Teamsters
Teamsters Women's Conference Kicks off in Boston Teamster.org ...More than a thousand Teamsters gathered in Boston Thursday to kick off the 2015 Teamsters Women’s Conference. The annual event, now in its 15th year, welcomed Teamsters from throughout North America for an exciting three days of solidarity and strength. “This conference gets bigger and better every year. This is about coming together, seeing each other and sisterhood,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President...
Teamsters Applaud National Labor Relations Board on Joint Employer Ruling Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union today applauded the National Labor Relations Board on its “joint employer” ruling in the case of Browning-Ferris Industries, Inc., as an additional step to protect and provide a voice to millions of American workers by holding employers that rely on temporary or contracted workers accountable...
How 2 Phoenix companies are at the center of NLRB decision on temp agencies, franchises Business Journal ...The NLRB decision is based on a case involving Phoenix-based Leadpoint Business Services, its staffing of 150 to 200 workers to Browning Ferris Industries recycling plant in Milpitas, California, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters efforts to unionize there.
Browning Ferris is owned by Phoenix-based Republic Services...
Teamsters Local 104's Sun Tran Workers Hold Strong On Picket Lines Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local Union 104’s Unfair Labor Practice strike against Sun Tran has now begun its fourth week with no end in sight. Day twenty two begins the same as the previous twenty one days with the striking employees and their supporters continuing to walk the picket lines at the Ronstadt Transit Center in downtown Tucson, as well as the north and south facilities...
Still no solution between Sun Tran and Teamsters 104 Tucson News ...As the union worker strike against Sun Tran moves into its fourth week, both sides are still far apart in finding a solution. The union said this is an insult. "I'm offended they came back with a regressive offer which is bargaining in bad faith," said Teamsters Spokesman Andrew Marshall. "I mean how do you expect us to do anything but reject it"...
Tech shuttle Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation accused of forming "sham" union Business Journal ...Local tech shuttle company Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation is being accused by the National Labor Relations Board of creating a fake union in order to avoid a Teamster effort to organize its workforce, reports the San Francisco Examiner. Bauer’s is well known for its commuter shuttles used by marquee-name Bay Area tech companies like Cisco Systems...
Skyway Negotiations at Standstill; Toll Collectors Prepare for Strike Beginning Labor Day Weekend Local 727 ...Chicago Skyway toll collectors may be forced to strike because Skyway Concession Company has ground contract negotiations to a halt. The current three-year contract was set to expire July 3, but Teamsters Local 727 agreed on a two-month extension. The final negotiation meeting is scheduled for Aug. 31 — the day the contract extension expires. The members are scheduled to take a vote on Sept. 2...
Truckin’ on The Economist ...Mr McGregor reportedly earned $500,000 (not including bonuses or sponsorships) for a recent bout. But most UFC fighters make decidedly less. The median pay per fight is $24,500, and most pugilists get in the ring only a couple of times a year. Some fighters think the muscle of a union might help them get better pay and more say. Earlier this month, the Teamsters, along with a local culinary union, announced that they intended to help fighters organise...
Global Labor & Trade
TTIP deal: Business lobbyists dominate talks at expense of trade unions and NGOs Belfast Telegraph ...The world’s biggest companies in finance, technology, pharma, tobacco and telecoms are dominating discussions with the EU executive body’s trade department responsible for the proposed EU-US free trade treaty, which could become the biggest such deal ever made. Between January 2012 and February 2014, as TTIP discussions began, the Commission’s trade department (DG Trade) had 597 behind-closed-door meetings with lobbyists to discuss the negotiations...
Will China’s currency devaluation complicate the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Lexology ...As trade ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries continue to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, China’s recent currency devaluation has sparked a debate over the inclusion of currency manipulation controls in global trade agreements. China is not currently part of the TPP, however, the agreement includes a mechanism for allowing other countries, including China, to join the agreement in the future...
