AFL-CIO

Campaigns

• Taxi Drivers in Montgomery County Need a Raise, Better Working Conditions

  Taxi drivers, like me, who work in Montgomery County, Md., work 16-hour days, but many of us struggle to feed our families because of the tens of thousands of dollars in fees we have to pay to companies like Barwood. Many drivers barely make minimum wage and can be fired without cause because we have no protections on the job. But we’re fighting back. We are pushing for the Montgomery County Council to pass a Passenger and Driver Bill of Rights that would lower fees to ensure drivers are paid a living wage, provide drivers with basic workplace protections, make sure customers receive the highest-quality service at lower prices and regulate companies like Uber. Not surprisingly, lobbyists for companies like Barwood and Uber are trying to stop this, so they can keep more money in the pockets of their CEOs. That’s why we need Montgomery County residents to tell County Council members they support a Passenger and Driver Bill of Rights. Sign the petition now to tell Montgomery County Council members you want them to support the drivers’ push for a Passenger and Driver Bill of Rights, so that taxi drivers can support their families and provide the best service to customers.

  79 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Peter Ibik, Montgomery County Professional Drivers Union
• Hold Rep. Fitzpatrick Accountable

  Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick ran for office on a jobs platform. But since getting elected, he has done nothing to address our jobs crisis. Instead, he voted to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And then, he wasted months on the manufactured debt ceiling crisis—forcing cuts that will kill jobs. Rep. Fitzpatrick needs to be held accountable for his actions. So we’ve created an accountability petition we’re delivering by hand on Aug. 18. Will you add your name?

  703 of 800 Signatures

  Created by Mary Dunne, Bucks County Central Labor Council
• Verizon: Stop Killing the Middle Class

  This weekend, the New York Times reported that wages as a percentage of national income are the lowest they’ve been since 1965, and falling. What that means is that virtually all of us who are lucky enough to have jobs are being underpaid, while corporations rake in obscene profits. And as we’ve all seen, big corporations are failing to re-invest their profits in creating good jobs we desperately need—they’re sitting on cash. Take Verizon. In the past four years alone, the company made more than $19 billion in profits—and compensated its top five executives more than a quarter of a billion dollars. Yet this highly profitable company is using Wisconsin-style tactics to try to extract $1 billion in concessions from 45,000 of its workers. That's $20,000 for every family. Verizon’s unionized workers have been more than willing to come to the bargaining table and negotiate. But Verizon has been coming up with one excuse after another—and refuses to bargain seriously. So at midnight Sunday, 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike. Verizon needs to know that we stand with these workers—and we won't stand for their Wisconsin-style tactics. If we allow highly profitable corporations like Verizon keep leading a race to the bottom in American wages, our country’s middle class may not survive. By going on strike, these corageous workers aren’t just standing up for themselves, but for all of us.

  95 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Manny Herrmann, AFL-CIO
• Stand With Sugar Workers

  For generations, the sugar beet industry has been the lifeblood of Northwest Minnesota’s Red River Valley. Sugar workers have always stood shoulder to shoulder with American Crystal Sugar and farmers to protect and advance the sugar industry. Together, the workers, company and growers have helped to build the local economy, support families, and made communities flourish. Now, American Crystal has put all of this in jeopardy by locking out workers. Sign our petition telling CEO Dave Berg: Don’t turn your back on the community!

  1,643 of 2,000 Signatures

  Created by Shar Knutson, Minnesota AFL-CIO
• Stop Attacks on Ohio Voter Rights

  Gov. John Kasich and his political allies know what’s at stake in 2012: Ohio could be the state that decides whether Barack Obama wins or loses the election. And SB 5 will be on the ballot. So they will stop at nothing–no matter how brazen or unethical–to stack the deck in their favor. Recently, Ohio Republicans passed HB 194, a voter suppression bill that cuts down on early voting and makes it harder for Ohio voters to cast their ballots. Not satisfied with making it more difficult to vote, extreme senators are now saying they will take up a voter ID bill that would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Ohioans. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has called HB 159 the “most restrictive” measure of its kind in the country. Adding a photo ID requirement would only serve to further disenfranchise young people, seniors, people of color, people with disabilities and the poor.

  9,290 of 10,000 Signatures

  Created by Andy Richards
• Made in America. NOT.

  Hundreds of Olympians from the United States will be competing in the Summer Olympics in London at the end of this month. These athletes represent values that make America great: hard work, determination, pride in our country and the things we can accomplish as a nation. Unfortunately, the U.S. Olympic Committee seems to have forgotten some of those values. Instead of making sure the uniforms Olympians will be wearing during the opening ceremony are made here in America, the U.S. Olympic Committee decided to outfit them in Ralph Lauren uniforms made in China. More than 2.8 million jobs have been shipped to China since 2001. We have lost 6 million manufacturing jobs in the past decade. The failed policies that have encouraged companies like Ralph Lauren to create jobs overseas, not in America, have hurt working families and our communities. A number of well-known American clothing companies—from Brooks Brothers to Jones New York—can easily manufacture new uniforms in America, right now, in time for the Olympic games. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently said, “I think the Olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. I think they should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again.” If enough of us speak out, the U.S. Olympic committee will be forced start over and find a supplier to make our athletes' uniforms in America. But time’s running out.

