Teamsters
Teamsters, Former NLRB Chair and Community Leaders Lead Symposium on National Express Teamster.org ...At a symposium held Tuesday night, the former chair of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, academics, community and faith leaders discussed the benefits of introducing independent monitoring programs at multinationals, including National Express Group. The resolution was submitted by the Teamsters General Fund, members of the Local Authorities Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) and 100 individual National Express shareholders...
App-Based Drivers Expand Association, Demand Fairness and Respect Teamsters Local 117 ...Limousine and app-based drivers packed the Teamsters Union hall on Sunday to demand fairness and a level playing field in Seattle’s personal transportation industry. The event comes just under a year after the founding of the App-Based Drivers’ Association last May...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Laces Up To Tout Asian Trade Deal At Nike NPR ...Obama has chosen a curious setting to make his pitch for the trade agreement this week. He'll be speaking Friday at the Beaverton, Ore., headquarters of the Nike Corporation. "All of their footwear, all of their clothing is produced in contract factories in places like Vietnam and Indonesia and China," said Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a watchdog group that monitors overseas factories...
Elizabeth Warren: Trade bill could “tear down” Wall Street oversight Politico ...The Massachusetts Democrat said late Tuesday that giving the president greater leeway to negotiate trade deals for years to come is a dangerous proposition because of the chance that a Republican who wants to roll back Dodd-Frank, like Sen. Ted Cruz, could win the White House in 2016...
Who Is Really Trying to Rewrite the Rules for Trade? Wall Street Journal ...President Barack Obama regularly warns that if Congress doesn’t approve fast-track legislation to grease the way for his ambitious Asian trade agenda, then China would wind up writing trade rules in the region to the disadvantage of U.S. workers and businesses. Trouble is, there’s little evidence that China has any interest—or ability—to write such rules and have any other countries adopt them. For the most part, China follows the U.S. lead on trade policy...
Third Year of Korea FTA Data Released, Show Failure of Obama’s Last ‘More Exports, More Jobs’ Trade Pact Promises, Further Burdening Fast Track Prospects Public Citizen ...Today’s release of U.S. government trade data covering the full first three years of the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement (FTA) reveals that the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has more than doubled. In addition, today’s U.S. Census Bureau data show Korea FTA outcomes that are the opposite of the Obama administration’s “more exports, more jobs” promise for that pact...
Reid: Don't forget about highway funding, surveillance reform The Hill ...Although Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) didn’t repeat the threat he made Monday to block contentious trade promotion authority, or fast-track, legislation until the Senate passes the other two measures, he made clear that the bills must get done...
Sen. Sherrod Brown: Trade pacts cost millions of jobs (opinion) USA Today ...It's true that export opportunities through trade deals have created jobs. But trade pacts have also cost millions of jobs. Lauding gains from exports while ignoring a flood of imports — and skyrocketing trade deficits — amounts to reporting half of the score of a baseball game. The Cleveland Indians scoring six runs doesn't help if the Yankees scored eight...
The Barrier to Trade Ignored by the Pacific Proposal (opinion) Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. recovery remains constrained by a shortfall of demand, and no fiscal stimulus is likely in the coming years. So ending currency management and reducing the U.S. trade deficit is by far the most economically plausible path to full recovery...
State & Living Wage Battles
In Congress, Income Inequality Fact of Life for Food Servers Associated Press ...Many of the Capitol's food servers, who make the meals, bus the tables and run the cash registers in the restaurants and carryouts that serve lawmakers, earn less than $11 an hour. Some make nothing at all when Congress is in recess...
IL Governor Rauner's Pal Made $625,000 Per Hour Last Year and Then Gave $10 Million to Rauner Campaign to Attack Unions and Cut Worker Pay Huff Post ...The New York Times reported yesterday that Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner's chief political backer, Ken Griffin, made $1.3 billion last year as manager of the hedge fund Citadel Capital. And he contributed $10 million that Rauner plans to use to run opponents against members of the legislature who dare to oppose his policies that are aimed at destroying unions and cutting worker wages and pensions...
Wisconsin lawmakers try to persuade committee to repeal prevailing wage law Star Tribune ...Lawmakers, construction companies and local government leaders sparred Tuesday over a Republican bill that would repeal Wisconsin's prevailing wage law, with supporters saying the measure would save money and opponents arguing the law guarantees quality construction and wage equality...
Maine Democrats block bill to require voters to show photo ID Portlant Press Herald ...The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted Tuesday to block a bill that would require Maine voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot. Republicans have argued that a voter ID law will protect against voter fraud. Democrats countered that there has been little to no evidence of election fraud in Maine and that voter ID laws are political tools designed to suppress certain voters from participating in elections...
Senators consider proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage Fox 43 ...Low-wage workers and some business owners urged state lawmakers Monday to increase the state’s minimum wage. Those workers told legislators their ability to live or raise a family is next to impossible on the current wage. “To rent an apartment is at least 600 to 800 dollars a month, so anyone on minimum wage making 40 hours can barely afford an apartment,” Andre Butler, a low-wage worker from Philadelphia, said...
What the Debate on Inequality Is Missing (opinion) New York Times ...Over the last four decades the debate in Washington about poverty and inequality has been bogged down in a somewhat pointless, often surreal debate about the size of government and the amount spent on behalf of the poor. Over that same period, the earnings of workers in the bottom half of the income pile have progressed little...
U.S. Labor
Senate blocks NLRB veto override vote The Hill ...Senators on Tuesday blocked any future attempts to override President Obama's veto of a union election law. Obama vetoed the union election legislation in March, after Congress passed a resolution of disapproval on a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule that would have sped up union elections...
Even Conservative Millennials Support Unions New Republic ...First, young people of both parties are more amenable to labor unions than their older peers. Fifty-five percent of people between 18 and 29 view unions favorably, while only 29 percent view them unfavorably. Younger self-identified Republicans are evenly split on labor...
Century Aluminum braces for Kentucky lockout as USW reject deal Reuters ...Unionized workers at Century Aluminum's Hawesville, Kentucky smelter rejected the company's proposed labor agreement late on Monday, taking one of the biggest U.S. aluminum plants a step closer to industrial action, the first for the sector in years. Following the news, Century issued a legal notice on Tuesday confirming plans to lock out union-represented staff on May 11...
Local CWA group pickets AT&T Lee's Summit Journal ...Since April 13, more than 17,500 AT&T employees nationwide have been working without a contract, with more than 420 of those employees living in the Kansas City area. Members of CWA Local 6450 hosted an information picket May 1 near AT&T’s call center...
After Freddie Gray Protests, Baltimore Unions Demand End to “Trickle-down” Neighborhood Development In These Times ...The Laborers union has joined with some of the most prominent labor organizations in the city to back the One Baltimore coalition. Formed late last year, the group includes local and regional AFL-CIO bodies, 1199SEIU heath care workers union, UNITE HERE Local 7, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1300 and the City Union of Baltimore...
Miscellaneous
'Too Big to Exist': Sanders Introduces Bill to Break Up Big Banks Common Dreams ...Under the proposal, called the Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act, regulators on the Financial Stability Oversight Council would compile a list of institutions which say they are so large that their collapse could trigger an economic crisis—otherwise known as "too big to fail." The Treasury Secretary would then have a year from the bill's passing to break them up...
