Truly Scary

Get child labor out of chocolate

Tell Hershey, Nestlé and Mars: Stop using child labor The petition to Hershey, Nestlé and Mars reads: "Twenty years after major chocolate makers pledged to eradicate child labor in the cocoa harvest, children are still fueling the chocolate industry. Child labor is unethical and illegal – stop using children to produce your chocolate." Add your name: Dear Katy, Nearly two decades ago, Mars, Nestlé and Hersey pledged to stop using cocoa harvested by children. Yet, odds are that a chocolate bar eaten this Halloween is a product of child labor.1 Much of the chocolate bought and sold in the United States starts with child labor. Children as young as 10-years-old are purchased, transported across borders to cocoa farms and barred from educational opportunities in order to work for under a dollar a day. 2 Mars, Nestlé and Hersey are at the root of the problem and are fueling a multibillion-dollar industry driven by the labor of millions of children. It's time to raise our voices and demand these corporations uproot child labor from their chocolate. Tell Mars, Nestlé and Hersey: No more excuses. Eradicate child labor from your cocoa supply chains now. Click here to sign the petition. Over the last two decades, Mars, Nestlé, Hershey and other chocolate companies have set and missed deadlines to remove child labor from their cocoa supply chains. These companies promised to meet deadlines to fully end their use of child labor by 2005, 2008 and 2010. Each deadline has been missed and extended – and now, they have indicated that they will once again miss their 2020 deadline.3 Their lack of action on ending child labor is unacceptable. The chocolate industry brings in over $103 billion in sales annually, yet has only spent $150 million over the course of 18 years to address child labor. It is clear that ending child labor is not a priority for Mars, Nestlé and Hershey for as long as it continues to bring in profits from its unethical business practices. Close to two-thirds of the world's cocoa supply comes from West Africa, where 2 million children are engaged in hazardous work in the cocoa industry – either working on their parents' farms or with other trafficked children. Children are forced to engage in dangerous labor practices like swinging machetes and other sharp tools, spraying pesticides, burning fields and lifting heavy loads. International authorities consider cocoa farming one of the "worst forms of child labor."4 The eradication of child labor in the chocolate industry is 20 years late. Mars, Nestlé and Hershey have a moral responsibility to act now to deal with this dangerous epidemic. Abdication of this responsibility is abhorrent, and we demand accountability. Can you add your name to demand an end to child labor in our chocolates? Tell Mars, Nestlé and Hersey: No more excuses. Eradicate child labor from your cocoa supply chains now. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/stop-child-labor?t=9&akid=34709%2E12967895%2EddRxlX Thanks for fighting back, Thaís Marques, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Peter Whoriskey and Rachel Siegel, "Cocoa's child laborers," The Washington Post, June 5, 2019. Dan Nosowitz, "Your Chocolate Bar Was Probably Produced With Child Labor," Modern Farmer, June 28, 2019. Whoriskey and Siegel, "Cocoa's child laborers." Bureau of International Labor Affairs, "Child Labor in the Production of Cocoa," U.S. Department of Labor, accessed October 30, 2019. Share on Facebook Post to your wall Tweet this Post to Twitter © 2019 CREDO. All rights reserved. This email was sent to katy63.kelso@blogger.com. To change your email or mailing address, please click here: https://act.credoaction.com/me/update/?t=21&akid=34709%2E12967895%2EddRxlX To unsubscribe, please visit our subscription management page at: https://act.credoaction.com/unsubscribe/unsubscribe_copy2/?t=23&akid=34709%2E12967895%2EddRxlX

