A note to our readers: TeamsterNation will take a short break over the next two days. We will return on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Teamster News
Teamsters' teach-in spotlights environmental injustice at hazardous Missouri landfill Peoples World ...Corporate environmental injustice - in this case, Republic Service at its toxic waste landfill and Superfund site in Bridgeton, Missouri - led the discussion at an October 3 St. Louis teach-in on the dump, its future and responsibility for cleaning it up...
FedEx workers at New Jersey facility reject union representation Reuters ...Workers at a New Jersey facility of package delivery company FedEx Corp (FDX.N) unit FedEx Freight voted against union membership on Friday...
Collective agreement reached between the Canadian Transit Company and Teamsters Local 879 KCEN-TV ...The Honourable Dr. K. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women, congratulated the Canadian Transit Company and Teamsters Local 879 today on reaching a new collective agreement covering 14 employees working as general maintenance employees, janitors, patrolmen and traffic guards at the Ambassador Bridge...
Golden Gate Bridge Workers To Hold One Day Strike Next Friday San Francisco Appeal ...Tim Jenkins, a labor representative of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 856, said the District’s bus workers, servicers, mechanics and dispatchers work hard and fear that the new contract proposed by the District will deprive them of quality, affordable health insurance...
4 Arrested In Culinary Protest Near Red Rock Resort KSNV ...During the protest, Culinary organizing director Donell Henderson was arrested after he attempted to park a truck on Charleston for people giving speeches to stand on. Police took the truck away. Not long afterward, three organized labor leaders were intentionally arrested: Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Culinary President Ted Pappageorge and Chris Griswold, the secretary-treasurer of California Teamsters Local 986...
Bell Island Workers Get 4.5 Percent Raise, Signing Bonus The Telegram ...Keith Hollahan, business agent for the Teamsters, said the offer accepted was very close to what the union had been asking...
Chicago's 2014 Columbus Day Parade ABC News ...The parade will start on State at Wacker Drive and continue south to Van Buren. Serving as this year's Grand Marshal is John Coli, President, Teamsters Joint Council 25 and Vice President, Central Region, International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Taking on Water, May Sink Forbes ...There are two big problems. One is that Congress is in a less charitable mood where trade is concerned than it was the last time it was asked to ratify a free trade agreement. The other is Japan, which stubbornly refuses to drop its tariffs on agricultural exports, even though all other parties to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have committed to eliminate or phase out their tariffs on everything...
TTIP Negotiating Mandate Finally Declassified EurActiv ...The Council of the European Union Thursday (9 October) finally published the secret negotiating mandate for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the US...
State Battles
Teachers protest pension tax at Snyder town hall WOOD-TV ... Outside the event at Noto’s restaurant in Cascade Township were several dozen teachers protesting the governor’s visit. Among them was JoAnne Peterson, who taught at Grand Rapids City High for 35 years before retiring in 2010. But then something happened that she had never planned for: A tax on her pension was instituted...
Philadelphia Students Strike to Support Teachers Portside ...Two days after the Philadelphia School Reform Commission unilaterally canceled the teachers' contract and announced it would impose changes, hundreds of high school students went on "strike" Wednesday to support their teachers...
Study: Voter ID Laws Cut Turnout By Blacks, Young Associated Press ...tates that toughened their voter identification laws saw steeper drops in election turnout than those that did not, with disproportionate falloffs among black and younger voters, a nonpartisan congressional study released Wednesday concluded...
New right-to-farm laws protect Big Ag, not small farmers Aljazeera America ...The new wave of state right-to-farm laws is meant to stop environmental regulation and animal rights activists and protect industrial-scale agriculture. Across the country, supporters of right-to-farm laws are demanding that there be no restrictions on fertilizer use or animal antibiotics — even when they are used solely for growth stimulation and create human health problems — and no limits on puppy mills or crowding and caging of farm animals...
War on Workers
Bank Of America’s No-Bid Prison Contract Facing Criticism In Congress firedoglake ...Bank of America received an extremely lucrative and favorable deal to be the exclusive provider of technology and financial services in all federal prisons. The terms of the Bank of America deal are so favorable that even members of Congress seem uneasy. Treasury gave the contract out without competitive bid and and the transparency most federal contracts are required to have...
EXCLUSIVE: Bank of America’s horrid “customer service” scandal Salon ...Tony (last name not included for fear of reprisal on the job) has worked at Bank of America for 11 years as a customer service associate. He takes phone calls from customers whose needs range from a simple change of address to a family crisis that leaves the caller unable to pay their bills, and he tries to help them solve their problems. And Tony and his coworkers are organizing. Bank of America has had more complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau than any other American financial institution...
22 States Where Adjunct Faculty Are Organizing for Justice In These Times ...A wave of organizing is sweeping contingent faculty. Below, a list of current campaigns in 22 states and D.C. shows how far and wide this wave has spread. The new thing is the Metro Strategy, where multiple institutions are targeted at once so a whole regional workforce becomes unionized. This takes advantage of how contingent (also known as adjunct) faculty members typically commute among various campuses, facing equally bad working conditions everywhere they go...
Walmart Health Insurance Could Leave A Really Sick Worker Broke Forbes ...First the Walmart employee would face the $2,750 deductible, less the $250 reimbursement, or $2,500. That leaves $27,500, 20 percent of which is $5,500. Walmart’s insurance would require the employee to pay $5,000. An employee in for an extended stay or possibly an operation now faces bills of $7,500. That may be affordable for employees who make higher salaries, but it isn’t for the bulk of Walmart workers...
Kia Worker Suffocated To Death LaGrange News ...Investigators and Kia officials are staying tight-lipped about the cause of an accident that killed a 57-year-old Lanett, Alabama, man Tuesday at the sprawling Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia plant in West Point...
Worker killed after machinery falls in Baltimore Associated Press ...A man has died after a piece of machinery fell on him at a building in downtown Baltimore...
Miscellaneous
Amazon to open first physical store for holiday season – report Associated Press ...E-commerce giant plans its first physical store for Manhattan, possibly temporarily, set to open for the holiday shopping season...
