Friday, April 25, 2014

Today's Teamster News 04.25.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Union Calls On Bill Gates For Westlake Landfill Cleanup  CBS News   ...The Teamsters union is lobbying billionaire Bill Gates to support the total cleanup of radioactive waste from the West Lake Landfill. Chuck Stiles, the Assistant Director of the Teamsters Solid Waste Division...
Teamsters, Taylor Farm Workers Help Push Bill To Protect Temp Workers TeamsterNation   ...The Teamster organizing struggle at Taylor Farms in California moved to the state capitol yesterday where workers helped push forward a bill to make companies responsible for workers hired through temp agencies...
UPS Contract Facts Memo To Locals  teamster.org   ...The documents ... include a UPS contract facts memo from the National Negotiating Committee to Local Unions and supporting documents...
Trade
Japan, U.S. fail to reach agreement on TPP  The Asahi Shimbun   ...Last-minute negotiations between Japan and the United States failed to produce substantive agreement on a Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal...
Why Corporations Are Freaking Out About Obama's Big Trade Deal  Huffington Post   ...as the current head of Ford Motor Co.'s international lobbying operations, Biegun now finds himself allied with environmental activists, labor unions, and some of the most progressive Democrats in Congress -- all raising strong objections to President Barack Obama's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, or TPP...
State Battles
Right-To-Work Bill Divides Missourians As It Moves Through Legislature  The Missourian   ...Dave Anderson, a shop steward for United Food and Commercial Workers in Columbia, is convinced that organized labor helps far more people than simply its members...
War On Workers
Exclusive: Apple, Google agree to pay over $300 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit  Reuters   ...Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, sources familiar with the deal said, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin...
Danger on the rails: outdated tankers carrying crude oil  Axis Philly   ...Virtually all of the petroleum crude being transported around the United States by rail is being shipped in DOT-111s.
And many of those tank cars have been deemed unsafe for the transportation of flammable liquids, like petroleum crude oil, by government agencies...
Port Authority Board Approves Raises For All 12K Airport Workers  New York Daily News   ...All 12,000 of the New York area's poorly paid airport workers are now officially set for financial takeoff. Three months after the Daily News launched a campaign to improve conditions for the struggling airport workers, Port Authority board members...
Many Low-Wage Workers Not Protected By Minimum Wage  CNN Money   ...President Obama's push to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, coupled with recent state-level increases, is welcome news for many people getting by on small paychecks...
Pressure Builds As Northwestern Football Team Union Vote Nears  CNN   ...No matter what the ballots say, Friday will be historic for college sports. By noon, members of Northwestern University's will have cast their ballots that will decide whether they will form a workers union and start demanding more rights...
Breaking the Law? Northwestern Football Coach Pressures Players Not to Unionize  The Nation   ...it takes an enormous amount of chutzpah for Fitzgerald to so strenuously oppose the efforts of his players to have a seat at the table when he is making $2.2 million per year and received a $2.5 million loan from the school upon signing his most recent contract. Yet Fitzgerald’s stance is not only distasteful. It may be illegal...
Meet The Real Amazon Drones  Huffington Post   ...At least five days a week, Myron Ballard races around Washington, DC with a cargo van full of Amazon Prime packages. A career delivery driver with 20 years behind the wheel, Ballard typically gets paid $1.50 for each address he visits...
Miscellaneous
Families Of Aurora Shooting Victims Call Out Koch Backed Group For Insensitive Ad  Huffington Post   ...A group backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch has agreed to adjust an ad featuring President Obama and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) after facing complaints about an insensitive photo. Families of the Aurora movie theater shooting victims called on the conservative nonprofit Americans for Prosperity...
Everything You Need To Know About The End Of Net Neutrality  Huffington Post   ...It may be the end of the internet as we know it. That was the reaction from consumer advocates and some websites after the Federal Communications Commission announced new rules governing internet service on Thursday...