Sign the petition: Block Trump's extreme anti-woman judge

Tell the Senate: Stand with women. Block Sarah Pitlyk. The petition to the Senate reads: "Block anti-abortion extremist Sarah Pitlyk's judicial confirmation." Add your name: Dear Katy, Sarah Pitlyk devoted her career to defending extreme abortion bans, slashing access to reproductive health care and protecting powerful misogynists from accountabilty.1 Donald Trump and Republicans are about to reward her with a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. We cannot let that happen. Not only is Pitlyk arguably the worst of Trump's judicial nominees when it comes to reproductive health and rights, she also has zero trial experience. She is completely unqualified and clearly biased. The Senate must block her judicial confirmation. Tell the Senate: Sarah Pitlyk has no place on the federal bench. Click here to sign the petition. Pitlyk is the latest in a long line of Trump judicial nominees that the American Bar Association (ABA) rated "Not-Qualified" to serve as a federal judge. She is also one of four nominees who earned that rating unanimously.2 The ABA's rating should disqualify Pitlyk outright, but Trump and Republicans are so desperate to install anti-woman federal judges that the only thing that matters to them is Pitlyk's extremist bona fides. Pitlyk spent her entire legal career defending unconstitutional abortion bans and attacking reproductive rights. She:3,4 Defended Iowa's unconstitutional six-week abortion ban. Helped block a St. Louis ordinance that barred employment and housing discrimination against people who had abortions or use birth control. Used a divorce proceeding to try to establish personhood rights to a frozen embryo. Opposes and spreads dangerous lies about surrogacy and vitro fertilization. Supports the Trump administration's Title X gag rule, which is jeopardizing health care access for more than 1 million Planned Parenthood patients. And that's not all. Pitlyk also used her platform to protect morally bankrupt misogynists from accountability. She vouched for sexual predator Brett Kavanaugh and defended Planned Parenthood smear-campaign architect David Daleiden in multiple cases.5 There is no doubt that as a federal judge, Pitlyk will be one of anti-woman Republicans' most dangerous weapons. We cannot allow the Senate to hand her a lifetime appointment and the power to make decisions that could strip away women's rights and access to health care for generations to come. Tell the Senate: Sarah Pitlyk has no place on the federal bench. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/block-pitlyk?t=9&akid=34699%2E12967895%2EiKeWFi Thanks for all you do, Nicole Regalado, Campaign Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Dahlia Lithwick, "The Judges Republicans Are Doing It All For," Slate, Oct. 23, 2019. Jessica Mason Pieklo, "This Kavanaugh Defender and Abortion Foe Could End Up on the Federal Bench," Rewire, Oct. 24, 2019. Theresa Lau, "Five Reasons the Senate Should Reject Problematic Judicial Nominee Sarah Pitlyk," National Women's Law Center, Oct. 1, 2019. Pieklo, "This Kavanaugh Defender and Abortion Foe Could End Up on the Federal Bench." Ibid. (photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) Share on Facebook Post to your wall Tweet this Post to Twitter © 2019 CREDO. All rights reserved. This email was sent to katy63.kelso@blogger.com. To change your email or mailing address, please click here: https://act.credoaction.com/me/update/?t=21&akid=34699%2E12967895%2EiKeWFi To unsubscribe, please visit our subscription management page at: https://act.credoaction.com/unsubscribe/unsubscribe_copy2/?t=23&akid=34699%2E12967895%2EiKeWFi

