Teamsters
Hoffa: Nike's TPP Job Projections Will Be Just Another Round of Corporate Broken Promises Teamster.org ...Hoffa in response to Nike Inc.’s announcement today that the passage of the Trans Pacific Partnership will create thousands of new jobs in the U.S.: “Nike’s announcement that the Trans Pacific Partnership would lead to 10,000 new U.S. jobs at the company and up to 40,000 new jobs throughout the supply chain is nothing more than the same empty trade rhetoric we have heard over and over again since the passage of NAFTA"...
Albion College Workers Choose Teamsters Union Teamster.org ...Workers at Albion College in Albion, Mich., voted overwhelmingly in two separate elections Tuesday to join Teamsters Local 1038 in Detroit. Facility operators voted 26-9, while secretarial-clerical workers voted 24-3, in favor of the Teamsters Union over their prior representative, the Michigan Education Association (MEA). The more than 70 new Teamsters are seeking bargaining power, fair wages and the security of their first Teamster contract...
At Unity, Teamsters look ahead to a bright future Teamster Nation ...Some 1,600 Teamster brothers and sisters from across North America gathered together today as part of the 12th annual Unity Conference to share their success stories and speak truth to power about the increasingly perilous state of workers across the continent. Rank-and-file union members joined with Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa as well as other Teamster leaders to let attendees know they all have a role in ensuring that Teamster Power will not flourish if they don't continue to contribute and speak out...
Trucking Company Shows Facebook Road to Future New York Times ...More than three-quarters of the lesser-powered shares voted in 2014 to eradicate the fief, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has put the matter on the ballot again. Swift is urging against the idea, pointing to dual-class structures at Zynga, Groupon and LinkedIn as “some of the most successful I.P.O.s in recent years”...
Global Labor & Trade
Trade bill fate in doubt as debate kicks off Politico ...A controversial trade bill is well shy of the votes needed to pass the House and faces a difficult vote in the Senate as the debate in Congress kicks off in earnest this week. Congressional sources say that fewer than 20 House Democrats currently back giving President Barack Obama increased powers to cut trade deals...
Crunch time for TPPA talks The Star ...If the TPPA negotiations conclude, the texts will at some stage be made public, and the debate can be expected to intensify. But there are many hurdles to cross before that happens, and whether the political deadline can be met is still a big question. This will be answered in the next few weeks...
Obama’s Pacific Trade Push Faces a Senate Vote This Week New York Times ...President Obama’s most aggressive and sustained legislative push since the Affordable Care Act faces a crucial first test this week when a divided Senate considers a bill that would grant him accelerated power to complete a massive trade accord with 11 nations across the Pacific Rim...
Obama says 'dearest friends are wrong' when it comes to trade The Hill ...Several groups on the left ripped Obama for speaking about trade at the headquarters of Nike, which has been accused in the past of exploiting foreign workers. “It is sad to see how detached from reality President Obama is when it comes to TPP,” said Murshed Zaheed, deputy political director at the left-leaning CREDO...
Elizabeth Warren fires back at Obama: Here’s what they’re really fighting about (interview) Washington Post ...The president said in his Nike speech that he’s confident that when people read the agreement for themselves, that they’ll see it’s a great deal. But the president won’t actually let people read the agreement for themselves. It’s classified. The president has committed only to letting the public see this deal after Congress votes to authorize fast track. At that point it will be impossible for us to amend the agreement or to block any part of it without tanking the whole TPP...
Why Obama Wants To Torpedo A Plan To Fight Human Trafficking Huff Post ...The Senate is gearing up to vote on a bill granting Obama so-called “fast track” powers to streamline the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But a seemingly uncontroversial human rights provision authored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) is giving the administration serious headaches as it attempts to win over skeptical members of its own party...
Will the TPP really protect workers? (opinion) Washington Post ...To date, the United States has never had a trade agreement that protects basic rights and raises wages and living standards for working people. Previous agreements have failed to ensure the integrity of the democratic process and preserve consumer and environmental protections. Comparing this pact to previous agreements sets a pretty low bar...
The arguments for the TPP are transparently weak (opinion) Aljazeera America ...President Barack Obama must be having difficulty rounding up the necessary votes in Congress to pass fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Otherwise we would not be seeing President Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff Thomas McClarty, Secretary of State John Kerry and many other prominent people saying such silly things about the trade deal. If anyone is arguing that we should be happy about TPP because it will increase exports, they either do not understand basic economics or are trying to play games. Either way, this argument deserves to be ignored...
Eggs and insults fly as Uber battles for the streets of Milan Alternet ...Uber faces regulatory opposition in many places – authorities in the Chinese city of Chengdu paid a visit to Uber’s offices last week as part of an ongoing investigation; and the service has been banned in the US state of Kansas – but in Italy, the battle has become personal...
