Teamsters
Picketers At Calgary BURNCO Location Protest Employee Lockout Global News ...The lockout affects members of Teamsters Union Local 362, which covers employees at plants in Airdrie, Springbank and Okotoks.The union says the biggest sticking point with the negotiations is seniority, which employees don’t want to give up...
Sun Tran Strike: Day 5 Arizona Daily Star ...Teamsters want a pay raise and improved workplace safety conditions. Sun Tran says its offer “amounts to an increase of $2.7 million over the recommended three-year contract, while the offer issued by Teamsters Local Union 104 amounts to a $20.3 million increase.” Sun Tran also says it’s working with the union to address assaults on drivers and a mold issue in a maintenance building...
Teamster: Even The Top Guys In UFC Are Underpaid SB Nation ...While Thursday's announced garnered plenty of attention, details were still a little vague. To get a better idea of what exactly the Teamsters and UNITE HERE were trying to accomplish I spoke last Friday with Chris Griswold, Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters, Local 986...
Global Labor & Trade
Child Labor On The Rise In West Africa As Demand For Cocoa Grows Wall Street Journal ...Despite nearly 14 years of government and industry efforts aimed at combatting child labor in cocoa production, 21% more children are illegally laboring on cocoa farms in Ghana and Ivory Coast than five years ago, according to a Tulane University study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor...
How El Salvador’s Supreme Court Is Undermining Democracy—With Washington’s Help The Nation ...In fact, plans to undermine leftist governance in El Salvador go back years before the election of Sánchez Cerén, the first guerrilla leader of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party to become president of El Salvador. The strategy centers on the country’s Supreme Court—and the US government has been in on it from the beginning...
Greece And Creditors In Final Push For Bailout Huffington Post ...Greece and international creditors sought to put final touches on a multi-billion euro bailout accord on Monday to keep the country financially afloat and meet an important debt repayment to the European Central Bank within days...
State & Living Wage Battles
Washington State Poised To Become Leader In Oil Train Safety Ahead Of Massive Increase In Traffic Puget Sound Business Journal ...Washington state is quickly becoming a leader in crude oil train safety standards. That's good because the state is gearing up to become a high-traffic zone for the controversial trains...
Corps Of Engineers Should FUSRAP-Up West Lake's Toxic Waste St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The best solution for cleaning up radioactive waste buried at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton is to give control of the site to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...
California Effort To Issue Driver’s Licenses To Immigrants Receives Surge Of Applicants New York Times ...When Alberto Fraire drives past a police car these days, he no longer worries about steep fines, or perhaps being hauled to jail and tangling with the immigration system. When California began issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants this year, he was one of the first in line...
Amid Push For Higher Minimum Wage, Concern Rising About Workers Cheated Out Of Proper Pay U.S. News & World Report ...As a campaign to raise the minimum wage as high as $15 has achieved victories in such places as Seattle, Los Angeles and New York, it has bumped up against a harsh reality: Plenty of scofflaw businesses don't pay the legal minimum now and probably won't pay the new, higher wages either...
Another Sign That Momentum Is Building On Paid Parental Leave In The U.S. Huffington Post ...In the latest sign that support for paid family leave is growing in the U.S., Adobe on Monday announced a big expansion of benefits, including up to half a year of paid time off for new mothers...
U.S. Labor
The Outrageous Ascent Of CEO Pay Huffington Post ...For the last thirty years almost all incentives operating on American corporations have resulted in lower pay for average workers and higher pay for CEOs and other top executives. Consider that in 1965, CEOs of America's largest corporations were paid, on average, 20 times the pay of average workers. Now, the ratio is over 300 to 1...
Sysco Profit Drops, Hurt By US Foods-Related Costs Wall Street Journal ...Sysco Corp. said profit in its latest quarter fell, as the company booked charges stemming from its abandoned plan to acquire rival US Foods Inc...
Twisting Words To Make ‘Sharing’ Apps Seem Selfless New York Times ...Of course, marketing by its very nature involves concocting the most appealing expressions to attract consumers. But start-ups that enable consumers to summon drivers, lunch deliveries or domestic help at the tap of an app have added incentives to portray themselves in feel-good terms. Government regulators, legislators and courts in the United States have started scrutinizing the app-mediated service sector with the idea of determining whether longstanding consumer protection and labor rules apply to these new delivery models...
AT&T, Union Continue Negotiations After Contracts Expire Bloomberg Business ...AT&T Inc. and the Communications Workers of America continued talks on new labor contracts as current agreements covering more than 24,000 employees in the southeast U.S. expired...
CTU President: Contract Talks Haven’t Broken Down WBBM ...Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis disagrees contract talks with school officials have reached the “acrimonious” stage. She says meetings with public school officials have been very cordial and teachers have even been willing to take a pay freeze...
Social Justice & Other News
Virginia Recalling Specialty License Plates With Confederate Flag NPR ...Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles will begin recalling specialty license plates depicting the Confederate battle flag following a federal judge's decision last week to dissolve an injunction that barred officials from blocking such plates...
The Confederate Flag Just Came Down In ‘The Last Capitol Of The Confederacy’ Think Progress ...According to GoDanRiver.com, the Danville city council voted 7-2 last week to remove the Third National flag of the Confederacy from the lawn of the Sutherlin Mansion, a historic building which houses a museum paid for with public funds. The flag was erected in 1995 on the house’s lawn to commemorate its historical significance — namely, that it hosted the last official meeting of the Confederate presidential cabinet, making it the “Last Capitol of the Confederacy.”...
Congress’s Cybersecurity Plan Has Some Major Flaws Think Progress ...One complaint privacy advocates have is that CISA, as written, undercuts existing privacy laws that give citizens power to hold companies responsible for any digital recklessness...
Segregation 101 Huffington Post ...Surveys of black families have found that most would prefer to live in racially integrated neighborhoods. But black families face a variety of obstacles in finding houses to buy or apartments to rent in such areas. Moreover, racial segregation isn't simply a byproduct of the fact that blacks have, on average, lower incomes than whites. Even middle-class African-American families tend to live in racially segregated areas; they, too, face discrimination when looking for apartments to rent or houses to buy...
Fox News v. Donald Trump: It’s Hard To Destroy A Monster Of Your Own Creation Salon.com ...For years, Fox News provided Donald Trump a platform to talk about politics to an audience of conservative voters. The network’s employees constantly bombarded him with questions and encouragement regarding his presidential ambitions. When he finally did run, Fox promoted and defended his candidacy in the face of near universal criticism. His presence at Fox News’ debate helped make it the most-watched primary debate in history. And after all that, when he finally got up on stage, Fox News shivved him...
A Gaggle Of Future Governors Just Had A Great Time In Maui Huffington Post ...Last month, a group of state attorneys general flew to Maui for the annual meeting of the Conference of Western Attorneys General. For several days, the top law enforcement officers -- who are often referred to as "aspiring governors" because of their tendency to run for and win higher elected office -- attended panels and swapped legal expertise on issues facing their states. They also mixed with executives, lawyers and lobbyists at a Waldorf Astoria resort that boasts tropical gardens, a swim-up bar and a grand view of Wailea Beach...
Showing posts with label Bridgeton landfill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bridgeton landfill. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.26.15
Teamsters
San Francisco Board Of Supervisors Back Labor Harmony For Commuter Shuttles teamster.org ...The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today adopted a resolution that would require the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to consider the labor practices of commuter shuttle operators as part of their permitting process...
Why Teamsters Present Walmart With A New Challenge Forbes ...When the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a request by Walmart Stores to prevent shareholders from voting on a proposal to elect an independent board chairman at their annual shareholder meeting they were whistling up the wrong tree. The matter will now become part of the proxy for fiscal 2016 to be voted on in early June. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund submitted the proposal in an effort to unseat Walton family member, S. Robson (Rob) Walton from a position that he has held for many years...
BLET Urges Senators To Oppose PTC Extension BLET ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that it strongly opposes S. 650, the Railroad Safety and Positive Train Control Extension Act, which is expected to be voted on in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation within hours...
Senator: Union's reversal makes Sunday growler sales likely in Minnesota Associated Press ...The Teamsters Joint Council 32 helped derail the measure near the end of the legislative session last year, citing concerns about its impact on the union's labor contracts. But union lobbyist Ed Reynoso told a Senate Committee on Monday that, "at this point" the union won't oppose the effort this year...
Railroads Need To Do More To Improve Track, Union Official Says Progressive Railroading ...The president of a national railroad labor union this week called on freight railroads to step up their maintenance of track carrying oil trains in order to help prevent future derailments. Track conditions are a leading cause of train derailments in the United States, accounting for a third of all train accidents, noted Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division President Freddie Simpson, who cited Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data....
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S. New York Times ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a cornerstone of Mr. obama's remaining economic agenda -- would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and curt rulings -- federal state or local -- before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations...
Oregon MoveOn Members: If Sen. Wyden Supports Fast Track for TPP, We’ll Back a Progressive Challenger in 2016 Primary MoveOn.org ...Oregon members of MoveOn.org Political Action said overwhelmingly that they would back a progressive challenger to Sen. Ron Wyden (D) if the state’s senior senator supports Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a dangerous trade agreement that’s been called “NAFTA on steroids.”...
Ron Wyden avoids anti-trade pact protesters while continuing his fundraising The Oregonian ...A liberal Internet freedom group says it mounted an anti-free-trade protest Tuesday night that scared away Sen. Ron Wyden from holding a fundraiser at an upscale French restaurant near the Capitol...
State Battles
Work On Weekends: GOP Bill Takes Away Right To Weekend Day Off In Wisconsin Inquisitr ...Should you be forced to work on weekends? Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin think so, and they have introduced legislation to strip workers in that state of their right to a single, 24-hour “rest period,” once every seven days...
Public unions will lose power if new bill passes Associated Press ...The measure would prevent local government employers [in Nevada] from giving their employees paid time off for union tasks. It would bar supervisors and administrators from unionizing at all, and would expand local governments' ability to implement layoffs...
Bill Limiting Public Workers’ Payroll Deductions Stalls Without Charity Exemption Wichita Eagle ...A bill that would significantly scale back the collective bargaining power of public-sector unions hit a major snag Tuesday. One part of HB 2096 would prohibit automatic deductions from public workers’ paychecks for union dues or charitable contributions. The United Way of the Plains has said it would lose $300,000 if that happens. An amendment Tuesday sought to exempt charities from the bill, but it was rejected by conservative Republicans and Democrats...
Madigan: Rauner's right-to-work plans illegal Dispatch-Argus ... she also said Gov. Rauner's proposal to prevent unions from getting "fair share" dues from nonmembers working for the state would break the law as it stands...
Health Dept. To Study Landfill Effects KSDK ...The St. Louis County Health Department wants to study hundreds of north county residents. It's part of an effort to determine whether the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill is making people sick. The south quarry of the landfill has experienced an underground smoldering event since 2010. The reaction is releasing gas and odors into the air. Now St. Louis County's new Health Director wants to know what effect those emissions are having on people...
NLRB schedules union election for Boeing SC Charleston Business Journal ...More than 3,000 production and maintenance employees at Boeing South Carolina are eligible to vote on April 22 to decide whether they want union representation, following a National Labor Relations Board’s decision today to allow an election at the local plant...
War on Workers
The growing distance between people and jobs in metropolitan America Brookings ...Between 2000 and 2012, the number of jobs within the typical commute distance for residents in a major metro area fell by 7 percent...
America Needs Labor Unions (opinion) Huffington Post ...The reality is that unions are the greatest tool at most workers' disposal for rebuilding the middle class. Advocating for the elimination of this tool is the epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face...
Senate Dems Seek Stronger Oil Train Safety Rules The Hill ...Senate Democrats have proposed a bill to set stronger safety rules for trains carrying oil, including regulating the content of the oil itself. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said the most critical problem with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) ongoing regulatory effort on oil trains is that it does not confront the problem of the volatility of oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region...
Labor Board Still Grappling With Supreme Court Defeat The Hill ... In a case known as NLRB v. Noel Canning, the high court last June overturned a set of President Obama’s recess appointments to the labor board, concluding he overstepped in exerting his authority to fill vacancies while the Senate was technically in session. As a result, the board has had to revisit more than 100 labor cases that were decided while the NLRB was unconstitutionally constructed...
Miscellaneous
Inflation, New-Home Sales Firm Up Wall Street Journal ...The consumer-price index—covering everything from Americans’ rent to the cost of their dental care—rose in February for the first time in four months, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Overall prices were up 0.2% from January, though they were flat from a year ago. The move suggested inflation pressures are slowly building back up after succumbing to a six-month slide in oil prices...
San Francisco Board Of Supervisors Back Labor Harmony For Commuter Shuttles teamster.org ...The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today adopted a resolution that would require the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to consider the labor practices of commuter shuttle operators as part of their permitting process...
Why Teamsters Present Walmart With A New Challenge Forbes ...When the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a request by Walmart Stores to prevent shareholders from voting on a proposal to elect an independent board chairman at their annual shareholder meeting they were whistling up the wrong tree. The matter will now become part of the proxy for fiscal 2016 to be voted on in early June. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund submitted the proposal in an effort to unseat Walton family member, S. Robson (Rob) Walton from a position that he has held for many years...
BLET Urges Senators To Oppose PTC Extension BLET ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that it strongly opposes S. 650, the Railroad Safety and Positive Train Control Extension Act, which is expected to be voted on in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation within hours...
Senator: Union's reversal makes Sunday growler sales likely in Minnesota Associated Press ...The Teamsters Joint Council 32 helped derail the measure near the end of the legislative session last year, citing concerns about its impact on the union's labor contracts. But union lobbyist Ed Reynoso told a Senate Committee on Monday that, "at this point" the union won't oppose the effort this year...
Railroads Need To Do More To Improve Track, Union Official Says Progressive Railroading ...The president of a national railroad labor union this week called on freight railroads to step up their maintenance of track carrying oil trains in order to help prevent future derailments. Track conditions are a leading cause of train derailments in the United States, accounting for a third of all train accidents, noted Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division President Freddie Simpson, who cited Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data....
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S. New York Times ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a cornerstone of Mr. obama's remaining economic agenda -- would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and curt rulings -- federal state or local -- before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations...
Oregon MoveOn Members: If Sen. Wyden Supports Fast Track for TPP, We’ll Back a Progressive Challenger in 2016 Primary MoveOn.org ...Oregon members of MoveOn.org Political Action said overwhelmingly that they would back a progressive challenger to Sen. Ron Wyden (D) if the state’s senior senator supports Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a dangerous trade agreement that’s been called “NAFTA on steroids.”...
Ron Wyden avoids anti-trade pact protesters while continuing his fundraising The Oregonian ...A liberal Internet freedom group says it mounted an anti-free-trade protest Tuesday night that scared away Sen. Ron Wyden from holding a fundraiser at an upscale French restaurant near the Capitol...
State Battles
Work On Weekends: GOP Bill Takes Away Right To Weekend Day Off In Wisconsin Inquisitr ...Should you be forced to work on weekends? Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin think so, and they have introduced legislation to strip workers in that state of their right to a single, 24-hour “rest period,” once every seven days...
Public unions will lose power if new bill passes Associated Press ...The measure would prevent local government employers [in Nevada] from giving their employees paid time off for union tasks. It would bar supervisors and administrators from unionizing at all, and would expand local governments' ability to implement layoffs...
Bill Limiting Public Workers’ Payroll Deductions Stalls Without Charity Exemption Wichita Eagle ...A bill that would significantly scale back the collective bargaining power of public-sector unions hit a major snag Tuesday. One part of HB 2096 would prohibit automatic deductions from public workers’ paychecks for union dues or charitable contributions. The United Way of the Plains has said it would lose $300,000 if that happens. An amendment Tuesday sought to exempt charities from the bill, but it was rejected by conservative Republicans and Democrats...
Madigan: Rauner's right-to-work plans illegal Dispatch-Argus ... she also said Gov. Rauner's proposal to prevent unions from getting "fair share" dues from nonmembers working for the state would break the law as it stands...
Health Dept. To Study Landfill Effects KSDK ...The St. Louis County Health Department wants to study hundreds of north county residents. It's part of an effort to determine whether the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill is making people sick. The south quarry of the landfill has experienced an underground smoldering event since 2010. The reaction is releasing gas and odors into the air. Now St. Louis County's new Health Director wants to know what effect those emissions are having on people...
NLRB schedules union election for Boeing SC Charleston Business Journal ...More than 3,000 production and maintenance employees at Boeing South Carolina are eligible to vote on April 22 to decide whether they want union representation, following a National Labor Relations Board’s decision today to allow an election at the local plant...
War on Workers
The growing distance between people and jobs in metropolitan America Brookings ...Between 2000 and 2012, the number of jobs within the typical commute distance for residents in a major metro area fell by 7 percent...
America Needs Labor Unions (opinion) Huffington Post ...The reality is that unions are the greatest tool at most workers' disposal for rebuilding the middle class. Advocating for the elimination of this tool is the epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face...
Senate Dems Seek Stronger Oil Train Safety Rules The Hill ...Senate Democrats have proposed a bill to set stronger safety rules for trains carrying oil, including regulating the content of the oil itself. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said the most critical problem with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) ongoing regulatory effort on oil trains is that it does not confront the problem of the volatility of oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region...
Labor Board Still Grappling With Supreme Court Defeat The Hill ... In a case known as NLRB v. Noel Canning, the high court last June overturned a set of President Obama’s recess appointments to the labor board, concluding he overstepped in exerting his authority to fill vacancies while the Senate was technically in session. As a result, the board has had to revisit more than 100 labor cases that were decided while the NLRB was unconstitutionally constructed...
Miscellaneous
Inflation, New-Home Sales Firm Up Wall Street Journal ...The consumer-price index—covering everything from Americans’ rent to the cost of their dental care—rose in February for the first time in four months, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Overall prices were up 0.2% from January, though they were flat from a year ago. The move suggested inflation pressures are slowly building back up after succumbing to a six-month slide in oil prices...
Friday, February 20, 2015
Today's Teamster News 02.20.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Congratulate Walmart Workers Who Stood Strong For A Raise And Better Hours teamster.org …Today, Walmart workers who spoke out and took action won a raise for 500,000 Walmart workers nationwide. The workers and their families need better pay and regular hours from Walmart, a company that can afford it. Walmart last year earned $16 billion in profits, and it is run by a family with $150 billion in wealth…
Members Of Parliament Join Teamsters At Memphis School Bus Community Forum teamster.org ...Teamster school bus drivers and monitors with Durham School Services were joined by members of the British Parliament, labor and faith leaders, community members and Teamsters representatives Wednesday night at a community forum on the state of Shelby County, Tenn., student transportation...
Durham Bus Services Under Fire From British Parliament localmemphis.com …Durham is owned by a British company that operates a bus system in the UK called National Express Group. Two members of parliament are here in the United States this week to talk with parents, bus drivers and union leaders about the ongoing issues with Durham…
Tech Shuttle Driver Unionization Effort Heats Up Silicon Beat ...The Teamsters have asked tech companies chief executives to speak up to stop what they are calling “union busting.” The workers are planning a Feb. 27 unionization vote, as Julia Love reported in the Mercury News. Compass has contracts with Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo, Zynga as well as Amtrak...
County Board Approves Contract With Sheriff’s Employees Ogle County News ...Ogle County Sheriff’s Department employees will be getting raises thanks to a new four-year contract approved Tuesday by the county board...
British Pols Demand Union Protection For Durham School Bus Drivers WMC ...Ian Lavery and Jim Sheridan, both current or former union leaders and members of Britain's House of Commons, said they have investigated Durham School Services' on-going problems in Shelby County. They've concluded most of them are to blame on a hostile work environment, in which drivers are discouraged from filing grievances or from expressing their concerns about multiple routes...
CN Plans Unilateral Contacts Modifications After Talks With Unifor Fail Toronto Star ...The company’s last offer on Sunday, rejected by Unifor, called for a three-year agreement with three per cent wage increases in each year. It also contained benefit improvements the company said were in line with what it negotiated recently with the United Steelworkers, which represents 3,000 maintenance-of-way employees; as well as the 1,800-member Teamsters Canada locomotive engineers and the 180-member Teamsters Canada-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers...
Fire Official Says Bridgeton Landfill Hotspots Are Close To Radioactive Waste St. Louis Post Dispatch ...A Pattonville Fire District official says new infrared footage of the Bridgeton Landfill shows higher heat readings beyond the base of an ongoing fire, raising questions about whether the fire is contained...
Trade
Fast track trade authority a 'close call' in U.S. Congress -Vilsack Reuters …Fast track trade authority a 'close call' in U.S. Congress -Vilsack… Reuters …Lawmakers' approval of a bill to streamline the passage of trade deals through the U.S. Congress will be a "close call," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday...
U.S. lawmaker sees fast-track trade power soon in step towards trade pact Reuters …The chairman of a U.S. congressional committee responsible for trade said on Thursday he expects passage of legislation to fast-track trade deals soon, a vital step towards a Pacific trade pact covering a large chunk of the global economy...
Obama's Trade Deal Rewards A Brutally Anti-Gay Dictator -- And LGBT Lawmakers Are Not Pleased Huffington Post … Prominent LGBT members of Congress assailed the Obama administration on Wednesday for including Brunei and Malaysia -- two nations deeply hostile to gay communities -- in major trade talks...
Democrats Introduce Legislation to Ban Investor-State Provisions in Trade Agreements U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan … U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and 12 House Democrats today introduced H.R. 967: Protecting America’s Sovereignty Act, legislation to prohibit investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in foreign trade agreements...
Intellectual Property Provisions in the Leaked Japanese RCEP Proposal that Threaten the Availability of Generic Medicines infojustice.org …Japan’s proposed intellectual property text, which was leaked and has been posted online by KEI, includes numerous TRIPS Plus provisions. (South Korea is reported to be advocating for TRIPS-Plus provisions too.) Many of the provisions would be especially harmful to the Indian generic industry, which supplies the majority of medicines used by people in developing countries...
State Battles
GOP readies new wave of voting restrictions MSNBC …A roundup this month by the Brennan Center found that at least 40 restrictive voting bills have been introduced in state legislatures just since the start of the year...
Conservative Dem Senators Publicly Say They Won't Blast Right to Work Bill Santa Fe New Mexican … if any Senate Committee votes to table House Bill 75, it'll be dead for the session...
Koch Group Claims California Endangers Donors by Demanding Names Bloomberg News …A Koch brothers advocacy group contends California Attorney General Kamala Harris has no business demanding the names and addresses of its donors, who might face “grotesque threats” if identified…
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder Says He's Experienced "Gradual Impoverishment" with $86k Salary, Asks for More Money AFSCME Council 72 ...[Missouri] Lt. Governor Peter Kinder has been pushing hard for so-called Right to Work and Paycheck Deception legislation which would force wages down, but now he has the gall to ask for a raise for himself - even though Missouri state workers are the lowest paid in the country - saying $86,000 per year is leading him into "gradual impoverishment."...
Vote Delayed On Right-To-Work Bill Albuquerque Journal ...A vote on a high-profile right-to-work bill was put off Wednesday in the New Mexico House as some Republican lawmakers balked at a plan to tie a minimum wage increase of 50 cents per hour to the proposed change in state labor laws...
Boone County Tackles Right-To-Work Issue Cincinnati.com ..."We believe the time has come to put it on the agenda for a first reading to explore if it should or should not be passed in Boone County," said Judge-executive Gary Moore. ...
Scott Walker Is King Of Kochworld Bloomberg Politics ...The relationship between the Kochs and Walker was cemented during Walker's bitter war against public unions that led to a recall election in 2012. During the tense weeks of standoff at the capitol in Madison, it was the Kochs' Tea Party troops who provided the main counterforce to the tens of thousands of union activists protesting the governor, in a battle Walker eventually won...
Common Wage Repeal Advances In House On Party-Line Vote Indianapolis Star ...The GOP-controlled House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 8-4 Tuesday afternoon, along party lines, to recommend repealing the law that allows a board of contractors and taxpayers to set baseline wages for public construction projects worth more than $350,000...
War on Workers
Walmart Gives 500,000 Workers A Raise Huffington Post ...In a move that could alter the minimum wage debate and improve the image of the world's largest retailer, Walmart announced it will raise the baseline wage of its current store employees to $10 per hour, bringing pay hikes to an estimated 500,000 workers...
Are We Becoming a Part-Time Economy? Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta …Compared with 2007, the U.S. labor market now has about 2.5 million more people working part-time and about 2.2 million fewer people working full-time. In this sense, U.S. businesses are more reliant on part-time workers now than in the past...
Corporate Welfare Queens – Shocking “Development Program” Failure Rate in North Carolina naked capitalism …Picking Losers shows that the state’s flagship development program, the Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG), has seen 62 of its 102 projects fail in the period from its inception in 2002 until 2013. That is, 60% of the projects failed to meet either their job, investment, or wage goals, and had to have their awards canceled...
Teamsters Congratulate Walmart Workers Who Stood Strong For A Raise And Better Hours teamster.org …Today, Walmart workers who spoke out and took action won a raise for 500,000 Walmart workers nationwide. The workers and their families need better pay and regular hours from Walmart, a company that can afford it. Walmart last year earned $16 billion in profits, and it is run by a family with $150 billion in wealth…
Members Of Parliament Join Teamsters At Memphis School Bus Community Forum teamster.org ...Teamster school bus drivers and monitors with Durham School Services were joined by members of the British Parliament, labor and faith leaders, community members and Teamsters representatives Wednesday night at a community forum on the state of Shelby County, Tenn., student transportation...
Durham Bus Services Under Fire From British Parliament localmemphis.com …Durham is owned by a British company that operates a bus system in the UK called National Express Group. Two members of parliament are here in the United States this week to talk with parents, bus drivers and union leaders about the ongoing issues with Durham…
Tech Shuttle Driver Unionization Effort Heats Up Silicon Beat ...The Teamsters have asked tech companies chief executives to speak up to stop what they are calling “union busting.” The workers are planning a Feb. 27 unionization vote, as Julia Love reported in the Mercury News. Compass has contracts with Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo, Zynga as well as Amtrak...
County Board Approves Contract With Sheriff’s Employees Ogle County News ...Ogle County Sheriff’s Department employees will be getting raises thanks to a new four-year contract approved Tuesday by the county board...
British Pols Demand Union Protection For Durham School Bus Drivers WMC ...Ian Lavery and Jim Sheridan, both current or former union leaders and members of Britain's House of Commons, said they have investigated Durham School Services' on-going problems in Shelby County. They've concluded most of them are to blame on a hostile work environment, in which drivers are discouraged from filing grievances or from expressing their concerns about multiple routes...
CN Plans Unilateral Contacts Modifications After Talks With Unifor Fail Toronto Star ...The company’s last offer on Sunday, rejected by Unifor, called for a three-year agreement with three per cent wage increases in each year. It also contained benefit improvements the company said were in line with what it negotiated recently with the United Steelworkers, which represents 3,000 maintenance-of-way employees; as well as the 1,800-member Teamsters Canada locomotive engineers and the 180-member Teamsters Canada-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers...
Fire Official Says Bridgeton Landfill Hotspots Are Close To Radioactive Waste St. Louis Post Dispatch ...A Pattonville Fire District official says new infrared footage of the Bridgeton Landfill shows higher heat readings beyond the base of an ongoing fire, raising questions about whether the fire is contained...
Trade
Fast track trade authority a 'close call' in U.S. Congress -Vilsack Reuters …Fast track trade authority a 'close call' in U.S. Congress -Vilsack… Reuters …Lawmakers' approval of a bill to streamline the passage of trade deals through the U.S. Congress will be a "close call," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday...
U.S. lawmaker sees fast-track trade power soon in step towards trade pact Reuters …The chairman of a U.S. congressional committee responsible for trade said on Thursday he expects passage of legislation to fast-track trade deals soon, a vital step towards a Pacific trade pact covering a large chunk of the global economy...
Obama's Trade Deal Rewards A Brutally Anti-Gay Dictator -- And LGBT Lawmakers Are Not Pleased Huffington Post … Prominent LGBT members of Congress assailed the Obama administration on Wednesday for including Brunei and Malaysia -- two nations deeply hostile to gay communities -- in major trade talks...
Democrats Introduce Legislation to Ban Investor-State Provisions in Trade Agreements U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan … U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and 12 House Democrats today introduced H.R. 967: Protecting America’s Sovereignty Act, legislation to prohibit investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in foreign trade agreements...
Intellectual Property Provisions in the Leaked Japanese RCEP Proposal that Threaten the Availability of Generic Medicines infojustice.org …Japan’s proposed intellectual property text, which was leaked and has been posted online by KEI, includes numerous TRIPS Plus provisions. (South Korea is reported to be advocating for TRIPS-Plus provisions too.) Many of the provisions would be especially harmful to the Indian generic industry, which supplies the majority of medicines used by people in developing countries...
State Battles
GOP readies new wave of voting restrictions MSNBC …A roundup this month by the Brennan Center found that at least 40 restrictive voting bills have been introduced in state legislatures just since the start of the year...
Conservative Dem Senators Publicly Say They Won't Blast Right to Work Bill Santa Fe New Mexican … if any Senate Committee votes to table House Bill 75, it'll be dead for the session...
Koch Group Claims California Endangers Donors by Demanding Names Bloomberg News …A Koch brothers advocacy group contends California Attorney General Kamala Harris has no business demanding the names and addresses of its donors, who might face “grotesque threats” if identified…
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder Says He's Experienced "Gradual Impoverishment" with $86k Salary, Asks for More Money AFSCME Council 72 ...[Missouri] Lt. Governor Peter Kinder has been pushing hard for so-called Right to Work and Paycheck Deception legislation which would force wages down, but now he has the gall to ask for a raise for himself - even though Missouri state workers are the lowest paid in the country - saying $86,000 per year is leading him into "gradual impoverishment."...
Vote Delayed On Right-To-Work Bill Albuquerque Journal ...A vote on a high-profile right-to-work bill was put off Wednesday in the New Mexico House as some Republican lawmakers balked at a plan to tie a minimum wage increase of 50 cents per hour to the proposed change in state labor laws...
Boone County Tackles Right-To-Work Issue Cincinnati.com ..."We believe the time has come to put it on the agenda for a first reading to explore if it should or should not be passed in Boone County," said Judge-executive Gary Moore. ...
Scott Walker Is King Of Kochworld Bloomberg Politics ...The relationship between the Kochs and Walker was cemented during Walker's bitter war against public unions that led to a recall election in 2012. During the tense weeks of standoff at the capitol in Madison, it was the Kochs' Tea Party troops who provided the main counterforce to the tens of thousands of union activists protesting the governor, in a battle Walker eventually won...
Common Wage Repeal Advances In House On Party-Line Vote Indianapolis Star ...The GOP-controlled House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 8-4 Tuesday afternoon, along party lines, to recommend repealing the law that allows a board of contractors and taxpayers to set baseline wages for public construction projects worth more than $350,000...
War on Workers
Walmart Gives 500,000 Workers A Raise Huffington Post ...In a move that could alter the minimum wage debate and improve the image of the world's largest retailer, Walmart announced it will raise the baseline wage of its current store employees to $10 per hour, bringing pay hikes to an estimated 500,000 workers...
Are We Becoming a Part-Time Economy? Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta …Compared with 2007, the U.S. labor market now has about 2.5 million more people working part-time and about 2.2 million fewer people working full-time. In this sense, U.S. businesses are more reliant on part-time workers now than in the past...
Corporate Welfare Queens – Shocking “Development Program” Failure Rate in North Carolina naked capitalism …Picking Losers shows that the state’s flagship development program, the Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG), has seen 62 of its 102 projects fail in the period from its inception in 2002 until 2013. That is, 60% of the projects failed to meet either their job, investment, or wage goals, and had to have their awards canceled...
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Today's Teamster News 02.05.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Reach Tentative Agreement With Air Canada teamster.org …Today, the Teamsters Union announced a tentative agreement with U.S.-based Air Canada Teamster represented employees that improves wages, benefits and job protections for the entire group...
Shuttle bus drivers for Apple, Yahoo and other tech giants to vote on unionization Contra Costa Times Drivers employed by Compass Transportation -- which has contracts with Amtrak, Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo and Zynga -- will decide whether to join the Teamsters union on Feb. 27 in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, said Rome Aloise, international vice president and secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 853... Clatsop Enterprise Zone Would Offer Tax Breaks For New Investment Daily Astorian ...The council also approved a new three-year contract between the city and the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local 58 that includes 2.5 percent annual pay raises retroactive to last July...
New Pipeline Raises Concerns Near Landfill KSDK ...A new waste pipeline running from the troubled Bridgeton landfill is almost complete. The pipe is raising concerns that radioactive material might be pumped beneath some north St. Louis County neighborhoods...
CASA Elects Board Members La Prensa ...Mark Sobczak has been a member of the Teamsters Union for 35 years and served as the Teamsters Vice President. He is currently the Commissioner of Resources for the City of Toledo. He has served as a member of the Toledo-Lucas County Visitors and Convention Bureau, the Great Lakes Historical Society, and the Citizen Advisory Panel for the Toledo Refining Company...
Trade
Trade Minister Andrew Robb says Trans-Pacific Partnership deal could be struck within weeks ABC Rural …"The chief US trade negotiator Mike Froman, I know from personal contact with the congressmen over there, he's been keeping them abreast the whole way through. Again, there's always uncertainties, but I do feel there's every prospect that the Congress will pass it...
What the Corporate Media Aren't Telling You About the TPP truthout …during the 17 month period between August 2013 and February 2015, only one nightly network news show, PBS Newshour, mentioned the trade deal - and they only mentioned it just eight times. ABC, CBS, and NBC didn't mention the TPP once...
Why The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is Bad For Workers, And For Democracy (opinion) Huffington Post ... Economists vary widely in their assessments of the TPP, but there's general agreement across ideological stripes that tariffs are already low. In fact, some reports claim that only five of the 29 draft chapters in the agreement actually relate to lowering tariffs. The protest-worthy part of the deal regards the NBTs [non-tariff barriers to trade]--the reduction of regulatory measures, and "freeing" of market activity, in the name of standardizing rules and lowering costs...
State Battles
Right-to-work bill for construction unions passes House committee The St. Louis American …On Wednesday, February 4, a Missouri House of Representatives committee passed a so-called “right to work” bill for the building trades, sponsored by state Rep. Courtney Curtis – a black Democrat representing part of North St. Louis County, including Ferguson. All of the bill’s supporters were Republicans in the 8-4 vote...
Lexington Council Votes To Consider Raising Minimum Wage, 'Right-To-Work' Ordinance Lexington Herald Leader ...The Urban County Council could begin discussions as early as March on raising the minimum wage in Lexington and on passing an ordinance that would allow people to work in union shops without paying dues...
“Right to Work” Is the Wrong Answer for New Mexico’s Economy Economic Policy Institute …What RTW laws do is make it illegal for an employer and employee organization to negotiate a contract that requires every employee benefiting from the contract to pay his or her fair share of the costs of negotiating and enforcing that contract...
Martinez: Let's Stick To The Facts About "Right To Work" (opinion) KRWG …When I think of all the issues we face here in our state in building a healthy economy I am appalled that the Governor will be attacking our working families...
Senate committee passes bill repealing prevailing wage over labor’s objections MetroNews …A state Senate committee has passed legislation eliminating prevailing wage in West Virginia. The Senate Government Organization Committee room was packed and overflowing into the hallway Tuesday as lawmakers debated SB 361...
Missouri speaker bans lobbyist-funded meals in House committees Kansas City Star …The move shuts down a practice that has been a fixture of House committee hearings for years. And it happened amid renewed debate in both the state House and Senate over legislative ethics...
Mayor Bill De Blasio To Push For Major Minimum Wage Hike In New York City Huffington Post ...New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced Tuesday that he will push to have the city’s hourly minimum wage jump to $13 by next year -- a steep increase from the $8.75 an hour that the city’s lowest-paid workers currently earn...
Walker’s Wisconsin Budget Has A National Message New York Times ...Mr. Walker’s proposal calls for cutting about $300 million, or 13 percent, in state funds from the University of Wisconsin System, which includes 13 four-year universities and enrolls some 180,000 students. Mr. Walker’s plan would also take the unusual step of removing the university system from direct state control to a “quasi-governmental” authority that could act autonomously on issues of personnel, procurement, capital projects and tuition...
How Koch-Republican Governors Rob Pensions And Slash Wages Politicususa … In states like Kansas, and New Jersey, as just two examples, Republicans created revenue shortfalls due to substantial tax cuts for the rich and to fund the tax cuts refuse to make regular payments into the public employee pension funds. Underfunding, or not funding at all, pension funds is a deliberate plot to create ‘pension fund crises’ that gives Republicans a reason to cut retiree benefits under the guise of keeping the retirement fund solvent. It is worth noting again and again, taxpayers do not pay for public employees’ pensions, and the lack of a pension funds’ solvency is not because employees are not paying their fair share...
War on Workers
Wall Street Pays Bankers to Work in Government And It Doesn't Want Anyone to Know New Republic …itigroup is one of three Wall Street banks attempting to keep hidden their practice of paying executives multimillion-dollar awards for entering government service. In letters delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the last month, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley seek exemption from a shareholder proposal, filed by the AFL-CIO labor coalition, which would force them to identify all executives eligible for these financial rewards, and the specific dollar amounts at stake…
Unemployment Has Changed. Unemployment Benefits Haven’t. FiveThirtyEight ...Nearly 3 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months, the traditional definition of long-term unemployment. That’s down from a peak of 6.8 million in 2010, but as a share of total joblessness, long-term unemployment remains higher today than at the peak of any previous recession. Moreover, the problem appears to be at least partially structural: The amount of time the typical person remains out of work has been trending upward for decades...
Robot Cars Won’t Rescue Uber From Its Clash With Drivers (opinion) Wired ...Uber released a survey recently that found most of its drivers were happy, but enough of them are unhappy enough to sue. At least until robot cars hit the roads en masse, Uber will have to figure out a way to keep the drivers on which its business depends. Or else the courts will...
Worker Killed In Backhoe Accident At Texarkana Jobsite Tyler Morning Telegraph ...A construction worker has been killed in a backhoe accident at a jobsite in Northeast Texas...
Miscellaneous
Metro-North Service Resumes Amid Investigation Into Deadly Collision ABC News …Metro-North train service resumed this morning at the site of Tuesday’s deadly collision between an SUV and passenger train, an accident that killed the SUV’s driver and five passengers...
Extreme cold, ice reveal faults in U.S. northeast mass transit Reuters …Wicked winter weather gripping the northeastern United States exposed weaknesses in mass transit systems from Boston to New York, with commuters stranded on icy train platforms amid delays stretching into Tuesday...
Teamsters Reach Tentative Agreement With Air Canada teamster.org …Today, the Teamsters Union announced a tentative agreement with U.S.-based Air Canada Teamster represented employees that improves wages, benefits and job protections for the entire group...
Shuttle bus drivers for Apple, Yahoo and other tech giants to vote on unionization Contra Costa Times Drivers employed by Compass Transportation -- which has contracts with Amtrak, Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo and Zynga -- will decide whether to join the Teamsters union on Feb. 27 in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, said Rome Aloise, international vice president and secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 853... Clatsop Enterprise Zone Would Offer Tax Breaks For New Investment Daily Astorian ...The council also approved a new three-year contract between the city and the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local 58 that includes 2.5 percent annual pay raises retroactive to last July...
New Pipeline Raises Concerns Near Landfill KSDK ...A new waste pipeline running from the troubled Bridgeton landfill is almost complete. The pipe is raising concerns that radioactive material might be pumped beneath some north St. Louis County neighborhoods...
CASA Elects Board Members La Prensa ...Mark Sobczak has been a member of the Teamsters Union for 35 years and served as the Teamsters Vice President. He is currently the Commissioner of Resources for the City of Toledo. He has served as a member of the Toledo-Lucas County Visitors and Convention Bureau, the Great Lakes Historical Society, and the Citizen Advisory Panel for the Toledo Refining Company...
Trade
Trade Minister Andrew Robb says Trans-Pacific Partnership deal could be struck within weeks ABC Rural …"The chief US trade negotiator Mike Froman, I know from personal contact with the congressmen over there, he's been keeping them abreast the whole way through. Again, there's always uncertainties, but I do feel there's every prospect that the Congress will pass it...
What the Corporate Media Aren't Telling You About the TPP truthout …during the 17 month period between August 2013 and February 2015, only one nightly network news show, PBS Newshour, mentioned the trade deal - and they only mentioned it just eight times. ABC, CBS, and NBC didn't mention the TPP once...
Why The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is Bad For Workers, And For Democracy (opinion) Huffington Post ... Economists vary widely in their assessments of the TPP, but there's general agreement across ideological stripes that tariffs are already low. In fact, some reports claim that only five of the 29 draft chapters in the agreement actually relate to lowering tariffs. The protest-worthy part of the deal regards the NBTs [non-tariff barriers to trade]--the reduction of regulatory measures, and "freeing" of market activity, in the name of standardizing rules and lowering costs...
State Battles
Right-to-work bill for construction unions passes House committee The St. Louis American …On Wednesday, February 4, a Missouri House of Representatives committee passed a so-called “right to work” bill for the building trades, sponsored by state Rep. Courtney Curtis – a black Democrat representing part of North St. Louis County, including Ferguson. All of the bill’s supporters were Republicans in the 8-4 vote...
Lexington Council Votes To Consider Raising Minimum Wage, 'Right-To-Work' Ordinance Lexington Herald Leader ...The Urban County Council could begin discussions as early as March on raising the minimum wage in Lexington and on passing an ordinance that would allow people to work in union shops without paying dues...
“Right to Work” Is the Wrong Answer for New Mexico’s Economy Economic Policy Institute …What RTW laws do is make it illegal for an employer and employee organization to negotiate a contract that requires every employee benefiting from the contract to pay his or her fair share of the costs of negotiating and enforcing that contract...
Martinez: Let's Stick To The Facts About "Right To Work" (opinion) KRWG …When I think of all the issues we face here in our state in building a healthy economy I am appalled that the Governor will be attacking our working families...
Senate committee passes bill repealing prevailing wage over labor’s objections MetroNews …A state Senate committee has passed legislation eliminating prevailing wage in West Virginia. The Senate Government Organization Committee room was packed and overflowing into the hallway Tuesday as lawmakers debated SB 361...
Missouri speaker bans lobbyist-funded meals in House committees Kansas City Star …The move shuts down a practice that has been a fixture of House committee hearings for years. And it happened amid renewed debate in both the state House and Senate over legislative ethics...
Mayor Bill De Blasio To Push For Major Minimum Wage Hike In New York City Huffington Post ...New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced Tuesday that he will push to have the city’s hourly minimum wage jump to $13 by next year -- a steep increase from the $8.75 an hour that the city’s lowest-paid workers currently earn...
Walker’s Wisconsin Budget Has A National Message New York Times ...Mr. Walker’s proposal calls for cutting about $300 million, or 13 percent, in state funds from the University of Wisconsin System, which includes 13 four-year universities and enrolls some 180,000 students. Mr. Walker’s plan would also take the unusual step of removing the university system from direct state control to a “quasi-governmental” authority that could act autonomously on issues of personnel, procurement, capital projects and tuition...
How Koch-Republican Governors Rob Pensions And Slash Wages Politicususa … In states like Kansas, and New Jersey, as just two examples, Republicans created revenue shortfalls due to substantial tax cuts for the rich and to fund the tax cuts refuse to make regular payments into the public employee pension funds. Underfunding, or not funding at all, pension funds is a deliberate plot to create ‘pension fund crises’ that gives Republicans a reason to cut retiree benefits under the guise of keeping the retirement fund solvent. It is worth noting again and again, taxpayers do not pay for public employees’ pensions, and the lack of a pension funds’ solvency is not because employees are not paying their fair share...
War on Workers
Wall Street Pays Bankers to Work in Government And It Doesn't Want Anyone to Know New Republic …itigroup is one of three Wall Street banks attempting to keep hidden their practice of paying executives multimillion-dollar awards for entering government service. In letters delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the last month, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley seek exemption from a shareholder proposal, filed by the AFL-CIO labor coalition, which would force them to identify all executives eligible for these financial rewards, and the specific dollar amounts at stake…
Unemployment Has Changed. Unemployment Benefits Haven’t. FiveThirtyEight ...Nearly 3 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months, the traditional definition of long-term unemployment. That’s down from a peak of 6.8 million in 2010, but as a share of total joblessness, long-term unemployment remains higher today than at the peak of any previous recession. Moreover, the problem appears to be at least partially structural: The amount of time the typical person remains out of work has been trending upward for decades...
Robot Cars Won’t Rescue Uber From Its Clash With Drivers (opinion) Wired ...Uber released a survey recently that found most of its drivers were happy, but enough of them are unhappy enough to sue. At least until robot cars hit the roads en masse, Uber will have to figure out a way to keep the drivers on which its business depends. Or else the courts will...
Worker Killed In Backhoe Accident At Texarkana Jobsite Tyler Morning Telegraph ...A construction worker has been killed in a backhoe accident at a jobsite in Northeast Texas...
Miscellaneous
Metro-North Service Resumes Amid Investigation Into Deadly Collision ABC News …Metro-North train service resumed this morning at the site of Tuesday’s deadly collision between an SUV and passenger train, an accident that killed the SUV’s driver and five passengers...
Extreme cold, ice reveal faults in U.S. northeast mass transit Reuters …Wicked winter weather gripping the northeastern United States exposed weaknesses in mass transit systems from Boston to New York, with commuters stranded on icy train platforms amid delays stretching into Tuesday...
Friday, January 30, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.30.15
Teamsters
Allegiant Travel Reports Narrower Profits, Helped By Lower Fuel Costs Las Vegas Review Journal ...With the threat of a pilot strike looming on the horizon, Las Vegas-based Allegiant Travel, parent company of Allegiant Air, on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings that were spurred by lower fuel costs that have benefited all the nation’s airlines...
Local Union Reps Say Opt-Out Rates Low In 2014 Traverse City Record Eagle ...Bob Donick, an area business representative for Teamsters 214, said he hasn't seen the right-to-work law significantly affect the roughly 1,600 public employees he and Dave Meachum represent in northern Michigan...
Lifespan Workers To Picket Rhode Island Hospital GoLocalProv ...Nearly 2,500 Teamster employees are in negotiations at Rhode Island Hospital for a new contract. As part of the negotiations, Local 251 has been joined by community organizations to make proposals to protect and improve quality patient care...
Sysco’s $8.2B U.S. Foods Merger May Spoil: Source New York Post ...The Federal Trade Commission this week sent a subpoena to a third-party food distributor asking for more information, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said. Blackstone Group-owned Performance Food Group agreed in early December to buy assets from Sysco with roughly $5 billion in revenue, a source said, noting PFG did not get the subpoena...
Trade
Plane above N.J. skies tells Obama: Keep trade deal 'away from our medicines' Staten Island Advance ...Doctors Without Borders This week is sending a plane from Central Jersey Regional Airport in Hillsborough over the skies of New York and New Jersey to protest the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and under-negotiation regulatory and investment treaty. The plane is flying a banner that reads "Doctors to Obama: Keep #TPP Away From Our Medicines."...
Don’t Repeat America’s Mistakes On Trade Partnerships (opinion) ...The TPP would further weaken our manufacturing base and financial stability with damaging economic and national security implications. The administration is following a policy that has failed U.S. workers in the past and has not strengthened foreign policy. We must look not to promises, hopes or theories but to experience. We cannot make the same mistakes again...
India Child Labor: 200 Children Rescued In Hyderabad Raids International Business Times ...The children, as young as 6 years old, were from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Briar in northern India and were making bangles and leather products, according to NDTV. They were brought to Hyderabad after their captors paid their parents 20,000 rupees ($325.)...
State Battles
Right-to-work bill approved by 8-5 vote in House committee Associated Press ...The debate over whether to make New Mexico the nation’s 25th state with a right-to-work law got off to a rousing start today. After nearly five hours of debate, members of the House Business and Employment Committee voted 8-5 in favor of the legislation, which now advances to the House Judiciary Committee...
Leaked Emails: GOP leaders seek fake report to push right to work and ‘sugar daddy’ to fund it Progress Now NM ...A new review of secret campaign emails leaked from Susana Martinez’s campaign account by former staffers located emails between the Rio Grande Foundation and Republican operatives looking for a “sugar daddy” to pay for a fake report and new narrative designed to “win all close elections” against Democrats “dumb” enough to oppose it...
Republican Wisconsin Senate leader renews call for passing right-to-work bill Minneapolis Star Tribune ...Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald issued a statement Thursday saying debate of right-to-work needs to occur along with consideration of the state budget. Walker will release his budget plan on Tuesday...
Northrop Grumman Cuts Ties With ALEC National Journal ...Behemoth defense contractor Northrop Grumman is the latest blue-chip corporation to end its affiliation with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that has endured the departure of several prominent tech companies in recent months, National Journal has learned...
Labor debate floods Clark County Fiscal Court The Winchester Sun ...Talk of instituting right-to-work laws in Clark County drew supporters from both sides of the debate at the fiscal court's regular meeting Wednesday...
Voter ID bills are back St. Louis American ...“On the anniversary of the March on Selma, the fight for voter rights have been exposed and celebrated,” said state Rep. Stacey Newman (D-87). “But they’ve also taught us that this never ends.”
Ind. Gov. Mike Pence faces criticism over proposed state run news Web site WDRB ...Indiana Governor Mike Pence admits there's been some confusion about his planned state run news website.
He now says he will get rid of the site if it doesn't respect the role of a free and independent press...
Lobbyists See Brownback Budget Before Legislators Kansas City Business Journal ...Gov. Sam Brownback's budget director, Shawn Sullivan, used his personal Yahoo account to email the rough draft to Brownback's former chief of staff, David Kensinger, and his former campaign manager, Mark Dugan. Both are lobbyists...
Gov. Rick Scott Proposes Cutting 1,000 State Positions Tallahassee Democrat ...Gov. Rick Scott is recommending the elimination of more than 1,000 state-worker positions as part of his budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year...
War on Workers
Gas blast at children's hospital in Mexico City leaves at least 2 dead; truck driver detained FOX News Latino ...A gas tank truck exploded outside a maternity and children's hospital in Mexico City on Thursday morning, leaving much of it in ruins. At least two people were killed and 56 injured, said Claudia Dominguez, spokeswoman for Mexico City's civil defense agency. Officials earlier had said at least four and as many as seven had been killed at the explosion site at the Maternity Hospital of Cuajimalpa...
Uber’s Business Model Could Change Your Work New York Times ...The larger worry about on-demand jobs is not about benefits, but about a lack of agency — a future in which computers, rather than humans, determine what you do, when and for how much. The rise of Uber-like jobs is the logical culmination of an economic and tech system that holds efficiency as its paramount virtue...
Work At Bridgeton Landfill Causing Strong Odors KSDK ...A foul smell is wafting across parts of north St. Louis County this weekend and it's coming from the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill...
Allegiant Travel Reports Narrower Profits, Helped By Lower Fuel Costs Las Vegas Review Journal ...With the threat of a pilot strike looming on the horizon, Las Vegas-based Allegiant Travel, parent company of Allegiant Air, on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings that were spurred by lower fuel costs that have benefited all the nation’s airlines...
Local Union Reps Say Opt-Out Rates Low In 2014 Traverse City Record Eagle ...Bob Donick, an area business representative for Teamsters 214, said he hasn't seen the right-to-work law significantly affect the roughly 1,600 public employees he and Dave Meachum represent in northern Michigan...
Lifespan Workers To Picket Rhode Island Hospital GoLocalProv ...Nearly 2,500 Teamster employees are in negotiations at Rhode Island Hospital for a new contract. As part of the negotiations, Local 251 has been joined by community organizations to make proposals to protect and improve quality patient care...
Sysco’s $8.2B U.S. Foods Merger May Spoil: Source New York Post ...The Federal Trade Commission this week sent a subpoena to a third-party food distributor asking for more information, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said. Blackstone Group-owned Performance Food Group agreed in early December to buy assets from Sysco with roughly $5 billion in revenue, a source said, noting PFG did not get the subpoena...
Trade
Plane above N.J. skies tells Obama: Keep trade deal 'away from our medicines' Staten Island Advance ...Doctors Without Borders This week is sending a plane from Central Jersey Regional Airport in Hillsborough over the skies of New York and New Jersey to protest the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and under-negotiation regulatory and investment treaty. The plane is flying a banner that reads "Doctors to Obama: Keep #TPP Away From Our Medicines."...
Don’t Repeat America’s Mistakes On Trade Partnerships (opinion) ...The TPP would further weaken our manufacturing base and financial stability with damaging economic and national security implications. The administration is following a policy that has failed U.S. workers in the past and has not strengthened foreign policy. We must look not to promises, hopes or theories but to experience. We cannot make the same mistakes again...
India Child Labor: 200 Children Rescued In Hyderabad Raids International Business Times ...The children, as young as 6 years old, were from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Briar in northern India and were making bangles and leather products, according to NDTV. They were brought to Hyderabad after their captors paid their parents 20,000 rupees ($325.)...
State Battles
Right-to-work bill approved by 8-5 vote in House committee Associated Press ...The debate over whether to make New Mexico the nation’s 25th state with a right-to-work law got off to a rousing start today. After nearly five hours of debate, members of the House Business and Employment Committee voted 8-5 in favor of the legislation, which now advances to the House Judiciary Committee...
Leaked Emails: GOP leaders seek fake report to push right to work and ‘sugar daddy’ to fund it Progress Now NM ...A new review of secret campaign emails leaked from Susana Martinez’s campaign account by former staffers located emails between the Rio Grande Foundation and Republican operatives looking for a “sugar daddy” to pay for a fake report and new narrative designed to “win all close elections” against Democrats “dumb” enough to oppose it...
Republican Wisconsin Senate leader renews call for passing right-to-work bill Minneapolis Star Tribune ...Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald issued a statement Thursday saying debate of right-to-work needs to occur along with consideration of the state budget. Walker will release his budget plan on Tuesday...
Northrop Grumman Cuts Ties With ALEC National Journal ...Behemoth defense contractor Northrop Grumman is the latest blue-chip corporation to end its affiliation with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that has endured the departure of several prominent tech companies in recent months, National Journal has learned...
Labor debate floods Clark County Fiscal Court The Winchester Sun ...Talk of instituting right-to-work laws in Clark County drew supporters from both sides of the debate at the fiscal court's regular meeting Wednesday...
Voter ID bills are back St. Louis American ...“On the anniversary of the March on Selma, the fight for voter rights have been exposed and celebrated,” said state Rep. Stacey Newman (D-87). “But they’ve also taught us that this never ends.”
Ind. Gov. Mike Pence faces criticism over proposed state run news Web site WDRB ...Indiana Governor Mike Pence admits there's been some confusion about his planned state run news website.
He now says he will get rid of the site if it doesn't respect the role of a free and independent press...
Lobbyists See Brownback Budget Before Legislators Kansas City Business Journal ...Gov. Sam Brownback's budget director, Shawn Sullivan, used his personal Yahoo account to email the rough draft to Brownback's former chief of staff, David Kensinger, and his former campaign manager, Mark Dugan. Both are lobbyists...
Gov. Rick Scott Proposes Cutting 1,000 State Positions Tallahassee Democrat ...Gov. Rick Scott is recommending the elimination of more than 1,000 state-worker positions as part of his budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year...
War on Workers
Gas blast at children's hospital in Mexico City leaves at least 2 dead; truck driver detained FOX News Latino ...A gas tank truck exploded outside a maternity and children's hospital in Mexico City on Thursday morning, leaving much of it in ruins. At least two people were killed and 56 injured, said Claudia Dominguez, spokeswoman for Mexico City's civil defense agency. Officials earlier had said at least four and as many as seven had been killed at the explosion site at the Maternity Hospital of Cuajimalpa...
Uber’s Business Model Could Change Your Work New York Times ...The larger worry about on-demand jobs is not about benefits, but about a lack of agency — a future in which computers, rather than humans, determine what you do, when and for how much. The rise of Uber-like jobs is the logical culmination of an economic and tech system that holds efficiency as its paramount virtue...
Work At Bridgeton Landfill Causing Strong Odors KSDK ...A foul smell is wafting across parts of north St. Louis County this weekend and it's coming from the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill...
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.17.15
Teamsters
Teamster Pilots With Allegiant Air Authorize Strike teamster.org ...Pilots at Allegiant Air, represented by the Airline Professionals Association (APA) Teamsters Local 1224, voted overwhelmingly, 465-8, today to authorize a strike against Allegiant Air. The 10-day voting period closed at 12:00 p.m. EST today, with 98 percent of voting Allegiant Air pilots voting “Yes” to authorize the union to call a strike if necessary...
At Hunts Point Market, Awaiting Word on Strike as Talks Continue New York Times ...Many of the workers said they were prepared to carry out the first strike at the market in nearly 30 years if contract talks between their union, Teamsters Local 202, and management failed to resolve differences between the two sides over proposed wage increases and health care contributions...
Teamsters Leader Daniel Grace Lauds Governor-Elect Wolf for Barring Yuengling teamster.org ...The leader of Philadelphia-based Teamsters Local 830 today lauded the decision of Governor-Elect Tom Wolf to exclude Yuengling Beer products from his inaugural ball in Harrisburg next Tuesday, Jan. 20...
Teamsters Support Administration’s Push For Paid Leave teamster.org ...The Teamsters encourage a workplace that grants dignity and respect to all workers and the union applauds the Obama administration for pushing forward with an agenda that calls for hardworking Americans to receive paid sick time. We also support an executive order that would give federal employees six weeks paid time off after giving birth...
Labor Agreements Inked With City Unions Daily Sun News ...The Sunnyside City Council, at its first meeting in 2015 this past Monday, authorized agreements with the city’s office/clerical and public works collective bargaining units. Both agreements include a change to the health insurance premiums, from a 70 percent employer/30 percent employee cost to a 75/25 split. Both agreements also include additional longevity pay based on years of service...
CN Reaches Tentative Labour Agreement With Teamsters Union Representing Rail Traffic Controllers American Journal Of Transportation ...The four-year agreement would provide wage increases and benefit improvements to approximately 180 employees. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending ratification by union members. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote before the end of February 2015...
North Versailles Township Police Get Raises, To Pay For Health Insurance Pittsburgh Tribune Review ...North Versailles Township police will get annual raises for the next four years under a new contract township commissioners approved Thursday...
Trade
What You Need To Know When Obama Talks Trade Campaign for America's Future ...President Obama is likely to use the State of the Union to push for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the rigged “fast track” trade promotion authority...
Dana Milbank: Cracks in the GOP foundation (opinion) Washington Post ...On Tuesday morning, a group of tea-party conservatives met in the Capitol complex to complain about Republican plans to pass “trade promotion authority,” giving Obama greater ability to negotiate trade deals with less congressional say-so...
‘Corporate Wolves’ Will Exploit TTIP Trade Deal, MPs Warned The Guardian ...The controversial TTIP trade deal between Europe and the US could depress workers’ wages by £3,000 a year and allow “corporate wolves” to sue the government for loss of profit, MPs have heard...
EU Consultation On Corporate Sovereignty In TAFTA/TTIP Shows 145,000 Against It; European Commission Carries On Anyway Techdirt ...As well as the unanimity of the rejection, what is striking is the fact that 145,000 citizens replied to a consultation on an obscure aspect of trade agreements that most people had never heard of a year ago. That alone bespeaks an unprecedented engagement by the public -- something rare enough at a time when people are generally disenchanted with politicians and their grand projects...
Say No To Dangerous Trade Pacts (opinion) The New American ...Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders ... rightly insists that TPP “is much more than a free trade agreement.” If he understands this, other senators and congressmen can see it as well...
EPA Wants To Map Radioactive Waste In Bridgeton Landfill St. Louis Post Dispatch ...The Environmental Protection Agency wants tests of the Bridgeton Landfill to map radioactive contamination. The decision takes a step back from past pronouncements by the EPA, which had said the waste was contained within fenced areas of the adjacent West Lake Landfill...
State Battles
To Pay For His Failed Experiment With Trickle-Down Economics, Kansas Governor Could Raid The School Budget Think Progress ...Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) is reportedly getting ready to propose some form of revenue increases as part of a plan to fix the nearly $900 million budget hole his tax cuts created for the state. But whatever cracks are emerging in his anti-tax facade, the conservative governor’s response to the budget crisis is more likely to focus on spending for the state’s already flailing schools...
Opting Out Of Unions Gets Boost In States Wall Street Journal ...A new wave of bills that would allow workers to opt out of joining unions is expected from Maine to New Mexico as Republicans look to capitalize on statehouse gains to put new limits on organized labor...
War on Workers
Obama expands parental leave for federal workers Washington Post ...President Obama signed a presidential memorandum Thursday directing agencies to allow federal workers to take six weeks of advanced paid sick leave to care for a new child or ill family members...
Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty Washington Post ...For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation...
Holder limits seized-asset sharing process that split billions with local, state police Washington Post ...Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without warrants or criminal charges...
United Airlines Moves To Outsource Labor At 28 Airports Denver Post ...The jobs that have the potential to be affected in this latest move fall into the category of "airport operations," which includes baggage-handing ramp workers and inside customer service agents, among others, depending on the airport...
Worker Killed Near Rocks State Park, Officials Say Havre de Grace Patch ...At 1:30 p.m., two workers were at the base of a ravine on MD Route 24 at Saint Clair Bridge Road when a jersey wall fell on one and debris injured another...
Miscellaneous
'All Labor Has Dignity': King's Other Legacy (opinion) Huffington Post ...As we mark Dr. King's 86th birthday, it is my hope that Americans will remember another less-celebrated element of his dream -- a belief in the importance of unions, labor rights and robust worker voice...
Teamster Pilots With Allegiant Air Authorize Strike teamster.org ...Pilots at Allegiant Air, represented by the Airline Professionals Association (APA) Teamsters Local 1224, voted overwhelmingly, 465-8, today to authorize a strike against Allegiant Air. The 10-day voting period closed at 12:00 p.m. EST today, with 98 percent of voting Allegiant Air pilots voting “Yes” to authorize the union to call a strike if necessary...
At Hunts Point Market, Awaiting Word on Strike as Talks Continue New York Times ...Many of the workers said they were prepared to carry out the first strike at the market in nearly 30 years if contract talks between their union, Teamsters Local 202, and management failed to resolve differences between the two sides over proposed wage increases and health care contributions...
Teamsters Leader Daniel Grace Lauds Governor-Elect Wolf for Barring Yuengling teamster.org ...The leader of Philadelphia-based Teamsters Local 830 today lauded the decision of Governor-Elect Tom Wolf to exclude Yuengling Beer products from his inaugural ball in Harrisburg next Tuesday, Jan. 20...
Teamsters Support Administration’s Push For Paid Leave teamster.org ...The Teamsters encourage a workplace that grants dignity and respect to all workers and the union applauds the Obama administration for pushing forward with an agenda that calls for hardworking Americans to receive paid sick time. We also support an executive order that would give federal employees six weeks paid time off after giving birth...
Labor Agreements Inked With City Unions Daily Sun News ...The Sunnyside City Council, at its first meeting in 2015 this past Monday, authorized agreements with the city’s office/clerical and public works collective bargaining units. Both agreements include a change to the health insurance premiums, from a 70 percent employer/30 percent employee cost to a 75/25 split. Both agreements also include additional longevity pay based on years of service...
CN Reaches Tentative Labour Agreement With Teamsters Union Representing Rail Traffic Controllers American Journal Of Transportation ...The four-year agreement would provide wage increases and benefit improvements to approximately 180 employees. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending ratification by union members. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote before the end of February 2015...
North Versailles Township Police Get Raises, To Pay For Health Insurance Pittsburgh Tribune Review ...North Versailles Township police will get annual raises for the next four years under a new contract township commissioners approved Thursday...
Trade
What You Need To Know When Obama Talks Trade Campaign for America's Future ...President Obama is likely to use the State of the Union to push for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the rigged “fast track” trade promotion authority...
Dana Milbank: Cracks in the GOP foundation (opinion) Washington Post ...On Tuesday morning, a group of tea-party conservatives met in the Capitol complex to complain about Republican plans to pass “trade promotion authority,” giving Obama greater ability to negotiate trade deals with less congressional say-so...
‘Corporate Wolves’ Will Exploit TTIP Trade Deal, MPs Warned The Guardian ...The controversial TTIP trade deal between Europe and the US could depress workers’ wages by £3,000 a year and allow “corporate wolves” to sue the government for loss of profit, MPs have heard...
EU Consultation On Corporate Sovereignty In TAFTA/TTIP Shows 145,000 Against It; European Commission Carries On Anyway Techdirt ...As well as the unanimity of the rejection, what is striking is the fact that 145,000 citizens replied to a consultation on an obscure aspect of trade agreements that most people had never heard of a year ago. That alone bespeaks an unprecedented engagement by the public -- something rare enough at a time when people are generally disenchanted with politicians and their grand projects...
Say No To Dangerous Trade Pacts (opinion) The New American ...Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders ... rightly insists that TPP “is much more than a free trade agreement.” If he understands this, other senators and congressmen can see it as well...
EPA Wants To Map Radioactive Waste In Bridgeton Landfill St. Louis Post Dispatch ...The Environmental Protection Agency wants tests of the Bridgeton Landfill to map radioactive contamination. The decision takes a step back from past pronouncements by the EPA, which had said the waste was contained within fenced areas of the adjacent West Lake Landfill...
State Battles
To Pay For His Failed Experiment With Trickle-Down Economics, Kansas Governor Could Raid The School Budget Think Progress ...Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) is reportedly getting ready to propose some form of revenue increases as part of a plan to fix the nearly $900 million budget hole his tax cuts created for the state. But whatever cracks are emerging in his anti-tax facade, the conservative governor’s response to the budget crisis is more likely to focus on spending for the state’s already flailing schools...
Opting Out Of Unions Gets Boost In States Wall Street Journal ...A new wave of bills that would allow workers to opt out of joining unions is expected from Maine to New Mexico as Republicans look to capitalize on statehouse gains to put new limits on organized labor...
War on Workers
Obama expands parental leave for federal workers Washington Post ...President Obama signed a presidential memorandum Thursday directing agencies to allow federal workers to take six weeks of advanced paid sick leave to care for a new child or ill family members...
Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty Washington Post ...For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation...
Holder limits seized-asset sharing process that split billions with local, state police Washington Post ...Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without warrants or criminal charges...
United Airlines Moves To Outsource Labor At 28 Airports Denver Post ...The jobs that have the potential to be affected in this latest move fall into the category of "airport operations," which includes baggage-handing ramp workers and inside customer service agents, among others, depending on the airport...
Worker Killed Near Rocks State Park, Officials Say Havre de Grace Patch ...At 1:30 p.m., two workers were at the base of a ravine on MD Route 24 at Saint Clair Bridge Road when a jersey wall fell on one and debris injured another...
Miscellaneous
'All Labor Has Dignity': King's Other Legacy (opinion) Huffington Post ...As we mark Dr. King's 86th birthday, it is my hope that Americans will remember another less-celebrated element of his dream -- a belief in the importance of unions, labor rights and robust worker voice...
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.13.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Call On Apple, Yahoo, Ebay, Zynga, Genetech, Amtrak To Support Compass Trans. Drivers teamster.org ...Rome Aloise, International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., sent letters to the CEOs of six East Bay-area companies this week, asking them to support the unionization efforts of the drivers that transport their employees. The drivers, employees of Compass Transportation, are seeking union representation and a contract...
More Silicon Valley Shuttle Drivers Look To Unionize USA Today ...The Teamsters have contacted the CEOs of six Silicon Valley-area companies — Amtrak, Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo and Zynga — to tell them that its drivers want to join a union...
Teamsters vote to authorize strike over commercials contract Los Angeles Times ...A contract dispute between commercial producers and Teamsters Local 399 has escalated, raising the prospect of the first Hollywood strike by the union in nearly two decades...
State, Owner Negotiate Next Steps Involving Landfill Fire St. Louis Public Radio ...Bridgeton Landfill owner Republic Services has agreed to install two temperature monitoring probes in the landfill's north quarry, near radioactive waste at the adjacent West Lake Landfill. The agreement came after Attorney General Chris Koster took more legal action against Republic Services this week, out of concern that the underground fire in the landfill's south quarry might be spreading north, closer to the area of radioactivity...
Trade
Voters Not Congress Should Decide TPP Trade Pact (opinion) truthout ...We need to slow the TPP (Trans Pacific Pact) approval process down until after the 2016 elections. After the final full terms are made public, the voters should decide this issue using our democratic electoral processes. We need this to be a campaign issue in the Senate, House and Presidential elections. It will increase voter turnout (which is good for American democracy) and give the decision real legitimacy...
State Battles
Contractors unite to fight right-to-work Milwaukee Business Times ...More than 300 private businesses and private-sector skilled trade representatives from across Wisconsin have joined forces to support the newly formed Wisconsin Contractor Coalition and oppose so-called right-to-work legislation...
Steven Walters: Right-to-work fight would "distract" from Walker presidential bid Gazette Xtra ...Controversy over any right-to-work bill wouldn't end in Wisconsin's Capitol but could undercut his all-but-announced candidacy for president...
As White House defends unions, states go on the attack alJazeera America ...In state legislatures around the country, newly strengthened Republican majorities are expected to push right-to-work legislation and other policy initiatives feared by the labor movemen. Wisconsin, long considered a union stronghold, will also consider right-to-work legislation this year. So might New Mexico, West Virginia and Missouri, among others...
From Awful To Calamitous: Sam Brownback’s Second Term Is Off To A Terrible Start Salon.com ...the anti-tax crusader has little choice but to contemplate revenue increases — and according to the Wichita Eagle, Brownback is considering a range of options, including increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, ending some exemptions for sales and income taxes, increasing sales taxes, delaying further income tax cuts, and altering his tax law’s requirement that tax rates go down further if revenue increases by more than two percent...
War on Workers
House Budget Chair Signals Big Social Security Reforms A-Coming Talking Points Memo ...[U.S. Rep. Tom] Price, whose predecessor Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) never put forward major reform proposals in his otherwise ambitious budgets, offered means-testing and increasing the eligibility age as possibilities. He also hinted at privatizing Social Security...
United Studies Outsourcing Up To 2,000 Airport Jobs Wall Street Journal ...United Continental Holdings Inc. on Monday said it may outsource up to 2,000 jobs at 28 U.S. airports, including Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis and West Palm Beach, Fla., to vendors who would perform the duties at lower cost...
The US 'manufacturing renaissance' doesn't exist, says new report The Guardian ...the United States may have added only about one new manufacturing job in the last few years for every five that were lost during the financial crisis and the recession that followed...
Buffett’s BNSF Railway Considering Safer Oil Tank Cars Insurance Journal ...BNSF Railway Co., the railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is reconsidering a plan to buy 5,000 oil-tank cars built to new safety standards after some customers voiced concern about the initiative...
DuPont Workers May Have Been Exposed to Toxic Gas for Years Associated Press ...Records show that employees at a Houston-area pesticide plant where a poisonous gas killed four workers in November may have been exposed to dangerous fumes for years...
Miscellaneous
U.S. bus lines added routes in 2014, airline flights fell: study Reuters ...Stagnating middle-class incomes and the widening income gap in America have boosted business at bus companies, which cost less than flying or driving. ...[and] a significant part of the boost in bus business comes from younger Americans, who are turned off by extra security at airports and "are used to traveling on a shoestring budget."...
Barney Frank: Unions key to income equality (opinion) Portland Press Herald ...for capitalism to thrive, society must not have more economic inequality than is necessary; at some point too much inequality becomes economically damaging – and potentially destabilizing as well. America has been in that latter situation for more than a decade…
Teamsters Call On Apple, Yahoo, Ebay, Zynga, Genetech, Amtrak To Support Compass Trans. Drivers teamster.org ...Rome Aloise, International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., sent letters to the CEOs of six East Bay-area companies this week, asking them to support the unionization efforts of the drivers that transport their employees. The drivers, employees of Compass Transportation, are seeking union representation and a contract...
More Silicon Valley Shuttle Drivers Look To Unionize USA Today ...The Teamsters have contacted the CEOs of six Silicon Valley-area companies — Amtrak, Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo and Zynga — to tell them that its drivers want to join a union...
Teamsters vote to authorize strike over commercials contract Los Angeles Times ...A contract dispute between commercial producers and Teamsters Local 399 has escalated, raising the prospect of the first Hollywood strike by the union in nearly two decades...
State, Owner Negotiate Next Steps Involving Landfill Fire St. Louis Public Radio ...Bridgeton Landfill owner Republic Services has agreed to install two temperature monitoring probes in the landfill's north quarry, near radioactive waste at the adjacent West Lake Landfill. The agreement came after Attorney General Chris Koster took more legal action against Republic Services this week, out of concern that the underground fire in the landfill's south quarry might be spreading north, closer to the area of radioactivity...
Trade
Voters Not Congress Should Decide TPP Trade Pact (opinion) truthout ...We need to slow the TPP (Trans Pacific Pact) approval process down until after the 2016 elections. After the final full terms are made public, the voters should decide this issue using our democratic electoral processes. We need this to be a campaign issue in the Senate, House and Presidential elections. It will increase voter turnout (which is good for American democracy) and give the decision real legitimacy...
State Battles
Contractors unite to fight right-to-work Milwaukee Business Times ...More than 300 private businesses and private-sector skilled trade representatives from across Wisconsin have joined forces to support the newly formed Wisconsin Contractor Coalition and oppose so-called right-to-work legislation...
Steven Walters: Right-to-work fight would "distract" from Walker presidential bid Gazette Xtra ...Controversy over any right-to-work bill wouldn't end in Wisconsin's Capitol but could undercut his all-but-announced candidacy for president...
As White House defends unions, states go on the attack alJazeera America ...In state legislatures around the country, newly strengthened Republican majorities are expected to push right-to-work legislation and other policy initiatives feared by the labor movemen. Wisconsin, long considered a union stronghold, will also consider right-to-work legislation this year. So might New Mexico, West Virginia and Missouri, among others...
From Awful To Calamitous: Sam Brownback’s Second Term Is Off To A Terrible Start Salon.com ...the anti-tax crusader has little choice but to contemplate revenue increases — and according to the Wichita Eagle, Brownback is considering a range of options, including increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, ending some exemptions for sales and income taxes, increasing sales taxes, delaying further income tax cuts, and altering his tax law’s requirement that tax rates go down further if revenue increases by more than two percent...
War on Workers
House Budget Chair Signals Big Social Security Reforms A-Coming Talking Points Memo ...[U.S. Rep. Tom] Price, whose predecessor Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) never put forward major reform proposals in his otherwise ambitious budgets, offered means-testing and increasing the eligibility age as possibilities. He also hinted at privatizing Social Security...
United Studies Outsourcing Up To 2,000 Airport Jobs Wall Street Journal ...United Continental Holdings Inc. on Monday said it may outsource up to 2,000 jobs at 28 U.S. airports, including Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis and West Palm Beach, Fla., to vendors who would perform the duties at lower cost...
The US 'manufacturing renaissance' doesn't exist, says new report The Guardian ...the United States may have added only about one new manufacturing job in the last few years for every five that were lost during the financial crisis and the recession that followed...
Buffett’s BNSF Railway Considering Safer Oil Tank Cars Insurance Journal ...BNSF Railway Co., the railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is reconsidering a plan to buy 5,000 oil-tank cars built to new safety standards after some customers voiced concern about the initiative...
DuPont Workers May Have Been Exposed to Toxic Gas for Years Associated Press ...Records show that employees at a Houston-area pesticide plant where a poisonous gas killed four workers in November may have been exposed to dangerous fumes for years...
Miscellaneous
U.S. bus lines added routes in 2014, airline flights fell: study Reuters ...Stagnating middle-class incomes and the widening income gap in America have boosted business at bus companies, which cost less than flying or driving. ...[and] a significant part of the boost in bus business comes from younger Americans, who are turned off by extra security at airports and "are used to traveling on a shoestring budget."...
Barney Frank: Unions key to income equality (opinion) Portland Press Herald ...for capitalism to thrive, society must not have more economic inequality than is necessary; at some point too much inequality becomes economically damaging – and potentially destabilizing as well. America has been in that latter situation for more than a decade…
Friday, January 9, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.09.15
Teamsters
Virginia Teamsters Strike At TW Perry Construction Supplier teamster.org ...Teamsters at TW Perry launched a strike early Tuesday morning against the local contractor supplier's bad faith bargaining. Frustration among workers, represented by Teamsters Local 639 in Washington, DC, has been building over several months...
New York's most famous rat Marketplace ...Both ugly and effective, Scabby makes regular appearances during labor disputes. He's even been taken to court, when an asbestos contractor argued that the rat qualified as "disruptive activity."...
Federal Data Shows Regional Broadliners’ Troubled Safety Record teamster.org ...Performance Food Group (PFG) drivers have the highest number of fitness and safety violations among the top 10 broadline foodservice industry players...As the Federal Trade Commission continues its antitrust review of Sysco’s proposed merger with US Foods, smaller regional competitors like PFG, Reinhart Foodservice and other distributors have been the focus of news reports as potential divestiture buyers...
Volusia County Declares 'Impasse' With Already-Woefully Underpaid Sheriff's Deputies Headline Surfer ...Bob Walker, business agent for Teamsters 385 out of Orlando knows the drill all too well and he thinks it stinks...
Trade
Democrats Step Up Efforts to Block Obama’s Trade Agenda New York Times ... President Obama is facing new opposition from fellow Democrats to one of his top priorities: winning the power to negotiate international trade agreements and speed them through Congress...
Dems rally opposition for fast-track trade The Hill ...A group of House Democrats is teaming up with labor, environmental and religious groups to rally against fast-track trade authority for President Obama...
Enormous, Humongous Trade Deficit Falls To Enormous, Humongous Level Economy in Crisis ...A trade deficit of $39 billion, while lower than it had been, is still an enormous, humongous amount drained from our economy in a single month. It demonstrates the extent to which our trade “partners” are not reciprocating and actually “trading” with us...
TTIP Papers Published As EU Ombudsman Demands More Transparency EurActiv ...It is the first time that the Commission has published the legal language and binding rules the EU is pushing for during free trade agreement negotiations. The TTIP talks have been dogged by accusations of secrecy and suspicions that big business is having too much influence on negotiations...
State Battles
Ohio labor supporters rally against post midterm elections Right to Work push Keep Ohio's Heritage ...With midterm elections solidifying GOP control in many of the nation’s Right to Work battleground states, labor supporters are gearing up for the inevitable: battles over Right to Work...
Right to work to be biggest battle in upcoming NM legislative session KOB4 ...Right to work - three little words we will be hearing over and over again during New Mexico's 60-day legislative session. It's a proposal to end compulsory union membership in the state. Business leaders fired the opening shots Wednesday in their campaign to get it into the law books – and it promises to be the mother of all battles this year...
Koster Asks Court To Force Bridgeton Landfill Owner To Collect More Data St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is asking a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge to order the owner of the Bridgeton Landfill to immediately begin collecting data that could show whether an underground fire is nearing radioactive waste...
Paid Sick Days, More Workplace Benefits For D.C. Workers Roll Call ...Overall, workplace rights may be changing in the District of Columbia, but until Congress implements broader legislative changes, sick days, pregnancy accommodations and family leave won’t be a given for the rest of the country — even as they are for Hill staffers...
