Teamsters Support Omnibus Spending Bill That Protects Worker Rights, Health Care Teamster.org ...The Teamsters back a $1.1 trillion spending bill approved today by Congress for fiscal year 2016, saying it ensures workers retain their rights to organize on the job and will continue to receive comprehensive health insurance from their employers without being financially penalized.
“This omnibus package is a step in the right direction for workers,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said...
Teamsters Ken Hall: West Virginians’ lives are better without ‘right to work’ Gazette-Mail ...The people of West Virginia are being told by some elected officials and business leaders that so-called right-to-work legislation will boost jobs and pay in the Mountain State. But what is right-to-work? As the Economic Policy Institute explains, right to work laws have nothing to do with whether people can be forced to join a union or contribute to a political cause they do not support; that is already illegal. Instead, right to work laws weaken a union’s ability to help workers bargain with their employers for better wages, benefits, and working conditions...
Coke Strike in Chicago Heats Up Wall Street Journal ...Coca-Cola Co.’s track record of U.S. labor peace is taking a hit in Chicago, where about 320 unionized workers at two bottling plants are striking over rising health-care premiums and are accusing management of intimidation tactics. The two-week-old strike by a Teamsters local poses a public relations threat after union members began unfurling banners with the slogans “Don’t Drink Coke”...
How Unions Could Change the Way Uber and Lyft Work Bloomberg ...Uber Technologies has overcome taxi driver protests, irate government officials, and the occasional self-made controversy. But the next fight for the ride-hailing company and rival Lyft may be with a modern-day Jimmy Hoffa. "When they got more cars, they started taking more advantage of the driver," said Teka, who's on the board of the App-Based Drivers Association, which is working with Seattle Teamsters to form a drivers union...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Chile airport workers end strike that left thousands stranded BBC ...Airport workers in Chile have agreed to end a four-day strike that led to major disruption. Most flights coming out of or landing in Chile's main airports were cancelled or delayed. The airport ground workers' union called the strike after the government rejected their request to join the more generous Chilean military pension plan...
China’s Latest Crackdown on Workers Is Unprecedented The Nation ...In an unprecedented crackdown on some of China’s most effective independent labor organizations, known as worker centers, seven worker-activists have been detained and held virtually incommunicado in detention facilities in Foshan and Guangzhou. The activists are reportedly being detained on grounds of “endangering national security,” according to Amnesty International. It is unclear whether charges have been formally brought...
Union Members Exiled, Jailed as Burundi Violence Rises Solidarity Center ...Hundreds of union leaders and members, including at least 250 teachers, have fled Burundi while dozens more have been jailed, as the east African country roils in widespread violence. In October, a journalist and his family were shot dead at their home by security forces, according to the International Federation of Journalists. Broadcast media workers also were attacked with heavy weapons in May...
Why Amazon Workers in Germany Are on Strike Fortune ...Workers at German warehouses of U.S. online retailer Amazon.com were called out on a new strike by labor union Verdi on Monday as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. Verdi said in a statement that workers at six of the nine Amazon warehouses were joining the strike, which will run until Dec. 24 at four of the centers and for shorter periods at the others...
Obama puts TPP trade deal at top of 2016 agenda The Hill ...President Obama expressed optimism at a Friday press conference that Congress can approve a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal. Obama called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "a big deal" and acknowledged that opponents in both parties make for “an interesting situation." President Obama expressed optimism at a Friday press conference that Congress can approve a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis) said earlier this week that he wants to take a vote as soon as possible...
Failure to Find Consensus in WTO to Re-boost Regional TTIP Deal Sputnik News ...A failure to find consensus between the developed and developing countries at a WTO conference will result in the EU and US reinforced efforts to conclude mega-regional agreements, such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade pact and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), favoring corporate interests, the head of policy and campaigns at a London-based Global Justice Now organization said...
Greek PM Says Austerity Defeated in Spain New York Times ...Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is hailing the result of Spain's election as voter rejection of the unpopular austerity measures that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party invoked during the eurozone's debt crisis.
Tsipras says in a statement that "austerity has been politically defeated in Spain," adding that the results is vindication for those opposed to the tax hikes and spending cuts...
Investors on edge: Brazil to scale back austerity? CNBC ...The resignation of Brazil's pro-austerity finance minister has left markets on edge as amid concerns over whether his replacement will continue with a program of fiscal consolidation. On Friday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff replaced Finance Minister Joaquim Levy, a fiscal conservative appointed just over a year ago, with a close ally...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Union members meet to oppose Ohio Right to Work Times Leader ...Babe Erdos of the United Mine Workers of America was one of the speakers. "We think that the public needs to know the whole story of the so-called Right to Work," he said. According to Erdos, the median household income is $535 less per month in Right to Work states than in free-bargaining states such as Ohio. Information provided by We Are Ohio states that workers are injured and die on the job more often in Right to Work states...
Some local contractors hoping prevailing wage is maintained Gazette Mail ...Steve Ellis and John Strickland don’t want to see West Virginia’s prevailing wage abolished. The two commercial contractors from Charleston believe prevailing wage — the state law setting the minimum pay and benefits for laborers constructing public projects — is an essential part to their business and to the quality of life for the employees they hire...
National labor money gushes into Oregon minimum wage fight Oregon Live ...Oregon will have four ballot measures on the minimum wage out collecting ballot signatures next year. One would raise the state's $9.25 hourly wage to $15 — a number supported by Service Employees International Union in other parts of the country. The others, supported by labor-affiliated coalition Raise the Wage, would set a $13.50 wage and/or lift state restrictions that keep local governments from setting their own wages...
