Disney Teamsters make trip extra special for Local 891 Katrina survivor

The Mauffrays share a moment with a princess at Walt Disney World.

It’s been a week of surprises for Teamsters at Walt Disney World.

On Sunday, Local 385 members were busy putting together a special welcome for Local 891 member Bobby Mauffray and his family after learning in Teamster Magazine that they were “Disney fanatics” and "counting down the weeks" to surprise their three kids with a trip to Disney World. The Mauffray family lost their home 10 years ago during Hurricane Katrina, and during the interview for the anniversary story Bobby’s wife Marla – who claims to be the most Disney-obsessed Mauffray – revealed plans of a surprise trip to the Magic Kingdom.

Business Agent Donna-Lynne Dalton worked behind the scenes, informing members of the more than 1,000-person unit at Local 385 to be on the lookout and give the family a warm Teamster welcome. Our union’s most animated unit, the Teamster character performers did not disappoint, says Bobby, thanking Local 385 members for taking the time to make his family’s surprise trip all the more magical:

They were incredible. It truly made our surprise all the more special, especially for the kids to spend time with their favorite characters. I want to thank Local 385 from the bottom of my heart. Marla and I are beyond grateful.

Meanwhile, 250 nonunion workers at Disney would be on the receiving end of a far more disturbing surprise when they learned they were being laid off, replaced by foreign labor.

The data workers who keep operating systems humming smoothly for Disney resorts and theme parks said they did not suspect trouble when they were recently summoned by management for an unexpected meeting to learn their jobs were being replaced with foreign labor. Even more troubling, they were told they would be spending the next three months training their replacements from India, who will be working under temporary visas and making significantly less each year:

I just couldn’t believe they could fly people in to sit at our desks and take over our jobs. It was so humiliating to train somebody else to take over your job. I still can’t grasp it.

As Teamster character performers brightened the day of a fellow Teamster, the Orlando Sentinel ran the story of Disney’s decision to lay off the 250 data workers. The cruel irony is not lost on Bobby Mauffray:

It’s crazy to think that while we were being greeted by Teamster character performers, hundreds of workers were being laid off. Like I said in the magazine — I can’t imagine where I’d be without a good-paying, union-backed job. I feel for them. I really do.

Today's Teamster News 10.30.15

TEAMSTERS
Florida Teamsters Endorse Patrick Murphy for Senate  Teamster.org   ...Teamsters are proudly endorsing Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) in his election campaign for U.S. Senate in Florida.
Murphy has been a strong advocate for workers in the U.S. House of Representatives for Florida’s 18th congressional district since 2013...
Port Truck Strike Spreads to Warehouses  Capital & Main  ...While drivers with port trucking companies have been organizing and striking repeatedly over the last few years, they have recently begun coordinating with warehouse workers to increase pressure on the logistics industry. The Teamsters have entered into a partnership with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a nonprofit advocacy group for warehouse workers, and have prioritized organizing the thousands of workers in the warehouse and distribution industry...
Misclassified Port Truck Drivers Strike Gold Point Transportation  Teamster.org  ...Misclassified “independent contractor” port drivers employed by Gold Point Transportation, which is owned by 3Plus Logistics Co., which also owns Harbor Express, Inc., which has been the subject of wage theft claims by its drivers, went on strike yesterday to protest unfair labor practices including misclassification and wage theft. They are picketing at the company yard as well as at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach...
Union Works Swiftly to Secure First Contract at Standard Coffee  Local 727  ...After only three negotiation meetings with management, Teamsters Local 727 representatives have secured an agreement on a strong first contract for Standard Coffee members. The majority of the contract matches or exceeds the provisions in the contracts for Hinckley Springs inside and outside workers, which Teamsters Local 727 also represents. Standard Coffee is a division of Hinckley Springs...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Several green groups outline demands for Pacific trade pact  The Hill  ...More than a dozen environmental and conservation groups on Thursday laid out eight pages of demands that they say lawmakers must use to judge the strength of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. The groups, led by the Sierra Club, are sending a letter to members of Congress well in advance of an expected vote on the sweeping Asia-Pacific deal that was completed nearly a month ago with 11 other nations...
Anti-trade Democrats say Obama’s Pacific Rim trade pact is for the dogs  Washington Post  ...No one on Capitol Hill has been more dogged in opposing President Obama's Pacific Rim trade pact than Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and her small band of fiercely anti-trade House Democrats. On Thursday, they trotted out a new partner in their fight: Roxy, a 2-year-old bloodhound that they put on the trail to sniff out the elusive text of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
USTR releases TPA-mandated transparency plan  Politico  ...The Obama administration outlined for Congress this week its plan to tackle the thorny issue of transparency in future trade negotiations. The trade consultation and engagement guidelines transmitted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are a requirement of the fast track trade promotion authority law, required to be released 120 days after the legislation was enacted...
U.S. wary of EU proposal for investment court in trade pact  Reuters  ...The United States is wary of a European Union proposal for a new court system to settle investment disputes as part of the world's biggest free-trade agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said. The proposals come after concerns that U.S. multinationals could use private arbitration rules in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to challenge European food and environmental laws...
Trans-Pacific Partnership divides auto parts industry  CBC  ...As the auto parts sector awaits the appointment of a new trade minister, the industry is split over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal that Canada signed and will soon have to ratify. New revelations from the still secret deal show that Canada agreed to phase out its 6.1 per cent tariff on imports of Japanese vehicles over a five-year period...
Brazil's Lula Urges Workers' Party to Back Austerity  Voice of America  ...Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged the ruling Workers' Party on Thursday to back fiscal austerity measures in Congress, endorsing the efforts of Finance Minister Joaquim Levy to plug a gaping deficit. Members of Lula's leftist party have opposed moves by Lula's protégée, President Dilma Rousseff, to cut public spending...
Home of Uzbek Labor Rights Activist Burned  Solidarity Center  ...Uzbek labor rights activist Dimitry Tikhonov says his home office has been burned and all the equipment and documentation he collected on Uzbekistan’s use of forced labor in the country’s cotton harvests has been destroyed. No other room in his home was touched by the fire, he says. In late September, Tikhonov was arrested and beaten by police as he took photos of some 20 busloads of teachers and school employees forced into the cotton fields...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Voter ID Laws and the Ghosts of Jim Crow  Huffington Post  ...The basic contours of the public discourse on voter ID laws are fairly clear. In-person voting fraud is rare. As Judge Richard Posner has concluded, restrictive voter ID laws are mainly the product of Republican legislatures targeting Democratic-leaning constituencies. Chief among those Democratic constituencies are African Americans and Latinos...
Massachusetts Immigration Reform 2015: Statewide 'Sanctuary City' Policy Pushed By Lawmakers, Has Bipartisan Opposition  IBTimes  ...Massachusetts, which advocates for “sanctuary cities,” the controversial policy instructing local police officers not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agents, may soon push for a statewide shielding of undocumented immigrants. Emboldened by a handful of existing sanctuary cities, at least two dozen state lawmakers have backed a proposal that would make the commonwealth a safe haven...
Study: 42 percent of Minneapolis workers don't have paid sick time  Star Tribune  ...About 123,000 Minneapolis workers don't have access to paid sick leave, according to a new analysis from the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Women's Policy Research. The report, released Thursday, says that number amounts to about 42 percent of Minneapolis residents ages 18 and older...
Portland 'clearly needs' a higher minimum wage, City Club says  Oregon Live  ...Portland needs a higher minimum wage, and state lawmakers should overturn a law that prevents cities from setting higher minimums, according to a City Club of Portland report released Thursday. Nine members of the civic group began studying the contentious issue in April...

