Monthly Archives: June 2017

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Exposing Injustice at Walmart, Victory for NY Workers, & More!


A Better Balance
Headlines from the Frontlines—June 2017
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ABB Publishes Revealing Report on Walmart Practices
Last month, ABB, along with our partners, filed a national class action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of pregnant workers discriminated against by Walmart. This month, we published a new report, Pointing Out: How Walmart Unlawfully Punishes Workers for Medical Absences. The report, which has received significant media attention following an exclusive feature in The New York Times, is based on a survey of more than 1,000 current and former Walmart workers around the country. Drawing on their stories, it reveals how Walmart’s absence control system often runs afoul of federal, state, and local laws that protect workers who need time off to care for their own health needs or those of a family member. Senator Bernie Sanders and other prominent figures and organizations have shared the report, generating comments from Walmart workers across the country attesting to Walmart’s unjust, and in many cases illegal, practice of punishing workers for medical absences. We will continue to fight for change at Walmart so that no worker is forced to put their job before their health or their family.
A Fair Work Week Is Coming to New York City
In May, New York City became the third city to enact a package of Fair Work Week bills to tackle abusive scheduling practices.  New York City’s law which covers a large variety of practices that hurt workers focuses on two of the most ubiquitous and low-paying industries in the city—fast food and retail. ABB was deeply involved in drafting and steering these bills to passage. For fast food workers, these bills will require two weeks notice of schedules, allow for rest time between the last shift of the day and the first shift of the following day and guarantee first refusal to current workers when extra hours are offered by an employer. For retail workers, we are especially proud of Intro. 1387, which prohibits on-call scheduling for retail employees. This ground-breaking law will ensure that no retail workers have to hold their time open for potential shifts, lining up childcare, transportation, and other necessary arrangements to make themselves available, without any guarantee that they will get called into work or even be paid for their time. This is another sterling example of local government pushing ahead on progressive change despite a federal government in retrograde.
ABB Presents at New York State Perinatal Association Conference
Last week, ABB attended the New York State Perinatal Association’s 2017 conference in Albany, “Birth Outcomes Matter: Merging Research, Policy & Practice.” ABB Co-President Dina Bakst presented a training geared toward physicians on New York State’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, explaining that pregnant workers in New York have clear legal protections to help them stay healthy and on the job. The training included guidance on how to write an effective doctor’s note and other practical tips for physicians whose patients are facing challenges at work related to pregnancy. Bakst also explained how New York State’s new paid family leave program will work, once benefits begin on January 1, 2018.
Know Your Rights

ABB’s Director of the Southern Office Elizabeth Gedmark trained members of the Tennessee Breastfeeding Coalition at their quarterly meeting about federal and state breastfeeding legal protections for workers. Attendees, mostly public health professionals and healthcare providers, traveled from across the state to participate and ask ABB questions about the laws. The presentation paid particular attention to enforcement.
ABB Speaks at Research Forum
On June 7th, ABB participated in From Persistence to Power: Facts, Truth, & Equity for Women, a convening in Washington D.C. organized by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Spelman College’s Women’s Research & Resource Center, and the Wellesley Centers for Women. Jared Make, ABB’s Senior Staff Attorney, moderated a panel that examined opportunities to achieve paid sick days and paid family and medical leave through research and public policy. Jared also delivered remarks on the progress of the paid leave movement throughout the country, the importance of ensuring that cities can continue to lead on paid leave, and the need for inclusive and realistic family definitions in paid leave laws.

Victory for Workers and Local Democracy in Minnesota

Last year, ABB worked successfully with advocates in Minnesota to help research, draft, and win paid sick and safe time laws in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. In an anti-democratic attempt to undermine the will of voters and their elected officials in both cities, state lawmakers passed a bill that would have invalidated these important measures by stripping all Minnesota localities of their ability to pass workplace standards laws—like increases to the minimum wage as well as sick time—to protect workers and promote economic justice. On May 30th, in a tremendous victory for workers, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton vetoed the bill. This means that the Minneapolis and Saint Paul paid sick and safe time laws will take effect as planned. Our efforts along with other national partners to place op eds and obtain an editorial in the New York Times were important factors in the veto. But most of all, Governor Dayton’s veto is a victory for our partners and allies at TakeAction Minnesota who have worked so hard to make paid sick and safe time a reality in the Twin Cities.

Voices from the Clinic

“I was fired from my job, I was scared, I didn’t know what to do, it was unfair. ABB helped me and advised me and thanks to them I was able to get back on my feet. Thanks so much. Together we can succeed.”
— Jowell Soto, who was retaliated against by his employer for asserting his rights under New York City’s Earned Sick Time Act
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Three things to know this week


We are Working Washington

BossFeed Briefing for June 12, 2017. The special session of the State Legislature continues to continue this week… and continues to continue to not show any visible signs of progress towards agreement on a budget. Reports have recently been picking up that Republicans in the U.S. Senate may be close to reaching agreement on a healthcare repeal bill. And while paid holidays are not required under Federal law, BossFeed was in fact on vacation last week.

