Teamsters
STA School Bus Drivers Choose Teamsters Local 445 Teamster.org ...The men and women who transport schoolchildren for Student Transportation of America (STA) in Middletown, N.Y., have voted 56-47 to join Teamsters Local 445 in Rock Tavern, N.Y., after a hard-fought campaign for respect, fair pay and better working conditions at the company. There are 110 drivers in the bargaining unit...
Uno Foods Workers in Brockton Join Teamsters Local 653 Teamster.org ...The workers who produce frozen pizzas for Uno Foods in Brockton, Mass., have voted by a more than 2-1 margin in favor of Teamsters Local 653 representation. The 90 workers joined the union seeking respect and better working conditions at the company...
Allegiant's Woes Continue, Exec's Pay Resolution Wins Shareholders' Support Teamster.org ...Shareholders of Allegiant Travel Company registered strong support for more robust executive pay policies and independent board oversight at the company’s annual meeting yesterday. A shareholder proposal sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters seeking to prevent unearned windfall awards being paid to executives in the event of a change of control won majority support, 56.8 percent, by public shareholders...
EVSC and Teamsters still clash on two points during collective bargaining, meetings have stopped Courier & Press ...Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey plans to be at Monday night’s Evansville Vanderburgh School Board meeting with one request: to ask members to resume collective bargaining negotiations. Since April, three collective bargaining meetings for the five EVSC employee groups represented by Teamsters have occurred...
Global Labor & Trade
Fast-track back before Senate The Hill ...The Senate is poised to vote a second time on granting President Obama fast-track trade authority. The House revived the president’s trade agenda on Thursday, passing trade promotion authority (TPA), also known as fast-track, and sending the bill to the upper chamber. Obama has said he wants both TAA and fast-track to reach his desk, but pro-trade Senate Dems are wary of the new plan...
Hillary Clinton Says No to Granting ‘Fast Track’ Authority on Trade Deal New York Times ...Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would “probably not” vote for fast-track authority for the trade deal that President Obama is seeking, but she acknowledged that she once said positive things about “the potential” for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Mrs. Clinton is in a bind over an agreement she once praised as a potential “gold standard” for trade deals when she was secretary of state...
Neoliberals’ pity party: Why an emboldened liberalism has corporate Dems running scared Salon ...While the ultimate fate of the TPP is still unclear, there’s one element of this ongoing fight within the Democratic Party that you should expect to see more of in the years to come. It’s not the rise of a more combative labor movement, though that’s certainly part of it. And it’s not the decline of the party’s neoliberal wing, though that’s happening, too. It's the wails of outrage and self-pity from moderate Democrats who resent the party’s once docile, but now ascendant, liberal base...
In House Trade Vote, Party Affiliation Mattered Wall Street Journal ...There’s no doubt international trade exact winners and losers across a vast economy. U.S. districts heavy on manufacturing get hit, while more highly educated areas, often big on service and tech jobs, hold their own or prosper. The GOP for decades has been the more pro-trade party, while the Democrats have channeled the apprehensions of unionized and working-class workers. In the trade vote, what mattered, above all, was party affiliation...
Why ‘Fast Track’ Was Defeated Once — and Why That Was the Right Decision (opinion) Roll Call ...With the effective defeat of the initial vote on the trade bill package, advocates of the trade agreement are making a herculean last gasp effort to get the bill passed on a re-vote. They are castigating opponents as Luddites who favor a new isolationism, diminishing the influence of the U.S. in the world. They claim the bill is a job creator. None of this is true...
The President's Trade Deal Struggles Because It's Bad Policy (opinion) Huffington Post ...Proponents of NAFTA-style trade deals promise we will share the gains from trade, raise labor standards and protect the environment. Our lived experience tells us otherwise. Our US Trade Representative has never enforced environmental standards. Peru violated its commitments for environmental standards, and relaxed labor protections it needed to qualify for the US-Peru trade deal...
Several thousand rally in Athens against austerity Reuters ...Thousands of people rallied in front of parliament in Athens on Sunday, urging Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to resist pressure from international creditors to accept more austerity in exchange for unlocking billions of euros in bailout funds. The demonstration by supporters of Tsipras's ruling Syriza party and others opposed to the euro, was the second anti-euro rally in a week in central Athens...
Thousands join anti-austerity march in London Aljazeera ...Thousands of demonstrators staged an anti-austerity march in London on Saturday, in the first major public protest since Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron won a general election. Opposition politicians, trade union bosses and celebrities were among the crowds marching through the capital's financial district...
Workers may be losers in Mexico’s car boom Washington Post ...It wasn’t a planned strike, more an impromptu protest: A group of assembly-line workers at the Mazda car factory one spring morning just stepped away from their posts. In addition to long, strenuous hours, they said, they endured constant taunts from one assistant manager, who also had allegedly sexually harassed an employee. They refused to work until they could air their grievances with his superiors...
University Union Leader Murdered in Honduras Solidarity Center ...Héctor Martínez Motiño, president of a local sectional union of Workers of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (SITRAUNAH), was murdered Tuesday, shot by gunmen as he drove home from work. Martínez Motiño, a lecturer at the Choluteca campus of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, in the south of the country, had faced three other attempts on his life and numerous anonymous threats, the result of his reporting of violations of human and worker rights within the university...
Sumifru banana workers regain jobs after 9-day strike Bulatlat ...The 147 workers in packing plant 90 of Japanese giant Sumitomo Fruit Corp. (Sumifru) in Compostela Valley are back at work beginning today June 19, after the conclusion of their strike which lasted nine days. Sumifru reportedly agreed to reinstate all the workers it fired last week in what the unions in the banana packing plants described as a foul, retaliatory action by Sumifru for their previous success in opposing wage cuts...
State & Living Wage Battles
With Lawsuit Looming, North Carolina Scrambles To Loosen Voter ID Rules Think Progress ...Just weeks ahead of a major court case from civil rights groups challenging North Carolina’s voting restrictions, state legislators passed a bill Thursday easing the controversial voter ID provision. If Governor Pat McCrory signs the new bill, voters who lack the an ID will still be able to cast a ballot, but only if they sign an affidavit swearing they fall into one of the acceptable categories...
US unemployment rates rose in half of states in May Press TV ...The Unemployment rate rose in half of US states last month, largely due to more people beginning to search for work but unable to find jobs, according to the latest government data. The growth in unemployment rates came as 37 states added jobs last month, while 12 states cut jobs, the report said. Montana’s unemployment rate was unchanged...
Paid sick leave for all N.J. workers? Bill set to advance Monday NJ.com ...Slowly but surely, Democrats who control the Legislature are advancing a bill that would require all New Jersey employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. The state Senate Labor Committee is scheduled to consider the legislation (S785) Monday afternoon...
Democrats plan event to support 'right-to-work' veto Jopline Globe ...State Rep. Charlie Norr, of Springfield, will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday when Southwest Missouri Democrats sponsor a town hall meeting in support of Gov. Jay Nixon's decision to veto the "right-to-work" measure passed by lawmakers in the recent session of the General Assembly. Republican members of the Missouri House and Senate have indicated they will attempt to override Nixon's veto in September...
New prevailing wage to miss July 1 deadline Metro News ...No decision has been made by Gov. Tomblin’s administration on what to do if there’s no new prevailing wage in West Virginia by July 1. WorkForce West Virginia is working to develop the wage but just recently sent out surveys to 5,250 contractors. It’s going to take a while to gather feedback according to WorkForce’s research director Jeff Green...
Wage Board meets final time before deciding on fast food workers' wage WNYT ...There will be one final meeting before there could be a decision on whether or not fast food workers should get paid more. The Wage Board created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo has its final meeting Monday in Albany and fast food workers are planning a rally at the meeting. Supporters of the "Fight for 15" movement say they are expecting hundreds to turn up for a rally Monday morning before the Wage Board meeting...
U.S. Labor
Philadelphia Airport Workers Win Major Victory Against Abusive Subcontracting In These Times ...After over a year of worker strikes and solidarity from a labor and faith coalition, Philadelphia International Airport contracted workers received assurance that they can form a union without retaliation and will be paid a $12 minimum wage. This is a major victory for contracted workers across the country whose bosses and workplaces regularly take advantage of indirect employment arrangements to avoid responsibility for workers’ rights and conditions...
T-Mobile Ditches Policy That Could Punish Staff Requesting Too Much Sick Leave Buzzfeed ...T-Mobile has changed a disciplinary policy that could punish call center staff for requesting time off when sick or caring for family members, after pressure from workers and labor activists. The change comes after months of pressure from workers and union activists in America and Germany to improve conditions at T-Mobile. Their united front is the result of a rare partnership between the Communications Workers of America and ver.di, a powerful German union...
Closing wage gap will be key issue for UAW Journal Gazette ...The United Auto Workers, seeking to close the pay gap between veteran and newer workers, will begin formal negotiations with the biggest U.S. automakers next month, union Vice President Jimmy Settles said. The union will start talks with Ford on July 23 at Detroit’s Cass Tech High School, Settles said last week. Negotiations with General Motors and Fiat Chrysler will open July 13 and 14, he said...