State & Living Wage Battles
Sen. Richard: Showdown on right-to-work looms The Joplin Globe ...As members of the Missouri General Assembly prepare to return to the Capitol for the final week of this year’s session, Senate Majority Leader Ron Richard is readying for a showdown over what’s known as "right-to-work," a controversial policy that aims to restrict labor union activity. Richard, a Joplin Republican who backs the policy, told reporters Friday that he planned to force a vote on the measure...
Missouri Senate will press right-to-work, Voter ID Kansas City Biz Journal ...The head of the Missouri Senate said he’ll push right-to-work and voter ID legislation before anything else in the Legislature’s final week, The Jefferson City News Tribune reports. Senate Majority Leader Ron Richard acknowledged that there are a number of important bills still waiting for action. But he said if his priorities “don’t make it, nobody else’s will either”...
Lawmakers will hold hearings on repealing prevailing wage laws this week Michigan Radio ...Unions are expected to push back this week against bills that would repeal prevailing wage laws in Michigan. A state Senate panel is expected to hold hearings on Senate Bills 1, 2, and 3. The legislation would ban laws requiring union-level compensation for workers on publicly-funded construction projects...
Where do the presidential candidates stand on paid sick leave? Daily Kos ...Paid sick leave is gaining ground as a national issue. It's now the law in three states and a growing number of cities, but the momentum behind it just means Republicans are gearing up to fight harder. Republicans in the Pennsylvania state legislature, for instance, are still working away at their ALEC-inspired goal of overriding Philadelphia's paid sick leave law...
Business allies cool to Garcetti's minimum wage plan Los Angeles Times ...With the City Council expected to vote on the minimum wage plan later this month, some of the small-business owners who backed Garcetti's first mayoral bid are having misgivings. Garcetti defended his handling of business issues, saying in a statement that he had cut red tape at City Hall, rolled back the size of the business tax and fought for an expansion of the state's film tax credit...
Protesters March For Living Wage Newsplex ...Cars and vans honked as protesters made their way down West Main Street screaming chants about living wage. In the summer of 2012 Charlottesville City council voted to increase the living wage from $11.67 an hour to 13.00 an hour but some say that's still not enough...
U.S. Labor
Oakland Teachers Vote to Authorize Strike, Stage ‘Work-to-Rule’ Actions in Protest of Low Pay In These Times ...Public school teachers with the Oakland Education Association (OEA) voted last week to authorize strike action if the union’s executive board cannot come to an agreement with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in its year-long bargaining for a new contract. A central sticking point in the negotiations is over salary increases...
UAW, Car Makers Weigh New Class of Hires Wall Street Journal ...United Auto Workers officials are considering a plan to encourage the Detroit Three auto makers to add thousands of jobs traditionally belonging to auto-parts suppliers, hoping to fuel the union’s recent string of modest membership increases...
Kellogg to appeal NLRB's Memphis ruling BattleCreek Enquirer ...Kellogg Co. said it will appeal the National Labor Relations Board finding that the company's lockout of employees at its Memphis cereal plant was unlawful. Kevin Bradshaw, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union's Memphis local, said "we're just glad to see the law is on our side"...
For the First Time, Guestworkers Get Crucial Legal Protections Under New Rules In These Times After nearly two months of suspense, the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have issued two new rules for the H-2B guestworker program. Worker advocates are praising the rules for establishing badly-needed protections for guestworkers and U.S. workers alike, while industries that rely on H-2B workers call the new rules “flawed”...
Miscellaneous
America’s Richest Congressman, Worth Almost $500 Million, Says Poor Americans Are Doing Great Think Progress ...Congressman Darrell Issa, America’s richest Congressman with a net worth of nearly $500 million, says the nation’s poor are actually doing very well, suggesting that if wages for lower-income Americans grow too high, American products would not be able to compete on the global marketplace...
Paul Krugman Exposes Wall Street Vampires' Latest Ploy Alternet ..."Last year the vampires of finance bought themselves a Congress," Paul Krugman begins his colum Monday. He then spends the rest of the piece explaining why what might seem like a pretty harsh metaphor is actually apt. But first there's the fact that the bought and paid for Congressional Republicans are trying their darndest to repay their masters by killing the financial reform bill enacted in 2010...
DOJ to Investigate Pattern of Racist Policing in Baltimore Common Dreams ...The United States Department of Justice announced Friday that after weeks of uproar and protest it would open an official investigation into the Baltimore Police Department to determine whether the discrimination and events that led to the brutal death of Freddie Gray were part of systemic pattern of abuse...
