Teamster News
Teamsters Local 326 Welcomes Law Enforcement Officers teamster.org ...By an overwhelming majority, law enforcement officers in the city of Milford, Delaware's police department have voted to join Teamsters Local 326 in New Castle, Delaware...
Warehouse Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 745 teamster.org ...On February 20, by a vote of 25-4, warehouse workers in Grapeview, Texas voted to join Local 745 in Dallas...
Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition to Launch Investigation into Allegiant Air Maintenance teamster.org ...The Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition (TAMC) announced it will launch an investigation into reports of a disproportionate number of engine failures, air returns and declared emergencies at Allegiant Air...
High-Speed Rail Supporters Rally in California teamster.org ...Teamsters, Laborers, community members and environmental groups rallied February 20 to support high-speed rail. Watch the video...
Spring Grove school bus drivers strike averted, at least though March York Daily Record ...The possibility of a strike for Spring Grove, Penn. school bus drivers is at least temporarily averted, and contract negotiations between Teamsters Local 776 and Durham School Services continue...
Penn Station Marks Contributions From African-American Men And Women teamster.org
BLET member Carlyle
Smith, an Amtrak locomotive engineer and member of Division 482 in
Washington, D.C., is featured in this Black History Month story on the
rail industry. Read the article and watch the video, here....
UPS Honors South Carolina Drivers for 25 Years of Safe Driving Wall Street Journal ...On Wednesday, UPS announced 29 elite drivers from South Carolina are among 1,519 newly inducted worldwide into the Circle of Honor, an honorary organization for UPS drivers who have achieved 25 or more years of accident-free driving...
The War on Workers
Fed Misread Fiscal Crisis, Records Show New York Times ...The hundreds of pages of transcripts, based on recordings made at the time, reveal the ignorance of Fed officials about economic conditions during the climactic months of the financial crisis. Officials repeatedly fretted about overstimulating the economy, only to realize time and again that they needed to redouble efforts to contain the crisis...
Union still wants to organize Boeing's North Charleston workers, official says The Post and Courier ...The union that represents thousands of Boeing Co. workers in the Pacific Northwest is still looking to make inroads at the company's North Charleston jet-making operation...
Boeing Paid No Federal Income Tax Last Year Huffington Post ...One of the largest recipients of federal government contracts paid nothing in taxes last year, according to an analysis from the Center for Effective Government...
McDonald’s workers’ horror story: 25-hour shifts and bunking in their boss’s basement! Salon ...A former McDonald’s franchisee will pay out a six-figure settlement after allegedly subjecting student guest workers to 25-hour shifts, substandard housing and repeated retaliatory threats...
McDonald’s fires employee for buying meals for firefighters working in the cold Death and Taxes ...Heather Levia of Olean, New York, was fired from her job at McDonald’s after she personally bought breakfast for some on-duty firefighters, who were working in the freezing cold...
Majority of port truckers misclassified, pro-labor groups say FleetOwner ...A report issued by several pro-labor organizations concluded that about 49,000 of the nation’s 75,000 port truck drivers are misclassified as independent contractors...
Private Prison Firm CEO Collected $22 Million In Compensation Between 2008 and 2012 ThinkProgress ...A new report from the Center for Media and Democracy dubs GEO Group CEO George Zoley America’s highest paid “corrections officer,” in a ranking of top-earning “government workers” — those in privatized industries...
Despite Receiving Millions in Public Money, Private Prisons are Impenetrable "Bastions of Secrecy" Alternet ...Public prisons are beholden to a dizzying array of record-keeping programs under the Bureau of Justice Statistics. By contrast, the only data released by private facilities about their prisoners and facilities is that which is mandated by business contracts or particular state laws. Even then, the information provided by prison corporations is often falsified -- or even “all the time,” in the words of one high-ranking GEO Group executive...
Secret Plans and Clever Tricks: How Information About Public Contracting Is Hidden From the Public truthout ...reporters, elected officials, community activists, public-interest lawyers and other concerned individuals and organizations often hit a brick wall when they attempt to unravel privatization plans...
State Battles
UAW appeals outside interference in union representation election for Chattanooga Volkswagen workers UAW ...The UAW filed an appeal (“objections”) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today related to the interference by politicians and outside special interest groups in the union representation election held last week at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant...
Walker Staff on the Mentally Ill: "No One Cares about Crazy People" Center for Media and Democracy ...One of the more disturbing exchanges in recently-unsealed court documents shows callousness among Scott Walker's staff and campaign as they worked to deflect criticism over mismanagement in a county mental health facility...
Illinois Lawmakers Eye $600 Million Tax on Sugary Drink
Heartland Institute ...In Illinois, it’s called everything from pop
to soda to sodi, but the state’s Democrats are now calling soda pop a
money maker...
Arizona Senate repeals 2013 election law Associated Press ...The Arizona Senate has voted to repeal a sweeping 2013 Arizona election law that included trimming the state's permanent early voting list and a host of other provisions that incensed voter-rights advocates...
Trade
TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks Bill Moyers ...Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America...
Crucial TPP ministerial meeting begins in Singapore Global Post ...Ministers from the 12 countries involved in the envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord began talks in Singapore on Saturday seeking to achieve the challenging goal of reaching a broad agreement after missing an end-of-2013 deadline...
AFL-CIO Executive Council Calls for Commitment to Broad-Based Wage Growth, Ending Job Export, Stopping Fast Track and More AFL-CIO ...The AFL-CIO Executive Council adopted several policy statements addressing wage growth and economic inequality, job outsourcing, Fast Track and trade, higher education and performers' rights at its winter meeting in Houston on Tuesday...
Miscellaneous
Wall Street Landlords Buy Bad Loans for Cheaper Homes Bloomberg News ...Wall Street-backed landlords are showing a greater appetite for bad mortgages as a source for cheap property as the supply of foreclosed homes declines while housing prices continue to climb...
Social Identity Markers are NOT a proxy for left wing social policies Ian Welsh ...They may love the gay (or at least not mind it), but that doesn’t mean they don’t still intend to create a society in which there are aristocrats, and if the serfs want to marry same sex, let’em...
Former USGS head endorses Keystone pipeline Washington Post ...A former head of the U.S. Geological Survey endorsed the idea of building the Keystone XL pipeline Thursday in an editorial contending that the pipeline would be less damaging to the environment than the “viable alternatives” of transporting oil by rail and truck...
