Tag Archives: Arizona

” WALMART: SUPERCENTER” by alphageek is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Dear Friend,

Breaking news! Walmart has bowed to pressure from A Better Balance and our allies to improve its policies for pregnant workers! This is a huge development for low-wage working women. As detailed in the Washington Post, “anytime the world’s biggest retailer changes how it treats its workforce–especially women, with whom the company has a fraught history–the rest of the industry tends to take notice.”

The path to this victory began with an email to A Better Balance in 2012. We heard from Brittany,* a 28-weeks-pregnant Walmart worker who was sent home because she needed a modest accommodation on the job in order to stay healthy. Alarmed by this story, we sent a letter to Walmart’s general counsel, outlining the ways in which Walmart’s treatment of pregnant workers violated the law. After further investigation, ABB, joined by the National Women’s Law Center, and Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, filed a class action pregnancy discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Walmart and its discriminatory policy.

“Three months before my baby was born, Walmart forced me out the door,” said Kathy,* the Walmart sales associate at the center of the EEOC charge who was seven months pregnant when Walmart refused to accommodate her restrictions despite routinely accommodating workers with a wide array of non-pregnancy-related disbailities. “I was doing my job as a sales associate just as I had been for months, but suddenly I lost the paycheck that my family was counting on—simply because I was pregnant.”

What happened to Kathy and Brittany is part of a larger national trend at Walmart, in which pregnant workers are treated like second-class citizens in violation of the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

After we filed our charge with the EEOC and after two Walmart workers proposed a shareholder resolution, with our assistance, demanding changes, Walmart announced its new Accommodation in Employment policy, which now explicitly states that temporary disabilities caused by pregnancy are eligible for the same reasonable accommodations as other disabilities.

Although a major win, this policy change does not go far enough: Walmart can continue to evade its legal obligations and force pregnant workers off the job if they are not considered “disabled” under the policy.

“While we are enthusiastic about this policy change, there is still work to be done,” said Dina Bakst, Co-Founder & Co-President of A Better Balance. “Over and over again, Walmart has failed to accommodate pregnant workers. Many pregnant women without illnesses or complications are advised by their doctors to stay off tall ladders, drink water throughout the day, or take other steps to prevent health problems. Walmart must further update its policy to make clear that it will provide reasonable accommodations for all pregnant workers who need them, regardless of whether they are ‘disabled.’ The Pregnancy Discrimination Act mandates equal treatment, nothing less, and we will continue to fight until Walmart obeys the law in full. No woman should have to choose between her job and a healthy pregnancy.”

We are thrilled that our efforts will assist hundreds of thousands of pregnant Walmart associates across the country, and we will continue pushing for broader reform. Click here to read the Washington Post’s story about our work on this case and please share this story with your friends.

Thank you for all that you do,

Sherry, Dina, Phoebe, Jared, Elizabeth, Risha, Liz, & Rachel

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Food Safety

01/08/2015 Nativegrl77

Each year, roughly 1 in 6 people in the US gets sick from eating contaminated food. The 1,000 or more reported outbreaks that happen each year reveal familiar culprits—Salmonella and other common germs. We know that reducing contamination works.

Remember to practice food safety.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The 114th

01/07/2015 Nativegrl77

This afternoon, members of the 114th Congress of the United States will swear to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies … an oath that begins with the same words the Oath of Enlistment begins with for most military men and women.

But this is a different Congress — a wave swept in a number of new Tea Party Representatives and Senators hell-bent on rolling back progress on veterans’ issues at home and escalating our military involvement in wars abroad.

Before the new Congress is sworn in, we want to know what are the issues you’re most passionate about in 2015. Let us know here.

Out of 535 members of the new Congress, only 25 have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and only 100 have served at any time. That’s down from a time not too long ago when a majority of Representatives wore the uniform at some point in their lives.

With more Tea Partiers and fewer members who have served, that makes protecting veterans’ health care more difficult, preventing further escalation in Iraq and Syria more challenging, and enacting programs to help veterans to transition at home after returning from abroad so much more important.

Your priorities are our priorities — let us know the issues you’re most concerned about here:

http://action.votevets.org/priorities

Of course, we’ll continue working towards electing more veterans in 2016. There are a number of veteran leaders consider Senate and House runs that we’ll be following closely.

Thanks for standing with us.

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran and Chairman
VoteVets.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

did you know Social Security Admin is closing dozens of their offices

01/03/2015 Nativegrl77

The Social Security Administration has lost its mind.

They’re about to close dozens of field offices. But don’t worry, they say. Seniors will use their smartphones or laptops if they need help.

The SSA may think they’ve got a great money saving idea, but this could be disaster for seniors with vision problems or arthritis, or those who can’t afford a computer.

Social Security is a great system, but it’s often complex. While many seniors are expert computer users, others will struggle.

Our parents and grandparents deserve to have a human face to guide them. They’ve done too much for us to be abandoned now.

Please sign our petition demanding the Social Security Administration keep community field offices open.

It’s the least we can do