Teamsters
STA School Bus Drivers Choose Teamsters Local 445 Teamster.org ...The men and women who transport schoolchildren for Student Transportation of America (STA) in Middletown, N.Y., have voted 56-47 to join Teamsters Local 445 in Rock Tavern, N.Y., after a hard-fought campaign for respect, fair pay and better working conditions at the company. There are 110 drivers in the bargaining unit...
Uno Foods Workers in Brockton Join Teamsters Local 653 Teamster.org ...The workers who produce frozen pizzas for Uno Foods in Brockton, Mass., have voted by a more than 2-1 margin in favor of Teamsters Local 653 representation. The 90 workers joined the union seeking respect and better working conditions at the company...
Allegiant's Woes Continue, Exec's Pay Resolution Wins Shareholders' Support Teamster.org ...Shareholders of Allegiant Travel Company registered strong support for more robust executive pay policies and independent board oversight at the company’s annual meeting yesterday. A shareholder proposal sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters seeking to prevent unearned windfall awards being paid to executives in the event of a change of control won majority support, 56.8 percent, by public shareholders...
EVSC and Teamsters still clash on two points during collective bargaining, meetings have stopped Courier & Press ...Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey plans to be at Monday night’s Evansville Vanderburgh School Board meeting with one request: to ask members to resume collective bargaining negotiations. Since April, three collective bargaining meetings for the five EVSC employee groups represented by Teamsters have occurred...
Global Labor & Trade
Fast-track back before Senate The Hill ...The Senate is poised to vote a second time on granting President Obama fast-track trade authority. The House revived the president’s trade agenda on Thursday, passing trade promotion authority (TPA), also known as fast-track, and sending the bill to the upper chamber. Obama has said he wants both TAA and fast-track to reach his desk, but pro-trade Senate Dems are wary of the new plan...
Hillary Clinton Says No to Granting ‘Fast Track’ Authority on Trade Deal New York Times ...Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would “probably not” vote for fast-track authority for the trade deal that President Obama is seeking, but she acknowledged that she once said positive things about “the potential” for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Mrs. Clinton is in a bind over an agreement she once praised as a potential “gold standard” for trade deals when she was secretary of state...
Neoliberals’ pity party: Why an emboldened liberalism has corporate Dems running scared Salon ...While the ultimate fate of the TPP is still unclear, there’s one element of this ongoing fight within the Democratic Party that you should expect to see more of in the years to come. It’s not the rise of a more combative labor movement, though that’s certainly part of it. And it’s not the decline of the party’s neoliberal wing, though that’s happening, too. It's the wails of outrage and self-pity from moderate Democrats who resent the party’s once docile, but now ascendant, liberal base...
In House Trade Vote, Party Affiliation Mattered Wall Street Journal ...There’s no doubt international trade exact winners and losers across a vast economy. U.S. districts heavy on manufacturing get hit, while more highly educated areas, often big on service and tech jobs, hold their own or prosper. The GOP for decades has been the more pro-trade party, while the Democrats have channeled the apprehensions of unionized and working-class workers. In the trade vote, what mattered, above all, was party affiliation...
Why ‘Fast Track’ Was Defeated Once — and Why That Was the Right Decision (opinion) Roll Call ...With the effective defeat of the initial vote on the trade bill package, advocates of the trade agreement are making a herculean last gasp effort to get the bill passed on a re-vote. They are castigating opponents as Luddites who favor a new isolationism, diminishing the influence of the U.S. in the world. They claim the bill is a job creator. None of this is true...
The President's Trade Deal Struggles Because It's Bad Policy (opinion) Huffington Post ...Proponents of NAFTA-style trade deals promise we will share the gains from trade, raise labor standards and protect the environment. Our lived experience tells us otherwise. Our US Trade Representative has never enforced environmental standards. Peru violated its commitments for environmental standards, and relaxed labor protections it needed to qualify for the US-Peru trade deal...
