Hoffa: Latest Trade Push is a War on Workers Huffington Post ...President Obama in an interview last week downplayed the impact of unfair trade on the U.S. workforce, arguing that many manufacturing jobs are low paying. But I disagree with the president. This nation's manufacturing base provides a pathway to prosperity for many Americans, especially those who work union jobs...
Port Truck Drivers on Strike at Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach Teamster.org ...Primary picket lines are now up company yards in the greater Los Angeles area and in San Diego, and truckers and their supporters are picketing company trucks at marine terminals, rail yards, and customer warehouses as far away as the US/Mexico border...
Port truck drivers strike against four companies LA Times ...Picket lines went up outside the trucking yards of Pacific 9 Transportation, Intermodal Bridge Transport, Pacer Cartage and Harbor Rail Transport, said Barb Maynard, a spokeswoman for the Teamsters union, which is supporting the truckers. Maynard estimated the number of drivers striking at several hundred...
Port’s Short-Haul Truck Drivers Walking Picket Lines Times of San Diego ...Port truck drivers walked picket lines at an Otay Mesa freight drayage company Monday morning as they and their counterparts in Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike against the short-haul transport companies for which they work. Drivers working at ports in San Diego, Los Angeles and Long Beach voted Saturday to strike following a recent ruling that the drivers are misclassified as “independent contractors”...
Flexjet Pilots Sue Luxury Jet Airline For Union Busting Teamster.org ... group of jet pilots filed a lawsuit Friday against airline Flexjet, LLC and OneSky, its Cleveland-based parent company, claiming they were illegally harassed and terminated for speaking out in favor of unionization and better working conditions. The pilots are seeking representation from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division, which represents over 80,000 workers in the aviation industry...
Shareholders Rein In Golden Parachutes Forbes ...Louis Malizia, assistant director of the Teamsters Capital Strategies department at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said his initial assumption following the financial crisis was that golden parachutes would be stigmatized by the public before fading away...
Global Labor & Trade
12-country TPP talks end without a breakthrough Japan Times ...Chief negotiators from 12 countries aiming to forge a Pacific free trade initiative finished four days of talks on Sunday, a Japanese official said, apparently without making major progress. The trade officials from the United States, Japan and 10 other countries gathered in a Washington suburb with intellectual property, including data on new drugs, and reform of state-owned entities as their main issues...
Trade Fight Galvanizing the Left Roll Call ...If they can’t stop the TPA bill, the nearly 70 voting House members in the Congressional Progressive Caucus are determined to make such a ruckus that the party’s 2016 candidates — presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton in particular — realize Obama’s middle-of-the-road approach to trade, or any major policy area, is not acceptable...
Obama shifts his pitch for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Washington Post ...The sharp shift in the way Obama is now presenting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade deal in the Asia-Pacific region, illustrates his biggest challenge as he tries to wrap up a late-term policy victory over fierce opposition from fellow Democrats...
Elizabeth Warren Tells Obama To Put Up Or Shut Up On Trade Huffington Post ...On Saturday, Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) responded with a letter essentially telling Obama to put up or shut up. If the deal is so great, Warren and Brown wrote, the administration should make the full negotiation texts public before Congress votes on a "fast track" bill that would strip the legislative branch of its authority to amend it...
2,009 Organizations Call on Congress to Oppose Fast Track Authority for the TPP Citizens Trade ...An unprecedentedly united movement of labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, faith, Internet freedom and other organizations escalated their campaign to defeat Fast Track trade authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) today with a joint 2,009-group letter urging Congress to oppose it...
Trans Pacific Partnership is bad deal for senior citizens (opinion) The Hill ...Prescription drug prices in the United States are the highest in the world and last year they increased by 13 percent. If Congress enacts the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal in its current form, it could increase those expenses for seniors and all Americans dramatically...
Currency provisions essential in Asian trade pact (opinion) Detriot Free Press ...While the economy is growing stronger every day, many people in Michigan still don't feel the success at home or in their pocketbooks, which is why it's imperative we promote policies to help hardworking families get ahead. And a bad trade deal jeopardizes all the shared progress we've made...
State & Living Wage Battles
Mayors to Rauner: 'Follow our lead, don't cripple our progress' Chicago Sun-Times ...A group of suburban mayors is pushing back against Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposal to cut in half the amount of state money that goes to municipalities, saying their residents are asked to pay the price for the state’s lack of fiscal discipline...
