Teamsters
Worker advocates turn sights on warehouse industry in Southern California JOC ...In what could be the beginning of a larger effort to focus on working conditions and eventually organize the warehouse sector of the transportation industry, workers at a warehouse near the Port of Los Angeles walked off their jobs Tuesday, attracting the support of the Teamsters union. The job action at California Cartage Company was sponsored by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center...
Warehouse Workers of Los Angeles, Unite! The Nation ... A few dozen workers at the California Cartage warehouse went on strike on Tuesday to protest poverty wages and harsh working conditions. Though backed by the advocacy group Warehouse Workers Resource Center (WWRC), with support from the Teamsters, the strikers don’t have a union—many aren’t even permanent employees...
Port truckers continue to strike Fleet Owner ...As they await a ruling from the California Labor Commissioner on their wage and hour claims totaling in excess of $6 million, on Tuesday, Sept. 12, port drivers from Pacific 9 Transportation (Pac 9), who say they have been misclassified as independent contractors, have entered their 11th week on strike, according to the Teamsters Port Division. They plan to continue picketing at the company’s Carson-based yard and conduct “ambulatory picketing”...
Safe Mover Members Ratify New Contract With Raises Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 members at M. Lange, Inc. have ratified a new three-year contract with annual raises and vacation fund increases. Local 727 representatives also secured employer-paid contribution increases to allow members to retain their top-notch union benefits. “These members are another part of our local union’s diverse and growing membership,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727...
Global Labor & Trade
Pacific trade pact negotiators move closer to deal on rules for autos Reuters ...Japan, the United States, Mexico and Canada are moving closer to a deal on rules for the automotive industry in a landmark Pacific trade deal, a leading obstacle to agreement on the 12-nation pact, officials briefed on the talks said on Wednesday.` Although two-day talks between negotiators from the four nations on auto trade did not reach a final agreement, ministers were readying for meetings in Atlanta...
Canada heads to TPP talks in Atlanta with key auto content issue unresolved Globe and Mail ...Canada’s Trade Minister Ed Fast is heading to Atlanta to join a pivotal round of talks that could yield a massive Pacific Rim trade deal – even though Japan has so far refused to give ground on rules in the proposed accord that could hurt Canada’s auto sector. The very same unreconciled differences between Canada and Mexico on one hand, and Japan on the other, stalled a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord last summer...
Malmstrom and Froman Discussed Upcoming TTIP Negotiations EIN News ...EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström today met with her American counterpart, US Trade Representative Michael Froman, in Washington DC. The purpose of the meeting was to take stock of the ongoing negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Both sides agreed on the need to accelerate discussions and achieve progress in all areas under negotiation. To give an additional boost to the talks, contacts between negotiating teams will be intensified...
Brazil hit by anti-austerity protests Agence France Presse ...Hundreds of demonstrators besieged government offices in Brazil Wednesday to protest plans for deep budget cuts as part of an austerity plan. President Dilma Rousseff, faced with a deepening recession and rising inflation, has put forth an austerity plan that involves $17 billion in cuts to bring the federal budget out of the red. Opposed to that plan, several hundred protesters blocked the entrance to the Finance Ministry's Sao Paulo headquarters...
EU Refugee Crisis: How Will European Countries Pay For The Influx Of Thousands Of People? International Business Times ...As refugees from the Middle East and North Africa continued Wednesday making dangerous sea crossings into Europe, EU officials were meeting in Brussels deliberating over increased emergency funding to cope with the influx of people. The crisis comes at a time when many states are still trying to dig themselves out from deep economic problems...
State & Living Wage Battles
'Right-to-work' bill being drawn up in Ohio House Cleveland.com ...An Ohio lawmaker said he plans to introduce a "right-to-work" bill that would prohibit private-sector labor union membership as a condition of employment. State Rep. Tom Brinkman said Wednesday that his bill, which he plans to introduce next month, would ban "closed shops" and forbid unions from charging "fair-share fees" to non-union workers at private-sector workplaces. The Cincinnati Republican said he intends to introduce the bill sometime next month...
Hinsdale District 86 to petition state leaders to change prevailing wage rates Chicago Tribune ...Hinsdale High School District 86 will petition state leaders to use a new method of calculating the prevailing wage rate. The school board passed a resolution asking that the Illinois Department of Labor use both private and public wage rates when setting the prevailing wage rate for the counties. The district will send the resolution to Gov. Bruce Rauner, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and the state senators and representatives for the areas that District 86 encompasses...
Poll: New Yorkers support $15 minimum wage Syracuse.com ...New York voters strongly support Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour, according to a new Siena College poll made public Thursday. The poll found 59 percent of voters support Cuomo's plan to gradually phase in the higher minimum wage, compared to 38 percent who oppose the increase...