Sign if you agree: Don't trust Facebook

Keep Big Tech out of banking Petition to Congress: "Pass H.R. 4813, the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act."` Add your name: Dear Katy, Mark Zuckerberg's recent testimony on Capitol Hill was a disaster. Lawmakers grilled Zuckerberg over the company's repeated privacy violations, the despicable content on its platform and its policy of allowing outright falsehoods in political ads.1 In addition to all that's already horrible, lawmakers also wanted to talk about an emerging Facebook disaster – its Libra project. Libra, like Bitcoin, is a cryptocurrency, but one under Facebook's control. In typically Zuckerbook fashion, he insisted last week that Libra should not be regulated like a bank or by the Securities and Exchange Commission.2 Zuckerberg wants Facebook to control a global currency with no oversight and no questions asked, even though his company repeatedly mishandles our private information. That's unacceptable, and Rep. Chuy García just introduced legislation that would put a stop to it. Tell Congress: Keep Big Tech out of banking. Click here to sign the petition. Facebook is currently under investigation by 47 state attorneys general and regulators in multiple nations. It recently paid a record-breaking $5 billion fine for privacy violations that allowed a right-wing firm to help sway the 2016 election. It lied to advertisers about video metrics, lied to Congress in testimony and lied about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook has created a safe haven for white nationalism, right-wing hatred, racism, misogyny, ethnic supremacism and fake news that fosters violence worldwide. And now Zuckerberg is saying: Trust us.3,4 As Rep. García put it, "Given Facebook's track record of evading criminal liability, abusing private data, and manipulating markets with their monopolistic power, regulators should be considering how to break up Facebook, not greenlighting a new, dangerous project like Libra."5 Libra would:6 Centralize corporate control by giving Facebook more power, undermining sovereign states and giving the corporate interests behind the project the ability to distort global currencies or undermine governments at will. Promote tax dodging and money laundering by making it easier for people to hide their money in a new network with global reach. Erode freedom with no clear limits on Facebook's ability to use data from Libra purchases, bake racist discrimination into its algorithms, change the rules in the future or demand that employees take payment in currency it controls. Put consumers at risk with none of the guarantees, oversight and protections found in traditional banking. Libra is already under pressure, with a handful of major partners dropping out even before Zuckerberg's testimony. But at a time when Big Tech is increasingly looking for ways to expand its monopolistic power and use vast reams of data to move into finance, we need a more thoughtful response. Rep. García's legislation, the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act, would prohibit Facebook and other big tech companies from preying on us with digital currencies – and we need to make sure every member of Congress knows it has our support. Click the link below to tell Congress: Keep Big Tech out of banking: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/libra-garcia?t=9&akid=34676%2E12967895%2Euuj5vz Thank you for speaking out, Heidi Hess, Co-Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: John Constine, "Lowlights from Zuckerberg's Libra testimony in Congress," TechCrunch, Oct. 23, 2019. Rep. Jesús "Chuy" García, "Congressman Jesús "Chuy" García Introduces Bill to Keep Big Tech Companies Out of Financial Sector," Oct. 23, 2019. Cecilia Kang, Mike Isaac and Nathaniel Popper, "Facebook's Zuckerberg, Accused of Lying, Withstands a Washington 'Beating,'" The New York Times, Oct. 23, 2019. Tony Romm, "Facebook will have to pay a record-breaking fine for violating users' privacy. But the FTC wanted more." The Washington Post, July 22, 2019. Rep. García, "Congressman Jesús "Chuy" García Introduces Bill to Keep Big Tech Companies Out of Financial Sector." Public Citizen et. al., "Open Letter Calling for Libra Moratorium," July 2, 2019. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Share on Facebook Post to your wall Tweet this Post to Twitter © 2019 CREDO. All rights reserved. This email was sent to katy63.kelso@blogger.com. To change your email or mailing address, please click here: https://act.credoaction.com/me/update/?t=23&akid=34676%2E12967895%2Euuj5vz To unsubscribe, please visit our subscription management page at: https://act.credoaction.com/unsubscribe/unsubscribe_copy2/?t=25&akid=34676%2E12967895%2Euuj5vz

Sign if you agree: Taxpayers shouldn't subsidize corporate greed

Tell Congress: Support the Students Not Profits Act The petition to Congress reads: "Support the Students Not Profits Act of 2019 to make sure for-profit colleges don't get federal aid to exploit and undereducate students." Add your name: Dear Katy, For-profit colleges lie to students and leave them deeply in debt. They have been repeatedly caught promising a great education and career success in order to suck tuition dollars out of students and taxpayers. Some for-profit college campuses have gone as far as bribing local temp agencies to hire graduates for a day or two in order to artificially inflate "job placement" rates.1 But despite their grifter status, these colleges receive 15% of the total U.S. financial aid each year – and a third of them get almost all their revenue from federal sources.2 Progressive champions Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Sherrod Brown want to put a stop to that. They recently introduced a bill, the Students Not Profits Act of 2019, that would cut off federal aid from for-profit colleges. Can you help build momentum for the bill today? Tell Congress: Pass the Students Not Profits Act. Click here to sign the petition. This crisis is even worse with Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education. News recently broke that her department gave almost $11 million to unaccredited art schools in Illinois and Colorado.3 She spent the last three years sabotaging the Obama-era Student Aid Enforcement Unit, a move seemingly designed to help give scam artists and predatory for-profit schools a free pass.4 It should be no surprise that a billionaire champion of school privatization would be siding with greedy corporations over students. DeVos clearly doesn't care that for-profit schools are responsible for 34% of student loan defaults, despite only enrolling 9% of post-secondary students.5 She doesn't care that students are going into massive debt for little to no employment reward. She just wants to help her billionaire buddies line their pockets. Luckily, Rep. Jayapal and Sen. Brown are pushing back. Their bill would end subsidies to for-profit schools and ensure that taxpayers stop paying for the exploitation of so many of our neighbors, family members and friends. We need to build momentum for the bill now. Can you click the link below to add your name today? https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Students-Not-Profits?t=9&akid=34649%2E12967895%2E2uVhsE Thanks for everything you do, Heidi Hess, Co-Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Alan Pyke, "The Inside Story Of How A For-Profit College Hoodwinked Students And Got Away With It," ThinkProgress, Feb. 28, 2015. Annie Nova, "Bill would make for-profit colleges ineligible for federal student loans," CNBC, Oct. 23, 2019. Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, "Trump administration let nearly $11 million in student aid go to unaccredited for-profit colleges," The Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2019. Danielle Ivory, Erica L. Green and Steve Eder, "Education Department Unwinds Unit Investigating Fraud at For-Profits," The New York Times, May 13, 2018. Americans for Financial Reform, "News Release: The Students Not Profits Act will protect public dollars from abuses at for-profit colleges," Oct. 17, 2019. Share on Facebook Post to your wall Tweet this Post to Twitter © 2019 CREDO. All rights reserved. This email was sent to katy63.kelso@blogger.com. To change your email or mailing address, please click here: https://act.credoaction.com/me/update/?t=22&akid=34649%2E12967895%2E2uVhsE To unsubscribe, please visit our subscription management page at: https://act.credoaction.com/unsubscribe/unsubscribe_copy2/?t=24&akid=34649%2E12967895%2E2uVhsE

