Tag Archives: Nativegrl77

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AFL – CIO : Tell Verizon to treat workers &customers with RESPECT


VERIZON GREED MUST STOP
Verizon has seen its profits and CEO pay soar while it cut jobs and gutted health care and other benefits for workers. These VeriGreedy practices need to stop.Call 800-229-9460 now to tell Verizon to treat its workers and customers with respect.Share on TwitterTwitter

Recently, we launched our CEO Pay and the 99% website1 to expose the outlandish practices of companies giving huge compensation to CEOs while cutting jobs and sitting on record amounts in cash holdings and short-term investments.

One of the most egregious examples of corporate excess and greed is Verizon. While Verizon tripled the salary of CEO Lowell McAdam to $23.1 million last year,2 it also was cutting U.S. jobs, gutting worker pensions and charging current and retired employees and their families thousands of dollars more for health benefits while reducing disability coverage.

This is unacceptable and we need to let Verizon know it.

Call 800-229-9460 now to record a message that will be delivered directly to Verizon executives.

Today, while Verizon holds its shareholders meeting in Huntsville, Ala., working families and Verizon customers in Huntsville and across the country will be calling on the company to end these “VeriGreedy” practices, respect its customers and the workers who keep the company running and save good, middle-class jobs.

Because of the hard work of tens of thousands of customer support representatives, technicians, electricians and other workers who provide the best quality service they can to customers, Verizon has enjoyed success. Verizon workers are part of the solution, not the problem. They should not be punished with job cuts and increased health care and benefit costs while Verizon executives get huge pay raises and the company sits on $14 billion in cash holdings and short-term investments.3

Call 800-229-9460 now and tell Verizon to treat workers and customers with respect—by negotiating a fair contract.

Corporate greed on this scale is bad enough, but when combined with neglecting workers, it’s completely unacceptable. Together we can put an end to these terrible corporate practices—but only if you speak up and make your voice heard.

In Solidarity,

Andy Richards
New Media Strategist, AFL-CIO

P.S. After you have left your message for Verizon executives, make sure to click here to find out if an event is happening in your area today you can attend to support Verizon workers.

1 http://www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/CEO-Pay-and-the-99.
2 http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120319-714892.html.
3 Verizon Communications Form 10-K, filed 2/24/2012.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Shh! Never Discuss Your Salary … Fatima Goss Graves, National Women’s Law Center


Never discuss your salary with anyone.

That’s what they told Lilly Ledbetter on her first day on the job in 1979. It wasn’t until she found an anonymous note in her locker that Lilly realized that she was being paid as much as 40% less than her male colleagues in the same position.

This sort of pay secrecy policy that punishes employees helps to hide discriminatory pay practices. And here’s the kicker: Lilly worked all those years for Goodyear Tire & Rubber, which had the privilege of being a federal contractor.

Today is Equal Pay Day — the day that a typical woman’s wages finally catch up to a typical man’s in 2011. Ask President Obama to ban federal contractors from retaliating against employees who talk about wages.

It took Lilly 20 years to find out that she was being paid less than her male co-workers. But we know that Lilly is not alone: nearly fifty years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, women working full time are paid just 77 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts. And the wage gap is far worse for women of color.

It’s time to end punishing pay secrecy policies among federal contractors.

The President has the executive power to protect employees who work in companies that have federal contracts. Presidents have used executive orders to address other workplace rights, including requiring that contractors protect their employees from discrimination on the job.

In recognition of Equal Pay Day, join us in calling on President Obama to end retaliatory pay secrecy policies in federal contracting.

Thanks for your support!

Sincerely,

Fatima Goss Graves
Vice President for Education and Employment
National Women’s Law Center
P.S. NWLC has some brand new resources released for Equal Pay Day. Check out our interactive wage gap map and new fact sheets on the wage gap and women of color, minimum wage and combating punitive pay secrecy policies.

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68-year-ol​d veteran killed in his home …by Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr.


Below is an email from Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., whose father, a 68-year-old veteran of the U.S. Marines, was killed in his home by the police in White Plains, NY, on November 19, 2011. Kenneth created his petition on SignOn.org, a new site that allows anyone to start their own online petitions. You can read more about his father’s death here.

We demand justice for Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., a 68-year-old veteran killed in his home by police.Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., was killed in his home by police.

