Teamster News
Saputo Dairy Workers Overwhelmingly Choose Teamsters teamster.org ...Workers at the Saputo Inc. (TSE: SAP) cheese production facility in Lena, Wisc., have voted overwhelmingly, 367 to 79, in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 662 in Green Bay, Wisc. There are 459 production, maintenance and warehouse workers...
Teamsters, St. Louis Community Hold Teach-In On Republic Services’ Nuclear Waste Landfill on Fire Teamsters ...On Saturday, Teamsters gathered with St. Louis-area residents, union members, elected officials, faith leaders, environmental experts and attorneys about Republic Service’s [NYSE: RSG] West Lake Landfill. West Lake is a Superfund site in Bridgeton, Mo. that contains 8,700 tons of buried uncontained radioactive nuclear wastes adjacent to an underground landfill fire...
Teamsters Local 922, D.C. Taxi Drivers to Hold A Second Caravan for Fairness teamster.org ...Taxi Companies, UberX, Lyft, and others should follow the same regulations, rather than the proposed two-tiered system that gives a competitive advantage to private vehicles for-hire and keeps the public vehicles for-hire strictly controlled...
Teamsters Urge Zuckerberg, Loop Trans. To Recognize Facebook Bus Drivers' Union teamster.org ...Rome Aloise, International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., wrote a letter to Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg last week on behalf of bus drivers who transport Facebook employees from San Francisco, Palo Alto and other areas to the Facebook campus. The drivers, employees of Loop Transportation, are seeking union representation and a contract...
BLET delegates back two-person train crews on final day of Third National Convention teamster.org ...“The single employee train crew issue is one of the most important questions facing rail labor, and specifically the BLET,” the resolution reads...
PCC tries to impress a formerly unhappy customer philly.com ...When her organization last came to Philadelphia, in 2009, six unions worked in the building. In May, two of the six did not sign a customer satisfaction agreement by a deadline set by management. Those two unions - the carpenters and the Teamsters - no longer work in the building, although they are contesting that move with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board...
Trade
Food fight The Economist ...This week Koji Tsuruoka, Japan’s chief negotiator on the TPP, blasted the media in general, which, he said, pays far too much attention to American spin doctors when reporting on the trade agreement, negotiations for which are conducted in secret...
Find out what TTIP is and how it will affect you On the Wight ...Growing numbers of Islanders have become aware of the threat to public services, food safety and wages posed by an international trade treaty being cobbled together behind closed doors by EU governments – including Britain...
Make No Mistake, the TTIP is a Move in the Wrong Direction Global Economic Intersection ...This week has witnessed the seventh round of talks between EU and US negotiators seeking to hammer out a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). These have been mired in controversy over the supposed impact that the agreement will have on the ability of countries to regulate in the public interest...
State Battles
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s Tax Cuts Cause Another Revenue Hit (opinion) Kansas City Star ... the lower income tax rates that took effect in January 2013 haven’t brought a dramatic surge in revenue from the bonanza of new jobs Kansas was supposed to enjoy....
Secretly kissing up to Kochs pays off for Doug Ducey Arizona Republic ...Fresh off a primary in which dark-money attacks were launched against any Republican who stood in Ducey's way, we now learn that Ducey has been cozying up to America's premier princes of dark money...
Scott Walker Could Win Thanks to Wisconsin's Voter ID Law New Republic ...It’s hard to say how many people might be disenfranchised by the law, but in such a tight election, where Republican incumbent Scott Walker is neck-and-neck with Democrat Mary Burke, it doesn’t take many votes to swing the results...
Perdue ‘proud’ of outsourcing past, blames Washington for jobs lost Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...U.S. Senate candidate David Perdue, … a former CEO for Dollar General and Republican nominee to replace retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss, was stung by his own words last week in an article (that) ... quoted Perdue from a 2005 deposition where he said he “spent most of my career” outsourcing...
War on Workers
The Good News and Bad News About 5.9 Percent Unemployment truth-out ...there is a real danger that the political power of the financial sector will force (Federal Reserve chair Janet) Yellen to start slowing the economy and stopping job growth long before workers gain any bargaining power...
FedEx Drivers Win Kansas Top Court Ruling On Employment Bloomberg ...FedEx Corp. (FDX) drivers in Kansas, in the lead case among 21 consolidated lawsuits over unpaid expenses and overtime, won a ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that they’re employees and not independent contractors...
Hours Of Service Rules Back As Top Concern In Annual Trucking Industry Survey The Trucker ...Operational impacts being experienced across the supply chain from the changes to the Hours-of-Service (HOS) rules that went into effect in 2013 once again propelled the HOS rules to the top of the list in ATRI’s annual survey of more than 4,000 trucking industry stakeholders...
Exclusive: Hundreds Of Devices Hidden Inside New York City Phone Booths Buzzfeed ...Beacons can push you ads — and help track your every move. Update: Hours after BuzzFeed News exposed the devices, the city ordered the removal of the devices...
Mexico federal agents disarm city's entire police force after student attacks DW ...Mexican federal agents have disarmed all police in the city of Iguala and taken over security. Local officers are alleged to have conspired with a criminal gang to kill 43 missing students, with a mass grave discovered...
Housing Rights Group Says HUD Program Helps Wall Street, Hurts Homeowners truth-out ...They contest that the program has deepened the pain of homeowners and tenants by handing their fates over to hedge funds and investment groups that often have no interest in pursuing loan modifications or other options that would allow residents to remain in their homes...
Michigan judge rules Kalamazoo county has right to take woman's house over one missed tax payment Daily Kos ... Deborah Calley maintains that she was unaware she owed any back taxes and of the ten certified letters sent by the county, only one was sent to her home, the other nine were sent to banks. She steadfastly maintains she never received a single notice. She's also been willing from the get-go to pay the $2,000 debt, but the county has rejected her offers, preferring to sell her mortgage-free home...
Miscellaneous
Keystone Pipeline Opponents Causing Environmental Disaster (opinion) New York Post ...Despite dangers and lawsuits, governments continue to drag their feet on building pipelines or on cracking down on rail practices. By so doing, they merely increase the likelihood of another tragedy. Every day thousands of old tanker cars carry oil along America’s 140,000 miles of track, and another disaster looms...
More Oil Trains Heading To N.J. NorthJersey ... The new rail facility at Bayway is cementing New Jersey’s reputation as a major transportation corridor for crude oil even as the burgeoning “crude by rail” industry faces increasing concerns about safety following a series of explosive derailments in the past year...
