Today's Teamster News 01.11.16

TEAMSTERS
Local 727 Members Overwhelmingtly Ratify Coca-Cola Refreshments Contract  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local 727 members voted by a 17-to-1 margin on Sunday, Jan. 10, to overwhelmingly ratify a new three-year contract with Coca-Cola Refreshments in Niles and Alsip, Ill. The agreement provides annual wage increases, retroactivity and improved health and welfare benefits for 319 Coca-Cola production and warehouse workers and transport drivers...
Coca-Cola workers overwhelmingly approve 'strong' contract  Chicago Tribune  ...Coca-Cola workers who went on strike for nearly a month at two Chicago-area production plants approved a new three-year contract Sunday that includes annual wage hikes and better health benefits, bringing an end to contentious negotiations. Members of Teamsters Local 727 voted 170-10 to approve the contract offer from Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Refreshments, the union announced...
BLET members ratify new contract with DM&E  BLE-T.org  ...Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) ratified a new hourly-rate collective bargaining agreement with the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railway (DM&E) on November 30, 2015. The agreement governs rates of pay and work rules for approximately 300 locomotive engineers, assistant engineers, conductors and brakemen. It runs through December 31, 2019...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Brazil unions, Kirchnerite leaders blast ‘austerity measures, repression’  Buenos Aires Herald  ...As anger continued to rise yesterday over the sacking of between 12,000 and 15,000 state workers by President Mauricio Macri’s administration, Kirchnerite lawmakers and union representatives accused the government of deliberate repression and of trying to implement harsh austerity measures.
“The model of austerity and economic concentration can only be implemented with repression and shielding by the media,” Andrés “Cuervo” Larroque...
Portugal's socialist government restores holidays cut during austerity drive  The Guardian  ...The Portuguese government has restored four public holidays cut in the previous administration’s attempt to boost productivity. The new socialist government won parliament’s approval to discard one of the most unpopular legacies of a recent austerity drive and bring back the holidays cut two years ago...
Canada potato chip boss to workers: “Screw you and your f**king union”  People's World  ...On Tuesday morning, half of the employees at the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company walked off the job and hit the picket lines. The workers, who are members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1288P, have had their union certified for more than two years but have yet to conclude a first contract with their employer...
TPP fight kicks off  Politico  ...After the prologue of business endorsements last week, what could be the last big battle over the finalized Trans-Pacific Partnership kicks off this week. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama will make his pitch for the Asia-Pacific pact in his final State of the Union address to the nation, which will be followed by three days of testimony at the U.S. International Trade Commission...
Trans-Pacific Partnership will barely benefit Australia, says World Bank report  Sydney Morning Herald  ...Australia stands to gain almost nothing from the mega trade deal sealed with 11 other nations including United States, Japan, and Singapore, the first comprehensive economic analysis finds. Prepared by staff from the World Bank, the study says the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would boost Australia's economy by just 0.7 per cent by the year 2030. The annual boost to growth would be less than one half of one 10th of 1 per cent...
How Obama is using the world’s biggest tech show as a political opportunity  Washington Post  ...President Obama dispatched his top trade negotiator to Las Vegas on Thursday to talk up the benefits of a major multilateral deal on international business before a number of tech companies, in hopes that the companies will pressure their representatives in Washington to vote for the trade agreement when the time comes. The trade deal, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups...
U.S., EU Look to Conclude TTIP Talks in 2016  BNA  ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations are expected to kick into high gear in 2016, with both sides doubling down on trying to finish talks during the last year of the Obama administration and rejecting the concept of a “TTIP light,” which officials said would be hard to sell to Congress and the European Parliament...
TransCanada the underdog in NAFTA gambit over Keystone XL rejection  Globe and Mail  ...Legal observers say that while TransCanada Corp. appears to have a strong case under the North American free-trade agreement to challenge Washington’s rejection of its Keystone XL pipeline, the Calgary-based company has just embarked on a long-haul process in which it remains an underdog...
In 2016, let's hope for better trade agreements - and the death of TPP  The Guardian  ...The US concluded secret negotiations on what may turn out to be the worst trade agreement in decades, the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and now faces an uphill battle for ratification, as all the leading Democratic presidential candidates and many of the Republicans have weighed in against it. The problem is not so much with the agreement’s trade provisions, but with the “investment” chapter...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
On right-to-work, other bills, W.Va. GOP may overturn vetoes  Times Union  ...Republican lawmakers are pushing to make West Virginia a right-to-work state and repeal its prevailing wage for public construction projects this legislative session. And though those policies don't sit well with Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, it may not matter. It only takes more 'yes' than 'no' votes in the Legislature to cement a policy into law after the governor vetoes a bill...
Voter ID case will go to trial in January  Winston-Salem Journal  ...North Carolina’s photo ID requirement will go on trial late this month in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem, a federal judge said in court papers filed Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder signed an order modifying the deadlines for discovery in the case so a trial on the photo ID requirement can begin Jan. 25. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others sued North Carolina in 2013...
Texas Governor Unveils Plan To Repeal The 20th Century  Think Progress  ...Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) proposed a series of constitutional amendments on Friday that would so fundamentally alter our founding document that it would be akin to throwing out the system of government established by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Abbott would place restrictions on the federal government that are so severe, both national child labor laws and anti-lynching laws would be unconstitutional under his proposals...
Branstad willing to consider Iowa minimum wage increase  WCF Courier  ... Gov. Terry Branstad said Thursday that he would be willing to consider an increase in the state minimum wage if a bill landed on his desk during the 2016 legislative session. In an interview, Branstad noted that a number of states have increased their minimum wages and that he signed the bill in 1989 that created Iowa’s minimum wage...
Giving Workers Paid Family Leave ‘Should Be Up To Employers,’ Kasich Says  Think Progress  ...Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich doesn’t think employers should be required to let their workers take paid time off for a new baby or serious illness. At a town hall on Friday in Hampton, New Hampshire, he was asked what he thinks about paid family leave. Rather than a government mandate ensuring that all Americans can take paid leave, Kasich said instead it should be “up to employers"...
Minimum wage rate likely to dominate NY 2016 session  NCPR  ...The New York State Senate held a hearing on raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Governor Cuomo and Assembly Democrats support the phase-in to a higher wage, but many Senators remain uncommitted. Senate Labor Committee Chair Jack Martins said he wants to broaden the discussion...
What Poor South Carolinians Think About The GOP’s Poverty Summit In South Carolina  Think Progress  ...Jeb Bush has called for the end of food stamps. Chris Christie has vetoed an increase in the minimum wage in his state and Ben Carson believes Obama is purposefully depressing the economy to keep people on welfare. These three presidential candidates, along with Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, and Mike Huckabee, will speak in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday at a summit on poverty...

U.S. LABOR
At the Supreme Court, a Big Threat to Unions  New York Times  ...A case the Supreme Court will hear on Monday morning threatens to undermine a four-decade-old ruling that upheld a key source of funding for public-sector unions, the last major bastion of unionized workers in America. In the 1977 decision Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the justices ruled that public unions may charge all employees — members and nonmembers alike — for the costs of collective bargaining related to their employment...
Conservative group nears big payoff in Supreme Court case  Politico  ...The conservative Bradley Foundation has spent millions over three decades to smash labor unions. Now an investment that could barely buy a house in Washington may bring it closer to that goal than ever before.
The vehicle is a Supreme Court case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, to bar public employee unions from compelling payments from nonmembers...
USW workers to start voting on U.S. Steel contract  NWI Times  ...The United Steelworkers union is now mailing out ballots to U.S. Steel employees, including those at Gary Works, East Chicago Tin and the Midwest Plant in Portage. Steelworkers will get a week or two to cast their votes to ratify or reject a new contract with the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, after getting summaries of all the changes from the 2012 contract in the mail...
Judge grants Gerawan Farming access to labor board documents  Fresno Bee  ...A Sacramento Superior Court judge on Thursday partially granted Gerawan Farming Company’s request for documents related to an unfair labor practice complaint filed against it by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. The ALRB said the employee was fired for his support of the United Farm Workers union...
International Food Workers Show Solidarity with Chicago Nabisco Workers  AFL-CIO  ...The International Union of Food Workers (IUF) and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) have affirmed their solidarity with employees of Mondelēz International, the maker of Nabisco products, around the world. The state of Illinois has given Nabisco/Mondelēz millions of dollars in public assistance and tax breaks. BCTGM represents some 4,000 Mondelēz workers...
Multiple Jobholders Surge To Highest Since August 2008  Zero Hedge  ...The most troubling aspect of today's jobs report, and perhaps the clearest explanation why there was no wage growth in December, is that the number of multiple job holders soared by 324,000 bringing the total to 7.738 million. This was the highest since August 2008, which as a reminder is the month before the great financial crisis started...
The verdict on the “sharing” economy, from the 20% of Americans who’ve worked in it  QZ.com  ...Just how big has the new digital economy—variously called “gig,” “on-demand,” “sharing,” and more—gotten? Big enough that one in five Americans say they’ve worked in it, and two in five say they’ve used services through it, according to a new survey from Burson-Marsteller...

If Most Of Your Income Comes From On-Demand Work, You’re Probably A Racial Minority  BuzzFeed  ...Of survey respondents who earn more than 40% of their income from on-demand work, a whopping 67% identify as racial minorities. (For context, in 2010 the U.S. Census found that only 36.3% of the U.S. population identifies as a racial minority, which means racial minorities are overrepresented among this sector of gig workers by nearly double.)...

Chris Christie goes back to what made him famous: Attacking teachers  Daily Kos  ...Chris Christie went back to his wheelhouse on Saturday. That means attacking teachers, the move that helped gain Christie his early YouTube fame as the kind of bully Republicans can love. “The single most destructive force for public education in this country is the teachers union,” Christie said at a Jack Kemp Foundation panel discussion...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Resistance & Outrage as Obama Administration Rounds Up Central American Refugees  Democracy Now  ...The new year began inauspiciously for many immigrant families. Federal agents have detained at least 121 people, including children, in raids as part of an operation to deport families fleeing violence in Central America. The raids took place mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas...
Postal Banking Worked—Let’s Bring It Back  (opinion) The Nation  ... Postal banking was the most successful experiment in financial inclusion in the United States—a problem in front of us once again. Postal banking brought millions of new immigrants and rural dwellers into the United States banking system. We are again facing the realization that our banking industry is unstable, but also, more crucially, that it is unfair...
Important Reminder in the Flint Crisis: People Still Have No Safe Water  Common Dreams  ...Republican Governor Rick Snyder on Thursday offered a second apology for the crisis, saying it's an "unfortunate situation." That problem, which began as the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, has left 200 children below the age of six with confirmed elevated blood lead levels...
"The National Shame Continues": On Its 14th Anniversary, Will Guantánamo Ever Be Closed?  Democracy Now  ...Today marks the 14th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo, where 107 prisoners are still being held. Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, represented Mohamedou Ould Slahi, one of the men still being held. Last year a book collecting Slahi’s diary writings became a surprise best-seller. "This is a shame that threatens more than ever to mar President Obama’s legacy"...
Small debt is destroying black lives: Institutional racism and the wealth gap America still refuses to acknowledge  Salon  ...It is not unreasonable to attribute these perils to discrimination. But there’s no question that the main reason small financial problems can have such a disproportionate effect on black families is that, for largely historical reasons rooted in racism, they have far smaller financial reserves to fall back on than white families...

Today's Teamster News 01.04.16

TEAMSTERS
Strike Ends as Chicago Teamsters Reach Tentative Agreement with Coca-Cola  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local 727 ended its unfair labor practice strike against Coca-Cola Refreshments late on Tuesday, Dec. 29, after reaching tentative agreement on a fair three-year contract for 319 production and warehouse workers. Upon ratification, the tentative agreement will transfer Local 727 members into a new health and welfare plan previously available to Coca-Cola management...
Teamsters reach tentative pact with Coca-Cola, end strike  Chicago Tribune  ...Coca-Cola workers who have been on strike for nearly a month are heading back to work after their union reached a tentative three-year contract with the company. Teamsters Local 727, which says it represents 319 production workers at Coca-Cola plants in Niles and Alsip, announced late Tuesday that the bargaining committee recommended ratification of what it called a "fair" contract offer by Coke...
Teamsters: Port Drivers Win Nearly $7 Million in Wages, End Misclassification  Teamster.org  ...On Dec. 14, the California Labor Commissioner determined that 38 drivers at leading port trucking company Pacific 9 Transportation, which hauls containers from the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for some of America’s premiere brands – including Costco, Goodyear Tires, Ugg Boots, and Microsoft – are in fact employees, not independent contractors, and ordered Pac 9 to pay them nearly $6.9 million in stolen wages...
Port drivers win millions in back pay from trucking firm  LA Times  ...A port trucking firm in Carson has been ordered to turn over nearly $7 million in back pay to 38 drivers, the latest in a series of recent wins for port drivers and the Teamsters union that has been trying to organize them. The state Labor Commissioner's Office ruled this month that the drivers at Pacific 9 Transportation were improperly treated as independent contractors rather than as employees...
NYC horse carriage industry thanks supporters for help  Daily News  ...Horse carriages — which for the past two years have operated under a cloud of uncertainty — are starting 2016 on a positive note. The industry, which Mayor de Blasio threatened to ban on his first day in office, bought a full page ad in Friday’s Daily News thanking its supporters for helping them stay around for the past two years...
American Red Cross Workers Vote To Join Teamsters In Maine  PR Newswire  ...Workers at the American Red Cross' Portland donation center have voted to join Teamsters Local 340. The blood donation center's 57 employees will now form a bargaining unit that includes collections technicians, collections specialists and mobile unit assistants of various classifications. These employees are responsible for setting up and administering blood drives across the southern half of the state...
Beer hauler moves to bust Teamsters union  NW Labor Press  ...Teamsters Local 162 is facing what more and more looks like a union-busting effort by General Distributors Inc. When truck drivers, warehouse workers, and sales employees learned that the profitable company would seek $1.5 million a year in concessions from them in their next union contract, they voted 59 to 5 to strike, and about 80 members of Teamsters Local 162 walked off the job Nov. 17. In response, the company threatened to permanently replace them...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Zimbabwe: Public workers threaten strike over delayed pay  Africa Report  ...The year is opening on a tense note for the Zimbabwean government, as tens of thousands of public workers have threatened to go on strike over delayed salaries. Civil servants in the southern African nation are yet to be paid their December salaries, with the government promising to pay them by Tuesday, but this has not been enough to calm the restive workers...
Jerusalem sanitation workers strike after 170 fired  Times of Israel  ...Jerusalem sanitation workers went on strike Thursday, after the city sent termination letters to 170 employees in the department. The municipality also warned that the move was the first of many necessary cutbacks to come — with up to 2,000 more firings — if the Finance Ministry does not transfer to the city the funds needed to keep a balanced budget in 2016...
U.S. Election Debate Complicates Passage of Pacific Trade Pact  Wall Street Journal  ...An international trade agreement embraced by President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled Congress is drawing fire from many presidential candidates, illustrating the populist shift of both parties in the age of Donald Trump. Contenders ranging from Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas have spoken out against the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
TPP nations arranging to sign free-trade deal in early February  Japan Times  ...Japan, the United States and 10 other nations that reached a broad agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact in October are arranging to sign the deal in early February, an official from one of the nations has said. Following the broad agreement after more than five years of negotiations, the 12 nations released the text of the landmark trade deal in November...
TPP trade deal pits Pittsburgh against Philadelphia  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  ...Pittsburgh manufactures the products. Philadelphia ships them around the world. One city stands to gain from expanding trade into the Pacific Rim while the other has much to lose, their mayors say. That’s why Philadelphia’s outgoing mayor, Michael Nutter, has been helping the White House stump for the Trans-Pacific Partnership while Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto stands opposed...
The Corporate-Friendly Trade Deals Threatening Ordinary People in 2016  Common Dreams  ...Corporate media failed to cover the dangers of business-friendly trade deals in 2015, despite growing grassroots opposition to such pacts—and increasing public awareness about their contents. Will 2016 be the year looming toxic trade policies catapult into the mainstream? Sierra Club trade representative Ilana Solomon hopes so...
Greece Not to Agree to Creditors Unreasonable Austerity Demands - Tsipras  Sputnik News  ...Athens will follow the memorandum signed with its international creditors, but will not agree to unreasonable austerity demands, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said, as quoted by the local media on Sunday. According to Tsipras, 2016 will be a pivotal year, after several years of crisis for the country. The Greek economy has been severely strained because of the country’s multibillion debt accumulated after the 2008 world economic crisis...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Minimum wage rises in 14 states and several cities  Al Jazeera  ...As the United States marks more than six years without an increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, 14 states and several cities are moving forward with their own increases, with most having taken effect Jan. 1. California and Massachusetts are highest among the states, both increasing from $9 to $10 an hour, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures...
American workers see progress on paid sick leave, no thanks to Congress  Daily Kos  ...Paid sick days have gained a lot of ground in the last few years, and continued to do so in 2015. Oregon became the fourth state to require paid sick leave for most workers, following Connecticut, California, and Massachusetts. The cities of Tacoma, Washington, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, also passed paid sick leave laws...
Missouri speaker sounds doubtful over 'right to work'  STL Today  ...When it comes to a GOP-led charge to make Missouri a “right to work” state, a top Republican is throwing cold water on one of the hot-button issues of the last legislative session. In an interview with the Post-Dispatch, House Speaker Todd Richardson sounded doubtful that right to work would be a top goal for Republicans when the House and Senate return Wednesday...
Wages in NH expected to increase in 2016  Union Leader  ...Wal-Mart, the state's largest retail employer, plans to raise wages for its 7,785 New Hampshire employees in 2016, in one of several signs that the year ahead could finally see meaningful improvement in earnings for hourly workers after years of wage stagnation...
Chris Christie Refuses To Help Unemployed New Jersey Residents Hold Onto Food Stamps  Think Progress  ...About 11,000 New Jersey residents are set to lose their food stamps after Gov. Chris Christie (R)’s administration said it won’t seek any waivers from the program’s work requirements. Since 2009, state governors have been encouraged to get waivers from the federal government for the requirement that able-bodied, childless adults work at least 20 hours a week to enroll in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)...
Judge's ruling a mixed bag for those challenging voter ID law  Journal Sentinel  ...A federal judge has thrown out portions of a challenge to Wisconsin's voting laws but is allowing a key part of the lawsuit to proceed that could allow more types of identification to be used under the voter ID law. In his ruling last month, U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison also found the liberal One Wisconsin Institute could pursue its argument that recent restrictions on early voting violate the U.S. Constitution...

U.S. LABOR
Tentative agreement prevents custodial workers strike  Bristol Press  ...Just one day before a strike could have begun, a bargaining committee representing more than 2,100 janitors in Hartford, New Haven and other Connecticut cities and towns reached a tentative agreement with the Hartford County Cleaning Contractors Association. The four-year contract agreed to Wednesday — subject to ratification — includes incremental wage increases...
Labor board hands Whole Foods workers a victory  CBS  ...Whole Foods Market (WFM) can no longer forbid its employees from taking photographs or recording conversations at work, according to a recent federal ruling. "Smartphone pics and videos in this day and age are particularly 'essential' to proving an employee's rights have been violated," said the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a decision issued late last week...
150 Muslims Fired For Protesting Their Workplace’s Prayer Policies  Think Progress  ...About 150 Muslim workers at a meat processing plant have been fired for refusing to show up for work during an ongoing dispute over prayer accommodations. The controversy began on December 18, when 11 Somali Muslim workers at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado requested to visit the building’s prayer room at the same time...
Ten of the Best Things That Happened to American Workers in 2015  Huffington Post  ...Historians may remember 2015 as the year of the minimum wage -- and for good reason. Twenty-one states and multiple cities raised the minimum wage in the past 12 months, scarcely two years after the "Fight for $15" was dismissed as a pipe dream by some observers. The past year also saw other major advances for working Americans...
The End Of Unions? Upcoming Supreme Court Case Could Overturn Power To Collect Fees  IBTimes  ...A Supreme Court case beginning Jan. 11 has union members wondering if a ruling could sound a death knell on labor organizations that have grown accustomed to heightened limitations and declining memberships in recent years. Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association will determine whether mandatory union dues violate workers' freedom of speech, and experts say a ruling could dictate the future of unions' ability to collect fees...
Workers' Comp Industrial Complex: The Middlemen Silencing Injured Workers  Truthout  ...Workers' comp is supposed to be simple. If you're injured on the job, your employer pays your medical bills and part of your wages while you recover. But over the past two decades, a cottage industry of middlemen has emerged, which some have dubbed the "workers' comp industrial complex." Even private equity firms have bought in, seeing profit opportunities in employers' and insurers' quest to contain spending...
Adjuncts at Loyola University Chicago Want a Union. Will the Jesuit University Respect Their Demands?  The Nation  ...Loyola University Chicago now faces the challenge of putting its Jesuit principles into practice as frustrated professors push for a union.  The administration argues a union would interfere with the university’s “mission.” But according to Loyola’s struggling non-tenured faculty members, their poverty wages and exhausting working conditions prove that it is the administration’s corporate greed that is flouting the Jesuit tradition of social justice...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Happy New Year. You’re Deported.  The Nation  ...This is how the Department of Homeland Security says happy holidays: The federal government will reportedly begin raids to deport families who’ve arrived in the country in the last two years, according to The Washington Post. The enforcement operation could begin in a matter of weeks, and was first reported on Christmas Eve. The raids would target hundreds of adults and children who have a standing order of deportation against them...
Hundreds Demand Prosecutor In Tamir Rice Case Resign  Think Progress  ...Protests continued on Friday following a grand jury’s recent decision not to indict the two white police officers who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice. More than 100 activists marched to the home of the prosecutor who handled Rice’s case, Timothy McGinty, on New Year’s Day and demanded his resignation. Chanting “New year, no more!”...
Media Coverage of Oregon Militia Standoff Raises Eyebrows — and Ire  Common Dreams  ...After members of a rightwing militia seized the headquarters of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon on Saturday afternoon, observers questioned the corporate media's treatment of the event, pointing to a double standard in coverage compared to other recent protests. Watchdog site Media Matters pointed out that while Fox's coverage of campus protests against racial discrimination was dismissive, its reporting "looked drastically different when those protesting have aligned with the network's conservative agenda"...
They’d be killed if they were black: The racial double standard at the heart of the new Bundy family standoff  Salon  ...At least 150 armed white men have seized control of a federal building outside of Burns, Oregon. The actions taken by Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, and their supporters in Oregon are the very definition of terrorism and armed insurrection. If Muslims took up arms, occupied a federal building, recorded martyrdom videos, and threatened to kill police and other authorities, they would be called “terrorists”...

