Teamsters
EVSC, Teamsters to resume negotiations Monday Courier & Press ...After three weeks of standstill in discussions, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiating teams have agreed to meet next week for collective bargaining sessions. Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey said meetings are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday...
Teamsters Join Battle Against HOS Changes, Truck Size Provisions Trucking News ...The Teamsters Union this week stood with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), representatives for highway safety advocates and law enforcement and families of highway accident victims to denounce a series of provisions it claims would threaten the safety of the driving public. This week, the Senate will follow the House and mark up the FY 2016 transportation appropriations bill...
Teamsters at Fleischmann's Plant Make Vinegar for the World Local 727 ...Vinegar is Bob Maza’s unofficial family business. Maza followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps as an operator at Fleischmann’s Vinegar Co., beginning at age 17. “My dad got me the job. I started there right out of high school in 1972, and I’ve been there ever since,” said Maza, a Teamsters Local 727 steward...
The war against bad trade deals continues TeamsterNation ...The battle now turns to the TPP. Americans have not yet seen the text of this lengthy and complex agreement and even elected officials have limited access to the document. Teamsters and other advocates plan on keeping up the pressure to build real and enforceable labor and environmental standards...
Global Labor & Trade
Congress renews 'fast track' trade authority USA Today ...The Republican-controlled Congress delivered a significant second-term victory for President Obama, sending to his desk a six-year renewal of trade promotion authority intended to advance one of the largest trade pacts in history later this year. Trade promotion authority, more commonly referred to as "fast track" or TPA, reestablishes an expedited legislative process for presidents to submit trade deals to Congress that can only be approved or rejected, not amended...
Senate approves fast-track, sending trade bill to White House The Hill ...The Senate voted Wednesday to approve fast-track authority, securing a big second-term legislative win for President Obama after a months-long struggle. The 60-38 Senate vote capped weeks of fighting over the trade bill, which pitted Obama against most of his party — including Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)...
Fast-Track’s Passage Sets Up Round Two on Obama’s Trade Agenda Wall Street Journal ...The White House and Republican leaders notched a significant victory Wednesday with the Senate’s passage of divisive trade legislation, but the win kicks off a grueling, monthslong process to complete a Pacific trade pact that still faces domestic opposition and must win final congressional approval. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the fast-track legislation within days, clearing a negotiating roadblock that prevented officials from moving ahead on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Here’s how much corporations paid the Senate to fast-track passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Raw Story ...The US Senate passed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) — the fast-tracking bill — by a 65-33 margin on 14 May. Last Thursday, the Senate voted 62-38 to bring the debate on TPA to a close. Those impressive majorities follow months of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing by the world’s most well-heeled multinational corporations with just a handful of holdouts.
Even in Chicago, Democrats Sprint Away From Obama on Trade National Journal ...Even in Obama's home base, trade has driven a deep rift between the president and his fellow Democrats. At the same time, the labor movement has ramped up pressure on lawmakers to vote against fast-track, which they say will cost American jobs and slash wages. And Chicago-area Democrats locked in primaries that could be decided by a spare few thousand votes can ill afford to get on the wrong side of labor on a litmus-test issue...
Pay deal averts rail strike threat BBC ...The threat of a UK national rail strike has been averted after Network Rail agreed a two-year pay deal with unions. Members of the RMT, TSSA and Unite unions have voted to accept the offer. The deal includes a 2% pay rise this year and a pay increase in line with RPI inflation next year...
Greece 'Shoved Over Red Line' as IMF Pushes Even Harsher Cuts Common Dreams ...More austerity, more cuts, or no deal. That's the message the International Monetary Fund threw back at the Greek government after negotiators on Wednesday rejected the latest reform proposals submitted by the Syriza government. According to reporting on the ground, there were a "flurry of proposals, counter-proposals, leaks and verbal attacks" in Brussels as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras continued to try to hash out an acceptable bail-out...
China Workers Contracted by Uniqlo Strike Over Plant Closure ABC News ...More than 300 Chinese workers at a garment factory that supplies international brands such as Uniqlo have been protesting for about two weeks what they say is a unilateral decision by the management to close down. The strike is one of more than 1,000 collective actions since January by Chinese workers, who are increasingly turning to group actions in fighting for their rights...
State & Living Wage Battles
Dispute over union fees could return to Supreme Court Sacramento Bee ...Powerful public-sector unions are facing another high-profile legal challenge that they say could wipe away millions from their bank accounts and make it tougher for them to survive. A group of California schoolteachers, backed by a conservative group, has asked the Supreme Court to rule that unions representing government workers can't collect fees from those who choose not to join...
Scott Walker Reveals Extreme Views On Equal Pay Think Progress ...He likened the push for equal pay laws to seeking to make more people reliant on government. “For [Obama and Clinton], your measure of success in government is how many people are dependent on the government.”
But what Walker implies he’d rather do to address the wage gap — give women more education and qualifications — won’t do the trick...
Debate ramping up ahead of vote on right-to-work veto Joplin Globe ...While it never received support from a number of House and Senate Republicans from districts near the state’s urban cores, right-to-work received unanimous support from the Republicans who represent Southwest Missouri. The bill was passed out of a committee chaired by Lant, R-Pineville, who said in a recent interview that he is pushing the effort to override Nixon’s veto...
NAACP head says state ‘blinked’ on voter ID Winston-Salem Journal ...A noisy protest staged last week by the state NAACP at the N.C. Legislative Building in Raleigh forced legislators to pass the law that modifies the voter ID law, the Rev. William Barber, the president of the N.C. chapter of the NAACP, said Wednesday. “They blinked,” Barber said. “They had to go back and fix what was clearly voter suppression”...
De Blasio refused offer linking minimum wage to pension deal Capital New York ...Mayor Bill de Blasio was offered a deal to raise the minimum wage for New York City in exchange for supporting a police pension proposal, but he rejected the offer, multiple sources told Capital. The deal, offered by the Republican-controlled State Senate, would have established an $11.50-an-hour minimum wage for New York City, the sources familiar with the talks said...
Lawmakers Unanimously Approve Country’s Most Robust Paid Sick Leave Law Think Progress ...The Montgomery County, Maryland council voted unanimously to pass a paid sick leave bill on Tuesday, making the town the 23rd place in the country to enact such a requirement. The law is one of the most robust to be passed at the city or state level so far. “The Montgomery County paid sick days laws is one of the strongest yet, and it should serve as a model for the state of Maryland and the nation,” said Charly Carter, director of Maryland Working Families...
U.S. Labor
Someone Has to Sort Your Recycling, and It’s a Disgusting and Dangerous Job The Nation ...The industries that pride themselves on being friends of the earth are often hostile to workers, according to new research on the safety conditions in recycling plants. Published by the Massachusetts Council for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH), National COSH, and other advocacy groups, the analysis of the industry shows that, despite the green sector’s clean, progressive image, workers remain imperiled by old-school industrial hazards...
Marathon refinery workers in Texas to end strike July 6 The Courier ...Unionized workers at Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s Galveston Bay refinery in Texas will go back to work July 6 following nearly five months of striking. They ratified a contract with the company on Tuesday. About 1,200 workers at the refinery in Texas City, Texas, walked off the job Feb. 1...
Verizon and its unions off to tough start to contract talks Times Union ...Verizon and the unions that represent 38,000 of its workers in the Northeast, including about 1,000 in the Capital Region, have gotten off to an acrimonious start to their contract negotiations. After Verizon publicized it had offered employees wage increases, which included a $1,000 cash payment in the final year of a proposed three-year agreement, union officials accused the company of trying to surgarcoat what was really a bad deal...
AT&T, CWA begin negotiations for 27,000 Southeast employees Fierce Telecom ...AT&T has begun contract negotiations with 27,000 employees in its Southeast territory represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The Southeast region, which was formerly BellSouth, has wireline employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Both parties met yesterday with both presenting their own position statements on the negotiation process...
School bus company underpaid workers in NY state more than $290K, Cuomo says; Poughkeepsie employees affected Daily Freeman ...More than $290,000 in wages have been returned to 462 workers at Durham School Services locations across New York as the result if an investigation by the state Department of Labor’s Division of Worker Protection, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday. The labor department launched an investigation after Service Employees International Union Local 200 raised concerns about possible pay violations at the Durham location in Syracuse...
Miscellaneous
Federal Judge Halts Sysco-US Foods Merger Wall Street Journal ...A federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking Sysco Corp.’s planned acquisition of US Foods Inc., a ruling that could kill a deal to combine the nation’s two largest food distributors. The decision handed a high-profile victory to the Federal Trade Commission, which filed a lawsuit in February chanllenging the transaction on anti-trust grounds...
Obamacare upheld by US supreme court as conservative justices rescue law The Guardian ...Chief justice John Roberts has come to the rescue of Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms for a second time as the US supreme court struck down a Republican-led challenge to Obamacare that could have gutted the legislation and stripped millions of Americans of their health insurance. The decision in the high stakes case of King v Burwell all but guarantees that Obamacare will survive...
U.S. to Reduce Long Stays for Families at Immigration Centers New York Times ...In a sharp change of policy, Homeland Security officials announced plans Wednesday to end the long-term detention of mothers with children caught crossing the border illegally by allowing most of them to be released quickly on bond. The changes by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson expanded policies he ordered last month that were designed to shorten family detention but that had only limited effect...
Deadly American Extremism: More White Than Muslim The Atlantic ...It’s an accident of fate that Dzokhar Tsarnaev’s formal sentencing for the Boston Marathon bombing is happening just now, as the U.S. continues to reel from the Charleston massacre. Jihadists have killed 26 people, versus 48 by what New America calls “right-wing extremists.” In that way, Dylann Roof is far more representative of political violence in 21st century America than Dzokhar Tsarnaev could ever be...
Showing posts with label China strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China strike. Show all posts
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.19.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Endorse Bill to Protect Pensions, Strengthen Multi-Employer Plans Teamster.org ...he International Brotherhood of Teamsters issued its support today for new legislation that will protect earned pension benefits for retirees and boost multi-employer pension plans for workers and participating employers. The “Keep our Pension Promises Act,” sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), will roll back provisions slipped into the fiscal 2015 spending bill...
Teamsters Denounce Hijacking of Firefighter Retirement Bill to Pass Fast Track in House Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters denounced the political gamesmanship used by House representatives to pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) by attaching it to HR 2146, the Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act, a widely-supported bill that enables federal firefighters to access their retirement savings once they reach retirement age...
Teamsters Local 264 Members at Costanzo’s Bakery Ratify Strong Agreement Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 264 members who work for Costanzo’s Bakery in Cheektowaga, N.Y., have voted to ratify an agreement providing for improvements to wages, health care, benefits and more. The 10 route sales drivers sell and deliver baked goods across western New York. “It started out contentious, but in the end we got a very good contract that is a fair deal for everybody involved,” said Tony Vaccaro, a business agent with Local 264 in Cheektowaga...
Teamsters, machinists, aerospace unions support bill to repeal multiemployer reforms Pensions & Investments ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Washington, endorsed legislation introduced Thursday that would repeal the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. The Teamsters union represents 1.4 million members. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers also endorsed the bill Thursday...
Global Labor & Trade
House Sends Trade Bill Back to Senate in Bid to Outflank Foes New York Times ...The House on Thursday approved a bill to give President Obama accelerated negotiating authority to pursue a sweeping, legacy-building trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, Part 1 of a complex legislative strategy devised by Republicans to get a trade package to Mr. Obama’s desk after Democrats derailed the measure in the House last week. But many of the 14 Senate Democrats who have already voted for a trade package are withholding their support...