Catching up 

Three things to know this week:

scared Every previous U.S. Labor Department under every previous presidential administration has held that a worker’s immigration status does not affect their right to minimum wage and other labor standards. But workers and advocates are increasingly concerned this practice has changed, creating new barriers to enforcement, and effectively incentivizing wage theft.

Canadian flag Ontario, Canada is raising its provincial minimum wage to $15/hour, lifting pay for 675,000 workers. At the current exchange rate, $15 Canadian is about $11.14/hour in U.S. currency.

cart Amazon is offering discounted Prime memberships to people who receive any form of government assistance through an EBT card. About half of all U.S. households are currently Prime members.

Two things to ask:

ring But do they tip the catering staff? A “five-star wedding” runs about $5,000 a guest, according to people who work to organize the weddings of the ultra-rich, but reject the job title of “wedding planner” because they associate it with Jennifer Lopez. New-money clients sometimes hire consultants to provide social media and PR strategy for the weddings, while old money clients like fifth-generation Rockefellers supposedly “will put the au pairs and the nannies and whoever raised them at the head table.”

horse Anyone have any ideas? Vacation resorts charging up to $1,200 a night say they’re struggling to find staff who can maintain their high standards, and also tend to their horses. Seems like there must be something that could be raised the would make more workers interested in taking a given job, but the notion seems not to have occurred to the stressed-out luxury peddlers.

 

And one thing that’s worth a closer look:

zzzzzz Surveying the political landscape in Great Britain, anthropologist, political thinker, and early Occupy activist David Graeber asks if people can become bored of being hopeless. Graeber suggests that despite the many defeats of working class politics in the UK, the aftermath of the Great Recession there has provoked a return to utopian thinking. The provocative piece — even more valuable in view of last week’s strong electoral performance by Labour — touches on everything from steampunk to Scottish science fiction, asking if perhaps despair has run its course and we’re on the cusp of historic change.

 

Read this far?

tophat Consider yourself briefed, boss.

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NWLC to Betsy DeVos: We’re taking you to court


Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos won’t say whether her agency is doing anything to curb sexual harassment in schools. Did they think we would just let that slide?

We deserve to know if our schools are safe.

National Women’s Law Center v. United States Department of Education
Here at NWLC, we believe no one should be pushed out of school because they’ve experienced sexual harassment or assault. Yet that’s the heartbreaking reality for too many survivors when their schools ignore their obligations under Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded schools. With that in mind, we submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Department of Education this past January to learn whether and how the department has been handling investigations of sexual harassment and assault.

They refused to respond. Given Secretary DeVos’ ongoing failure to commit to Title IX enforcement—and Donald “When you’re a star, they let you do it” Trump’s terrible personal record on sexual assault, plus his administration’s poor civil rights record overall—their silence leaves us deeply concerned that this administration is doing nothing on behalf of survivors. That’s why we filed suit today, to compel them to live up to their legal responsibilities and turn over information about their sexual assault cases.

  • Read more about why we’re suing the U.S. Department of Education.
  • Share this graphic to spread the word: we deserve to know if they’re taking action to make sure our schools are safe.

Stopping the Attempt to Sneak Through a Dangerous Attack on Our Health Care
Late last week, it became clear that GOP leaders in Congress are moving at lightning speed to finalize their attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and gut the Medicaid program. So far, they’ve been keeping the bill language secret, but if they do what we expect, it would be devastating. Tens of millions of people will lose health care coverage, millions more could end up with insurance that doesn’t cover critical health care needs, like maternity care, and insurance plans could once again charge a survivor of breast cancer more for insurance. We’ve fought hard to get these protections written into law, and we refuse to go back to a time when simply being a woman was treated like a pre-existing condition.

#DisarmHate
Today marks a year since the killing of 49 and wounding of 58 members of the LGBTQ community at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. This coming Saturdaymarks two years since the massacre of nine Black worshippers at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. To honor the victims of these attacks and the nearly 300,000 hate crimes that happen in America each year, and to speak up for common sense solutions to our country’s horrific gun violence epidemic, we have joined with Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and a variety of organizations around the country to observe Disarm Hate Week.

  • A newly re-introduced bill in Congress would prohibit anyone convicted of a hate crime from purchasing or owning a gun. Read more about the bill in Newsweek.
  • Speak out: Use the hashtag #DisarmHate to join the conversation about how to end gun violence and hate crimes.
  • Members of the LGBTQ, Muslim, Latinx communities and allies are coming together to demonstrate unity in remembrance of the Pulse victims. Read why.

Resistance Must-Reads

 

We the Resistance is our fight to protect our rights and freedoms and to defend the most vulnerable among us through powerful collective action. Every conversation you have with a loved one about the issues important to you, every call you make to Congress, every rally you attend is a part of that resistance. Join us — sign on to the We The Resistance manifesto.
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on this day … 6/12 1963 – Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS.


1099 – Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.

1442 – Alfonso V of Aragon was crowned King of Naples.

1665 – England installed a municipal government in New York. It was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.

1812 – Napoleon’s invasion of Russia began.