Today's Teamster News 12.21.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Support Omnibus Spending Bill That Protects Worker Rights, Health Care  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters back a $1.1 trillion spending bill approved today by Congress for fiscal year 2016, saying it ensures workers retain their rights to organize on the job and will continue to receive comprehensive health insurance from their employers without being financially penalized.
“This omnibus package is a step in the right direction for workers,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said...
Teamsters Ken Hall: West Virginians’ lives are better without ‘right to work’  Gazette-Mail  ...The people of West Virginia are being told by some elected officials and business leaders that so-called right-to-work legislation will boost jobs and pay in the Mountain State. But what is right-to-work? As the Economic Policy Institute explains, right to work laws have nothing to do with whether people can be forced to join a union or contribute to a political cause they do not support; that is already illegal. Instead, right to work laws weaken a union’s ability to help workers bargain with their employers for better wages, benefits, and working conditions...
Coke Strike in Chicago Heats Up  Wall Street Journal  ...Coca-Cola Co.’s track record of U.S. labor peace is taking a hit in Chicago, where about 320 unionized workers at two bottling plants are striking over rising health-care premiums and are accusing management of intimidation tactics. The two-week-old strike by a Teamsters local poses a public relations threat after union members began unfurling banners with the slogans “Don’t Drink Coke”...

How Unions Could Change the Way Uber and Lyft Work  Bloomberg  ...Uber Technologies has overcome taxi driver protests, irate government officials, and the occasional self-made controversy. But the next fight for the ride-hailing company and rival Lyft may be with a modern-day Jimmy Hoffa. "When they got more cars, they started taking more advantage of the driver," said Teka, who's on the board of the App-Based Drivers Association, which is working with Seattle Teamsters to form a drivers union...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Chile airport workers end strike that left thousands stranded  BBC  ...Airport workers in Chile have agreed to end a four-day strike that led to major disruption. Most flights coming out of or landing in Chile's main airports were cancelled or delayed. The airport ground workers' union called the strike after the government rejected their request to join the more generous Chilean military pension plan...
China’s Latest Crackdown on Workers Is Unprecedented  The Nation  ...In an unprecedented crackdown on some of China’s most effective independent labor organizations, known as worker centers, seven worker-activists have been detained and held virtually incommunicado in detention facilities in Foshan and Guangzhou.  The activists are reportedly being detained on grounds of “endangering national security,” according to Amnesty International. It is unclear whether charges have been formally brought...
Union Members Exiled, Jailed as Burundi Violence Rises  Solidarity Center  ...Hundreds of union leaders and members, including at least 250 teachers, have fled Burundi while dozens more have been jailed, as the east African country roils in widespread violence. In October, a journalist and his family were shot dead at their home by security forces, according to the International Federation of Journalists. Broadcast media workers also were attacked with heavy weapons in May...
Why Amazon Workers in Germany Are on Strike  Fortune  ...Workers at German warehouses of U.S. online retailer Amazon.com were called out on a new strike by labor union Verdi on Monday as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. Verdi said in a statement that workers at six of the nine Amazon warehouses were joining the strike, which will run until Dec. 24 at four of the centers and for shorter periods at the others...
Obama puts TPP trade deal at top of 2016 agenda  The Hill  ...President Obama expressed optimism at a Friday press conference that Congress can approve a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal. Obama called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "a big deal" and acknowledged that opponents in both parties make for “an interesting situation." President Obama expressed optimism at a Friday press conference that Congress can approve a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis) said earlier this week that he wants to take a vote as soon as possible...
Failure to Find Consensus in WTO to Re-boost Regional TTIP Deal  Sputnik News  ...A failure to find consensus between the developed and developing countries at a WTO conference will result in the EU and US reinforced efforts to conclude mega-regional agreements, such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade pact and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), favoring corporate interests, the head of policy and campaigns at a London-based Global Justice Now organization said...
Greek PM Says Austerity Defeated in Spain  New York Times  ...Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is hailing the result of Spain's election as voter rejection of the unpopular austerity measures that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party invoked during the eurozone's debt crisis.
Tsipras says in a statement that "austerity has been politically defeated in Spain," adding that the results is vindication for those opposed to the tax hikes and spending cuts...
Investors on edge: Brazil to scale back austerity?  CNBC  ...The resignation of Brazil's pro-austerity finance minister has left markets on edge as amid concerns over whether his replacement will continue with a program of fiscal consolidation. On Friday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff replaced Finance Minister Joaquim Levy, a fiscal conservative appointed just over a year ago, with a close ally...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Union members meet to oppose Ohio Right to Work  Times Leader  ...Babe Erdos of the United Mine Workers of America was one of the speakers. "We think that the public needs to know the whole story of the so-called Right to Work," he said. According to Erdos, the median household income is $535 less per month in Right to Work states than in free-bargaining states such as Ohio. Information provided by We Are Ohio states that workers are injured and die on the job more often in Right to Work states...
Some local contractors hoping prevailing wage is maintained  Gazette Mail  ...Steve Ellis and John Strickland don’t want to see West Virginia’s prevailing wage abolished. The two commercial contractors from Charleston believe prevailing wage — the state law setting the minimum pay and benefits for laborers constructing public projects — is an essential part to their business and to the quality of life for the employees they hire...
National labor money gushes into Oregon minimum wage fight  Oregon Live  ...Oregon will have four ballot measures on the minimum wage out collecting ballot signatures next year. One would raise the state's $9.25 hourly wage to $15 — a number supported by Service Employees International Union in other parts of the country. The others, supported by labor-affiliated coalition Raise the Wage, would set a $13.50 wage and/or lift state restrictions that keep local governments from setting their own wages...
California Leads The Country In Minimum Wage  Capital Public Radio  ...On Jan. 1 California will have the highest minimum wage in the country. California Workers earning minimum wage will get an extra dollar an hour at the beginning of the year. The state raised the rate from $8 to $9 in July 2014. Soon it will be $10 an hour. Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo of Salinas sponsored the legislation behind the raises...
State reminds of minimum wage hike  Daily Star  ...State workers will join fast-food workers in a minimum wage increase taking effect Dec. 31, a bulletin from the state reminded employers. The bulletin issued Friday from the state Division of the Budget includes details about implementing phased wage increases that will bring the two groups of workers to a $15 minimum wage by 2021...
Judge Rules Virginia Voter ID Challenge Can Proceed  NBC  ...A federal judge is allowing an effort aimed at striking down Virginia's voter ID law to continue. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Friday that part of a suit filed by Virginia Democrats challenging the state's voter ID law could proceed while dismissing other related complaints...