Bernie Sanders and other senators urge ‘living wage’ for Senate workers MarketWatch ... A group of nine senators is pushing for Senate contract workers to be paid a “living wage” following reports of workers barely getting by. Roll Call writes that the senators, including Vermont independent Bernie Sanders, wrote Monday to the Senate Rules and Administration Committee: "The U.S. Congress should be working to improve the economic security of middle class families across the country"...
State Senate shelves minimum wage measure Oneida Daily Dispatch ...A proposal to let cities in New York state set their own minimum wages was shelved by lawmakers in the state Senate on Monday — dealing a setback to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and others who want the state to relinquish its total control of the wage...
Prevailing wage reform proposed in Pa. House Herald-Mail Media ...Pa. Rep. Jesse Topper is pushing for prevailing-wage reform that would allow school districts to pay market rates for construction, rather than adjusted rates determined by the Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor & Industry...
Florida Passes Law That Bans Discriminating Against Pregnant Women In Public Think Progress ...Last week, the Florida legislature passed a bill banning discrimination against pregnant women at work as well as in public places like restaurants or hotels. The bill amends the state’s Civil Rights Act by adding pregnancy to race, sex, and physical disability as protected classes...
City considers minimum wage increase Minnesota Daily ...The Minneapolis City Council approved a resolution earlier this month to create a group to research the possible effects of raising the city’s minimum wage. The group will investigate the economic impact of raising wages and consider concerns from both workers and businesses. It will give recommendations to city officials before the year ends...
U.S. Labor
UAW to protest proposal to close DHHS offices Lansing State Journal ...The United Auto Workers Local 6000 will on Tuesday begin demonstrating against a proposal to close Michigan Department of Health & Human Services offices around the state...
Union files NLRB charge against Lyondell Basell for impasse Reuters ...The United Steelworkers union filed a charge with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board against Lyondell Basell Industries for declaring an impasse in negotiations with striking Houston refinery workers, the union said on Monday. Lyondell declared the impasse on April 14 following the rejection of its "last, best and final" contract offer by striking workers...
Manufacturer cuts hundreds of N.C. jobs as operations move overseas Charlotte Business Journal ...The company will eliminate 143 positions in Lenoir and 82 jobs in Greensboro, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, filed with the N.C. Department of Commerce. Avery Dennison is ending manufacturing operations in both locations and moving production to Juarez, Mexico, and to Honduras...
Miscellaneous
Connecting Baltimore Riots to Lead Poisoning, Wealth Disparity Mediaite ...Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s statement that “a riot is the language of the unheard,” Dyson suggested it would be difficult to condemn this riot without also mentioning the broad context for why a local community would destroy itself. “What we don’t have commentary about is the theft of capital from these urban post-industrial conditions”...
Why Millions of Americans Feel Like They Have No Power Over Their Lives Alternet ...Companies are treating workers as disposable cogs because most working people have no choice. They need work and must take what they can get. Although jobs are coming back from the depths of the Great Recession, the portion of the labor force actually working remains lower than it’s been in over thirty years...
U.S. Labor
UAW to protest proposal to close DHHS offices Lansing State Journal ...The United Auto Workers Local 6000 will on Tuesday begin demonstrating against a proposal to close Michigan Department of Health & Human Services offices around the state...
Union files NLRB charge against Lyondell Basell for impasse Reuters ...The United Steelworkers union filed a charge with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board against Lyondell Basell Industries for declaring an impasse in negotiations with striking Houston refinery workers, the union said on Monday. Lyondell declared the impasse on April 14 following the rejection of its "last, best and final" contract offer by striking workers...
Manufacturer cuts hundreds of N.C. jobs as operations move overseas Charlotte Business Journal ...The company will eliminate 143 positions in Lenoir and 82 jobs in Greensboro, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, filed with the N.C. Department of Commerce. Avery Dennison is ending manufacturing operations in both locations and moving production to Juarez, Mexico, and to Honduras...
Miscellaneous
Connecting Baltimore Riots to Lead Poisoning, Wealth Disparity Mediaite ...Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s statement that “a riot is the language of the unheard,” Dyson suggested it would be difficult to condemn this riot without also mentioning the broad context for why a local community would destroy itself. “What we don’t have commentary about is the theft of capital from these urban post-industrial conditions”...
Why Millions of Americans Feel Like They Have No Power Over Their Lives Alternet ...Companies are treating workers as disposable cogs because most working people have no choice. They need work and must take what they can get. Although jobs are coming back from the depths of the Great Recession, the portion of the labor force actually working remains lower than it’s been in over thirty years...