Sign the petition

Dear MoveOn member,

On November 19, 2011, my father, 68-year-old Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., was shot and killed in his home in White Plains, New York.

My father was a 20-year veteran of the Westchester County Department of Corrections and proudly served the United States of America as a Marine. He stood about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, and he suffered from a heart condition.

The events that led to his killing began around 5 a.m., when his medical alert device was accidentally set off, sending a call to the City of White Plains Department of Public Safety. Everything that happened after that was recorded by an audio device installed in my father’s home as part of his medical alert system.

When the police arrived at my father’s home, he and the staff for his medical alert service told them that there was no medical emergency and asked them to leave. And yet they insisted that my father let them into his home, banging loudly on my father’s door for over an hour. On the recording, the police can be heard calling my father a “nigger.”

Ultimately they broke through his apartment door and first shot him with a Taser. He was wearing nothing but boxer shorts when the police began their assault against him. Shortly after that, he was shot with two 40-caliber rounds and killed.

My family is asking the Westchester County District Attorney to bring a criminal indictment, and we call on the United States Department of Justice or the New York State Attorney General to prosecute this as a hate crime.

Will you sign our petition? Click here to sign and please share with your friends:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=273615&id=38418-17809870-UNjravx&t=3

The petition says:

This petition is regarding the upcoming grand jury hearing in the case of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., an unarmed elderly black citizen who was shot to death by the White Plains Police Department.

This case not only brings into question the policies and practices of this department; but it is an open question whether it was inevitable, particularly in light of the audio tapes and video tapes witnessed by Mr. Chamberlain’s family members and attorneys where racial slurs and expletives were used before ultimately shooting him twice in the chest and killing him.

It is imperative that those tapes be made available to the grand jury, and that all other evidence be presented as well. I am concerned that secrecy so far—for example, the names of officers involved have not been released—bodes badly for transparency in this case as it moves forward. Nor am I aware of any public statements about the case from elected officials calling for openness.

Members of Mr. Chamberlain’s family and community—and a much wider circle of people who need to know there is fairness in the criminal justice system—seek reassurance that, no matter what the verdict, the process has been open, honest, and just.

We, the undersigned, implore Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore to no longer allow police misconduct, brutality, or criminality to happen in this community and ask that these officers be indicted and charged with murder and civil rights violations.

Will you sign the petition? Click here to add your name, and then pass it along to your friends:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=273615&id=38418-17809870-UNjravx&t=4

Thanks!

–Kenneth Chamberlain Jr.

The text above was written by Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., not by MoveOn staff, and MoveOn is not responsible for the content. This email was sent through MoveOn’s secure system, and your information has been kept private.

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EPA takes critical first step to tackle global warming … Union of Concerned Scientists

1 Comment

Union of Concerned Scientists

EPA Takes Critical First Step to Tackle Global Warming

Big news! On March 27 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released draft standards that will limit carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act. Carbon pollution from power plants contributes to global warming, endangering our health, our environment, and drastically altering our climate. By placing the first ever nationwide limits on carbon pollution from new power plants, these historic standards are a critical step to reducing the effects of global warming and protecting public health.

WWW.UCSUSA.ORG

Unfortunately, these standards are already under attack. Several members of Congress have introduced legislation that would block or delay these historic standards, and the Obama administration is facing intense pressure from dirty energy companies, who are spreading false claims about their impact on our economy. It is clear that these dirty energy companies care more about protecting their bottom line than protecting our health and environment from the effects of global warming.

To ensure that the EPA finalizes strong standards this year, we need to generate a record-setting number of supportive comments to the EPA and show support at in-person public hearings around the country.

We have a team of UCS Climate Ambassadors—scientists, economists, health professionals, and concerned citizens like you—who have volunteered to attend the EPA’s public hearings to represent you and the tens of thousands of Americans who care about reducing carbon emissions. They will hand deliver your comments to EPA officials and personally testify at EPA hearings on the importance of limiting carbon pollution from new power plants.

Tell the EPA that you support its efforts to make power plants take responsibility for their contribution to global warming by reducing carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act.

Submit Your Comment Today!    WWW.UCSUSA.ORG

Sincerely,
Chrissy Elles
Chrissy Elles
Outreach Associate
UCS Climate and Energy Program