Teamsters
Hoffa Calls for Bipartisan Approach to Infrastructure Investment Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa stressed the need for a commitment by Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisan agendas and move forward to find a long-term solution to surface transportation funding. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour joined Hoffa at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference today to discuss infrastructure investment...
The Teamsters Want Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Unity To “Get America Working” WIN ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has launched their “Get America Working Campaign” calling for massive new investments in infrastructure, transportation and clean energy. The American Society Of Civil Engineers estimates that America needs to spend $3.6 trillion to modernize and repair roads, bridges, ports, airports, railroads and water systems. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says making these investments would create jobs...
Hoffa: Teamsters Urging Bipartisan Effort to Fix Roads, Bridges Newsmax ...The Teamsters union is pushing a bipartisan effort to repair America's crumbling infrastructure and get the country back on top, the group's president James P. Hoffa, tells Newsmax TV. "There's no Republican bridge, there's no Democratic bridge, there's an American bridge," Hoffa said Wednesday on "The Hard Line"...
Baumann and Sons Buses Inc., Acme Buses, Teamsters Local 1205 to resume school bus labor talks Thursday, union chief says Newsday ...Federal mediation was put on hold early Thursday morning between a major Long Island school bus contractor and its drivers -- a situation closely watched by school districts and parents whose children ride the company's vehicles to get to and from school. Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, Acme Buses, plan to reconvene at 4 p.m. Thursday to continue negotiations, union president Timothy Lynch said...
Council sends message to Sun Tran: resolve strike Arizona Daily News ...The Tucson City Council made a political statement Wednesday in the ongoing Sun Tran strike, telling the management to “make every effort to resolve the labor dispute immediately.” Thursday marks the 36th day of the strike. They told Professional Transit Management to meet its obligation to negotiate in good faith with the Teamsters...
Global Labor & Trade
Auto parts makers make plea to save sector as TPP talks resume CBC ...Auto parts makers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have urged their governments not to give in to demands from Japan for less NAFTA-made content in vehicles at new talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canadian and Mexican negotiators are in Washington today trying to work out terms for automotive issues in the trade deal which would open up freer trade among 12 Pacific nations...
US Aims for Next TPP Meeting in Late September MarketPulse ...The United States has sounded out some of the other countries involved in Pacific Rim free trade negotiations about holding the next ministerial gathering in late September on the margins of a session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, negotiation sources said Tuesday. Separately, Japan and the United States will resume bilateral talks on auto trade issues under the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative in Washington from Wednesday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said...
USTR offers update on TPP following Maui meeting Farm Futures ...Following a meeting of the 12 countries represented in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative this week briefed members of the House Ag Committee on TPP movement and released an updated progress report on the anticipated deal. According to the report, USTR says "substantial progress" was specifically made on market access for goods and services as well as environmental issues...
TPP up by year’s end, says US envoy John Berry The Australian ...The US ambassador to Australia says the President and Secretary of State are confident they will be able to sign the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership by the end of the year, facilitating trade through the Asia-Pacific. In Adelaide to attend an innovation roundtable yesterday, John Berry talked up the benefits of the $200 billion TPP, along with international trade partnerships, at an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia forum...
South Africa FAWU Workers Strike Turns Violent Eyewitness News ...Police are keeping a watchful eye on hundreds of Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) members on strike in Ceres. The demonstrators are demanding a 12% increase from Ceres Fruit Growers which has been offering six percent. The striking employees have braved the chilly and wet weather to demonstrate outside the company’s gates...
Hyundai Motor S.Korea union authorises strike; talks continue Reuters ...Hyundai Motor's union workers in South Korea have voted to authorise a strike after failing to reach a deal in annual wage talks and on reforms to its pay structure. Workers could go on strike as early as Sept. 14, although the union and company management agreed to resume negotiations later on Thursday, union spokesman Hwang Ki-tae said...
Peru: 20,000 Public Health Care Workers Strike TeleSUR ...The strike of public health care workers is the latest sign that Peru’s underfunded system is in trouble. Public health care workers have launched a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to pressure Peru’s government into implementing agreements reached in 2014. Last year, after workers held an 18-day strike, the government signed an agreement, which addressed various issues...
State & Living Wage Battles
New York Could Be The First State With A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will become the first governor to call for a $15 minimum wage across his entire state. A wage hike would need to be passed by the state legislature, where the state senate is Republican-controlled. But if his proposal were to become reality, that would give New York the country’s highest state minimum wage...
Tennessee Higher Education Talks Big, Acts Cheap The Nation ... Under a plan recently issued by the administration of Governor Bill Haslam—who won national accolades for making Tennessee the first state to offer comprehensive “free community college for all”—workers at public facilities across the state, including higher-education institutions, will see their jobs outsourced, potentially at the expense of wages and benefits...
California Governor signs two-person crew law BLET ...California Governor Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown signed a two-person crew bill into law on September 8, signifying a significant boost to railroad safety. The bill reads in part: “This bill would prohibit, on and after February 1, 2016, a train or light engine used in connection with the movement of freight, as specified, from being operated unless it has a crew consisting of at least 2 individuals”...