Judge allows voter-ID lawsuit to proceed Associated Press ...A judge on Wednesday declined to dismiss a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s photo identification requirement to vote that starts next year, even though lawmakers recently eased the mandate for some without IDs wishing to cast ballots. Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan denied the motion of attorneys for the state to toss out the suit...
U.S. Labor
Judge Rules Nation’s Largest Peach Grower Interfered with UFW Vote AllGov.com ...Gerawan Farming Inc., America’s biggest peach grower, thought it was rid of the United Farm Workers (UFW) 20 years ago when the elected bargaining representative of its field hands walked away (out of frustration, they say) and did not return—until October 2012. The UFW sought to sit down at the bargaining table with Gerawan after the long absence, but the Fresno-area company refused and tried to decertify the union...
Workers at Alabama auto supplier vote to join UAW union AL.com ...Employees at a northeastern Alabama auto parts manufacturer have voted in favor of joining the United Auto Workers union. The 89-45 vote was at Commercial Vehicle Group Inc. in Piedmont. A press release posted on the UAW's website cited low pay -- ranging from $9.70 to $15.80 per hour for production workers -- high health care costs and the plant's increasing use of temporary workers as some of the reasons behind the successful union vote...
First Student, AFSCME negotiating Unit 5 bus contract Pantagraph ...School bus drivers and monitors who work for Normal-based McLean County Unit 5's bus service are finally on their way to a union contract. First Student Inc., the Cincinnati-based bus provider contracted by Unit 5, has recognized and started negotiating with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees...
Republican Senator Offers A Serious Idea For Combating The Gender Wage Gap Think Progress ...After years of Republicans standing in lockstep against a Democratic bill aimed at closing the gender wage gap, a Republican senator just introduced a bill that looks nearly identical to it. On Tuesday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) introduced the Gender Advancement in Pay (GAP) Act, a bill aimed at gender wage discrimination. The bill’s elements look nearly identical to those in the Paycheck Fairness Act, a measure backed by a number of Democrats...
Cab Drivers Stop Traffic at Chicago Airports, Protesting Rahm Emanuel’s Uber-Friendly Proposal In These Times ...Hundreds of cab drivers at O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago halted service late Wednesday morning in protest of new rules in Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed 2016 budget. The action, which was organized by Cab Drivers United/AFSCME Local 2500 (CDU), saw drivers blocking traffic. Drivers acted in response to Emanuel’s proposed rules, which would allow rideshare services like Uber and Lyft access to the airports while maintaining their exemption from many of the regulations to which traditional taxi services are subject...
Charter School Network Challenges NLRB Ruling Allowing Teach for America Members To Unionize In These Times ...Detroit 90/90, the charter school management group that operates University Prep, the city’s largest charter school network, furthered its challenge of ongoing union organizing by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), recently appealing a ruling made by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last month that stated that Teach for America (TFA) members should be in the same bargaining unit as professional teachers...
Social Justice & Other News
Sanders: We Must End For-Profit Prisons Common Dreams ...The U.S. has less than five percent of the world's population, yet we incarcerate about a quarter of its prisoners -- some 2.2 million people. There are many ways that we must go forward to address this tragedy. One of them is to end the existence of the private for-profit prison industry which now makes millions from the incarceration of Americans...
"We Are Living at a Critical Moment of History": The Pope on Poverty, Immigration & Climate Change Democracy Now ...Pope Francis heads to Capitol Hill today to become the first pope ever to address Congress. On Wednesday, he spoke at the White House, then addressed hundreds of U.S. bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral. At the White House, Pope Francis spoke about poverty, immigration and climate change. "Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution," Pope Francis told President Obama...
Women Walk 100 Miles To See Pope Francis, Plead For Immigration Reform Huffington Post ...When more than 100 women arrived at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, they had made it 97 miles by foot, and only had three to go to the middle of D.C. The women, who are mostly immigrants, some of them undocumented, started their pilgrimage in Pennsylvania on Sept. 15 and traveled to Washington to see Pope Francis...
With Letter and Hug, Five-Year-Old Takes Immigration Plea to Pope Francis Common Dreams ..."I believe I have the right to live with my parents. I have the right to be happy." With a message and a hug, five-year-old Sophie Cruz on Wednesday transformed a few minutes of Pope Francis' first U.S. visit into a resounding call for immigration reform. Cruz, who was attending Francis' cavalcade on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with her father and a group of immigration activists, caught media attention when she ran through a barricade to meet the Popemobile and deliver a letter to the Catholic leader...
USDA Does Not Have The Cash To Keep Food Stamps Running If The Government Shuts Down Think Progress ...Tens of millions of vulnerable Americans would lose their food stamps benefits if Republicans bent on defunding Planned Parenthood force the second government shutdown of the Obama era next week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) warned on Tuesday. Unlike the 2013 shutdown when cash reserves allowed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to be disbursed as normal, “USDA will not have the funding necessary for SNAP benefits"...
