Teamsters
Teamsters Union Fights Toyota’s Greedy Carhaul Job-Killing Practices Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union is fighting Toyota’s greed in which the manufacturer is shifting business from dependable and experienced Teamster-represented carhaul companies to lower-bidding nonunion companies, a shift that is costing numerous Teamster carhaulers’ jobs and lowering work standards while the company is raking in record profits. For the period ending March 31, 2015, Toyota had record net income, operating profit and global revenue...
EVSC, Teamsters still at odds in talks; some board members call for return to negotiations Courier & Press ...It’s time to get back to the bargaining table. That is a sentiment some Evansville Vanderburgh School Board members voiced at Monday night’s meeting after five people spoke on behalf of collective bargaining negotiations with Teamsters Local 215. Since April, three collective bargaining sessions for the five EVSC employee groups represented by Teamsters have occurred...
Global Labor & Trade
Pacific trade pact returns to Senate for second test Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama's signature Pacific trade pact faces another test in the Senate on Tuesday as legislation needed to close the deal returns for a second run through the chamber. The legislation has already endured six weeks of congressional wrangling and two close brushes with failure after revolts by Obama's own Democrats, many of whom believe trade deals will threaten U.S. jobs...
Obama’s fast-track gamble: Counting on John Boehner to keep his word Salon ...Trade promotion authority for the president to negotiate trade deals is far from dead, despite a humiliating defeat for the Obama administration on the floor of the House last week. Multinational corporations spanning the globe desperately want this, because without TPA, also known as fast-track, there’s not likely to be any Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Have liberals been backed into a corner on trade? Washington Post ...It’s looking increasingly like those House Dems and liberals — who had previously opposed TAA as a way to kill Fast Track — may have been backed into a corner and may have no choice but to support TAA in the end. And, thanks to the convoluted process that has evolved within Congress on trade, that seeming reality as to what will happen later may be what enables pro-TPP Senate Dems to pass Fast Track first, reviving Obama’s trade agenda...
Wallach: Slow down on Fast Track trade pacts (opinion) Hampton Roads ...We know from past experience that when trade deals aren't done right, Americans suffer the consequences. Virginia has lost more than 141,000 manufacturing jobs since the 1994 NAFTA. More than 72,000 specific Virginia workers have gotten help from TAA after losing their jobs to offshoring or imports since NAFTA. There is good reason why Congress has only agreed to grant Fast Track for five of the past 21 years. And a clarion call for why the Senate should not trade away assistance for those we know will lose jobs if TPP were to go into effect...
The anachronistic trade agreement (opinion) Washington Post ...In the mid-20th century, the United States traded with other nations from a position of almost unparalleled strength. In the current century job security has been undermined and earnings have either stagnated or declined. The German labor movement is an enthusiastic trade supporter because the domestic institutions that protect German workers and win them a decent share of corporate revenues are robust. Those who complain that U.S. unions reflexively oppose trade should realize that when trade deals genuinely help workers, labor will cheer them on...
Wrong direction on climate, trade and development (opinion) The Hill ...The Obama administration argues that the agreements it is negotiating are true 21st century agreements that correct the failings of past agreements and will promote trade and investment that can both re-launch America as the key economic player and promote broad-based sustainable development at home and abroad. While that may be the ambition, an amendment House Republications surreptitiously tacked on to Trade Promotion Authority via language in the separate Customs Bill will do just the opposite...
Chilean Port Workers Strike over Labor Reform Bill TeleSUR ...Chilean port workers have completed a 24 hour strike in industrial ports across the country. Workers belonging to the Ports Union (UP) are challenging a labor reform bill that is currently awaiting approval by the Chilean senate. Chilean port workers are demanding modifications to the newly proposed labor legislation including clarification on a clause that would allow the termination of striking workers whom pose an alleged threat to damaging infrastructure, the environment, or health services.
Al Jazeera Documentary Shows Mexican Farmworkers’ Struggles in Historic Strike In These Times ...A historic farmworker uprising ignited this March in Baja California, Mexico. Thousands of crop pickers stopped work at peak harvest in the valley of San Quintin, a major source of the U.S.’s tomatoes, cucumbers and berries, demanding better pay, legally mandated benefits and an end to sexual harassment in the fields, among other improvements. The months-long movement received surprisingly little media attention on this side of the border...
Bangladesh Workers Get Justice Via Workers’ Associations Solidarity Center ...Despite obstacles, workers’ welfare associations are gaining ground in factories throughout Bangladesh’s export processing zones. Bangladesh derives 20 percent of its income from exports created in the EPZs, which are industrial areas that offer special incentives to foreign investors like low taxes, lax environmental regulations and low labor costs. Some 377,600 workers, the vast majority women, work in 497 factories in Bangladesh’s eight EPZs...
