FDA/USDA ~~ August 2017 Alerts&Safety


BossFeed Briefing ~ workingwa.org


We are Working Washington

BossFeed Briefing for August 7, 2017. Last Tuesday was Primary election day, with fairly low turnout in local races across the state. Last Wednesday was a national Amazon job fair, which drew about 50,000 people to wait on line across the country for the chance to apply for warehouse jobs. This Tuesday marks the anniversary of the invention of the electric washing machine, which transformed domestic labor. And the entire state is currently in the midst of a heat wave, sparking a host of national reports loaded with cliches about flannel, salmon, coffee, and grunge.


The Chicken Littles come home to roost 

NYT Headline

Three things to know this week:

laughing-crying In 2013, the Seattle Times Editorial Board wrote that if SeaTac voters passed the nation’s first $15 law, “forget about anyone ever building another hotel in the city of SeaTac.” Workers won the election anyway, and in 2017 the New York Times reported that nine hotels are currently under construction in the city.

fire Burien’s sanctuary city ordinance remains in place for now after a productively rowdy City Council meeting. Immigrant rights supporters successfully urged Councilmembers to delay voting on a ballot measure that would abolish the human rights ordinance, which the Council passed earlier this year.

shell Taylor Shellfish is paying $160,000 and adopting new training and other policies to settle racial discrimination claims by an African-American mechanic who worked at their Samish Bay farm. The EEOC found he faced discrimination from his first day of work, including being consistently assigned to the worst jobs, having profanities screamed at him, and then being retaliated against by managers after bringing his treatment to their attention.

Two things to ask:

car Who are they going to sue now? A Federal judge has dismissed a Chamber of Commerce lawsuit which had aimed to strike down Seattle’s law providing Uber, Lyft, and other drivers the right to organize. The law remains enjoined until a second case is decided.

ballot box Could it happen here? Five hundred people who work in the cafeteria at Facebook headquarters in California have voted to form a union. It’s the latest victory in a surge of successful organizing by service workers in Silicon Valley, who are generally paid low wages to serve wildly rich companies while living in one of the most expensive parts of the country.

 

And one thing that’s worth a closer look:

doctor August 1st was Black Women’s equal pay day, marking how far into the year it takes for black women’s income to finally catch up to what white men earned the previous year. As detailed by Casey Quinlan in Think Progress, the wage gap persists at every level of education and just about every occupation: black women who have advanced degrees make $7/hour less than white men who only have a bachelor’s degree and black women doctors average $18/hour less than white male doctors. We’re not making progress very fast either; at the current rate of change, we won’t achieve equal pay until 2124.

 

Read this far?

tophat Consider yourself briefed, boss.

Tell the Trump Administration: Respect Students’ Civil Rights


For over a half-century, girls, women, LGBTQ youth, students of color, and students with disabilities have won significant battles in the fight for full recognition of our civil rights, including the right to get an education free of discrimination and harassment.

But now the Trump administration is working to reverse decades of progress through wide-ranging attacks on laws that protect students’ civil rights. From appointing extreme and unqualified Cabinet officials like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to proposing deep budget cuts that will hamstring crucial civil rights agencies, they are working overtime to undermine the ideal of “freedom and justice for all.” Their latest target? Rules that require schools to provide equal educational opportunities to all students. But we can stop them, if we act right now.

Tell the Trump Administration: Respect students’ civil rights. Keep all current civil rights regulations and guidance in place.

Take Action

Civil rights laws protect students from discrimination on the basis of sex (Title IX); race, color and national origin (Title VI); and disability (Americans with Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). They are critical to ensuring that all students have the right to learn. That’s why the Department of Education has longstanding rules and regulations that require educators to do right by students and explain what schools must do to follow these laws. For example, these regulations and guidance documents provide schools with commonsense guidelines for addressing harassment based on race and offering accommodations for students who have disabilities, are pregnant or parenting, are learning English, and who have survived sexual assault. And the Department of Education is supposed to hold schools who fail to follow these laws accountable.

But instead, under the guise of “eliminating burdensome regulations,” the Trump administration is attacking these rules. They’re ignoring the benefits of eradicating sexism, racism, ableism, and other forms of bigotry from our schools, colleges, and universities. And they’re ignoring the fact that these laws and regulations were created to give all students — no matter their background or circumstances — a fair shot at learning and thriving. We can’t let them get away with it. The more of us who submit comments explaining why we believe these regulations must stay, the harder it will be to change them.

Thanks in advance for defending students’ civil rights by sending a comment today.

Sincerely,
Neena Chaudhry
Director of Education
National Women’s Law Center

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.

The changejustice project ~ Jon Perri


Did you know that you’re one of Change.org’s most active signers on criminal justice reform? In fact, you’ve signed over 50 petitions just in the the last year! That’s why you’re the first to hear about our new project, changejustice.I’m Jon Perri, Change.org’s Director of Campaigns & Partnerships and the photo below is of me and Sharanda Jones. Sharanda was given a life sentence for a first time nonviolent drug offense and served nearly 17 years before receiving clemency from President Obama.

For over two years I helped her daughter with a Change.org petition that nearly 300,000 people signed. When she was finally free, those supporters raised over $25,000 to help her start her new life. That’s the kind of impact I want to see more of.

Through our new changejustice project, you’ll hear directly from people like Sharanda who served mandatory minimum sentences, from members of Congress working to improve the system, and from key organizations working on the most important pieces of legislation. It won’t just be petitions — we’ll send you powerful photos, videos, interviews and more to help you make the biggest impact on criminal justice reform.

The changejustice project launches soon, but one simple way you can support it right now is just by following us on Facebook and Twitter where you’ll find news, petitions, research, and more. Please follow us.

Follow us on Facebook
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Thank you,Jonathan Perri
Director, Campaigns & Partnerships
Change.org

The kind of leader we need ~ Alliance for Gun Responsibility


 

Alliance for Gun Responsibility
– with Donald Trump in the White House and politicians backed by the gun lobby controlling Congress, the best way to pass commonsense gun responsibility legislation is by doing it right here, in states like Washington.

That’s why we need your help: to take back the state legislature this November and achieve gun responsibility reform that will save lives. But POLITICO reports that right-wing groups are ready to spend big to defeat us.

Manka Dhingra’s race for state Senate in Washington’s 45th District is the only one in America that can flip control of an entire Legislature, but we’re falling short of our $10,000 goal and time’s running out before the deadline. We need you to give $5 or more right now to help stand up to the gun lobby in Washington and take back the state legislature.

Click here to give $5 or more right now to stand up to the gun lobby and take back control of the state legislature.
Manka Dhingra is one of the strongest gun responsibility advocates in the state of Washington – we desperately need to put control of the Senate in the hands of leaders like her who are ready to take on the gun lobby. But she’s counting on Alliance supporters like you:

Organizations like the Alliance are critical to helping build grassroots power to help advance legislation, and make sure we have leaders in our state willing to stand up for safety and well-being. - Manka Dhingra, Candidate for State Senate in Washington's 45th District

This election is CRUCIAL for taking back the state legislature and standing up to President Trump. But we’re counting on you to give now, every dollar you can, to have the resources to win:

If you’ve saved payment info with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: