Today's Teamster News 12.11.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters, Activists Deliver Thousands of Signed Petitions to UPS Calling for Withdrawal from ALEC  Teamster.org  ...Today, Teamsters Union representatives in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Ga. led delegations that included environmental and community activists that delivered thousands signed petitions to UPS offices in both cities. The 75,000 signed petitions collected call on the corporation to withdraw its membership in the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
Hoffa: Final Customs Bill Offers Little More to Make TPP Better for Workers  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the issuance of a House-Senate conference report on a customs reauthorization bill that does little to address the many shortfalls contained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): “If leaders in Congress were trying to come up with a way to make trade fair for American workers and those around the globe, they failed miserably"...
Drivers at Transdev Vote to Join Teamsters Local 117  Local 117  ...Drivers, who are employed by Transdev, have voted to join Teamsters Local 117. The 260 workers came together seeking retirement security, affordable health care, fair and equal treatment, strong representation, and respect. “We’ve taken a very important step toward making our work environment better for the future,” said John Secord, a 4-year Transdev employee...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Paris Transport Workers Strike Amid Spike In Suspicious Package Claims  IBTimes  ...Less than a month since the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 and fueled international concerns over security, Paris transport workers are expressing their concerns for their own safety. Workers went on a 24-hour strike Thursday, saying security concerns have increased as a result of a high number of suspicious packages being reported on Paris public transportation, the Agence France-Presse reported. Passengers in Paris reported severely disrupted train traffic...
McConnell deals blow to Obama TPP hopes  The Hill  ...Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday crushed any hope that Congress could pass a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement before the 2016 elections. McConnell, who has expressed concerns about the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and has yet to take a stance, said President Obama is risking defeat of his signature trade deal if he tries to push for passage before a lame-duck session next year...
Honduras and CAFTA Show Us One of the Key Reasons Why TPP Should Be Opposed  (opinion) AFLCIO  ...This week, the governments of Honduras and the United States signed an action plan to begin addressing the widespread failure to enforce labor laws in Honduras. While this is a small step in the right direction, the Honduran government has not fully considered or included workers' recommendations regarding this Monitoring and Action Plan. The Honduran government, employers and unions have reached consensus on some points...
Portugal's new anti-austerity government makes more spending cuts in battle to lower deficit  Star Tribune  ...Portugal's new anti-austerity Socialist government has hit a snag: it needs to introduce more cutbacks to keep its pledge of getting the budget deficit lower than 3 percent this year, as demanded by its eurozone partners and creditors. Finance Minister Mario Centeno said after a Cabinet meeting Thursday the government is imposing a freeze on non-urgent spending...
Tunisian Unions Receive Nobel Prize in Ceremony Today  Solidarity Center  ...,The Nobel Peace Prize was formally awarded today to the Tunisian “Quartet,” which includes the country’s labor movement for its role in brokering a peaceful path to democracy. At a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, Houcine Abassi, general secretary of the Tunisian General Labor Union (Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail, UGTT) said, “Tunisia is an exception so far in the Arab Spring countries, but this doesn’t mean that it may not be replicated in other countries”...
How Climate Change Will Transform Work  The Nation  ...The term “green economy” danced around the corridors at the Paris climate talks, evoking visions of electric cars and “clean tech.” But “decarbonization” is a messier story in the Global South. Workers in the rapidly warming “developing world” need more than wind turbines and highbrow organic farms; they need to build livelihoods that can mitigate ecological crisis—and leap ahead of the dominant fossil-fuel based economies, which historically have both controlled and stifled their development...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Connecticut Legislature Approves Budget Cuts  Wall Street Journal  ...Lawmakers in Connecticut on Tuesday approved a $350 million plan to address a shortfall in the state’s budget. The state Senate, controlled by Democrats, passed the bill 20-15. The House of Representatives, also controlled by Democrats, passed it 75-65. The plan cuts spending by $195.8 million and diverts $135.7 million from several specialized accounts, including the transportation fund...
Senate moves Pennsylvania budget fight into House's court  WTAE  ...The Pennsylvania Senate sprinted through hundreds of pages of just-unveiled budget legislation Thursday, handing it back to the House Republican majority and all but ensuring that a five-month stalemate that is crippling social services agencies would plow into next week. The Republican-controlled Senate adjourned Thursday night after a marathon week of passing major bills that authorize $30.8 billion in spending...
California pension overhaul advocates move forward after Kamala Harris issues analyses  Sac Bee  ...California moved one step closer to a public retirement fight after the state issued official summaries for two pension-change ballot proposals on Thursday – and for the first time neither labor unions nor the measures’ proponents griped that the language was politically slanted or inaccurate. “It’s not the most positive way to describe the initiative,” said Chuck Reed, the former San Jose mayor who is backing the proposal...

‘Right to work’ a tired, failed proposal  (opinion) Cincinnati.com  ...Here in Ohio, a broad coalition of working people is mobilizing against yet another attack on collective bargaining. Even though “right to work” has failed repeatedly in the past, Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Mount Lookout, is pushing a new bill in the statehouse. It’s an effort to keep middle-class Ohioans from speaking up together for wages and benefits that can sustain our families...

Tucson talks of requiring paid sick leave from employers  Arizona Daily Star  ...The City Council is studying a proposal to require all Tucson employers to give earned sick days to employees, but the issue got off to a shaky start. Councilwoman Regina Romero proposed a city ordinance Tuesday making sick time mandatory as part of a “working family agenda,” but the discussion got heated and turned to whether the city can spend time on social justice issues while it’s trying to get its own fiscal house in order...

U.S. LABOR
Uber drivers get big boost in lawsuit against company  SF Chronicle  ...In a major setback for Uber, a federal judge on Wednesday dramatically expanded the scope — both in potential financial damages and in the number of people affected — of a class-action lawsuit by California drivers seeking to be reclassified as employees. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled that even drivers who accepted mandatory arbitration in their Uber contract should be included in the case...
Negotiations Resume Between Kohler Company, Striking Workers  CBS  ...Negotiations resumed between Kohler company and union officials on Thursday, according to UAW Local 833 members. The 2,000 striking employees got their final paycheck at the end of last week from the company. Some will also have their vacation time paid out, members said...
Suburban office janitors rally for $15 wage as contract expiration looms  Business Journal  ...Dozens of janitors who staff more than 150 suburban Philadelphia office buildings called for a wage that would give their children a Christmas they deserve in a demonstration Thursday outside Vanguard's Malvern offices. Members of the 32BJ Service Employees International Union want the owners of the approximately 170 properties in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties to agree to raise their wage...
D.C. Streetcar Management Found Guilty of Threatening Workers  DC Labor  ...As news surfaced that the beleaguered DC Streetcar will not be ready this year and an exposé showed that the project has drained more than $200 million in taxpayer funds, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that the private DDOT contractor charged with operating the streetcar engaged in illegal anti-union activity, including threatening workers who wanted to join a union. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) says the decision is a legal victory...
The Tipping Point: Most Americans No Longer Are Middle Class  NPR  ...Americans have long lived in a nation made up primarily of middle-class families, neither rich nor poor, but comfortable enough. This year, that changed, according to the Pew Research Center. A just-released analysis of government data shows that as of 2015, middle-income households have become the minority...
Proposed House and Senate Bills Would Roll Back New Worker Protections in Guestworker Program  In These Times  ..After years of legal battles, the H-2B guestworker program finally acquired official rules in April. For the first time, workers in the program were guaranteed basic protections like minimum hours and local average wages. But now those rules are being challenged in several Congressional bills. The proposed bills could dramatically alter the program, cutting protections for U.S. and foreign workers alike...

UC Berkeley Workers, Students Say University’s Subcontracted Campus Jobs Mean Poverty Wages  In These Times  ...Twenty-two student protesters were arrested on December 3 after staging a two-hour occupation of the central administration offices at the University of California, Berkeley. The protesters stormed California Hall, where school head Chancellor Nicholas Dirks is headquartered, and sat down in the office lobby demanding living wages and benefits for workers employed by private contractors on campus...

After Laquan McDonald’s Shooting, Chicago Targets Police Contract Protections  Mother Jones  ...The Fraternal Order of Police contract with the city shapes how Chicago handles police misconduct allegations, disciplines rank-and-file officers, as well as when the city pays legal costs for police officers accused of wrongdoing. While activists have long called for changes to the contract, many people in local government have not been eager to take on that fight—until now...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Report Shows How Charter Schools Are in Business of 'Privatization and Profiteering'  Common Dreams  ...The explosion of charter schools in the U.S. is allowing individuals, corporations, and organizations to use public funds to secure their own financial gain and private profit—often at the expense of the common interest they claim to serve, a new policy brief from the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder finds...
Immigration official: Etowah immigration detainee hunger strike over  AL.com  ...A hunger strike by immigration detainees at the Etowah County Detention Center that began the day before Thanksgiving has ended, immigration officials say. Bryan Cox, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said eight detainees ate the evening meal Wednesday and "voluntarily ended their strike." "As of today the Etowah hunger strike is over," Cox said Wednesday...
Climate Apartheid: Greenpeace Chief Says Poorest Suffer Brunt of Rich Nations' Emissions  Democracy Now  ...Representatives from nearly 200 nations are in the final stretch of negotiations at the U.N. climate summit in Paris. The text has nearly 100 outstanding points of disagreement that still need to be resolved. One of the most contentious issues is the role that wealthy and more advanced developing countries should play in helping vulnerable nations cope with the impacts of climate change...
Poll: Majority of Americans oppose Trump's Muslim ban plan  Daily Kos  ...Poll: Majority of Americans oppose Trump's Muslim ban plan. There are sharp differences by political party. Just over half of Republicans responding -- 54 percent -- support such a ban, while most Democrats and independents do not...
Hundreds of U.S. Groups Join Forces to Stand Against 'Dangerous Tide of Hatred, Violence'  Common Dreams  ...It is incumbent on every public figure, elected politician, and media outlet to stand up against the "dangerous tide of hatred, violence, and suspicion" taking hold in the United States, over 700 prominent organizations and people declared in a full-page ad in Thursday's New York Times. Signatories warn that, in particular, violence is aimed at "Arab and Muslim Americans, women and the places we seek health care, Black people, immigrants and refugees...
A Guilty Verdict for Daniel Holtzclaw  The Atlantic  ...An Oklahoma County jury handed down a series of guilty verdicts on Thursday night in the trial of former Oklahoma City Police Department officer Daniel Holtzclaw, who allegedly raped and sexually assaulted at least 13 black women in the neighborhood he patrolled. Holtzclaw, who turned 29 years old on Thursday, faced 36 charges in total...

We've had 20 years of broken promises from trade agreements. Let's not have any more.

Pretty soon the world will learn how badly the U.S. government broke its promises about the trade deal with South Korea.

There isn't any way the treaty known as KORUS lived up to its advance billing. We were promised it would increase U.S. exports from $10 billion to $11 billion.

After two years, U.S. exports to South Korea fell by $3.1 billion.

We were told it would support 70,000 American jobs from increased goods exports alone.

After two years, it cost 60,000 U.S. jobs, most of them good-paying jobs in manufacturing.

It is now extremely unlikely the United States recovered from those losses and met the promises made three years ago by KORUS supporters.

Same with NAFTA.

NAFTA was supposed to create 170,000 new jobs.

After nearly 20 years, NAFTA cost 1 million jobs.

Caterpillar, Inc. lobbied for NAFTA claiming it would stop the company from outsourcing jobs. By 2008, Caterpillar laid off 338 workers in Illinois and moved their jobs to Mexico, while 105 workers lost their jobs at Caterpillar's Georgia plant because of imports from Mexico.

How about Colombia? Remember how a trade deal with Colombia was going to end the violence that made it the worst country in the world to be a trade unionist?

That didn't happen either. The violence in Colombia got worse. There were four more union leaders murdered in 2013 than in 2012.

Remember CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement? It was supposed to raise the standard of living for Central Americans.

It didn't.

In El Salvador, unemployment increased by 71 percent. Unescorted children -- CAFTA kids --  created a crisis at the U.S. border as they tried to escape the violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

Now we're hearing more promises about new trade deals: TPP, TTIP, TISA. The Economic Policy Institute issues a blunt warning:

Presidents of both parties from Clinton through Obama have sold free trade agreements on the basis of export growth. But free trade agreements impact a lot more than exports—they increase imports and encourage outsourcing, which means fewer American jobs. 

We should stop negotiating new free trade agreements, and work to fix the ones we have. The United States needs to base its projections on the real impact of free trade agreements—including effects on exports and imports, outsourcing, wages, and employment.

Today's Teamster News 01.18.15

Teamster News
Teamsters Reach Tentative Contract Deal At Hunts Point  teamster.org   ...Teamsters Local 202 announced this afternoon that it had reached a tentative contract agreement with Hunts Point Market. The union's 1,300 members at the market, who have the final say, will vote Wednesday on the tentative deal...
Trade
USTR Still Insists That 'Listening' Is 'Transparency' Even As It Keeps Details Completely Secret  tech dirt   ...the USTR is really about as transparent as pea soup, with an institutional focus on secrecy. The negotiating positions that it takes on various trade agreements are shrouded in secrecy. When other countries push to be more transparent, the USTR inevitably rejects those pleas. While lobbyists get full access to some of the documents (including the ability to log in and see the latest texts), members of Congress who want to see the details have to go to the USTR, aren't allowed to bring any staffers, and aren't allowed to make any copies or take any notes...
Vanity of Vanities; All Is Vanity: Obama's Vain Search for a TPP "Legacy" (opinion)  truthout   ...if you're not already familiar with TPP you should be asking yourself, "if the draft agreement is so secret that members of Congress are not permitted to have copies of it, how did the corporations and their attorneys not only get copies of the drafts, but actually craft the drafts for the private benefit of their clients?"...
New AFL-CIO Report: Failed Trade Policy Contributed to Unaccompanied Minors Crisis  AFL-CIO   … A new, eye-opening report issued by the AFL-CIO sheds light on how failed trade policies contributed to the unaccompanied minor crisis at the U.S. border during last summer...
State Battles
At $37 million and counting, mega-donor Sinquefield says he's not going anywhere  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...“In Jefferson City, the first question legislators ask is not, ‘What do my constituents think?’ It’s, ‘What does Rex think?’,” says [U.S. Sen. Claire] McCaskill, who has made Sinquefield the poster child in her quest to set campaign contribution limits in Missouri. “They’re not saying it out loud, because they’re afraid of him, but everyone is uncomfortable about what’s going on.”...
Several Kentucky counties passing or considering 'right to work' laws  Kentucky.com   ...Since mid-December, Fulton, Hardin, Simpson, Todd and Warren counties have passed right-to-work ordinances. Cumberland and Pulaski counties have given first readings to similar proposals...
War on Workers
Who Needs Lobbyists? See What Big Business Spends To Win American Minds  Huffington Post   …Of $3.4 billion in contracts reported by the 144 trade groups from 2008 through 2012, more than $1.2 billion, or 37 percent, went toward advertising, public relations and marketing services, more than any other category. The second-highest total, $682.2 million, or 20 percent of the total, was directed toward legal, lobbying and government affairs...
The Poor Pay More in Taxes  Economic Populist   …in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent...
Obama Proposes New Tax Hikes on Wealthy to Aid Middle Class  Bloomberg   …President Barack Obama is proposing new taxes on the wealthiest Americans that would limit their profits from investments and make it harder for them to pass assets to heirs...
Miscellaneous
Falling Oil Prices: Good For Drivers, Bad For Banks  NPR   …Lending money to energy companies can be pretty profitable, but if oil prices drop enough, the threat of bank defaults becomes real...

US government says labor standards still violated by Latin American free trade partners

The labor protections written into trade deals with Latin America aren't being enforced, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

We're not surprised.

Teamsters said three years ago that a so-called trade deal with Colombia wouldn't end assassinations of trade unionists. Sadly, we were right.

Rallying against the murder of unionists.

Three years ago, proponents of the treaty to empower corporations in Colombia came up with something called a 'Labor Action Plan' (LAP). It was theoretically supposed to end anti-union violence. What it really did was give some lawmakers a fig leaf to let them vote for the treaty and pretend they care for workers' rights.

Violence against trade unionists is increasing in Colombia. There were four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012.

Now the GAO says labor protections aren't being enforced in Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli at the Washington Office on Latin America reviewed the GAO report and concluded:

A main part of the GAO’s assessment addressed compliance with the U.S.-Colombia Labor Action Plan (LAP), whose implementation has been partial and incomplete. 

Many challenges remain with the LAP. The GAO noted that the U.S. agencies responsible for enforcing labor provisions, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), both reported that Colombia has “made meaningful progress” with certain aspects of the plan, such as the creation of institutions and changes in legislation, including the establishment of criminal penalties for efforts to undermine collective bargaining rights. Unfortunately, the enforcement of these actions remains a serious issue. 

The USTR admits that fines for labor abuses are not being collected, and that new forms of abusive contracting remain a problem as employers continue to find legal loopholes that allow them to avoid directly contracting workers. WOLA has received reports from unions and labor activists within the priority sectors of the LAP indicating that impunity remains the norm for labor killings, and that retaliation against unions and labor activists who attempt to defend their right to organize and collective bargain are rampant. 

Colombia’s Ministry of Labor has done little to deal with blatant anti-unionization efforts by employers in the sugar, ports, oil palm, and energy sectors, and to address the mass firing and other reprisals against workers who organize. Further, the Ministry has done little to tackle racial discrimination and specific concerns faced by Afro-Colombian workers. 

In examining the situation in selected countries with trade agreements, the GAO identified another major concern. Key players in partner countries, such as labor unions, have not filed complaints when their rights were violated due to a lack of understanding on how to do so. Since 2008, the DOL has only received four formal complaints alleging violations of FTA Labor Provisions in Latin American countries. Compounding the problem, the GAO found that DOL exceeded its timeframe for investigating and reporting on these claims by an average of almost nine months, prolonging negative labor conditions for workers. Only one of the four complaints has been resolved.

Reason enough to oppose the new 'trade deals' coming down the pike.

Today's Teamster News 09.29.14

Trade
TPP deadline moves again  Radio New Zealand   ...Another self-imposed deadline to agree a Pacific-wide trade deal appears to be crumbling...
Study Confirms: Offshoring Sucks  Economic Populist   ...ever since Bill Clinton granted permanent normal trade relations to the China, the U.S has lost over 64,000 manufacturing firms and at least 5.8 million manufacturing jobs...
CAFTA and the Forced Migration Crisis  Public Citizen   ... The deal appears to have actually contributed to the economic instability feeding the region’s increase in violence and forced migration...
State Battles
Jerry Brown signs subcontractor bill  The Sacramento Bee   ...In a major victory for California labor unions, Gov. Jerry Brown announced Sunday that he has signed legislation that will hold businesses liable when subcontractors violate wage, workplace safety or workers’ compensation rules...
LA Hotel Workers Win $15.37 Minimum Wage: a New Day for Labor in the United States?  Economic Policy Institute   ...The LA County AFL-CIO, UNITE HERE Local 11 (the LA area union of hospitality workers), and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which led the campaign, don’t intend to rest on their laurels and will push for an across-the-board minimum wage increase to $13.25 an hour, far above the national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour...
Thank Goodness Wisconsin Turned Down High Speed Rail!  Econbrowser   ...We find that sales and measured productivity rose substantially for firms near the new (high speed rail) stations after the opening...
Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin slows updates of building and safety codes  The Cap Times   ...DuPont, a lobbyist representing the Alliance for Regulatory Coordination, a consortium of more than a dozen state industry and public safety groups, warned Ross that failure to do so “can negatively impact both public safety and the economy in Wisconsin because products and designs offered across the nation most often reflect the newest national model regulations...”
War on Workers
Watchdog presses SEC for CEO pay disclosure  The Hill   ...The Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) slammed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday for dragging its feet on the CEO pay disclosure rule amid pressure from business groups to scrap it...
Hong Kong Protesters Defy Officials’ Call to Disperse  New York Times   ...The continued public resistance underscored the difficulties that the Hong Kong government faces in defusing widespread anger that erupted on Sunday, after the police used tear gas, pepper spray and batons to break up a three-day sit-in by students and other residents demanding democratic elections in the semiautonomous Chinese territory...
Court to Weigh Political-Contribution Ban for Government Contractors  Wall Street Journal   ...A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday will consider a fresh challenge to campaign-finance rules, this time a 74-year-old law prohibiting government contractors from making political contributions tied to federal elections...
'Why They Hate Us': A Rant Against U.S. Before Attack on Chicago Air Traffic Hub  Bloomberg   ...The man charged with setting fire to a Chicago-area air-traffic facility, paralyzing travel through the city’s two major airports, was consumed by the U.S. government’s “immoral and unethical acts,” according to a Facebook message under his name. The posting, which includes references to being under the influence of drugs, calls government workers “lazy and useless” and said the government “would rather take care of itself and the money in the world, definitely not its people.”...
Construction worker killed in Rockdale County wreck  Atlanta Journal-Constitution   ...A construction worker died Saturday night in Rockdale County after being trapped underneath a dump truck...

Today's Teamster News 09.25.14

Teamster News
Reinhart Teamsters Overwhelmingly Ratify First Contract  teamster.org   ...More than 230 workers at Reinhart Food Service represented by Teamsters Local Union 653 ratified a first contract, voting by a 2 to 1 margin to approve the collective bargaining agreement...
First Transit Workers Stand Together For Teamster Representation  teamster.org   ...WorFirst Transit paratransit drivers, dispatchers and schedulers in Chicago recently voted resoundingly for Teamsters Local 727 representation...
British Union To Confront Bill de Blasio Over Plan To Ban City's Horse-Carriage Industry  New York Daily News   ...Members of the federation will raise the carriage ban with de Blasio at the conference, the union said. New York’s carriage drivers are represented by the Teamsters union...
Tom Mulcair Targets 'Freeloader' Corporations In Speech To Teamsters  CBC News   ...In a toughly-worded speech to be delivered today to a Teamsters rail safety conference, the NDP leader's rhetoric is reminiscent of the party's former leaders, particularly that of David Lewis who campaigned against "corporate welfare bums" in 1972...
Pilot Attrition Accelerates At Allegiant Air As Labor Issues Heat Up  teamster.org   ...“The Teamsters have presented the company with a comprehensive proposal, to which they have refused to reply....An honest effort by the company to reach an agreement during contract negotiations would have a positive effect, stem the unsustainable losses they are experiencing, and allow the company to succeed going forward.”...
Trade
Japan trade minister: No progress with U.S. in TPP trade talks  Reuters   ...Japan's Trade Minister Akira Amari said he and his U.S. counterpart made no progress in bilateral talks that are key to an ambitious multilateral trade deal...  
U.S. Government Takes Historic Action to Enforce Labor Rules in Trade Agreement with Guatemala  AFL-CIO Now   ...The United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it will finally move forward to arbitration in the long-running dispute with the government of Guatemala regarding whether or not Guatemala is meeting the labor commitments of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA or CAFTA)...
TTIP Should Help, Not Hinder, Workers (opinion)  The Broker   ...Labour provisions expected to be included in the deal do not provide enough protections.  Additionally, language that would bar preferred status to national companies in government purchasing – known as the Buy American program in the US – would starve job creation...
State Battles
Yahoo, Yelp, Facebook, Google and Microsoft reconsider their relationship with free-market group ALEC  Washington Post   ...Five tech giants have dropped, or plan to or are expected to drop, their membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a free-market, state-focused group that has become a target of the left in recent years...
Court Returns Inquiry Into Walker’s Finances to Wisconsin  New York Times   ...A federal appeals court on Wednesday removed an injunction halting an investigation into whether the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker illegally coordinated with conservative groups on fund-raising and spending as he sought to overcome a recall effort two years ago...
Judge defies Supreme Court order as legal wrangling over other voter ID case continues  Wisconsin State Journal   ...A Dane County judge has defied a state Supreme Court order to dismiss a challenge to Wisconsin’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, while the legal wrangling continued Tuesday over another case seeking to block the law...
Group Hopes To Force Scott Walker's Administration To Raise The Minimum Wage  Wisconsin State Journal   ...On Wednesday, Wisconsin Jobs Now plans to present petitions from about 75 workers who say they are paid wages that are not self-supporting. The group said that violates a state law dating back to 1913 requiring that the minimum wage in the state “shall not be less than a living wage.”...
Court: 35 days of early voting to start in Ohio  Toledo Blade   ...Ohio’s 35-day early voting window will remain intact for the Nov. 4 election, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said he will ask the entire U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, not just a three-judge panel, to hear an appeal of the decision. Time is short, however. Early voting will begin Tuesday...
Fed Judge: No press exemption for Citizens United in Colorado  Colorado Independent   ...Judge Brooke Jackson issued a curt decision today refusing to issue a federal injunction that would have allowed Citizens United to air and advertise a documentary on Colorado politics ahead of the November elections without disclosing funding behind any advertising related to the movie.
... Jeffco students walk out of 5 high schools in school board protest  Denver Post   ...Community members are angry about an evaluation-based system for awarding raises to educators and a proposed curriculum committee that would call for promoting "positive aspects" of the United States and its heritage and avoiding material that would encourage or condone "civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law..."
Indiana Toll Road operator files Chapter 11  Bloomberg   ...The operator of the Indiana Toll Road, owned by affiliates of Macquarie Group Ltd. and Ferrovial SA, sought bankruptcy protection after dwindling traffic soured a $3.8 billion bet on a 75-year lease... Alaska's Lessons For The Keystone XL Pipeline (opinion)  Wall Street Journal   ...The lesson of the Trans-Alaska pipeline is that we can build pipelines in ways that protect the environment while yielding large economic benefits. The naysayers were wrong 40 years ago, and policy makers should give scant credence to their arguments against Keystone today...
War On Workers
Inside the Koch brothers' toxic empire  Rolling Stone   ...The company's troubled legal history – including a trail of congressional investigations, Department of Justice consent decrees, civil lawsuits and felony convictions – augmented by internal company documents, leaked State Department cables, Freedom of Information disclosures and company whistle­-blowers, combine to cast an unwelcome spotlight on the toxic empire whose profits finance the modern GOP...
Walmart moms demand better pay and protections for women workers  Peoples World   ...Thelma Moore, who worked at the Chatham, Ill. store and is pregnant with her second child., (said) "...we're fighting for bathroom breaks when we're pregnant and steady schedules that let us get reliable childcare and put food on the table." Moore was fired from the store for an absence when she was at doctors' appointments after television sets fell on her at the store...
Student homelessness hits another record high  CNN Money   ...Approximately 1.3 million students enrolled in U.S. public preschools, elementary schools, middle schools and high schools schools were homeless during the 2012-13 school year. That's up 8% from the prior year…
Worker Dies From Fire at EOG Resources Site in Wyoming  Wall Street Journal   ...A worker died after a flash fire at a storage tank near a natural gas well in Wyoming, company and hospital officials said. The contract worker, whose name hasn't been released, was one of three people hospitalized after a fire at a well site owned by EOG Resources Inc…
Second worker dies from U.S. Steel explosion; OSHA investigating  Pittsburgh Business Times   ...A second United States Steel Corp. employee has died from injuries in an explosion at the company's facility in Fairfield, Ala., a spokesperson for UAB Hospital confirmed Wednesday...
Manchester worker dead after Eagleville school accident  The Tennessean   ...A construction worker died after a backhoe flipped over on him Tuesday afternoon at Eagleville School...
The Recovery That Left Out Almost Everybody (opinion)  Wall Street Journal   ...Not only are hourly wages stagnating; America's families want more hours of work than the economy is providing...

Teamster: Trade deal caused refugee crises at border

The nine-year-old CAFTA trade deal caused thousands of desperate children to flock to the U.S. border seeking safety, Teamsters legislative representative Mike Dolan explained recently on the Thom Hartmann Show.  

He calls them the 'CAFTA Kids.'

They are actually the second generation of economic refugees to leave their land and their homes. The first wave came after NAFTA took effect on Jan. 1, 1994. NAFTA forced the Mexican government to change its constitution in order to dismantle Mexico's cooperative farming system, said Dolan. That allowed U.S.-based multinationals like Cargill and ConAgra to impose industrial agriculture on Mexico, undermine wages and drive farmers off the land into barrios, ghettoes and across the U.S. border.

Nearly a decade later, Congress passed CAFTA in the middle of the night by one vote. Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa predicted CAFTA would screw workers in the U.S. and in Central America, just as NAFTA did in the U.S. and Mexico. He was right.

The Rev. Richard E. Pates, Roman Catholic bishop of Des Moines, just returned from a visit to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. He wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about the poverty, brutality and oppression spawned by CAFTA. CAFTA, he wrote, 

...has in many cases devastated small agricultural producers and businesses in the region, while depressing labor conditions and wages. As an example, U.S. corporations, receiving significant subsidies and other protections from our government, have been able to export corn and other agricultural products to Central America, driving down local prices for these products and forcing rural families off their lands. 

The TPP, should it pass, will engineer the next round of destruction. Hartmann called it SHAFTA: The Southern Hemisphere Asian Free Trade Agreement. And he predicted Congress will try to pass it in the lame-duck session this fall.

Said Dolan: The 1.4 million Teamsters have more in common with the workers in other countries than either of us do with the corporate elites in our own. It's going to have to be international solidarity that will frustrate negotiations over the TPP.

"Isn't the net net of all of these trade agreements is that they get sold to us as jobs, they get sold as prosperity, they get sold as lower prices at Walmart," said Hartmann. "The reality is the only winners are banksters and the multinational corporations."

Blame CAFTA for the children at the border

The violence in Central America that is sending tens of thousands of children to the U.S. border is a direct result of CAFTA, a 9-year-old trade deal that is remarkably similar to the TPP and TAFTA, now being negotiated in secret. 

Public Citizen nails it: 

Nine years ago this week, the polemical Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was passed by the House of Representatives…in the dead of night…by a single vote.   

CAFTA proponents promised the deal would reduce gang and drug-related violence in Central America, boost economic development, and diminish the factors pushing Central Americans to migrate to the United States.  

Such promises already sounded hollow when they were voiced in 2005.  Today, as thousands of Central American children leave their homes and risk their lives to try to make it to the United States, CAFTA’s promises have proven tragically empty... 

67 members of Congress’ Progressive Caucus ... included CAFTA in their recent summary of the root causes of the refugee crisis occurring along the U.S.-Mexico border: “free trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) have led to the displacement of workers and subsequent migration from these countries.” 

CAFTA isn't the only trade deal that's resulting in violence, misery and death. There's no doubt NAFTA contributed to the violence in Mexico that killed 120,000 people (with 27,000 missing) since 2006. And the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in May 2012, has exacerbated violence in the worst country in the world to be a trade unionist.

The Rev. Richard E. Pates, bishop of Des Moines, just returned from a visit to El Salvador, Guatemala and Hondurans. He wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about the poverty, brutality and oppression spawned by CAFTA:

...we continue to question key policies facilitated by our trade agreements and to examine the consequences of these policies in the Central American region. We frequently heard during our visit, from Church leaders as well as representatives of civil society, that the implementation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and similar trade policies, has in many cases devastated small agricultural producers and businesses in the region, while depressing labor conditions and wages. As an example, U.S. corporations, receiving significant subsidies and other protections from our government, have been able to export corn and other agricultural products to Central America, driving down local prices for these products and forcing rural families off their lands. 

"We must recognize that there are correlations between these harmful trade practices and the deplorable conditions that lead to poverty, increased unemployment (especially among the young), violence, trafficking and the resultant push for migration," concluded Bishop Pates.

 

 

Today's Teamster News 08.02.14

Teamster News
Workers: AGY Union Approves Contract  Aiken Standard   ...Employees of Aiken's AGY plant are expected to return to work on Monday, after the plant's labor union voted on Thursday to approve a new labor contract...
4 More LAUSD Bargaining Units Ratify Contracts, Secure Salary Raises  CBS News   ...Four Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) bargaining units have ratified their contracts, providing salary raises to employees for the first time in several years...
Rail Traffic Controllers And Canadian Pacific Reach Tentative Agreement  Wall Street Journal   ...Canadian Pacific and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Rail Canada Traffic Controllers announced today that they have reached a tentative six-year labour agreement covering approximately 135 employees rail traffic controllers in Canada...
Teamsters contract extended, school buses will run as planned  Memphis Commercial Appeal   ...Durham School Services and the Teamsters school bus drivers agreed late Friday to a 30-day extension of its current contract while negotiations continue, said Teamsters business agent Edward Houston...
Teamsters 'outraged' about BlueCross BlueShield urgent care decision  insurancenewsnet.com   ..."The Local Union is constantly receiving calls from members on this chaotic BCBS decision and the members are outraged," wrote James Todd, a business agent for the Teamsters Local Union in West Columbia. "Particularly, our UPS members are mad as hell..."
Trade
Central America Crisis Belies CAFTA’s Empty Promises  Public Citizen   ...the 67 members of Congress’ Progressive Caucus ... included CAFTA in their recent summary of the root causes of the refugee crisis occurring along the U.S.-Mexico border: “free trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) have led to the displacement of workers and subsequent migration from these countries...”
Changing Asia: China’s high-speed railway diplomacy  The Strategist   ...‘high-speed railway diplomacy’ … is used to describe the mechanisms by which China’s burgeoning capacities in high-speed railway (HSR) construction are being used in China’s international relations....
House Lawmakers Are Seeing The Light On ‘Buy American’  teamster.org   ...Lawmakers signed onto two different letters this week that called on the Obama administration to protect the more than 80-year-old program from being phased out as a condition included in the Pacific Rim trade agreement...
State Battles
Some ALEC Funders Flee, but Koch, Big Tobacco, and PhRMA Remain Loyalists  Center for Media and Democracy   ...the petrochemical giant Koch Industries gave ALEC $504,700 between 1995 and 1998. This is in addition to nearly a million dollars that foundations controlled by the billionaire Koch brothers gave ALEC outright between 1998 and 2012, and a nearly $500,000 loan that the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation gave ALEC in 1996...  
Fresno Cabbies Want Uber, Lyft Rideshare Services Off The Road  Fresno Bee   ...Fresno cabbies are asking City Hall to get on-demand ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft off the city's roads...
Only Case Of Voter Fraud Cited In Wisconsin Voter ID Ruling Involved A Scott Walker Fan  Huffington Post   ...The only example of voter fraud that the Wisconsin Supreme Court cited Thursday when it upheld a state voter ID law signed by Gov. Scott Walker (R) was allegedly committed by a Walker supporter....
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder To Gov. Rick Scott: We're Watching You  Tampa Bay Times   ...U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent a scathing letter to Gov. Rick Scott over voting changes in Florida and issued a warning that the Justice Department is "carefully monitoring" the state...
After Gov. Rick Scott’s Secret Trip To King Ranch, He Tapped A Ranch Executive For State Regulatory Board  Miami Herald   ...A month after Gov. Rick Scott took a secret hunting trip to the King Ranch in Texas last year ... Scott picked a corporate executive named Mitchel A. “Mitch” Hutchcraft...
War On Workers
Driverless Cars on UK Public Streets Starting January; Transforming Personal Mobility; Taxi and Truck-Drivers Targeted  Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis   ...Google's cars come equipped with elaborate sensors that can see 600 feet in every direction, are fully electric, and have a range of about 100 miles, perfect for city use, especially driverless taxi cabs. Google plans for 2017 operation...
The ‘meh’ economy: What it means for 2014  Politico Pro   ...Over the past two years, per-capita income adjusted for inflation has risen just 1.16 percent, down from 2.54 percent in the first two years of the recovery. Average hourly earnings rose just 1 cent to $24.45 in the latest jobs report...
Drunk Driver Kills Construction Worker, FHP Says  Sarasota Herald-Tribune   ...One construction worker was killed and another seriously injured Wednesday night when a drunk driver ran into them with his sedan, the Florida Highway Patrol reports...
Miscellaneous
The Other Aging of America: The Increasing Dominance of Older Firms  Brookings   ...The share of firms aged 16 years or more was 23 percent in 1992, but leaped to 34 percent by 2011—an increase of 50 percent in two decades. The share of private-sector workers employed in these mature firms increased from 60 percent to 72 percent during the same period...
BitTorrent Unveils NSA-Proof Online Calling And Messaging Software  Los Angeles Times   ...BitTorrent Inc., the San Francisco company behind the most popular technology for sharing files online, is branching out into a new arena: snoop-proof calling and texting...