Uneasy Peace Between Rauner Administration, AFSCME Council 31 with Contract Set to Expire July 1 Reboot Illinois ...With the contracts between the state and unionized employees about to expire July 1, both the governor’s office and organized labor say they intend to stay at the table, But that may not not last forever. So far, there’s been little visible progress in talks between negotiators for Gov. Bruce Rauner and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the bulk of more than 40,000 unionized state employees...
A Pot Industry First: Cannabis Workers Join Food Workers Union KPLU ...The employees at Tacoma’s Cannabis Club Collective will soon be members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. All eight staff members voted this week to join the 1.3 million-member international organization in what is the first-ever union contract in Washington’s marijuana industry...
Why It's Time for Interns to Unionize (opinion) Alternet ...Interns employed in D.C.’s web of progressive organizations often spend their days fighting for a living wage, but some don’t make even a dime, much less the current minimum wage. Some organizations offer “opportunities” for college credit or a small stipend, which is not sufficient for them to live and eat in one of America’s most expensive cities. Now, thanks to the organizing work of one savvy group of union interns, the tide may be about to turn...
Pay raises at stake in Clark County, SEIU clash Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Clark County and its largest union are locked in a contentious labor dispute over a new state law, a battle that might not end until September. In the meantime, workers affiliated with the Service Employees International Union Local 1107 with a June hiring anniversary will be the first to be denied the salary increases they anticipated before the law passed. A growing number will suffer the same fate each month until the dispute is resolved...
Miscellaneous
'Stand With Charleston': Communities Across Country Rise Up for Black Lives Common Dreams ...As Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church reopens for services, people across the United States on Sunday are marching through the streets, mobilizing in their faith communities, and staging direct actions to demand an end to white supremacist terror nationwide. "What happened to our family is part of a larger attack on Black and Brown bodies," wrote Rev. Waltrina Middleton...
Why Is the Flag Still There? The Atlantic ...The flags of the United States and of South Carolina, atop the Capitol dome in Columbia, were lowered to half-staff last week in the wake of the Charleston shootings. The Confederate battle flag flying on the Capitol grounds was not. Roof understood the symbolism of the flag he waved only all too well. When South Carolina seceded in 1860, it issued a Declaration which glossed over states’ rights. It did not mention the tariff. South Carolina was seceding, it explained, due to the “increasing hostility to the institution of slavery”...
Robert Reich: Mass incarceration is ruining us — and shackling the economy Salon ...Unless we recognize the racism and abuse of our criminal justice system and tackle the dehumanizing stereotypes that underlie it, our nation – and our economy – will never be as strong as it could be. We’re spending a fortune locking people up who could fuel our economy and build strong communities, in some cases just to increase the profits of private prison corporations...
Showing posts with label Allegiant Air. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allegiant Air. Show all posts
Monday, June 22, 2015
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.03.15
Teamsters
Crystal Motor Express Drivers Choose Teamsters Teamster.org ...Drivers at Crystal Motor Express in Lynnfield, Mass., have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 42 in Lynn, Mass. The newly organized group consists of 55 drivers. “Teamsters Joint Council 10 continues to focus on organizing in core industries. We welcome these freight drivers to the Teamster family,” said David W. Laughton, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Joint Council 10...
Teamsters Urge Investor Support for Executive Pay Safeguard at Allegiant Travel Co. Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a long-term investor of Allegiant Travel Company urges fellow shareholders to vote FOR Item #3 on the company’s proxy—a proposal that would help prevent unearned windfall awards being paid to executives in the event of a change of control. The shareholder proposal will be presented at the company’s annual meeting, which will be held June 18, 2015, in Las Vegas...
Teamsters Protest Sysco in Michigan Teamster.org ...Teamsters protested Sysco Corporation outside the Michigan Restaurant Association’s Capitol Day in Lansing, Mich., today. Sysco is the largest foodservice distributor in the nation. Sysco faces a federal investigation of 30 alleged violations of labor law and 35 objections to a May 7 Grand Rapids, Mich., union election in which a lead union supporter was fired and workers were threatened with the loss of benefits or their jobs if they voted for union representation...
President Pierce testifies for two-person crews, PTC at Congressional hearing BLET.org ...Dennis Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and President of the Teamsters Rail Conference, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives today and urged the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), coupled with a minimum two-person operating crew to ensure safety along the nation’s railroads...
Truckers say working conditions likely cause for recent tragedies WSAV ...Responding to two recent accidents involving trucks that resulted in ten deaths, a groups of local truck drivers say long hours may have been a likely factor. Teamsters Local 728 representative Jerome Irwin, Sr. stood with local drivers this morning...
For truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, it's a waiting game KPCC ...More than 40 percent of U.S. imports flow through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. An army of 14,000 short-haul truck drivers are tasked with hauling that cargo from the port complex to warehouses and rail yards around Southern Calfornia. But some of those truckers say, despite their critical role at the ports, they are among the lowest paid workers there, due to ridiculously long wait times...
Global Labor & Trade
Wikileaks offers $100,000 for details of Obama’s trade deal Washington Post ...Wikileaks put a hit out on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal Tuesday, offering $100,000 to anyone who turns over the chapters that have yet to be leaked. The government-document exposing organization already published some chapters of the secret deal, but it wants the whole thing. It’s also using crowdfunding to raise the money to pay the bounty...
Hoyer Urges Civility Among Democrats in Trade Debate Roll Call ...He specifically discussed labor’s outsized influence in pressuring members to oppose legislation that would give President Barack Obama latitude to negotiate a major trade deal with Pacific nations. The AFL-CIO in particular has threatened Democrats who support so-called fast-track authority...
Liberals plot new way to blow up Obama’s trade deal Washington Post ...In the House, a big bloc of liberals has hit on what they hope will be a new way to sink Fast Track. It turns on an obscure aspect of this debate that has gone under-covered: A problematic funding mechanism for a program, which would be part of the whole deal, that grants assistance to workers displaced by trade. The Senate version of TAA is funded in part by cuts to Medicare growth...
Barney Frank: Obama Is Making 'A Big Mistake' On TPP Huffington Post ...Frank said Obama should leverage the trade deal, now being negotiated with 11 Pacific nations, to pass policies that would reduce income inequality, but are currently opposed by the powerful corporations backing TPP. Among the policies that Frank said that Obama could exchange for the trade deal are an increase in the minimum wage, stronger protections for unions, and the end of tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas...
Rana Plaza Charges: ‘A Long-Delayed Step Toward Justice’ Solidarity Center ...Reports that at least 41 government officials have been charged in the deadly 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh “represent a long-delayed step toward justice,” says Solidarity Center Asia Regional Program Director Tim Ryan. “Finally, after more than two years, the Bangladesh government is moving toward holding accountable those who were responsible for the deaths and injuries of hundreds of women and men toiling for pennies in those five garment factories”...
State & Living Wage Battles
Nevada minimum wage raised to $9 for workers without insurance Las Vegas Sun ... Nevada’s minimum wage is increasing to $9 an hour for workers not offered company health insurance. A conference committee of the Senate and Assembly agreed on amendments to SB193 that would raise the wage from $8.25 an hour...
Union workers oppose right-to-work Effingham Daily News ...Union workers packed Effingham City Council Chamber Tuesday evening to explain to city officials how the establishment of a right-to-work zone in the city would hurt their livelihoods. Gov. Bruce Rauner has pushed for the state to allow local communities to establish such zones...
New prevailing wage method won’t change much, union leader says WV Gazette ...New methodology for calculating prevailing wage rates for state-funded construction projects is not likely to dramatically change wages for construction workers, the executive director of the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation said Tuesday. “In general, it should be about the same,” Steve White said of the new methodology for calculating prevailing wage, released Monday by WorkForce West Virginia...
WNC public hearings set on voter ID law Citizen-Times ...The State Board of Elections is holding the first of nine public hearings on the rules governing North Carolina's voter identification law. The first hearing is scheduled for Raleigh beginning at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at board headquarters. The other hearings will be held throughout the state during June...
St. Louis mayor supports a $15 minimum wage USA Today ...St. Louis could be the next city to raise its minimum wage significantly, if Mayor Francis Slay has his way. Slay spokeswoman Maggie Crane on Tuesday confirmed that the Democratic mayor wants to raise the city's minimum. A starting point for discussion is $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2020...
Walmart is a cultural sickness: How the American workplace is enriching the wealthy — and destroying everyone else Salon ...The Waltons are among the wealthiest people on the globe, yet their business won’t guarantee American workers the fundamental dignity of having a child without fear of repercussion. And so it goes with workers’ rights across sectors of the economy. In any moral society, this would be considered a crime. And in more advanced societies, Walmart is forced to grant their workers more rights, like unionization...
