TEAMSTERS
Teamster Pilots at Republic Airways Approve New Three-Year Contract Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division and Republic Airways Holdings Inc. announced today that pilots represented by Teamsters Local 357 voted to ratify a new three-year agreement. Results of the vote, which were tabulated today, were 1,363 votes in favor of the agreement to 421 votes against, with 1,784, or 90 percent of eligible pilots, participating in the vote...
Head of Teamsters, Jim Hoffa, stands with striking truckers in Long Beach Press-Telegram ...Teamster President Jim Hoffa joined striking port truck drivers Tuesday in Long Beach, saying the misclassification of these workers must end. “You have the support of the 1.4 million Teamster members,” Hoffa said. “We will bring justice to port truck drivers and warehouse workers nationwide.” The truck drivers who ferry goods to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach walked off the job Monday...
Teamsters ramp up drayage, warehouse worker organizing effort in LA-Long Beach JOC ...The Teamsters union Tuesday stepped up its organizing efforts in Southern California, targeting another drayage company in Los Angeles-Long Beach, and announcing a partnership with a warehouse worker advocacy organization. The latter signals a move by the Teamsters to organize what could potentially be thousands of workers in the warehouse and distribution industry...
Labor friction escalates between California port truckers, shippers Reuters ...Long-simmering labor tensions between Southern California port truckers and shipping companies they accuse of wage theft escalated on Tuesday as a group of drivers demanded recognition as full-fledged employees and petitioned to join the Teamsters union. The action, according to the Teamsters, was taken by at least 50 drivers who work for New Jersey-based Intermodal Bridge Transport (IBT)...
New Third Shift Creates Jobs, Better Working Conditions for Pepsi Members Local 727 ...The addition of a third shift at the PepsiCo warehouse in Chicago’s Canaryville neighborhood means more union jobs and better working conditions for the location’s Teamsters Local 727 members. Starting Nov. 1, seven new third-shift production department machine operators and four additional workers will be on the job, along with the nearly 150 members already working at the warehouse...
Union, recycling advocates promote plan to revamp city’s sanitation setup City & State ...Teamsters Local 813, which represents commercial sanitation workers and is part of Transform Don’t Trash, would like to see labor peace agreements tied to licenses. Such accords typically prevent workers from striking or boycotting and give unions more leverage in attempting to organize. But Local 813’s support has raised questions about why it takes a push from organized labor to get the government to supervise the sector...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
U.S. officials to work with Congress on Pacific trade pact timing Reuters ...U.S. officials said on Tuesday they will work with Congress to find a window for lawmakers to consider a sweeping Pacific trade pact and warned that rejecting the deal would raise questions about America's leadership in the region. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said he was confident of winning political support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal sealed with 11 trading partners earlier this month...
Bank Provisions in Pacific Trade Pact Draw Fire Wall Street Journal ...The sweeping Pacific trade agreement completed this month gives banks an added international legal protection that congressional critics warn could lead to more challenges to Wall Street regulations. U.S. officials play down the new protection for financial firms, saying the Trans-Pacific Partnership also contains several new legal provisions that limit the ability of banks to challenge American financial rules...
Indonesia 'not ready' to join TPP Nation Multimedia ...Indonesia President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's intention to push for membership of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal signals a reversal in Indonesia's protectionist traditions, and some experts have warned that the country had yet to carefully calculate the implications of this change, arguing that the decision might put Southeast Asia's largest economy in an inferior position in relation to other members of the TPP and the world more broadly...
Joseph Stiglitz: Under TPP, Polluters Could Sue U.S. for Setting Carbon Emissions Limits Democracy Now ...Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz warns about the dangers of the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "Under these provisions, corporations can sue the government, including the American government, by the way, so it’s all the governments in the TPP that can be sued for the loss of profits as a result of the regulations that restrict their ability to emit carbon emissions...
Canadians split on support of TPP deal, poll suggests Vancouver Sun ...Almost one month after Canada and 11 other nations reached the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in Atlanta, Canadians remain sharply divided on whether such a deal is good or bad for the public at-large. That is the finding of a EKOS poll commissioned by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the results of which were released Today (Wednesday). The poll found almost an equal number of respondents supporting the TPP (41 per cent) and those who oppose the deal (38 per cent)...
Bundestag president calls TTIP undemocratic The Local ...The President (speaker) of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, has threatened to vote against the US-EU TTIP free trade agreement when it comes to a vote before the German parliament, saying that the deal lacks transparency and democratic legitimacy. ammert, who belongs to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said that he considers it "out of the question"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Prevailing wage petition falls short with duplicate signatures WNEM ...petition to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law is being challenged, after claims that thousands of signatures were duplicated. It's a new twist in the GOP-led effort to go around Gov. Rick Snyder, and repeal a law the governor supports. John Purich is an attorney for a group wanting keep the state's prevailing wage law intact. "This one is not going to make it," Purich said...
