Teamsters Protest Sysco At IFDA Lobbying Meeting Market Watch ...Teamsters protested Sysco Corporation [NYSE: SYY] outside the International Foodservice Distributors Association's (IFDA) Washington Insight Conference on Capitol Hill today. Sysco is a member of the IFDA and is the largest foodservice distributor in America. "We are here today because of Sysco's pattern of threatening workers, food producers and even its competitors," said Steve Vairma, Director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division...
Teamsters Decry Sysco’s Bullying at Rally in Washington, D.C. Teamster.org ...More than 70 Teamsters took part in a raucous rally Tuesday, April 21 to blast Sysco’s bullying of workers, its labor law violations and other misdeeds. The Teamsters Union is calling out Sysco as a corporate bully during this week’s International Food Distributors Association meeting. That’s where Sysco, US Foods and other Teamster broadline foodservice employers are holding their annual “Washington Insight” conference...
Court Victory Vindicates BLET Position On Two-Person Train Crews Teamster.org ...In a major legal victory to protect two-person train crews, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled in favor of Brotherhood Locomotive Engineer and Trainmen’s (BLET) position that the Wheeling & Lake Erie’s (WLE) use of managers in place of Union conductors is a major dispute under the Railway Labor Act. The ruling, which occurred yesterday, vindicates BLET’s decision to strike over the issue more than 18 months ago...
Teamsters Applaud Report By Members Of Parliament On Conditions At National Express Group PLC Teamster.org ...A report released today by two Members of United Kingdom’s Parliament reveals serious labor rights violations at National Express Group PLC operations in the United States. The report’s recommendations support a Teamster-sponsored shareholder resolution that will be voted on at the company’s annual general meeting of shareholders on May 6 in London...
Global Labor & Trade
Business, Labor Back In Trenches On Trade The Hill ...Trumka and Donohue will meet Tuesday at the Senate Finance Committee to discuss Obama’s push for “fast-track” trade promotion authority (TPA) at a crucial moment in the all-out battle for votes on legislation now before Congress. The bill would limit Congress to an up-or-down vote on major trade deals — including the sweeping 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership — being negotiated by the Obama administration...
Some Senate Democrats Look Ready to Buck Harry Reid on Trade National Journal ... Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's statement Tuesday that he is a "hell no" on legislation that would give the White House more leverage to negotiate trade deals is reflective of many Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee. But while it is likely that most of the committee's 12 Democrats will still be opposed to a new trade authority, there are signs that just enough Democrats might be open to the bill...
Low Wages, Trade Deals Luring Auto Plants and Jobs to Mexico New York Times ...Mexico has become the most attractive place in North America to build new automobile factories, a shift that has siphoned jobs from the U.S. and Canada, yet helped keep car and truck prices in check for consumers. Audi also sells the Q5 in the U.S., where tariffs on cars built in Mexico were dropped under the North American Free Trade Agreement...
San Francisco Opposes TPP Fast Track in New Resolution EFF.org ...The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has unanimously voted in favor of a resolution today urging the district's congressional representatives to oppose Fast Track legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. Supervisor John Avalos put forth the resolution, which expresses concerns about the secret trade agreement's provisions...
Why the Pittsburgh City Council may speak out against a Trans-Pacific trade deal Pittsburgh Business Times ...Pittsburgh elected officials are warning "fast track approval" of the Trans-Pacific Partnership may harm Pittsburgh's economy. On Tuesday, District 4 City Councilwoman NataliaRudiak introduced a Will of Council asking President Barack Obama to pursue a more fully transparent and inclusive legislative process surrounding TPP, which is being negotiated behind closed doors with the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim nations...
Rana Plaza 2 Years Later: Garment Workers Under Seige Solidarity Center ...In the initial months after the Rana Plaza collapse on April 24, 2013, a preventable catastrophe that killed more than 1,130 Bangladesh garment workers and injured thousands more, global outrage spurred much-needed changes. "After the Rana Plaza and Tazreen disasters, it had become easier to form unions," says Aleya Akter, president of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF). But since November 2014, the government is more frequently rejecting registrations...
A Look At The Fast-Track Bill Shows It's The Wrong Thing To Do (opinion) Huffington Post ...We don't yet know what is in the TPP, because it is still secret and will remain so until shortly before the fast-track process requires Congress to vote. The president says to trust him, telling us that it will be great and "progressive" and create lots of jobs and expand the economy. Great. But the history on our trade deals -- especially those passed using fast track -- has been very bad...
Fast Tracking Democracy to Hell: Why the Trans-Pacific Partnership Is a Rotten Deal (opinion) Alternet ...Concealing potentially job-killing trade schemes from the American public thwarts democracy. Rushing unpopular legislation through Congress before American citizens have an opportunity to review it and tell their elected representatives how they feel about it obstructs democracy. No trade treaty, no matter how great free traders cross-their-hearts-and-hope-to-die it will be, is worth damning Americans’ cherished democracy...
