Tag Archives: Target Corporation

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Keep toxic chemicals off store shelves


Union of Concerned Scientists
If there’s one question UCS gets asked a lot it’s this: “Why don’t you folks all work together?” But here at the Union of Concerned Scientists, collaboration is a guiding principle. We partner with many of the nation’s leading scientists, environmental and consumer protection organizations, and decision-makers in government to achieve our common goal: a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.
Right now, we’re teaming up with our friends at the League of Conservation Voters to pressure top retailers to keep hazardous chemicals out of their products.
Join us in taking action with the League of Conservation Voters. Send a message now asking the nation’s biggest retailers to keep toxic chemicals off their shelves >>
For years, UCS has worked as part of the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Coalition to ensure that policy makers and consumers have access to accurate scientific information about the toxic chemicals in our communities and consumer products. Like you, we believe that people need access to adequate information about toxics if they are to make informed decisions that protect the health of their families. Now you can take the next step by taking action with the League of Conservation Voters to urge retailers to take toxic chemicals out of their stores. Tell our nation’s biggest retailers to take toxic chemicals out of their stores! Add your name to our petition for safe products here >>

Want to keep harmful chemicals out of our everyday products?

When you stopped to grab a bottle of shampoo, did anyone tell you that it could contain cancer-causing chemicals? Have you checked if that shirt you bought is kept wrinkle-free by formaldehyde? Do you know if that couch you bought is releasing chemicals that could harm your children’s mental development?
Most of the time, I don’t. It’s impossible to know all the right questions to ask when we go to the store to keep ourselves and our families safe. And frankly, it shouldn’t be our job. The stores where we shop should watch out for us by asking their suppliers to keep toxic chemicals out of their products. But they won’t do it unless we make them.
Sign our petition urging the biggest retailers to keep products with toxic chemicals off their shelves now >>
In April, we joined with the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition on a campaign called “Mind the Store,” which asks major retailers to protect us by keeping the Hazardous 100+ toxic chemicals out of their products.
More than 40,000 people took action and we were heard! Target and Walmart responded to our petition by announcing that they would take some of the most dangerous chemicals out of the products they sell.
Now we need your help to make sure that other major retailers like Walgreens, Costco, and Safeway follow suit. These retailers are often stuck in the same place we are. Our broken federal laws mean they have limited access to basic health and safety information on toxic chemicals sold in their very own stores.
But they have the power to ask the questions and make the demands to keep us safe. And as we saw with Target and Walmart, if they hear from enough of their customers, these major retailers will tell their suppliers to take theseHazardous 100+ chemicals out of their products.
So help us show these major retailers that their customers are demanding toxic-free products. Sign our petition here >>
Our nation’s chemical laws may be broken, but we don’t have to wait for progress in Washington to start making our stores and homes safer.
With your voice and the thousands of others dedicated to creating safer chemicals that will lead to healthier families, we can create real change and accountability for the suppliers now and make sure our neighbors are minding their stores!

Sincerely, Vanessa Kritzer Vanessa Kritzer Online Campaigns Manager League of Conservation Voters
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tell Target to Stop Supporting Slavery in Uzbekistan


Dear Activist,Target often offers prices that seem too good to be true – so how do they keep their prices so low?It turns out some of Target’s products might be so cheap because they are made with slave-picked cotton from Uzbekistan and/or purchased from Daewoo International, a company that accounts for approximately 20% of all cotton processed in Uzbekistan.

Tell Target to sign the Daewoo Protocol to fight modern slavery in Uzbekistan.

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

Walk Free: The Movement to End Modern SlaveryDear Activist,We know – a great deal can be hard to resist. And Target often offers prices that seem too good to be true. It makes you think – how do they keep their prices so low? We’ve recently learned that some of Target’s products might be so cheap because they are made with slave-picked cotton from Uzbekistan and/or purchased from Daewoo International, a company that accounts for approximately 20% of all cotton processed in Uzbekistan. Every year, during the harvest season, over a million children and adults – including teachers, nurses and doctors – are ripped out of their homes, schools and jobs, and forced to work in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan to meet daily picking quotas. While Target has signed the pledge to not buy slave-picked Uzbek cotton, they are still doing business with Daewoo, a company that clearly profits from the exploitation of children and adults in Uzbekistan. If Target is truly serious about keeping slavery out of its stores, Target needs to stop doing business with Daewoo and agree to implement the Daewoo Protocol – a series of steps companies need to take to eliminate slave-picked cotton from their supply chains. Call on Target to eliminate the threat of slave-picked cotton in their stores by joining the Daewoo Protocol. We expect more from Target, a company that takes pride in holding the highest ethical standards for itself and for its business partners.So we called and asked Target to join the Daewoo Protocol which is supported by retailers declining to do business with Daewoo until it takes serious steps to stop sourcing slave-picked Uzbek cotton.

Target said they didn’t need to sign the Daewoo Protocol because they have a “No Uzbek Cotton” policy. But such a policy only works if you’re willing to enforce it.

