New York Mayor’s Office, Teamsters Team Up For Community Grants Variety ...The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the Theatrical Teamsters Local 817 have partnered to award three “Made in NY” grants to support community-based organizations with media, film or arts programs in high-need communities...
Teamsters Swift Transportaion Shareholder Proposal Recommended By Leading Proxy Voting Advisors Teamster.org ...The country’s two leading proxy voting advisors, ISS and Glass Lewis, recommend that shareholders of Swift Transportation vote for a shareholder proposal sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that calls on the company to pursue a plan to recapitalize the company and replace the current dual class stock structure with one that ensures equal voting rights for all shareholders...
Global Labor & Trade
Liberals furious with Obama’s trade comments MSNBC ...The already bitter fight between the White House and the progressive base over trade policy has turned ugly after President Obama said his critics on the left “don’t know what they’re talking about” and compared their arguments to conspiracy theories about “death panels.” Progressives trade critics are up in arms over the comments, made Thursday night to a gathering of Organizing for Action...
Obama Hits the Warpath Over TPP The Nation ...Many of Obama’s claims, however, don’t match up to what we know about the deal so far. Others are impossible to fact-check, as the final language of the deal remains a secret to the public and even many congressional staffers. The members of Congress who have seen the deal can’t disclose what’s in it, but their public statements reveal a deep unease about the text...
Obama escalates push-back against Elizabeth Warren and other trade deal critics Washington Post ...The push-back, directed largely at fellow Democrats, shows just how sharply the trade deal is dividing the party — a schism that could only intensify in the days ahead. On the call, Obama ran through a number of Democratic and liberal objections to the deal...
U.S. mulling trade rules change dubbed 'poison pill' for pact Reuters ...The amendment, approved by the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, would disqualify trade deals with countries deemed soft on human trafficking from special procedures designed to speed their passage through Congress. The problem arises because the 2014 list of human-trafficking offenders includes Malaysia, a partner in the TPP...
TTIP Negotiators Get An Earful From American Critics EurActiv ...In the margins of talks for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on Thursday (23 April), US opponents to the deal vocally criticised the emerging agreement, saying it was a bad deal for consumers and the environment...
Congressional Panels Approve Fast Track For Trade Deal, With Conditions New York Times ...House and Senate committees this week easily agreed to give President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate a sweeping trade accord with Pacific nations, but the package of bills intended to speed completion of the deal also imposes difficult burdens on its negotiators...
Obama, Hillary Clinton don't get trade (opinion) CNN ...Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is trying to walk a fine line somewhere in the middle. Clinton has recently courted Warren's support while forcefully repeating the rhetoric of populism. But according to a report by The New York Times, Clinton's staff is at pains to suggest that Clinton has always been a populist as opposed to merely trying to now co-opt a current trend...
Women Around The World Rise Up To Remember Rana Plaza Common Dreams ...Marking two years since the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, protesters are converging on the country's capital and feminist actions are sweeping the globe on Friday, to honor the lives of the 1,138 people—most of them women—who perished in the tragedy and to demand justice for those they left behind...
Labour reforms trigger strike in S. Korea AFP ...Thousands of South Korean workers and civil servants rallied in Seoul on Friday in response to a nationwide general strike call against government labour reforms. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said more than 260,000 people across the country participated in the one-day strike, including health workers, teachers and factory employees...
State & Living Wage Battles
Suburbs Not Exactly Embracing Rauner's Turnaround Plan Chicago Daily Herald ...Gov. Bruce Rauner's controversial effort to convince local governments to back his reform agenda is getting only a so-so response in the suburbs as union supporters flood meeting rooms to oppose the plan they say will limit workers' rights...
Four Years Later, Texas Is Still Defending Its Voter ID Law Huffington Post ...The issue at hand -- Texas' contentious photo ID law -- is expected to ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court. Voting rights advocates will argue that a federal judge's ruling from October -- which called the law an unconstitutional "poll tax," intentionally discriminatory and an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote -- should be upheld...
Right to work amendment unlikely to advance far Springfield News Sun ...A legislative panel will consider adding "right to work" to the Ohio constitution, although it seems unlikely the proposal will be approved. The Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission is reviewing the state constitution to make recommendations to the Ohio Legislature on subjects ranging from term limits to school funding...
Debate Over Raising Pennsylvania’s Minimum Wage Continues In State Capitol CBS Philly ...Supporters of an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour held an event at the state Capitol at which time they released a study on the impact it would have on Pennsylvania by The Keystone Research Center...