Exporting Jobs, Importing Inequality (opinion) U.S. News & World Report ...America’s middle class is being ripped apart by failed trade policy. Look at what was once the proud heartland of our country’s manufacturing sector, and you’ll see the aftermath of terrible trade deals: lost jobs, stagnant wages, shuttered factories and devastated communities. It’s a tragedy, and after 20 years of a broken system, it’s time we tried something new...
State & Living Wage Battles
Supreme Court Revives Challenge To North Carolina Redistricting Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday revived a challenge to North Carolina’s election map, which civil rights groups complain illegally concentrates black voters in a handful of districts...
County Board Supports Right to Work Initiative XFM ...The Effingham County Board Monday voted 7-2 to endorse The Turnaround Agenda promoted by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, including a provision to create Right to Work zones. One of the largest crowds ever seen at a County Board was on hand for the vote, made up primarily of union workers, although there was a contingent of supporters of the initiative...
Birmingham City Council endorses campaign to increase minimum wage as legislators move to restrict local authority to do so AL.com ...The council this afternoon unanimously passed a resolution asking the Legislature to increase the state minimum wage to $10 an hour. The nonbinding resolution comes at the same time the state House of Representatives consider a bill to restrict the ability of local governments to set their own minimum wage rules...
LePage Seeks To Quash Local Efforts To Raise Minimum Wage Bangor Daily News ...Gov. Paul LePage is promoting a bill to thwart municipal officials in two of Maine’s largest communities from raising the minimum wage for employers within their city limits...
Obama aide takes Philly's side in sick-leave fight Philly.com ...Philadelphia's law, which requires businesses with 10 or more employees to provide at least an hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked, takes effect next month. Last week the Republican-dominated state Senate passed legislation that would effectively preempt local governments from having mandatory sick-leave laws...
America’s “Flexible” Economy Is Making Workers’ Lives Hell Salon.com ...Employers assign workers tentative shifts, and then notify them a half-hour or ten minutes before the shift is scheduled to begin whether they’re actually needed. Some even require workers to check in by phone, email, or text shortly before the shift starts. Just-in-time scheduling is another part of America’s new “flexible” economy – along with the move to independent contractors and the growing reliance on “share economy” businesses, like Uber...
Wal-Mart closures draw NLRB filing Arkansas Online ...A complaint by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, acting on behalf of OUR Walmart, is seeking reinstatement of employees to their former stores or transfer to other locations without loss of pay until repairs are complete. The filing alleges the closings were a result of labor protests...
AFSCME Protests IDOC Accusations WSIU.org ...Governor Bruce Rauner pledged his support for the Illinois Department of Corrections when he was elected. But, members of AFSCME say they are waiting to see that support materialize. Union members held an informational picket Monday outside the Vienna Correctional Center...
Memphis reaches agreement with a portion of AFSCME, avoids impasse Commercial Appeal ...City of Memphis officials reached a two-year agreement on Tuesday with the main bargaining unit of AFSCME, making it the only labor group negotiating with the city that will not go into impasse. The agreement keeps in place current contract language but allows for a “wage reopening” after one year, said union president Janice Chalmers...
At Home And Abroad, The Labor Movement Comes Roaring Back (opinion) Moyers & Company ...At a time when multi-national corporations are 50 of the world’s largest 100 economies, this movement has had to be both intensely local and expansively global. Less than three years ago, the grassroots campaign for a living wage began in scattered Thanksgiving protests by New York City fast food workers and Los Angeles Wal-Mart associates. This year’s protests are the largest and most global labor actions ever mounted...
Miscellaneous
It's Time to Invest in the United States' Rail System (opinion) Truthout.org ...It's time to make infrastructure sexy again, and we can start by fixing the United States' rail systems. Believe it or not, there was a time in the US when riding a train was luxurious. There were classy dining cars, moonlit rides across the countryside...
The richest 0.01 percent of Americans gave 42 percent of political donations in 2012 Daily Kos ...Forget the top one percent, the top 0.01 percent of Americans gave nearly 42 percent of all political donation dollars in the 2012 election cycle. Just over 30,000 individuals contributed nearly half of all money. It should come as no surprise that policymakers look after the ultra-wealthy instead of the rest of us...
Caterpillar’s CEO Just Got A Big Raise, And It Explains What’s Wrong With American Capitalism Think Progress ...Heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar gave its CEO a 14 percent raise last year, in a $17.1 million package of cash, stock, and other compensation that is hard to justify in light of the famed brand’s actual performance. Caterpillar is hardly unique in finding creative ways to justify paying CEOs. The rules for performance pay are broken across all industries...
