TEAMSTERS
Teamsters see California as launching pad for drayage organizing efforts JOC ...The Teamsters union is eying California, a state with drivers clamoring for representation and a regulatory climate sympathetic to work misclassification, as a launching pad for a national drayage organizing push. The Teamsters union this past week intensified its organizing efforts in Los Angeles-Long Beach because drivers are clamoring for representation and the regulatory climate in California is favorable to champion issues such as worker misclassification, a union spokeswoman said Friday...
Port Driver and Warehouse Worker Strikes End With $3.5 Million In New Wage Theft Claims AJOT ...After five days of active picketing that dramatically impacted trucking companies and the marine terminal operators that continued to allow the trucks of struck companies into their yards, misclassified “independent contractor” drivers from XPO Logistics, Intermodal Bridge Transport (IBT), and Gold Point Transportation have ended their strike. Amazon warehouse workers employed by Wilmington-based California Cartage also ended their strike with the support of the Teamsters...
LA City Council backs port truck drivers in their strike action SPLASH247 ...Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Friday to support the port truck drivers who have been striking since Monday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to Reuters. Council members passed a resolution backing the truckers against certain trucking firms which have allegedly been misclassifying the drivers as “independent contractors” rather than as “employees”. The distinction costs the drivers in earnings and benefits...
Dr Pepper Snapple production workers in Bethlehem vote to join union Morning Call ...Production workers at Dr Pepper Snapple Group in Bethlehem, formerly Davis Beverage Group, have voted to unionize. Glenn Fulcher, vice president of Teamsters Local 830 in Philadelphia, said Friday that 34 workers voted 19-15 on Oct. 9 for union representation. The union is now in contact with Dr Pepper Snapple Group's labor attorney and is in the process of setting up dates for contract negotiations, Fulcher said...
Teamsters Back Patrick Murphy for the Senate in 2016 Sunshine State News ...On Friday, the Florida Teamsters endorsed U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., who is running for the Democratic nomination to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2016. "I'm humbled and excited by the support of the Florida Teamsters,” Murphy said on Friday. “Florida's working families need leadership — from the local level to the U.S. Senate to the White House"...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
US Invites Russia and China to Join TPP Deal - Kerry Sputnik ...The United States invites Russia and China to become part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement if they are open for cooperation, US State Secretary John Kerry said Monday. Countries all over the world, including Russia and China, are welcome to join various US-proposed initiatives, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, Kerry stated...
US 'welcomes' Thailand to join TPP Bangkok Post ...The United States “would welcome with open arms” Thailand’s ruling junta wanting the country to participate in the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact without waiting for the return of a of a full democratic government to the country, the newly appointed US ambassador to Thailand said on Friday...
German frustration builds over TTIP secrecy from US DW.com ...German parliamentarians are demanding access to documents that contain the US position on transatlantic trade negotiations. TTIP supporters in the US argue that Washington shouldn't lay all of its cards on the table. In Germany, the documents are only available in the US embassy in Berlin...
UK Government austerity programme 'an international embarrassment' News.STV ...UK Government austerity measures are an "international embarrassment", according to the SNP. The comments were made as the United Nations launches an investigation into the impact of Conservative policies on "disadvantaged and marginalised individuals and groups" in the UK...
Petrobras Oil Workers Begin Strike, Seek to Block Asset Sales Bloomberg ...Brazil’s main oil union began a nationwide strike Sunday to halt asset sales by state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA at a time the company is slashing investments to reduce the biggest debt load in the oil industry.
The Oil Workers Federation, known as FUP, said the nationwide strike started on Nov. 1. Some of the FUP’s regional member unions began work stoppages on Oct. 29...
Egyptian textile workers’ strike enters 10th day Middle East Monitor ...The workers’ strike at Egypt’s biggest textile factory has entered its 10th day as the administration threatens to end staff contracts if they do not return to work, Quds Press reported on Friday. In order to return to work, the workers’ have demanded that the company officially agree on payment of a “social allowance” equivalent to a ten per cent addition to their monthly pay...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wisconsin Poised to Gut Its Campaign Finance and Anti-Corruption Laws Mother Jones ...Scott Walker's presidential bid may have failed, but the Wisconsin governor and his Republican allies are making a massive push to transform the way the state conducts elections and investigates illegal campaign activity. If they're successful—and by all indications, they will be—by the end of this week, they will have uprooted Wisconsin's anti-public corruption laws and lifted restrictions on the money pouring into state elections...
Koch Brothers Hit the Airwaves in Support of Wisconsin Corruption Measures Truthout ...The Koch-backed measures to eviscerate Wisconsin's limits on money in elections and neuter the state's election watchdog hit a stumbling block in the state senate last week, with a handful of Republican senators expressing concern that the measures go too far. So the Kochs are going on the offensive...