U.S. LABOR
NLRB challenges ATI’s lockout as illegal  Buffalo News  ...Allegheny Technologies Inc.’s four-month lockout of about 2,200 employees, including roughly 40 at its Lockport plant, faces a legal challenge. The National Labor Relations Board’s regional director in Pittsburgh told ATI and the Steelworkers union it will issue a complaint alleging the lockout is illegal...
UAW-Nexteer deal ratified by union members  Detroit News  ...A majority of United Auto Workers members near Saginaw voted to ratify a new deal with Nexteer Automotive – avoiding a potential strike that could have impacted the Detroit automakers. UAW Local 699, which represents more than 3,200 workers with the auto supplier, reported early Saturday morning via social media that 61.4 percent of members who voted supported the deal...
USW, U.S. Steel announce tentative contract agreement  Chicago Tribune  ...A tentative agreement between United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel reached Saturday brings to a close more than six months of difficult negotiations between the steelmaker and the unions representing 18,000 workers across the country. Those negotiations continued more than three months after the previous contract between the steelmaker and the union expired Sept.1...
Impending Chicago Teachers' Strike Adds Power to Nationwide Movements Against Inequality and Racism  Truthout  ...The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) shook up the country and sparked a resurgence in militancy among teachers' unions with its 2012 strike. And now Chicago teachers may be getting ready to do it again. On December 14, CTU announced the result of a strike vote held the previous week, in which 88 percent of its total membership - and a full 96 percent of members who voted - authorized a strike that could begin this March or April...
Ship Builder Settles $5 Million Lawsuit After Forcing Indians To Work And Live in Awful Conditions  Think Progress  ...A ship building and repair company will pay $5 million to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) race and national origin discrimination lawsuit with 476 Indian guest workers who worked at the company’s facilities after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While Indian workers lived in squalid containers “the size of a double-wide trailer,” non-Indian workers were not subjected to the same conditions...
Employers had a labor wish list for the budget. Almost none of it was granted.  Washington Post  ...The House and Senate Republican funding proposals contained riders rolling back the implementation of a broad swath of the administration's actions, as well as decisions by the National Labor Relations Board that allowed for the establishment of "micro unions" within workplaces, eased the path toward collective bargaining with a franchiser...
As Public Funding of Universities Dwindles, Faculty Are Unionizing Truthout  ...When newly installed University of Washington (UW) President Ana Mari Cauce and Interim Provost Jerry Baldasty got wind that the UW faculty was collecting signatures on union cards, they quickly sent a series of memos and emails to the 6,000 people eligible to vote. Their missives trumpeted their opposition to collective bargaining and denounced the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) effort to organize on campus...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
US Congress to Corporations: Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  Common Dreams  ...Along with a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep government funded through September, the U.S. Congress is on the verge of passing a Republican-backed, $629 billion package of tax cuts that one group calls "a lobbyist-wrapped Christmas present for our nation's biggest corporations." The package of bills unveiled Wednesday is facing criticism...
Koch Brothers Supersize Higher Education Spending  Truthout  ...The Koch brothers are supersizing their already hefty investments into college students' hearts and minds. A pair of private foundations led by the billionaire industrialists poured more than $23.4 million into U.S. colleges and universities during 2014, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis...
The Two Big Political Mistakes of Obama's Presidency  (opinion) Alternet  ...Nothing Obama could have done would have avoided the tsunami of vicious racist and xenophobic hatred that washed over him and the country, aided and abetted by the savagely partisan and vitriolic Fox News. But Obama might well have stunted the emergence of the right-wing populist movement, had he pursued an aggressive populist strategy of his own — one that demonstrated government could effectively challenge giant corporations...
After 28 Years in Prison, Man Falsely Convicted in Botched Investigation to Walk Free  Democracy Now  ...A Denver, Colorado, man has spent 28 years in prison based on a dream—and it wasn’t his. Now he could soon be free. In 1989, Clarence Moses-EL, who is African-American, was sentenced to 48 years in prison after a woman said she dreamed he was the man who raped and beat her in the dark...
Hundreds Of New Orleans Residents Will Finally Be Able To Go Home  Think Progress  ...More than 10 years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and decimated the Lower Ninth Ward, community groups and local government have secured funding from the federal government they believe will be enough to get many of the residents home who have been trying to rebuild ever since they were displaced. For Boyd-Cannon, a jazz musician, that should mean she will finally be able to rebuild her family’s house on what became a vacant lot...
Wave of migrant children has Texas towns scrambling to set up housing  The Guardian  ...As a wave of Central American children are crossing the US border alone fleeing violence and poverty in their countries, new facilities to house these children are popping up with just a few days’ notice in southern border towns. In Rockwall, Texas, hundreds of children arrived Saturday to a hot spaghetti meal...