U.S. Labor
United Auto Workers Units Draw Up Strike Plans Wall Street Journal ...With about 100 days remaining on a four-year labor pact, local United Auto Workers units are drawing up strike plans to prepare for potentially contentious negotiations with Detroit auto makers awash in profits. UAW officials—representing about 140,000 General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles employees—will soon begin negotiating a new deal ahead of a Sept. 14 contract deadline...
MedStar, nurses union reach tentative agreement Washington Business Journal ...Nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center stand to earn increases of up to 12.5 percent over the next four years if they ratify a tentative agreement with the hospital later this week. Officials from both MedStar and National Nurses United confirmed nurses will vote on whether to ratify the four-year contract by Friday. If approved, the contract will take effect immediately...
NLRB Office: Saint Xavier Adjuncts May Count Union Votes Inside Higher Ed ...A local National Labor Relations Board office decided this week that adjuncts at Saint Xavier University may count their union election votes. The count was halted four years ago after the Roman Catholic University opposed the National Education Association-affiliated union drive...
NLRB approves union at Golden Dragon plant Montgomery Advertiser ...A federal agency last week certified a vote to unionize a plant that Gov. Robert Bentley touted as an example of economic development. The National Labor Relations Board issued a certificate of recognition Thursday to workers at GD Copper USA at Pine Hill in Wilcox County. The workers voted 75 to 74 in November to unionize under the United Steelworkers...
Union files another charge with NLRB against Kittanning hospital Trib Live ...The technicians and licensed practical nurses union filed another charge with the National Labor Relations Board against ACHM Hospital Tuesday, alleging administrators have discriminated against its members.
“The hospital has discriminated against the employees for participating in union activities and have continually engaged in bad-faith bargaining,” said Curtis Dahn, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals union...
Miscellaneous
‘I Am Disappointed': Elizabeth Warren Blasts Top Financial Industry Overseer For Failing The Public Think Progress ...Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) head Mary Jo White is under renewed scrutiny Tuesday after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) published a blistering 13-page letter to the commissioner listing the various ways in which she says White has failed to keep her promises to Warren and other senators since being sworn in in the spring of 2013...
US Congress passes surveillance reform in vindication for Edward Snowden The Guardian ...The US Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would end the bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records, the most significant surveillance reform for decades and a direct result of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations to the Guardian two years ago. Senators voted 67-32 to pass the USA Freedom Act...
America's crumbling infrastructure Yahoo News ...America’s infrastructure could be reaching a breaking point. Literally. When it comes to our transportation infrastructure — that’s railroads, water pipelines, ports, dams, bridges, airports and roads — the United States has gotten way off track. In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ most recent report card gave America’s infrastructure a D+. And according to the World Economic Forum, the U.S. ranks 16th in quality of overall infrastructure...
Crystal Motor Express Drivers Choose Teamsters Teamster.org ...Drivers at Crystal Motor Express in Lynnfield, Mass., have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 42 in Lynn, Mass. The newly organized group consists of 55 drivers. “Teamsters Joint Council 10 continues to focus on organizing in core industries. We welcome these freight drivers to the Teamster family,” said David W. Laughton, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Joint Council 10...
Teamsters Urge Investor Support for Executive Pay Safeguard at Allegiant Travel Co. Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a long-term investor of Allegiant Travel Company urges fellow shareholders to vote FOR Item #3 on the company’s proxy—a proposal that would help prevent unearned windfall awards being paid to executives in the event of a change of control. The shareholder proposal will be presented at the company’s annual meeting, which will be held June 18, 2015, in Las Vegas...
Teamsters Protest Sysco in Michigan Teamster.org ...Teamsters protested Sysco Corporation outside the Michigan Restaurant Association’s Capitol Day in Lansing, Mich., today. Sysco is the largest foodservice distributor in the nation. Sysco faces a federal investigation of 30 alleged violations of labor law and 35 objections to a May 7 Grand Rapids, Mich., union election in which a lead union supporter was fired and workers were threatened with the loss of benefits or their jobs if they voted for union representation...
President Pierce testifies for two-person crews, PTC at Congressional hearing BLET.org ...Dennis Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and President of the Teamsters Rail Conference, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives today and urged the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), coupled with a minimum two-person operating crew to ensure safety along the nation’s railroads...
Truckers say working conditions likely cause for recent tragedies WSAV ...Responding to two recent accidents involving trucks that resulted in ten deaths, a groups of local truck drivers say long hours may have been a likely factor. Teamsters Local 728 representative Jerome Irwin, Sr. stood with local drivers this morning...
For truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, it's a waiting game KPCC ...More than 40 percent of U.S. imports flow through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. An army of 14,000 short-haul truck drivers are tasked with hauling that cargo from the port complex to warehouses and rail yards around Southern Calfornia. But some of those truckers say, despite their critical role at the ports, they are among the lowest paid workers there, due to ridiculously long wait times...
Global Labor & Trade
Wikileaks offers $100,000 for details of Obama’s trade deal Washington Post ...Wikileaks put a hit out on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal Tuesday, offering $100,000 to anyone who turns over the chapters that have yet to be leaked. The government-document exposing organization already published some chapters of the secret deal, but it wants the whole thing. It’s also using crowdfunding to raise the money to pay the bounty...
Hoyer Urges Civility Among Democrats in Trade Debate Roll Call ...He specifically discussed labor’s outsized influence in pressuring members to oppose legislation that would give President Barack Obama latitude to negotiate a major trade deal with Pacific nations. The AFL-CIO in particular has threatened Democrats who support so-called fast-track authority...
Liberals plot new way to blow up Obama’s trade deal Washington Post ...In the House, a big bloc of liberals has hit on what they hope will be a new way to sink Fast Track. It turns on an obscure aspect of this debate that has gone under-covered: A problematic funding mechanism for a program, which would be part of the whole deal, that grants assistance to workers displaced by trade. The Senate version of TAA is funded in part by cuts to Medicare growth...
Barney Frank: Obama Is Making 'A Big Mistake' On TPP Huffington Post ...Frank said Obama should leverage the trade deal, now being negotiated with 11 Pacific nations, to pass policies that would reduce income inequality, but are currently opposed by the powerful corporations backing TPP. Among the policies that Frank said that Obama could exchange for the trade deal are an increase in the minimum wage, stronger protections for unions, and the end of tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas...
Rana Plaza Charges: ‘A Long-Delayed Step Toward Justice’ Solidarity Center ...Reports that at least 41 government officials have been charged in the deadly 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh “represent a long-delayed step toward justice,” says Solidarity Center Asia Regional Program Director Tim Ryan. “Finally, after more than two years, the Bangladesh government is moving toward holding accountable those who were responsible for the deaths and injuries of hundreds of women and men toiling for pennies in those five garment factories”...
State & Living Wage Battles
Nevada minimum wage raised to $9 for workers without insurance Las Vegas Sun ... Nevada’s minimum wage is increasing to $9 an hour for workers not offered company health insurance. A conference committee of the Senate and Assembly agreed on amendments to SB193 that would raise the wage from $8.25 an hour...
Union workers oppose right-to-work Effingham Daily News ...Union workers packed Effingham City Council Chamber Tuesday evening to explain to city officials how the establishment of a right-to-work zone in the city would hurt their livelihoods. Gov. Bruce Rauner has pushed for the state to allow local communities to establish such zones...
New prevailing wage method won’t change much, union leader says WV Gazette ...New methodology for calculating prevailing wage rates for state-funded construction projects is not likely to dramatically change wages for construction workers, the executive director of the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation said Tuesday. “In general, it should be about the same,” Steve White said of the new methodology for calculating prevailing wage, released Monday by WorkForce West Virginia...
WNC public hearings set on voter ID law Citizen-Times ...The State Board of Elections is holding the first of nine public hearings on the rules governing North Carolina's voter identification law. The first hearing is scheduled for Raleigh beginning at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at board headquarters. The other hearings will be held throughout the state during June...
St. Louis mayor supports a $15 minimum wage USA Today ...St. Louis could be the next city to raise its minimum wage significantly, if Mayor Francis Slay has his way. Slay spokeswoman Maggie Crane on Tuesday confirmed that the Democratic mayor wants to raise the city's minimum. A starting point for discussion is $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2020...
Walmart is a cultural sickness: How the American workplace is enriching the wealthy — and destroying everyone else Salon ...The Waltons are among the wealthiest people on the globe, yet their business won’t guarantee American workers the fundamental dignity of having a child without fear of repercussion. And so it goes with workers’ rights across sectors of the economy. In any moral society, this would be considered a crime. And in more advanced societies, Walmart is forced to grant their workers more rights, like unionization...
U.S. Labor
United Auto Workers Units Draw Up Strike Plans Wall Street Journal ...With about 100 days remaining on a four-year labor pact, local United Auto Workers units are drawing up strike plans to prepare for potentially contentious negotiations with Detroit auto makers awash in profits. UAW officials—representing about 140,000 General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles employees—will soon begin negotiating a new deal ahead of a Sept. 14 contract deadline...