U.S. LABOR
Janitorial workers reach 11th hour deal with managment association to avert strike  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  ...A Pittsburgh union representing 1,000 commercial office cleaners reached an agreement Thursday with its management association, averting a strike just two days before the current contract was set to expire. Members of the 32BJ local, a part of the Service Employees International Union, voted to strike if the sides failed to reach a deal...
UAW-GM deal would improve newer workers' health plan  Detroit Free Press  ...UAW negotiators bargained significantly better health care coverage for about 11,000 General Motors workers hired since October 2007 and the automaker will pay for most of it. But if a majority of 52,700 workers ratify the tentative agreement reached last weekend...
House Panel Advances Bill to Clarify Joint Employer Standard   Littler  ...Following a series of congressional hearings on the National Labor Relations Board's Browning-Ferris decision, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce voted on Wednesday to advance a bill that would effectively reverse the Board's action in that case. The Committee voted 21-15 along party lines to send the Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act (H.R. 3459) to the House floor...
Macy’s Will Make Employees Work On Thanksgiving Day  Think Progress  ...Macy’s announced on Thursday that its doors will be open this holiday season, starting at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving evening. Sales will continue through Black Friday and the weekend in over 700 of its retail stores nationwide.
Macy’s, along with 12 other major retailers like Target, Best Buy, and JCPenny, made employees come in to work on Thanksgiving Day in last year...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Why 4 Boys In South Carolina Have Been Shackled In Solitary Confinement For 6 Weeks  Think Progress  ...A thirty minute drive from Spring Valley High School, where Officer Ben Fields slammed and dragged a teenage girl out of her desk, several young boys have been shackled and locked in solitary confinement for close to six weeks with little to no human contact.
On September 19, corrections officers at the Broad River Road Complex, a detention center for kids aged 12 to 18 in Columbia, South Carolina, confronted a group of boys who were roughhousing...
Seething With Anger, Probe Demanded into Exxon's Unparalleled Climate Crime  Common Dreams  ...A broad coalition of community groups along with prominent leaders from the nation's top civil rights, environmental, and indigeneous people's movements on Friday sent a joint letter to the U.S. Department of Justice demanding a federal investigation into allegations that oil giant ExxonMobil knew about the role fossil fuels played in driving climate change since the 1970s but concealed that information—and later sought to discredit those issuing warnings—in order to protect its own financial interests...
Ted Cruz’s Tax Plan Hands The 1 Percent A Massive Break  Think Progress  ...On Thursday evening, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a tax plan that calls for a flat tax of 10 percent that would end up with a benefit for the wealthiest 1 percent that dwarfs what everyone else would get. Corporations also get a big windfall. While they would lose all of the loopholes they use to lower their on-paper tax rate of 35 percent to about 19 percent, they would still see it drop further to a 16 percent “Business Flat Tax”...

Report: Union membership helps the next generation

The importance of unions is something that can't be underestimated. This blog has noted it many times. However, a new report goes even further. It states union membership could even help your kids' future.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) document says that union members make up a disproportionate amount of the middle class, due largely to the premium pay such workers receive. In addition, the offspring of union parents have higher incomes than the children of otherwise comparable non-union parents. And finally, kids hailing from communities with higher union density have higher average incomes than those from communities with lower union density.

As Business Insider wrote:

The correlation, the study said, could have serious implications in the way that the public thinks about unions.

"A strong union movement is not simply sufficient for high levels of intergenerational mobility and middle-class membership, but it could be necessary," wrote the researchers.

"If that is the case, it will be difficult to meaningfully increase intergenerational mobility and rebuild the middle class without also rebuilding unions or some comparable worker-based organizations."

The Teamsters have been outspoken advocates for union membership as well because it helps everyday Americans. It's a fact, as Bureau of Labor Statistics' data shows the median union worker makes more than $200 a week than the median non-union one.

Increasing union density is a top goal of the Teamsters' "Let's Get America Working" platform. Union jobs give hardworking Americans a path into the middle class, as the NBER report attests. That's why unions and workers need to join together. Union Strong, America Stronger!