1838 – The Iowa Territory was organized.

1839 – Abner Doubleday created the game of baseball, according to the legend.

1849 – Lewis Haslett patented a gas mask. (Patent US6529 A)

1897 – Carl Elsener patented his penknife. The object later became known as the Swiss army knife.

1898 – Philippine nationalists declared their independence from Spain.

1900 – The Reichstag approved a second law that would allow the expansion of the German navy.

1901 – Cuba agreed to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.

1912 – Lillian Russel retired from the stage and was married for the fourth time.

1918 – The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurred on World War I’s Western Front in France.

1921 – U.S. President Warren Harding urged every young man to attend military training camp.

1923 – Harry Houdini, while suspended upside down 40 feet above the ground, escaped from a strait jacket.

1926 – Brazil quit the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.

1935 – U.S. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words.

1935 – The Chaco War was ended with a truce. Bolivia and Paraguay had been fighting since 1932.

1937 – The Soviet Union executed eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin.

1939 – The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.

1941 – In London, the Inter-Allied Declaration was signed. It was the first step towards the establishment of the United Nations.

1944 – Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung announced that he would support Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japan.

1948 – Ben Hogan won his first U.S. Open golf classic.

1963 – “Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.

1963 – Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS.

1967 – State laws which prohibited interracial marriages were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1971 – Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden.

1975 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was found guilty of corrupt election practices in 1971.

1979 – Bryan Allen flew the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.

1981 – Major league baseball players began a 49 day strike. The issue was free-agent compensation.

1981 – “Raiders of the Lost Ark” opened in the U.S.

1982 – 75,000 people rallied against nuclear weapons in New York City’s Central Park. Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt were in attendance.

1985 – Wayne “The Great One” Gretsky was named winner of the NHL’s Hart Trophy. The award is given to the the league Most Valuable Player.

1985 – The U.S. House of Representatives approved $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan contras.

1986 – South Africa declared a national state of emergency. Virtually unlimited power was given to security forces and restrictions were put on news coverage of the unrest.

1987 – U.S. President Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

1990 – The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty.

1991 – Russians went to the election polls and elected Boris N. Yeltsin as the president of their republic.

1991 – The Chicago Bulls won their first NBA championship. The Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one.

1992 – In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Russian Boris Yeltsin stated that in the early 1950’s the Soviet Union had shot down nine U.S. planes and held 12 American survivors.

1996 – In Philadelphia a panel of federal judges blocked a law against indecency on the internet. The panel said that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.

1997 – Interleague play began in baseball, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series.

1997 – The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant.

1998 – Compaq Computer paid $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corp. in largest high-tech acquisition.

1999 – NATO peacekeeping forces entered the province of Kosovo in Yugoslavia.

2003 – In Arkansas, Terry Wallis spoke for the first time in nearly 19 years. Wallis had been in a coma since July 13, 1984, after being injured in a car accident.

2009 – In the U.S., The switch from analog TV transmission to digital was completed.

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Ban Horse Drawn Carriages in Nashville


Petitioning Mayor Megan Barry, Vice Mayor David Briley, John Cooper, Erica Gilmore, Bob Mendes, Sharon Hurt, Jim Shulman, Nick Leonardo, DeCosta Hastings, Brenda Haywood, Robert Swope, Scott Davis, Brett Withe…

Ban Horse Drawn Carriages in Nashville
Petition by Nashville Animal Advocacy
70,405
Supporters
Sign the petition
Horse drawn carriages used to be one of the few forms of transportation. Now, they’re a nostalgic commodity, a novelty often placed in high-traffic tourist spots—such as the ones we all see in our own downtown Nashville. You’ve seen them, the horses with hanging heads and foaming mouths; maybe you’ve even wondered when the last time was they drank water during a sweltering summer day. That may have been your concern, but it wasn’t the concern of those filling their pockets from exploiting these sensitive animals.

The horses pulling these money-making carriages are exposed to a variety of harmful conditions. Think about all the traffic we see downtown, all the exhaust spewing from these cars and into the horse’s air. Many carriage horses develop respiratory ailments from persistent exposure to manmade pollutants, such as the car exhaust. These horses are made to walk for hours and hours on hard pavement; this often leads to leg and hooves problems. And that horse who you thought might be thirsty? He/she may have died from heatstroke or dehydration—there are many documented cases of horses falling dead from weather conditions or a lack of attending to their most basic needs.

It isn’t just the horses who suffer either. The safety of both Nashville residents and tourists is at risk every time a horse is used in this exploitative manner. Several people have seen the carriages blatantly run through red lights, often narrowly avoiding an accident. An accident involving a horse-drawn carriage and any type of vehicle—be it your own car, a sightseeing bus, or any other form of public transit—would be both devastating in terms of loss and damage, but would also be a gruesome tragedy drawing all the wrong attention to our city known for music and honkey tonks. Don’t let it be recognized for animal abuse.

Let’s face it, Nashville. This is cruelty, not entertainment. Our city has multiple transportation methods that are fun for everyone—and still feed our city’s commerce and growth. Tell our city officials you want this abuse to end now.