MedStar, nurses union reach tentative agreement Washington Business Journal ...Nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center stand to earn increases of up to 12.5 percent over the next four years if they ratify a tentative agreement with the hospital later this week. Officials from both MedStar and National Nurses United confirmed nurses will vote on whether to ratify the four-year contract by Friday. If approved, the contract will take effect immediately...
NLRB Office: Saint Xavier Adjuncts May Count Union Votes Inside Higher Ed ...A local National Labor Relations Board office decided this week that adjuncts at Saint Xavier University may count their union election votes. The count was halted four years ago after the Roman Catholic University opposed the National Education Association-affiliated union drive...
NLRB approves union at Golden Dragon plant Montgomery Advertiser ...A federal agency last week certified a vote to unionize a plant that Gov. Robert Bentley touted as an example of economic development. The National Labor Relations Board issued a certificate of recognition Thursday to workers at GD Copper USA at Pine Hill in Wilcox County. The workers voted 75 to 74 in November to unionize under the United Steelworkers...
Union files another charge with NLRB against Kittanning hospital Trib Live ...The technicians and licensed practical nurses union filed another charge with the National Labor Relations Board against ACHM Hospital Tuesday, alleging administrators have discriminated against its members.
“The hospital has discriminated against the employees for participating in union activities and have continually engaged in bad-faith bargaining,” said Curtis Dahn, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals union...
Miscellaneous
‘I Am Disappointed': Elizabeth Warren Blasts Top Financial Industry Overseer For Failing The Public Think Progress ...Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) head Mary Jo White is under renewed scrutiny Tuesday after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) published a blistering 13-page letter to the commissioner listing the various ways in which she says White has failed to keep her promises to Warren and other senators since being sworn in in the spring of 2013...
US Congress passes surveillance reform in vindication for Edward Snowden The Guardian ...The US Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would end the bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records, the most significant surveillance reform for decades and a direct result of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations to the Guardian two years ago. Senators voted 67-32 to pass the USA Freedom Act...
America's crumbling infrastructure Yahoo News ...America’s infrastructure could be reaching a breaking point. Literally. When it comes to our transportation infrastructure — that’s railroads, water pipelines, ports, dams, bridges, airports and roads — the United States has gotten way off track. In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ most recent report card gave America’s infrastructure a D+. And according to the World Economic Forum, the U.S. ranks 16th in quality of overall infrastructure...
Friday, May 1, 2015
Today's Teamster News 05.01.15
Teamsters
Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital Vote Overwhelmingly to Join Teamsters Local 170 Teamster.org ...Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital have become members of Teamsters Local 170 following an election yesterday in which more than 75 percent of voting workers cast ballots in favor of union representation. The vote count was 130-40 and there are more than 200 technicians in the bargaining unit...
Hoffa Statement on Minimum Wage Legislation Teamster.org ...Hoffa in response to the introduction today of the “Raise the Wage Act” by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), which would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020: “This legislation will offer a hand up to millions of U.S. families who are struggling to make ends meet"...
Osco Drug Pharmacists Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Pharmacists at Osco Drug have voted to become members of Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland, Maine. The newly organized group consists of 20 pharmacists who work for Osco pharmacies located within 16 Shaw’s supermarkets throughout Maine...
Michigan truck drivers, warehouse workers rally for union at Sysco Fight Back News ...Around 50 workers and drivers joined a Teamsters Union Local 406 rally outside the food distribution giant Sysco Corporation on April 29. A huge black and gold Teamster truck was parked just outside the Sysco warehouse, bordering the Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids. Over 160 drivers and warehouse workers are demanding Sysco recognize their union affiliation with Teamsters 406...
Allegiant, Teamsters fighting over executive pay Vegas Inc ...The Teamsters union, already grappling with Allegiant Air in court over a possible pilots strike, is fighting with the carrier in the boardroom, too. The union, which owns a miniscule portion of Allegiant’s stock, is pushing back against the Las Vegas-based discount airline’s $8.5 million payout to former president and chief operating officer Andrew Levy...
Members of Congress Call on the Administration to Address Unfair Middle East Airline Subsidies Teamster.org ...Today 262 Members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urging them to request consultations with the governments of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because those governments have been providing massive, market-distorting subsidies to their state-owned airlines...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Accused Democrats Of Lying About Trade Deal, And They Aren't Having It Huffington Post ...Democrats are not happy about President Barack Obama's accusation that they are being "dishonest" about his trade agenda. Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) responded by pointing out that the pact remains classified, making it a crime for lawmakers to share its details with the public...
New Democrats expect growing support for fast-track Politico ...A small group of House Democrats who back President Barack Obama’s effort to win “fast-track” trade legislation said Thursday they expect more party members to step forward in favor of the bill, but indicated Republicans would still have to provide the bulk of the votes to win its approval...
Obama to push case for trade deal at Nike headquarters in Oregon Reuters ...President Barack Obama will travel to Nike Inc headquarters in Oregon next Friday to argue that a 12-nation Pacific trade deal and the fast-track legislation needed to finalize the pact are good for workers. Obama faces tough opposition from his fellow Democrats in Congress over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which they fear could hurt American jobs and the environment...
Battle rages over key Obama trade policy Washington Post ...For many liberal critics, the problem with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal isn’t simply the worry that it could lead to more job loss by exposing American manufacturing to more import competition. Rather, they assert that the TPP is in many ways not even a trade agreement: Its real offense is in the areas of intellectual property and global dispute settlement, where the deal, they say, could further tilt the playing field towards major corporations...
Chile upbeat on Pacific trade deal, urges Canada to give ground Reuters ...The 12 countries working toward a historic Pacific trade pact could reach a deal at the end of May, though Canada must still show greater willingness to open up its markets, a senior Chilean official said on Thursday. Chile is among the nations in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact that would cover 40 percent of the world economy and includes the United States and Japan...
Fast Track and TPP Bad for Development (opinion) Oxfam America ...“Trade can indeed spur economic growth and poverty reduction, but only if the rules actually benefit those at the lower end of the development ladder,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “Although it is being negotiated in secret, what we currently know about the TPP lines up the trade deal to do exactly the opposite”...
Nepal Quake Galvanizes Local Unions; Felt in Bangladesh Solidarity Center ...The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), which represents mostly blue-collar workers, the Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC), which includes teachers and other white-collar workers and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Center (JTUCC), the umbrella organization of GEFONT and the NTUC, say their employees are safe and now working to provide disaster relief...
Portugal: TAP pilots to begin 10-day strike as talks fail Euronews ...Portugal’s flagship air carrier TAP looks set to be grounded for ten days from now because of a strike by pilots. Last-minute talks between the pilots and management yesterday afternoon failed to produce results...
State & Living Wage Battles
Democrats make minimum wage pitch: $12 by ’20 Washington Post ...Top Democrats laid down their minimum-wage marker on Capitol Hill on Thursday, setting up their party's middle-class-focused economic message heading into the 2016 elections campaigns. Their pitch: "$12 by '20" — a $12 per hour federal minimum wage by 2020, which they say will give a pay raise to nearly 38 million Americans...
Senate committee to hold hearing on ending prevailing wage Channel3000 ...The state Senate's labor committee has scheduled a hearing on a GOP bill that would repeal Wisconsin's prevailing wage law. The committee set the hearing for Tuesday and plans to vote on the bill the following Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. Stephen Nass, is one of the bill's sponsors...
State Sen. Daylin Leach proposes raising state minimum wage to $15 per hour The Mercury News ...A legislative proposal to raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage to $15 per hour has been circulated to the 49 state senators by state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist., who is seeking co-sponsors. The proposal, if it eventually becomes law, would also index the $15 minimum wage amount to inflation in future years and eliminate the current, $2.83-per-hour minimum wage for service workers who work for tips...
San Francisco set to introduce nation’s highest minimum wage Daily Journal ...San Francisco is getting ready to raise its minimum wage to $12.25 an hour, a rate that will have the city joining Oakland as the locales with the nation’s highest legally mandated pay for non-salaried workers. San Francisco’s new minimum is set to go into effect on Friday. It was approved by voters as part of an initiative that will increase the minimum wage to $15 in 2018...
U.S. Labor
On May Day, Longshore Workers Stop Work to Protest Racist Police Brutality In These Times ...This May 1 will see some serious protests against racism and police violence -- be they in Baltimore or Oakland. In fact, because ILWU Local 10 has announced it will stop work, the union may have created the space for thousands of protesters from around the Bay Area to join the marches. Using a provision in its contract, ILWU locals can “stop work” to discuss important matters on and off the waterfront...
Teachers at Four NY Archdiocese Schools on Strike NY1.com ...About 90 teachers are set to take part in today's strike at St. Jean Baptiste High School in Manhattan, Notre Dame Academy High School and Our Lady Queen of Peace School on Staten Island, and St. Thomas Aquinas School in the Bronx. The Federation of Catholic Teachers says it has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Archdiocese's Association of Catholic Schools...