Tell Target to sign the Daewoo Protocol and stop supporting modern slavery in Uzbekistan. After you take action, please take a moment to spread the word by forwarding this email to 3 of your friends. Thank you, Debra, Nick, Jacqui, Jessica, Hayley, Jess, Mich, Amy and the Walk Free Team

Walk Free is a movement of people everywhere, fighting to end one of the world’s greatest evils: Modern slavery.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Working on Thanksgivi​ng …Jess Kutch, Change.org

1 Comment

Change.org
Join Anthony’s massive campaign to save Thanksgiving for families. Ask Target to open at 5AM, not midnight, on Black Friday.
Sign the Petition

Anthony Hardwick’s campaign to save Thanksgiving from the holiday shopping arms race has made headlines in literally thousands of media outlets around the country — and sparked a national conversation about protecting family time on Thanksgiving.

To recap: Last week, Anthony, a Target employee from Omaha, started a Change.org petition asking Target to move back its Black Friday opening time from midnight on Thanksgiving to (the somewhat less crazy) 5 a.m., so that thousands of workers and shoppers could have Thanksgiving dinner with their families.

Nearly 100,000 people have signed, and more than 50 other petitions have been started asking stores like Best Buy and Macy’s to move back their openings, too. Will you add your name to Anthony’s petition?

Anthony’s campaign is already making huge strides: Several of Target’s competitors, like J.C. Penney and Sears, have now proudly announced that they’re opening later to give workers time to celebrate the holiday with loved ones. And there’s no doubt that Target and others will think twice before opening so early next year.

It’s up to you to keep up the pressure. Please sign Anthony’s petition and forward this email to everyone you know:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-target-to-save-thanksgiving

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Jess and the Change.org team

P.S. Here are some of the other top Change.org petitions this week:

  1. Rick Melargni is a Best Buy employee from Tampa, Florida. He started a petition on Change.org asking Best Buy to not open at midnight on Thanksgiving so families can share the holiday together.
  2. Monique White lost her job as a youth counselor at a group home in Minnesota after state budget cuts. Now she’s fighting to stop US Bank from evicting her from her foreclosed home. Sign Monique’s petition to keep her home from US Bank.
  3. Shawn Ambrose bought a ticket on a Greyhound bus for his daughter in college — but because the ticket was a gift, Greyhound charged him an extra $18 fee. Sign Shawn’s petition asking Greyhound to cancel its $18 “gift fee” for families traveling during the holidays.
  4. Students at the University of Nevada want to save their school’s “working farm” — one of the few left in the country, where students can learn about farming and agriculture. Sign Wendy Baroli’s petition to stop the school from destroying the farm.
  5. “Pancho” Ramos-Stierle was arrested on Monday morning while meditating in a peaceful protest at the Occupy Wall Street movement in Oakland, California. But because he’s undocumented, he faces deportation. His friends started a petition asking immigration officials to release Pancho immediately.
  6. An Oklahoma man brutally injured a horse after dragging it behind his ATV. Now a group called “Hand 4 Paws” is asking a judge to impose the maximum sentence in the case.

 
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Working on Thanksgivi​ng …Change.org


While most of America will be sleeping off a belly full of turkey, stuffing, and pie next Thursday night, 29-year-old Anthony Hardwick will be waking up for a long night of work. That’s because Anthony has to report for his shift at a Target store in Omaha, Nebraska on Thanksgiving night.

For the first time on “Black Friday” — the biggest shopping day of the year — Target stores will be opening at midnight. That means retail employees like Anthony have to miss Thanksgiving celebrations with their families in order to work for big stores’ “Black Friday” midnight sales — or risk losing their jobs.

“All Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones on Thanksgiving,” Anthony says.

So Anthony decided to push back. He started a petition on Change.org asking Target to open stores at 5am instead of midnight on Black Friday. Click here to add your name to his petition.   http://www.change.org/petitions/target-corporation-push-back-the-opening-of-target-retail-stores-on-black-friday-to-5am?

The sad reality is that by starting a petition to his employer on Change.org, he is putting his livelihood at risk. Anthony knows that he could be fired for taking his demand of Target public — but that’s how important it is to him that he spend Thanksgiving with his fiancee and her family.

Anthony isn’t alone in thinking that midnight (or earlier) start times for retail stores on Black Friday is are bad ideas — customers hate it, too. In fact, according to an article in the New York Times that featured Anthony’s petition, more and more consumers are avoiding Black Friday sales that interrupt Thanksgiving meals. And by being the first to petition his employer about this issue, he hopes to inspire workers at other retail stores to also speak out.

Target is one of the most prominent companies forcing its employees to miss Thanksgiving with their families. Anthony hopes that by calling out Target, he can force his employer to push back opening times at Target stores across the country — which will pressure other retail chains to do the same.

Please add your name to Anthony’s petition asking Target to push back its Black Friday opening time so he and other Target employees can spend Thanksgiving with their families:

http://www.change.org/petitions/target-corporation-push-back-the-opening-of-target-retail-stores-on-black-friday-to-5am

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Jess and the Change.org team