Over the past several months, union leaders in Bangladesh, organizing for better wages and conditions, have been met with violent retaliation. One union president, Mira Boashak, was brutally assaulted by a group of thugs, who, acting on behalf of factory management, beat her with iron rods causing a severe head injury that required more than a dozen stitches. Who is the culprit behind these horrific assaults? The Azim Group, a supplier for companies like PVH Corp. (owner of brands like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger). Less than three months after Mira was attacked, several female union leaders were targeted by a group of factory managers and supervisors who punched and kicked them - tearing their clothing in the process and making them fearful of returning to work. These cases are just a few examples of the type of violence Bangladeshi workers have faced while organizing for basic rights in the workplace such as living wages and access to fire safety. Despite repeated requests from labor rights advocates, PVH has not done enough to put a stop to this campaign of anti-union violence and ensure that its supplier respects workers’ freedom of association. At the behest of the union in Bangladesh, PVH has been asked to terminate its relationship with this supplier unless the Azim Group immediately negotiates a resolution with the union. But PVH refuses to set a deadline for termination, leaving workers afraid for their lives. Workers producing our holiday gifts, winter clothes, and collegiate apparel can't live in fear another day, join us in demanding justice for workers in Bangladesh.

In 2012, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a landmark bill that delivered big tax cuts to high income earners and businesses. Less than two years after that tax cut, the state’s income tax revenues plummeted by a quarter-billion dollars – and now Brownback is pushing to use money for public employees’ pensions to instead cover the state’s ensuing budget shortfalls. -

TO RAISE THE WAGES OF WORKING CLASS PEOPLE TO BRING OVER 1 MILLION NJ WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES TO LIVE ABOVE POVERTY

Thousands of workers who maintain NYC public schools are doing the same work as others, but for nearly a third less. This is unfair and must be addressed. NYC must invest in ALL those who make our schools clean and safe environments for our children's learning.

Consumption of craft beer is growing nationally and the sale of growlers allows consumers access to small brewery beers (most of which are unavailable in cans or bottles) at home. In addition, allowing the sale of growlers will increase state revenue and is a "green" alternative to disposable containers.

Currently WA law requires full time faculty (tenure track) and part time faculty (adjuncts) at 2 year public post secondary schools to be represented by the same union. This is a conflict of interest. Full time faculty often supervise part time faculty. This inequity results in the interests of part time faculty being marginalized or not represented at all.

Graduate employees at the University of Oregon have been bargaining for a year. These graduate students, employed by the school as research assistants and teaching fellows, are asking for paid sick leave and parental leave. At a time when Oregon is expanding access to basic workplace fairness like paid sick days, the University of Oregon should be a leader. Instead, it’s fighting to deny graduate employees these basic rights. The graduate employees have been on strike since Tuesday, Dec. 2. Tell the university that you stand with these workers, and demand the university expand paid sick and parental leave to graduate employees.

Georgia’s outdated law preventing local craft brewers from selling their product to brewery visitors is hurting Georgia’s fledgling craft brewing industry. The restrictive law -- a remnant of the Prohibition era -- is still on the books in only four other U.S. states. Modernizing state laws to allow our craft brewers to sell directly to brewery visitors will: -Support small businesses -Create jobs in Georgia -Encourage new small business start-ups -Attract out-of-state craft brewers to Georgia Currently, only about 2.2 million of the 6.2 million cases of craft beer Georgians drink each year are actually made by the Peach State’s 34 craft brewers. Giving Georgia’s craft brewers the ability to earn extra revenue will allow the companies to reinvest in their business and in the local economy. Georgia winemakers are allowed to sell wine directly to vineyard visitors, so the same freedom should apply to Georgia’s brewers. Updating Georgia’s brewery laws will help small businesses and the communities they serve.