SEIU, Franchisees Form Alliance In Support Of Industry Reforms Progress Illinois ...SEIU and franchisees are joining forces in a push to reform the nation's franchise industry as part of a new alliance announced Thursday being called "We Are Main Street." Those with the campaign "will support efforts to strengthen franchisee rights, share franchisee voices and provide research to fuel efforts for reform," according to the We Are Main Street website launched today by SEIU...
Microsoft’s Unionized Contract Workers Get Aggressive Bloomberg ...For more than two decades, the industry has outsourced an expanding range of jobs to contractors, including coders, chip designers, customer service reps, custodial staff, security guards, and cafeteria workers. “A lot of temps are really used as a permanent tier of second-class workers,” says Erin Hatton, author of The Temp Economy, a history of U.S. contingent labor. In September, 38 bug testers who review Microsoft apps voted to create a union, the Temporary Workers of America...
Wall Street owns our cities: The secret pension travesty threatening American workers Salon ...Currently, about 9 percent — or $270 billion — of America’s $3 trillion public pension fund assets are invested in private equity firms. Public officials are overseeing this massive payout to Wall Street at the very moment many of those same officials are demanding big cuts to retirees’ promised pension benefits...
Miscellaneous
Baltimore’s Economic Devastation Goes Back To Racist Housing Policy Think Progress ...There are many causes of a city’s economic decline, and much of Baltimore’s job loss is tied to the falling fortunes of the manufacturing sector. But the fate of the city’s black population has much to do with deliberate policy choices related to housing...
The Rise of the Machines: It's Happening (opinion) Truthout ...I argued that computers would take over many of the cognitive tasks that we find difficult, but that human beings would continue to be wanted for jobs that require common sense, including many forms of manual labor. Or as one friend described it at the time, my thesis was that we'll always need maids and gardeners. And it's happening...
Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital Vote Overwhelmingly to Join Teamsters Local 170 Teamster.org ...Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital have become members of Teamsters Local 170 following an election yesterday in which more than 75 percent of voting workers cast ballots in favor of union representation. The vote count was 130-40 and there are more than 200 technicians in the bargaining unit...
Hoffa Statement on Minimum Wage Legislation Teamster.org ...Hoffa in response to the introduction today of the “Raise the Wage Act” by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), which would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020: “This legislation will offer a hand up to millions of U.S. families who are struggling to make ends meet"...
Osco Drug Pharmacists Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Pharmacists at Osco Drug have voted to become members of Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland, Maine. The newly organized group consists of 20 pharmacists who work for Osco pharmacies located within 16 Shaw’s supermarkets throughout Maine...
Michigan truck drivers, warehouse workers rally for union at Sysco Fight Back News ...Around 50 workers and drivers joined a Teamsters Union Local 406 rally outside the food distribution giant Sysco Corporation on April 29. A huge black and gold Teamster truck was parked just outside the Sysco warehouse, bordering the Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids. Over 160 drivers and warehouse workers are demanding Sysco recognize their union affiliation with Teamsters 406...
Allegiant, Teamsters fighting over executive pay Vegas Inc ...The Teamsters union, already grappling with Allegiant Air in court over a possible pilots strike, is fighting with the carrier in the boardroom, too. The union, which owns a miniscule portion of Allegiant’s stock, is pushing back against the Las Vegas-based discount airline’s $8.5 million payout to former president and chief operating officer Andrew Levy...
Members of Congress Call on the Administration to Address Unfair Middle East Airline Subsidies Teamster.org ...Today 262 Members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urging them to request consultations with the governments of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because those governments have been providing massive, market-distorting subsidies to their state-owned airlines...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Accused Democrats Of Lying About Trade Deal, And They Aren't Having It Huffington Post ...Democrats are not happy about President Barack Obama's accusation that they are being "dishonest" about his trade agenda. Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) responded by pointing out that the pact remains classified, making it a crime for lawmakers to share its details with the public...
New Democrats expect growing support for fast-track Politico ...A small group of House Democrats who back President Barack Obama’s effort to win “fast-track” trade legislation said Thursday they expect more party members to step forward in favor of the bill, but indicated Republicans would still have to provide the bulk of the votes to win its approval...
Obama to push case for trade deal at Nike headquarters in Oregon Reuters ...President Barack Obama will travel to Nike Inc headquarters in Oregon next Friday to argue that a 12-nation Pacific trade deal and the fast-track legislation needed to finalize the pact are good for workers. Obama faces tough opposition from his fellow Democrats in Congress over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which they fear could hurt American jobs and the environment...
Battle rages over key Obama trade policy Washington Post ...For many liberal critics, the problem with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal isn’t simply the worry that it could lead to more job loss by exposing American manufacturing to more import competition. Rather, they assert that the TPP is in many ways not even a trade agreement: Its real offense is in the areas of intellectual property and global dispute settlement, where the deal, they say, could further tilt the playing field towards major corporations...
Chile upbeat on Pacific trade deal, urges Canada to give ground Reuters ...The 12 countries working toward a historic Pacific trade pact could reach a deal at the end of May, though Canada must still show greater willingness to open up its markets, a senior Chilean official said on Thursday. Chile is among the nations in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact that would cover 40 percent of the world economy and includes the United States and Japan...
Fast Track and TPP Bad for Development (opinion) Oxfam America ...“Trade can indeed spur economic growth and poverty reduction, but only if the rules actually benefit those at the lower end of the development ladder,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “Although it is being negotiated in secret, what we currently know about the TPP lines up the trade deal to do exactly the opposite”...
Nepal Quake Galvanizes Local Unions; Felt in Bangladesh Solidarity Center ...The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), which represents mostly blue-collar workers, the Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC), which includes teachers and other white-collar workers and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Center (JTUCC), the umbrella organization of GEFONT and the NTUC, say their employees are safe and now working to provide disaster relief...
Portugal: TAP pilots to begin 10-day strike as talks fail Euronews ...Portugal’s flagship air carrier TAP looks set to be grounded for ten days from now because of a strike by pilots. Last-minute talks between the pilots and management yesterday afternoon failed to produce results...
State & Living Wage Battles
Democrats make minimum wage pitch: $12 by ’20 Washington Post ...Top Democrats laid down their minimum-wage marker on Capitol Hill on Thursday, setting up their party's middle-class-focused economic message heading into the 2016 elections campaigns. Their pitch: "$12 by '20" — a $12 per hour federal minimum wage by 2020, which they say will give a pay raise to nearly 38 million Americans...
Senate committee to hold hearing on ending prevailing wage Channel3000 ...The state Senate's labor committee has scheduled a hearing on a GOP bill that would repeal Wisconsin's prevailing wage law. The committee set the hearing for Tuesday and plans to vote on the bill the following Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. Stephen Nass, is one of the bill's sponsors...
State Sen. Daylin Leach proposes raising state minimum wage to $15 per hour The Mercury News ...A legislative proposal to raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage to $15 per hour has been circulated to the 49 state senators by state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist., who is seeking co-sponsors. The proposal, if it eventually becomes law, would also index the $15 minimum wage amount to inflation in future years and eliminate the current, $2.83-per-hour minimum wage for service workers who work for tips...
San Francisco set to introduce nation’s highest minimum wage Daily Journal ...San Francisco is getting ready to raise its minimum wage to $12.25 an hour, a rate that will have the city joining Oakland as the locales with the nation’s highest legally mandated pay for non-salaried workers. San Francisco’s new minimum is set to go into effect on Friday. It was approved by voters as part of an initiative that will increase the minimum wage to $15 in 2018...
U.S. Labor
On May Day, Longshore Workers Stop Work to Protest Racist Police Brutality In These Times ...This May 1 will see some serious protests against racism and police violence -- be they in Baltimore or Oakland. In fact, because ILWU Local 10 has announced it will stop work, the union may have created the space for thousands of protesters from around the Bay Area to join the marches. Using a provision in its contract, ILWU locals can “stop work” to discuss important matters on and off the waterfront...
Teachers at Four NY Archdiocese Schools on Strike NY1.com ...About 90 teachers are set to take part in today's strike at St. Jean Baptiste High School in Manhattan, Notre Dame Academy High School and Our Lady Queen of Peace School on Staten Island, and St. Thomas Aquinas School in the Bronx. The Federation of Catholic Teachers says it has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Archdiocese's Association of Catholic Schools...
SEIU, Franchisees Form Alliance In Support Of Industry Reforms Progress Illinois ...SEIU and franchisees are joining forces in a push to reform the nation's franchise industry as part of a new alliance announced Thursday being called "We Are Main Street." Those with the campaign "will support efforts to strengthen franchisee rights, share franchisee voices and provide research to fuel efforts for reform," according to the We Are Main Street website launched today by SEIU...
Microsoft’s Unionized Contract Workers Get Aggressive Bloomberg ...For more than two decades, the industry has outsourced an expanding range of jobs to contractors, including coders, chip designers, customer service reps, custodial staff, security guards, and cafeteria workers. “A lot of temps are really used as a permanent tier of second-class workers,” says Erin Hatton, author of The Temp Economy, a history of U.S. contingent labor. In September, 38 bug testers who review Microsoft apps voted to create a union, the Temporary Workers of America...
