Saturday, November 16, 2013

Today's Teamster News 11.16.13

Supervisors reach agreement with Teamsters  Herald-Standard   ... Supervisors say they "dodged the bullet" regarding a grievance filed with the US. Dept. of Labor and Industry by the Teamsters on behalf of a township employee...
Raritan Township workers get four-year Teamsters contract  Hunterdon County Democrat   ...A four-year contract has been approved for the township’s 18 employees represented by the Teamsters Union. It covers 2012 through 2015...
Caught On Video: DC Taxi Commission Discriminates Against Foreign Speakers at Public Meeting AlterNet   ...Washington D.C. taxi drivers recently joined the Teamsters Union, and judging by this video released by the union, they’ll need all the help they can get considering the questionable practices of the city’s Taxicab Commission...
International Unions To Organize Support For Locked Out Ikea Workers  Left Labor Reporter   ...After conducting a fact finding inquiry, a panel of international trade union representatives said that they would return home and organize support for more than 300 IKEA Teamster workers in Richmond, B.C. locked out since May...
12-year-old children are working — and dying — on America’s farms  Salon   ...the Labor Department’s 2011 attempt to update child labor laws … fell through in the face of pressure from the Farm Bureau and other agricultural lobbies … Since the proposals were scrapped … four farmworkers under the age of 16 died, and 16 others were injured, doing jobs that would have been off-limits…
Is IKEA the New Model for the Conservative Movement  The New Yorker   ...In every state in the country, there is at least one ostensibly independent “free-market” think tank that is part of something called the State Policy Network— there are sixty-four in all, ranging from the Pelican Institute, in Louisiana, to the Freedom Foundation, in Washington State. ... the think tanks are less free actors than a coördinated collection of corporate front groups—branch stores, so to speak—funded and steered by cash from undisclosed conservative and corporate players...
Ted Cruz and Koch Brothers embroiled in shadowy Tea Party scheme  Salon   ...Meet the right-wing group masquerading as a mainstream nonprofit -- but pushing extremist laws across the country...
Walmart Worker Strikes Reach Chicago  The Huffington Post   ...Walmart workers from three separate stores in the Chicago area went on strike Wednesday. The walkouts are the latest in a series of worker demonstrations in protest of what associates describe as the retailer's low wages, unpredictable hours and unjust retaliation against workers...
Next wave of Walmart, low-wage strikes is here  TeamsterNation   ...Another massive wave of low-wage worker strikes may be upon us as labor unrest is rising at the Port of Los Angeles and Walmart workers walked off the job in three cities over the past 10 days...
Colombian union activist murdered; Colombia still not safe for union members  Left Labor Reporter   ...A 25-year employee at the Nestle food processing plant in Bugalagrande and a member of SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian food workers union, was gunned down on November 9 after receiving a death threat from a group described as “a violent drug-running and crime syndicate formed several years ago from disbanded right-wing paramilitary groups.”...
Secret Trade Treaty Exposed  Economic Populist   ...Thank you WikiLeaks and we hope they obtain more parts of trade treaties being crafted in secret by large multinational corporations in future...
151 House Democrats, Bloc of GOP Announce Opposition to ‘Fast Track’ Trade Authority  Public Citizen   ...A letter sent today to President Barack Obama opposing Fast Track authority, signed by 151 House Democrats, signals the end of a controversial Nixon-era procedure used to railroad contentious trade pacts through Congress. Obama has asked Congress to delegate to him its constitutional trade authority via Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other pacts...
Falling Exports under Korea FTA Likely to Bolster Fast Track Opposition  Public Citizen   ...This week's government release of trade data highlights a stunning decline in U.S. exports to Korea, a rise in imports, and a ballooning of the U.S. trade deficit under the Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA)...
Secrecy, Spying Shouldn’t Be Associated With TPP  teamster.org   ...There is no shortage of good reasons to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The 10 Giant Corporations That Have Taken Over Much of Our Economy  AlterNet   ...There was a time when there was competition in the American marketplace, when one corporation didn't own 200 other companies -- that time is long gone...
JPMorgan Paid Daughter Of Ex-Chinese Prime Minister $75,000 A Month  New York Times
To promote its standing in China, JPMorgan Chase turned to a seemingly obscure consulting firm run by a 32-year-old executive named Lily Chang...
Unemployment in Greece remains over 27%  EnetEnglish   ...A total of 6,557 people joined the dole queues in June, bringing the total number out of work to 1,365,406...
U.S. Postal Service reports $5-billion yearly loss  Los Angeles Times   ...The beleaguered U.S. Postal Service on Friday reported a $5-billion loss in the last fiscal year and again urged Congress to take legislative action that would help the agency shore up its finances...
Walker Donations Undergo Sex Change  Wisconsin Democracy Campaign   ...Governor Scott Walker recently amended his campaign finance report for the first six months of 2013 to lower contributions made by some of his high-end donors in order to protect them from being found in violation of campaign finance law...
A Rare Win for Labor’s Rank and File  Counterpunch   ...Machinists at Boeing resoundingly voted down mid-contract concessions yesterday and then booed the union leaders who had pushed the proposal on a shocked membership...
Unionized state employees protest proposed labor contract as negotiations go to impasse panel  Michigan Live   ...Dozens of state workers held a rally on Wednesday morning, demanding a fair contract as an impasse panel began hearings on disagreements over wages and benefits...
Port of Oakland wants court to stop truckers protesting over pay, CARB  Land Line   ...The Port of Oakland wants a restraining order against truckers who have organized protests there to stay in place...