Sign if you agree: Don't flood sacred Native land

Protect sacred Native sites. Don't raise the Shasta Dam. The petition to the Department of the Interior reads: "Protect sacred Native sites, wildlife and endangered species. Do not raise the Shasta Dam." Add your name: Dear Katy, It's yet another shady deal by a corrupt Trump administration official to benefit corporate interests. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, who is already under federal investigation for numerous ethical violations, is pushing forward a dangerous plan to raise the height of the Shasta Dam in Northern California to help a former lobbying client.1 Raising the height of the Shasta Dam would cause untold devastation to sacred Native ceremonial sites, erasing the cultural history of the Winnemem Wintu people, as well as threaten endangered species and wildlife in the region. We must demand that the Department of the Interior immediately drop its plan to raise the dam. Tell the Department of the Interior: Protect sacred lands. Don't raise the Shasta Dam. Click here to sign the petition. When construction of Shasta Dam was completed in 1945, it flooded the ancestral homelands of the Winnemem Wintu and devastated the healthy McCloud River salmon runs on which the tribe depended. Raising the dam further would double down on an 80-year-old mistake that never should have been made in the first place. What's more, staff biologists from Sec. Bernhardt's own Fish and Wildlife Service raised major environmental concerns about the Shasta Dam project, science that he continues to ignore to favor his former lobbying client, the Westlands Water District, the state's largest water entity that is mainly run by some of California's wealthiest farmers. In a 215-page report, scientists found that raising the dam would threaten the bald eagle, the northern spotted owl, the Shasta snow-wreath, a delicate white flower, and cut off routes for spawning salmon, which could devastate the salmon population and the Pacific Coast fishing industry.2 Bernhardt and Westlands Water District are pulling out all the stops to ensure this massive giveaway to corporate agriculture will go through. According to our allies at Earthjustice who are fighting the Trump administration in court over the project, "Westlands stands to gain more water from the project to deliver to its large corporate agriculture constituents in the southern part of California's Central Valley, hundreds of miles from the dam. Westlands is using all its power to make this happen."3 Pressure to stop the Shasta Dam project is working. After lawsuits brought by the state of California and others to stop the project won in court, Westlands halted the initial steps to begin its environmental assessments, but it recently claimed it hasn't abandoned the project. The Interior Department still expects that construction will begin this December. That's why we must speak out now to demand that the Interior Department stop all plans to raise the Shasta Dam. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/shasta-interior?t=9&akid=34646%2E12967895%2ElYhGQd Thank you for speaking out. Heidi Hess, Co-Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Coral Davenport, "The Interior Secretary Wants to Enlarge a Dam. An Old Lobbying Client Would Benefit." The New York Times, Sept. 28, 2019. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service San Francisco Bay - Delta Fish and Wildlife Office, "Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act Report for the Shasta Lake Water Resources Investigation," November 2015. Stacey Geis, "Raising Shasta Dam Would Harm Many to Benefit a Few," Earthjustice, May 15, 2019. Share on Facebook Post to your wall Tweet this Post to Twitter © 2019 CREDO. All rights reserved. This email was sent to katy63.kelso@blogger.com. To change your email or mailing address, please click here: https://act.credoaction.com/me/update/?t=20&akid=34646%2E12967895%2ElYhGQd To unsubscribe, please visit our subscription management page at: https://act.credoaction.com/unsubscribe/unsubscribe_copy2/?t=22&akid=34646%2E12967895%2ElYhGQd

