Saturday, March 8, 2014

Today's Teamster News 03.08.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Local 856 Welcomes Mt. Diablo School District Workers  teamster.org   ...Five hundred Mount Diablo Unified School District workers in the maintenance and operations unit have chosen to join Teamsters Local 856, San Bruno, Calif., in an overwhelming vote today...
Teamsters Helping Teamsters  driveupstandards.org   ...Nance Prendota, a Teamsters Local 777 school bus driver for Illinois Central School Bus in Aurora, Ill., woke up to a house fire in mid-January that destroyed everything in its path...
Teamster bus drivers at CCTA could strike Monday
  WPTZ News 5   ...Teamsters Local 597, based in South Barre, Vermont, has threatened taking action on Monday if settlement is not reached...
De Blasio Whipped by Horse Lobby  Daily Beast   ...NYC’s new mayor is determined to get rid of Central Park’s horse-drawn carriages this year. The fact that the animal rights lobby savaged his campaign opponent is pure coincidence, his supporters say...
Members of the Teamsters and NJSAP Coalition  teamsterair.org   ...Minimal progress and unjustifiable demands have motivated the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP) and International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 284 Executive Boards to formally launch the NetJets Unions Coalition (NUC)...
Teamsters Local 700 Endorses Best Candidates for Working Families
  Teamsters Local 700   ...Teamsters Local 700, based in Park Ridge, Illinois, announced endorsements in the March 18 primary elections...
Trade
U.S. readies for more 'extremely tough' trade talks with Japan  Reuters   ...The United States is finding talks with Japan on opening its agricultural market "extremely tough", a senior U.S. trade official said on Friday, as the two countries prepared for another round of bilateral negotiations...
It wasn't all weather: What's behind the weak manufacturing jobs report.  manufacture this   ...the Department of Labor announced that America's manufacturing sector added a mere 6,000 jobs in February, with significant downward revisions for January. Additionally, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that America's trade deficit with China rose substantially in January...
A Trade Pact No One Should Want  Counterpunch   ...We’ve heard a lot on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but what will the Trans-Atlantic Partnership do? (Nothing good, that’s for sure.)...
Counterpoint: Don't repeat NAFTA mistakes
(Opinion)   Star-Tribune   ...Amid secrecy and the model of broken promises, don’t ram through the TPP deal...
State Battles
Focusing on Win-Wins for Iowa Workers and Employers  Iowa Senate Democrats ...This week the Senate passed a compromise version of wage theft legislation (Senate File 2295).  It targets shady Iowa businesses which compete unfairly and cheat workers by shorting paychecks, confiscating tips, misclassifying workers, unauthorized paycheck deductions; and refusing to pay overtime...
Assembly passes child care, family leave bills  WGRZ.com   ...The (New York) state Assembly on Wednesday passed a package of bills that aim to increase access to childcare and establish paid family leave...
West Virginia Senate passes legislation to help accommodate pregnant workers  Associated Press   ...The West Virginia Senate has passed legislation to help accommodate pregnant women in the workplace....
Tennessee Republicans single out unions with anti-picketing bill  DailyKos   ..Spurred by the fact that Tennessee added 31,000 union members last year, state Rep. Jeremy Durham has introduced a bill that would create a new "mass picketing" misdemeanor specifically aimed at labor activists...
Trampling on our First Amendment Rights  Michigan  AFL-CIO   ...The State House is contemplating the passage of HB 4643, a  bill sponsored by Representative Tom McMillin (R). HB 4643 will result in civil fines of up to $10,000 per day for picketing that is deemed illegal; creating a huge chilling effect on your First Amendment rights...
War on Workers
A vast hidden surveillance network runs across America, powered by the repo industry  Beta Boston   ... the most significant impact of Sousa’s business is far bigger than locating cars whose owners have defaulted on loans: It is the growing database of snapshots showing where Americans were at specific times, information that everyone from private detectives to ­insurers are willing to pay for...
Shocking Stat: 70% of Americans Not in the Labor Force Are Under 55 Years Old  AlterNet   ...Infograph shows majority of 5.8 million 'missing' workers have given up the search because there simply aren’t any jobs...
Chicago May Be The Next City To Demand Paid Sick Days For ALL Workers
  Huffington Post   ...Chicago employers would be required to offer paid sick leave to all workers under a proposal introduced by City Councilmen Wednesday...
Container truck drivers reach tentative deal at Vancouver port
  arineLink   ...Container truck drivers at Canada's largest port reached a new deal on Thursday, narrowly avoiding an expanded job action that would have seen some 400 unionized drivers join about 1,200 non-unionized drivers who walked off the job last week...
America's New Servant Class  AlterNet   ...Income inequality is creating a boom in the servant industry. Welcome to the world of Downton Abbey...
BP chief executive's pay triples in 2013  The Guardian   ...The pay of Bob Dudley, BP's chief executive, tripled last year despite the legal threats still hanging over the company from the Deepwater Horizon disaster... 
Boeing freezing nonunion workers' pensions in 2016  Associated Press   ...Boeing Co. said Thursday it is freezing the traditional defined-benefit pensions for 68,000 nonunion employees - including managers and executives - starting in 2016...
United Airlines dumps Newark Airport union jobs for janitorial contractor that will pay lower wages
Daily News   ...The airline has tossed out a janitorial contractor that pays its workers $9 an hour and will replace it with a company that's expected to pay $8.25 an hour. The cold-hearted move will affect nearly 270 workers...
Miscellaneous
Who Has The Right to Track You?
  In These Times   ...As states begin to rein in mass surveillance, corporations argue that they have a right to collect data...
Staples to close 225 North American stores  BBC News   ...US office supplier Staples said it will close 225 stores in North America, more than 10% of its presence, as shoppers move online and its sales slump...
Disney cuts 700 employees from its video game division  Raw Story   ...Walt Disney Company on Thursday confirmed that it is cutting about a quarter of the workers at its money-losing video game division...
US economy hampered by severe winter weather, Fed says  The Guardian   ...Federal Reserve's 'beige book' report notes that consumer spending lessened because of cold, snow and storms in winter...
How corporate America is losing the debate on taxes  Washington Post   ...If there is one clear loser in President Obama's budget this year, it's U.S. multinationals. Designed to plug some major leaks in the tax code, the 2015 budget proposes a total of more than $276 billion in higher taxes on overseas earnings for U.S. multinationals over the next decade, about $120 billion more than last year's budget...
New Post-ABC News poll: Keystone XL project overwhelmingly favored by Americans  Washington Post   ...Americans support the idea of constructing the Keystone XL oil pipeline between Canada and the United States by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, with 65 percent saying it should be approved and 22 percent opposed, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll...
Education Advocates Launch Campaign to Combat Student Debt
   US News   ...The America that invested in and created opportunity is disappearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said...