TEAMSTERS
Teamsters to vote on contract with SoCal supermarket chains JOC ...Employees at three major West Coast grocery chains will vote this weekend on a tentative contract between their employers and the Teamsters union. The tentative agreement covers more than 8,000 truck drivers and warehouse, dairy and manufacturing workers employed by Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons in Southern California. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the grocery companies reached a tentative pact after three months of negotiations...
Teamsters picket at Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas Review Journal ...Members of the Teamsters Local 986 picketed Wednesday in front of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, saying that valet parking attendants at the hotel-casino have been working without a contract since voting to form a union in 2009. A union spokesman said more than a dozen Hard Rock valet workers would be covered by the contract. The pickets included Teamsters members from other resorts...
Teamsters local pickets Cranston City Hall in contract negotiation issue Providence Journal ...Mayor Allan Fung and Teamsters Local 251, which represents some of the city's full-time workers, came head-to-head over contract negotiations on Wednesday as about 30 people picketed in front of City Hall. The Teamsters’ contract expired June 30, and the city and union began negotiating for a new contract on June 2...
Teamsters Urge Safeway to Keep Good Jobs at Maryland Distribution Facilities DC Labor ...Teamsters are calling for Safeway to keep good jobs in Maryland, after the company unexpectedly issued a notice that it plans to start closing its Upper Marlboro and Landover, MD, grocery distribution facilities 19 days before Christmas, resulting in the layoff of more than 700 workers. The warehouse workers, members of Teamsters Locals 730 and 639, based in Washington, D.C., received a 60-day layoff notice from C&S Wholesale Grocers, which operates the Safeway-owned facilities...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Former US officials urge Congress to pass TPP The Hill ...More than two dozen former top U.S. officials are urging Congress to support a sweeping Pacific trade agreement that could get a vote sometime early next year. The group of 26 former Asia-focused trade, economic, diplomatic, security and intelligence officials sent a letter on Wednesday to House and Senate leadership. But the expansive agreement, completed last week in Atlanta after five years of talks, faces stiff headwinds from congressional lawmakers in both parties...
Don't Hold Your Breath for Cheap Steaks: Here's the TPP Timeline Bloomberg ...businesses seeking to take advantage of the deal -- which could have benefits and fallout for automakers, cattle and dairy farmers and drug manufacturers -- will have to wait for months and possibly even years before they will see its effects. The deal must be ratified by all 12 nations, and in many, that will be a multi-step process...
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown Slams Obama-Backed TPP As 'Massive Sellout of American Workers' IBTimes ...Democratic senators have typically used deferential language when discussing Obama administration initiatives, even ones they don't support. In that, they have emulated Ronald Reagan's (possibly apocryphal) "Eleventh Commandment" about not publicly attacking members of your own party. But that may be changing with the president's push for a 12-nation trade agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Clinton says Pacific trade deal falls short on addressing currency manipulation Reuters ...U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she does not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal because it does not adequately address currency manipulation. Clinton, who announced her opposition to the deal last week, said at a campaign event on Wednesday that she had hoped the agreement would have "enforceable provisions" related to currency manipulation...
RCEP: The next trade deal you need to know about CNBC ...The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement last week could speed up talks on its lesser-known Asia-wide equivalent, trade analysts say. Negotiators working on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are currently in the middle of a week-long meeting. The RCEP was conceived in 2013 and is being negotiated between the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus regional trading partners including Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea...
EU Concerned TTIP Deal to Lower Labor, Eco Standards - Ex-UN Advisor Sputnik ...The TTIP agreement seeks to liberalize trade between the United States and Europe and create the world's largest trade zone, encompassing more than 60 percent of global production. "Many Europeans, including policymakers, fear labor standards will be undermined, not raised by the [TTIP] trade agreement," Aaronson, who is also a professor at the George Washington University Elliot School of International Affairs, said...
Public transport workers strike in Amsterdam and Utrecht Dutch News ...Commuters in Amsterdam and Utrecht face chaos on Thursday morning because of a strike by transport workers. The strike has been called by the FNV transport union to protest at the pay deal for civil servants agreed between three other unions and employers this summer. Qbuzz had gone to court in an effort to have the strike declared illegal...
Half of world's wealth now in hands of 1% of population – report The Guardian ...Global inequality is growing, with half the world’s wealth now in the hands of just 1% of the population, according to a new report. The middle classes have been squeezed at the expense of the very rich, according to research by Credit Suisse. Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of Credit Suisse, said: “Middle class wealth has grown at a slower pace than wealth at the top end. This has reversed the pre-crisis trend"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Low-wage workers rally, march in push for $15 hourly minimum Boston Globe ...Low-wage workers filled the hallways at the [Massachusetts] State House Tuesday as legislators considered a number of bills that would have a major impact on their jobs, from giving hourly employees more predictable schedules to raising the minimum wage at fast-food chains and big-box retailers to $15 an hour...
Group launches hunger strike in Charlotte over immigration legislation Charlotte Observer ...A group of people demanding that Gov. Pat McCrory veto a bill that cracks down on undocumented immigrants in the state is continuing a hunger strike Thursday outside the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center. They began Wednesday afternoon, and participants said they intend to go without food until Friday afternoon. They are demanding that McCrory veto HB 318...
Kansas Voter ID Law Sets Off a New Battle Over Registration New York Times ...This month, under a rule adopted by the Kansas secretary of state’s office, county election officials throughout the state began to cull names from the voters list, removing people who had been on it at least 90 days. Those removed from the list must start the registration process over in order to vote. The move has touched off a new battle over voter registration, pitting the Republican secretary of state, Kris W. Kobach, an ardent supporter of strict voting rules, against Democrats and advocates of voting rights...
