Pregnant Workers Deserve Better – Take Action


National Women's Law Center
 http://www.nwlc.org/our-issues
Tell Congress: Pregnant Workers Deserve Better
                Tell your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to ensure that pregnant women are treated fairly on the job.
Take Action

Did you hear the good news?
Last week, the Senate introduced the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to ensure that pregnant women aren’t forced out of their jobs.
But just because a bill was introduced doesn’t mean it will move unless we turn the pressure up. That’s where you come in.
Take Action: Please Contact Your Members of Congress today and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. The more co-sponsors, the more likely this bill will move forward.
Forty years ago, women were expected to quit their jobs when they became pregnant. Back then, pregnancy was widely regarded as a disabling condition.
Today, it is now a well-accepted fact that most women remain perfectly healthy and able to work throughout their pregnancies, and since 1978 pregnancy discrimination has been illegal. Yet women in physically demanding jobs are STILL being forced out of the workplace, just because they need temporary, minor modifications to their job duties during pregnancy. As a result, expectant mothers are losing their jobs when they can least afford it.
Here are three startling examples:

  • Heather got fired from Wal-Mart for carrying a water bottle.
  • Natasha was forced onto unpaid leave and then fired because her district manager at Rent-A-Center found out she needed help with occasional heavy lifting on the sales floor.
  • Sarah lost her job at a fast food restaurant for taking bathroom and water breaks.

And what do all of these women have in common? All three needed only minor accommodations to continue safely working during pregnancy. But because their employers refused, all three were forced out of work.
That’s why we need to build support for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Please join us by asking your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the bill.
Thank you for your help!
Sincerely,

Emily J. Martin Emily J. Martin Vice President and General Counsel National Women’s Law Center   

P.S. Fired up? Help spread the word by forwarding this action alert to friends, family and colleagues.
P.P.S. Need more info? Check out NWLC’s resources on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

Official GOOGLE blog


Celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship with the new Google for Entrepreneurs

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase
Startups and entrepreneurs have the power to build technologies and creative solutions that transform the world and move us forward. Innovation is happening everywhere: There are approximately 400 million entrepreneurs across 54 countries, and 69 million early-stage entrepreneurs offering new products and services. As Google turns 14 this month, we’re celebrating this creative spirit and officially launching Google for Entrepreneurs, the umbrella for our several dozen programs and partnerships around the world that support startups and entrepreneurs.
Our focus is threefold:

  1. Partnerships with strong organizations that serve entrepreneurs in local communities
  2. Google-led programs to bring our teams and our tools directly to entrepreneurs
  3. Placing relevant Google tools in the hands of startups as they are getting off the ground and ready to scale

We’re already on a roll, with current projects ranging from support for the annual journey of entrepreneurship through India by train, to partnering with a number of accelerator and incubator programs around the world, like iHub in Kenya and Le Camping in France. And, this week, we’re rolling out our newest partnership: teaming up with Women 2.0 to bring their Founder Friday events to more cities. These events bring together current and aspiring female entrepreneurs once a month to connect with mentors and one another to build community. We’re partnering to launch Founder Fridays in Detroit, New Orleans, Sao Paulo and Moscow over the next year.
To celebrate both our birthday and the spirit of entrepreneurship that’s helped get us where we are today, we are hosting our first annual Google for Entrepreneurs Week, which will bring together more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and Googlers around the world. We kicked off over the weekend with a Startup Weekend event hosted at the Google Ventures Startup Lab in Mountain View, Calif., where Bay Area entrepreneurs came together to create their own startups in 54 hours. Over the course of the next week, Googlers in 28 cities across 13 countries will be hosting an event in their communities to bring their passion and expertise to local entrepreneurs. We’re teaming with a number of partners to make this happen, including the Idea Village in New Orleans, Communitech in Waterloo, Tetuan Valley in Wroclaw, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg and the Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce in Iowa.
For more on these existing programs and to stay connected on upcoming events, visit google.com/entrepreneurs and follow us on G+.
Posted by Mary Grove, Head of Global Entrepreneurship Outreach