Wall Street owns our cities: The secret pension travesty threatening American workers Salon ...Currently, about 9 percent — or $270 billion — of America’s $3 trillion public pension fund assets are invested in private equity firms. Public officials are overseeing this massive payout to Wall Street at the very moment many of those same officials are demanding big cuts to retirees’ promised pension benefits...
Miscellaneous
Baltimore’s Economic Devastation Goes Back To Racist Housing Policy Think Progress ...There are many causes of a city’s economic decline, and much of Baltimore’s job loss is tied to the falling fortunes of the manufacturing sector. But the fate of the city’s black population has much to do with deliberate policy choices related to housing...
The Rise of the Machines: It's Happening (opinion) Truthout ...I argued that computers would take over many of the cognitive tasks that we find difficult, but that human beings would continue to be wanted for jobs that require common sense, including many forms of manual labor. Or as one friend described it at the time, my thesis was that we'll always need maids and gardeners. And it's happening...
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.21.15
Teamsters
Longtime Union Activist Rodney Smith Helps Organize Facebook Shuttle Drivers Contra Costa Times ...As a union organizer for Teamsters Local 853 based in San Leandro, Smith played a key role in winning the drivers their first union contract. In the process, the father of two helped pull off a precedent-setting vote that targets the growing income gap in Silicon Valley...
Pilots Fault Allegiant on Safety as Talks Stall New York Times ...But Allegiant’s scrappy success is now being questioned by its pilots, who say they are worried about repeated mechanical problems with the airline’s fleet of older planes, poor maintenance operations and a culture where profits come before safety. All the claims were reported by the pilots and compiled by the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition on behalf of the pilots’ union, the Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224...
PCC unions question change on carpenters, Teamsters Philly.com ...Marino wrote a letter saying he would dismiss complaints - primarily on technical grounds - by the Metropolitan Council of Regional Carpenters and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which said they had been improperly shut out of work last May at the Convention Center. On Thursday, Marino reversed course, saying he would hear arguments in the case...
Global Labor & Trade
‘Fast Track’ Trade Bill Taps Tension In Ohio Wall Street Journal ...Rep. Tim Ryan doesn’t need to travel far from home to see the damage he ascribes to bad trade deals. “You can see how it’s hollowed out,” said the Democratic lawmaker, pointing to empty or underutilized steel plants on a recent tour of his district in northeast Ohio. “Global trade regimes aren’t fairly written if this is the end result.”...
Japan says trade talks with US are close to deal The Hill ...Abe said he and Obama must play a leadership role to wrap a deal and “ultimately, what needs to happen is for both countries to make a political decision” to tackle difficult remaining issues. A U.S.-Japan bilateral agreement is a major step toward completing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Progressive Coalition Tells Lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future' with Fast Track Common Dreams ...With members of Congress set to debate Fast Track authority this week, hundreds of environmentalists, consumer advocates, nurses, labor leaders, and elected officials stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a Washington, D.C. rally on Monday, pleading with lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future!'
AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka explains why labor unions hate Obama’s trade deal Vox ...The TPP has created some strange bedfellows: the Obama administration has found itself with many GOP allies in promoting the trade deal, while unions and liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders staunchly oppose it. Vox spoke with Trumka recently about why he opposes the pact...
Don't Let TPP Gut State Laws (opinion) Politico ...State laws and regulators are increasingly important as gridlock in Washington makes broad federal action on important issues an increasingly rare event. From environmental protection to civil rights to the minimum wage, the action is at the state level. Ironically, one thing that may get done soon in Washington is a trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has the potential to undermine a wide range of state and local laws...
Fast Tracking Democracy To Hell (opinion) Huffington Post ...The Congressional free traders want to Fast Track authorization of the TPP. Fast Track enables Congress to abdicate its constitutionally mandated duty to regulate international trade. Instead of scrutinizing, amending and improving proposed trade deals, lawmakers use Fast Track to gloss over the specifics and simply vote yea or nay on the entire package as presented...
State & Living Wage Battles
Workers Allege Walmart Closes Stores To Retaliate Against Strikes Think Progress ...Over the weekend, the AFL-CIO and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union filed an injunction on their behalf with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Walmart. “The Board should seek injunctive relief compelling Walmart to rehire every one of the 2200 Associates who have been terminated in all 5 stores,” it says...
David Koch on 2016 GOP Nominee: ‘It Should be Scott Walker.’ But... The Nation ...According to several reports from a New York State Republican Party fund-raising event on Monday, David Koch told the big donors: “We will support whoever the candidate is. But it should be Scott Walker.” That sounded like an endorsement. So did what Koch said outside the Manhattan event, at which Walker also spoke. Koch hailed the governor of Wisconsin “a tremendous candidate.”...
TWMP talks Right-to-Work, the budget, and 2016 The Missouri Times ...Senate Pro Tem Tom Dempsey joined This Week In Missouri Politics to discuss the coming budget fight and his decision to put Right-to-Work legislation on the Senate calendar for debate...
Little Momentum for National Right-to-Work, Despite Support by White House Contestants Bloomberg News ...Despite the backing of at least two of the three current Republican presidential candidates and similar laws in place in half the states, right-to-work legislation remains highly unlikely to move at the federal level any time soon, lawmakers and other observers told Bloomberg BNA...
Not just fast food: Full-service restaurant chains pay poverty wages, too Daily Kos ...Fast food isn't the only part of the restaurant industry where workers are seriously underpaid. A recent report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United shows that many workers in full-service restaurants are also paid so little that they need and get nearly $9.5 billion in public assistance each year...
How a $15 Minimum Wage Helps All Workers Counterpunch ...Regardless of their reasoning, the anti-$15 workers are arguing against their own best interest, since a $15 minimum wage would benefit the overwhelming majority of people who make over $15 an hour. This is because a $15 minimum wage would transform the labor market in favor of all working people. Economists have even given a term for this phenomenon, called “compression,” which describes the effects of how rising lower wages puts pressure on employers to raise wages for higher paid workers...
New York City Just Outlawed Running Credit Checks on Job Applicants The Nation ...The legislation, which passed last Thursday following an extensive grassroots campaign by local and national labor and community groups, restricts a boss, prospective employer or agency from “us[ing] an individual’s consumer credit history in making employment decisions.”...
U.S. Labor
Safety Regulations Issued For Trains Carrying Oil New York Times ...Responding to public pressure to act more quickly after a series of fiery train derailments involving oil shipments, the Transportation Department on Friday issued a series of emergency orders, including a 40-mile-an-hour speed limit for hazardous materials moving through urban areas. The emergency rules also require railroads to provide detailed information about a shipment within 90 minutes of any derailment...
Why Can't America Have Great Trains? National Journal ...Along with PBS and the United States Postal Service, Amtrak is perpetual fodder for libertarian think-tankers and Republican office-seekers on the prowl for government profligacy. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush repeatedly tried to eliminate its subsidy, while Mitt Romney promised to do the same. Democrats, for their part, aren't interested in slaying Amtrak, but mostly you get the sense they just feel bad for it...
One-day teacher strikes planned this week King5.com ...Teachers in eight school districts, from Arlington to Blaine, announced one-day strikes this week to protest the lack of funding for public schools. They look at their act of civil disobedience as an opportunity to demand that lawmakers to fully fund public schools as mandated by a state supreme court decision, and reduce class size according to the voter approved Initiative 1351...
NLRB Upholds Howard University Docs' Union Vote Union City ...Resident physicians at Howard University Hospital and community leaders are calling on hospital officials to come to the table to negotiate a first contract with the residents’ union in the wake of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling upholding the union election held earlier this year, in which a majority of the 263 Howard resident physicians voted in favor of representation...
Miscellaneous
Corporate Giants Often Get Huge Tax Breaks, While Poor, Undocumented Immigrants Have Paid Billions In State Taxes New York Daily News ...The truth is that for corporate giants like General Electric, Verizon, Citigroup, FedEx and others, the only certainty in terms of taxes is that they contribute as little to the country’s coffers as possible. Ironically, while many of these corporate behemoths pay zero taxes, the eternally vilified undocumented immigrants in New York paid $1.1 billion in state taxes in 2012...
Senate Races In 2016 Look Poised To Set Spending Records Washington Post ...Yes, the 2016 presidential race will be the most expensive in history. But the battle for control of the U.S. Senate in November 2016 also looks likely to smash spending records...
How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy The Atlantic ...Today, the biggest companies have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them, allowing them to be everywhere, all the time. For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public-interest groups together, large corporations and their associations now spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business...
Longtime Union Activist Rodney Smith Helps Organize Facebook Shuttle Drivers Contra Costa Times ...As a union organizer for Teamsters Local 853 based in San Leandro, Smith played a key role in winning the drivers their first union contract. In the process, the father of two helped pull off a precedent-setting vote that targets the growing income gap in Silicon Valley...