Marco Rubio knows you can't live on minimum wage, but he wouldn't raise it Daily Kos ...Rubio thinks it would be awfully nice if businesses would pay wages people could live on, but the policies he's interested in are about making things easier for businesses, not workers. And maybe eventually the policy giveaways to business will trickle down to workers in the form of higher wages. Rubio has "full confidence," in fact, even though he is fully aware that it's not happening now...
It’s Science: Raising Minimum Wage Would Make America a Happier Place The Nation ... Smith is the author of an academic cri de cœur, published in the September 2015 issue of American Psychologist, in which she calls on the psychological profession to take a strong stance in support of raising the minimum wage. [She] asks her colleagues to consider the “mountain of evidence that supports the damaging impact of poverty upon the psychological, social and physical well-being of adults, children and communities”...
Comment sought on new sick leave law rules Statesman Journal ...The Bureau of Labor and Industries is seeking comment on implementing Oregon's new paid sick leave law. A series of public rulemaking hearings will be held in Eugene, Bend and Portland this month. Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said the new law is an important step forward for workplaces. "We want to hear from the public so that our agency can make the new protections work for employees and businesses alike," he said...
Missouri: Judge Strikes Down Law Increasing St. Louis’s Minimum Wage Associated Press ...A state judge has struck down a St. Louis ordinance that sought to raise the city’s minimum wage. Judge Steven Ohmer of St. Louis Circuit Court declared the ordinance invalid and barred the city from enforcing it. His ruling Wednesday came a day before a 60-cent increase was to set the city’s minimum wage at $8.25 an hour...
U.S. LABOR
Thousands of City Janitors Authorize Strike Biz Philly ...The union representing 2,800 janitors who clean 168 Center City office buildings — including the Comcast Center and Cira Centre — has voted to authorize a strike amidst negotiations for a new contract. The 32BJ SEIU union has been negotiating with Building Owners Labor Relations Inc. since September 3 but failed to come to an agreement. Negotiations are ongoing, but the union now has the ability to strike if no deal is reached before the Thursday deadline...
UAW ratifies contract with MMNA Pantagraph ... United Auto Workers Local 2488, representing about 950 workers at the Mitsubishi auto plant, has overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with company. An "official notice" on the UAW's Facebook page Thursday morning states the vote was 697 in favor of the agreement and 103 voting "no"...
Inside Corporate America’s Campaign to Ditch Workers’ Comp ProPublica ...Standing before a giant map in his Dallas office, Bill Minick doesn’t seem like anyone’s idea of a bomb thrower. But backed by some of the biggest names in corporate America, this mild-mannered son of an evangelist is plotting a revolution in how companies take care of injured workers. His idea: Let them opt out of state workers’ compensation laws — and write their own rules...CSU Faculty Fight to Stop ‘University Professor’ From Becoming the New McJob In These Times ...Faculty across the 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU) system will be voting on strike authorization October 19-28. Should the 23,000 workers, mostly instructional employees, organized as the California Faculty Association (CFA) vote in favor of authorization, CFA leaders will be able to call a work stoppage if they cannot reach a settlement with the CSU system’s overseers, the Board of Trustees, over salary negotiations...
Hard Times For Seniors: No Cost of Living Increase for Social Security for 2016 Alternet ...On October 15, the Social Security Administration will announce some news that will be distressing to more than one in four households: there will be no Social Security cost of living adjustment ("COLA") for 2016. This is no small matter. The purpose of the annual adjustments is to ensure that Social Security's benefits don't lose value over time...
The Neverending Workday The Atlantic ...Work cultures of long hours reflect a notion of professionalism based on athleticism, in which one’s pace and accomplishments exist to be bested. Like a marathon, the never-ending office day tests psychological will and bodily capacity in equal measure. But even casual runners know the value of a good night’s sleep. Without adequate rest the body just isn’t up to the challenge...
Chicago Workers Thrive Three Years After Taking Over a Window Factory Truthout ...In 2008, Republic's owners closed the factory and laid off the work force without the required 60-days notice. Workers occupied the factory and refused to leave the premises until they were paid what they were owed. The story went nationwide. The New Era Windows and Doors Cooperative has been in operation since 2013. It hasn't been easy, but the worker-owners have learned together how to operate their own business...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Immigration creates its own wall inside GOP field CNBC ...immigration has divided conservative activists from business-oriented Republicans and the fast-growing Hispanic constituency the GOP needs more votes from to win presidential elections. But Donald Trump widened that divide — and began his rise to the top of Republican polls with hot rhetoric in his presidential announcement speech about who was crossing America's Southern border...
The Democratic Presidential Candidates Declared War on Unfettered Capitalism (opinion) Slate ...Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate revealed much more than the state of the horse race. It didn’t just pit Hillary Clinton against Sen. Bernie Sanders, or affect Vice President Joe Biden’s decision about running, or introduce the other candidates. It framed the whole election. Democrats are putting together a case for jerking the leash on capitalism. It’s moral, pragmatic, and smart. It fits the spirit of the times. Republicans had better come up with an answer...
People's Climate Returns as Communities Converge for Actions Nationwide Common Dreams ...Climate justice activists and community members are coming together throughout the country on Wednesday to demand urgent action from world leaders on the environment, workers rights, social justice, and other issues ahead of next month's United Nations COP21 talks in Paris. Actions are expected in more than 175 communities across 40 states as part of the National Day of Action on Climate, calling for an end to fossil fuels and investment in sustainable energy...
Eric Garner and Tamir Rice among those missing from FBI record of police killings The Guardian ...Killings by police that unleashed a new protest movement around the US in 2014, including those of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and John Crawford, are missing from the federal government’s official record of homicides by officers because most departments refuse to submit data. Only 224 of 18,000 law enforcement agencies around the US reported a fatal shooting by their officers to the FBI last year...