Today's Teamster News 03.18.14

Teamster News
County sets public hearing on contract with Teamsters  Topeka Capital Journal   ...The Shawnee County Commission made plans Monday to hear public comments at its March 31 meeting regarding an impasse between Shawnee County and its approximately 470 employees represented by the Teamsters Union...
Trade
The TPP Tries to Put a "No Exit" Sign on America's Crapified Health Care System by Allowing Medical Procedures to be Patented World-wide  truthout   ...if some guy decided to patent a medical procedure like, oh, looking at a patient’s teeth using a dental mirror (“tilt the mirror at the correct angle to display the crown or other surface”) that patent could be approved, if the examiner had a bad day, even though the procedure is neither new nor revolutionary. That would raise the price of dental care world-wide...
Fashion Faux Pas? Free Trade and Sweatshop Labor in Guatemala  truthout   ..."In several CAFTA countries things are worse now than when CAFTA went into effect..."
State Battles
Ohio Mistrusts Democracy  New York Times   ...Ohio Republicans must not think their political candidates can win a fair fight against Democrats...
GOP Bill Designed to Disrupt John Doe Dark Money Probe, Court Filings Confirm  Center for Media and Democracy   ...New court filings confirm that Wisconsin's John Doe campaign finance investigation hinges on how state election law treats "issue ad" groups coordinating with political campaigns, shedding new light on a Republican effort to quietly change the law in advance of Governor Scott Walker's reelection campaign...
The Battle for Chattanooga: Southern Masculinity and the Anti-Union Campaign at Volkswagen  In These Times   ...“Work is not supposed to be a popularity contest, but that’s exactly what it is, unless you’re protected [by a union],” says Gravett, who since graduating from high school in 1985 has worked in various factories, including Dupont, Cleveland Tubing, Polyloom and Volkswagen...
Pensiongate? Christie Campaign Donors Won Huge Contracts  The Nation   ...While trumpeting “pension reform,” the New Jersey governor placed retiree assets in the hands of hedge fund managers bankrolling his political career...
The War on Workers
Hunger crisis: Charities are strained as nearly 1 in 5 New Yorkers depend on aid for food  New York Daily News   ...In a city of wealth, 1.4 million people rely on a network of 1,000 food pantries and soup kitchens to eat. That's an increase of 200,000 people in five years, and the city's programs are struggling to keep up with that need...
Low-Wage Workers Are Finding Poverty Harder to Escape  New York Times   ...More than half of those who make $9 or less an hour are 25 or older, while the proportion who are teenagers has declined to just 17 percent from 28 percent in 2000, after adjusting for inflation...
Wells Fargo foreclosure manual under fire  Washington Post   ...lenders, including Wells Fargo, used forged and shoddy paperwork during the recession to quickly foreclose on struggling homeowners, a practice known as “robo-signing.” Those charges led to a $25 billion national mortgage settlement that was supposed to put an end to such abusive practices, but bankruptcy lawyer Linda Tirelli says nothing has changed...
Miscellaneous
Obama auto rescue saved 2.6 million jobs and over $100 billion  examiner   ...The total loss of jobs would have topped 2.6 million if the entire auto industry would have been left to collapse and the report also notes that the bailout "saved or avoided the loss of $105.3 billion in transfer payments and the loss of personal and social insurance tax collections -- or 768% of the net investment...”

Today's Teamster News 4.04.13

Missouri 'Right to Work' bill adopted by State House panel  Associated Press   ...Paying union fees could no longer be a condition of employment in Missouri under a bill endorsed by a House committee...
Japan reaches basic agreement with U.S., will join TPP talks in July  The Asahi Shimbun   ...Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed with Obama during a summit in February that the elimination of all tariffs without exception will not be a prerequisite for Japan's participation in the talks...
Fast-Food Workers Plan Second Strike for More Pay  New York Times   ...Ms. Verges, 29, says she definitely plans to walk out on Thursday when the movement to raise wages for the city’s fast-food workers holds its second big job action. The movement’s leaders are predicting that twice as many workers — more than 400 — will engage in a one-day strike at 60 to 70 McDonald’s, Domino’s, Taco Bell and other fast-food restaurants...
As mad as hell! Fury as judges nix ‘no-fault’ Wall Street deals  New York Post   ...A growing number of federal judges have had about as much as they can take with Wall Street firms paying hefty fines to settle probes into serious wrongdoing — without admitting any guilt or any executive taking the fall...
Bank website attacks reach new high: 249 hours offline in past six weeks  NBC News   ...The heavier-than-usual outages are the result of a remarkable, sustained attack that began seven months ago and repeatedly knocks banks offline for hours at a time, frustrating consumers and bank security professionals alike...
Judge: Right-to-work challenge alleging OMA violation will move forward  Detroit Free Press   ...An Ingham County judge on Wednesday morning rejected Attorney General Bill Schuette’s request to dismiss a lawsuit by labor supporters who allege Michigan’s new right-to-work laws were passed in violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act...
Walker threatens to take austerity national  The Cap Times   ...Of course Scott Walker is running for president...
CAFTA Labor Standard Enforcement Moving At A Snail’s Pace  USLEAP   …According to USLEAP, the experience of CAFTA labor complaints to date is not encouraging. The worker protections under CAFTA are weaker than those that existed under U.S. trade policy prior to CAFTA, with lower standards and weaker sanctions…
Republic/Allied Strike Spreads to Cleveland-Area  Youngstown Vindicator   …Teamsters Local 377, which represents 103 workers at Republic/ Allied Waste in Youngstown, has taken its strike to the Cleveland area, where it set up picket lines Monday…
BLET To Celebrate 150 Years  BLET   …On May 8, 2013, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen — the oldest labor union in North America — is celebrating the 150th Anniversary of its founding in Detroit, Michigan…
Iowa Teamsters Endorse Braley For U.S. Senate IBT …Teamsters Local Unions in Iowa unanimously endorsed Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) for United States Senate. With more than 10,000 members across Iowa, the Teamsters Union is committed to helping Braley in his bid for Senate…