Teamsters reject fact-finder report, talks ongoing with Metro RTA Ohio.com ...A local Teamsters union has rejected a fact-finder’s report, spurring more contract talks with Metro RTA over increased wages and benefits. Teamsters Local 348, which represents 34 mechanics and maintenance workers, and RTA negotiators held a hearing March 20...
Abridged funding for infrastructure upgrades hurts all of us Teamster Nation ...Unions like the Teamsters take a great deal of pride in our country. We're proud to build what makes America work and we would be thrilled to get more workers on the job making our infrastructure the best in the world. It's time for a bipartisan solution to do so...
Global Labor & Trade
With 'Brave Tactic,' Sanders Tries to Slam Brakes on Fast Track Common Dreams ...In what is being heralded as a "brave tactic," Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday temporarily blocked lawmakers from rushing through legislation that would allow the Obama administration to "Fast Track" the controversial and highly secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Sanders forcibly delayed the Senate Finance Committee from considering Fast Track legislation by using a rarely invoked senate scheduling rule...
China's shadow looms over Senate trade debate Politico ...The Senate Finance Committee’s vote late Wednesday to approve “fast track” trade legislation revealed two things: Some Democrats strongly support the measure, and concerns about China’s currency practices will dog the bill as it moves through Congress...
House Democratic Leader Joins Bid to Upend Trade-Deal Compromise Bloomberg ...With Pelosi’s endorsement, the Levin version could siphon Democratic votes from a bill by Representative Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who heads Ways and Means Committee, and introduced in the Senate by Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Ron Wyden of Oregon, the panel’s top Democrat...
Eyes wide shut on ISDS The Hill ...The ISDS provision allows foreign companies to sue their “host” governments though a specialized international arbitration mechanism that often grants protections exceeding those available in domestic courts. While the Obama administration has sought to downplay concerns about ISDS, the decision in Bilcon v. Canada highlights its very real problems...
Sen. Warren to Those Promising TPP Is So Great: 'Prove It. Let Us See the Deal' Common Dreams ..."The Administration says I'm wrong – that there’s nothing to worry about," Warren wrote in a blog post addressed to constituents and the general public on Wednesday. "They say the deal is nearly done, and they are making a lot of promises about how the deal will affect workers, the environment, and human rights. Promises – but people like you can't see the actual deal"...
Obama and Republicans Agree on the Trans-Pacific Partnership … Unfortunately (opinion) New York Times ...This is a bipartisan effort if ever there was one; George Will has called the TPP “Obama’s best idea.” Thus we see the administration, along with pro-business Democrats and Republicans, trying to bulletproof the deal. If that passes, Congress could vote only up or down on the deal, not amend it. That’s quite a bit of presidential power for a scheme that would have a striking impact on the global economy...
Congress Must Stop Fast Tracking Fast Track! (opinion) Daily Kos ...This Fast Track for secret, unread trade deals must be a wake up call that our democracy is in trouble and that politics as normal does not work. The corporate lobby from Nike, Microsoft, Google, Big Pharma, and led by the US Chamber of Commerce are all lined up against us like never before...
Murder Doesn't Matter Under U.S. Trade Deals, AFL-CIO Reveals Huffington Post ...Defenders of the White House push for sweeping trade deals argue they include tough enforcement of labor standards. But a top union leader scoffed at such claims Tuesday, revealing that administration officials have said privately that they don’t consider even the killings of labor organizers to be violations of those pacts...
State & Living Wage Battles
How Raising The Minimum Wage To $15 Changed These Workers' Lives Huffington Post ...A valet attendant and shuttle driver at a parking company called MasterPark, Babakrkhil saw his base wage jump from $9.55 per hour, before tips, up to $15. Having scraped by in America since immigrating from Afghanistan 11 years ago, he suddenly faced the pleasant predicament as his co-workers: What to do with the windfall? For the overworked father of three, it wasn't a hard question. Babakrkhil decided to quit his other full-time job to actually spend time with his wife and three young girls...
Federal Contract Workers Just Went on Strike in DC The Nation ...Janitors and food service workers at federal monuments are tired of earning a pittance on the taxpayers’ dime, so they’ve gone on a one-day strike. They join workers across the country to demand from Washington what their fellow fast-food workers and retail clerks in the private sector are demanding from private firms: $15 an hour and union rights...
$70,000 minimum pay turns out to be good for business Daily Kos ...Remember Dan Price, the CEO who cut his own pay to raise the minimum annual pay at his company to $70,000? Turns out, that wasn't just a morally good thing to do, and Price doesn't have to wait for the longer-term payoff of increased productivity and reduced staff turnover: "Price said the news has brought in dozens of new clients, making it the best week for new business in the company's 11-year history"...