TISA and Tech's Double Standards On Secret Government Internet Deals EFF.org ...The stash of previously-secret correspondence about the Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) that EFF obtained and published this week speaks volumes about the extent to which technology companies such as IBM and Google, and trade lobby groups such as the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and Internet Digital Economy Alliance (IDEA), have bought into the dangerous idea that trade agreements should be used to govern the Internet...
The TPP Must Not Undermine North America’s Dairy Sector (opinion) CitizensTrade.org ...As international trade negotiators continue attempting to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), farm, labor and consumer groups from throughout the Pacific Rim are demanding that they not interfere with nations’ sovereign right and responsibility to protect family farmers, processing workers and domestic food supplies – including North America’s dairy sector...
Guatemala President Faces Arrest as Business Interests and U.S. Scramble to Contain Uprising Democracy Now ...In Guatemala, a judge has ordered that former Vice President Roxana Baldetti must remain in prison while her corruption trial takes place. The ruling comes on the heels of the Guatemalan Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to lift the immunity from prosecution for President Otto Pérez Molina, clearing the way for his impeachment. The court passed the impeachment recommendation along to Congress. A general strike has been called in Guatemala for today...
200 Migrants Feared Dead as Europe’s Refugee Death Toll Creeps Towards 2,500 This Year Slate ...In the latest of what seems to be an accelerating series of now-hourly tragedies, hundreds are feared dead after two small boats carrying up to 500 migrants capsized en route to Italy from Libya. The migrant crisis on Europe's shores continues to spiral as the death toll approaches 2,500 this year...
Is austerity saving or sinking Brazil's troubled economy? BBC ...Brazil's Finance Minister Joaquim Levy has been on a drive to fix Brazil's troubled economy through austerity measures. That means spending less on unemployment benefits. Most workers now need to have been employed for a full year to receive government aid. President Rousseff might have thought she could cut spending without damaging the economy. But, as one Brazilian saying goes, the cure is now at risk of "killing the patient"...
State & Living Wage Battles
Governors Have Collected Millions In Presidential Campaign Contributions From State Contractors Think Progress ...New Jersey law currently prevents state contractors from giving more than $300 to statewide candidates’ campaigns. But that hasn’t stopped New Jersey contractors from donating more than $500,000 in total to the super PAC supporting Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) presidential campaign...
Focus on 'right to work' gets more intense as legislators consider override attempt St. Louis Public Radio ...After a brief hiatus, both sides in the battle over “right to work” are back with a vengeance as they gear up for the Missouri General Assembly’s veto session in just over two weeks. The dueling campaigns may be aimed, in part, at influencing Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Cape Girardeau. A spokesman said the speaker has yet to decide whether to bring up the “right to work” bill, which was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon earlier this summer...
Prevailing wage still in Rauner’s crosshairs (opinion) Pekin Daily Times ...Before Gov. Bruce Rauner compromises on a state budget, he’s demanding lawmakers agree to his “Turnaround Agenda,” a misnamed list of changes ranging from limiting settlements judges and juries can award in lawsuits to restricting workers compensation protections. In the mix is his bid to abolish prevailing-wage laws...
Bill to raise California minimum wage stalls in Assembly SacBee ...A controversial measure to raise California’s minimum wage to $13 per hour over the next two years was held Thursday in a key financial committee, but the proposal may continue forward next session. Despite last-minute amendments put forth by author Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, to delay the increase by another year, Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, suggested he would look for other changes to advance Senate Bill 3 next year...
This State Just Became The First In The Nation To End Chronic Veteran Homelessness Think Progress ...On Thursday, the federal government announced that Connecticut is the first state in the country to end chronic homelessness among veterans. That means the state has found permanent housing for all veterans who have been homeless for at least one year or four times in the past three years, or has an immediate path to housing in place for them...
U.S. Labor
In landmark case, labor board will let more workers bargain with their employer’s employer Washington Post ...A federal labor board voted Thursday to redefine the employee-employer relationship granting new bargaining powers to workers caught up in an economy increasingly reliant on subcontractors, franchisees and temporary staffing agencies. The decision by the National Labor Relations Board could upend the traditional arms-length relationship that has prevailed between corporate titans such as McDonald’s and its neighborhood fast-food franchises...
