Post Your Online Petitions Here!

[Vlasta]

Originally Posted by HowSoonIsNow

http://www.change.org/petitions/mayo...ment-or-resign



Why This Is Important

Mayor Janice Daniels of Troy, Michigan recently made bigot homophobic statements on her personal Facebook wall in which she suggest she would get rid of her "I love New York" memorabilia since that state allows queers to marry. Mayor Daniels an elected official needs to understand that bigotry is never acceptable especially from an elected official.

sign it , but there are only 7,750 signatures we need more !

[DapperButch]

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/bush_tax_cuts_2011/

[DapperButch]

http://www.change.org/petitions/dema...e=action_alert

[Soon]

MSNBC, STOP LETTING ANTI-GAY BIGOTS REPRESENT PEOPLE OF FAITH!

The Family Research Council is so extreme that they've been officially listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, in part because they've repeatedly accused gays and lesbians of child molestation. But MSNBC has continued to invite their president, Tony Perkins, and other organizational spokespeople on air to comment on behalf of the religious community. In fact, they've appeared on MSNBC almost as often as on FOX News.

MSNBC has built its business on progressive viewers, and they need to hear that we find it unacceptable to provide an unquestioning platform for the religious right's hatred and fear-mongering. Sign the petition:

The Family Research Council is a hate group, and journalists ought to treat it as such. MSNBC must stop inviting Family Research Council spokespeople on the air to represent the views of Christians and other people of faith.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o...=9130&tag=blog

[SoNotHer]

Petition is available here -

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/tjs-tomatoes/

You know Trader Joe’s – the grocery chain that bills itself as an ethical alternative to the big-name stores? Well, it turns out they’re not so friendly to the workers who pick the tomatoes they sell to us.

Trader Joe’s CEO is refusing to sign the Fair Food Agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group of farm workers in Florida who have successfully pressured corporate giants like Taco Bell and McDonald’s to agree to ensure that farm workers in their supply chains get treated humanely and get paid at least one penny more per pound of tomatoes they pick.

That’s right, we’re talking about just a couple of pennies more per pound of tomatoes – an insignificant cost increase for Trader Joe’s and its customers – could help thousands of farm workers get paid a fair wage. But Trader Joe’s is digging in its heels.

You can use the form at the right to send a message to TJ’s CEO yourself.

The people who pick the tomatoes we eat make as little as $50 for a 12-hour workday, picking ton after ton of tomatoes. According to the Immokalee Workers:

“Like textile workers at the turn of the last century, Florida tomato harvesters are still paid by the piece. The average piece rate today is 50 cents for every 32-lbs of tomatoes they pick, a rate that has remained virtually unchanged since 1980. As a result of that stagnation, a worker today must pick more than 2.25 tons of tomatoes to earn minimum wage in a typical 10-hour workday — nearly twice the amount a worker had to pick to earn minimum wage thirty years ago. Most farmworkers today earn less than $12,000 a year.”

Use the form at the right to tell TJ’s to pay the workers who pick their tomatoes at least one more penny per pound, and to ensure that those workers are treated fairly. CIW members will deliver our messages directly to Trader Joe’s when they march to Trader Joe’s new store near Immokalee, FL.

More Information:

What is the Fair Food Agreement?

According to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers who are negotiating Fair Food Agreements with various corporations, “the agreements require those companies to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida tomato suppliers (including a zero tolerance policy for slavery), to pay a price premium for more fairly produced tomatoes, and to shift purchases to growers who meet those higher standards. Several Florida tomato growers have shown their early support for this effort by agreeing to pass along the pay premium to their tomato harvesters, and to abide by a code of conduct under which workers have a voice and slavery is not tolerated.”

Is slavery a reality for some tomato workers?

Farm labor bosses have repeatedly been brought to court for their treatment of workers, including most recently in 2008 for beating their workers who refused to work or tried to leave, holding their workers in debt, and chaining and locking workers inside U-Haul trucks as punishment. The U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the 2008 case called the situation “slavery, plain and simple.” If Trader Joe’s signed the Fair Food Agreement, they would be guaranteeing that none of their tomatoes come from growers who treat their workers as modern-day slaves, as well as pay a fair price for the tomatoes they sell.

Who else signed the Agreement?

Fair Food Agreements have been reached between CIW and McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, and Yum Brands, as well as foodservice providers Compass Group, Aramark, Sodexo, and Bon Appetit Management Company, and grocery store chain Whole Foods.

Why hasn’t Trader Joe’s signed?

On October 21, 2011, Trader Joe’s released a statement saying that they would not sign the Agreement, even though they agreed with it in principle and had implemented the basic requirements already. They said, essentially, “trust us, we’re doing it right”, but this is unverifiable. Without signing the agreement, Trader Joe’s has no way of knowing if the growers they’re purchasing from meet CIW’s standards; TJ’s would have to rely on the grower’s word alone, and what grower is going to volunteer the fact that they don’t treat their workers fairly or pay their workers a reasonable wage?

Why does this matter for Immokalee farm workers?

The Immokalee farm workers, a coalition of people who work on farms in the Immokalee region of Florida (where most of the tomatoes are grown in the US) are organizing because they are some of the lowest paid workers in the country, often making less than $12,000 a year. They work ten-hour days picking tomatoes in order to pick enough (2.25 tons) to make minimum wage. They have no rights to collective bargaining or overtime pay. Each penny a pound increase that they have won brings more people out of poverty, and each buyer requiring workplace protections ensures more people are treated fairly in their jobs and fewer farm workers are brought to this country as slave labor.

[DapperButch]

Response to Trader Joe petition:

I am surprised at this, based on what I know of Trader Joe's. Thanks for posting, SoNotHer. I like that on the petition there is a place to check off that you are a customer. Hopefully, that will make TJ's pay a bit more attention to the petition!

As an aside, I like TJ's a great deal b/c in most cases you can assume that they do not use GMO's in their own products. That makes things a bit easier if that is important to you as a shopper.

[Hollylane]

Susan G. Komen for the Cure just cut all its funding to Planned Parenthood for breast health screenings, bowing to anti-choice pressure and making breast health care suddenly inaccessible to many women.1

Planned Parenthood health centers are often the main source of health care for women in underserved communities, and they provide 830,000 breast exams every year.2 170,000 of these were funded through Komen, along with 6,400 mammogram referrals.3 Without Komen's funding, many of these women could be unable to get the screenings and early detection of breast cancer that save lives.

It's incredibly disappointing for an organization founded to protect women's health to play politics with real women's lives.

Tell Susan G. Komen for the Cure, "Don't bow to anti-choice pressure. Reestablish breast health funding for Planned Parenthood affiliates."