State & Living Wage Battles
Maine House blocks bill that would prevent minimum wage increases Business Sun Journal ...Gov. Paul LePage’s effort to keep Bangor and Portland from raising the minimum wage for workers inside their city limits suffered a blow Monday when the House of Representatives rejected the bill. The Democrat-controlled House voted 83-60, without debate, to block LD 1361. The bill would prevent any municipality in the state from raising the minimum wage past the $7.50 per hour established by the state...
Trial in NC Voter ID Case Pending After Legislative Moves Associated Press ...A North Carolina judge is deciding whether a state lawsuit challenging voter ID requirements should keep going after changes to the law last week by the General Assembly. The lawsuit challenges North Carolina's 2013 law, which required all voters to show a government-issued ID to cast a ballot. The General Assembly loosened those requirements last week to allow driver's licenses or state-issued ID cards expired for less than four years to be accepted...
Workers Rally In Denver As New York Considers Boosting Minimum Wage CBS ... Workers around the nation and in Denver rallied Monday as New York considers boosting that state’s minimum wage. The workers want the minimum wage raised to $15 an hour. About 50 fast food workers gathered at a Denver McDonald’s located at Alameda Avenue and Broadway on Monday to show their support...
Scott Walker’s Unprecedented Voucher Expansion PR Watch ...At a time when other states are reinvesting in public education, Wisconsin continues to slash and burn. The Wisconsin Budget Project says that the state is now spending $1,014 less per public school student than it did in 2008 and more funds are slated to be siphoned off as Governor Scott Walker's budget proposes an unprecedented voucher expansion, draining funds from public education and directing them to for-profit and religious schools...
Bill Under Way In New Jersey Would Give Paid Sick Leave To Workers CBS ...A bill is underway in New Jersey that would give mandatory paid sick leave to workers. Under the bill sponsored by Bergen County State Senator Loretta Weinberg, workers would accumulate an hour of sick time for every 30 worked. New Jersey would be the fourth state to have such a law...
Minimum wage debate shifts to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors LA Times ... Angeles County supervisors could vote Tuesday to increase the minimum wage by two-thirds in unincorporated areas of the county over the next five or six years, following the lead of the city of Los Angeles. The proposal by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl would follow the same timeline recently approved by the city, raising the wage to $15 by 2020 for companies with more than 25 employees...
U.S. Labor
GM’s Clegg Says Wage Gap Just One Item of UAW Talks Wards Auto ...General Motors Vice President Cathy Clegg calls the UAW’s desire to close the 2-tier wage gap at U.S. manufacturing sites one of several issues on the table as talks on a new 4-year labor contract approach. UAW President Dennis Williams has signaled closing the wage gap, which sees entry-level workers earning $19 an hour compared with $28 for traditional ones, a top item of the talks...
One Week to Contract Deadline: Negotiations Continue with State Workers Public News Service ..With a contract deadline just one week away, state workers in Illinois are continuing to push for a fair labor agreement. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) say they are not pleased with Governor Bruce Rauner's proposed cuts in pay and benefits, and his willingness to allow a government shutdown. Anders Lindall with AFSCME Council 31 says a strike is not in the public's best interest...
Inside Cablevision’s War With Big Labor Daily Beast ...In recent months, regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that supervises union elections and investigates unfair labor practices, has accused Dolan and Cablevision of violating federal labor law by allegedly threatening employees, bargaining in bad faith, unfairly firing employees, and raising the salaries only of non-union workers...
Is Walmart Hiding $76 Billion in Overseas Tax Havens? The Nation ...Walmart executives appear to have way more money than they know what to do with, but know exactly where to hide it. Its big box is roomy enough to hide billions in un- and undertaxed profits, according to a new report by a watchdog group. While the retail giant is known for capitalizing on corporate tax breaks and driving the offshoring of jobs to the Global South, little is known about how much of its assets are hidden from Uncle Sam and offshored to far-flung tax havens...
Miscellaneous
Top CEOs make more than 300 times what their workers are paid Daily Kos ...Pay for the last people to need a raise—CEOs of large companies—rose again in 2014. Total compensation for CEOs of the 350 largest companies is now 303 times what workers take in, which is down from the peak of 376-to-1 in 2000 but still ridiculously high, sccording to the Economic Policy Institute's Lawrence Mishel and Alyssa Davis...
15 Ways Bill Clinton’s White House Failed America and the World Alternet ...For more than a year before Hillary Clinton launched her latest presidential campaign, Bill Clinton has been selectively telling media outlets that he made some mistakes as president and might have acted otherwise. He's even tried to recast actual events and been taken to task by fact-checkers who recall his leading role in what became major crises, such as the 2008 global financial implosion...
South Carolina Governor Calls for Confederate Flag to be Removed from State House Common Dreams ...South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the Statehouse grounds in the wake of last week's racist murders of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston. The flag, a divisive symbol of South Carolina's racist history, "does not represent the future of our great state," Haley, a Republican, said during a press conference on Monday...