Bill Would Raise Kansas’ Minimum Wage $3 Kansas City Star ...A Wichita Democrat is sponsoring a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage by $3 dollars by 2017. Rep. Jim Ward’s proposal would raise the wage by $1 – to $8.25 an hour– on July 1. The wage would then go up to $1 a year during the next two years...
Conservatives Have a New Plan for Busting America's Unions Vice ...After years of fighting organized labor in state houses and on Capitol Hill, conservatives opened up a fresh battleground in Kentucky last month, pushing a brand new crop of anti-union laws in counties across the state. Propped up by major conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the "right-to-work"ordinances—which weaken unions by allowing employees to opt out of paying dues—test the boundaries of US labor laws, putting the fate of union workers squarely in the hands of local, rather than state, governments...
War on Workers
EPA Delays Regulations On Cutting Carbon At Coal Power Plants Houston Chronicle ...A final rule was due by law on Jan. 8, a year after it was first proposed. But the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it would wait until midsummer, and issue the new power plant rules with a separate regulation aimed at cutting the pollution blamed for global warming from the existing coal-fired power fleet...
The GOP's Social Security Assault Has A Human Cost (opinion) Huffington Post ...perhaps in an attempt to add to the false hysteria over Social Security's finances, they're refusing to make this routine correction. If it stands, disability insurance benefits for 11 million people -- benefits that are meager in the best of times -- will be cut by 20 percent next year...
Most of America’s rich think the poor have it easy Washington Post ...the majority of the country's most financially secure citizens (54 percent at the very top, and 57 percent just below) believe the "poor have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything in return." America's least financially secure, meanwhile, vehemently disagree — nearly 70 percent say the poor have hard lives because the benefits "don't go far enough."...
A Ban On Child Labor In Tobacco Fields (opinion) New York Times ...some cigarette companies and growers have said they will voluntarily restrict child labor in tobacco fields. Though welcome, these steps should be reinforced by new federal rules. Children as young as 7 are working on tobacco farms in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia...
Car Loans See Rise In Missed Payments Wall Street Journal ...Borrowers who took out auto loans over the past year are missing payments at the highest level since the recession, fueling concerns among regulators, analysts and some in the car industry that practices that helped boost 2014 light-vehicle sales to a near-decade high could backfire...
Worker Killed By Garbage Truck In Franklin Lakes, Police Seek Witnesses NJ.com ...A trash hauling company employee died after a garbage truck his co-worker was driving hit him in an apparent accident Wednesday, borough police said...
Miscellaneous
In Low Gasoline Prices, an Opening Emerges for Higher Taxes Wall Street Journal ...The sharp drop in gasoline prices over the past few months is providing a rare political opening for state and federal officials who want to raise gasoline taxes to repair highways and boost construction jobs...
Virginia Teamsters Strike At TW Perry Construction Supplier teamster.org ...Teamsters at TW Perry launched a strike early Tuesday morning against the local contractor supplier's bad faith bargaining. Frustration among workers, represented by Teamsters Local 639 in Washington, DC, has been building over several months...
New York's most famous rat Marketplace ...Both ugly and effective, Scabby makes regular appearances during labor disputes. He's even been taken to court, when an asbestos contractor argued that the rat qualified as "disruptive activity."...
Federal Data Shows Regional Broadliners’ Troubled Safety Record teamster.org ...Performance Food Group (PFG) drivers have the highest number of fitness and safety violations among the top 10 broadline foodservice industry players...As the Federal Trade Commission continues its antitrust review of Sysco’s proposed merger with US Foods, smaller regional competitors like PFG, Reinhart Foodservice and other distributors have been the focus of news reports as potential divestiture buyers...
Volusia County Declares 'Impasse' With Already-Woefully Underpaid Sheriff's Deputies Headline Surfer ...Bob Walker, business agent for Teamsters 385 out of Orlando knows the drill all too well and he thinks it stinks...
Trade
Democrats Step Up Efforts to Block Obama’s Trade Agenda New York Times ... President Obama is facing new opposition from fellow Democrats to one of his top priorities: winning the power to negotiate international trade agreements and speed them through Congress...
Dems rally opposition for fast-track trade The Hill ...A group of House Democrats is teaming up with labor, environmental and religious groups to rally against fast-track trade authority for President Obama...
Enormous, Humongous Trade Deficit Falls To Enormous, Humongous Level Economy in Crisis ...A trade deficit of $39 billion, while lower than it had been, is still an enormous, humongous amount drained from our economy in a single month. It demonstrates the extent to which our trade “partners” are not reciprocating and actually “trading” with us...
TTIP Papers Published As EU Ombudsman Demands More Transparency EurActiv ...It is the first time that the Commission has published the legal language and binding rules the EU is pushing for during free trade agreement negotiations. The TTIP talks have been dogged by accusations of secrecy and suspicions that big business is having too much influence on negotiations...
State Battles
Ohio labor supporters rally against post midterm elections Right to Work push Keep Ohio's Heritage ...With midterm elections solidifying GOP control in many of the nation’s Right to Work battleground states, labor supporters are gearing up for the inevitable: battles over Right to Work...
Right to work to be biggest battle in upcoming NM legislative session KOB4 ...Right to work - three little words we will be hearing over and over again during New Mexico's 60-day legislative session. It's a proposal to end compulsory union membership in the state. Business leaders fired the opening shots Wednesday in their campaign to get it into the law books – and it promises to be the mother of all battles this year...
Koster Asks Court To Force Bridgeton Landfill Owner To Collect More Data St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is asking a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge to order the owner of the Bridgeton Landfill to immediately begin collecting data that could show whether an underground fire is nearing radioactive waste...
Paid Sick Days, More Workplace Benefits For D.C. Workers Roll Call ...Overall, workplace rights may be changing in the District of Columbia, but until Congress implements broader legislative changes, sick days, pregnancy accommodations and family leave won’t be a given for the rest of the country — even as they are for Hill staffers...
Bill Would Raise Kansas’ Minimum Wage $3 Kansas City Star ...A Wichita Democrat is sponsoring a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage by $3 dollars by 2017. Rep. Jim Ward’s proposal would raise the wage by $1 – to $8.25 an hour– on July 1. The wage would then go up to $1 a year during the next two years...
Conservatives Have a New Plan for Busting America's Unions Vice ...After years of fighting organized labor in state houses and on Capitol Hill, conservatives opened up a fresh battleground in Kentucky last month, pushing a brand new crop of anti-union laws in counties across the state. Propped up by major conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the "right-to-work"ordinances—which weaken unions by allowing employees to opt out of paying dues—test the boundaries of US labor laws, putting the fate of union workers squarely in the hands of local, rather than state, governments...
War on Workers
EPA Delays Regulations On Cutting Carbon At Coal Power Plants Houston Chronicle ...A final rule was due by law on Jan. 8, a year after it was first proposed. But the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it would wait until midsummer, and issue the new power plant rules with a separate regulation aimed at cutting the pollution blamed for global warming from the existing coal-fired power fleet...
The GOP's Social Security Assault Has A Human Cost (opinion) Huffington Post ...perhaps in an attempt to add to the false hysteria over Social Security's finances, they're refusing to make this routine correction. If it stands, disability insurance benefits for 11 million people -- benefits that are meager in the best of times -- will be cut by 20 percent next year...
Most of America’s rich think the poor have it easy Washington Post ...the majority of the country's most financially secure citizens (54 percent at the very top, and 57 percent just below) believe the "poor have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything in return." America's least financially secure, meanwhile, vehemently disagree — nearly 70 percent say the poor have hard lives because the benefits "don't go far enough."...
A Ban On Child Labor In Tobacco Fields (opinion) New York Times ...some cigarette companies and growers have said they will voluntarily restrict child labor in tobacco fields. Though welcome, these steps should be reinforced by new federal rules. Children as young as 7 are working on tobacco farms in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia...
Car Loans See Rise In Missed Payments Wall Street Journal ...Borrowers who took out auto loans over the past year are missing payments at the highest level since the recession, fueling concerns among regulators, analysts and some in the car industry that practices that helped boost 2014 light-vehicle sales to a near-decade high could backfire...
Worker Killed By Garbage Truck In Franklin Lakes, Police Seek Witnesses NJ.com ...A trash hauling company employee died after a garbage truck his co-worker was driving hit him in an apparent accident Wednesday, borough police said...
Miscellaneous
In Low Gasoline Prices, an Opening Emerges for Higher Taxes Wall Street Journal ...The sharp drop in gasoline prices over the past few months is providing a rare political opening for state and federal officials who want to raise gasoline taxes to repair highways and boost construction jobs...
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.20.14
Teamster News
Anne Arundel County Fire Department Battalion Chiefs Choose Teamsters teamster.org ...–Anne Arundel County Fire Department battalion chiefs have voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 355 in Baltimore...
Negotiations At VIA Rail: The Teamsters Union And The Employer Have Requested A Conciliator CNW News ...The bargaining process between the 350 Locomotive Engineers at VIA Rail represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and the rail carrier, are at a point that both parties agree that third party assistance would be beneficial...
CN reaches tentative labour agreement with Teamsters union representing locomotive engineers and conductors on Northern Quebec Internal Short Line Yahoo Finance ...The four-year agreement would provide wage increases and benefit improvements to 93 employees. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending ratification by the affected TCRC members. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote by the end of February 2015...
Council Asks EPA For Bridgeton Landfill Contaminant Studies KMOX ...The St. Louis County Council has unanimously passed a resolution that pushes the Environmental Protection Agency to release studies on groundwater contamination at the Bridgeton Landfill...
Trade
Elizabeth Warren: Obama Trade Deal Could Undermine Wall Street Reform Huffington Post ..."With millions of families still struggling to recover from the last financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed, we cannot afford a trade deal that undermines the government's ability to protect the American economy."...
The consequences of a crumbling TTIP (opinion) Euractiv …A growing number of Europeans see TTIP as selling out Europe's social and environmental standards. Perhaps the EU and the US should have never undertaken this mammoth project...
State Battles
Warren County Passes Local Right-To-Work Law ...The General Motors plant in Warren County is a closed shop, meaning its 888 employees must pay union dues in order to work there. But the Warren County Fiscal Court passed a local law Friday banning that practice in the future, defying the state's Democratic attorney general and taking the first step toward trying to overturn a 49-year-old state decision...
Minimum Wage On Agenda At Legislature Albuquerque Journal ...Two bills have been pre-filed this week by Democratic lawmakers, both seeking a hike in the state’s current $7.50-per-hour minimum wage – one of them to $8.30 an hour and the other to $10.10....
Minimum Wage In Louisville Upped To $9 Louisville Courier Journal ...The Metro Council and Mayor Greg Fischer, who were at odds over increasing the minimum wage, reached an agreement Thursday night with the council voting to increase the minimum wage in Jefferson County to $9 an hour gradually over three years...
Ohio's Minimum Wage Increase Expected To Boost Economy By $40 Million Cleveland Plain Dealer ...As the calendar flips to 2015, Ohio's minimum wage will increase by 15 cents to $8.10 per hour, benefiting an estimated 313,000 low-wage workers in the state, according to a release from the National Employment Law Project, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that advocates on issues affecting low-wage and unemployed workers. In addition, the minimum wage for tipped workers in Ohio will rise by 7 cents to $4.05 per hour...
War on Workers
Obama labor board comes down hard on McDonald’s Politico …In a significant victory for fast-food demonstrators, the Obama administration filed 13 legal complaints on Friday against McDonald’s USA, LLC, alleging 78 instances in which it violated federal labor law by punishing workers for taking part in fast food protests...
When the Well Educated Middle Class Joins the Working Poor BillMoyers.com ...Today, around three-quarters of all US college professors are classified as “contingent faculty” — those who aren’t on a tenure track — and about half are technically “part-time,” even though many of them teach a full-time load of classes. They may be highly educated professionals, but most adjuncts struggle to make ends meet with low pay, limited benefits and zero job security...
Yard Worker Killed Trade Winds ...The worker was on a ladder about 30 feet above the deck at the time. He lost his balance and fell, striking his head on a beam...
Employee Dies While Working At Dayton Sand And Gravel Portland Press Herald ...Goodwin Mills Fire Chief Roger Hooper said Libby was climbing down a ladder attached to a bucket truck when he went into cardiac arrest and fell....The death is the second at the business in two yearsl...
Construction Worker Dies In Emerson NorthJersey.com ...A construction worker was killed Thursday afternoon when he was working near a backhoe and was hit in the head by the machine’s rear bucket, authorities said...
Miscellaneous
Anne Arundel County Fire Department Battalion Chiefs Choose Teamsters teamster.org ...–Anne Arundel County Fire Department battalion chiefs have voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 355 in Baltimore...
Negotiations At VIA Rail: The Teamsters Union And The Employer Have Requested A Conciliator CNW News ...The bargaining process between the 350 Locomotive Engineers at VIA Rail represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and the rail carrier, are at a point that both parties agree that third party assistance would be beneficial...
CN reaches tentative labour agreement with Teamsters union representing locomotive engineers and conductors on Northern Quebec Internal Short Line Yahoo Finance ...The four-year agreement would provide wage increases and benefit improvements to 93 employees. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending ratification by the affected TCRC members. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote by the end of February 2015...
Council Asks EPA For Bridgeton Landfill Contaminant Studies KMOX ...The St. Louis County Council has unanimously passed a resolution that pushes the Environmental Protection Agency to release studies on groundwater contamination at the Bridgeton Landfill...