Obama's Pacific trade pact revived in U.S. House, heads to Senate Reuters ...The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday reversed course, approving "fast-track" legislation central to President Barack Obama's trade deal with Pacific Rim nations and sending it back to the Senate. The close vote in the House, which last week rejected a related bill, kept alive Obama's goal of bolstering U.S. ties with Asia through a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
House Passes Fast-Track Trade Bill, but Senate Outcome Uncertain Wall Street Journal ...The House passed legislation Thursday to ease trade pacts through Congress. But the bill’s fate is intertwined with a related measure to help workers hurt by international trade. Many pro-trade Senate Democrats say they won’t vote for the fast-track bill without evidence that the worker-aid program...
Obama’s trade agenda, back from the dead Washington Post ...Today the House of Representatives passed a bill giving President Obama Fast Track authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. That means Obama’s trade agenda could still survive, which caused a stampeded of commentators who had declared it dead and buried (in a “stinging” and “humiliating” defeat for Obama) to admit they might have rendered judgment too quickly...
Trade turnaround: House backs new power for Obama Politico ...President Barack Obama’s trade agenda was jolted back to life Thursday, as the House voted narrowly to grant him fast-track authority to finalize a sweeping accord with 11 other Pacific Rim nations. Now, in order to score a major victory on a centerpiece of his economic agenda, he has to convince a handful of key Senate Democrats to take a leap of faith ahead of a crucial procedural vote Tuesday. So far, several are holding back...
Ban Ki-moon: Uzbekistan Must Do More to End Forced Labor Solidarity Center ...Labor and human rights groups are applauding a statement by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who said during a recent visit to Uzbekistan that more must be done now to address “the mobilization of teachers, doctors and others in cotton harvesting, and prevent the maltreatment of prisoners.” On June 5, dozens of labor and human rights organizations, including the Solidarity Center, sent a letter to Ban Ki-moon urging him to raise the issue of forced labor...
As Debt Crisis Spirals, Greeks Declare: 'Our Lives Don't Belong to the Lenders' Common Dreams ...With strained negotiations between Greece and its European lenders at a seeming impasse—and the prospect of a Greek exit from the euro zone, or "Grexit," looming large—thousands rallied in central Athens on Wednesday night, in a show of support for the leftist Syriza party and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who has so far resisted the creditors' push for deeper cuts and further austerity...
London faces biggest tube strike in more than 10 years over night shift pay The Guardian ...London could face the most widespread tube disruption for more than a decade next month after drivers voted overwhelmingly to strike over Transport for London plans to force through night shifts for no extra pay. London Underground drivers will stage a 24-hour strike from 9.30pm on 8 July, Aslef announced...
Hunger Strike At Uniqlo Clothing Supplier In China Highlights Industry's Search For Lower Labor Costs International Business Times ...Hundreds of Chinese factory workers are on strike at a facility that makes casual wear for Uniqlo, the popular clothing chain owned by Japan’s Fast Retailing Co. Workers are upset over their employer’s surprise decision in May to relocate the factory, which is based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen...
State & Living Wage Battles
Scott Walker Expands All-Out War Against Teachers' Unions To University of Wisconsin Alternet ...Gov. Scott Walker and his allies are advancing one of the most radical assaults on public education in recent history, by bombarding Wisconsin’s highly regarded schools, from kindergarten through the state university system, with draconian spending cuts, anti-union and corporate-style governance and ending faculty tenure...
Wisconsin's unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in May Journal Sentinel ...Wisconsin's unemployment rate rose last month as more people were estimated to be unemployed and fewer said they were looking for work, according to a monthly jobs report released Thursday from the state Department of Workforce Development. Thursday's data also showed that an estimated 4,900 people had taken themselves out of the civilian labor force — which means they stopped looking for work...
Maine Senate passes minimum wage increase Portland Press Herald ...The Republican-controlled Senate narrowly passed a bill Thursday that would raise Maine’s minimum wage to $9 an hour. But the Senate proposal contains a more modest wage increase than a version passed by the Democratic-controlled House this month and the two have several key policy differences...
North Carolina Makes Last-Minute Change To Voter ID Law Facing Challenge In Court Huffingtoin Post ...The North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill on Thursday allowing voters who do not have government-issued photo identification to still vote in next year's elections by signing an affidavit and presenting alternate forms of ID. The photo ID requirement was set to go in effect for 2016 under a larger elections bill...
NM Court Sides with Building Trades, Says Martinez Admin Has Been Illegally Setting Wage Rates We Party Patriots ...must change the way they set the prevailing wage and fringe benefits for publicly funded projects. In her 15-page opinion, Justice Petra Jimenez Maes argued that the Martinez administration has a duty to set rates based on collective bargaining agreements rather than wage surveys. The failure to do so has forced workers to earn between 5 and 30 percent less than they would have had the law been followed...
Nixon defends veto of 'right to work' bill, dismisses Republican attacks over large union donation St.Louis Public Radio ...Amid GOP calls that he give back the money, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says any controversy over $50,000 that he recently received from the national AFL-CIO misses the point of why he vetoed an anti-union bill known as “right to work.” “This is not partisan to me,’’ Nixon said in an interview Thursday after an unrelated news conference to herald a new business coming to the city’s Grand Center area...
Texas workers’ comp ruling is two-edged sword for employers Dallas News ...Workers at thousands of Texas businesses who are seriously injured on the job may find it harder to sue their employers for damages after an accident. The Supreme Court of Texas, in a potentially precedent-setting decision issued last week, slammed the courthouse door on damages for many employees hurt while working in hazardous situations...
U.S. Labor
Chicago Charter School Students Say UNO Teacher Was Fired for Union Activism In These Times ...Heise, an educator and activist who was active in the recently successful campaign to unionize his school was fired earlier this month for reasons the administration has declined to comment on. Daniel Izguerra, who was in Heise's mentorship program before graduating last year, says he knows the real reason why Heise was fired. "They fired him for being an outspoken union activist"...
SEIU To Shift 70K Workers Out of United Healthcare Workers West California Healthline ...The largest health care workers union in California is planning to move nearly half of the members of United Healthcare Workers West to a separate local chapter focused on nursing homes and home care. UHW President Dave Regan said the Service Employees International Union in May announced it would cut about 70,000 home care workers from UHW, moving them to a separate local chapter...
Disney Reverses 35 Layoffs, but No Fairytale Ending for Thousands of Others Displaced by H-1B Visa Program EPI ...Disney had reversed a decision to replace 35 American information technology (IT) workers with cheaper H-1B guestworkers at its ABC broadcasting offices in New York City and Burbank, CA. However, this decision by Disney executives does nothing for the 250 workers who have already lost their jobs to workers they were forced to train and who will earn roughly $40,000 less for doing the same job...
UAW aims to cut wage gap, have one health plan in talks The Blade ...A month away from the start of labor contract talks between the United Auto Workers and the Detroit automakers, the union’s president is taking aim at the industry’s two-tier wage system and working on a proposal that would bring workers at all three companies under the same insurance plan...
USW Strike May Finally Actually End for Marathon Refinery Workers Houston Press ...The striking oil refinery workers at Marathon's Galveston Bay Refinery have been "on the verge of a deal" with Marathon for months now, but now it's looking entirely possible that one of the last holdouts from the largest oil refinery strike in the past 35 years will finally get a new local contract, bringing the strike to a close...
Miscellaneous
Charleston’s ‘Mother Emanuel Church’ Has Stared Down Racist Violence for 200 Years The Nation ...The more you read about Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, otherwise known as “Mother Emanuel,” the more awe you feel for its historic resilience amidst white-supremacist terror. This church is now known as the scene of a massacre, which is being investigated as a “hate crime.” Nine are dead, but this institution will not fall...
Daily Show's Jon Stewart on Charleston shooting: 'This was a terrorist attack' The Guardian ...The media response had been too slow to acknowledge the culture that made such violence possible, Stewart said: “I heard someone on the news say, a tragedy has visited this church. This wasn’t a tornado. This was racist. This was a guy with a Rhodesia badge on his sweater … This one is black and white. There’s no nuance here"...
Failing to Meet Global Police Standards, US Forsakes 'the Right to Life' Common Dreams ...Each of the 50 United States has failed to comply with international standards on police use of lethal force, a reality that threatens lives, poses grave human rights concerns, perpetuates institutional racism, and requires immediate reform, a new report by Amnesty International published Thursday has found...
Pope Francis: "Bold Cultural Revolution" Needed to Save Planet from Climate Change & Consumerism Democracy Now ...In his long-awaited encyclical on the environment and climate change, Pope Francis has called for swift action to save the planet from environmental ruin, urging world leaders to hear "the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor." He called for a change of lifestyle in rich countries steeped in a "throwaway" consumer culture...
Teamsters Endorse Bill to Protect Pensions, Strengthen Multi-Employer Plans Teamster.org ...he International Brotherhood of Teamsters issued its support today for new legislation that will protect earned pension benefits for retirees and boost multi-employer pension plans for workers and participating employers. The “Keep our Pension Promises Act,” sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), will roll back provisions slipped into the fiscal 2015 spending bill...
Teamsters Denounce Hijacking of Firefighter Retirement Bill to Pass Fast Track in House Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters denounced the political gamesmanship used by House representatives to pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) by attaching it to HR 2146, the Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act, a widely-supported bill that enables federal firefighters to access their retirement savings once they reach retirement age...
Teamsters Local 264 Members at Costanzo’s Bakery Ratify Strong Agreement Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 264 members who work for Costanzo’s Bakery in Cheektowaga, N.Y., have voted to ratify an agreement providing for improvements to wages, health care, benefits and more. The 10 route sales drivers sell and deliver baked goods across western New York. “It started out contentious, but in the end we got a very good contract that is a fair deal for everybody involved,” said Tony Vaccaro, a business agent with Local 264 in Cheektowaga...
Teamsters, machinists, aerospace unions support bill to repeal multiemployer reforms Pensions & Investments ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Washington, endorsed legislation introduced Thursday that would repeal the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. The Teamsters union represents 1.4 million members. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers also endorsed the bill Thursday...
Global Labor & Trade
House Sends Trade Bill Back to Senate in Bid to Outflank Foes New York Times ...The House on Thursday approved a bill to give President Obama accelerated negotiating authority to pursue a sweeping, legacy-building trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, Part 1 of a complex legislative strategy devised by Republicans to get a trade package to Mr. Obama’s desk after Democrats derailed the measure in the House last week. But many of the 14 Senate Democrats who have already voted for a trade package are withholding their support...
Obama's Pacific trade pact revived in U.S. House, heads to Senate Reuters ...The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday reversed course, approving "fast-track" legislation central to President Barack Obama's trade deal with Pacific Rim nations and sending it back to the Senate. The close vote in the House, which last week rejected a related bill, kept alive Obama's goal of bolstering U.S. ties with Asia through a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
House Passes Fast-Track Trade Bill, but Senate Outcome Uncertain Wall Street Journal ...The House passed legislation Thursday to ease trade pacts through Congress. But the bill’s fate is intertwined with a related measure to help workers hurt by international trade. Many pro-trade Senate Democrats say they won’t vote for the fast-track bill without evidence that the worker-aid program...
Obama’s trade agenda, back from the dead Washington Post ...Today the House of Representatives passed a bill giving President Obama Fast Track authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. That means Obama’s trade agenda could still survive, which caused a stampeded of commentators who had declared it dead and buried (in a “stinging” and “humiliating” defeat for Obama) to admit they might have rendered judgment too quickly...
Trade turnaround: House backs new power for Obama Politico ...President Barack Obama’s trade agenda was jolted back to life Thursday, as the House voted narrowly to grant him fast-track authority to finalize a sweeping accord with 11 other Pacific Rim nations. Now, in order to score a major victory on a centerpiece of his economic agenda, he has to convince a handful of key Senate Democrats to take a leap of faith ahead of a crucial procedural vote Tuesday. So far, several are holding back...
Ban Ki-moon: Uzbekistan Must Do More to End Forced Labor Solidarity Center ...Labor and human rights groups are applauding a statement by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who said during a recent visit to Uzbekistan that more must be done now to address “the mobilization of teachers, doctors and others in cotton harvesting, and prevent the maltreatment of prisoners.” On June 5, dozens of labor and human rights organizations, including the Solidarity Center, sent a letter to Ban Ki-moon urging him to raise the issue of forced labor...
As Debt Crisis Spirals, Greeks Declare: 'Our Lives Don't Belong to the Lenders' Common Dreams ...With strained negotiations between Greece and its European lenders at a seeming impasse—and the prospect of a Greek exit from the euro zone, or "Grexit," looming large—thousands rallied in central Athens on Wednesday night, in a show of support for the leftist Syriza party and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who has so far resisted the creditors' push for deeper cuts and further austerity...
London faces biggest tube strike in more than 10 years over night shift pay The Guardian ...London could face the most widespread tube disruption for more than a decade next month after drivers voted overwhelmingly to strike over Transport for London plans to force through night shifts for no extra pay. London Underground drivers will stage a 24-hour strike from 9.30pm on 8 July, Aslef announced...
Hunger Strike At Uniqlo Clothing Supplier In China Highlights Industry's Search For Lower Labor Costs International Business Times ...Hundreds of Chinese factory workers are on strike at a facility that makes casual wear for Uniqlo, the popular clothing chain owned by Japan’s Fast Retailing Co. Workers are upset over their employer’s surprise decision in May to relocate the factory, which is based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen...
State & Living Wage Battles
Scott Walker Expands All-Out War Against Teachers' Unions To University of Wisconsin Alternet ...Gov. Scott Walker and his allies are advancing one of the most radical assaults on public education in recent history, by bombarding Wisconsin’s highly regarded schools, from kindergarten through the state university system, with draconian spending cuts, anti-union and corporate-style governance and ending faculty tenure...
Wisconsin's unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in May Journal Sentinel ...Wisconsin's unemployment rate rose last month as more people were estimated to be unemployed and fewer said they were looking for work, according to a monthly jobs report released Thursday from the state Department of Workforce Development. Thursday's data also showed that an estimated 4,900 people had taken themselves out of the civilian labor force — which means they stopped looking for work...
Maine Senate passes minimum wage increase Portland Press Herald ...The Republican-controlled Senate narrowly passed a bill Thursday that would raise Maine’s minimum wage to $9 an hour. But the Senate proposal contains a more modest wage increase than a version passed by the Democratic-controlled House this month and the two have several key policy differences...
North Carolina Makes Last-Minute Change To Voter ID Law Facing Challenge In Court Huffingtoin Post ...The North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill on Thursday allowing voters who do not have government-issued photo identification to still vote in next year's elections by signing an affidavit and presenting alternate forms of ID. The photo ID requirement was set to go in effect for 2016 under a larger elections bill...
NM Court Sides with Building Trades, Says Martinez Admin Has Been Illegally Setting Wage Rates We Party Patriots ...must change the way they set the prevailing wage and fringe benefits for publicly funded projects. In her 15-page opinion, Justice Petra Jimenez Maes argued that the Martinez administration has a duty to set rates based on collective bargaining agreements rather than wage surveys. The failure to do so has forced workers to earn between 5 and 30 percent less than they would have had the law been followed...
Nixon defends veto of 'right to work' bill, dismisses Republican attacks over large union donation St.Louis Public Radio ...Amid GOP calls that he give back the money, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says any controversy over $50,000 that he recently received from the national AFL-CIO misses the point of why he vetoed an anti-union bill known as “right to work.” “This is not partisan to me,’’ Nixon said in an interview Thursday after an unrelated news conference to herald a new business coming to the city’s Grand Center area...
Texas workers’ comp ruling is two-edged sword for employers Dallas News ...Workers at thousands of Texas businesses who are seriously injured on the job may find it harder to sue their employers for damages after an accident. The Supreme Court of Texas, in a potentially precedent-setting decision issued last week, slammed the courthouse door on damages for many employees hurt while working in hazardous situations...
U.S. Labor
Chicago Charter School Students Say UNO Teacher Was Fired for Union Activism In These Times ...Heise, an educator and activist who was active in the recently successful campaign to unionize his school was fired earlier this month for reasons the administration has declined to comment on. Daniel Izguerra, who was in Heise's mentorship program before graduating last year, says he knows the real reason why Heise was fired. "They fired him for being an outspoken union activist"...
SEIU To Shift 70K Workers Out of United Healthcare Workers West California Healthline ...The largest health care workers union in California is planning to move nearly half of the members of United Healthcare Workers West to a separate local chapter focused on nursing homes and home care. UHW President Dave Regan said the Service Employees International Union in May announced it would cut about 70,000 home care workers from UHW, moving them to a separate local chapter...
Disney Reverses 35 Layoffs, but No Fairytale Ending for Thousands of Others Displaced by H-1B Visa Program EPI ...Disney had reversed a decision to replace 35 American information technology (IT) workers with cheaper H-1B guestworkers at its ABC broadcasting offices in New York City and Burbank, CA. However, this decision by Disney executives does nothing for the 250 workers who have already lost their jobs to workers they were forced to train and who will earn roughly $40,000 less for doing the same job...
UAW aims to cut wage gap, have one health plan in talks The Blade ...A month away from the start of labor contract talks between the United Auto Workers and the Detroit automakers, the union’s president is taking aim at the industry’s two-tier wage system and working on a proposal that would bring workers at all three companies under the same insurance plan...
USW Strike May Finally Actually End for Marathon Refinery Workers Houston Press ...The striking oil refinery workers at Marathon's Galveston Bay Refinery have been "on the verge of a deal" with Marathon for months now, but now it's looking entirely possible that one of the last holdouts from the largest oil refinery strike in the past 35 years will finally get a new local contract, bringing the strike to a close...
Miscellaneous
Charleston’s ‘Mother Emanuel Church’ Has Stared Down Racist Violence for 200 Years The Nation ...The more you read about Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, otherwise known as “Mother Emanuel,” the more awe you feel for its historic resilience amidst white-supremacist terror. This church is now known as the scene of a massacre, which is being investigated as a “hate crime.” Nine are dead, but this institution will not fall...
Daily Show's Jon Stewart on Charleston shooting: 'This was a terrorist attack' The Guardian ...The media response had been too slow to acknowledge the culture that made such violence possible, Stewart said: “I heard someone on the news say, a tragedy has visited this church. This wasn’t a tornado. This was racist. This was a guy with a Rhodesia badge on his sweater … This one is black and white. There’s no nuance here"...
Failing to Meet Global Police Standards, US Forsakes 'the Right to Life' Common Dreams ...Each of the 50 United States has failed to comply with international standards on police use of lethal force, a reality that threatens lives, poses grave human rights concerns, perpetuates institutional racism, and requires immediate reform, a new report by Amnesty International published Thursday has found...
Pope Francis: "Bold Cultural Revolution" Needed to Save Planet from Climate Change & Consumerism Democracy Now ...In his long-awaited encyclical on the environment and climate change, Pope Francis has called for swift action to save the planet from environmental ruin, urging world leaders to hear "the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor." He called for a change of lifestyle in rich countries steeped in a "throwaway" consumer culture...
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