NEWSBYAMANDA KLOER

More than 17,000 people have joined an explosive campaign on Change.org calling on Starbucks to sell at least one brewed fair trade coffee option in each U.S. store every day, and to make that commitment during October, which is National Fair Trade Month.

Greenblatt, a former Starbucks barista and coffee enthusiast, launched the online petition campaign on Change.org after learning that European Starbucks stores offer 100% fair trade-certified coffee and espresso to customers.

“When I worked as a barista for Starbucks, I admired the company’s commitment to treat employees and customers with fairness and respect,” said Greenblatt, who worked at a Starbucks store in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2006 and 2007. “It’s time for Starbucks to expand that commitment to the farmers who grow Starbucks coffee by offering at least one daily brewed fair trade coffee option in their U.S. stores.”

News of the campaign’s success is likely to increase pressure on Starbucks. In just a few days, thousands of people have joined the campaign, and Greenblatt says he hopes the thousands of signatures from Starbucks customers in the U.S. will prove to the company that Americans want the fair trade-certified choices European customers have.

“Sam has done an impressive job organizing thousands of supporters around an issue he cares deeply about,” said Amanda Kloer, Director of Organizing for Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change. “As a former Starbucks barista, he’s in a unique position to call for change within the company. Change.org is about empowering people to fight for the issues that matter to them, and it’s been incredible watching Sam’s campaign take off.”

In New York City, over twice as many people in prostitution -- many of whom are victims of sex trafficking -- are arrested than the johns, pimps, and facilitators who exploit them. But an innovative new program called "A Losing Proposition" could help solve that problem by focusing the NYPD's resources on arresting the men who buy and force women to sell sex. A hearing that could decided whether or not to expand "A Losing Proposition to all five boroughs will take place on Wednesday, October 19th, and New Yorkers and other activists have launched a Twitter campaign asking the NYPD to expand the program.

Here's an example of how broken the current system is: SG, a sex trafficking victim in NYC, was arrested 86 times for prostitution and loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution over the course of three years.  Her identity documents were kept in the possession of her trafficker, she was forced to sell sex in a house in the Bronx and on the streets, and she was trafficked to other states.  SG repeatedly tried to get arrested -- even asked police officers to arrest her  -- because she wanted to escape the horror of her day-to-day existence.  The police, however, never recognized her as a victim, and instead released her back to her pimp.

More than 40,000 consumers have joined a popular campaign on Change.org calling on Hershey to commit to buying cocoa produced without child labor, forced labor, or trafficked labor in time for Halloween.

Raise the Bar, Hershey!, a coalition of organizations fighting ongoing labor abuses such as child slavery and child labor in the cocoa industry, is leading the campaign on Change.org following what they say is Hershey’s continued refusal to commit to purchasing Fair Trade cocoa for its chocolate candies.

“A decade ago, Hershey signed an agreement to help fight child slavery and other abuses in the cocoa industry,” said Elizabeth O’Connell, a member of the Raise the Bar, Hershey! coalition. “Yet it has done far less than other chocolate companies to address these abuses. This Halloween, thousands of consumers are telling Hershey they’re fed up with cocoa tainted by the abuse of children.”

News of the online petition campaign’s success is likely to increase pressure on Hershey. In addition to the petition, Raise the Bar, Hershey! is planning a call-in day, a Fair Trade Halloween costume contest, and rallies at Hershey stores in New York, Chicago, and Niagara Falls. The coalition has also produced a mock-commercial in an attempt to reveal the labor exploitation behind the Hershey chocolate many trick-or-treaters will receive this Halloween.

“What the consumers and activists of Raise the Bar, Hershey! have accomplished is remarkable,” said Amanda Kloer, Director of Organizing for Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change. “With limited resources but strategic planning and execution, they’ve recruited more than 30,000 supporters, developed a hard-hitting video, and launched a social media campaign. Change.org is about empowering anyone, anywhere to demand action on the issues that matter to them, and it has been incredible to watch this timely campaign take off.”

The petition campaign has been covered by major news outlets across the country, including CNN, New York Daily News, and PC World. Raise the Bar, Hershey! says they are hoping to get a response from the company before Halloween.

Photo credit: Jelene

Fall is approaching, which means Florida will soon start supplying the rest of the U.S. with fresh tomatoes. And across the country, food chains including McDonald's, Burger King, and Sodexo will be buying tomatoes picked by free workers paid a fair wage and treated with respect. But not Trader Joe's. They have refused to sign an agreement that would guarantee their tomatoes came from suppliers who didn't use forced or exploited labor. That's why today, Trader Joe's customers have called a National Call-In Day asking Trader Joe's to sell fair food.

