Teamster News
CCTA Strike Continues, Management Awaits Offer Vermont Public Radio ...Two days into their strike, Chittenden County Transportation Authority bus drivers represented by Teamsters Local 597 said Tuesday they have prepared a counter-offer for management...
Amboy School District Workers Ratify Teamster Contract Teamsters Joint Council 25 ...Secretaries, aides, cooks and
custodians with Amboy Community School District 272 in central Illinois, who are members of Teamsters Local 722,
recently ratified a new three-year agreement that includes better wages, paid holidays and stronger contract language...
Teamsters Union: Hernando violated hiring process for fire chief Hernando Today ...Dan Oliver, a steward for Teamsters Local 79, said Hernando County violated its own hiring policy by not posting a job opening for public safety director in-house before seeking outside candidates...
Teamsters Union: More rail workers needed to solve grain transportation backlog The Canadian Press ...A cold winter and a record crop have been blamed for a
grain transportation backlog, but a Teamsters spokesman says that’s not the
whole story...
Trade
Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal Would Deepen Income Divide Truthout ...“Those at the top have never done better,” President Obama ruefully acknowledged in his January 28 State of the Union speech. “But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened.”...
China Keeps Moving Forward While America Falls Behind – and We Are Doing Nothing About It! Trade Reform ...Our political leaders often deemphasize the downturn in American manufacturing by touting a focus on areas such as new, high tech manufacturing and alternative energy, but it appears China has the same goals and is taking targeted steps to meet them...
Korea Trade Agreement – Exports Actually Decrease Trade Reform ...Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, never talks about balance of trade. But the USTR is embarrassed that our exports to Korea actually decreased since the Korea trade and global government agreement was passed. Yes. Exports (not net exports) decreased...
State News
“Right to Work” bill trying to gain steam in Missouri KBIA "...I’ve seen folks go down to parts of Mississippi and were working for $12 an hour, union jobs, while up in Missouri they’re making $28 an hour at the time..."
Right-to-work is dangerous fraud (Opinion) St. Louis Post-Dispatch ..The right-to-work proposal being considered in the Missouri Legislature is a dangerous fraud.As American citizens, we already have the right to seek employment and to work. But under a right-to-work law, we would continue to work — for less money and fewer benefits than we already have...
Gov. Cuomo Signs Bill Extending Effective Date of New Independent Contractor Law in New York Independent Contractor Compliance ...After months of uncertainty, the law of independent contractor misclassification in New York State will change on April 10, 2014. The new law affects transportation and delivery companies in New York that classify certain drivers that deliver commercial goods in the state as independent contractors...
Thirty-nine Moral Monday Georgia activists arrested in daylong Medicaid expansion protests at the Gold Dome Creative Loafing ...Nearly 40 Moral Monday Georgia activists today were arrested for interrupting proceedings throughout the Georgia Capitol in an effort to urge Gov. Nathan Deal to expand Medicaid - and block legislation that would strip him of the authority to do so...
Wisconsin Republican Legislator Tears Into His Own Party For Voter Suppression ThinkProgress ...it ought to be abundantly clear to everybody in this state that there is no massive voter fraud. The only thing that we do have in this state is we have long lines of people who want to vote. And it seems to me that we should be doing everything we can to make it easier, to help these people get their votes counted...
Costly Loans Are Drawing Attention From States New York Times ...States are increasing efforts to shield vulnerable Americans from short-term loans with interest rates that can exceed 300 percent...
Minnesota GOP Lawmaker Says Sick Leave, Equal Pay Bills Make Women 'Look Like Whiners' Huffington Post ...A package of bills in Minnesota that would enhance women's economic security by raising the minimum wage, providing paid family and sick leave and addressing the gender pay gap makes women "look like whiners," said State Rep. Andrea Kieffer (R) last week...
War on Workers
McDonald's Reviews Wage Theft Claims As Workers In 30 Cities Protest For Overtime Pay Forbes ...Tuesday’s protest in midtown Manhattan was one of dozens planned in 30 cities across the U.S., coming as McDonald’s faces class-action lawsuits in New York, California and Michigan for what workers describe as “wage theft...”
Fast-food workers get new ally in New York City fight for fair pay The Guardian ...A hotline for fast-food workers to anonymously report allegations of illegal or unjust pay practices by their bosses would be set up in New York under plans to build on a national campaign to improve conditions for American workers...
Supremes Could Decide Sky's the Limit for Campaign Donations Public News Service ...Another major Supreme Court decision on campaign finance could come as early as next week. In McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission, Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon said his First Amendment rights are violated when he cannot give a $2,600 donation to as many parties and candidates for federal office as he pleases. Many groups working to get money out of politics hope the high court rules against McCutcheon...
Reports of the Death of a National License-Plate Tracking Database Have Been Greatly Exaggerated The Intercept ... the databases are growing at a furious pace due to rapidly improving technology and ample federal grant money for more cameras and more computers. Tens if not hundreds of millions of observations per month are streaming into bulging electronic archives, often remaining there indefinitely, for a vast array of clients in both the public and private sector...
Expand Overtime Pay? GOP Says No In These Times ...Republicans apparently don’t believe that Americans who work longer hours should get paid more...
Meet the ‘Missing Workers’ In These Times ...More than 5 million Americans have given up hope of a job. Who are they?...
7-11 Clerk Says She Was Fired For Giving Freezing Homeless Man A $1 Cup Of Coffee ThinkProgress ...The worker felt compelled to help him after her own recent brush with homelessness...
Woman Whose Boss Told Her ‘It’s Best You Go Home With Your Babies’ Won’t Get Discrimination Trial ThinkProgress ...Angela Ames was on her first morning back from maternity leave and couldn’t gain access to the lactation room when her department head told her, “I think it’s best that you go home to be with your babies,” handing her a pen and paper and dictating the contents of a resignation letter...
Hershey Investors Suing Over Child Labor Can Pursue Files Bloomberg ...Hershey Co., the largest chocolate maker in the U.S., was ordered to face a lawsuit by investors seeking to force it to turn over records about cocoa from African farms that may use illegal child labor...
The Law that Launched a Boondoggle: Gold for Executives, Contempt for Taxpayers CounterPunch ...Jamie Dimon took high heat over his 74% mega-raise, but he’s not at fault. The blame goes to a 1993 boondoggle for bigwigs—a boondoggle that’s cost taxpayers by the billions ever since. Congress should call a halt, and the country’s mood could push it to do just that...
Miscellaneous
IRS says security breach affected 20,000 employees, but no taxpayer records Reuters ...The personal data of about 20,000 U.S. Internal Revenue Service employees going back to 2007 or earlier may have been exposed on the Internet, but no general taxpayer information or records were part of the security breach, the agency said on Tuesday...
Toyota and Justice Department said to reach $1.2 billion settlement in criminal case Los Angeles Times ...Toyota Motor Co. and the Justice Department have agreed on a $1.2-billion settlement to close a criminal probe into whether the automaker handled cases of sudden acceleration...
Google Won’t Face Group E-Mail Privacy Lawsuit: Judge Bloomberg News ...Google Inc. won a major victory in its fight against claims it illegally scanned private e-mail messages to and from Gmail accounts, defeating a bid to unify lawsuits in a single group case on behalf of hundreds of millions of Internet users...
