Teamsters
American Red Cross Workers Choose Teamsters Union Teamster.org ...American Red Cross workers who collect blood throughout the state of Kansas have voted overwhelmingly, 64-13, to join Teamsters Local 795 in Wichita, Kan. There are 91 workers in the bargaining unit.
Stephanie Daniels, a three-year Collection Technician II at Red Cross, helped lead organizing efforts...
Edgewood Center Employees Vote to Become Teamsters Teamster.org ...After a hard-fought 11-month campaign, direct care staff at Edgewood Center for Children and Families in San Francisco finally got the news they’ve been waiting for — they are officially Teamsters. “It feels so incredible to finally be able to call ourselves Teamsters,” said Residential Counselor Ashley Nims...
A Foolish Attempt to Weaken Truck Safety New York Times ...Public interest groups such as Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety; the Teamsters, which represents truck drivers; and the Obama administration have objected to the trucking provisions in the House bill. And with good reason. In 2013, the latest year for which data is available, 3,964 people died in accidents involving large trucks...
Global Labor & Trade
How The White House And Paul Ryan Are Making Sure Forced Labor Remains Part Of Their Trade Deal Huff Post ...The House of Representatives will quickly get down to unfinished business once it returns from the holiday recess: defending trading partners that engage in slavery. The House, according to sources familiar with trade deal negotiations, plans to strip Senate language from fast-track legislation that would ban countries that are the worst human-trafficking and forced-labor offenders from being part of big trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Here’s how much corporations paid US senators to fast-track the TPP bill The Guardian ...Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of $17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 “yea” votes. The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters. The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors. The amounts given rise dramatically when looking at how much each senator running for re-election received...
State Department Officials Pass Through Revolving Door, Lobby for Passage of TPP The Intercept ...While Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is refusing to reveal her position on the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, other former State Department officials are actively supporting the agreement. They’re just not bothering to reveal their conflicts of interest...
Obama’s Asia trade deal faces mounting opposition in House Washington Times ...After a victory in the Senate, President Obama’s push for a huge free-trade deal with Asia faces a higher hurdle in the House, where an unusual coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats oppose granting him more executive power. While Republican lawmakers have been fighting Mr. Obama’s “power grab” for years, even some members of the president’s own party are now using the argument about executive overreaching to defy his request for special trade-promotion authority...
Why Is The U.S. Desperate To OK Slavery In Malaysia? Huff Post ...Observers are left with a deeper question: Why, in the year 2015, is the White House teaming up with Republican leaders essentially to defend the practice of slavery? Understanding this is key to understanding why President Barack Obama has been pushing so aggressively for a trade deal that so many of his allies insist will harm American workers...
Democrats recount labor's pressure tactics Politico ...The real fight over the trade agenda has always been in the House, and that’s where organized labor has been focusing for months. The aggressive effort has left even members who’ll be voting labor’s way bruised, and others who’ll be supporting President Barack Obama anxious enough that many won’t discuss their experiences publicly, instead dispatching staffers to speak on their behalf...
Secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership is more treaty than trade deal (opinion) The Hill ...The latest draft of the TPP comes out to around 1,000 pages, making public review a challenge even without the severe time constraints fast-track would impose. In reality the deal is more treaty than tariff reduction measure and should not even be eligible for fast-tracking. This deal needs to be fully reviewed as a treaty, debated and voted on by the U.S. Senate in full sunlight, with a two-thirds vote requirement to ratify...
Pro-TPP arguments show desperation (opinion) Aljazeera America ...In the last few weeks, TPP advocates have repeatedly tripped up, getting their facts wrong and their logic twisted. This hit parade of failed arguments should be sufficient to convince any fence sitters that this deal is not worth doing. After all, if you have a good product, you don’t have to make up nonsense to sell it...
Cameron Sets Up Battle With Labor Unions Over Strike Laws Bloomberg ...U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron set himself on a collision course with labor unions as his government announced legislation limiting the right to strike. Ballots for strike action will only be valid if more than half of eligible workers take part...
State & Living Wage Battles
New Jersey Workers Are Making Paid Sick Leave A Big Question For Christie On The Campaign Trail Think Progress ...Members of NJWF organized a protest outside a New York City fundraiser for the likely presidential contender’s super PAC, the latest in a series of demonstrations the group has held at Christie fundraisers in cities which already have paid sick leave legislation. “We need to pass a statewide bill that will cover the 1.2 million workers who regularly have to choose between their livelihood and their heath and the health of their family”...