In Minneapolis, a Strong ‘Fair Scheduling’ Law for Workers Runs Into a Corporate Roadblock In These Times ...Less than a year after San Francisco passed a first-of-its-kind fair scheduling ordinance for retail employers, progressive activists in Minneapolis began pushing for an even stronger scheduling ordinance of their own—along with paid sick leave, wage theft protections, and the possibility of a $15 minimum wage. But the campaign, dubbed the Working Families Agenda, ran into a roadblock earlier this month...
Sacramento City Council passes minimum wage increase KCRA ...The Sacramento City Council approved increasing minimum wage to $12.50 per hour by 2020 during its meeting Tuesday night. The ordinance, based on recommendations by the 2015 Task Force on Income Inequality, passed 6 to 3. In California, the current minimum wage is $9 per hour and will increase to $10...
Jersey City set to expand paid sick leave mandate NJ.com ...More small businesses would have to adhere to the city's paid sick time mandate under a measure set for adoption by the City Council tomorrow. The changes would require employers with fewer than 10 employees to provide workers with up to 24 hours of paid sick time and up to 16 hours of unpaid sick time annually. Previously, those businesses only had to provide unpaid time...
U.S. LABOR
UAW voting on GM contract starts Friday Detroit Free Press ...As UAW leaders brief local officials from more than 40 General Motors locations Wednesday afternoon, at least one local has decided its members will vote Friday on the four-year agreement. Details of the proposed contract will be shared Wednesday afternoon by UAW President Dennis Williams, Cindy Estrada, vice president of the union's General Motors department, and members of the bargaining committee...
Verizon gets call from Bernie Sanders to reach agreement with CWA union Fierce Telecom ...Verizon is facing yet another call to come to an agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, met with Verizon union employees during a demonstration near at Verizon Wireless store in New York's Times Square...
Final Major Budget Deal Of The Obama-Boehner Era Forces GOP To Release Social Security Hostages Think Progress ...The budget deal struck between Republican congressional leaders and the White House on Monday night would negate a previous GOP ploy to stage a crisis in Social Security funding next year. The deal will prevent a benefits cut by transferring funds from the main Social Security trust to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust, which would otherwise run short of funding next year and be forced to cut payments to beneficiaries by 20 percent...
Lacking Federal Protection, Rural LGBTQ Workers Falling Through the Cracks Common Dreams ...Despite having won federal recognition of the right to marry a partner of their choosing, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people continue to face the possibility of being fired or harassed at work because of their identity or sexual preference. As much as 70 percent of the United States, geographically speaking, lacks any employment protections for LGBT workers...
The Pay Gap Will Ensure That CEOs Enjoy Luxurious Retirement While Workers Keep Struggling Think Progress ...The pay gap between what CEOs make and what they pay their workers is pretty well known. A new report released on Wednesday illuminates a different gap: that between what CEOs have stashed away for retirement and what their workers have been able to amass. The report from the Center for Effective Government and the Institute for Policy Studies looks at the retirement accounts among CEOs...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Texas Sheriff Faces Lawsuit Over Federal Immigration Holds ABC ...A Texas sheriff who faced criticism from Gov. Greg Abbott for not complying with federal immigration holds is being sued by people who say they were detained for unconstitutionally long periods. The lawsuit was filed the same day Abbott made public a letter to Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez threatening to penalize the county over her revised policy to no longer honor all federal immigration detention holds...
'Codifying' Government Surveillance, Senate Passes CISA Common Dreams ...The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) without any of the proposed amendments that would have strengthened user protections. The bill passed 74-21. Rights groups immediately called for President Barack Obama to veto the bill and vowed to keep pressure up.
Tensions Rise as Climate Negotiations Resume in Bonn Truth-Out ...The last round of negotiations before the much-anticipated Paris Conference kicked off on Monday in Bonn. With only five official negotiating days left before Paris, those involved in the talks have plenty of work ahead of them before agreeing on what will hopefully be a legally-binding agreement next December...
Obama: Police Are 'Scapegoats' for Broader Failures of Society The Atlantic ...President Obama’s speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Chicago was always going to require some careful political balancing. he conversation was fairly soft. It was classic Obama: Admitting that every side had something to offer, steering a moderate path, and calling on all sides to step up and compromise...
National Outrage as Videos of Brutal Police Assault on Black Student Go Viral Common Dreams ...A brutal attack by a male officer on a black, female high school student in Columbia, South Carolina on Monday has spurred widespread outrage after a number of cell phone videos of the incident went viral. In the videos, Spring Valley High School resource officer Ben Fields, who is white, is shown briefly reproaching the student, who refuses to get up from her desk, before he puts his arm around her neck...