Pilots Fault Allegiant on Safety as Talks Stall New York Times ...But Allegiant’s scrappy success is now being questioned by its pilots, who say they are worried about repeated mechanical problems with the airline’s fleet of older planes, poor maintenance operations and a culture where profits come before safety. All the claims were reported by the pilots and compiled by the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition on behalf of the pilots’ union, the Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224...
PCC unions question change on carpenters, Teamsters Philly.com ...Marino wrote a letter saying he would dismiss complaints - primarily on technical grounds - by the Metropolitan Council of Regional Carpenters and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which said they had been improperly shut out of work last May at the Convention Center. On Thursday, Marino reversed course, saying he would hear arguments in the case...
Global Labor & Trade
‘Fast Track’ Trade Bill Taps Tension In Ohio Wall Street Journal ...Rep. Tim Ryan doesn’t need to travel far from home to see the damage he ascribes to bad trade deals. “You can see how it’s hollowed out,” said the Democratic lawmaker, pointing to empty or underutilized steel plants on a recent tour of his district in northeast Ohio. “Global trade regimes aren’t fairly written if this is the end result.”...
Japan says trade talks with US are close to deal The Hill ...Abe said he and Obama must play a leadership role to wrap a deal and “ultimately, what needs to happen is for both countries to make a political decision” to tackle difficult remaining issues. A U.S.-Japan bilateral agreement is a major step toward completing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Progressive Coalition Tells Lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future' with Fast Track Common Dreams ...With members of Congress set to debate Fast Track authority this week, hundreds of environmentalists, consumer advocates, nurses, labor leaders, and elected officials stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a Washington, D.C. rally on Monday, pleading with lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future!'
AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka explains why labor unions hate Obama’s trade deal Vox ...The TPP has created some strange bedfellows: the Obama administration has found itself with many GOP allies in promoting the trade deal, while unions and liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders staunchly oppose it. Vox spoke with Trumka recently about why he opposes the pact...
Don't Let TPP Gut State Laws (opinion) Politico ...State laws and regulators are increasingly important as gridlock in Washington makes broad federal action on important issues an increasingly rare event. From environmental protection to civil rights to the minimum wage, the action is at the state level. Ironically, one thing that may get done soon in Washington is a trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has the potential to undermine a wide range of state and local laws...
Fast Tracking Democracy To Hell (opinion) Huffington Post ...The Congressional free traders want to Fast Track authorization of the TPP. Fast Track enables Congress to abdicate its constitutionally mandated duty to regulate international trade. Instead of scrutinizing, amending and improving proposed trade deals, lawmakers use Fast Track to gloss over the specifics and simply vote yea or nay on the entire package as presented...
State & Living Wage Battles
Workers Allege Walmart Closes Stores To Retaliate Against Strikes Think Progress ...Over the weekend, the AFL-CIO and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union filed an injunction on their behalf with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Walmart. “The Board should seek injunctive relief compelling Walmart to rehire every one of the 2200 Associates who have been terminated in all 5 stores,” it says...
David Koch on 2016 GOP Nominee: ‘It Should be Scott Walker.’ But... The Nation ...According to several reports from a New York State Republican Party fund-raising event on Monday, David Koch told the big donors: “We will support whoever the candidate is. But it should be Scott Walker.” That sounded like an endorsement. So did what Koch said outside the Manhattan event, at which Walker also spoke. Koch hailed the governor of Wisconsin “a tremendous candidate.”...
TWMP talks Right-to-Work, the budget, and 2016 The Missouri Times ...Senate Pro Tem Tom Dempsey joined This Week In Missouri Politics to discuss the coming budget fight and his decision to put Right-to-Work legislation on the Senate calendar for debate...
Little Momentum for National Right-to-Work, Despite Support by White House Contestants Bloomberg News ...Despite the backing of at least two of the three current Republican presidential candidates and similar laws in place in half the states, right-to-work legislation remains highly unlikely to move at the federal level any time soon, lawmakers and other observers told Bloomberg BNA...
Not just fast food: Full-service restaurant chains pay poverty wages, too Daily Kos ...Fast food isn't the only part of the restaurant industry where workers are seriously underpaid. A recent report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United shows that many workers in full-service restaurants are also paid so little that they need and get nearly $9.5 billion in public assistance each year...
How a $15 Minimum Wage Helps All Workers Counterpunch ...Regardless of their reasoning, the anti-$15 workers are arguing against their own best interest, since a $15 minimum wage would benefit the overwhelming majority of people who make over $15 an hour. This is because a $15 minimum wage would transform the labor market in favor of all working people. Economists have even given a term for this phenomenon, called “compression,” which describes the effects of how rising lower wages puts pressure on employers to raise wages for higher paid workers...
New York City Just Outlawed Running Credit Checks on Job Applicants The Nation ...The legislation, which passed last Thursday following an extensive grassroots campaign by local and national labor and community groups, restricts a boss, prospective employer or agency from “us[ing] an individual’s consumer credit history in making employment decisions.”...
U.S. Labor
Safety Regulations Issued For Trains Carrying Oil New York Times ...Responding to public pressure to act more quickly after a series of fiery train derailments involving oil shipments, the Transportation Department on Friday issued a series of emergency orders, including a 40-mile-an-hour speed limit for hazardous materials moving through urban areas. The emergency rules also require railroads to provide detailed information about a shipment within 90 minutes of any derailment...
Why Can't America Have Great Trains? National Journal ...Along with PBS and the United States Postal Service, Amtrak is perpetual fodder for libertarian think-tankers and Republican office-seekers on the prowl for government profligacy. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush repeatedly tried to eliminate its subsidy, while Mitt Romney promised to do the same. Democrats, for their part, aren't interested in slaying Amtrak, but mostly you get the sense they just feel bad for it...
One-day teacher strikes planned this week King5.com ...Teachers in eight school districts, from Arlington to Blaine, announced one-day strikes this week to protest the lack of funding for public schools. They look at their act of civil disobedience as an opportunity to demand that lawmakers to fully fund public schools as mandated by a state supreme court decision, and reduce class size according to the voter approved Initiative 1351...
NLRB Upholds Howard University Docs' Union Vote Union City ...Resident physicians at Howard University Hospital and community leaders are calling on hospital officials to come to the table to negotiate a first contract with the residents’ union in the wake of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling upholding the union election held earlier this year, in which a majority of the 263 Howard resident physicians voted in favor of representation...
Miscellaneous
Corporate Giants Often Get Huge Tax Breaks, While Poor, Undocumented Immigrants Have Paid Billions In State Taxes New York Daily News ...The truth is that for corporate giants like General Electric, Verizon, Citigroup, FedEx and others, the only certainty in terms of taxes is that they contribute as little to the country’s coffers as possible. Ironically, while many of these corporate behemoths pay zero taxes, the eternally vilified undocumented immigrants in New York paid $1.1 billion in state taxes in 2012...
Senate Races In 2016 Look Poised To Set Spending Records Washington Post ...Yes, the 2016 presidential race will be the most expensive in history. But the battle for control of the U.S. Senate in November 2016 also looks likely to smash spending records...
How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy The Atlantic ...Today, the biggest companies have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them, allowing them to be everywhere, all the time. For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public-interest groups together, large corporations and their associations now spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business...
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.07.15
Teamsters
Strike delayed, Allegiant pilots union explains stance, next move Tampa Bay Business Journal ...Friday is the next milestone in the labor dispute between Allegiant Airlines and its pilots. That day brings to an end a temporary court injunction preventing the pilots from striking. The pilots are effectively threatening to strike to restore the conditions that existed before they decided to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2012...
Global Labor & Trade
Health experts worried as Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations conclude Sydney Morning Herald ...Eight health and community organisations have written to the Trade Minister Andrew Robb expressing "grave concerns" about the latest leaked draft of the nearly concluded Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. The organisations released a health impact assessment which found that the the investor‐state dispute settlement clauses were a threat to public health and recommended that ISDS be excluded from the agreement altogether...
The global south has free trade to thank for its obesity and diabetes epidemic The Guardian ...You wouldn’t think that free-trade deals could lead to a diabetes and obesity epidemic, but they have. Today, many countries in the global south are seeing an explosion of these afflictions - all because their governments welcomed in transnational food companies looking for new “growth markets”...
Strikes Grow in China as Grassroots Labor Movement Takes Shape Common Dreams ...As the economic landscape in China continues to shift, an awakening working class is demanding fair treatment and higher wages—and the movement is picking up steam...
State & Living Wage Battles
Weeks After Rushing Right-To-Work, Wisconsin Republicans Prepare Their Next Attack On Labor Think Progress ...Rep. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield) plans to tack his bill to repeal the state’s nearly century-old “prevailing wage” law for construction workers on local and state projects onto the massive state budget that must pass some time in the next few months...