Scott Walker Dumped as Chair of the Jobs Agency He Created Truthout ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker won his election in 2010 on a promise to create 250,000 new jobs. To lead the effort, Walker created his flagship Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) in 2011 and named himself Chairman. Now, as allegations of cronyism and corruption engulf WEDC, the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee has removed Walker...
Scott Walker is a giant fraud: Reagan worship, bizarre religious beliefs, and the real story of his long crusade for 2016 Salon ...In 2011, Walker blamed teachers, snow-plow drivers and other public workers for the budgetary problems caused by the Great Recession, cutting their benefits to “repair” state finances. Four years later, Wisconsin has an almost identical budget deficit. His response to the current budget crisis is to force public schools and the University of Wisconsin system to shoulder the brunt of the cost...
Minimum wage hike to $9.60 gets R.I. Senate panel approval Providence Journal ...Rhode Island moved another step closer to a fourth increase in its minimum wage in four years Wednesday.
The Senate Labor Committee unanimously approved an amended bill that would raise the minimum wage from $9 an hour to $9.60 an hour on Jan. 1, 2016. There was no committee discussion...
Florida Senate offers Medicaid compromise, Rick Scott and the Kochs reject it Daily Kos ...Florida's Senate President Andy Gardner offered a compromise Tuesday to try to get the state's legislature out of a budget impasse. That impasse could be resolved, the Senate has maintained, by accepting Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. So, to try to get a recalcitrant House and Gov. Rick Scott to agree, Gardner modified the Senate proposal. That was quickly rejected by Scott and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli...
GOP lawmakers advance prevailing wage repeal Journal-Sentinel ...s Assembly Republicans moved a bill repealing Wisconsin's prevailing wage law out of committee Wednesday, Gov. Scott Walker made clear he supports ending or overhauling the 84-year-old policy that sets a minimum wage for construction workers building publicly funded projects...
Don’t Like Minimum Wage Increases? Be Mad at the Top Earners TIME ...Some argue that increasing the federal minimum wage would be bad for the economy, would cause layoffs, and would kill small businesses. These arguments have been disproven not only by time and experience, but also by longitudinal research studies, according to the Department of Labor...
U.S. Labor
UAW Rival at VW Represented by 'Union Avoidance' Expert ABC News ...The rival group to the United Auto Workers union at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee brands itself as local, independent and free of outside influence or political agenda. But the American Council of Employees won't divulge how it is funded, and the lawyer who recently filed the group's overdue disclosures with the U.S. Department of Labor touts his expertise in "union avoidance"...
10 reasons Wal-Mart is the worst company in America Salon ...The retail giant’s famous anti-union policies are nothing new and appear to be getting worse all the time. As further proof of this, a new Walmart training video leaked online has illustrated the specific propaganda the company feeds their employees to prevent them from organizing...
UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta's story to be featured at Smithsonian Bakersfield Californian ...The accolades keep coming for Bakersfield resident Dolores Huerta, a pillar of the agricultural labor movement of the 1960s ande '70s. She'll be featured starting this summer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The story of the modern agricultural workers' movement and Huerta's colorful life are deeply intertwined...
Negotiations continue between UAW, Ford Lima Ohio ...nited Automobile Workers Local 1219 and Ford Motor Co. Lima Engine Plant are currently negotiating the next contract, though national discussions have not yet started. The first meeting between local UAW representatives and Ford was April 28, said Mike Felix, plant manager at the Lima Engine Plant...
Miscellaneous
Dems Back Debt-Free College as Issue Moves Into Election Spotlight Common Dreams ...Nine additional Democratic senators on Wednesday came out in support of a resolution calling for debt-free public college, bringing to 20 the total number of Senate Dems who support the measure, introduced only a month ago by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The resolution calls on federal and state governments, along with higher education institutions, to work in concert to lower tuition costs, increase financial aid, and reduce the burden of existing student debt...
Given Rampant White-Collar Crime, FIFA Raid Raises Questions About DOJ Priorities Common Dreams ...While the early morning raid and arrest of several high-ranking officials with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) captivated the international news circuit Wednesday morning, many observers were left wondering: With so many corrupt bankers, politicians, and other one-percenters still free to walk the streets here in the United States, why has the U.S. Department of Justice set its sights on FIFA?...
