Tag Archives: Walmart

JPMorgan Chase launched a new website associating the company with Martin Luther King. But it’s planning to foreclose on Helen Bailey, a civil rights hero, in just weeks. Tell Chase to stop the foreclosure immediately.

A new Chase website honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and declares: “the values he espoused are the values that JPMorgan Chase also tries to stand for around the world.”

But as the bank wraps itself in the King brand, Chase planned to kick Helen Bailey (a 78-year-old grandmother who marched for civil rights and spent her life working with disabled children) out of her house on February 15th — right in the middle of Black History Month.

Occupy Nashville is fighting back. And they know that enough publicity on Chase’s hypocrisy will embarrass the bank into letting Ms. Bailey keep her home. Nearly 50,000 Change.org members have already spoken out, and Chase moved back Ms. Bailey’s foreclosure back one month in response — more people can speak out now and stop it completely.

Click here to sign the petition demanding that Chase stop foreclosing on civil rights activist Helen Bailey.

Helen and her attorney have struggled to find any solution that would stop Chase’s drive to foreclose. When Helen asked to modify her high-interest loan, Chase refused. When Helen found another lender who’d buy the home for just $9,000 less than what Chase said the home was worth, letting her live there for free, Chase refused. When Helen found someone else who’d buy her home and let Helen rent it, Chase refused again.

This isn’t an isolated incident. A former Chase banker — James Theckston — told Nick Kristof of the New York Times that his bank repeatedly pushed dangerous subprime mortgage loans on minority borrowers, then tried to cover up the racial disparity. Now, 25% of all minority borrowers are in foreclosure or deeply behind on payments. It’s a crisis.

But it’s one of our best opportunities to fight back. You can help Occupy Nashville keep Ms. Bailey in her home, and highlight the growing movement of communities standing up to foreclosures.

Click here to sign the petition.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

Jess and the Change.org team

P.S. Ms. Bailey isn’t alone in fighting for justice in a tough economy. Can you sign these other urgent petitions from Change.org members?

Aaron Calafato and his wife say they’re paying about $1,200 per month in student loans, almost half of which goes to Key Bank. But they say they can’t get Key Bank to discuss lowering their monthly payments. Sign Aaron’s petition to Key Bank asking to renegotiate his student loans.
On February 24, Daniel Lopez is going to lose his job at a warehouse where he moves goods for Walmart day in and day out. The company is allegedly firing Daniel and other employees for filing a federal lawsuit for not paying minimum wage. Sign the petition to Walmart to stop its contractor’s retaliation against its employees.
Bobby Hull is a Vietnam-era veteran who’s fighting to save his home from foreclosure this month by US Bank. Nick Espinosa, a fellow Minneapolis resident, started a petition on Change.org to keep Bobby in his home.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Keep toxic chemicals off store shelves

01/09/2015 Nativegrl77

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?

Sign our petition to the biggest retailers to keep toxic chemicals off the shelves!

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 Online Campaigns Manager League of Conservation Voters

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

2014: A Year for Change

01/02/2014 Nativegrl77

I want to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very happy new year. I also want to express my gratitude to you for the political support that you have given to me, and for all of your efforts in trying to move our country and the world in the direction of peace, justice and environmental sanity.
As we survey our country at the end of 2013 I don’t have to tell you that the problems facing us are monumental, that the Congress is dysfunctional and that more and more people (especially the young) are, understandably, giving up on the political process. The people are hurting. They look to Washington for help. Nothing is happening.

The middle class continues to decline with median family income some $5,000 less than it was in 1999.
More Americans, 46.5 million, are now living in poverty than at any time in our nation’s history. Child poverty, at 21.8 percent, is the highest of any major country.
Real unemployment is not 7 percent. If one includes those who have given up looking for work and those who want full-time work but are employed part-time, real unemployment is 13.2 percent — and youth unemployment is much higher than that.
Most of the new jobs that are being created are part-time work at low wages, but the minimum wage remains at the starvation level of $7.25 per hour.
Millions of college students are leaving school deeply in debt, while many others have given up on their dream of a higher education because of the cost.
Meanwhile, as tens of millions of Americans struggle to survive economically, the wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well and corporate profits are at an all-time high. In fact, wealth and income inequality today is greater than at any time since just before the Great Depression. One family, the Walton family with its Wal-Mart fortune, now owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans. In recent years, 95 percent of all new income has gone to the top 1 percent.
The scientific community has been very clear: Global warming is real, it is already causing massive problems and, if we don’t significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the planet we leave to our kids and grandchildren will be less and less habitable.