Debate swirls around whether increase in minimum wage would hurt business News Tribune ...This year, Missouri legislators filed five bills proposing raises to the state’s minimum wage, with rates ranging from $9.50 to $10.25 per hour. Similar bills have been filed in the past several years, but most never make it past the committee stage...
Meet The People Going Without Food For 15 Days To Demand A $15 Wage Think Progress ...Fast food workers like Farfan have staged nationwide strikes and protests to demand a $15 wage and the right to form a union. That pay floor has caught on in some places like Seattle and San Francisco, which both raised their wages to that level. Los Angeles lawmakers are considering joining them by raising the city’s wage to $15.25 by 2019...
U.S. Labor
SEIU, county talks frozen as Legislature considers bargaining reform Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Clark County government and its largest union remain locked in a standoff, unable to bargain a contract. The county and Service Employees International Union Local 1107 cannot even agree enough to take their dispute to an arbitrator for a final decision. Both sides started negotiating in June 2013. By February 2014, the SEIU had declared an impasse that continues to this day...
Assembly bill could give farmworkers a greater voice during mediation Fresno Bee ...As a protracted legal fight over who will represent about 3,000 Gerawan Company workers simmers, state Assembly Member Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, is stepping in the fray with a bill that could prevent future conflicts between labor unions, farmworkers and their employer...
Battling A Damaging Workplace Trend (opinion) Huffington Post ...One of the most pervasive and damaging trends we are seeing in the 21st-century workplace is the deliberate misclassification of workers by employers looking to shift responsibility and cut costs. Two judgments announced this week in Utah and Arizona demonstrate our commitment to cracking down on this practice, whereby companies claim that their workers are not employees but independent contractors...
Miscellaneous
In Battle Between Strong Dollar And Cheap Gas, The Strong Dollar Is Winning New York Times ...Oil prices plummeted last year, leading to cheaper gasoline — good news for American consumers and companies like airlines and shipping firms that are heavy fuel users. Meanwhile, the dollar soared on global currency markets, making life more difficult for exporters who faced higher costs relative to global competitors. The giant question for the economy in 2015 was which of these forces would prove more powerful. The bad news is that so far, the strong dollar is winning...
The Dirty Secret Of College Athletics Is That Students Pay Exorbitant Fees To Subsidize It Cleveland Plain Dealer ...But here's the dirty little secret about athletics at places like CSU and hundreds of others of colleges and universities: All these costly athletic programs are funded, in large part, by fees assessed on students -- fees that, in many cases, students don't ever realize they're paying...
A Drone Program That Has Killed Hundreds Of Civilians Finally Killed Some That The White House Regrets Huffington Post ...Watching the coverage of these tragic deaths, a viewer would be left with the impression of a drone program that has had a stellar record of accuracy up until it unfortunately killed two innocent people. But, in fact, killing innocent people has been a central part of the drone program from the very beginning, and is in many ways an inescapable consequence...
U.S. mulling trade rules change dubbed 'poison pill' for pact Reuters ...The amendment, approved by the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, would disqualify trade deals with countries deemed soft on human trafficking from special procedures designed to speed their passage through Congress. The problem arises because the 2014 list of human-trafficking offenders includes Malaysia, a partner in the TPP...
TTIP Negotiators Get An Earful From American Critics EurActiv ...In the margins of talks for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on Thursday (23 April), US opponents to the deal vocally criticised the emerging agreement, saying it was a bad deal for consumers and the environment...
Congressional Panels Approve Fast Track For Trade Deal, With Conditions New York Times ...House and Senate committees this week easily agreed to give President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate a sweeping trade accord with Pacific nations, but the package of bills intended to speed completion of the deal also imposes difficult burdens on its negotiators...
Obama, Hillary Clinton don't get trade (opinion) CNN ...Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is trying to walk a fine line somewhere in the middle. Clinton has recently courted Warren's support while forcefully repeating the rhetoric of populism. But according to a report by The New York Times, Clinton's staff is at pains to suggest that Clinton has always been a populist as opposed to merely trying to now co-opt a current trend...
Women Around The World Rise Up To Remember Rana Plaza Common Dreams ...Marking two years since the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, protesters are converging on the country's capital and feminist actions are sweeping the globe on Friday, to honor the lives of the 1,138 people—most of them women—who perished in the tragedy and to demand justice for those they left behind...
