Teamster News
SEPTA Commuter Rail Union on Strike NBC10 ...Four hundred workers at the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's regional rail system (including Teamsters BLET and IBEW members) went on strike Saturday morning, shutting down 13 train lines that carry commuters to the suburbs and Philadelphia International Airport...
Town Of Clinton Approves 2 Percent Raises For Police, Public Works Unions NJ.com ...Elected officials approved this week contracts with the town's public works and police unions, giving members of each 2 percent raises. The new PBA contract calls for that raise each of four years and is retroactive to Jan. 1. The Teamsters contract does the same, but is in effect for five years...
De Blasio’s Approval Rating Improves, Poll Finds New York Times ...His plan to terminate the carriage-horse industry in Central Park remains broadly unpopular, with two-thirds of voters saying he should allow the horses to stay, an opinion that cut across gender, racial and political lines...
Trade
What Do You Think About Trade? The WTO Wants to Hear from You AFL-CIO Now ...The World Trade Organization (WTO) is conducting a “public forum”—a short poll with leading questions about what people think about trade and how it affects their lives. While it’s sad that this is what passes for public involvement in trade policy, it is important to let the WTO, a powerful international institution, know what you think...
Council Calls on Japan to Alter Position on Trans Pacific Partnership ThePigSite ...The National Pork Producers Council says, unless Japan significantly alters its demands, US agriculture will not be in a position to support the Trans Pacific Partnership, Bruce Cochrane writes...
How Big Pharma (and others) began lobbying on the Trans-Pacific Partnership before you ever heard of it Sunlight Foundation ...In 2009 ... 28 organizations filed 59 lobbying reports mentioning the (TPP, the) then far-off trade agreement. Almost half of those organizations were pharmaceutical companies or associations...
State Battles
Fighting To Increase The Minimum Wage To $15 Per Hour, Wage Action Protest Held In Worcester MassLive ...Chanting rhymes the likes of, "Low pay is not okay!" a few dozen advocates for increasing the minimum wage gathered in front of the Tobias Boland Way Walmart for one hour Thursday night in hopes of bringing attention to the issue...
North Carolina is still suing Facebook, wants to pass law banning public from knowing what else it’s doing Pando ...legislators in North Carolina — whose $86 billion public pension fund is the 7th largest in America – are proposing to statutorily bar the public from seeing details of the state’s Wall Street transactions for at least a decade. That time frame is significant: according to experts, it would conceal the terms of the investment agreements for longer than the statute of limitations of various securities laws...
AFSCME Helping Chicago Cab Drivers Push For Greater Voice Chicago Tribune ...The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union is joining up with Chicago cab drivers to try to help give cabbies a stronger voice in negotiating with Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration to raise fares, lower costs and push for greater regulation of the nascent ride-share industry...
Map: How A $10.10 Minimum Wage Could Affect Workers In Every Congressional District Washington Post ...Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would have widely varied impact on the nation’s congressional districts, according to a new report. There is a more than fourfold gap between districts where the impact would be largest and smallest...
War On Workers
Federal regulators cite contractors after worker's death in Amazon warehouse Fortune ...Federal regulators have cited five companies for “serious” labor violations after a temp worker died at an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey six months ago, according to a statement released on Friday...
Remember the Problems With Mortgage Defaults? They’re Coming Back With Student Loans New York Times ...“robo-signing” is making a comeback, this time in student loans. Robo-signing refers to a practice in which bank employees signed blizzards of documents selling mortgages to another investor without properly verifying who actually owned them...
What If Your Ability To Stay In This Country Depended On Your Employer? The Nation ...Every year, US companies invite thousands of special guests from abroad into the labor market, and they arrive clutching visas that will provide them short-term jobs in food processing, farmwork and other seasonal sectors...
HowardCenter Workers Speak About Wages, Work Conditions Burlington Free Press ...Allison Segar has worked at the HowardCenter for 16 years, and said she is paid less now than she was 17 years ago when she immigrated to America from England...