Pennsylvania Scraps Flawed Test Meant To Determine If Food Stamp Recipients Are Poor Enough Think Progress ...Pennsylvania will no longer punish its poorest families for saving money after Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) administration announced the end of a flawed eligibility test for food stamps that was imposed by Wolf’s Republican predecessor. On Tuesday, state officials said they are ending food stamps asset tests...
Kansas Lawmakers Want The Poor To Pay For Tax Cuts For The Rich Washington Post ...Even the proposed increases in sales and excise taxes would make up only a fraction of the deficit. To balance the budget for this year, Brownback and other policymakers have proposed temporary measures, such as transferring money out of the state's highway fund...
Chicago Mayor Joins Chorus of Opposition to IL Gov’s Anti-Worker “Turnaround Agenda” We Party Patriots ...During a city council meeting this month, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced a resolution to oppose Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed “Right-to-Work” zones, which would enable municipalities to enact hyper-ideological anti-union legislation on a local level...
The Chamber Of Commerce Is Fighting Fiercely To Stop The Scourge Of Corporate Transparency Huffington Post ...The Chamber of Commerce had submitted a brief in the Citizens United case in support of lifting certain previous restrictions on corporate spending. The business lobby has been active in elections since 1998, but dramatically stepped up its efforts following the Supreme Court's ruling. Since then, the Chamber has spent over $100 million on federal elections, almost all in favor of the Republican Party...
Corporations to Workers: "We Own You" Truthout.org ...Right now, House Republicans are trying to give employers here in our nation's capital the right to fire their employees if they go on birth control. Last year, the Washington DC city council passed a law called the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014 (RHNDA), which bans employers from firing or otherwise punishing employees for the private decisions they make about their reproductive health. Naturally, right-wing religious groups started freaking out...
U.S. Labor
Barack Obama Proposes $3.5 Billion Gas Pipeline Overhaul Politico ...But the amount of money the administration is proposing is just a fraction of what it would take to replace the hundreds of thousands of miles of decades-old cast-iron and bare-steel natural gas distribution pipes — the lines that are considered most vulnerable to ruptures. A full replacement would cost $270 billion, the report says. And the whole proposal immediately ran into GOP skepticism...
Pregnant Fast-Food Worker Robbed at Gunpoint Then Fired for Not Repaying Stolen Cash Alternet ...Marissa Holcomb was hard at work at a Popeye's in Texas. She was in the midst of one of the busiest shifts of the week when a gunman with a stocking cap entered the store, jumped over the counter and robbed the clerk at gunpoint. Unable to open the safes, she opened the registers and the thief made of with roughly $400. Did she receive praise for handing over the cash and surviving the ordeal?...
Alabama Dispute Strains UAW-Lear Relationship WardsAuto ...The amicable relationship built up over the years between the UAW and Lear, the world's largest supplier of automotive seating, is being tested by a dispute at the company’s non-union plant in Selma, AL. The clash is filling up the dockets in two different courts in Alabama and has triggered an angry exchange over employee safety between the company and the union...
NJEA breaks off pension talks with Christie Philly.com ...In a setback to Gov. Christie's proposal to overhaul New Jersey's pension and health benefit systems, the state's largest teachers' union on Tuesday said it would no longer participate in talks with a panel he appointed to tackle the funding crisis. The union also called on Christie to fully fund the pension system. Christie shorted the system about $1.6 billion for the current fiscal year...
Miscellaneous
Detroit Just Had The Single Largest Tax Foreclosure In American History Mother Jones ...On March 31st at the Wayne Country Treasurer's Office, that Victorian-era invention was accomplishing neither objective. Then again, no door in the history of architecture—rotating or otherwise—could have accommodated the latest perversity Detroit officials were inflicting on city residents: the potential eviction of tens of thousands, possibly as many as 100,000 people, all at precisely the same time...
Pipelines Blow Up And People Die Politico ...Oil and gas companies like to assure the public that pipelines are a safer way to ship their products than railroads or trucks. But government data makes clear there is hardly reason to celebrate. Last year, more than 700 pipeline failures killed 19 people, injured 97 and caused more than $300 million in damage. Two of the past five years have been the worst for combined pipeline-related deaths and injuries since 2000...
GOP Infighting Threatens NSA Bill Politico ...It’s the second congressional effort to reform surveillance practices since Snowden’s leaks revealed the vast nature of the NSA’s operations. But if lawmakers don’t do anything this time, key parts of the PATRIOT Act will expire, including a key provision that the government has used to justify bulk data collection...