Several thousand rally in Athens against austerity Reuters ...Thousands of people rallied in front of parliament in Athens on Sunday, urging Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to resist pressure from international creditors to accept more austerity in exchange for unlocking billions of euros in bailout funds. The demonstration by supporters of Tsipras's ruling Syriza party and others opposed to the euro, was the second anti-euro rally in a week in central Athens...
Thousands join anti-austerity march in London Aljazeera ...Thousands of demonstrators staged an anti-austerity march in London on Saturday, in the first major public protest since Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron won a general election. Opposition politicians, trade union bosses and celebrities were among the crowds marching through the capital's financial district...
Workers may be losers in Mexico’s car boom Washington Post ...It wasn’t a planned strike, more an impromptu protest: A group of assembly-line workers at the Mazda car factory one spring morning just stepped away from their posts. In addition to long, strenuous hours, they said, they endured constant taunts from one assistant manager, who also had allegedly sexually harassed an employee. They refused to work until they could air their grievances with his superiors...
University Union Leader Murdered in Honduras Solidarity Center ...Héctor Martínez Motiño, president of a local sectional union of Workers of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (SITRAUNAH), was murdered Tuesday, shot by gunmen as he drove home from work. Martínez Motiño, a lecturer at the Choluteca campus of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, in the south of the country, had faced three other attempts on his life and numerous anonymous threats, the result of his reporting of violations of human and worker rights within the university...
Sumifru banana workers regain jobs after 9-day strike Bulatlat ...The 147 workers in packing plant 90 of Japanese giant Sumitomo Fruit Corp. (Sumifru) in Compostela Valley are back at work beginning today June 19, after the conclusion of their strike which lasted nine days. Sumifru reportedly agreed to reinstate all the workers it fired last week in what the unions in the banana packing plants described as a foul, retaliatory action by Sumifru for their previous success in opposing wage cuts...
State & Living Wage Battles
With Lawsuit Looming, North Carolina Scrambles To Loosen Voter ID Rules Think Progress ...Just weeks ahead of a major court case from civil rights groups challenging North Carolina’s voting restrictions, state legislators passed a bill Thursday easing the controversial voter ID provision. If Governor Pat McCrory signs the new bill, voters who lack the an ID will still be able to cast a ballot, but only if they sign an affidavit swearing they fall into one of the acceptable categories...
US unemployment rates rose in half of states in May Press TV ...The Unemployment rate rose in half of US states last month, largely due to more people beginning to search for work but unable to find jobs, according to the latest government data. The growth in unemployment rates came as 37 states added jobs last month, while 12 states cut jobs, the report said. Montana’s unemployment rate was unchanged...
Paid sick leave for all N.J. workers? Bill set to advance Monday NJ.com ...Slowly but surely, Democrats who control the Legislature are advancing a bill that would require all New Jersey employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. The state Senate Labor Committee is scheduled to consider the legislation (S785) Monday afternoon...
Democrats plan event to support 'right-to-work' veto Jopline Globe ...State Rep. Charlie Norr, of Springfield, will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday when Southwest Missouri Democrats sponsor a town hall meeting in support of Gov. Jay Nixon's decision to veto the "right-to-work" measure passed by lawmakers in the recent session of the General Assembly. Republican members of the Missouri House and Senate have indicated they will attempt to override Nixon's veto in September...
New prevailing wage to miss July 1 deadline Metro News ...No decision has been made by Gov. Tomblin’s administration on what to do if there’s no new prevailing wage in West Virginia by July 1. WorkForce West Virginia is working to develop the wage but just recently sent out surveys to 5,250 contractors. It’s going to take a while to gather feedback according to WorkForce’s research director Jeff Green...
Wage Board meets final time before deciding on fast food workers' wage WNYT ...There will be one final meeting before there could be a decision on whether or not fast food workers should get paid more. The Wage Board created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo has its final meeting Monday in Albany and fast food workers are planning a rally at the meeting. Supporters of the "Fight for 15" movement say they are expecting hundreds to turn up for a rally Monday morning before the Wage Board meeting...
