Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

No woman should have to choose between her job & a healthy pregnancy
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Dear Friend,
No woman should have to choose between a job and a healthy pregnancy. Yet 35 years after passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), this happens all the time.
Yesterday, A Better Balance was on Capitol Hill, along with physicians, business leaders, and other women’s rights advocates with the same message: support the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. In 2013, it’s unacceptable that pregnancy discrimination continues to jeopardize families’ financial security and health at a critical time. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is common-sense legislation that would prevent employers from forcing pregnant women off the job.
Please show your support by joining our tweet chat today at 2pm ET (use the hashtag #PWFA & follow @ABetterBalance)
“When I pulled a muscle at six months pregnant, my doctor advised that I temporarily avoid heavy lifting while working for a trucking company on Long Island.  My boss took one look at the note and sent me home without pay indefinitely; the result was devastating.” –Armanda Legros
As Armanda says, “no woman should have to go through what I did. Millions of women across the state are waiting for these protections.” We will continue to fight in New York State and across the country so that all pregnant women and mothers are afforded the fair and equal treatment they deserve.
Thank you for all your support,
The ABB Team: Sherry, Dina, Phoebe, Jared, Elizabeth, Liz, Risha, & Rachel
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

New Airline Rules: You May Be Able to Use Electronic Devices from Gate-to-Gate


airplane-cartoonThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given airlines the ability to expand the use of personal electronic devices for passengers on board. That means you could soon be able to listen to your music or read books on an e-reader from gate-to-gate on your flight.

Individual airlines will have the ability to determine when it is safe for passengers to use their electronic devices.

Learn more about the decision.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

“You killed my mother.”


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“My mother died from your cancer. You killed my mother.” His voice didn’t waver as he fought back bitter tears standing face-to-face with Chevron CEO John Watson, somehow all the while maintaining a tenacity and grace rarely seen.

Meet Servio Curipoma, a cacao farmer from the oil-ravaged town of San Carlos, Ecuador. I’ll never forget when I met him. From the banks of a slickened black pit on his property that skirts the thick jungle, he humbly shared with me his story.

You killed my mother

Or perhaps you’ve been with us for a while and remember one of multiple occasions when Servio bravely traveled north to the US, bringing us to the edge of our seats with his deeply personal story of how Chevron devastated his rainforest homelands and caused a public health crisis that continues today. Servio lost both his parents and a sister to cancer, which doctors have attributed to drinking water contaminated by toxic crude waste. Rather than wallow in anger, he has risen to become a relentless voice for his community, demanding that Chevron take responsibility for the contamination that wreaked havoc on his family.

Servio’s story – and the stories of the 30,000 other people affected by Chevron’s atrocities – literally stopped me short while living in Ecuador and on a different life-trajectory. It’s why I do this work, and very real stories like this from across the Amazon basin are why Amazon Watch exists. Servio shines among the people Amazon Watch joins forces with daily – some of the most dignified and wise beings I’ve ever met – and he’s just one of the many courageous warriors fighting for what most of us take for granted every day: clean water and the health of our families.

Over coming weeks we’ll bring you in-depth features of some of our most committed champions – we hope you’ll take the time to get to know them too. It’s just one way that you can glimpse a little deeper the lives of true heroes fighting for the rainforest, the reality of what’s happening in the Amazon, and how Amazon Watch is working to make a real difference with your support.

For the Amazon,

Caroline Bennett
Caroline Bennett
Communications Director
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Americans Agree: It’s Time for Equality at Work


By 

While a growing number of states are moving forward with marriage equality (Hawaii and Illinois could become the next two very soon), “there are no state laws in 29 states that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, and in 33 states that do so based on gender identity.”

(You can check out real stories of LGBT people impacted by workplace discriminationHERE.)

Thankfully, on Monday the Senate will take up the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to make such discrimination illegal from coast to coast. This will help protect the nation’s 8 million LGBT workers from employment discrimination, whether they live in Manhattan or Manhattan, Kansas.

The bill has the support of all 55 Senate Democrats and is co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Susan Collins (ME) and Mark Kirk (IL). Two other Republican Senators, Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Orrin Hatch (UT), voted for ENDA in committee, leaving it just one vote shy of the necessary 60 votes. Supporters are optimistic that at least one more Republican will support the bill when it comes to a vote next week.

As the infographic below demonstrates, Americans overwhelmingly support ENDA, including majorities of voters in every U.S. state, as well as majorities of Republicans, independents, and Democrats nationwide.

ENDA_final
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

SeaTac business owners say they may leave if Prop. 1 passes ~~ the other Washington


Chip in $5 today and help us fight for a living wage

This summer, fast food workers across the country demanded higher wages. This fall, a small city in South King County is in the national spotlight in the battle for a living wage. 1

SeaTac Proposition 1, the Good Jobs Initiative, deals with fair labor practices and the minimum wage. It will raise the minimum wage for more than 6,000 transportation and hospitality workers and give them common sense benefits, like paid sick leave.

Dozens of Democratic officeholders have endorsed SeaTac Proposition 1, including Rep. Adam Smith, King County Executive Dow Constantine, and Speaker Frank Chopp. 2

Providing a living wage shouldn’t be such a radical idea. The problem is… we haven’t kept our bargain with wage earners.

Earlier this year Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) shared this information during a Labor and Pensions hearing:

“If we started in 1960 and we said that as productivity goes up, that is as workers are producing more, then the minimum wage is going to go up the same. And if that were the case then the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour.” – Senator Elizabeth Warren

Large corporations located in the SeaTac area are fighting tooth and nail to defeat Proposition 1. If Democratic voters in the area turn out, we will succeed in requiring corporations to pay a fair, equitable living wage.

Less than a week to go. Chip in $5, $10, $25, or whatever you can afford and join us as we fight for Washington’s workers.

Many thanks,

Dwight Pelz Washington State Democrats Chair

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/us/in-washington-state-home-of-highest-minimum-wage-a-city-aims-higher.html?_r=0 2 http://yesforseatac.com/twenty-leading-democrats-endorse-seatac-proposition-1/