Clearly, if we are going to save the middle class and protect our planet, we need to change the political dynamics of the nation. We can no longer allow the billionaires and their think tanks or the corporate media to set the agenda. We need to educate, organize and mobilize the working families of our country to stand up for their rights. We need to make government work for all the people, not just the 1 percent.
Before we talk about 2014, let me ask you a favor. Do you know of friends, family or co-workers who might be interested in receiving our email newsletters and updates? If you do, please forward this email and encourage them to sign-up for occasional updates. They can sign-up for our emails by clicking here.
When Congress reconvenes for the 2014 session, here are a few of the issues that I will be focusing on.
WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY: A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much while so many have so little. It is simply not acceptable that the top 1 percent owns 38 percent of the financial wealth of the nation, while the bottom 60 percent owns all of 2.3 percent. We need to establish a progressive tax system which asks the wealthy to start paying their fair share of taxes, and which ends the outrageous loopholes that enable one out of four corporations to pay nothing in federal income taxes.
JOBS: We need to make significant investments in our crumbling infrastructure, in energy efficiency and sustainable energy, in early childhood education and in affordable housing. When we do that, we not only improve the quality of life in our country and combat global warming, we also create millions of decent paying new jobs.
WAGES: We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. We should pass the legislation which will soon be on the Senate floor which increases the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, but we must raise that minimum wage even higher in the coming years. We also need to expand our efforts at worker-ownership. Employees will not be sending their jobs to China or Vietnam when they own the places in which they work.
RETIREMENT SECURITY: At a time when only one in five workers in the private sector has a defined benefit pension plan; half of Americans have less than $10,000 in savings; and two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for more than half of their income we must expand Social Security and make sure that every American can retire with dignity.                         WALL STREET: During the financial crisis, huge Wall Street banks received more than $700 billion in financial aid from the Treasury Department and more than $16 trillion from the Federal Reserve because they were “too big to fail.” Yet today, the largest banks in this country are much bigger than they were before taxpayers bailed them out. It is time to break up these behemoths before they cause another global economic collapse.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM: We are not living in a real democracy when large corporations and a handful of billionaire families can spend unlimited sums of money to elect or defeat candidates. We must expand our efforts to overturn the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and move this country to public funding of elections.
SOCIAL JUSTICE: While we have made progress in recent years in expanding the rights of minorities, women and gays, these advances are under constant attack from the right wing. If the United States is to become the non-discriminatory society we want it to be, we must fight to protect the rights of all Americans.
CIVIL LIBERTIES: Frankly, the National Security Agency (NSA) and some of the other intelligence agencies are out of control. We cannot talk about America as a “free country” when the government is collecting information on virtually every phone call we make, when they are intercepting our emails and monitoring the websites we visit. Clearly, we need to protect this country from terrorism, but we must do it in a way that does not undermine our constitutional rights.
WAR AND PEACE: With a large deficit and an enormous amount of unmet needs, it is absurd that the United States continues to spend almost as much on defense as the rest of the world combined. The U.S. must be a leader in the world in nuclear disarmament and efforts toward peace, not in the sale of weapons of destruction.
Let me conclude by once again wishing you a happy and healthy new year — and by asking you to share this email with friends, family and co-workers. They can sign-up for our occasional emails by clicking here.
This is a tough and historical moment in American history. Despair is not an option. Let us stand together as brothers and sisters and fight for the America our people deserve. Thank you for your continued support.                                                 Sincerely,
                        Senator Bernie Sanders

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tell Walmart: Say no to GMO

12/01/2013 Nativegrl77 4 Comments

Who wants genetically engineered (GE) sweet corn in our grocery stores?Surely Walmart doesn’t want it…right? Our friends at Food & Water Watch have waged a campaign to stop genetically engineered sweet corn from making it to the stores and your dinner table with tremendous success from a number of food suppliers, but Walmart has yet to reply.

Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and General Mills have all pledged to not use it, why hasn’t Walmart done the same?
Take action with our friends at Food & Water Watch and tell Walmart to reject GE sweet corn!
Thanks, your friends at Greenpeace _____________________________

Ask Walmart to Reject Genetically Engineered Sweet Corn
Sign the Petition to Tell Walmart You Won’t Buy GE Sweet Corn

                 Dear friend,
Genetically engineered Monsanto sweet corn is approved and could be on your plate this year. Monsanto’s sweet corn could be planted this spring, but Walmart can refuse to accept it, protecting consumers from this untested and unlabeled product. Can you sign our petition asking Walmart to reject genetically engineered sweet corn?              Why should you ask Walmart to reject Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered (GE) Sweet Corn?
1) Whether you shop at Walmart or not, they are the largest U.S. food retailer, and if they won’t sell genetically engineered sweet corn, it’s likely that farmers won’t plant it.
2) Genetically engineered sweet corn will not be labeled, so you won’t know what you’re buying.
3) Monsanto’s GE sweet corn hasn’t been tested for human safety, and it contains three different genetically engineered traits that haven’t been used in food eaten directly by people.
Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and General Mills have already agreed not to use GE sweet corn in any of their products, but we need other stores to follow their lead to end the market for this untested sweet corn.
As you already know, genetically engineered foods are not required to be   labeled, so we have no way of knowing if a food contains GE ingredients. We believe labeling should be required so that people can choose whether or not they want to eat GE   foods. Unfortunately GE sweet corn, will not be labeled, and doesn’t   look any different from regular sweet corn.
Help make sure GE Sweet Corn is not sold by signing our petition to Walmart. We’ll be delivering this petition to Walmart next month in an attempt to stop GE Sweet Corn from reaching your plate.

Sign the petition to Walmart today: http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9341

Thanks for taking action,

Wenonah Hauter

Executive Director

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Rashad Robinson, ColorOfChange.org

11/25/2013 Nativegrl77

WALMART

For Black Friday, speak out for striking Walmart workers.

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper now: Join Us

Every week, it’s more bad news for Walmart. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), charged with protecting workers’ rights to organize and demand better working conditions, just announced it will prosecute Walmart for illegal firings and threats to workers in 13 states.¹ News of Walmart’s canned food drive for its own employees — who aren’t paid enough to afford Thanksgiving dinner — has gone viral.²

Walmart workers are leading a movement to end the systemic labor exploitation Walmart has made the norm.³ They’re standing up and saying no to part-time, temporary, poorly paid work that keeps our families struggling to put food on the table and holds our economy back. This week, as they engage in historic, nationwide strikes for the second Black Friday in a row, Walmart associates are putting their lives and livelihoods on the line for all of us — and they need our support.

Not everyone knows the risks Walmart associates are taking for workers everywhere this Black Friday, but there’s an easy way to fix that: Please take a moment to send a short letter to the editor of your local newspaper today showing your support for striking workers.

Despite raking in record-breaking billions in annual profits, Walmart recently got caught admitting that most of its employees make under $25,000 a year.⁴ And the company knows that it can afford to give workers a full 50% raise without harming its profitability — bringing take-home earnings up to $33,000 for cash-strapped associates who are now forced to depend on government, food banks and even each other to make ends meet.⁵

All workers are harmed by Walmart’s artificially low pay, wage theft, and aggressive reliance on intimidation tactics — up to and including illegal firings — to keep employees from speaking up for their most basic rights on the job. But as the single largest employer of Black workers in the country,⁶ Walmart has become a critical battleground in the fight to reverse the devastating shrinking of Black economic opportunity we’ve seen over the past few decades.⁷

Walmart won’t suddenly do what’s right on its own — it’s up to us to make the company pay a fair wage for a day’s work and treat its employees with basic respect. By sending a letter to the editor of your local paper — especially in communities with a Walmart store — you are providing exactly the kind of support a worker needs when making the difficult choice to leave work and stand up for all of us. It’s easy with our simple tool: click below to get talking points and writing tips, then submit your letter directly to your local paper online.

Keep Walmart’s bad behavior in the news by writing a letter to the editor of your daily paper: let your community know why you’re supporting striking workers this Black Friday.

Thanks and Peace,

–Rashad, Matt, Arisha, Aimée, Johnny, Kim and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team November 23rd, 2013

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