U.S. Labor
Philadelphia Airport Workers Win Major Victory Against Abusive Subcontracting In These Times ...After over a year of worker strikes and solidarity from a labor and faith coalition, Philadelphia International Airport contracted workers received assurance that they can form a union without retaliation and will be paid a $12 minimum wage. This is a major victory for contracted workers across the country whose bosses and workplaces regularly take advantage of indirect employment arrangements to avoid responsibility for workers’ rights and conditions...
T-Mobile Ditches Policy That Could Punish Staff Requesting Too Much Sick Leave Buzzfeed ...T-Mobile has changed a disciplinary policy that could punish call center staff for requesting time off when sick or caring for family members, after pressure from workers and labor activists. The change comes after months of pressure from workers and union activists in America and Germany to improve conditions at T-Mobile. Their united front is the result of a rare partnership between the Communications Workers of America and ver.di, a powerful German union...
Closing wage gap will be key issue for UAW Journal Gazette ...The United Auto Workers, seeking to close the pay gap between veteran and newer workers, will begin formal negotiations with the biggest U.S. automakers next month, union Vice President Jimmy Settles said. The union will start talks with Ford on July 23 at Detroit’s Cass Tech High School, Settles said last week. Negotiations with General Motors and Fiat Chrysler will open July 13 and 14, he said...
Uneasy Peace Between Rauner Administration, AFSCME Council 31 with Contract Set to Expire July 1 Reboot Illinois ...With the contracts between the state and unionized employees about to expire July 1, both the governor’s office and organized labor say they intend to stay at the table, But that may not not last forever. So far, there’s been little visible progress in talks between negotiators for Gov. Bruce Rauner and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the bulk of more than 40,000 unionized state employees...
A Pot Industry First: Cannabis Workers Join Food Workers Union KPLU ...The employees at Tacoma’s Cannabis Club Collective will soon be members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. All eight staff members voted this week to join the 1.3 million-member international organization in what is the first-ever union contract in Washington’s marijuana industry...
Why It's Time for Interns to Unionize (opinion) Alternet ...Interns employed in D.C.’s web of progressive organizations often spend their days fighting for a living wage, but some don’t make even a dime, much less the current minimum wage. Some organizations offer “opportunities” for college credit or a small stipend, which is not sufficient for them to live and eat in one of America’s most expensive cities. Now, thanks to the organizing work of one savvy group of union interns, the tide may be about to turn...
Pay raises at stake in Clark County, SEIU clash Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Clark County and its largest union are locked in a contentious labor dispute over a new state law, a battle that might not end until September. In the meantime, workers affiliated with the Service Employees International Union Local 1107 with a June hiring anniversary will be the first to be denied the salary increases they anticipated before the law passed. A growing number will suffer the same fate each month until the dispute is resolved...
Miscellaneous
'Stand With Charleston': Communities Across Country Rise Up for Black Lives Common Dreams ...As Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church reopens for services, people across the United States on Sunday are marching through the streets, mobilizing in their faith communities, and staging direct actions to demand an end to white supremacist terror nationwide. "What happened to our family is part of a larger attack on Black and Brown bodies," wrote Rev. Waltrina Middleton...
Why Is the Flag Still There? The Atlantic ...The flags of the United States and of South Carolina, atop the Capitol dome in Columbia, were lowered to half-staff last week in the wake of the Charleston shootings. The Confederate battle flag flying on the Capitol grounds was not. Roof understood the symbolism of the flag he waved only all too well. When South Carolina seceded in 1860, it issued a Declaration which glossed over states’ rights. It did not mention the tariff. South Carolina was seceding, it explained, due to the “increasing hostility to the institution of slavery”...
Robert Reich: Mass incarceration is ruining us — and shackling the economy Salon ...Unless we recognize the racism and abuse of our criminal justice system and tackle the dehumanizing stereotypes that underlie it, our nation – and our economy – will never be as strong as it could be. We’re spending a fortune locking people up who could fuel our economy and build strong communities, in some cases just to increase the profits of private prison corporations...