Today's Teamster News 12.16.15

TEAMSTERS
Flexjet and Flight Options Pilots Vote to Join Teamsters  Teamster.org  ...Pilots at luxury on-demand air travel companies Flexjet and Flight Options voted today to join the Teamsters Union. Following the vote tallied by the National Mediation Board, the 670 pilots in the class will join Teamsters Local 1108, in Richmond Heights, Ohio. On Sept. 30, 2015, the NMB determined that Flexjet and Flight Options are operating as a single transportation system for representation purposes under the Railway Labor Act...
Teamsters Protest Closure of MillerCoors Plant in Eden  TWC News  ...Teamsters from Local 391 rallied Tuesday in support of the more than 500 employees from the MillersCoors plant that will be losing their jobs in the new year. The plant in Eden is set to close in late 2016 because of what company officials say is "logistics." Facilities in Virgina and Florida will take over Eden's responsibilities. Teamsters say there is no reason for the plant to close...
In Memoriam: Ralph Taurone, Teamster Leader  Teamster.org  ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is saddened to announce the passing of Ralph J. Taurone, a beloved member of the Teamster family, on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015. Taurone began his Teamster career in 1964 when he was initiated into Local 282, New York, while employed as a construction driver. In 1965 he moved to Chicago and became a member of Local 710...
Mediation to Resume Tuesday, But Coca-Cola Trashes Retroactivity, Adds Pitiful Health Care Increases in Latest Proposal  Local 727  ...Coca-Cola Refreshments abruptly broke off negotiations on Monday night with Local 727 and asked to resume mediation on Tuesday, December 15. After the union had already told the company it was willing to negotiate into the night, Local 727 agreed to return Tuesday. Coca-Cola wasted another six hours engaging in delay tactics...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
New Zealand Bunnings workers go on strike, union warns Christmas shoppers will be disrupted  Stuff.co.nz  ...As many as 850 Bunnings staff will go on strike on Wednesday afternoon, with more industrial action planned as the dispute continues. Workers from 21 stores, mostly across the North Island, voted to strike for the day after a morning meeting. Staff from a further seven stores will meet on Friday and decide whether to take similar action...
Speaker Ryan: House vote ‘very possible’ in 2016 on Obama’s trade bill  Washington Post  ...Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that it is "very possible" that the House could vote on President Obama's Pacific Rim trade accord next year, providing hope for the administration after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested last week that the pact should be delayed until a new president takes office. Ryan (R-Wis.) did not specify a timetable...
White House says optimistic Congress will back TPP trade pact  Reuters  ...The White House said on Tuesday it was optimistic Congress would back the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact "in timely fashion" and that it will work with Republican congressional leaders to that end. "We continue to be optimistic that this is something that Congress can and should do in a timely fashion," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a White House briefing...
Pena Nieto Pushes Labor Reforms, But Unions Still See Shortcomings  MyInforms  ...Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has newly pledged to carry out labor rights reforms in two areas identified as critical by House Democrats and U.S. labor unions in the context of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) debate, but labor advocates are already questioning the extent to which the promised steps will really represent meaningful change...
8 Terrible Things About the Trans-Pacific Partnership  In These Times  ...Progressive public-interest organizations say that the final text, the fruit of seven years of secretive trade talks between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, dashed even their low expectations. The deal not only continues most of the troubling features of trade agreements since NAFTA but also breaks worrisome new ground. Like most recent international economic agreements, the TPP only glancingly resembles a classic trade deal...
How the GOP Is Diverting Our Attention Away from the TPP  (opinion) Alternet  ...GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump stokes the fire by urging Americans to blame anyone but corporations and corporate honchos like himself. One-percenter Trump and his fellow GOP candidates exhort average Americans to hate and fear Muslims, Syrian refugees, Black Lives Matter activists and undocumented immigrants. Division and diversion help the one percent secure policies like trickle-down economics and job-destroying trade deals...
Hopes of a global trade deal remain low as WTO meets in Nairobi  The Guardian  ...Fourteen years of tortuous global trade talks will end in failure this week unless there is a sudden and unexpected end to the impasse between developed and developing countries that has bedevilled negotiations. Hopes are low of a breakthrough at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting that begins in Nairobi on Tuesday, with the US openly calling for time to be called on the Doha round of talks that began in the Qatari capital in November 2001...
Global Trade Faces Fragmentation Risks From TPP, TTIP, TiSA  Sputnik News  ...The United States and the European Union launched secretive trade and services deregulation talks with other countries, outside the framework of the WTO, as the Doha Development Agenda stalled in 2008 amid disagreement between advanced and developing nations over agriculture, services and tariffs...
Portugal's New Govt Starts Reversing Austerity Measures  ABC  ...Portugal's new anti-austerity government is making good on its promise to put more money in people's pockets, reducing or eliminating for most families a 3.5 percent super tax on monthly pay introduced during the country's financial crisis. Fernando Rocha Andrade, secretary of state for fiscal affairs, said Tuesday the tax will be eliminated next year for households with income below 7,000 euros...
Slave-peeled shrimp tied to major retailers, restaurants  CNBC  ...Poor migrant workers and children are being sold to factories in Thailand and forced to peel shrimp that ends up in global supply chains, including those of Wal-Mart and Red Lobster, the world's largest retailer and the world's largest seafood restaurant chain, an Associated Press investigation found. At the Gig Peeling Factory, nearly 100 Burmese laborers were trapped, most working for almost nothing...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
After LePage’s Anti-Poor Crusade, Maine Could Face Giant Fine Over Food Stamp Gridlock  Think Progress  ...Maine’s efficiency at processing food stamps applications has gotten so bad that the United States Department of Agriculture is warning Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) team to fix things fast or get hit with significant penalties. Maine ranked 36th out of 53 administrative units in processing speed for food stamps back in 2014, but has now slipped all the way down to last...
California lawmaker sets up debate over next big issue in the 'gig' economy  Business Journal  ...Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez offered a glimpse Monday of what could be the next chapter in a battle involving workers in the so-called gig economy. Upcoming legislation would allow those workers to collectively bargain for rights like health care – even if they aren’t unionized...
California’s Medicaid Program May Be Failing 7.3 Million Latinos  Think Progress  ...California is failing its low-income residents by declining to attract doctors who can treat people enrolled in its Medicaid program, according to a civil rights complaint filed with the federal government this week.
Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid health program for low-income residents, provides free medical care for about 30 percent of the state’s population, including nearly 7.3 million Latinos...
Paid Sick Leave Set To Go Statewide In Oregon  KPLU  ...More Oregon employees will be able to take sick leave in the coming year. It's because of a new law taking effect in January. If you already get sick leave in Oregon this law probably won't affect you. But advocates for the bill, which narrowly passed both legislative chambers in June, said many low-wage workers have to choose between taking unpaid time off or going to work sick...
Trial over redistricting in NC gets underway  WNCN  ...A trial over redistricting in North Carolina began Wednesday morning in federal court. A federal judge will decide if General Assembly drawn maps are constitutional. The trial has been about four years in the making, which is when the maps were drawn. Democrats say Republicans used race as a reason to draw the maps and have been fighting to have them overturned...
Airport employers seek new hearing on SeaTac minimum wage  Seattle Times  ...There’s some good news and bad news for workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport who’ve been looking for a bump up to $15 in minimum wage for the last two years. The good news: Most, since August, have been getting paid $15.24 an hour, according to an attorney for the group that backed the minimum-wage law. The bad news: The legal wrangling over whether the minimum-wage law should apply at the airport has gained new life...
Missouri Lawmaker Wants To Revoke Scholarships If Athletes Protest  Huffington Post  ...Legislation introduced in Missouri would strip college athletes of their scholarships if they refuse to play for any reason "unrelated to health." The proposal, filed Friday by state Rep. Rick Brattin, comes a month after the University of Missouri was roiled by protests in which 30 black football players refused to show up unless President Tim Wolfe resigned...
Ill. Village Becomes State’s First ‘Right to Work’ Zone  CBS  ...Illinois has its first “right to work zone” after a vote  by trustees in a Chicago suburb. But a legal challenge is expected to follow. The village board of Lincolnshire passed an ordinance Monday to prevent local private sector employers from requiring workers to join a union or pay dues through payroll deductions...