Counties experiment with right-to-work laws Washington Examiner ...An experiment in Kentucky could have major implications for workers' rights and union organizing: Can counties and other municipalities pass right-to-work laws? Conservative activists have gotten 12 counties in the Bluegrass State to pass right-to-work ordinances...
Group trying to repeal Michigan prevailing wage law starts new petition drive Detroit Business ...A ballot committee trying to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage law said Friday it will start a new petition drive after it incorrectly submitted duplicate signatures to state election officials. The committee, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, also said it asked the Board of State Canvassers to reject the petition it submitted last month to the Michigan Bureau of Elections...
Portland to vote on minimum wage increase tomorrow WCSH ...Starting January the minimum wage in Portland is set to go up to $10.10 an hour. This does not included tipped employees such as servers and bartenders. However on Tuesday, Portland residents will be able to vote to raise the minimum wage even more. Question number one on Tuesday's ballot is whether or not minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour in the city of Portland...
U.S. LABOR
Steel talks enter 3rd month as USW frustration grows Chicago Tribune ...The rally was held as union steelworkers at ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel were about to enter into their third month without a new contract and with no sign of any progress being made at the bargaining table in Pittsburgh. The last contract expired Sept. 1, and negotiators for both sides have been meeting since before that. They returned to the table Monday following a short recess...
SEIU reaches new four-year deal for Pittsburgh-area janitors Washington Times ...A union representing more than 1,000 Pittsburgh-area janitors says it has reached a new contract agreement with office building owners. The current contract is set to expire at midnight Saturday. The new, four-year deal runs through Oct. 31, 2019. The Managers, Owners and Contractors Association began negotiating with the janitors’ Service Employees International Union bargaining committee last month...
UAW members in Fairfax, Lansing split on GM contract The Detroit News ...Thousands of General Motors Co. hourly workers will vote Monday on a tentative agreement, which financially is richer than the company’s 2011 contract and what Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV employees ratified, but so far has received mixed support from UAW members at two GM assembly plants...
Milwaukie ratifies contract with AFSCME employees Portland Tribune ...With a unanimous City Council vote, the city of Milwaukie finalized the contract with its employee union on Thursday after city workers had been working with an expired contract since July 1. Although to Local 350-5 already had been making more than $15 hourly, they are also celebrating Milwaukie City Council’s Oct. 20 passage of a resolution to pay all city employees at least $15 an hour...
After Defending His Own Family Time, Paul Ryan Refuses To Support Paid Family Leave Think Progress ...On a number of Sunday shows this weekend, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) responded to recent calls that he support a federal paid family leave program after insisting on preserving his own family. The new speaker of the House made it clear that he won’t back such a policy. In order to consider a run, as many in his party had urged, he had laid out a number of conditions, including the protection of the weekends he flies back to Wisconsin...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Immigrants Launch Hunger Strike At Detention Center With Long History Of Abuse: ‘We Are Humans’ Think Progress ...At least 20 male immigrants, mainly from Central America, began a hunger strike at an adult immigration detention facility in California on Friday night, according to the advocacy group Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC). The hunger strike at the Adelanto Detention Facility is the fourth one launched by immigrant detainees across the nation...
Robert Reich: Everywhere You Look Huge Cartels Are Jacking Up Prices, Gouging You However They Can Alternet ...Much of the national debate about widening inequality focuses on whether and how much to tax the rich and redistribute their income downward. But this debate ignores the upward redistributions going on every day, from the rest of us to the rich. These redistributions are hidden inside the market...
Republicans 'cautious' about confronting Black Lives Matter on campaign trail The Guardian ...There are few areas of bipartisan consensus in the 2016 presidential election. Criminal justice has emerged as one. Republicans and Democrats are agreed: reform needs to happen. However, as the Black Lives Matter movement seeks a greater role in shaping the conversation around a justice system that disproportionately affects African Americans, candidates are reacting in decidedly different ways...
More Denial, More Problems: UN Predicts Millions of Climate Refugees to Come Truthout ...This year continues on pace to become, by far, the hottest year ever recorded. Thus, it is obvious why the dramatic impacts of anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) are becoming increasingly prevalent and obvious. A recent NASA report reveals that the ice covering Greenland is melting faster than previously thought...
'Absolute Crap' But Brilliant: Corporate America's Plan to 'Misbehave Without Reproach Common Dreams ...An independent investigation by journalists featured in the New York Times on Sunday offers an in-depth look at the way American corporations have used the inclusion of "arbitration clauses" within consumer contracts to strategically circumvent judicial review of their behavior and immunize themselves from class action lawsuits –"realistically the only tool citizens have to fight illegal or deceitful business practices"...
For Some Americans, the Housing Crisis Isn't Over The Atlantic ...the housing markets in many of the hardest-hit areas have recovered, and cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York are even seeing record real-estate prices. Yet while the national housing market may be well on the way to recovery, the markets in some areas of the country are actually getting worse...
