More Ways to Help Others

This man has stitched his lips together and declared a hunger strike, demanding that

General Motors compensate its Colombian employees for debilitating, life-long injuries.

Tell General Motors to meet with its injured workers and negotiate.

Sign the petition.

Jorge Parra started working as a welder at General Motors’ Colmotores plant in Colombia

in 2001. For nine years, he worked

10 to 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, lifting auto parts and pieces of machinery that

can each weigh hundreds of pounds

. He complained about pains, but doctors in the factory clinic kept sending him back

to work. Then one day in 2010, at the end of a shift,

he couldn’t move

.

Even after surgery, Parra, who’s only 36, had trouble walking, standing, or using

his hands. Then, just as he was recovering, GM fired him. He discovered that

more than 200 workers had also been injured and fired

. Many of these workers banded together and started demanding compensation, but GM

refused to negotiate with them in good faith. So in November,

Parra went on hunger strike and stitched his lips shut

 until GM agrees to sit down with workers and negotiate.

Now

, Parra has come to the U.S. to confront GM executives directly

 at the North American International Auto Show, a massive auto industry trade show

in Detroit that attracts media attention from all over the globe. We’d like to make

sure he goes to the Auto Show with the signatures of tens of thousands of SumOfUs.org

members in hand, so we can show GM that its customers and potential customers expect

it to treat workers fairly.

Click here to sign our petition to GM CEO Daniel Akerson demanding that he meet with injured Colombian workers and offer fair restitution.

All these workers want is a chance to work and support their families and a guarantee

that their former coworkers won’t be injured and discarded. They’re demanding that

GM take financial responsibility for medical care related to their on-the-job injuries,

help reintegrate them into the workforce with less physically demanding jobs, and

institute new safety measures to prevent future injuries. They’re also demanding

union representation, which protects GM’s American employees from the worst labor

abuses that Colombian workers face.

Injured Colmotores workers have already been fighting for nearly two years.

 In 2011 the workers set up a makeshift camp outside the American embassy in Colombia.

After a three week-long hunger strike in August, GM finally agreed to negotiations.

But negotiators from the company refused to even consider letting the workers back

into the plant.

GM’s only offer was a monetary settlement that didn’t even cover upcoming surgeries.

With negotiations failing, the workers instead decided to take their fight to the

United States -- to the Detroit Auto Show, and GM executives directly.

Stand with these brave workers - sign our petition to GM and we’ll get it to Jorge Parra so he can show GM its customers are standing with its workers and demanding justice.

Thank you,

Rob, Kaytee, and the rest of us at SumOfUs

*************************

Further reading:

Bloomberg:

One Month into Hunger Strike, Injured Colombian Worker Says He Won’t Stop Until GM Negotiates

, 21 December, 2012

 SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations

accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

You can follow us on

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, and like us on

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Change.org

My nephew was murdered outside a nightclub in Los Angeles, and TMZ published a video of the shooting. I started a petition asking them to remove the video and apologize to our family.

Sign Jason's Petition.    Erlier this week, my family and I were going through what no family should ever

have to -- my 19-year-old nephew Andre had been shot outside a nightclub in Los Angeles

and shortly after, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

But even while some of us were in the E.R. frantically waiting to hear of Andre's

condition, the tabloid

TMZ posted a graphic video of Andre being shot on its website and on YouTube.

TMZ usually covers celebrities, but Andre was just a student. We've asked the tabloid

repeatedly for them to take the video down, but it has so far refused to respond.

That's why I started a petition on Change.org demanding that TMZ take the video of my nephew Andre Lowe being shot off the internet right now.

Click here to sign my petition.

Andre had a bright future ahead of him and wasn't afraid to work hard for what he

wanted out of life. He was small in stature but had a big heart, and there are countless

friends and family who will miss him greatly.

My family and I are still reeling from our loss.

We shouldn't be tortured even further by a tabloid like TMZ using an innocent young

student's murder for shock value and entertainment.

 Even now, it's making money every time someone watches the video. It makes me sick.

Please click here to sign my petition and join me in telling TMZ to take down the video of my nephew's murder now.

Thank you.

Jason Andrews

Phoenix, AZ