Sellers. • Local 798 are the artists responsible for hair and makeup. • Local 794 represents technicians involved in the Met’s live broadcasts. • USA 829 (Designers and Scenic Artists) represents painters as well as the designers of sets, lighting, costumes, and sound. Help save the Metropolitan Opera: Tell Peter Gelb that cutting worker’s wages and benefits is not a long-term solution to a financial crisis caused by management’s wildly costly new vision. Blaming the backstage stars that make the Met run, without compromising on his own values, is not the sign of a good leader. [1] http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/06/the-met-klinghoffer-problem.html

I love teaching anthropology. I take pride in giving students the tools they need to understand unfamiliar cultures and interact with people from different cultural backgrounds. I certainly didn't pursue my PhD for the money. I've amassed tens of thousands of dollars in student debt to help pay for my education, and as adjunct faculty members my husband and I are barely scraping by. With a baby, and in an expensive city like San Diego, it's tough to make ends meet. That's why I was so excited to learn that my employer, Palomar College, could help free me and hundreds of other employees from crushing student debt burdens with the stroke of a pen. Thanks to new Department of Education policies, many teachers like us could be eligible to have their federal student loans completely forgiven after 10 years of on-time loan payments. My husband is also an adjunct, and we have a combined student loan debt of approximately $140,000 -- more than double our anticipated annual household income for the foreseeable future. Getting access to the Public Student Loan Forgiveness program would be a game-changer for our family. The first step in the process is easy: Palomar College just needs to submit paperwork to the Department of Education. Once they do, hundreds of Palomar employees like me could in theory become eligible for loan forgiveness, and their example will make it easier for other colleges to follow suit. Moreover, perhaps more of our students will consider public service careers once they see that it could be a path to debt forgiveness. The large majority of Palomar College’s faculty, like me, work with no job security and receive few benefits. By taking this simple action, Palomar can provide access to debt relief to employees who need it, and also help get the word out about loan forgiveness. As the cost of higher education continues to skyrocket, public service workers and students considering careers in public service need this information more than ever. Please join me and my colleagues in asking Palomar College to immediately begin participating in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

UPDATE: Thanks to you, our efforts are starting to #ChangeZara! In December, Zara workers in NYC received a letter from the US Managing Director, Dilip Patel, saying that workers will receive raises of up to $3 an hour and access to full-time positions. This is a major victory for our campaign and demonstrates that when workers come together, we can make real changes! Our campaign is gaining great momentum, but we still need your support to help bring Dilip Patel to the table and hear our concerns. Please read our petition below and sign and share! ***** First off, let me introduce myself. I’m Jedidiah Labinjo and I work at Zara in New York City. Sharlene Santos, one of the original leaders of the campaign, recently moved out of state so I’ve been inspired to step up and help move the campaign along with my Zara coworkers -- and you! I’ve worked as a sales associate at the Zara store in SoHo for a year. I have been commended by my supervisor for my work ethic and customer service skills, but I’ve yet to see an increase in my pay of $10.50 an hour. I live with my mother and contribute to my family’s bills. I’m also in school full-time studying pre-law, which has helped me think about my rights at work. It’s hard to juggle my priorities of work, school, and family when I have a constantly changing schedule at Zara. Managers are full-time, but we sales associates have a very hard time getting more hours, even though Zara continues hiring more part-time associates. Many associates feel that there is a lot of favoritism in determining who gets the promotions that would make us full-time. Many of my coworkers are students or parents with young children. We all work hard to get by. We earn so little at Zara that many of us can’t even afford to buy the clothes that we sell. With these kinds of poverty schedules, we are forced to choose between bills, rent, and food. So my coworkers and I circulated a petition to address our issues at Zara: low wages, not enough hours, favoritism, and disrespect. When we presented our concerns to a store manager, she said there was nothing she could do. Since we first launched this petition, a delegation of Zara workers from the US traveled to Spain to take our concerns directly to the top company executives as US Management has not agreed to sit down with us collectively for substantive discussions. We’ve been told to discuss problems at work on a one-on-one basis with our managers. But these issues aren’t individual -- they are company-wide. We want Zara’s management to come to the table to hear our #ChangeZara committee’s collective concerns about scheduling, wages, and opportunities for advancement. Zara's hugely profitable parent company, Inditex, is proud of its reputation as a socially responsible business. Zara workers in Spain have a union that grants them a voice at the table -- don't we deserve the same respect here in the US? Join us in our fight to #ChangeZara.

