Teamster News
Zodiac Workers Approve New Contract, End Strike KTEN ...Workers from the largest employer in Cooke County will be heading back to work Monday after about a month on the picket line. Employees at the Zodiac Seats manufacturing facility in Gainesville approved a new contract by an overwhelming margin earlier Saturday afternoon. Teamsters Local 767 representative Terry Johnson says the key issues of the contract dispute were work environment, seniority rights, and work schedules...
NetJets To The Middle Class: Subsidize The Global Super-Rich teamster.org ...Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc. is demanding compensation and benefit cuts from more than 600 employees represented by the Teamsters Union as part of a plan to lower prices for its wealthy customers. The Columbus, Ohio-based business jet operator is owned by Warren Buffet's holding company and provides business and leisure travel to the global super-rich...
Celebration Of Life: Brian Robert Davis teamster.org ...Please join us in celebrating the life and accomplishments of Joint Council No. 28 Freight Director and Local 174 Business Agent Brian Davis...
Trade
Anti-TTIP Front Condemns Government For Supporting Free Trade Proposal Malta Today ...Social Europe: Front Against TTIP (Malta) condemned the government for supporting the proposed Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, while discussions on the free trade agreement are still ongoing between the European Union and the United States...
South Korea: Bitter harvest: Exploitation and forced labour of migrant agricultural workers in South Korea Amnesty International ...The migrant workers on whom South Korean agriculture depends suffer appalling living and working conditions, and the government's Employment Permit Scheme (EPS) directly contributes to this exploitation, according to a new report (Bitter Harvest) from Amnesty International...
State Battles
Labor Group To Sue Scott Walker's Administration For Minimum Wage Study Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A labor group plans to sue Gov. Scott Walker's administration Monday as part of an ongoing effort to force an increase in Wisconsin's minimum wage...
West Lake Protesters Warn Of 'Hidden Dangers' KSDK ...Protesters hit the streets of North St. Louis County again Sunday, but this time the demonstrations had to do with the World War Two-era nuclear waste buried at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton. The waste site sits adjacent to an underground fire at the Bridgeton Landfill...
The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster Rolling Stone ...Brownback turned out to be even more radical when it came to economic policy. In 2012, he enacted the largest package of tax cuts in Kansas history, essentially transforming his state into a lab experiment for extreme free-market ideology. The results (disastrous) have reduced the governor to making appearances at grim strip malls like this one in a desperate attempt to salvage his re-election bid...
‘Right To Work’ Harms Working Families (opinion) Louisville Courier Journal ...Kentucky remains the only state in the South not to pass one of these laws, which shows our political independence and common sense. But Republicans in Frankfort, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and a group of out-of-state, big-moneyed special interests are doing everything in their power to change that. I strongly oppose right-to-work legislation because I love Kentucky and want a bright future for our children and grandchildren. Right to work is a sham. It is, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “a false slogan” which will “rob us of our civil rights and job rights.”...
To see how Citizens United is hurting democracy, look at local elections msnbc ... in a scandal one news report called a “nightmare scenario” of corruption, former Utah Attorney General John Swallow used “independent” groups to orchestrate advertising for his 2012 campaign from payday loan companies, which he had in exchange promised to regulate lightly, according to an investigation by Utah’s legislature. Swallow’s campaign staff had created a web of benignly named groups, like the Proper Role of Government Education Association, to conceal more than $450,000 in spending by the lenders...
War on Workers
7 things the middle class can't afford anymore USA Today ...54% of people gave up purchasing big ticket items like TVs or electronics so they can go on a vacation...
The Real Crazy Train: Moving Bakken Crude By Rail (opinion) San Francisco Chronicle ...Community concerns include environmental risks but center on public safety because Bakken oil is more volatile than most other crudes. A derailed tanker train loaded with Bakken crude exploded in July 2013, killing 47 people in Canada and alerting transportation officials and the public to the real hazards of transporting this easily ignited oil. For Benicians, potentially explosive trains are no theoretical debate as two 50-car trains would pass daily through the north end of town...
How 'flexible' schedules have become a trap for working parents Vox ... According to a recent study, many workers in similar retail jobs with "just-in-time" scheduling can be called in for a shift just two hours ahead of time, and most are not guaranteed a minimum number of hours each week. That means paychecks fluctuate as much as shifts...
New fight over Ebola quarantine looms as nurse returns to Maine FOX News ...A nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa before being briefly and controversially quarantined in New Jersey could be the focus of a new battle over state health policy as she returns to her home state of Maine...
CNN poll: Voters are angry CNN Politics ...Nearly 7 in 10 Americans are angry at the direction the country is headed and 53% of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama's job performance, two troubling signs for Democrats one week before the midterm elections...
The Stealth Campaign to Buy US Courts truthout ...the RSLC has run an aggressive—and successful—strategy to turn states red and keep them that way. This year, the group expanded from legislative and gubernatorial races, putting $5 million into a “Judicial Fairness Initiative” with the aim to elect judges who are “supportive of restraining government.” So far, the RSLC has funded judicial campaigns in Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and North Carolina. The group is still monitoring races in Ohio, Texas and Michigan...
Worker dies after Veolia industrial blast in Canada AFP ...A Veolia worker who was injured during a weekend blast at an industrial plant in Canada died Monday, officials said. Four other staff also were hospitalized Saturday in the as-yet-unexplained explosion that collapsed the roof at the Veolia ES Canada Industrial facility in Sarnia, Ontario...
Worker killed in construction accident in Phoenix azfamily.com ...A construction worker is dead after he got caught and crushed in a piece of equipment Monday afternoon...
Miscellaneous
NSA Director Was Investing In Shady Foreign Markets While Spying On Shady Foreign Markets Inquisitr ...Keith Alexander, the former National Security Agency Director owned and sold shares in commodities linked to China and Russia… all while the NSA was heavily spying on China and Russia. Depending on who you ask, it’s either a question of insider trading, cashing in on incidental job knowledge, or a case of coincidence...
