Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture
Brittney Berry: Low Pay Is Not Ok
I’m Brittney Berry of the organization Low Pay Is Not Ok, and I started a petition to U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez which says:
Four out of five fast-food workers have been burned on the job—most repeatedly, many badly.1 To make matters worse, many fast-food restaurants don’t even have a properly-equipped and accessible first aid kit and try to treat workers’ injuries with mustard and other condiments instead of getting them the treatment they need. It is unconscionable that fast-food companies value their own profits over basic safety for their workers. I urge you to investigate the fast-food industry’s failure to provide safe working conditions or proper treatment for severe injuries.
An expectant mother is told by her manager to treat a bad boiling-water burn with mustard. Mustard.
A fast-food worker gets third-degree burns from a blisteringly hot, totally unsafe fry lamp.
A cook sears the entire palm of his hand on a too-hot grill—and his supervisor makes him work for hours before getting it treated.
This is the truth about the serious, painful and often permanent injuries that occur every single day in fast-food kitchens across the country. Dangerous conditions, insane “first-aid treatments” like mustard and butter on burns, and poor management have led to this: Four out of five fast-food workers have been burned, most repeatedly. That’s 2.8 million workers burned this year.2
Call on the Department of Labor to investigate an industry that is putting millions of fast-food workers’ health and safety at risk every day.
Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.
Thanks!
–Brittney
Sources:
1. “Survey Of Fast Food Workers: Some Bosses Told Employees To Use Condiments As Medical Supplies”, CBS New York, March 17, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=303566&id=109984-17809870-sW0blux&t=1
2. Ibid.
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Davan, L.A. Times
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| Today’s Headlines |
A Cuban tale
As a Cuban Jew, Frida Zaitman could have left many times. “I could have gone to Israel; they pay everything,” she says. She stays not so much out of loyalty to a land that gave her family refuge from the Holocaust. Her touchstone is her friendship with Magda Danger, an 88-year-old Afro-Cuban. Tracy Wilkinson weaves together a poignant and peculiarly Cuban story.
Light a candle for this “botánica”
If you’ve visited downtown L.A. lately, you may have noticed that Latino businesses are being replaced by stores catering to the new DTLA (as hipsters call it) gentry. Farmacia Million Dollar, which sells bath washes, statues and candles for people seeking solutions to everyday worries, is the latest mainstay on the Broadway corridor battling for survival. Read Brittny Mejia’s story on a changing downtown.
He made Singapore Inc.
Once asked whether straight-laced Singapore — where even chewing gum was barred — would ever lighten up, Lee Kuan Yew replied: “I hope never…. We’d have more poor people in the streets… more drugs, more crime, more single mothers and delinquent children, a troubled society and a poor economy.” That’s vintage Lee, who died Sunday at 91. Read how he transformed a backwater city-state into one of the world’s most successful business centers.
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Tennessee State Alum helps Immigrant helps others adjust to new life in Nashville
That’s where Hassan fell in love with the idea of helping other new Americans, and he went to Tennessee State University to get a degree in political science. His entire college tuition was paid for with a few grants and two part-time jobs.
Since graduating, Hassan has started a consulting company to help other new Americans, and he has purchased a coffee shop where fellow Africans gather. Hassan spends many hours outside work helping those who have recently immigrated to Nashville.
“My favorite part of coming to America – leaving a place where there were no options in life, coming to a place that is increasingly challenging and rewarding at the same time,” he said.
“Here, despite challenges, you are the driver of your destiny.”
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Anthony Carbajal via Change.org
I was diagnosed with ALS last year, which means I have 2-5 years to live. But a new drug could save my life – please help me convince the FDA to allow ALS patients like me to have early access to this life-saving medication.
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