Modern day slavery is a reality for many farm workers right here in the United States.  In Florida alone, over 1,000 people have been identified as trafficked, and Florida tomato pickers are among the most exploited. They earn sub- poverty wages, lack most standard rights and benefits, and have not received a raise in over 30 years.  Trader Joe's represents itself as a socially conscious and progressive company yet it has refused to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Campaign for Fair Food.

Conscious consumers have recently been growing concerned about child labor used to make imported goods -- rugs from India, chocolate bars from Ghana, clothing from China. But sadly, many of these consumers needn't look any further than their fruit bowl or vegetable bin to see the results of child labor -- even if they buy American. According to a report from Human Rights Watch, children as young as 12 regularly risk their health, safety, and future to work on farms in the U.S. growing food and other products for American consumers. But now, a growing movement of those consumers is looking to end exploitative labor for American kids.

At just 12 years old, a child in the U.S. can work for any farmer up to 14 hours a day during peak seasons -- and seeing children as young as 7 or 8 is not uncommon. They do not have to be paid minimum wage, and often see their small wages garnished for necessities like clean drinking water. Child farmworkers suffer fatalities at four times the rate of children performing other jobs, and their work can severely limit their educational opportunities.

Hundreds of sustainable and fair food activists have signed onto a campaign launched by Fairfood International on Change.org this week, asking Emerald Nuts to fight serious and ongoing child labor in the cashew industry by revealing where their nuts come from. The growing campaign is likely to put significant pressure on the snackfood giant to increase supply chain transparency.

While cashews might not be the product most people associate with severe labor abuses, the cashew industry has significant problems with both child and forced labor. The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 20,000 children are exploited in the cashew industry in India alone; child labor is also common in other major cashew producing regions including Africa and Southeast Asia. And a recent report from Human Rights Watch identified thousands of Vietnamese people who are forced to process cashews as part of so-called "labor therapy" at drug treatment facilities across the country. However, most of them receive no other treatment of their addiction, making these facilities more forced labor camp than rehabilitation center. And places like India and Vietnam where these labor abuses are common export cashews to the U.S. where they end up on grocery store shelves under recognizable labels.

More than 75,000 consumers have joined a campaign on Change.org calling on JC Penney to follow through on promises to fairly compensate the families of 30 workers killed in a factory fire in Bangladesh and implement stronger fire safety standards in their factories.

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), an organization which advocates for basic safety standards for workers around the world, launched the campaign on Change.org after JC Penney walked away from compensation negotiations for the families of victims killed in a fire at the That’s It Sportswear factory in Bangladesh last December. Along with several of the other companies who made clothing at the factory, JC Penney had agreed to fairly compensate victims’ families and improve safety standards in their supplier factories to prevent future fires.

Last month the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights launched a campaign on Change.org asking Target, Macy's, Hanes, and other major brands to pull their orders from Classic Factory in Jordan, where managers were accused of regularly raping workers. Now, after nearly 140,000 people have signed the petition, the head manager has fled the country and the public pressure of the campaign has challenged a would-be cover-up of the rampant sexual abuse at Classic. Will you keep up the progress on this campaign by signing and sharing the petition?

When the IGLHR first launched this campaign, Anil Santha -- the factory manager accused of busing young female workers to his house on the weekends and raping them -- was working a cushy job and looking at a rape trial that would be, at best, a minor inconvenience in his day. Now, reports from Jordanian workers have confirmed that Santha has fled Jordan for his native Sri Lanka, likely because the increased public pressure on Classic means his trial might now result in life in prison for multiple rapes. His flight was assisted by the Jordanian Ministry of Labor, a strong indication that they are aware of the abuse in Classic Factory and are working to keep it quiet. While his exile is not as strong an outcome as justice, he is removed from a position of authority over hundreds of vulnerable young women.

Recently, thousands of people  flooded Costco's Facebook page and email inboxes with messages urging them to join the "No Dirty Gold" campaign and stop selling jewelry made with child, forced, and slave labor. Costco heard the requests, but they didn't really listen. Now, activists are taking it to the next level and flooding their phone lines.

Today, people across the U.S. are calling Costco's CEO Jim Sinegal and asking him and Costco to fight child labor, environmental abuses, and other harms of the gold industry by singing the No Dirty Gold campaign. Here's how you can participate:

More than 1,000 people from around the world have joined a popular new campaign on Change.org calling on E! Entertainment’s hit show Fashion Police to end a segment titled “Starlet or Streetwalker”, which mocks and derides women and girls in the commercial sex industry.

“Starlet or Streetwalker” features a panel of celebrities who laugh at photos of scantily clad women and girls as they try to guess whether they are Hollywood stars or prostituted women.