Today's Teamster News 10.29.15

TEAMSTERS
Port truck drivers and warehouse workers strike together for better wages and 'employee' status  KPCC  ...Truck drivers who haul cargo at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are on strike again this week - this time with some new comrades on their picket lines: warehouse workers. Workers from California Cartage, a warehouse at the Port of L.A., have joined striking truckers who drive for Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistics, creating the potential for disruption at two key links in the cargo supply chain...
CA Port Driver Strike Lingers  Go By Trucks  ...Drayage drivers for two trucking companies at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have entered their 15th week of striking. The drivers, who are classified as independent contractors for XPO Logistics and Pacific 9 Transportation, are seeking employee status. Teamsters and the organization Justice for Port Truckers are backing the strike...
Teamsters at Sysco Ratify New 3-Year Contract  Local 117  ...In the end, solidarity won the day. On Saturday, October 24, Teamster drivers and warehouse workers, employed at Sysco, voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new three-year contract. In contract negotiations, Sysco was proposing a two-tier system which would have divided the group and rolled back industry standards with respect to wages, health and welfare and seniority. But Teamsters at Sysco would not be pushed around...
Union Begins Coca-Cola Negotiations, Trades Initial Contract Proposals  Local 727  ...The Teamsters Local 727 Coca-Cola Bargaining Committee met with Coca-Cola representatives on October 28 to kick off new contract negotiations. Both the union and management traded initial, non-economic contract proposals. Economic proposals for wages, pensions and health and welfare will be forthcoming. After several hours of deliberations following the exchange, both sides agreed to reconvene on Thursday...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership Provision On Trade Disputes Draws Criticism  NPR  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement the Obama administration is trying to sell to Congress includes a seemingly obscure and controversial provision. It's called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS among wonks. Under the system, cases are arbitrated by one of two bodies - the World Bank or a division of the United Nations. To date, the U.S. has been sued 17 times and won all its cases...
Froman tells UK: No to EU means no to trade deal  Politico  ...Michael Froman, U.S. trade representative, said the U.S. is “not particularly in the market for free trade agreements with individual countries.” The Obama administration has focused on wrapping up multilateral trade deals like TTIP (with the EU) and TPP (with Pacific partners). The Americans hope to finalize the deal with Europe before President Obama leaves office, an official said last week...
House uses rare procedure to revive Export-Import bank  USA Today  ...The House launched a rare effort Monday to circumvent Republican leadership in hopes of reviving the Export-Import Bank, which conservatives managed to choke off earlier this year. Business groups have pushed hard to renew the bank's charter. The bank provides loans and loan guarantees to allow foreign customers to buy U.S. goods and services...
Ontario mayors urge Trudeau to protect auto sector from TPP deal  Globe and Mail  ...Fresh discontent is surfacing over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Canada signed in the dying days of Stephen Harper’s government. Mayors representing 20 Ontario cities, from Oshawa to Windsor, with a significant number of auto-sector jobs on Wednesday called on Mr. Trudeau, the prime-minister-designate, to protect their industry from being sideswiped by the TPP...
Greece’s Bailout Deal with Europe Is Starting to Show Cracks  Foreign Policy  ...The European Union’s agreement to provide Greece with the 86 billion euros, or $95 billion, bailout that Athens needs to stay solvent is beginning to show signs of strain, with creditors threatening to delay an October payment as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras struggles to implement promised austerity reforms...
Austerity cuts are causing mental distress and are linked to rise in suicides, health professionals warn  Independent  ...In the UK, suicide rates rose in 2011 and 2012. Men especially seem to be at risk: the male suicide rate is the highest it's been since 2001 and, for men between the ages of 45 and 59, the highest since 1981. After five years of austerity, families, charities, mental health professionals, campaigners and researchers have been highlighting what they regard as the profound effects on mental health...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
McCrory signs controversial immigration bill  Winston-Salem Journal  ...North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation Wednesday that targets “sanctuary cities” and immigrant identification, turning back pleas from advocates to veto a bill that they say harms immigrants and businesses that rely on immigrant labor. While protesters have been a constant presence at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh to urge McCrory to veto the measure, there were no protesters seen around the sheriff’s office...
Campaign to ditch workers' comp  Fort Stockton Pioneer  ...A series of new laws has cut workers’ compensation benefits, given employers and insurers more control over medical care, and made it more difficult for workers to qualify for coverage. But other than Texas and Oklahoma, no state has allowed companies to simply opt out. One Texas lawyer is helping companies opt out of workers’ compensation and write their own rules. What does it mean for injured workers?...
Can Fast-Food Work Ever Be A Decent Job? These Swedish McDonald's Workers Say Yes  Fast Coexist  ...What can a union do for low-wage workers? Comparing the lives of McDonald's workers in Chicago and Sweden shows the difference organizing can make. "Life is pretty hard right now," says KeJioun Johnson, a 20-year-old, part-time McDonald's cashier who lives with his single mom (a part-time bus driver) in government-subsidized housing...
Jersey City council expands paid sick leave law  NJ.com  ...Almost everyone working in Jersey City will be able to accrue paid sick leave, thanks to a measure adopted by the City Council tonight. The council in 2013 made the city the first in the state to mandate that most private employers provide their workers with paid sick leave. The council voted 7-1-1 to approve the measure (Ord. 15.145)...

U.S. LABOR
Michigan Transit Workers Fight To Prevent City Bus System From Eliminating Their Pensions  In These Times  ...For the drivers behind the wheel of this top-of-the-line fleet, not all is well: Grand Rapids bus drivers are without a signed union contract, because city officials want to cut their pension funds. One Rapid board member has called the current pension system a “terrible plan” and claims the board wants to “do better” for drivers, the board claims the pension fund is $2.6 million in the red. The drivers disagree...
UAW-GM workers set to vote on agreement with 'significant gains'  MLive  ...In a proposed agreement with General Motors, the UAW touts "significant gains" for workers, though only voting will tell if the rank-and-file agrees with this sentiment. In the proposed deal, workers would have traditional wages within eight years. It's similar to an agreement reached with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles...
In Historic Ruling, NLRB Says Tucson Taxi Drivers are Employees  Market Watch  ...In a groundbreaking ruling, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Tucson, Arizona, has determined that more than 200 taxi drivers employed by AAA Transportation/Yellow Cab are employees and are therefore eligible for union representation. The ruling is the first of its kind for taxi drivers...
When Bank Workers Occupy the Banks  The Nation  ....After about eight years of seeing Main Street households get owned by Big Finance, front-line bank workers are now trying to reclaim Wall Street, branch by branch. In Los Angeles, where communities are still reeling from the financial crisis, front-line bank employees, and activists last week occupied the lobbies of Wells Fargo and Bank of America and demanded fair terms for the customers and the workforce...
Workers Pay The Price For Amazon’s New One-Hour Delivery  Think Progress  ...Amazon’s one-hour delivery option launched in the Bay Area this week, but the workers behind the scenes of the “Prime Now” service say they’re paying a steep price to make the super-fast turnaround a reality.
Prime Now drivers are suing Amazon over pay that amounts to less than the California minimum wage. Drivers in the Los Angeles market make $11 an hour, but buy their own gas, insurance, and auto maintenance service...  
 
