Saturday, October 26, 2013

Today's Teamster News 10.26.13

Missouri First Student School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters  teamster.org   ...School bus drivers and monitors with First Student in Sedalia, Mo., have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 833 in Jefferson City, Mo. There 45 school bus workers in the bargaining unit...
Teamsters Ratify Contract At Yogurt Plant  WNYF News   ...Unionized workers at the Upstate Niagara Cooperative yogurt plant in North Lawrence have ratified a new three-year contract extension by "an overwhelming majority." The 36 workers in the bargaining unit are represented by Teamsters Local 687...
Teamsters, Republic Airline Representatives Resume Negotiations  teamster.org   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ Airline Division and representatives of Republic Airways held talks Thursday in Washington, D.C...
Union lawyers build case against Detroit early in bankruptcy trial  Reuters   ...Attorneys for Detroit unions and retirees sought to build a case on Thursday that Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr did not negotiate in good faith before Detroit filed for bankruptcy so they could block the city from getting court protection...
Puget Sound grocery workers’ contract-ratification votes set for next week  Associated Press   ...Ratification votes are scheduled next week on a tentative contract agreement that averted a strike by 21,000 grocery workers at four major grocery chains in the Puget Sound region...
Enormous, Humongous Trade Deficit Up From Prior Month  Campaign for America's Future   ...$38.8 billion more, drained from the economy, in just one month...
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Legalizes Corporate Rights Prevailing Over Human Rights  Truthout   ...Ever since the current juggernaut of "free trade" agreements began to be negotiated under President George Herbert Walker Bush (which resulted in the signing of NAFTA under President Bill Clinton), jobs have been fleeing America as corporations have become engorged with greater profits...
Canadian grocery giant Loblaw to compensate victims' families of Bangladesh factory collapse Seattle Times   ...Canadian grocery giant Loblaw Companies Ltd. said Thursday that it will provide long-term financial assistance to the surviving victims and families affected by a deadly factory collapse in Bangladesh...
Students Demand College-Logo Brands Join Fire and Safety Agreement  The Nation   ...This week United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is holding demonstrations at more than thirty colleges and universities across the country as part of an International Week of Action to End Deathtraps commemorating the six-month anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh...
Ruling opens door to U.S. sales of China-processed chicken  Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...Coming soon maybe to a grocery store near you — chicken from China. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ruled recently that poultry processed in China can be sold in the U.S...
Shutdown And Debt Ceiling Fights Cost 120,000 Jobs In Two Weeks  ThinkProgress   ...The fights over the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling reduced economic output by 0.25 percent in the fourth quarter of this year and cost about 120,000 private sector jobs in the first two weeks of October...
Drop in teen driving tracks with teen unemployment, HLDI study finds  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety   ...the proportion of high school seniors with a driver's license fell from 85 percent in 1996 to 73 percent in 2010. The proportion of seniors who reported that they didn't drive during an average week rose from 15 percent to 22 percent over the same period...
The American Dream Might As Well Be Dead: Here's Proof  Huffington Post   ...only 43 percent of survey respondents said that achieving the American Dream is possible in this economy...
A Huge Billion Dollar Slumlord  Huffington Post   ...Here's What Happens When Wall St. Builds A Rental Empire...renovations they were assured were comprehensive amounted to little more than a fresh coat of paint and new carpeting. Tenants said they immediately discovered major mechanical and plumbing problems: broken water heaters and air conditioners, broken toilets and in some cases even vermin infestations, including fleas, silverfish and rodents. Attempts to get the issues fixed usually end in frustration...
"Cash for Kids": Firms Behind Juvenile Prison Bribes Reach $2.5 Million Settlement in Civil Suit   Democracy Now   ...Here's the latest news in the so-called "kids-for-cash" scandal in Pennsylvania, in which judges took money in exchange for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit youth jails...
GOP Official Resigns After Saying Purpose Of Voter ID Is To Suppress Votes Of Democrats, ‘Lazy Blacks’   ThinkProgress   ...Until Thursday, Don Yelton was a precinct chair in the Buncombe County, North Carolina Republican Party. That ended after an interview riddled with racism and candid admissions about the purpose of a voter suppression bill enacted by Republican lawmakers in his state...
California to levy massive fine against Koch brothers groups  Washington Post   ...Two groups that are part of a conservative political network maintained by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have agreed to a record $1 million civil settlement with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the largest campaign fine in state history...
ALEC and TIAA-CREF Join the Assault on Public Pensions (opinion)  Truthout   ...The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council has jumped into the conservative effort to dismantle public pension systems in a big way, making it one of its top 2014 legislative priorities, a public pension advocacy group has warned...
Strikes Shutdown Chile’s Public Sector Ahead of Presidential Election  PanAm Post   ...With less than a month before Chile’s presidential and parliamentary elections, its largest labor alliance, the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), instigated a nationwide strike on Wednesday involving thousands of public sector workers...
Citi forecasts Greek devastation, unstoppable debt spirals in Italy and Portugal  The Telegraph   ...If Citigroup is broadly correct, Europe faces a lost decade that is far worse than anything suffered by Japan, which will render the region marginal in coming world affairs, and is likely to have non-linear political consequences...
Mexico clown convention condemns fancy-dress drug cartel killing  The Guardian   ...Delegates to a three-day Latin American clown convention in Mexico City have distanced themselves from the murder last week of a drug lord by a hitman in fancy dress, insisting no genuine member of their profession would have committed the crime...