Labour reforms trigger strike in S. Korea AFP ...Thousands of South Korean workers and civil servants rallied in Seoul on Friday in response to a nationwide general strike call against government labour reforms. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said more than 260,000 people across the country participated in the one-day strike, including health workers, teachers and factory employees...
State & Living Wage Battles
Suburbs Not Exactly Embracing Rauner's Turnaround Plan Chicago Daily Herald ...Gov. Bruce Rauner's controversial effort to convince local governments to back his reform agenda is getting only a so-so response in the suburbs as union supporters flood meeting rooms to oppose the plan they say will limit workers' rights...
Four Years Later, Texas Is Still Defending Its Voter ID Law Huffington Post ...The issue at hand -- Texas' contentious photo ID law -- is expected to ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court. Voting rights advocates will argue that a federal judge's ruling from October -- which called the law an unconstitutional "poll tax," intentionally discriminatory and an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote -- should be upheld...
Right to work amendment unlikely to advance far Springfield News Sun ...A legislative panel will consider adding "right to work" to the Ohio constitution, although it seems unlikely the proposal will be approved. The Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission is reviewing the state constitution to make recommendations to the Ohio Legislature on subjects ranging from term limits to school funding...
Debate Over Raising Pennsylvania’s Minimum Wage Continues In State Capitol CBS Philly ...Supporters of an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour held an event at the state Capitol at which time they released a study on the impact it would have on Pennsylvania by The Keystone Research Center...
Debate swirls around whether increase in minimum wage would hurt business News Tribune ...This year, Missouri legislators filed five bills proposing raises to the state’s minimum wage, with rates ranging from $9.50 to $10.25 per hour. Similar bills have been filed in the past several years, but most never make it past the committee stage...
Meet The People Going Without Food For 15 Days To Demand A $15 Wage Think Progress ...Fast food workers like Farfan have staged nationwide strikes and protests to demand a $15 wage and the right to form a union. That pay floor has caught on in some places like Seattle and San Francisco, which both raised their wages to that level. Los Angeles lawmakers are considering joining them by raising the city’s wage to $15.25 by 2019...
U.S. Labor
SEIU, county talks frozen as Legislature considers bargaining reform Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Clark County government and its largest union remain locked in a standoff, unable to bargain a contract. The county and Service Employees International Union Local 1107 cannot even agree enough to take their dispute to an arbitrator for a final decision. Both sides started negotiating in June 2013. By February 2014, the SEIU had declared an impasse that continues to this day...
Assembly bill could give farmworkers a greater voice during mediation Fresno Bee ...As a protracted legal fight over who will represent about 3,000 Gerawan Company workers simmers, state Assembly Member Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, is stepping in the fray with a bill that could prevent future conflicts between labor unions, farmworkers and their employer...
Battling A Damaging Workplace Trend (opinion) Huffington Post ...One of the most pervasive and damaging trends we are seeing in the 21st-century workplace is the deliberate misclassification of workers by employers looking to shift responsibility and cut costs. Two judgments announced this week in Utah and Arizona demonstrate our commitment to cracking down on this practice, whereby companies claim that their workers are not employees but independent contractors...
Miscellaneous
In Battle Between Strong Dollar And Cheap Gas, The Strong Dollar Is Winning New York Times ...Oil prices plummeted last year, leading to cheaper gasoline — good news for American consumers and companies like airlines and shipping firms that are heavy fuel users. Meanwhile, the dollar soared on global currency markets, making life more difficult for exporters who faced higher costs relative to global competitors. The giant question for the economy in 2015 was which of these forces would prove more powerful. The bad news is that so far, the strong dollar is winning...
The Dirty Secret Of College Athletics Is That Students Pay Exorbitant Fees To Subsidize It Cleveland Plain Dealer ...But here's the dirty little secret about athletics at places like CSU and hundreds of others of colleges and universities: All these costly athletic programs are funded, in large part, by fees assessed on students -- fees that, in many cases, students don't ever realize they're paying...
A Drone Program That Has Killed Hundreds Of Civilians Finally Killed Some That The White House Regrets Huffington Post ...Watching the coverage of these tragic deaths, a viewer would be left with the impression of a drone program that has had a stellar record of accuracy up until it unfortunately killed two innocent people. But, in fact, killing innocent people has been a central part of the drone program from the very beginning, and is in many ways an inescapable consequence...