Scott Walker Controls Wisconsin’s Executive and Legislative Branches. Now His Minions Are Gunning For the Judicial The Nation ...Walker’s allies are focused on securing control of the judicial branch of state government in Wisconsin. The Republican Party of Wisconsin and groups that have consistently backed Walker’s agenda are leading the charge to oust a state Supreme Court justice who has championed judicial independence and to change the way in which the high court is organized...
Our Corporate Saviors (opinion) Huffington Post ...Outfits like McDonalds decide to make a virtue of necessity and pat themselves on the back for paying a bit more. They hope that these gestures will take some of the wind out of organizing drives. But moves like these should teach the opposite lesson--namely, that pressure works...
Extreme ‘Religious Liberty’ Bill Could Make Louisiana The Next Indiana Think Progress ...Louisiana is the latest state considering adopting a religious freedom bill, after state Rep. Mike Johnson (R) introduced legislation Friday that could allow businesses to refuse service for same-sex weddings and deny benefits to employees in same-sex marriages...
How Elizabeth Warren Made Expanding Social Security Cool Mother Jones ...For years, Washington politicians and policymakers been talking about cutting Social Security benefits. The Beltway consensus, unduly shaped by deficit hawks and Wall Streeters, has been that the system is broken and must be pared back, and progressives who support Social Security have often had to play defense. But in late March, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the populist Democrat from Massachusetts, entered the fray—and challenged the prevailing view...
U.S. Labor
Automakers, labor union face a long, hot summer of contract talks Fortune ...Although the Detroit-based auto industry and the United Auto Workers union are still a few months away from serious negotiations, early signs aren’t favorable for a labor contract settled on mutually agreeable terms...
BP Whiting Refinery strike hits 2-month mark Chicago Tribune ...The union said it gave its last offer to BP on Thursday and has yet to hear from the company. Workers are standing by their union leaders, though some say it has been rough on them and their families financially...
EEOC: New York City owes underpaid minority female employees $246 million NY Daily News ...The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that New York City underpaid a thousand black and Hispanic female employees, a finding that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The Communications Workers of America lodged the complaint...
Miscellaneous
Nestlé’s despicable water-crisis profiteering: How it’s making a killing — while California is dying of thirst Salon ...While California suffers through a historic 4-year drought, the corporate giant has made billions on bottled water. Nestlé has a 25-year contract with the Morongo Band of Cahuila Mission Indians to draw water from wells in Millard Canyon, in the desert city of Cabazon...
U.S. Spending Historic Amount Fighting Homelessness, And It's Working: Report Huffington Post ...Uncle Sam is prioritizing the fight against homelessness like he never has before. Federal funding for programs addressing homelessness is at its highest level ever, according to a report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness provided to The Huffington Post...
Is Your Favorite Baseball Team's Owner Still An Asshole? Mother Jones ...Chicago White Sox [owner] Jerry Reinsdorf made his fortune as a real estate developer who specialized in building tax shelters. One of the league's most anti-union owners, he was accused of colluding with fellow owners to drive down player salaries. He gives millions to charter schools, but takes even more out of the city's coffers thanks to a sweetheart deal that allows him to pay just 25 percent of the standard property tax rate for the United Center (home of the NBA's Chicago Bulls, which he also owns)...
Strike delayed, Allegiant pilots union explains stance, next move Tampa Bay Business Journal ...Friday is the next milestone in the labor dispute between Allegiant Airlines and its pilots. That day brings to an end a temporary court injunction preventing the pilots from striking. The pilots are effectively threatening to strike to restore the conditions that existed before they decided to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2012...
Global Labor & Trade
Health experts worried as Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations conclude Sydney Morning Herald ...Eight health and community organisations have written to the Trade Minister Andrew Robb expressing "grave concerns" about the latest leaked draft of the nearly concluded Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. The organisations released a health impact assessment which found that the the investor‐state dispute settlement clauses were a threat to public health and recommended that ISDS be excluded from the agreement altogether...
The global south has free trade to thank for its obesity and diabetes epidemic The Guardian ...You wouldn’t think that free-trade deals could lead to a diabetes and obesity epidemic, but they have. Today, many countries in the global south are seeing an explosion of these afflictions - all because their governments welcomed in transnational food companies looking for new “growth markets”...
Strikes Grow in China as Grassroots Labor Movement Takes Shape Common Dreams ...As the economic landscape in China continues to shift, an awakening working class is demanding fair treatment and higher wages—and the movement is picking up steam...
State & Living Wage Battles
Weeks After Rushing Right-To-Work, Wisconsin Republicans Prepare Their Next Attack On Labor Think Progress ...Rep. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield) plans to tack his bill to repeal the state’s nearly century-old “prevailing wage” law for construction workers on local and state projects onto the massive state budget that must pass some time in the next few months...
Scott Walker Controls Wisconsin’s Executive and Legislative Branches. Now His Minions Are Gunning For the Judicial The Nation ...Walker’s allies are focused on securing control of the judicial branch of state government in Wisconsin. The Republican Party of Wisconsin and groups that have consistently backed Walker’s agenda are leading the charge to oust a state Supreme Court justice who has championed judicial independence and to change the way in which the high court is organized...
Our Corporate Saviors (opinion) Huffington Post ...Outfits like McDonalds decide to make a virtue of necessity and pat themselves on the back for paying a bit more. They hope that these gestures will take some of the wind out of organizing drives. But moves like these should teach the opposite lesson--namely, that pressure works...
Extreme ‘Religious Liberty’ Bill Could Make Louisiana The Next Indiana Think Progress ...Louisiana is the latest state considering adopting a religious freedom bill, after state Rep. Mike Johnson (R) introduced legislation Friday that could allow businesses to refuse service for same-sex weddings and deny benefits to employees in same-sex marriages...
How Elizabeth Warren Made Expanding Social Security Cool Mother Jones ...For years, Washington politicians and policymakers been talking about cutting Social Security benefits. The Beltway consensus, unduly shaped by deficit hawks and Wall Streeters, has been that the system is broken and must be pared back, and progressives who support Social Security have often had to play defense. But in late March, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the populist Democrat from Massachusetts, entered the fray—and challenged the prevailing view...
U.S. Labor
Automakers, labor union face a long, hot summer of contract talks Fortune ...Although the Detroit-based auto industry and the United Auto Workers union are still a few months away from serious negotiations, early signs aren’t favorable for a labor contract settled on mutually agreeable terms...
BP Whiting Refinery strike hits 2-month mark Chicago Tribune ...The union said it gave its last offer to BP on Thursday and has yet to hear from the company. Workers are standing by their union leaders, though some say it has been rough on them and their families financially...
EEOC: New York City owes underpaid minority female employees $246 million NY Daily News ...The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that New York City underpaid a thousand black and Hispanic female employees, a finding that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The Communications Workers of America lodged the complaint...
Raising Wages From the Bottom Up American Prospect ...The third way cities and states can build worker power is to stop the illegal practice of worker misclassification. Over the past several decades, many U.S. companies have relieved themselves of the obligation to provide their workers with benefits or pay them an adequate wage, through the expedient of declaring their workers not to be their employees.
Douglas County Fined For Violating Child Labor Laws Grand Island Independent ...A federal agency has fined Douglas County for violating child labor laws by letting four teenagers load a wood chipper last summer. The U.S. Department of Labor issued $3,100 in fines after discovering that four underage employees operated a wood chipper while temporarily working on a maintenance crew for the county engineer. Child labor laws allow only adults to do this...
Douglas County Fined For Violating Child Labor Laws Grand Island Independent ...A federal agency has fined Douglas County for violating child labor laws by letting four teenagers load a wood chipper last summer. The U.S. Department of Labor issued $3,100 in fines after discovering that four underage employees operated a wood chipper while temporarily working on a maintenance crew for the county engineer. Child labor laws allow only adults to do this...
Miscellaneous
Nestlé’s despicable water-crisis profiteering: How it’s making a killing — while California is dying of thirst Salon ...While California suffers through a historic 4-year drought, the corporate giant has made billions on bottled water. Nestlé has a 25-year contract with the Morongo Band of Cahuila Mission Indians to draw water from wells in Millard Canyon, in the desert city of Cabazon...
U.S. Spending Historic Amount Fighting Homelessness, And It's Working: Report Huffington Post ...Uncle Sam is prioritizing the fight against homelessness like he never has before. Federal funding for programs addressing homelessness is at its highest level ever, according to a report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness provided to The Huffington Post...
Is Your Favorite Baseball Team's Owner Still An Asshole? Mother Jones ...Chicago White Sox [owner] Jerry Reinsdorf made his fortune as a real estate developer who specialized in building tax shelters. One of the league's most anti-union owners, he was accused of colluding with fellow owners to drive down player salaries. He gives millions to charter schools, but takes even more out of the city's coffers thanks to a sweetheart deal that allows him to pay just 25 percent of the standard property tax rate for the United Center (home of the NBA's Chicago Bulls, which he also owns)...
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