Trade
Elizabeth Warren: Obama Trade Deal Could Undermine Wall Street Reform Huffington Post ..."With millions of families still struggling to recover from the last financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed, we cannot afford a trade deal that undermines the government's ability to protect the American economy."...
The consequences of a crumbling TTIP (opinion) Euractiv …A growing number of Europeans see TTIP as selling out Europe's social and environmental standards. Perhaps the EU and the US should have never undertaken this mammoth project...
State Battles
Warren County Passes Local Right-To-Work Law ...The General Motors plant in Warren County is a closed shop, meaning its 888 employees must pay union dues in order to work there. But the Warren County Fiscal Court passed a local law Friday banning that practice in the future, defying the state's Democratic attorney general and taking the first step toward trying to overturn a 49-year-old state decision...
Minimum Wage On Agenda At Legislature Albuquerque Journal ...Two bills have been pre-filed this week by Democratic lawmakers, both seeking a hike in the state’s current $7.50-per-hour minimum wage – one of them to $8.30 an hour and the other to $10.10....
Minimum Wage In Louisville Upped To $9 Louisville Courier Journal ...The Metro Council and Mayor Greg Fischer, who were at odds over increasing the minimum wage, reached an agreement Thursday night with the council voting to increase the minimum wage in Jefferson County to $9 an hour gradually over three years...
Ohio's Minimum Wage Increase Expected To Boost Economy By $40 Million Cleveland Plain Dealer ...As the calendar flips to 2015, Ohio's minimum wage will increase by 15 cents to $8.10 per hour, benefiting an estimated 313,000 low-wage workers in the state, according to a release from the National Employment Law Project, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that advocates on issues affecting low-wage and unemployed workers. In addition, the minimum wage for tipped workers in Ohio will rise by 7 cents to $4.05 per hour...
War on Workers
Obama labor board comes down hard on McDonald’s Politico …In a significant victory for fast-food demonstrators, the Obama administration filed 13 legal complaints on Friday against McDonald’s USA, LLC, alleging 78 instances in which it violated federal labor law by punishing workers for taking part in fast food protests...
When the Well Educated Middle Class Joins the Working Poor BillMoyers.com ...Today, around three-quarters of all US college professors are classified as “contingent faculty” — those who aren’t on a tenure track — and about half are technically “part-time,” even though many of them teach a full-time load of classes. They may be highly educated professionals, but most adjuncts struggle to make ends meet with low pay, limited benefits and zero job security...
Yard Worker Killed Trade Winds ...The worker was on a ladder about 30 feet above the deck at the time. He lost his balance and fell, striking his head on a beam...
Employee Dies While Working At Dayton Sand And Gravel Portland Press Herald ...Goodwin Mills Fire Chief Roger Hooper said Libby was climbing down a ladder attached to a bucket truck when he went into cardiac arrest and fell....The death is the second at the business in two yearsl...
Construction Worker Dies In Emerson NorthJersey.com ...A construction worker was killed Thursday afternoon when he was working near a backhoe and was hit in the head by the machine’s rear bucket, authorities said...
Miscellaneous
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.18.14
Teamster News
Teamsters, Consumers And Community Protest UNFI Shareholders Meeting teamster.org ... Teamsters, organic food consumers, supply chain workers and community leaders protested the unsustainable practices of United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE: UNFI) and its retail partner Whole Foods Market at UNFI’s annual shareholders meeting today. The protestors informed UNFI shareholders and put management on notice that continued worker abuse and intimidation will not be tolerated...
BLET/Teamsters, Smart-TD And Four Other Rail Unions Bargain Together teamster.org ...Top leaders of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART–TD) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that their organizations will be participating with four other rail unions in coordinated bargaining in the upcoming round of national negotiations...
Some Labor Unions Reluctant To Back ’24 Olympics Effort Boston Globe ...The International Olympic Committee wants assurances that there is broad public support in the city that would host the Games. And the support of [Teamsters] Local 25’s 11,000-person army of truck drivers, parking lot attendants, and others could play a crucial role...
St. Louis County Council Cites 'Growing Consensus' On West Lake Landfill Dangers St. Louis Post Dispatch ...The St. Louis County Council says there is “growing consensus” that the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton “presents an active danger to the community,” and it’s putting new pressure on federal regulators to take action...
Trade
New TISA Leak: US on Collision Course With EU Over Global Data Flows techdirt …Like TPP and TAFTA/TTIP, TISA is being negotiated in strict secrecy, but earlier this year the financial services annex leaked, giving us the first glimpse of the kind of bad ideas that were being worked on. Now, another leak has surfaced, which reveals the US's proposals to free up data flows online...
GPhA Expresses Concern Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Negotiations Could Hinder Access and Competition to Generic Drugs First Word Pharma ...GPhA and its member companies are concerned about any effort to include provisions in the TPP agreement that would hinder competition and access to the safe and affordable medicines that the generic pharmaceutical industry provides to patients in the United States and abroad...
State Battles
How ALEC helped undermine public unions Washington Post ... the success of ALEC-derived labor bills resulted in lower public union density beginning three to four years after those bills became law. On average, state public-sector union density fell by about three percentage points per year, or nearly 10 percent of the current level of public-sector union density in the country as a whole...
Missouri’s Minimum Wage Rises In 2015, No Change In Kansas Kansas City Star ...Missouri is among 29 states that have, or will have as of Jan. 1, state minimums that are higher than the current federal rate of $7.25 an hour...
Unions, retirees sue to block Chicago pension changes Reuters …Chicago public employee unions and others on Tuesday opened a new front in the battle over pension cuts for public workers, suing to block a law aimed at shoring up funding for two of the city's public pension systems…
Los Angeles hotel groups sue city over minimum wage ordinance Washington Post …The American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Asian American Hotel Owner Association filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Los Angeles over an ordinance that raises minimum wage for hotel workers to $15.37...
State high court to take up Doe cases centered on Walker's campaign Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ... Four of the justices have benefited from political spending by the Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the groups at the center of the investigation. Some legal experts have argued that at least some of those justices should not hear the cases because of actual or perceived biases from that political help...
War on Workers
How the NLRB may expand responsibility for labor violations Reuters ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is expected to rule soon on if, and how, companies can be held responsible for labor violations carried out by their contractors or franchisees - a move that could have far-reaching implications for businesses...
Metro-North Faces Historic Fine For Retaliating Against Worker Who Reported Injury Hartford Courant ...In fining the railroad $260,000 plus legal fees, the U.S. Department of Labor said it found a culture of intimidation, in which supervisors actively tried to discourage workers from filing injury reports and punished workers who did. In November, the National Transportation Safety Board, following a string of accidents, including fatalities, said Metro-North failed to maintain effective safety programs...
100 defects found during state crude oil rail inspections Albany Times Union ...The latest round of the state’s targeted crude oil tank car and rail inspections showed 100 track and train car defects, including eight that require immediate action, the governor’s office announced Monday...
More than 60 million households rely on low-wage workers The Hill ...The research shows that most low-wage workers are frequently the primary breadwinners in their families and they are not, as commonly thought, teenagers with few skills still living with their parents, according to the report by Oxfam America and the Economic Policy Institute...
For Low-Wage Americans, The Holiday Season Is A Time To Work Huffington Post ...More than 30 percent of Americans were living in poverty for at least two months from 2009 to 2011 -- a 4.5 percent increase from the period 2005 to 2007...
Americans Are Trading Sleep For Work, And It’s Literally Killing Us Washington Post ...This isn't a particularly healthy way to live -- insufficient sleep is associated with obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a host of other physical ailments. Drowsy driving causes around 80,000 automobile accidents every year, 1,000 of which are typically fatal...
Child Labor: Number Of Children Involved Is Shrinking Every Year Christian Science Monitor ...While there are fewer children involved in child labor every year, the rate at which child labor is decreasing is slowing down at both the global and regional levels...
Worker Killed In Mesa Industrial Accident Arizona Republic ...One person was killed in an industrial accident at a plant in west Mesa on Wednesday morning, according to a Mesa fire spokesman...
Construction Worker Killed In Caldwell Parish Crash KNOE ...A Cadillac ATS, driven by 42-year-old Jan Williams of Columbia, was traveling north on US 165 in the outside travel lane when she attempted to move into the inside lane but struck the rear of Chevrolet pickup and all three construction workers...
Teamsters, Consumers And Community Protest UNFI Shareholders Meeting teamster.org ... Teamsters, organic food consumers, supply chain workers and community leaders protested the unsustainable practices of United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE: UNFI) and its retail partner Whole Foods Market at UNFI’s annual shareholders meeting today. The protestors informed UNFI shareholders and put management on notice that continued worker abuse and intimidation will not be tolerated...
BLET/Teamsters, Smart-TD And Four Other Rail Unions Bargain Together teamster.org ...Top leaders of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART–TD) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that their organizations will be participating with four other rail unions in coordinated bargaining in the upcoming round of national negotiations...
Some Labor Unions Reluctant To Back ’24 Olympics Effort Boston Globe ...The International Olympic Committee wants assurances that there is broad public support in the city that would host the Games. And the support of [Teamsters] Local 25’s 11,000-person army of truck drivers, parking lot attendants, and others could play a crucial role...
St. Louis County Council Cites 'Growing Consensus' On West Lake Landfill Dangers St. Louis Post Dispatch ...The St. Louis County Council says there is “growing consensus” that the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton “presents an active danger to the community,” and it’s putting new pressure on federal regulators to take action...
Trade
New TISA Leak: US on Collision Course With EU Over Global Data Flows techdirt …Like TPP and TAFTA/TTIP, TISA is being negotiated in strict secrecy, but earlier this year the financial services annex leaked, giving us the first glimpse of the kind of bad ideas that were being worked on. Now, another leak has surfaced, which reveals the US's proposals to free up data flows online...
GPhA Expresses Concern Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Negotiations Could Hinder Access and Competition to Generic Drugs First Word Pharma ...GPhA and its member companies are concerned about any effort to include provisions in the TPP agreement that would hinder competition and access to the safe and affordable medicines that the generic pharmaceutical industry provides to patients in the United States and abroad...
State Battles
How ALEC helped undermine public unions Washington Post ... the success of ALEC-derived labor bills resulted in lower public union density beginning three to four years after those bills became law. On average, state public-sector union density fell by about three percentage points per year, or nearly 10 percent of the current level of public-sector union density in the country as a whole...
Missouri’s Minimum Wage Rises In 2015, No Change In Kansas Kansas City Star ...Missouri is among 29 states that have, or will have as of Jan. 1, state minimums that are higher than the current federal rate of $7.25 an hour...
Unions, retirees sue to block Chicago pension changes Reuters …Chicago public employee unions and others on Tuesday opened a new front in the battle over pension cuts for public workers, suing to block a law aimed at shoring up funding for two of the city's public pension systems…
Los Angeles hotel groups sue city over minimum wage ordinance Washington Post …The American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Asian American Hotel Owner Association filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Los Angeles over an ordinance that raises minimum wage for hotel workers to $15.37...
State high court to take up Doe cases centered on Walker's campaign Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ... Four of the justices have benefited from political spending by the Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the groups at the center of the investigation. Some legal experts have argued that at least some of those justices should not hear the cases because of actual or perceived biases from that political help...
War on Workers
How the NLRB may expand responsibility for labor violations Reuters ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is expected to rule soon on if, and how, companies can be held responsible for labor violations carried out by their contractors or franchisees - a move that could have far-reaching implications for businesses...
Metro-North Faces Historic Fine For Retaliating Against Worker Who Reported Injury Hartford Courant ...In fining the railroad $260,000 plus legal fees, the U.S. Department of Labor said it found a culture of intimidation, in which supervisors actively tried to discourage workers from filing injury reports and punished workers who did. In November, the National Transportation Safety Board, following a string of accidents, including fatalities, said Metro-North failed to maintain effective safety programs...
100 defects found during state crude oil rail inspections Albany Times Union ...The latest round of the state’s targeted crude oil tank car and rail inspections showed 100 track and train car defects, including eight that require immediate action, the governor’s office announced Monday...
More than 60 million households rely on low-wage workers The Hill ...The research shows that most low-wage workers are frequently the primary breadwinners in their families and they are not, as commonly thought, teenagers with few skills still living with their parents, according to the report by Oxfam America and the Economic Policy Institute...
For Low-Wage Americans, The Holiday Season Is A Time To Work Huffington Post ...More than 30 percent of Americans were living in poverty for at least two months from 2009 to 2011 -- a 4.5 percent increase from the period 2005 to 2007...
Americans Are Trading Sleep For Work, And It’s Literally Killing Us Washington Post ...This isn't a particularly healthy way to live -- insufficient sleep is associated with obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a host of other physical ailments. Drowsy driving causes around 80,000 automobile accidents every year, 1,000 of which are typically fatal...
Child Labor: Number Of Children Involved Is Shrinking Every Year Christian Science Monitor ...While there are fewer children involved in child labor every year, the rate at which child labor is decreasing is slowing down at both the global and regional levels...
Worker Killed In Mesa Industrial Accident Arizona Republic ...One person was killed in an industrial accident at a plant in west Mesa on Wednesday morning, according to a Mesa fire spokesman...
Construction Worker Killed In Caldwell Parish Crash KNOE ...A Cadillac ATS, driven by 42-year-old Jan Williams of Columbia, was traveling north on US 165 in the outside travel lane when she attempted to move into the inside lane but struck the rear of Chevrolet pickup and all three construction workers...
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