The Sun Must Go Down On The Patriot Act (opinion) Huffington Post ...Some legislators want Congress to reauthorize it in its current form -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has just introduced a bill that would do exactly that, extending it for another five years. Others want to make relatively minor changes. Congress shouldn't do either of these things. Unless Congress can coalesce around far-reaching reform, it should simply let the provision expire...
Kansas Lawmakers Want The Poor To Pay For Tax Cuts For The Rich Washington Post ...Even the proposed increases in sales and excise taxes would make up only a fraction of the deficit. To balance the budget for this year, Brownback and other policymakers have proposed temporary measures, such as transferring money out of the state's highway fund...
Chicago Mayor Joins Chorus of Opposition to IL Gov’s Anti-Worker “Turnaround Agenda” We Party Patriots ...During a city council meeting this month, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced a resolution to oppose Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed “Right-to-Work” zones, which would enable municipalities to enact hyper-ideological anti-union legislation on a local level...
The Chamber Of Commerce Is Fighting Fiercely To Stop The Scourge Of Corporate Transparency Huffington Post ...The Chamber of Commerce had submitted a brief in the Citizens United case in support of lifting certain previous restrictions on corporate spending. The business lobby has been active in elections since 1998, but dramatically stepped up its efforts following the Supreme Court's ruling. Since then, the Chamber has spent over $100 million on federal elections, almost all in favor of the Republican Party...
Corporations to Workers: "We Own You" Truthout.org ...Right now, House Republicans are trying to give employers here in our nation's capital the right to fire their employees if they go on birth control. Last year, the Washington DC city council passed a law called the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014 (RHNDA), which bans employers from firing or otherwise punishing employees for the private decisions they make about their reproductive health. Naturally, right-wing religious groups started freaking out...
Barack Obama Proposes $3.5 Billion Gas Pipeline Overhaul Politico ...But the amount of money the administration is proposing is just a fraction of what it would take to replace the hundreds of thousands of miles of decades-old cast-iron and bare-steel natural gas distribution pipes — the lines that are considered most vulnerable to ruptures. A full replacement would cost $270 billion, the report says. And the whole proposal immediately ran into GOP skepticism...
Pregnant Fast-Food Worker Robbed at Gunpoint Then Fired for Not Repaying Stolen Cash Alternet ...Marissa Holcomb was hard at work at a Popeye's in Texas. She was in the midst of one of the busiest shifts of the week when a gunman with a stocking cap entered the store, jumped over the counter and robbed the clerk at gunpoint. Unable to open the safes, she opened the registers and the thief made of with roughly $400. Did she receive praise for handing over the cash and surviving the ordeal?...
Alabama Dispute Strains UAW-Lear Relationship WardsAuto ...The amicable relationship built up over the years between the UAW and Lear, the world's largest supplier of automotive seating, is being tested by a dispute at the company’s non-union plant in Selma, AL. The clash is filling up the dockets in two different courts in Alabama and has triggered an angry exchange over employee safety between the company and the union...
NJEA breaks off pension talks with Christie Philly.com ...In a setback to Gov. Christie's proposal to overhaul New Jersey's pension and health benefit systems, the state's largest teachers' union on Tuesday said it would no longer participate in talks with a panel he appointed to tackle the funding crisis. The union also called on Christie to fully fund the pension system. Christie shorted the system about $1.6 billion for the current fiscal year...
Detroit Just Had The Single Largest Tax Foreclosure In American History Mother Jones ...On March 31st at the Wayne Country Treasurer's Office, that Victorian-era invention was accomplishing neither objective. Then again, no door in the history of architecture—rotating or otherwise—could have accommodated the latest perversity Detroit officials were inflicting on city residents: the potential eviction of tens of thousands, possibly as many as 100,000 people, all at precisely the same time...
Pipelines Blow Up And People Die Politico ...Oil and gas companies like to assure the public that pipelines are a safer way to ship their products than railroads or trucks. But government data makes clear there is hardly reason to celebrate. Last year, more than 700 pipeline failures killed 19 people, injured 97 and caused more than $300 million in damage. Two of the past five years have been the worst for combined pipeline-related deaths and injuries since 2000...
GOP Infighting Threatens NSA Bill Politico ...It’s the second congressional effort to reform surveillance practices since Snowden’s leaks revealed the vast nature of the NSA’s operations. But if lawmakers don’t do anything this time, key parts of the PATRIOT Act will expire, including a key provision that the government has used to justify bulk data collection...
The Sun Must Go Down On The Patriot Act (opinion) Huffington Post ...Some legislators want Congress to reauthorize it in its current form -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has just introduced a bill that would do exactly that, extending it for another five years. Others want to make relatively minor changes. Congress shouldn't do either of these things. Unless Congress can coalesce around far-reaching reform, it should simply let the provision expire...