Paid sick leave movement is alive and kicking CBS ...And about 39 percent of U.S. private sector workers lack access to any sick paid leave, according to a joint study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research and the National Partnership for Women & Families. hat has led several local municipalities and at least four states -- California, Connecticut, Oregon and Massachusetts -- to establish their own paid sick leave laws to ensure that workers don't have to chose between working sick, losing part of their pay or, in some cases, losing their jobs altogether...
Puerto Rico Proposes Harsh Austerity To Solve The Debt Crisis Think Progress ...The government of Puerto Rico put forward an official plan on Wednesday to tackle its looming $72 billion debt crisis. In exchange for demanding some concessions from the island’s hedge fund creditors, the government is promising to pay workers less than the minimum wage, slash retirement benefits, limit collective bargaining, cut funding to universities, and shut down more K-12 schools...
Sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of Missouri anti-union bill (editorial) Kansas City Star ...A controversial “right to work” bill, which is expected to take center stage in the Missouri General Assembly’s veto session next week, is part of a long-term effort by right-wing interests to cripple union strength around the nation. It bodes poorly for Missouri workers and the state’s economy and must not be passed over Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto...
U.S. Labor
UPS pilots' union to vote on potential strike The Hill ...The union that represents UPS pilots is calling a vote on a potential strike against one of the nation's largest parcel delivery companies. The Louisville, Ky.-based Independent Pilots Association (IPA), which has more than 2,600 members, said Wednesday that it would hold a vote on a potential strike against UPS beginning on Oct. 1. Union leaders said the vote is an effort to win concessions from UPS after multiple years of protracted labor talks...
'Fighting for Incredible List of Educational Reforms,' Seattle Teachers Go on Historic Strike Common Dreams ...For the first time in 30 years, Seattle teachers are hitting the picket lines on Wednesday after the teachers union and the school board failed to negotiate a tentative agreement. The Tuesday decision to strike—made with what the union describes as "an unprecedented, thunderous unanimous vote," closes schools on what would have been the first day of school for roughly 50,000 students...
Analysts: GM likely UAW target, small strike probable The Detroit News ...General Motors Co. likely will be selected as the lead for UAW negotiations as contracts expire with the Detroit’s Big Three next week, according to Buckingham Research Group auto analysts, who also believe there is a high probability of a small strike. “We view GM as a probable target, given new CEO Mary Barra is likely more labor friendly vs. Mark Fields and Sergio Marchionne,” analysts from the research firm said...
US Unemployment Benefit Applications Dropped to 275,000 AP ...Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, keeping this key indicator of labor market health near historic lows. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 275,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 500 to 275,750...
Republicans take aim at NLRB's 'joint employer' ruling The Hill ...The GOP is girding for another fight with the Obama administration over a controversial labor policy. The Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, introduced Wednesday by Republicans, would roll back a policy that holds companies liable for labor violations committed by their business partners...
Unions 30 Years Ago Are Somehow Making People Richer Today The Atlantic ...According to the study, people between the ages of 26 and 37 who are working full time and whose parents did not go to college and were not in a union earn an average of $39,000 today. But a very similar group of people—everything the same except that they had one parent who was in a union—those people are earning $46,000...
Labor vs. Silicon Valley, David vs. Goliath? (video) MSNBC ...Unions are spreading like wildfire through tech’s low-wage workforce and Derecka Mehrens, Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA says, ‘we’re winning’. Temple Law Professor Brishen Rogers and MSNBC’s Zack Roth discuss what’s next for innovative labor campaigns...
Social Justice & Other News
Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan Is Mostly A Giveaway To The Rich Think Progress ...In a speech on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush will unveil his tax plan. He also previewed the plan in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Tuesday evening. While the plan is still just an outline of what Bush would do and therefore doesn’t include many details, many of the changes he wants to make would benefit the wealthiest Americans...
Why Europe’s Trains Are So Much Better Than America's The Atlantic ...California is the only place in the U.S. where high-speed rail (HSR) plans are really moving forward, albeit not that quickly or smoothly. The state is currently building a 520-mile high-speed line from San Francisco to L.A., which will eventually extend to Sacramento to the north and San Diego to the south. The German Marshall Fund put out a report in June on the lessons California could draw from the well-developed HSR systems in Germany and France...
Zero Tolerance for Childhood Slate ...“Kids for cash” is emblematic of a larger problem: the tendency to criminalize so much of what young people do, the tendency to hit them with draconian punishments that are out of proportion to the crime itself, and the ways the system itself profits financially from those impulses...
German Lawmaker: At the Root of Refugee Crisis are Wars Led by the U.S. in the Middle East Democracy Now ...The United Nations is now estimating at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and next, seeking refuge in Europe to escape violence and unrest in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Already 366,000 people have arrived in Europe this year. Annette Groth, member of the German Parliament and spokeswoman for human rights for the Left Party, asks "What is the root for this massive migration?It is war, it is terror, and it is the former U.S. government who is accountable for it"...