Sign the petition: Stop the use of facial recognition for hiring

Tell Hilton and Unilever: Stop using facial recognition for hiring The petition to Hilton and Unilever reads: "Facial recognition is known to be biased and faulty. Do not let technology become a gatekeeper to our financial stability. Stop using HireVue for hiring now." Add your name: Dear Katy, The risks we face from biased technology keep growing. It was recently reported that hundreds of employers are using faulty facial recognition technology to evaluate job applicants. The AI hiring system from recruiting-technology firm HireVue is terrifying. It claims it can analyze facial movement, word choice and speaking voice to rank applicants and determine their "employability" but it's not based on any real science and is being blasted by AI experts as a profoundly troubling - and likely discriminatory - development that could mirror human bias and fast track discrimination based on race, sex, gender, primary language and class.2 We cannot sit by while technological solutions that by their very nature replicate systemic oppression invade our workplaces, homes and communities. Hilton and Unilever are two of the biggest users of HireVue's technology. Speak out now to ask them to stop. Tell Hilton and Unilever: Stop using HireVue's AI "employability" assessment now. Facial recognition and the tech companies that build and market it have come under intense public scrutiny over the last two years. Several cities have banned facial recognition completely3 Congress held a series of hearings to determine the government's use of the technology,4 and multiple studies, including one from MIT, have warned that facial recognition has the ability to supercharge and further embolden government and law enforcement surveillance.5 HireVue's product is at the dangerous intersection of facial recognition and AI. It's not just seeing people's faces, it's making sweeping decisions about people's "employability" based on pseudoscientific interpretations of 100's of their facial movements made while they are in a highly artificial, highly stressful interview situation. Experts predict, not surprisingly, that second language learners, people who are extremely nervous and people who don't "look the part" will be disproportionately judged as lesser or not employable. Employers who are using this technology to evaluate job applicants are introducing an incredible amount of bias into their hiring process, automating discrimination at a terrifying rate. If we allow companies using HireVue to go unchecked, it could become even more difficult for people of color, immigrant women and gender non-conforming people to get jobs. HireVue is faulty and biased technology that companies should refuse to use in their hiring processes. We must use our power as consumers and customers to expose and force Hilton and Unilever to end their contracts immediately. Tell Hilton and Unilever: Stop the use of facial recognition for hiring.Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/no-hirevue?t=9&akid=34632%2E12967895%2EcOyzdP Jelani Drew, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Drew Harwell, "A face-scanning algorithm increasingly decides whether you deserve the job" Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2019. Steve Lohr, "Facial Recognition Is Accurate, if You're a White Guy" The New York Times, Feb. 9, 2018. Tom McKay, "Berkeley Becomes Fourth U.S. City to Ban Face Recognition in Unanimous Vote" Gizmodo, Oct. 16, 2019. Lily Hay Newman, "The Window to Rein In Facial Recognition Is Closing" Wired, July 18, 2019. Richard Feloni, "An MIT researcher who analyzed facial recognition software found eliminating bias in AI is a matter of priorities" Business Insider, Jan. 23, 2019. Share on Facebook Post to your wall Tweet this Post to Twitter © 2019 CREDO. All rights reserved. This email was sent to katy63.kelso@blogger.com. To change your email or mailing address, please click here: https://act.credoaction.com/me/update/?t=22&akid=34632%2E12967895%2EcOyzdP To unsubscribe, please visit our subscription management page at: https://act.credoaction.com/unsubscribe/unsubscribe_copy2/?t=24&akid=34632%2E12967895%2EcOyzdP