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Amid Flood of Dark Money, Groups Make Simple Request of FEC: 'Do Your Job'  Common Dreams  ...Decrying the unprecedented flow of so-called "dark money" into the U.S. political process, a coalition of civic and religious organizations, environmentalists, and academics on Tuesday submitted comments to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), calling on the agency to—put simply—do its job...
Criminalizing the Classroom: Inside the School-to-Prison Pipeline  Democracy Now  ...New York City has more than 5,000 police officers patrolling the city’s schools—that’s more than the combined number of school guidance counselors and social workers. Nationwide, more than 17,000 officers work in the school. What happens when students are arrested in the classroom?...
A GOP Debate Without a Winner—Or Much of a Point  The Nation  ...Donald Trump lost interest mid-way through the third Republican presidential debate. It’s a bad night for Trump when his most memorable line is a closing-statement claim of credit for negotiating a shorter debate: “I got it down to two hours so we can get the hell out of here.”  The billionaire contender’s disdain for the whole affair was appropriate after an empty night of whining about the media...
The Budget Deal Clears the House of Representatives  The Atlantic  ...The final major vote of John Boehner’s drama-filled tenure as House speaker turned out to have very little drama at all. A bipartisan majority in the House on Wednesday afternoon easily approved the two-year budget agreement that Boehner negotiated with fellow congressional leaders and the Obama administration. The vote was 266-167...
Immigrant Women Launch Indefinite Hunger Strike, Asking To Be Freed From Detention Center  Think Progress  ...Detained women seeking asylum or other forms of humanitarian relief began an indefinite hunger strike at an immigration detention center in Texas on Wednesday night, sending hand-written letters to the federal government calling for their release. At least 27 immigrant women refused dinner on Wednesday at the T. Don Hutto detention center...

Top CEOs' retirement equal to more than 40% of Americans

Retirement security is a top concern of everyday Americans. That's because they know all too well the consequences of it.

CEOs aren't facing retirement cuts like some workers.

A new report details the wide gulf that exists in retirement savings. The document, released today by the Center for Effective Government and the Institute for Policy Studies, shows that 100 CEOs have as much in company retirement assets as the entire retirement savings of 41 percent of American families.

The average worth of the 100 largest CEO retirement accounts is about $49.3 million. David Novak of YUM Brands -- the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC -- had the largest company-paid retirement package at $234 million.

Sarah Anderson, director of the Institute for Policy Studies' Global Economy Project, said the report details yet another symptom of the nation's growing income inequality problem:

The CEO-worker retirement divide has turned our country’s already extreme income divide into an even wider economic chasm. And what few realize is that the trends of expanding CEO pensions and increasing worker retirement insecurity are inextricably linked.

The percentage of private sector workers covered by a defined benefit pension that guarantees monthly payments has dropped from 35 percent in the early 1990s to 18 percent last year. And nearly half of all U.S. workers had no access to any retirement plan at work.

That's unacceptable. That's why the Teamsters have been at the forefront of fighting excessive CEO compensation. The union pushed hard for the Securities Exchange Commission to institute the CEO pay ratio rule approved under Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation passed in 2010, and protested the pay and retirement package of McKesson CEO John Hammegren while the company provided substandard wages and health benefits to employees in Florida.

We also included retirement security as one of its planks in the Teamster's "Let's Get America Working" platform that sets out a path to improve the lives of workers across the country. Because if the U.S. is to succeed, all of those participating in the economy need to get a piece of the pie.

Today's Teamster News 10.28.15

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...

Hoffa joins port truck drivers on SoCal picket line

Teamsters General President Hoffa speaks during press conference.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa joined scores of striking port truck drivers at the Port of Long Beach in California today in calling out the labor practices of two trucking companies that continue to cheat workers of fair pay and treatment.

Hoffa walked the picket line during the second day of an unfair labor practice walkout against Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistics, which have continually engaged in misclassification, retaliation, harassment and intimidation against their workers for having filed wage theft claims with the California Labor Commissioner's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

Hoffa said:

We have already organized hundreds of port drivers. We have a lot of work to do. Yesterday I sat down with 40 drivers – and they told me how there is no dignity, favoritism, no seniority, and that it has got to end. Most of America doesn’t understand what independent contractors are. Wage theft ends here today.

Workers walk the picket line at the Port of Long Beach.

Port truck drivers in Southern California and other locations such as Savannah, Ga. are on the front lines of the fight to end misclassification. While these drivers haul the nation's largest retailers' cargo so those companies can profit, the men and women who transport these containers off the docks to nearby rail yards, distribution centers and warehouses are denied employee rights. That's why the Teamsters has and will continue to stand at their side.

After all, misclassification doesn't just hurt the workers and their families, it effects all Americans through pervasive and wide scale tax fraud that robs schools, roads and public safety services of billions in essential resources.

The plight of port truck drivers is being heard, however. Earlier this month, Local 848 member Alex Paz attended a White House forum and spoke out against wage theft. He told attendees how before he was hired as a full-time worker, he often didn't earn enough to support his family.

