Bianca organized her co-workers at the Verizon Wireless store, where she works in Brooklyn, NY, to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) so they can fight for pay raises, better benefits and improved working conditions. Verizon Wireless claims Bianca, an employee with no prior disciplinary history, engaged in conduct that warranted her dismissal and fired her. But Bianca says the truth is that Verizon Wireless fired her for organizing her co-workers. Out of a 79,000 person workforce, only 155 of Verizon Wireless’ employees are unionized. And even though Verizon Wireless rakes in a billion dollars a month in profit alone, they refuse to offer any raises, or meet their retail workers' demands for better conditions on the job. Let’s put pressure on Verizon Wireless to reinstate Bianca and give their workers a fair contract. Sign the petition now to bring Bianca back and tell Verizon Wireless to support a fair contract for their workers.

For years, African-Americans, as well as Hispanic and Asian Americans, have paid significantly higher interest rates on car loans than have other buyers of equal credit-worthiness. Now, in a fresh outrage, more than 170 members of Congress are trying to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ability to combat discrimination in the auto lending market.

By removing any increase in the minimum wage for tipped workers, the Portland City Council left 40 percent of low-wage workers out. These workers need a raise too. In Portland, the median hourly earnings for tipped workers is just $8.77, according to Restaurant Opportunity Centers United. Many of these workers rely on food stamps to get by. Very few of them get health care or paid sick days. Even at the very highest-end expensive restaurants, servers earn just $14.50 an hour--still less than a living wage in Portland--contrary to the false claims of restaurant lobbyists. On paper, employers are supposed to bring tipped workers up to the full minimum wage if their tips are too low. In practice, this simply doesn't happen. The Department of Labor has found a violation rate of over 80 percent. The only two members of the City Council to vote for giving tipped workers a raise were Kevin Donoghue and David Marshall. Mike Brennan, Nick Mavodones, Ed Suslovic, Justin Costa, David Brenerman, Jill Duson, and Jon Hinck all voted to lower the tipped minimum wage to $3.75.

If the Fireworks Safety Act of 2011 is repealed, the state would be losing out on money. It would also make people lose their jobs and the unemployment rate would go up, and it would also create more abandoned buildings in the state since the firework stores would have to go out of business.

We want to establish a state minimum wage law in Tennessee. Tennessee has the highest percentage of workers at or below minimum wage in the country. Small businesses will prosper with this law, as will virtually all middle-income hourly wage workers. We need 200,000 signatures. This petition also calls for an automatic cost of living increase every year.

We are a group of simple, hard-working immigrant laborers. We built a new Marriott hotel in downtown Durham. It is a beautiful building. We were hired to paint, put up vinyl wall covering, install metal frames and hang sheetrock. We did our jobs. The new Marriott Residence Inn was built on the backs of immigrant laborers who have not been paid what they were promised. We have been cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. We have been protesting for three months. We have been threatened with lawsuits if we do not stop. The manager of the hotel has threatened to arrest me. This is not right. We expect to be paid for our work, not threatened with arrests and lawsuits. We have families and young children who depend on us. We have bills to pay.

Jeb Bush wants to privatize Social Security -- and Republican presidential candidates agree. But progressives are not backing down. Instead of playing defense, expanding Social Security benefits is now a mainstream Democratic position. Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley have called for Social Security expansion. Hillary Clinton, Lincoln Chaffee, and Jim Webb have not. Sign our petition so that ALL Democratic presidential candidates endorse Social Security expansion.

Big news: Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced a bill that restores critical Glass-Steagall protections that protect the American economy -- and American jobs -- from excessive risk-taking by Wall Street bankers. As Senator Warren says, "The biggest banks are collectively much larger than they were before the crisis, and they continue to engage in dangerous practices that could once again crash our economy. The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act will rebuild the wall between commercial and investment banking and make our financial system more stable and secure." It's time to stop big Wall Street bankers from gambling ordinary Americans' life savings on risky investments, pocketing huge profits, then demanding taxpayer bailouts when they go wrong.

Wall Street hedge fund managers aren't just a driving force behind rising inequality in America -- they have their own tricky loophole that shifts billions in taxes to people who make much less. President Obama has called on Congress to close the "carried interest loophole" that taxes hedge fund managers' profits at half the regular rate. As Bernie Sanders explains, "This can result in millionaires and even billionaires who manage these funds paying lower effective tax rates than many middle-class families." Let's stop tricky Wall Street accounting and force these traders to pay their fair share. Will you sign the petition?

It is past time to raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage. 29 states, including every state surrounding Pennsylvania, have raised their minimum wages while our Legislature will not even vote on this issue. A recent poll by Mercyhurst University, earlier this year, found that 66% of Pennsylvanians support a minimum wage of $10.10 per hour. Over 1.2 million PA workers will get a raise if such an increase were enacted and these funds would go right back into our local economies. Half of those workers are employed full time and 84% are over 20 years of age. A quarter of them are raising children on poverty wages. Legislation to raise the minimum wage has been sitting in the house and Senate Labor and Industry Committees since January. The will of our citizens and the needs of Pennsylvania’s low wage workers require that legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 be moved onto the floor immediately. Please tell Labor and Industry Committee Chairs Senator Lisa Baker and Rep. Mauree Gingrich "We strongly urge that you ensure that minimum wage legislation be reported out of your committee immediately. We urge you to support a $10.10 minimum wage, including a cost of living index and one that includes tipped workers, as well. We also urge you to support elimination of local pre-emption to let our localities decide on minimum wage for their citizens."

Server's everywhere should be concerned as their employer may be calculating their tip share including local taxes. Servers pay tip share simply because restaurant owners and corporations do not want to have to pay labor, so they make the servers pay it. This is why it should be illegal to include tax when calculating tip share.

My wife and I and many of our friends have to work multiple jobs upwards of 60 hours a week just to get the bills paid--and we can't afford groceries afterwards. We have to get our groceries from church food drives. We don't have kids so we can't get food stamps. Your citizens shouldn't work 60 hours a week to starve. Raise the ban on minimum wage increase.