U.S. LABOR
Trump’s Vegas Hotel Refuses To Recognize Its Workers’ Union  Think Progress  ...Just 24 hours before billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump took the stage for the fifth GOP debate, the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas launched a legal challenge to its 500-odd workers’ effort to form a union. After a year of organizing, much of it in secret, a narrow majority of the workers voted earlier this month to join the Culinary Workers Union and Bartenders Union, which are part of the national hospitality workers union Unite Here...
In Landslide Election, University of Chicago Adjuncts Vote to Form Union  In These Times  ...In a landslide election, University of Chicago non-tenure track faculty voted to form a union last week—becoming the first faculty to unionize in the Faculty Forward Chicago movement that has seen growing support at universities across the city. On December 9, contingent faculty, largely representing the Humanities Division, voted 96-22 in favor of a bargaining unit that will be represented by Service Employees International Union's Local 73...
Kohler Co., UAW reach tentative deal  Sheboygan Press  ...Kohler Co. and the United Auto Workers Local 833 jointly released a press release Tuesday at 10:34 p.m. to announce they have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract that would resolve the more than month-long labor dispute. In the press release, the two sides say the new agreement "features increased wages and benefits"...
Suburban building owners & custodians reach new contract  Business Journal  ...Suburban office building landlords and the union representing roughly 1,400 janitors reached a new contract Tuesday night that puts workers' wages just shy of their desired rate. Members of the 32BJ Service Employees International Union and the Building Operators Labor Relations group, which represents the owners of about 170 suburban Philadelphia properties, agreed to raise wages...
AFSCME local OKs contract with UI  News Gazette  ...Members of a large employee union at the University of Illinois have approved a new three-year contract with the Urbana campus after 16 months of negotiations. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3700 voted overwhelmingly to accept the terms of the tentative agreement reached last month, union officials said...
Democrats resist provision blocking NLRB's joint employer ruling  Reuters  ...U.S. congressional Democrats are beating back a Republican push to defang a National Labor Relations Board decision that could give unions greater bargaining power with large companies that rely on franchisees or contractors, a Senate Democratic aide said on Tuesday. The aide, who asked not to be identified, said that for now, a government funding and tax policy bill was unlikely to contain a provision that would basically strike down the "Browning-Ferris Industries" NLRB ruling from earlier this year...
King Soopers reaches deal with 10,000 union workers  9 News  ...The King Soopers grocery chain said it's reached a new labor deal with 10,000 union employees in Colorado. Kroger Co., parent of the Denver-based grocery chain, said the 10,000 UFCW Local 7 workers at 103 King Soopers and City Market stores in the state have ratified new labor agreements...
Senate workers win raise in new contract — but not quite ‘$15 and a union’  Washington Post  ...The blue-collar workers who serve meals to U.S. senators, their staff and Capitol visitors have won a significant increase in wages under a new contract that took effect Monday. The agreement with Restaurant Associates, the private contractor that operates the Senate’s cafeteria, private dining room and other facilities, stands to help raise the living standards for dozens of workers...
Ashland's Largest Employer to Lay Off 620 Just Before Christmas  The Levisa Lazer  ...Layoffs at AK Steel’s manufacturing plant in Ashland, Ky., are being called devastating for the community by the president of the union representing hourly steel workers. As of now, the union leader says plans are moving forward to temporarily idle the blast furnace and related steelmaking operations at Ashland Works. Company leaders blame cuts on rising levels of unfairly traded steel imports to the United States...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Congress reaches deal on spending bill to fund federal government  Daily Kos  ...Congressional leaders released their long-negotiated omnibus spending bill Tuesday evening, with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan touting Republican wins that seem less than great victories. What's out—any restrictions on the implementation of net neutrality, along with Planned Parenthood defunding and the Iraqi and Syrian refugee ban...
Defending immigration, Obama says Muslim refugees are like Catholics in 1900  USA Today  ... President Obama delivered a full-throated defense of a liberal immigration policy Tuesday, saying, America betrays its history and its values when it fails to welcome those fleeing poverty, hunger, war and persecution from all over the world. Speaking at a naturalization ceremony for 31 new American citizens at the National Archives, Obama compared the current wave of immigrants to the waves of German, Scottish, Irish and German immigrants of the past...
GOP Debate: Trump Defends Muslim Ban, Other Candidates Debate How to Restrict Rights & Go to War  Democracy Now  ...The nine leading Republican presidential candidates squared off last night in the first debate since Donald Trump shook up the race by proposing to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Much of the debate focused on national security, with several candidates pushing for increasing the size of the U.S. military, escalating the wars in the Middle East and expanding the power of the National Security Agency...
Donald Trump Details Plan To Close ‘Areas’ Of The Internet  Think Progress  ...Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump followed up on his promise to close parts of the internet in order to fight ISIS radicalization, offering his most specific idea yet in the GOP debate Tuesday night.
When explicitly asked if he would take similar steps as repressive governments in China and North Korea to censor the internet, Trump said he would seal off the internet from places at war with America, since the internet was “our idea”...
Lawmakers 'Fail the Internet,' Sneak Cyber Bill Into Must-Pass Omnibus  Common Dreams  ...A controversial cyber bill is included in the final text of the must-pass "omnibus" spending deal to be voted on in U.S. Congress this week, even as civil liberties advocates warn it is nothing more than an expansion of government surveillance powers in disguise. This means the bill is likely to pass "without meaningful debate or transparency on the final text," digital rights group Fight for the Future said Wednesday...
The Kochs’ kind of welfare: “Outreach” to the poor is just another power grab for the billionaire brothers  Salon  ...Not content with having built their own parallel economy and their own parallel political party, the Koch brothers have also started to build their own parallel welfare state, Politico’s Ken Vogel reports. According to Vogel, the Kochs’ new beneficence is inspired, at least in part, by a desire to present “a more compassionate side of the brothers’ politics to new audiences, while fighting the perception that their groups are merely fronts for rich Republicans...