Today's Teamster News 10.27.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Local 1205 Members at Baumann Buses Overwhelmingly Approve Contract  Teamster.org  ...In a secret ballot vote that was completed this afternoon, by a margin of 84 percent to 16 percent, Teamsters Local 1205 members working for Baumann/Acme Buses approved a new three-year union contract. This new contract, with its complex details, was recommended by the elected rank-and-file negotiating committee...
Baltimore Sun Drivers, Mailers, Pressmen Ratify New Teamster Contract  Teamster.org  ...After two years of difficult negotiations, tentative agreements for three departments at the Baltimore Sun represented by Local 355 and Local 888 were ratified at a jointly-held membership meeting Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015. The company had sought to shift the full burden of healthcare premium costs to workers, among other regressive demands, but bargaining committee members representing drivers and printers (Local 355) and mailers (Local 888) endorsed agreements that preserve current healthcare contributions and enhances job security...
Trucker strike begins at ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles  Press-Telegram  ...A group of truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike Monday, but port officials said the labor action had minimal impact on cargo operations. The “unfair labor practice” strike includes drivers “misclassified as independent contractors” rather than employees by Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistic, said Barb Maynard of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
President says Indonesia intends to join TPP trade deal  Reuters  ...Indonesian President Joko Widodo, speaking after a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, said his Southeast Asian country intends to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the United States has forged with 11 other nations. "We are the largest economy in Southeast Asia," Widodo said through a translator. "And Indonesia intends to join the TPP"...    
Chamber holds off on endorsing trade deal  Washington Examiner  ...Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue held off on endorsing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal the White House recently concluded negotiations on, stating that even he was not certain what was in the fine print of the deal. The Chamber is one of the leading advocates for free-trade policies, and its support will be crucial to getting the deal approved by Congress...
The TPP: An Attack on the Internet  Counterpunch  ...Wikileaks, the on-line bible of revealed secrets, published several leaked sections of what its editors believe is the final edition and the collective groan morphed into an outcry. It was, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it, “all that we feared.” The TPP internationalizes some of the worst inequities and abuses specific signing governments are currently committing and nowhere is that more true than with surveillance and communications repression...
Years after the Rana Plaza tragedy, too many of Bangladesh’s factories are still “death traps”  Quartz  ...The 2013 garment factory collapse at Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza, which killed at least 1,133 people, was seen around the world as a wake-up call. There had already been several deadly tragedies in the country’s massive and growing garment industry, such as the 2012 Tazreen Fashions fire, but the deaths at Rana Plaza were on a new scale. Nobody could ignore the dire conditions that workers toiled in any longer...
17,000 workers strike at Egypt’s largest public textile factory  Al Bawaba  ...A strike by 17,000 workers at Egypt’s largest public sector textile company entered its sixth day Monday, making it the largest and longest-lasting Mahallah workers action since ex-army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office over a year ago. Labor Minister Gamal Sorour said after meetings on Monday with officials in Gharbiya province, home to the beleaguered Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, that workers must resume production immediately...
Portugal's Democracy Cracks Under Weight Of Austerity  Huffington Post  ...Elections in Portugal this week offered the latest sign that when an individual European nation’s voters challenge eurozone austerity policies, the monetary union -- and the international creditors it represents -- takes precedence. Portugal’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, fueled an ongoing debate about the future of European democracy on Thursday when he reappointed an outgoing center-right prime minister despite election results...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Group challenges $1M drive to repeal prevailing wage  Detroit Free Press  ...The ballot committee Protect Michigan Jobs filed a challenge Monday to a $1-million business-backed petition drive to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law, saying more than 40% of the signatures submitted are duplicates or otherwise invalid. The group pushing to repeal the law, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, disputes the finding, and now it will be up to the state Board of Canvassers -- and possibly the courts -- to decide the issue...
Voter ID lawsuit hearing tentatively set for January Daily  Tarheel  ...A federal judge refused to dismiss challenges to North Carolina’s Voter ID law during a court hearing on Friday, and set a new tentative hearing for Jan. 16. The N.C. General Assembly passed the law two years ago, requiring voters to have photo ID when voting in-person. It would go into effect in 2016, possibly influencing the upcoming presidential primaries...
Why Are So Many Food Charities Shutting Down In Ohio?  Think Progress  ...As the Thanksgiving season starts, Ohio’s food charities are in rocky shape. About 40 food pantries in the state have been forced to close down or merge with another outfit in the past 16 months. Despite the closures, Ohioans can still turn to more than 1,700 individual food pantries around the state. But the contraction in food charities’ presence is a reminder of how precarious the nation’s volunteer-driven anti-hunger efforts are these days...
Supporters of higher minimum wage in capital seek compromise as vote looms  Sacramento Bee  ...Proponents of an embattled plan to raise Sacramento’s minimum wage are rushing to craft a new compromise in advance of Tuesday’s scheduled City Council vote, but it is far from certain that a deal can be reached. The plan would gradually hike the minimum wage in the city to $12.50 an hour by 2020...

U.S. LABOR
A Significant Deal for Automakers and Unions  The Atlantic  ...For nearly a decade, new workers hired at unionized auto plants across the country have started their jobs knowing a troubling fact: They made less than their colleagues, sometimes half as much. And no matter how hard they worked, they could never earn the wages of the people standing next to them on the assembly line. But, in a deal reached Sunday night, the UAW and GM announced that they had hammered out an agreement that would get rid of the two-tier wage system...
UAW members anxiously await details of GM contract  Detroit Free Press  ...One down, another close to the finish line and one more to go. That's pretty much where things stand in the UAW's contract talks with the Detroit Three. The UAW reached a new tentative agreement with General Motors shortly before midnight on Sunday but that agreement still has a long way to go before it becomes official...
UFCW 8-Golden State Members Ratify Agreements with Rite Aid  Business Wire  ...Concluding two years of collective bargaining, members of UFCW 8-Golden State have voted overwhelmingly to ratify new agreements with the Rite Aid drug store in the northern and southern regions of the state. UFCW 8-Golden State President Jacques Loveall praised the agreements, which cover approximately 2,500 Rite Aid Clerks and Pharmacists between the Oregon border and Kern County...
Union elections are rigged against workers  The Hill  ...Over the past couple of years, low-wage McDonalds, Wal-Mart and federal contract workers have been striking to win a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Some people ask us, “Why don’t you stop striking and just hold a union election?” The truth is America’s low-wage workers are striking because union election rules are rigged against us...
The Hellish Conditions Facing Workers At Chicken Processing Plants  Think Progress  ...In a report released on Tuesday, Oxfam America is launching a new campaign to address what it says are rampant health and safety issues, as well as low pay and few benefits, that face the people who process chicken in the country’s plants. Consumer demand has been growing. That demand has come with increased pressure on processing line speeds, which are twice as fast today as they were in 1979...
Latest GOP Buzzword for Turning Social Security Into A Welfare Program: Means-Testing  Salon  ...Means-testing Social Security is a popular position among Republican presidential candidates this election cycle—if not among prospective voters. That means, essentially, turning the nation’s retirement system into a welfare program, targeted at those with real hardships. If they get their way, not only will Social Security benefits be slashed for millions, but something fundamental will have changed: our national retirement system will be transformed from a social insurance program to a welfare program...
Top-Secret Pentagon Program Exploited Aid Workers as Covert Spies  Common Dreams  ... A new investigation published Monday reveals that the U.S. Pentagon for years funneled millions to a charity organization employing it to serve as the front group for global espionage—very real revelations that experts warn could have dangerous implications for aid workers worldwide...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
In Student Victory, U. of Mississippi Removes State Flag with Confederate Emblem  Democracy Now ...Early Monday morning, three campus police officers at the University of Mississippi removed the state flag with its Confederate emblem from the grounds of the school’s campus in Oxford. The move comes after the student government voted to remove the flag. Mississippi’s flag is the latest Confederate symbol to be targeted for removal from a public space since a white supremacist killed nine African-American worshipers in Charleston, South Carolina, four months ago...
Disturbing Video Shows School Cop Body Slam and Drag a Black Female Student  Mother Jones  ...Authorities in Richland County, South Carolina, are investigating a video that surfaced Monday showing a uniformed officer aggressively confronting a high school student. The video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellphone by a classmate, shows a white male officer standing over a black female student...