If the overtime pay threshold were raised to $69,000, capital holders "would be forced to hire millions more people to do the work you currently do for free. That would drive down unemployment. And a tighter labor market would drive up wages for the first time in 40 years." "In 1975, more than 65 percent of salaried American workers earned time-and-a-half pay for every hour worked over 40 hours a week. Not because capitalists back then were more generous, but because it was the law. It still is the law, except that the value of the threshold for overtime pay—the salary level at which employers are required to pay overtime—has been allowed to erode to less than the poverty line for a family of four today. Only workers earning an annual income of under $23,660 qualify for mandatory overtime." "To get the country back to the same equitable standards we had in 1975, the Department of Labor would simply have to raise the overtime threshold to $69,000." - Nick Hanauer, "Whatever Happened to Overtime?" in Politico Magazine, November 17, 2014

Congress is about to REINSTATE loopholes that let huge corporations like GE, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup dodge taxes -- and to stop it, we need champions like Sen. Elizabeth Warren to stand up. Tax loopholes allow corporations to dodge taxes by hiding profits overseas -- some companies pay $0 in taxes. Congress is about to decide their fate: Renew $9 billion in offshore corporate tax loopholes, or leave them on the scrap heap of bad ideas. Earlier this year, a large slate of corporate subsidies expired. Hidden among the tax credits are some of the worst loopholes that reward multinational corporations for moving profits and jobs overseas. Now, Congress wants to renew many of these programs, even the ones that reward huge companies for hiding profits overseas. It makes no sense -- this is our chance to let these loopholes end for good. The President has already spoken out against renewing these loopholes, but we need to more champions to stand up, and we think Sen. Warren should be one of those champions. It’s about time that these corporations start living by the same rules as the rest of us. It’s time to close these loopholes and invest in an economy that works for everyone.

I'm a civil rights law student passionate about equality and justice for all; but last night, I felt as defeated as you did after watching another black teenager's (my brother's age) life be (prematurely and without warrant) shortened, devalued, ignored, and dismissed while the guilty roam free and hundreds of hopeless and disheartened protesters are arrested. Let's not allow this to be another case of amnesia; this is an all too familiar story line with a destructive and disastrous ending for our youth. In a political system dominated, directed and controlled by money, wherein despite population and wealth disparities, blacks possess more purchasing power than any other group--we're the nation's #1 consumer, targeted in more ways than one. Let's no longer buy into a system without standing up and demanding equal respect and justice for our not only our money but our lives, the way our elders did during sit-ins and boycotts to set precedents and demand change! Let's be empowered on a unified front this Black Friday by paying it forward; let's put our money where our worth is by supporting black businesses instead. Perhaps a national boycott correlated with investment into our own communities isn't such a bad idea after all, and our new Civil Rights Movement can echo the chants of past leaders by enriching one another and moving our country forward by peacefully utilizing these same boycotts today. Remember, change begins with you and it takes a village so let's stand together. Take this pledge to not buy into Big Business this Black Friday (and everyday) and reinvest into Black Businesses in your neighborhood. Let's heal one another through this moment of grief, but let us also use this struggle as an opportunity to make progress. MAKE THE PLEDGE TO BOYCOTT BIG BUSINESS AND BUY FROM BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES ON BLACK FRIDAY TO PROTEST INJUSTICE AND SAY BLACK LIVES MATTER. #BlackOutFriday #BlackLivesMatter #PutYourMoneyWhereYourWorthIs http://aroundthewayapp.com/ (<-- to locate Black businesses In your area)

Rutgers faculty and staff are committed to high quality education for each and every student, groundbreaking research and lifesaving health care. These services rely on the professionals who work with the students, patients and community every day. Rutgers’ faculty and staff are currently bargaining for new contracts with the President and Board of Governors. The administration should bargain in good faith instead of cancelling sessions, proposing to reduce and eliminate earned benefits and putting forward insulting economic offers. Experts’ research has identified $600 million in unrestricted reserve , and an inordinate number of Rutgers managers with salaries over $250,000 per year Student tuition and fees subsidize athletics at a higher rate than any other American university, while student debts mount and faculty and staff are left behind financially. Rutgers management needs to stop diverting hundreds millions from academics to athletics. . Rutgers has adequate resources to reduce student costs and respect the value of the faculty and staff by negotiating fair contracts.