  43,210 of 45,000 Signatures

  Created by Andy Richards
• Tell Congress: No Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and No Tax Cuts for the Rich

  Congress will be back in Washington, D.C., on November 13 and they’ll be making high-stakes decisions on jobs, the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2%, and whether to cut Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid before the end of the year. Corporations and millionaires—who spent record amounts trying to buy the election for Mitt Romney—are going to be spending tens of millions on a full frontal assault in the halls of Congress to keep their special perks. Working families didn’t vote for further attacks on the middle class. Tell your Congress members: No cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and no more tax cuts for the richest 2%.

  29,133 of 30,000 Signatures

  Created by AFL-CIO
• 

  Don’t allow a repeat of Amazon’s union-busting tactics: Pass the PRO Act now!

  Amazon knew exactly what a unionization win by its Bessemer workers would mean: It would have paved the way for more organizing across the country and built power for the working class, who have been exploited to enrich the ultra wealthy time and time again. It’s why Amazon used every union-busting tactic in the book (and even pioneered new ones!) to stop the organizing effort. To prevent a few thousand workers from unionizing, one of the richest companies in the world: hired a Koch-backed anti-union consultant, sent up to 5 harassment texts a day to workers, forced employees to watch anti-union videos, changed the stoplight by the warehouse so organizers couldn’t hand out union flyers to drivers, offered $2,000 severance checks for workers to quit, retaliated against pro-union workers, collaborated with the USPS to put up a fake dropbox for the union votes—and more. These union-busting intimidation tactics aren’t isolated to Amazon—giant corporations have used these and more throughout history to fight back against working people organizing for living wages and better working conditions. If the PRO Act were law right now, Amazon wouldn’t have been allowed to engage in these sorts of repressive anti-organizing tactics, and would be held accountable for union-busting. But since it isn’t, there’s a real risk that other corporations will see what Amazon did in Bessemer and replicate it around the country. Thanks to union members who fought and died to build power for the working class, some workers have weekends off, an 8 hour work day is the norm instead of 12, and kids aren’t forced to work. Unions are good for workers: They protect workers from exploitation, they bring fairness into the workplace, they allow employees to have a say in the workplace policies that affect them, and they win fair wages and protections for all workers, including working mothers, Black, brown and disabled workers, as well as undocumented immigrant workers who are especially at risk for facing exploitation and unsafe working conditions on the job. Giant corporations and the ultra-wealthy, like Jeff Bezos, know that a unified working class will hold them accountable for their anti-worker tactics, abuses, exploitation, and greed. That’s why we need the PRO Act, which would allow the National Labor Relations Board to impose monetary penalties against employers who violate workers' rights, empower collective action and worker strikes, ensure that employees are not misclassified as independent contractors, and eliminate “right-to-work” laws, a relic of the Jim Crow era designed specifically to separate workers and undercut collective bargaining rights. Every Senator who cares about protecting working people from exploitation and intimidation by corporations like Amazon needs to co-sponsor the PRO Act immediately, so we don’t see a repeat of the shameful behavior by Amazon anywhere in the country ever again.

  22,539 of 25,000 Signatures

  Created by Jennifer Bates
• "Right to Work" is Wrong for Michigan

  Recently, with over 22,000 protesters outside the Indiana Statehouse, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a so-called “right-to-work” bill into law. Here in Michigan, a group of extreme Lansing politicians are trying to pass a similar bill. Let’s call this what it is – a blatant power grab by corporate special interests that will give more profits to greedy CEOs at the expense of our jobs, our retirement security, and our kids’ future. It’s not often that we agree with Gov. Snyder, but during recent testimony on Capitol Hill, Snyder said "right-to-work" is “a very divisive issue,” and that “I don’t believe it’s appropriate in Michigan during 2012.” With Michigan’s unemployment rate at 9.3-percent, we can’t afford to waste time on controversial policies like "right-to-work", which have failed to create jobs in other states.

  10,483 of 15,000 Signatures

  Created by Todd Cook, We Are The People Michigan
• Don’t Let the Obama Administration Cook the Books for Outsourcers

  The Obama administration is proposing a pretty awful idea. They want to let notorious outsourcers, like Apple and Nike, be classified as “American manufacturers” regardless of where they make their iPhones or Air Jordans. If this change goes into effect, it could have huge consequences for all of us. These changes would make it easier for corporate outsourcers to hide how they’ve exploited bad trade deals to outsource millions of jobs, undermine environmental laws, weaken workers’ rights around the world and make corporate CEOs even richer. Sign the petition to tell the Obama administration and the Office of Management and Budget, which is taking comments on the rules right now, that cooking the books for corporate outsourcers is bad for working families here and abroad.

  5,181 of 6,000 Signatures

  Created by Celeste Drake