Finally, some are getting the message on wages

What is a middle-class wage? Evidently, the United Automobile Workers (UAW) have taken a significant step towards defining it in their latest contract agreement with Fiat Chrysler.

The deal would raise the salaries of both veteran workers and newer workers up towards $30 an hour over a four- and eight-year period, respectively. Those salaries, in turn, will set a standard that even non-union foreign carmakers in the U.S. will feel pressured to follow, as The New York Times stated. In short, the effort shows the power organized labor. But it also shows the importance of efforts like the Teamsters' "Let's Get America Working" campaign. As the Times points out:

Clearly, unions can lift middle-class wages to a point, but more needs to be done. Higher federal spending on necessary public projects would lift pay by creating jobs; stricter laws on worker classification would ensure that employees are not wrongly denied overtime and benefits.

Of course, there are others in the private sector who also realize more has to be done to combat income inequality in this country. Earlier this year, for example, Seattle-based Gravity Payments announced it would pay all of its 120 workers at least $70,000 a year. The move by founder Dan Price didn't bankrupt the company; in fact, profits soared.

Even some franchisers, like one who owns a handful of Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurants in northern Colorado, is raises wages. Steve Laurer told the Greeley Tribune the move will not only help his workers, but his businesses as well.

It is good to see that some employers are getting the message. But there is still a long ways to go for most workers. Misclassification, as the Times mentioned, is a huge problem for port truck drivers and workers in other industries like construction as well. Too many companies are still interested in pocketing all the profits at the expense of their employees.

As we enter the 2016 political campaign season, candidates and elected officials need to listen to the voices of everyday Americans. They are being treated unfairly and have had enough. Those who choose to oppose them do so at their own peril.

Today's Teamster News 10.26.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamster Aviation Maintenance Technicians to Vote on United Contract  Teamster.org  ...The International Brotherhood Teamsters today announced an agreement to put a proposed joint contract out for ratification for members working at United Airlines. The deal, if approved, would cover the company’s aviation maintenance technicians and related workers. The proposed contract would combine the subsidiary groups of workers formerly associated with Continental and Continental Micronesia with United...
United agrees to tentative deal with Teamsters  Chicago Tribune   ...United Airlines said Friday morning that it has agreed to a deal with the Teamsters to put the carrier's 8,600 technicians and related employees under a single contract. The proposed deal — which has yet to be ratified by rank-and-file members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — is United's first major deal since recently appointed CEO Oscar Munoz went on medical leave...
Port Truck Drivers Strike Over Wage Theft  Capital & Main  ...Truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will begin a strike at 6 a.m. today against local subsidiaries of XPO Logistics, a Connecticut-headquartered freight transportation company. Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa will bring a national spotlight to the fight later this week as he joins local union forces in support of the drivers...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
TPP deal is bad for the auto sector, Ford Canada chief says  Globe and Mail  ...Key automotive provisions of the Trans-Pacific trade agreement are bad for Canada, so the new Liberal government needs to take a careful look at the deal before approving it, says Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. chief executive officer Dianne Craig. “We see [the Trans-Pacific Partnership] as a setback,” Ms. Craig said...
Indonesia to Decide on Joining Transpacific Partnership  New York Times  ...The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, said he would decide whether Southeast Asia's largest economy would join the United States-led Pacific trade agreement after his meeting with President Obama at the White House on Monday. In an interview before a four-day visit to the United States this week, Mr. Joko also said that his government was rapidly stripping away cumbersome protectionist trade regulations that foreign businesses had long chafed at...
PM’s inaction on TTIP ‘means NHS at risk’  The National  ...Party leaders from throughout the UK have signed to pledge to make sure the NHS is protected from TTIP, but there is one notable name missing: David Cameron. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could put the future of the health service at risk, union leaders have claimed, with the nature of the trade deal opening the door for US investment in public services...
Monster march in Berlin says no to the bosses’ TTIP treaty  Socialist Worker  ...Up to 250,000 people marched through Berlin last Saturday against the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It was Germany’s biggest demonstration since protests against the Iraq war in 2003. TTIP is a planned treaty to create the world’s biggest free trade area, involving the European Union (EU) and the US...
Canadian election rejects austerity: Paul Krugman  Oregon Live  ...On Monday, Canadian voters swept the ruling Conservatives out of power, delivering a stunning victory to the center-left Liberals. And while there are many interesting things about the Liberal platform, what strikes me most is its clear rejection of the deficit-obsessed austerity orthodoxy that has dominated political discourse across the Western world. The Liberals ran on a frankly, openly Keynesian vision, and won big...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Both Sides of Right-To-Work Mobilize For Governor’s Race  WFPL  ...Kentucky’s next governor will face a bevy of issues, ranging from a declining coal industry to a struggling pension system. Then there’s right-to-work. Right-to-work laws — which prohibit union dues as a condition of employment — have been adopted in 25 states. Proponents want to make Kentucky the 26th...
Labor Dept. To Set New 'Prevailing Wages' For Construction Projects In New Hampshire  New Hampshire Public Radio  ...The U.S. Department of Labor is looking to gather wage data for New Hampshire’s building and construction industries.  The department is surveying firms about wages and benefits on a range of projects in order to set so-called prevailing wage rates for federal projects in the state...
Colorado Pushes for Universal Health Care That's Governed by the People  Truthout  ...First pot, now health. In November 2012, Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative that made recreational use of marijunana legal, despite a federal ban. In November of next year, the state will have the opportunity to lead the way again - this time, by opting out of Obamacare and replacing it with ColoradoCare, a universal health care system governed by those who rely on it...
Washington-area airport workers join fight for $15-an-hour minimum wage  Washington Post  ...A push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for the lowest-paid airport workers across the United States has landed in Washington. Workers at Reagan National and Dulles International airports have joined a growing national campaign for better pay and benefits, bringing attention to hourly wages that are as low as $6.75...
Judge refuses to dismiss NC voter ID challenge  Charlotte Observer  ...A federal judge on Friday refused a request from state lawmakers to dismiss a challenge to the N.C. voter ID law. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder set the issue for a trial, tentatively in January. Attorneys for state lawmakers argued that a 2015 change to the ID provision of an election law overhaul made the 2013 legal challenge moot...
Elizabeth Warren Rips the Obama Administration on Puerto Rico  Mother Jones  ...After months of facing indifference from Congress, the people of Puerto Rico might finally be making progress on getting some help with the island's massive debt crisis from both the Obama administration and Congress. Last Wednesday, the Obama administration outlined a proposal that would allow the island's entities to restructure debts. After Obama finally rolled out a plan, Sen. Warren calls on the government to do more for the US colony...
Walmart’s Wage Increase Is Hurting Its Stock Price—and That’s OK  The Nation  ...The company created some real waves when it announced earlier this year that it planned to raise its starting wages to $9 an hour by April and $10 an hour by February of next year.  A few months later, it reported that it had already reduced turnover. But it also just released its financial results forecasting a drop in annual profit in the near term...

