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Help Close the Pregnancy Loophole …Emily J. Martin, National Women’s Law Center


National Women's Law Center
 
 
     
                  Help Close the Pregnancy Loophole  
     
 

 
     
                  Tell your Representative to co-sponsor the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to ensure that pregnant women are treated fairly on the job.  
     
  Call (202) 224-3121 today!  
     

Yes it’s true: In 2012, getting pregnant can still cost you your job.
Thanks to a gap opened between discrimination laws and disability laws by court decisions, some employers are refusing to accommodate even simple requests that help workers maintain a healthy pregnancy.
Here are three startling examples of women who, thanks to the pregnancy loophole, were fired for doing what was best for their pregnancies:

  • A retail sales associate in Salina, Kansas was fired for drinking water while working because it violated store policy.
  • A nursing home activities director in Valparaiso, Indiana lost her job because she could no longer lift heavy tables, an activity that took up less than 10 minutes of her workday and with which her coworkers routinely volunteered to assist.
  • A pregnant truck driver in Tennessee was instructed by her obstetrician not to lift more than 20 pounds and sought light duty work. Her employer terminated her, as it made such modifications only to those injured on the job.

Sounds crazy, right? Unfortunately, thousands of pregnant women are forced to choose between losing their jobs (or taking unpaid leave) and endangering their pregnancies, when just a few small workplace accommodations are usually all that’s needed.
To close this egregious pregnancy loophole, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was introduced today in the House of Representatives by Reps. Nadler (D-NY) and a number of his colleagues. To give this bill a solid start, we need as many Representatives to co-sponsor this bill as possible.
Will you take 3 minutes to call your Representative and ask them to co-sponsor the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act? Calling is easy to do.

  1. Call (202) 224-3121.
  2. Tell the operator who answers the phone the name of your Representative. (Not sure? Look it up here.)
  3. Once you are connected to the office of your Representative, tell the staff person who answers:
    • Your name, that you are a constituent from (city, state).
    • I am calling to ask you to co-sponsor the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. It’s time to close the pregnancy loophole and ensure that pregnant women are treated fairly on the job.
    • Thank you.
  4. Hang up and ask your friends or co-workers to make a call as well.

Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
 
Emily J. Martin   Emily J. Martin Vice President and General Counsel National Women’s Law Center     

P.S. Want to learn more? Read the Op-Ed in The New York Times that inspired this bill. And check out a fact sheet on the bill from the National Women’s Law Center.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

good Information caught on tape


2012 by

The White House Office of Public Engagement honors 11 individuals from Head Start programs across the country who have demonstrated a commitment to delivering on the promise of Head Start in their local communities. Over 45 years after its inception, Head Start continues to serve as a national laboratory for how we think about educating and caring for our youngest, most vulnerable children. June 18, 2012.

Jun 18, 2012 by

Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting, previews President Obama’s trip to Mexico for the 2012 G20 Summit.

~ Recent Post

AFL – CIO

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when shared with others. That’s why we wanted you to be the first to see and share this new image about devastating policies that reward corporations for shipping good jobs offshore.

Click here now to share this picture with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

50,000 manufacturing facilities gone. 6 million jobs lost. Chronic trade deficits. Record cash hoarding by the largest U.S. non-financial companies. These are all results of the troubling economic policies some of our lawmakers have passed and defended.

These policies have outsourced jobs and rewarded corporations with taxpayers’ money while they ship production, jobs and innovation overseas. Wall Street bankers and CEOs have filled their pockets while the rest of us have picked up the pieces.

This month and beyond, working families across the country will call on lawmakers and corporations to bring good jobs home and invest in America again, instead of shipping away our future.

We will tell you about events and actions during the weeks ahead. But right now, you can help by sharing the above graphic on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

It’s time we brought good jobs home and made new our commitment to Made in America. Do your part by sharing this image at the link below:

http://bit.ly/KYaSUt

In Solidarity,
Nicole Aro
AFL-CIO Digital Strategies

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Stop the African hunger games …Baaba Maal – Avaaz.org


18 million people are desperate for food in Africa’s drought-struck Sahel, but urgent appeals for help are being met with deafening silence by governments worldwide. Senegalese musician Baaba Maal has started a petition to get the US, Japan, France and Germany to pledge their fair share of aid. Let’s join him— sign the urgent petition below and sound the massive alarm needed to shake these leaders into action:

Sign the petition

My name is Baaba Maal    …

 I’m a Senegalese musician writing with a personal plea for help. I live in Africa’s drought-struck Sahel region where 18 million people are on the brink of disaster, including 1 million children at risk of starvation. But our urgent appeals for help are being met with deafening silence. Only a targeted and overwhelming demand for action can stop this catastrophe from turning deadly.

The UN says millions of lives could be destroyed unless $1.5 billion in aid is channeled in immediately, but governments have pledged less than half the required sum. The countries who can make all the difference are the US, Japan, France and Germany, but they’re stalling — that’s why I started a petition on Avaaz‘s Community Petitions website to appeal to the world for help.

In days, world leaders will gather in Brussels to discuss the Sahel — if they decide right there and then to pledge their fair share, we can avert disaster. Sign this urgent petition now — Avaaz, Africans Act 4 Africa, and Oxfam will deliver it in a coordinated stunt when we reach 1 million signatures:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_grain_sacks_are_empty/?biEWLbb&v=15195

Terrible drought, political unrest, and sky high food prices have wreaked havoc on an area the size of the US, stretching from Senegal in the west all the way to Sudan in the east. People here are doing everything they can to survive, but the crisis has hit so hard that it’s difficult to stay hopeful. I’ve seen women and children trying to grow food in patches of land that are bone dry. They know that people are talking about what is happening in the Sahel, but they don’t know if aid will ever arrive.

The UN has only received 43 percent of the $1.5 billion needed — it’s a shortfall of gargantuan proportions. But this gap must be filled, and can be filled by the world’s richest countries, if there’s political will. We don’t have much time to avert mass suffering, and I’m determined to speak on behalf of the people here until they get the help they need.

The world has turned a blind eye to crises like this before, but this time we can make the difference between life and death by forcing our governments to respond. Sign this urgent petition now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_grain_sacks_are_empty/?biEWLbb&v=15195

Avaaz members have come together time and time again to respond to natural disasters, saving thousands of lives by ensuring that crucial aid was delivered to Burma, Haiti, Somalia and Pakistan. We have the power to force our leaders to stop idling away in the face of a crisis we can prevent. Let’s stand together now to demand that the world respond to the pleas of the millions living in the vast Sahel region.

With hope and determination,

Baaba Maal, with the Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

A distress call from Africa’s Sahel: Millions might starve (CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/05/world/africa/sahel-hunger/index.html

UN: 18 Million in West Africa to Go Hungry in 2012 (The Associated Press)
http://news.yahoo.com/un-18-million-west-africa-hungry-2012-142100935.html

Meeting of like minds can save the hungry millions in Sahel (Sydney Morning Herald)
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/meeting-of-like-minds-can-save-the-hungry-millions-in-sahel-20120529-1zgm8.html

Baaba Maal: people in the Sahel region need food and water now (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/25/baaba-maal-sahel-food-water

Coming weeks critical to tackle Sahel hunger – U.N. humanitarian chief (AlertNet)
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/coming-weeks-critical-to-tackle-sahel-hunger-un-humanitarian-chief

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