The Labor Ruling McDonald's Has Been Dreading Just Became A Reality Huffington Post ...McDonald's, Burger King and every other company that relies on a franchise business model just suffered the legal setback they've been fearing for years. The National Labor Relations Board ruled on Thursday that Browning Ferris Industries, a waste management company, qualifies as a "joint employer" alongside one of its subcontractors...
IKEA Says They’re “Socially Responsible.” So Why Are Workers Accusing Them of Union-Busting? In These Times ...With a potential strike deadline looming at one its largest U.S. warehouses, Sweden-based home furnishings retailer IKEA is facing renewed skepticism over its self-proclaimed commitment to fair labor policies, both in the United States and elsewhere. The deadline has immediate impact for about 450 unionized warehouse workers in Perryville, Maryland, many of whom find themselves puzzled at what they say is IKEA’s refusal to negotiate seriously over a new contract...
KapStone workers on strike TDN.com ...After 15 months of failed contract negotiations, KapStone millworkers officially went on strike early Thursday morning. The strike began at 3 a.m. Thursday after the union gave the company a three-hour notice at midnight. Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 153 officials said the length of the strike is open-ended...
USW plans another rally as contract deadline nears NWI Times ...The United Steelworkers union is planning another big rally at AcelorMittal Burns Harbor on Sept. 1, when the current three-year contracts with ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel expire. If no new contracts are reached by Sept. 1, the USW could go on strike, work without a contract, or agree to extend the current contract and continue to work while a new contract is negotiated by the company...
SEIU home-care workers sign 'historic' contract Statesman Journal ...The Service Employees Union International Local 503, which represents 24,000 Oregon home-care workers, has signed a contract with the state they're calling historic. The contract paves the way for a $15 an hour wage for home-care workers by 2017, among other provisions. "Our workers, personal support and home care, really need to have a living wage," said Eileen Ordway, a home-care worker and member of the SEIU's bargaining team...
Behind the Business Attire, Many Bank Workers Earn Poverty Wages In These Times ...The collared shirts and pressed slacks may be hiding the reality: a significant portion of customer service workers in the retail banking industry make salaries low enough to make public assistance necessary. The Committee for Better Banks (CBB), a Communications Workers of America (CWA)-affiliated community and labor coalition, was created in 2013 to put an end to that...
Home Care Workers' Inclusion in Basic Labor Protections Is Just the Beginning Truthout ...Today, workers in the fastest growing workforce in the country - home care - have to live on poverty wages, struggling to pay for the gas that will get them to the seniors they assist each day. In many ways, the workers who provide those services have not changed; they are still largely women, with women of color and especially Black women providing a disproportionate amount of the care for all in the nation...
Social Justice & Other News
Detention Program Allegedly Barred Lawyers From Visiting Their Immigrant Clients Think Progress ...Advocates from an immigration detention visitation group say they have been barred from visiting potential clients in California and Alabama just a few weeks after they filed a complaint alleging abusive conditions at one detention facility. Shutting attorneys out of detention centers has been on the rise across the country...
After Hurricane Katrina, Poor Black Women Were Largely Ignored, Study Says Mother Jones ...Ten years after Hurricane Katrina displaced 40,000 people in New Orleans, opinions about the recovery can be traced along racial lines. A pair of new studies underscores that African American women, particularly those who lived in public housing, faced some of the biggest hurdles after the storm. Nearly four in five white residents in New Orleans say their state has "mostly recovered," while nearly three in five African American residents say it has not...
How Hedge Funds Are Exploiting Baltimore’s Poorest Residents Think Progress ...The death of Freddie Gray in police custody in Baltimore and the ensuing protests brought the nation’s attention to the economic devastation that continues to grip the city. Now, new data shows powerful hedge funds are profiting off of struggling families in Baltimore by buying up debts as small as $250, charging high interest rates, and taking their homes when they fail to pay...