California Leads The Country In Minimum Wage Capital Public Radio ...On Jan. 1 California will have the highest minimum wage in the country. California Workers earning minimum wage will get an extra dollar an hour at the beginning of the year. The state raised the rate from $8 to $9 in July 2014. Soon it will be $10 an hour. Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo of Salinas sponsored the legislation behind the raises...
State reminds of minimum wage hike Daily Star ...State workers will join fast-food workers in a minimum wage increase taking effect Dec. 31, a bulletin from the state reminded employers. The bulletin issued Friday from the state Division of the Budget includes details about implementing phased wage increases that will bring the two groups of workers to a $15 minimum wage by 2021...
Judge Rules Virginia Voter ID Challenge Can Proceed NBC ...A federal judge is allowing an effort aimed at striking down Virginia's voter ID law to continue. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Friday that part of a suit filed by Virginia Democrats challenging the state's voter ID law could proceed while dismissing other related complaints...
U.S. LABOR
NLRB challenges ATI’s lockout as illegal Buffalo News ...Allegheny Technologies Inc.’s four-month lockout of about 2,200 employees, including roughly 40 at its Lockport plant, faces a legal challenge. The National Labor Relations Board’s regional director in Pittsburgh told ATI and the Steelworkers union it will issue a complaint alleging the lockout is illegal...
UAW-Nexteer deal ratified by union members Detroit News ...A majority of United Auto Workers members near Saginaw voted to ratify a new deal with Nexteer Automotive – avoiding a potential strike that could have impacted the Detroit automakers. UAW Local 699, which represents more than 3,200 workers with the auto supplier, reported early Saturday morning via social media that 61.4 percent of members who voted supported the deal...
USW, U.S. Steel announce tentative contract agreement Chicago Tribune ...A tentative agreement between United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel reached Saturday brings to a close more than six months of difficult negotiations between the steelmaker and the unions representing 18,000 workers across the country. Those negotiations continued more than three months after the previous contract between the steelmaker and the union expired Sept.1...
Impending Chicago Teachers' Strike Adds Power to Nationwide Movements Against Inequality and Racism Truthout ...The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) shook up the country and sparked a resurgence in militancy among teachers' unions with its 2012 strike. And now Chicago teachers may be getting ready to do it again. On December 14, CTU announced the result of a strike vote held the previous week, in which 88 percent of its total membership - and a full 96 percent of members who voted - authorized a strike that could begin this March or April...
Ship Builder Settles $5 Million Lawsuit After Forcing Indians To Work And Live in Awful Conditions Think Progress ...A ship building and repair company will pay $5 million to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) race and national origin discrimination lawsuit with 476 Indian guest workers who worked at the company’s facilities after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While Indian workers lived in squalid containers “the size of a double-wide trailer,” non-Indian workers were not subjected to the same conditions...
Employers had a labor wish list for the budget. Almost none of it was granted. Washington Post ...The House and Senate Republican funding proposals contained riders rolling back the implementation of a broad swath of the administration's actions, as well as decisions by the National Labor Relations Board that allowed for the establishment of "micro unions" within workplaces, eased the path toward collective bargaining with a franchiser...
As Public Funding of Universities Dwindles, Faculty Are Unionizing Truthout ...When newly installed University of Washington (UW) President Ana Mari Cauce and Interim Provost Jerry Baldasty got wind that the UW faculty was collecting signatures on union cards, they quickly sent a series of memos and emails to the 6,000 people eligible to vote. Their missives trumpeted their opposition to collective bargaining and denounced the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) effort to organize on campus...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
US Congress to Corporations: Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Common Dreams ...Along with a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep government funded through September, the U.S. Congress is on the verge of passing a Republican-backed, $629 billion package of tax cuts that one group calls "a lobbyist-wrapped Christmas present for our nation's biggest corporations." The package of bills unveiled Wednesday is facing criticism...
Koch Brothers Supersize Higher Education Spending Truthout ...The Koch brothers are supersizing their already hefty investments into college students' hearts and minds. A pair of private foundations led by the billionaire industrialists poured more than $23.4 million into U.S. colleges and universities during 2014, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis...
The Two Big Political Mistakes of Obama's Presidency (opinion) Alternet ...Nothing Obama could have done would have avoided the tsunami of vicious racist and xenophobic hatred that washed over him and the country, aided and abetted by the savagely partisan and vitriolic Fox News. But Obama might well have stunted the emergence of the right-wing populist movement, had he pursued an aggressive populist strategy of his own — one that demonstrated government could effectively challenge giant corporations...
After 28 Years in Prison, Man Falsely Convicted in Botched Investigation to Walk Free Democracy Now ...A Denver, Colorado, man has spent 28 years in prison based on a dream—and it wasn’t his. Now he could soon be free. In 1989, Clarence Moses-EL, who is African-American, was sentenced to 48 years in prison after a woman said she dreamed he was the man who raped and beat her in the dark...
Hundreds Of New Orleans Residents Will Finally Be Able To Go Home Think Progress ...More than 10 years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and decimated the Lower Ninth Ward, community groups and local government have secured funding from the federal government they believe will be enough to get many of the residents home who have been trying to rebuild ever since they were displaced. For Boyd-Cannon, a jazz musician, that should mean she will finally be able to rebuild her family’s house on what became a vacant lot...
Wave of migrant children has Texas towns scrambling to set up housing The Guardian ...As a wave of Central American children are crossing the US border alone fleeing violence and poverty in their countries, new facilities to house these children are popping up with just a few days’ notice in southern border towns. In Rockwall, Texas, hundreds of children arrived Saturday to a hot spaghetti meal...
