Coronavirus has exposed the cracks in our social safety net for today's families. Our society is only as healthy as its most vulnerable members. Our short and long term caregiving systems and social safety net are broken and must be transformed. Year after year, Congress has underinvested in working families putting entire communities at risk. Today that has never been more clear. Our country’s social safety net can’t continue to be patchwork and spotty. Support shouldn’t depend on your zip code and who you work for. Like paid family and medical leave, paid sick days are often least accessible to the people who need it the most. With coronavirus impacting people today, Congress must act immediately to protect the health of our communities and ensure all working families get immediate support. This support must include paid sick days and improved unemployment benefits for working people who lose hours or jobs. Congress and the White House must ensure a stimulus package reflects the needs of all working people, not just businesses impacted. A payroll tax cut only helps those who are receiving pay - not those who are hourly workers that are missing work or have lost their jobs, excluding a critical part of the working population. In this time of crisis, we must ensure that no family has to choose between caring for themselves, their loved ones and a paycheck. Coronavirus is an inflection point: we can fix a broken system that isn’t adequately supporting today’s working families and creating long term costs. We can rebuild the continuum of care systems, from paid sick days to paid family and medical leave for every working person so our systems are responsive to what people actually need.

The Federal Government is telling anyone who exhibits flulike symptoms to get tested for coronavirus. But for the millions of people in this country without health insurance, that test could break the bank, with people reporting over $1,000 fees for emergency visits. And that doesn't even touch the economic cost of treatment if someone without insurance tests positive or needs to be hospitalized. In a public health crisis, people not getting the care they need doesn't just hurt them; it hurts all of us, making virus carriers more likely to go undiagnosed, spreading Coronavirus to others.

This is important because as we know the corona virus is highly contagious and can be spread easily. All it takes is one kid and by the end of the week there will be tens of cases all over Oceanside. We just want our families to remain safe from this virus that is rapidly spreading and evolving all over the globe before anybody else can catch it and give it to our loved ones.

While many animal hospitals are still small, local operations owned by independent practitioners, over the past few years, large corporate animal hospital chains have aggressively expanded across the state. Today, over ten percent of animal hospitals in California are owned by a corporate chain. Mars, Inc., a $36 billion dollar multinational company primarily known for its candy, is the largest provider of veterinary services in the world: Mars alone owns over 300 hospitals in California and over 2000 hospitals across the country. Local communities pay the price when large corporations take over animal hospitals. Hospital consolidation often increases healthcare costs, corporate animal hospital expansion reduces choice for both consumers and veterinary professionals, and quality of care and employee well-being often suffer. Tell California State Legislators that we need AB 3201 to protect our pets and local communities and stop the “Walmart-ization” of the animal hospital industry.

Right now, Chipotle employees across the country are using their hands to make the tacos, burritos, and bowls its customers love. So in the midst of a public health emergency, such as our current response to the coronavirus, it's critical that these food workers are able to follow the meager federal guidance to stay at home if you're sick. The practice of forcing sick employees to work anyways is not acceptable. We're asking: #DoBetterChipotle. See more here: https://www.seiu32bj.org/press-release/fast-food-workers-walk-out-to-demand-chipotle-stop-making-them-work-sick-amid-concerns-of-growing-covid-19-outbreak/

The Trump administration is ending existing U.S. prohibitions against the use of landmines. Landmines have been internationally banned through the Mine Ban Treaty, signed by 164 countries in 1997. And rightly so. Landmines are extremely dangerous weapons — they disproportionately kill civilians, and remain long, long after a conflict ends. Today, Congress has the opportunity to not just block Trump from using landmines, but to push the U.S. to join the Mine Ban Treaty as well. And that will ONLY happen if we get loud enough and make our members of Congress act. NOW.

The prison population is one of the most vulnerable populations in our society, with millions of prisoners suffering with chronic conditions that leave them immunocompromised, thousands of people living together in close quarters, hundreds of visitors circling through daily, and healthcare facilities that are substandard and understaffed. In many prisons across the country, hand sanitizer recommended by the Centers for Disease Control is forbidden due to its high alcohol content. [source] To force this vulnerable population to make 100,000 gallons of hand sanitizer a week for pennies on the dollar is unconscionable. Join MoveOn members in demanding Governor Cuomo stop using prison slave labor to make hand sanitizer.