U.S. LABOR
Deadline looms for auto workers' strike threat against GM  Business Insider  ...The United Auto Workers union and General Motors Co. have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract, avoiding a strike for now. The UAW said the agreement was reached at 11:43 p.m. Sunday, 16 minutes before the deadline it had set to either reach an agreement or call a strike at GM's U.S. plants. Details of the proposed contract weren't immediately available...
GM Reaches Tentative Deal With UAW Workers, Avoiding Strike  Bloomberg  ...General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative four-year agreement that is expected to provide raises across the board, averting a potential strike. The union announced the deal in an e-mailed statement without giving details. Local union leaders at Detroit-based GM are set to vote on Wednesday whether to send the accord to rank-and-file members for ratification...
U.S. lawmakers call for more oversight of workers’ comp  Salon  ...Ten prominent Democratic lawmakers, including presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, are urging the U.S. secretary of labor to come up with a plan to ensure that state workers’ compensation programs are properly caring for injured workers. The lawmakers’ letter, sent Tuesday, was prompted by an investigation by ProPublica and NPR...
'Good' Jobs Aren't Coming Back  The Atlantic  ...Outsourcing decimated American manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s, erasing nearly six million jobs between 1989 and 2009. But the number of manufacturing jobs has started to slowly grow again, and about 700,000 jobs have been added since 2010. “Onshoring,” as it’s called, is at this stage delivering just a trickle of new jobs, but states such as Tennessee are offering companies generous incentives to try and speed up the process...
Teaching While Poor: Adjunct Professors and the Fight for Fair Wages  The Nation  ...If  there’s one area that isn’t contributing to our historic levels of student debt, it’s adjunct professor’s pay. More than half of all college professors in the United States are adjuncts, working only “part-time.” One out of three of them live near or below the poverty line, and one out of four is on some form of public assistance...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Debt Ceiling Is Coming!  Slate  ...The debt ceiling deadline has been moved up two days to Nov. 3, according to the most recent estimate from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. That is 11 days from now and considerably fewer legislative days. So far the House hasn’t moved a bill, and neither has the Senate. There’s another problem emerging in the House of Representatives, too, if you can believe it: The votes supposedly aren’t there...
Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Joins Chorus Questioning Legality of Drone Killing Program  Common Dreams  ...Sparked by an exposé on the Obama administration's drone war, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has echoed human rights groups and called into question the legality of the killing program. Based on documents leaked to The Intercept by an anonymous intelligence source, The Drone Papers offers an unprecedented look at the global killing program...
Voices of Rise Up October: Victims' Families Decry Police Violence  Truthout  ...On Saturday, thousands rallied in New York City against police brutality as part of three days of protest called "Rise Up October." Some 40 families across the country impacted by police violence participated in the event alongside scholars such as Dr. Cornel West and Chris Hedges, as well as celebrities including playwright Eve Ensler and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino...
Pro-Immigration Protester Violently Dragged Out Of Trump Rally  Huffington Post  ...Pro-immigration protesters and Donald Trump supporters clashed at a rally in Miami on Friday, leading to one protester being forcefully dragged out by his collar to chants of "USA! USA!" At least three separate protest groups showed up to the Republican presidential candidate's rally at his Trump National Doral Miami resort, with some bearing signs reading "Dignity" and "Equality"... 

Unions contribute to affordable housing in NYC

The shortage is workforce housing is a real problem in cities and towns across the country. But five New York City union pension systems are doing what they can to help problem, investing some $150 million in projects to erect 20,000 units of affordable housing in the Big Apple, the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) announced.

The money is being sent to the HIT to leverage some $1 billion in total investment in the housing in all five boroughs, the trust added in a mid-October statement. Union labor will build the housing in an economically targeted investment program. Economically targeted investments are designed to address market inefficiencies by providing capital or liquidity to under-served communities and populations across the city, added Comptroller Scott Stringer, New York City’s chief financial officer.

Stringer also advised the union pension systems on the projects. Working with the HIT on investing in housing “is a fiscally smart marriage of resources and housing policy,” he added. The investments provide market returns to the pension funds, HIT noted.

The HIT invests in affordable housing, and sometimes other projects, nationwide. As its key condition, union labor totally builds all the projects. But the new New York investment marks the first phase of a new HIT strategy for investing in the city over the next seven years, Housing Trust Chief Executive Stephen Coyle said.

The strategy, developed by HIT, union leaders, developers, community groups and Stringer’s staff, “aims to preserve the affordability of 12,500 to 15,000 housing units, construct 5,000 to 7,500 new housing units” and to “work with city and state agencies to finance and improve affordable public housing,” the Housing Investment Trust stated.

HIT estimated the seven-year plan would produce 7,300 union construction jobs, double that number in total jobs and $1 billion in wages and benefits to workers.

• Press Associates contributed to this report.

