Teamster News
Republic Services Struggles To Gain Trust As It Deals With Landfill Headache St. Louis Post Dispatch ...the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 9,000 of Republic’s workers and has had a contentious relationship with the company over the years, joined the chorus calling for buyouts and removal of the waste...
Printing And Production Workers At Seattle Times Join Teamsters teamster.org ...Printing and production workers at the Seattle Times newspaper as well as some specialty printers in the Seattle area have voted to merge with Teamsters Local 117...
UAW President Dennis Williams, U.S. VP Joe Biden And Teamsters President James Hoffa Kick Off Labor Day Parade In Detroit UAW ...Thousands of union members and supporters gathered in Detroit for the historic Labor Day Parade down Michigan Avenue today, pledging to activate voters with the November election approaching with the theme "Together We WILL WIN!"...
Hawaii Teamsters union endorses Hannemann for governor khon2 ...Hawaii Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Mufi Hannemann received a big boost Tuesday when he was endorsed by the Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Union, Local 996...
Trade
Time To Get Children Out Of Factories And Into Schools (opinion) CNN ...In a small village in central Afghanistan, 13-year-old Basma is about to start her first day of school –- ever.... Only weeks before, Basma was found working on a carpet loom. Her weaving fingers already showed signs of arthritis from holding tools since the age of nine, tying knots for 14 hours a day...
"Fast Track" Foes Sound Off in Oregon Politico ...Foes of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will visit the Oregon offices of Sen. Ron Wyden (D) today to deliver petitions signed by nearly 5,000 people, urging him to ensure his new “smart track” version of trade promotion authority is “not outdated ‘fast track’ legislation in disguise...
Free trade promises, but it’s failed to deliver (opinion) The Bellingham Herald ... We’ve heard these promises before: Trade agreements will level the playing field, create jobs and even promote world peace. So far, their track record has been the opposite...
State Battles
Federal Court Upholds Right to Work, Local Labor Leaders Focused on State Cases tristatehomepage.com ...In a split decision, a federal appeals court has ruled Indiana's Right to Work law does not violate federal labor laws or the United States Constitution. The appellate court's ruling comes as the Indiana Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on the same topic later this week. While the federal decision didn't come as a surprise, the focus now shifts to the state Supreme Court's decision, said Chuck Whobrey, the president of Teamsters Local 215...
Local Teamsters president speaks out on right-to-work ruling WFIE ...A federal appeals court has upheld Indiana's right-to-work law banning mandatory union fees in a split decision. The local Teamsters represent thousands of union workers. President Chuck Whobrey says this ruling will certainly effect the way the union operates...
GOP Tries Yet Again to Disenfranchise Ohio Voters with Photo ID Bill Moving Ohio Forward ...Today, a group of Republican legislators again pushed for passage of legislation requiring photo IDs to be shown at polling places in order to vote, despite evidence that demonstrates over 1.2 million Ohio voters would be directly disenfranchised from exercising their voting rights...
Texas Voter ID Law Heads To Trial In U.S. Court Huffington Post ...A U.S. court in Texas will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case over a law requiring voters to present photo identification, a move the state's Republican leaders say will prevent fraud while plaintiffs call it a veiled attempt at suppressing minority turnout...
Garcetti Calls For $13.25 Minimum Wage By 2017 Los Angeles Times ...Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday launched an ambitious campaign to impose a $13.25-an-hour minimum wage requirement for all workers in Los Angeles by 2017, calling it the "largest anti-poverty program in the city's history."...
North Carolina Union Files SEC Pay-to-Play Complaint Against Erskine Bowles International Business Times ...A union representing 55,000 North Carolina current and retired state workers Tuesday filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and his wife, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) director, may have violated federal pay-to-play rules in a major North Carolina pension contract...
War On Workers
The "40-Hour" Workweek Is Actually Longer -- by Seven Hours Gallup ...half of all full-time workers indicate they typically work more than 40 hours, and nearly four in 10 say they work at least 50 hours...
Fast food workers plan nationwide strike on Thursday MSNBC ...Thousands of fast food workers across the United States will once again go on strike this Thursday, representatives of the Fight for 15 movement announced Monday night...
America’s Exploding Oil Train Problem Moyers and Company ...If you reside in the US, there’s around an eight percent chance that you live in an oil train’s blast zone. And there’s a fight going on at the state and federal levels, between monied interests and regulatory agencies, over efforts to ensure that these trains — which have shown a tendency to burst into flames — will be relatively safe...
Police: Arrest made in case of Popeye's worker killed in Anne Arundel Baltimore Sun ...Anne Arundel police said they have made an arrest in the case of a Popeye's employee who was found dead at the restaurant early Sunday morning...
CPUC Fines PG&E $1.4 Billion in Connection with San Bruno Pipeline Explosion Associated Press ...California regulatory judges have issued a $1.4 billion penalty against the state's largest utility for a 2010 gas pipeline explosion that engulfed a suburban San Francisco neighborhood in fire, killing eight people and prompting national alerts about aging pipelines...
Russian bank hires two former U.S. senators The Center for Public Integrity ...Gazprombank GPB (OJSC), a Russian bank targeted with sanctions by President Obama over the Ukraine crisis, has hired two former U.S. senators to lobby against those sanctions, according to a new disclosure filed with the Senate…. former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former Senator John Breaux, D-La., are listed as the main lobbyists...
Car sharing service Uber banned in Germany Guardian ... The online car-sharing service Uber has vowed to continue operating across Germany after its mobile app was banned by a Frankfurt regional court...
Miscellaneous
We Need A Serious, Federal Digital Privacy Law (opinion) Huffington Post ...If anything good is to come from this weekend's celebrity phone hack, let's hope it's federal action that finally takes seriously the problem of non-consensual online sexual exploitation -- along with all other forms of digital privacy invasion...
Ruling On Keystone XL Pipeline Could Come Down To Two Key Points Omaha World-Herald ...The Nebraska Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Friday morning on a constitutional challenge involving one of the most bitterly fought environmental battles in a generation. President Barack Obama is awaiting a ruling from Nebraska before moving closer to deciding the fate of the massive oil pipeline...
Home Depot Investigating Possible Payment Card Data Breach Wall Street Journal ...Home Depot Inc. is working with banks and law enforcement agencies to investigate a potential breach of customer credit- or debit-card data.The home-improvement retailer said on Tuesday it is looking into what it called unusual activity and said that if it confirms a breach occurred, it will immediately notify customers...