Public health experts are urging workers to stay home if they're sick in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus. But what about the 32 million people across the country that work but don’t have any paid sick days? It’s this simple: paid sick days will help limit the spread of coronavirus outbreaks, but far too many people – many of them in the food service industry – don’t have access to any and can't afford to miss work! >>> Tell U.S. Members of Congress to PASS a national standard for paid sick days, which would protect public health and family economic security – a boost for our economy!

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to grow, gig economy corporations that retain workers as independent contractors have a particular responsibility to their workers, their customers, and to the broader public. Food delivery workers, for-hire vehicle drivers, and others working in the gig economy are particularly vulnerable to the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus outbreak. Gig workers who drive cars, deliver food orders, or clean homes do work that entails near-constant interaction with people in public spaces, putting them at greater risk for exposure to coronavirus and other illnesses. Yet as independent contractors, your workers do not receive any paid sick leave or have access to employer-backed health insurance. As a result, they often cannot afford to stay home if they or a family member is sick, and they are much less likely to receive quality healthcare. It is incumbent on you to take steps to protect your workforce, your customers, and the broader public from the spread of the virus -- beginning with providing paid sick days to your workers during this public health crisis. We commend steps that Uber, Lyft, Postmates and others have announced to support workers infected with the coronavirus, but more is needed to protect all workers and contain the spread of the virus. We join with calls from Working Washington and Gig Workers Rising in calling on your companies to: -Provide your contract workers with paid sick time, equivalent to what they would have if they were employees. -Provide workers with free hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and/or any other resources they may need to keep themselves and their vehicles virus-free. -Be transparent with workers about risks as you learn about them, and about any steps being taken to keep workers and customers safe. -Suspend the practice of penalizing workers for missing scheduled blocks of work, ending shifts early, or rejecting jobs. -Pay workers their average weekly income if they are prevented from working due to a recommendation by public health authorities to temporarily quarantine them due to exposure that occurred while working. -Encourage workers to leave deliveries at the door rather than make them face-to-face, and disable any rating systems that penalize workers for doing so. -Agree to let workers collect unemployment benefits if they are unable to work due to coronavirus or coronavirus response. -Provide workers the option to receive an advance on their future earnings in order to replace lost income associated with coronavirus. -Not permanently deactivate workers who happen to contract coronavirus. -Take affirmative steps to oppose any form of discrimination or harassment based on race, national origin, or anything else. We urge you to take immediate steps to protect your workers and the general public during this public health crisis.

The G20 is the annual gathering of representatives of the world's largest economies. It is shocking that the Saudi dictatorship is hosting the G20 summit this year. Saudi Arabia is using this year's G20 to hide its horrible record of war, repression, and climate destruction. No one should participate in the Saudi G20 or any other Saudi-led event until the Saudi dictatorship fully embraces the following demands: 1. Freedom at home: Saudi Arabia must free women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, end all internal repression, and release all prisoners of conscience. 2. End the Yemen war: Saudi Arabia must stop killing Yemeni civilians, lift the blockade on Yemen, and endorse a full ceasefire. 3. Cease its global repression: Saudi Arabia must stop targeting global dissidents and allow a full investigation of Saudi crimes, including the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. 4. Stop creating Middle East instability: Saudi Arabia must stop pushing for war with Iran, end its war in Yemen, and stop opposing democracy movements in the Middle East. 5. Climate crisis: Saudi Arabia must stop driving the global climate crisis through its destructive fossil fuel exports. No one should participate in the Saudi G20 or any other Saudi-led event until the Saudi dictatorship endorses and implements these demands.

Every day your elected senators and representatives meet with lobbyists, receive donations, and many times vote against the best interests of their constituents. This proposed Constituent Equal Time Act would require our elected officials to give us equal time to fight for what is important for us.

This is an urgent matter because our children come first. Putting my child’s life at risk for the sole reason of education does not stand as a valid or strong enough reason for leaving my kids in such an exposed environment to over a thousand teenagers.