The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a trade deal currently being negotiated between the United States and 11 other countries in Asia and the Pacific. If finalized, it would be the largest trade deal in history. In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, co-signed by Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Edward Markey, Elizabeth Warren warned that the deal could allow foreign companies to challenge United States financial regulations designed to prevent another financial crisis. They wrote: "Including such provisions in the TPP could expose American taxpayers to billions of dollars in losses and dissuade the government from establishing or enforcing financial rules that impact foreign banks. The consequence would be to strip our regulators of the tools they need to prevent the next crisis.” Warren has also spoken out forcefully against the secretive nature of the negotiations behind the deal being written by lobbyists from America’s biggest corporations and Wall Street’s biggest banks. Speaking at Public Citizen, Warren said, “From what I hear, Wall Street, pharmaceuticals, telecom, big polluters and outsourcers are all salivating at the chance to rig the deal in the upcoming trade talks. So the question is, ‘Why are the trade talks secret?’... I actually have had supporters of the deal say to me ‘They have to be secret, because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.’” Sources and more information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/18/elizabeth-warren-trade-deal_n_6350312.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-other-democrats-raise-concerns-about-free-trade-pact-with-asia/2014/12/17/19de1c48-8632-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/12/18/senator-warren-takes-tpp http://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/TPP.pdf

The housing crisis is tough on all of us, but for low income elderly and disabled Californians it has become almost impossible to get by. In 2008, then-Governor Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto power to eliminate a small tax rebate, just up to $347.50 per household, for elderly, blind and disabled renters making less than $44,096. Nearly 500,000 households relied on the “Renter’s Rebate” to pay the rent, buy groceries and get crucial medical coverage. With rents skyrocketing all over the state, the lack of such basic assistance is an outrage. California has its first budget surplus since the program was cut. And Governor Brown and the California legislature can immediately restore the Renter’s Rebate by funding it in the new state budget. But they’ll only do it if you demand it. Elderly and disabled Californians have been suffering in this housing crisis. Senior and disabled tenants need this basic lifeline back. We need to act right now while the budget is being written and debated in Sacramento. Tell your state representatives and Governor Brown to restore the renters rebate and bring relief to struggling California renters today.

My name is Nathaniel Smith. I am 22 years old and I live in West Philadelphia. I work as a baggage handler for PrimeFlight Aviation Services, a contractor for US Airways at the Philadelphia International Airport. I make $7.25 an hour with no meaningful benefits. I don’t make close to enough to provide for my family the way I’d like to. I have a 3 year-old daughter and a son on the way. Like any parent, I want to buy my children the world but sometimes I can barely afford to get them toys or take them to lunch. I am constantly juggling bills and my phone has even been cut off. Most of the time, I make sacrifices that affect me, and not my children like working more hours or going without eating. There are many workers at the Philadelphia International Airport who are in the same boat as I am. My coworkers and I get little or no health care. Most of us don’t get paid holidays, vacation time or sick days. Some of us even experience unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. This is no way to live. We deserve human dignity and respect. For nearly three years we have been speaking out for better wages and conditions. Philadelphia voters have heard our cries for help and overwhelmingly supported a wage raise to $10.88. Yet eight months later, we have yet to see the raise in our paychecks. It seems that our dream is delayed. Dr. King died supporting Memphis sanitation workers who were working under deplorable conditions and making what would be $11.41 per hour today. 46 years after Dr, King’s death, most airport passenger service workers work under deplorable conditions and earn just $8 per hour with little or no benefits. Dr. King’s dream—our dream—of good jobs and equality for all should be delayed no more. That’s why it is more important than ever that we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy as we demand a better future for our families and for our city. We demand and declare that MLK Day 2015 will be a paid holiday for all airport workers. Join me and pledge to stand with PHL airport workers to make MLK Day 2015 a paid holiday. Thank you. Nathaniel Smith, PHL Airport Worker

Hundreds of thousands of seniors and Californians with disabilities recieve quality in-home care through the state's In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS) and the dedicated homecare workers who serve them. But recently, the for-profit homecare industry was successful in delaying the implementation of a federal regulation that would allow IHSS care providers to receive overtime pay and other labor protections for the first time in history. These protections were due to begin January 1, 2015--and they were taken away just hours before they were supposed to go into effect. Help protect our program and ensure equal rights for homecare workers by signing this petition to urge Governor Jerry Brown to move foward with overtime pay for IHSS workers in 2015. We've waited 75 years for this. It's time.

This past October the Steamship Authority Board voted a rate increase for January 1st 2015. This rate increase was voted to cover anticipated shortfalls in the current fiscal year budget. Included was a budget increase in the Fuel oil budget line item of 2.5%. The Authority budgeted nearly $10 million dollars for the current fiscal year for fuel. The fuel and oil markets have declined by roughly 50% since summer. This is now creating a multi million dollar surplus and thus should be reason enough to suspend and or repeal the current rate increase. By signing this petition you are sending a message to the Martha's Vineyard Steamship Authority Representative and other Island elected officials that you support a repeal and or suspension of these rate increases.

Barbara needs this job its the only thing she has done for 10 years and all the customers love her like she was part of their family for years. She has made lots of friends lover the years and is still making new ones. If it wouldn't have been for Barbara there wouldn't be any money going into that store at all.

Glencore Xstrata locked out 450 employees at Gregory, Texas in October 2014 when the workers refused to accept cuts to retirement and health benefits and overtime pay. Glencore Xstrata should end the lock-out and return to the negotiating table with the United Steel Workers local 235-A.

Yes my pension could be cut by more than 75% a month. This could hurt more than 10 million retired union workers,and untold current workers.

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.