Hi, my name is Juan Rodriguez. I have been working at T-Mobile US in Albuquerque, NM for almost 10 years. I work in the bilingual department and help English and Spanish speaking customers with issues about their phones, their bills or with any other customer service question they might have. My coworkers and I are dedicated employees who love helping our customers. However, T-Mobile does not always treat us with the respect we deserve. Coachings in front of peers and disrespectful treatment for everyone to see are things that most workers at T-Mobile have gone through. I’ve certainly had my fair share of them. Just recently, my manager sent me home for a trivial reason and, without any more information, told me not to come back until further notice. A few days later, and with absolutely no explanation, I was called in and sent back to work. It was a frustrating and scary experience. Losing my job would be devastating - I have a family to support. And being humiliated in front of coworkers, is absolutely unacceptable. But it didn’t stop there. After I got back to work my manager emailed me a document detailing what I supposedly did wrong and asking me to pledge to do better - the thing is, he did not email it only to me, he sent it to the entire call center! Every one of my 700 coworkers received a detailed account of what I was disciplined for. It was deeply humiliating. Another coworker of mine was pulled into a room with his team where his coach played scenes from calls that weren’t optimal. No one knew whose call would be played next and the tension was terrible. Every once in a while the coach put a worker on the spot and asked them what the rep on the call did wrong. People started crying and my coworker got sick after the meeting. These are not isolated incidents. My coworkers and I all across the country know all too well that public humiliation and disrespect are commonplace at T-Mobile. That is not right. This disrespectful treatment has to stop right now! We should have clear and transparent rules and discipline should be respectful. That’s why we demand: 1. All disciplinary coaching* should be conducted off the floor, in private and not in front of peers. 2. Employees should be given the option to invite a co-worker to accompany them when called into a meeting with managers, coach or HR. *Decision Day, step of discipline for attendance or work performance, etc.

Last fall, rumors of privatizing (also called sub-contracting) the MVU cafeteria to The Abbey Group circulated. The MVU cafeteria staff and many other staff are concerned that the school-run program may simply be “eliminated” to save a few dollars. This is not fair. The food service employees are long-term, loyal and committed employees. They have a collective 66 years of service to the school, performed high quality work, and often go above and beyond what they are expected to do, especially for students. All the staff at MVU bring the same level of commitment to the school and the students. The MVU cafeteria workers are being proactive and are asking the MVU Board for something very simple – to adopt a policy that it will not privatize the food service jobs at MVU or any of the work currently being performed by its staff. This is perfectly legal. It doesn’t violate the existing union contract. It doesn’t violate the Municipal Employees Labor Relations Act. It is well within the rights of the Board to pass such a policy. The policy wording we propose would be as follows: “It will be the policy of the Missisquoi Valley Union School Board of Directors to not sub-contract any work currently being performed by employees of the Board.” Contractors, like the Abbey Group, are in business to make money/profit. If they’re going to make money from the school, they will have to cut corners somewhere. Either they will cut services, or the wages they pay to workers, or both. If they cut services, the quality of school food program, in this case, goes down. And if they cut wages, they will get people in to work who are not very qualified, or who will leave as soon as they get a better job. Contractors like Abbey Group often offer no paid sick days or benefits, making the jobs even less livable for working people, causing more turn over in staff. High turnover hurts quality of the food program and it hurts the relationships staff have with the students. Low standards for the food program and its employees are not consistent with the MVU’s values. We encourage you to add your name to encourage the board to adopt this policy. Thank you.

The MAC’s goal is to provide travelers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport “the best airport experience in North America,” and we are the workers who make that experience possible. We take pride in our work, doing important jobs like providing wheelchair and electric cart service to passengers with disabilities and senior passengers, yet we are struggling to survive on poverty wages with no benefits and little training or support. We are calling on the MAC to ensure the workers who provide essential services for rich corporations like Delta are allowed to form a union so they are can get proper training, increase staffing levels, and get paid a living wage and benefits. Please join with us in our fight to end poverty wages at MSP so we can make it an Airport that Works for ALL of Us.