Today's Teamster News 10.23.15

TEAMSTERS
Union Leader: Don’t Remove Metal Detectors From NYC Schools   WLNY   ...Gregory Floyd of Teamsters Local 237 said that metal detectors used in schools serve as an effective deterrent for children seeking to bring weapons into the classroom, 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa reported...
Canada Council Of Teamsters Ratifies Five-Year Agreement With UPS   Stockhouse   ...UPS Canada (NYSE:UPS) is pleased to announce that a tentative agreement with the Canada Council of Teamsters has been ratified. This results in a new five-year agreement covering approximately 7,000 employees throughout Canada...
On Eve Of Strike Vote, UPS Pilots Get Teamsters Support   Logistics Management   ...What’s more, leadership at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said today that General President James Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall told the IPA’s President Captain Robert Travis in a letter that “if a strike is necessary, we will not cross your lines, but will stand with you on them.”...
Maine AFL-CIO Talks Minimum Wage Hikes At Biennial Convention   WCSH   ..."When we bring the bottom up that benefits everyone," explained Traci Place, a delegate for the Teamsters Local 340. "They spend that money in the community, the municipalities have more money the businesses have more money and that brings everybody up and how can that be bad."...
Agreement Ratified At UPS   Teamsters Canada   ...Eighty-one percent of the UPS workers who voted were in favour of ratifying the tentative agreement negotiated between Teamsters Canada and company management on September 24...
Parking Members To Receive Additional Sick/Personal Day   Teamsters Local 727   ...Teamsters Local 727-represented parking members soon will receive an additional sick/personal day, per the collective bargaining agreement...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
TPP Would Allow Milk From Cows Receiving Hormones Into Canada   CBC   ...As dairy imports from the United States appear set to increase under the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Canadian consumers concerned about drinking milk from cows receiving hormones will need to read their labels more carefully...
Meet CETA, TTIP’s Dangerous Cousin   Left Foot Forward   ...One year ago Canada and the EU finalized a trade deal known as CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). If you haven’t heard of CETA, what you need to know is simple – it’s like TTIP but coming sooner...
TTIP: EU negotiators appear to break environmental pledge in leaked draft  The Guardian  ...The EU appears to have broken a promise to reinforce environmental protections in a leaked draft negotiating text submitted in the latest round of TTIP talks in Miami.. In January, the bloc promised to safeguard green laws, defend international standards and protect the EU’s right to set high levels of environmental protection...
'Mass Struggle Works': South African Student Uprising Wins Tuition Freeze   Common Dreams   ...Facing the largest student uprisings since South Africans toppled apartheid, President Jacob Zuma pledged Friday to freeze tuition fees in the year 2016—prompting declarations of victory, as well as calls to continue the mass mobilizations until full racial and economic equality is won...
Spaniards protest against austerity policies  World Bulletin   ...Students, health workers and members of trade unions took part in a demonstration dubbed as “Marches for Dignity” on Thursday, shouting for “bread, employment, roof and dignity.” according to a report in PressTV. Education Minister José Ignacio Wert Ortega resigned in July following massive student demonstrations held across the country. But his policy, known as the 3+2 Decree, is still in place...
Obama Administration Softens Criticism of China’s Currency Policy  Wall Street Journal   ...The U.S. Treasury Department, in its semiannual report on currencies Monday, said the yuan is “below its appropriate medium-term valuation.” In the previous report it said the currency was “significantly undervalued.”...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right To Work Proposal Introduced In Ohio   Bucyrus Telegraph Forum   ...A Cincinnati lawmaker introduced his plan to bring a right-to-work law to Ohio despite opposition from fellow Republicans...
Even The Most Elite Women Are Subject To The Gender Pay Gap   Huffington Post   ...A business degree, even from one from a top school in the country, won't be enough to protect women from the gender gap in compensation...
Massachusetts Coffee Chain Fined $47,000 For Breaking Child Labor Laws, Stealing Tips   Boston Globe   ...The Massachusetts coffee shop chain Dippin’ Donuts has been fined $47,000 for violating state child labor laws and stealing tips from hourly workers, Attorney General Maura Healey announced Thursday...
Kansas City Council Repeals Minimum Wage Hike But Urges Statewide Increase   Kansas City Star   ...Blocked by state lawmakers from raising the minimum wage within city limits, the Kansas City Council on Thursday repealed legislation it passed last summer that would have done just that...
Proposal Would Raise Minimum-Wage To $12 An Hour   Columbus Dispatch   ...Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today certified the language for a proposed constitutional amendment to provide automatic annual increases in the state minimum wage through 2021...

U.S. LABOR
UAW files petition to organize VW's maintenance workers  Nooga  ...United Auto Workers Local 42 has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking an election in hopes of representing maintenance employees at Volkswagen Chattanooga, and ultimately gaining collective bargaining powers...
SEIU, IBEW Locals in New Hampshire Announce Bernie Sanders Endorsement  In These Times  ...A pair of union locals in New Hampshire, home to the first primary of the 2016 election cycle, endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as their candidate for president this week. On Wednesday, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local Union 490 endorsed Sanders, with local executive Denis Beaudoin saying that members at meetings spoke overwhelmingly in favor of the endorsement...
Clinton Scores Key Endorsement From Public-Employee Union  NPR  ...The nation's largest public-employee union is backing Hillary Clinton for president. The board of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees voted to endorse the former senator and secretary of State on Friday. Clinton said in a statement of her own that she was "honored" to get AFSCME's endorsement...
From Construction To Exotic Dancing, Worker Misclassification Is Everywhere  Washington City Paper   ...If a company hires a person to stand near a construction site and direct traffic, is the worker in business for himself? If a company can fire a consultant without warning, is the worker really an independent contractor? Is a strip club still a strip club without exotic dancers? D.C.-area workers are asking these questions—and many more—as they allege the companies they consider their employers have misclassified them as independent contractors...

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND OTHER NEWS
ACLU Accuses Biloxi Of Running Debtors' Prison In Lawsuit Seeking To 'Dismantle Two-Tiered System Of Justice'  Common Dreams   ...The American Civil Liberties Union has accused Biloxi, Miss. of operating "a modern day debtors' prison," filing a lawsuit on Wednesday charging that the city, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, jails impoverished people for unpaid fines and fees they are unable to pay...
Iceland Just Jailed Dozens Of Corrupt Bankers For 74 Years, The Opposite Of What America Does   AlterNet   ...In stark contrast to the record low number of prosecutions of CEO’s and high-level financial executives in the U.S., Iceland has just sentenced 26 bankers to a combined 74 years in prison...
Pharma Bro Gets Taught A Necessary Lesson By The Free Market   Think Progress   ...A drug company plans on introducing the first competitor to Daraprim, the parasitic-fighting drug that’s met national controversy for its skyrocketing price tag. The company, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, says its new drug will be available for only $1 a tablet — a stark difference from Daraprim’s $750...
Texas Officials Raid Several Planned Parenthood Offices, Demand Addresses Of Employees   AlterNet   ...Texas sent agents to Planned Parenthood facilities on Thursday seeking documents, the group said, calling it a "politically motivated" move that comes on the heels of the state's Republican leaders barring it from receiving Medicaid money...
Revised Swaps Rule To Spare Big Banks Billions In Collateral   Bloomberg Business   ...Wall Street banks will escape billions of dollars in additional collateral costs after U.S. regulators softened a rule that would have made their derivatives activities much more expensive...
Tennessee County Overwhelmingly Votes Down Plan To Raise Confederate Flag   NBC News   ...A Tennessee county voted overwhelmingly Monday night against a plan by one commissioner to raise the Confederate flag above the county's courthouse...