On behalf of former and current CorePower Yoga instructors:

CorePower Yoga has a history of creating an inequitable environment for instructors and students which in turn fosters racism, upholds white supremacy, and enables many other discriminatory practices in its studios. This has primarily affected Black and brown humans, as well as anyone who dares dissent or offer suggestions on how we can improve our behavior as a company. 

These tenets of CorePower Yoga’s culture are systemic and speak to a greater issue within the wellness industry. This petition focuses on CorePower Yoga because we either have been or currently are employed there. 

In order for us to feel safe returning to the studios to teach, we state the following changes that must be made:

1. Implement racial equity and representation of BIPOC from the top down in corporate positions, management roles, and the instructor/student base. 

• Track and publicly report data on workforce diversity quarterly moving forward.
• Publicly (including social media) announce who CorePower Yoga hired as their diversity consultant. 
• Follow through with the promise to convene a diversity council of humans from the CPY community representing all races, backgrounds, and status, and keep the community updated weekly with progress reports.
• Make tangible plans to implement diversity and inclusion training on a quarterly basis in studios nationwide.
• Reconsider offering the 300 teacher training scholarships to BIPOC online, and postpone the program until we can hold training even partially in-person.

2. Immediately reform the pay structure and methods by which we are granted income increases. 

• Look at all current employees and adjust their pay according to individual states’ cost of living, tenure, competitive markets, etc.
• Explain in detail why returning instructors were not granted their yearly merit increases that should have been built into the budget back in 2019, well before the pandemic hit.
• Share the fiscal year budget for 2020 and each year moving forward, as well as executive salaries.
• Report findings from revisiting the CPY business model (per Niki's verbal commitment in the 6/23/20 MN Town Hall) no later than 7/31/20.

3. Decolonize CorePower Yoga’s teacher training by making certain that:

• The training teams consist of a diverse group from various racial backgrounds, including a representative from the South Asian/Desi culture.
• There is a focus on trauma-informed instruction.
• Conversations center around inclusivity, including but not limited to: BIPOC, non-binary bodies, and differently-abled individuals.
• We acknowledge the ways in which Western culture has appropriated the practice of Yoga, and address the ways we can fight against this appropriation.

4. Include hazard pay and health benefits retroactively for all employees at CorePower Yoga during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

• Require that all humans wear masks the entire time they’re in the studios until the state rate of infection is deemed low by health officials.
• Implement hazard pay of at least 50% of one’s current rate, dating back to the re-opening date if applicable.
• Immediately fill all Studio Coordinator positions nationwide.
• Pay SET members a living wage of at least $15/hour and hazard pay of 50%.
• Acknowledge that CorePower Yoga carries some liability in the case of COVID-19 infection, due to yoga studios being non-essential businesses.

5. Revisit reopening plans and implement safer systems to ensure the highest level of safety possible until states are given a “low” rate of infection status.

• Schedule at least 30 minutes between class start times to ensure sufficient time to clean between each set of humans.
• Have a front desk representative present during all class hours to enable front doors to remain open, increasing ventilation of the studios.
• Provide full personal protective equipment to those doing any cleaning. 
• Install plastic barriers at the front desks. 
• Employ a third party to take temperatures of all humans entering the studio and deal with issues anonymously and remain HIPAA compliant.

Our commitments as instructors:

• For those who have not returned to work yet: we will rescind our applications and will not accept any class offerings until these changes are addressed.
• For those who have already reopened studios: we will not teach beyond our already accepted classes until these changes are addressed.

Please sign your name if you agree that CorePower Yoga should step up to the plate as a model of change in the yoga and wellness community!