The way we see it, the candidates running for office in Seattle are basically applying for a job working for us — the people they want to represent!

That’s why we invited them to fill out “job applications” for the positions.

Click here to check out job applications from the candidates for Seattle Mayor and City Council. Then, click the link on the page to rate the applications & let us know what you think!

Thanks for your help!
– Working Washington

P.S. Submitted your ratings & want to get more involved? Reply to this email & we’ll get you plugged in!

workingwa.org

Citizens of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore wake up every morning during the rainforest burning season, look out

their windows, and see the the haze. As they drive their kids to school, they can barely see the next car. The young and the infirm in their family struggle to breathe.

This smoke comes from fires set several thousands of miles away. The fires are so huge, smoke spreads millions of square miles across South East Asia. Studies indicate that as many as 100,000 people die, every year, from the toxic haze created during Indonesia’s man-made, rainforest burning season.

If that wasn’t bad enough, this toxic smoke also accelerates climate change.

Every year, these fires are set intentionally in Indonesian rainforests to quickly clear land for industrial plantations that grow Conflict Palm Oil. These fires release more CO2 than all emissions from the United States combined. If we want to stop the increasing incidents of extreme weather events, or halt the accelerating refugee crises due to droughts and famines, then we need to stop the destructive production of Conflict Palm Oil now.

RAN’s strategy is clear: We go after the biggest corporations which are responsible for this climate and forest destruction. When the largest companies within a sector are forced to change their policy, smaller companies follow suit — thus shifting the entire industry. That is why we are shaming and blaming PepsiCo’s CEO Indra Nooyi at every public event at which she speaks. We know she and PepsiCo have a massive impact on the palm oil market. And we know they will buckle soon, like several other major brands have in our 30 year history. We have been called one of the most radical organizations because we go after the biggest targets. But that’s also why we are one of the most effective organizations doing this work.

In this crucial time of our campaign against Conflict Palm Oil we need your support to keep this work going. Any size donation, made today, can help us ensure the future of our children, our planet, and all of the biodiversity we love so much.

For people and planet

Ginger

Ginger Cassady
Forest Campaign Director
Rainforest Action Network
http://www.ran.org/

BossFeed Briefing for September 11, 2017. Last Monday was Labor Day, the one day on the calendar that’s officially set aside to honor workers (though many people still have to work that day). Last Tuesday, the Justice Department announced they would halt any legal defense of the Obama-era rule allowing more people to qualify for overtime pay. Last Thursday, Amazon.com announced they are going to build a second headquarters somewhere else in the US, while they still continue to invest and grow in Seattle. That same day, Spokane city officials announced they regretted the decision they made the previous week to use large boulders to move homeless people.

A week 

Notice posted at a Florida Pizza Hut, tweeted by @uhwpa

Three things to know this week:

 More than three years after SeaTac workers helped spark a national movement when they won a $15/hour living wage at the ballot box, workers at Hertz and Thrifty Car Rental have won a settlement of nearly $2 million. The figure covers backpay and interest for the time after the law passed when the employers were fighting in court instead of paying a living wage.

 Canada has officially proposed that the U.S. and Mexico agree to improve labo(u)r standards as part of a renegotiated NAFTA agreement. The Canadian government argues that low-road employers in the U.S. and Mexico have an unfair advantage over Canadian employers because of lower wage and benefit rates.

 When a worker in Tacoma files a complaint over a violation of the city’s paid sick days law, the city can investigate the entire workplace. As a result of this approach, Tacoma has recovered $595,000 for workers in the last 18 months — which may be why the local Chamber of Commerce wants the city to drop it.

Two things to ask:

 How can we bring our rights into reality? Seattle nanny Nikole Larsson and security officer Khalid Elmi marked Labor Day by sharing their thoughts about the best way to deliver on the promise of our workers’ rights laws and set new standards. Nikole & Khalid know from their own experience that we can’t just rely on the law to enforce itself.

 What if our laws weren’t terrible? As many Texans and Floridians have learned recently, it is alas generally legal for your boss to fire you if you miss work on account of fleeing a hurricane. Sounds like another law we need to get lined up with expectations of basic decency.

And one thing that’s worth a closer look:

 A long and revealing new analysis of the gig economy from JP Morgan Chase finds that while more and more people are making money from online platforms, growth is slowing. Monthly individual earnings from these platforms have fallen since a June 2014 peak of about $1200, and turnover is remarkably high: more than half of people working in what they call the Online Platform Economy stop doing that work within a year. There’s a ton of different conflicting reports and datasets out there on the gig economy, and research from big banks is always worth being wary about. But this piece is still worth a closer look on account of its uniquely large 240,000-person dataset and detailed, approachable analysis.

Read this far?

 Consider yourself briefed, boss.