Today's Teamster News 12.14.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Testify About Republic Services' Radioactive Landfill  Teamster.org  ...On Tuesday, Teamsters testified at the St. Louis Tribunal that is investigating human rights violations against communities surrounding Republic Services’ West Lake Superfund landfill site in Bridgeton, Mo. The tribunal will report to the United Nations Human Rights and Environment Program.
An underground fire has been raging for five years at the West Lake complex...
Uber: On the Road to Nowhere  American Prospect  ...Working with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, hundreds of app-based drivers have helped persuade the Seattle City Council to vote initial approval—7 to 0—of a bill that would allow them to unionize. It would be the nation’s first law allowing app-based “independent contractor” drivers to unionize. A final vote is tentatively scheduled for December 14...
Chicago-Area Coca-Cola Refreshments Workers to Unite at Rally  Local 727  ...Hundreds of Coca-Cola Refreshments workers will rally in solidarity and in continued support of their unfair labor practice strike on Monday, Dec. 14. More than 300 Teamsters Local 727-represented Coca-Cola Refreshments workers initiated an unfair labor practice strike Dec. 3 after the beverage industry behemoth continually violated federal labor laws by intimidating workers, circumventing the union and engaging in overall bad faith bargaining during negotiations for a new contract...
SEIU, Teamsters Mourn San Bernardino Dead  Labor Press  ....Most of the 15 people killed in the mass murder at a holiday party for county workers here Dec. 2 were union members. Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents San Bernardino County environmental health specialists, has identified 10 of the dead and 10 of the 21 people wounded as members, and the Teamsters said three of the dead and two of the wounded were members of Local 1932...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers Strike At Mexican Border Factory  Fronteras  ...At least 100 workers at a Mexican border factory in Ciudad Juárez are on strike protesting low wages and a hostile workplace. The factory packages printer ink for the American company Lexmark. The highest paid workers claim they earn 77 cents an hour. Several dozen workers who said they were fired this week after demanding a pay raise have set up a protest camp outside the factory...
Workers at Irish Life to hold one day strike  Irish Times  ...Workers at insurance giant Irish Life have voted to hold a one-day strike this Thursday. A dispute has been ongoing since the beginning of November, when four two-hour stoppages were held. The dispute centres on the company’s unilateral imposition of a new pay model...
Thousands of Morocco Public Employees Wage Strike  Solidarity Center  ...Thousands of public-sector employees rallied and marched as part of a national strike yesterday in which workers in local agencies and up to 80 percent in government ministries walked off the job. Workers seek to draw attention to the unwillingness of the government to negotiate with them on such issues as wages and retirement. The strike, held on International Human Rights Day, aimed to “defend the gains of retirement for workers, trade union freedoms, rights and dignity”...
House Passes Trade Component, but Trans-Pacific Partnership Still in Doubt  Wall Street Journal  ...The House passed a key component of President Barack Obama’s trade policy Friday, but tepid support among Republicans and business groups for his big Pacific trade agreement could keep that deal from coming to a vote until the final weeks of his presidency, if then. A customs bill that cleared the House on Friday gives American steel companies greater ability to challenge subsidized and dumped steel from China and other countries...
TPP faces US roadblock  Financial Review  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership suffered a serious setback to being implemented by the pact's lead economy, after the powerful United States Senate leader stunned trade watchers by declaring Congress should not vote on the accord until after next November's presidential election. The blunt message from influential Republican Mitch McConnell means the TPP is likely to face at least 12 months in limbo...
House votes to boost enforcement of trade deals, block climate change provisions  US News & World Report  ...As negotiators in Paris worked to finalize a global agreement on climate change, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill Friday that would block trade deals from being used to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Supporters said the wide-ranging bill would beef up enforcement of U.S. trade agreements and help prevent counterfeit goods from entering the country...
The Empire Strikes Back: the Return of the WTO  Counterpunch  ...In the last two years, we have witnessed the rise of mega regional trade deals. TTIP is one such example of a potential trade deal between the US and the EU. These deals have many similarities. They are designed to open up new markets for global corporations and create the conditions for them to be as lucrative as possible...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
U.S. states pass laws backing Uber's view of drivers as contractors  Reuters  ...State legislators in Ohio and Florida are moving ahead with regulations governing Uber and other ride services that would designate all drivers as independent contractors, bolstering a critical but much-disputed aspect of Uber's business model. The states would join North Carolina, Arkansas, and Indiana in requiring the contractor designation as part of new laws governing so-called transportation network companies...
Federal judges to weigh in on redistricting 13 News Now  ...Heading to court today: a potential change in Congressional district boundaries that would re-assign more than one million voters. Federal judges will weigh in on whether to proceed with redrawing Virginia's congressional districts, or wait for the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal. This comes after the court ruled the current boundaries pack too many African-American voters into the Commonwealth's 3rd District...
Speaker Unsure if House Will Vote on Right-to-Work in 2016  Ozarks First  ...The state House’s Republicans have met to discuss priorities for the coming session, but their leader won’t predict an answer for one key question - whether right-to-work will come to a vote in his chamber. Many speculate that if backers in the state House can’t find more support for right-to-work than it had this year, when they failed to overturn Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) veto, it won’t be brought up for a vote...
The fight over right-to-work  DPost.com  ...The battle lines have formed for the Legislature’s 2016 debate on a right-to-work bill. The West Virginia Business and Industry Council (BIC) has made it its top priority and legislative leaders have it near the top of their to-do lists. Union opponents packed the House of Delegates’ largest meeting room during a November WVU presentation on the topic. Proponents say it will boost jobs and wages and lure new business to the state. Opponents say it will kill jobs, lower wages and do nothing to help business...

U.S. LABOR
Kohler Company forced back to bargaining table  FightBack News  ...As of last week, Kohler Company and United Auto Workers Local 833 went back to the bargaining table for negotiations amidst a strike now entering its fourth week. The negotiations come as company production at its facilities remain largely closed, with the overwhelming majority of members continuing the stand on their picket lines...

Construction workers rally in Manhattan for safer worksites  AM New York  ...Thousands of construction workers rallied outside of City Hall on Thursday, displaying a row of eight black coffins and demanding the city enforce stricter safety measures at construction sites. Many marchers claimed non-union workers posed greater risks at construction sites because they do not go through the same stringent safety requirements as their union counterparts...

WMUR booted from next Democratic debate  Politico  ...New Hampshire’s most influential television station is being pushed out of next week’s Democratic debate. The reason? A labor dispute between a handful of employees at the station, WMUR, and its owner, the Hearst Corporation. At issue is an accusation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1228 that WMUR is trying to strip pensions from about a dozen of its employees because they decided to join the union...

USW reviewing new U.S. Steel proposal  NWI.com  ...U.S. Steel has proposed a new contract to the United Steelworkers union, and local union presidents are headed to Pittsburgh to discuss it. Negotiations have been ongoing for six months. U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal, which have declined to comment on specifics during the contract talks, have both asked for concessions they say are necessary...

King Soopers and City Market Ratify Agreements with UFCW Local 7  PR Newswire  ...The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today announced that associates working at King Soopers and City Market stores in Colorado have ratified new labor agreements with UFCW Local 7. The contracts cover more than 10,000 associates working in 103 stores, 36 fuel centers and pharmacy technicians in 78 pharmacies in Colorado, including Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Grand Junction, Longmont, Parker and Pueblo...

Seattle Considers Measure to Let Uber and Lyft Drivers Unionize  New York Times  ...The proposed law is the latest labor issue to bedevil Uber, which lets people hail rides through a smartphone app and takes a roughly 20 to 30 percent cut of each fare. Uber has faced questions about whether its workers should be classified as full-time employees instead of freelancers, and the company, based in San Francisco, is embroiled in a class-action lawsuit on the issue...

The Coming Chicago Teachers Union Strike Could Be a Watershed Moment for a City in Crisis  In These Times  ... The contract the union negotiated during that strike has expired, and CTU members began voting Wednesday on whether to authorize another walkout. Given the strong internal push to vote “yes” and assuming the union meets the legally required yes vote threshold of 75% of its members, we will likely see another Chicago teachers strike sometime next year. Yet a victory this time around will require more than proving that a strike can be a galvanizing tool for workers in the 21st century...
What Economic Recovery? A Good Job is Still Hard to Find  Alternet   ...Encouraging though it may be, the latest nationwide strong jobs report doesn’t change the big picture: the economic recovery, officially underway since June 2009, is still leaving millions of working Americans behind. Earlier this week, a new report from the Alliance for a Just Society highlights the failure of our economic policies to produce the full-time living wage jobs working people need to sustain their families...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New York City to Aid Immigrants Amid Stalled National Reforms  New York Times  ...Immigration reform may be in political and legal limbo nationally, but New York City is moving ahead on a plan of its own. The city will spend $7.9 million next year to boost its immigration services throughout the five boroughs, deploying community organizations to help residents seek free legal services to apply for protection from deportation or even for citizenship...
Video Shows LA Police Fatally Shoot Suspect in the Back as He Is Crawling Away  Slate  ...A shocking video has emerged that shows two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shoot and kill an armed suspect in Lynwood on Saturday as he is walking away. Perhaps most shocking of all is how the two police officers keep firing their guns even as the suspect was knocked to the ground and appears to be crawling away. The man, who died at the scene, was identified as 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson, a father of three...
Historic Climate Deal Reached, But Campaigners say the Work is Just Beginning  Common Dreams  ...The global talks known as COP21 ended Saturday with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a carbon emissions-slashing deal.  But climate campaigners are saying that the agreement doesn't go far enough, and that the real work is just beginning. While Reuters described the deal's adoption as "setting the course for a 'historic' transformation of the world's fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming"...

Today's Teamster News 12.10.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamster Pilots at Kalitta Air Authorize Strike  Teamster.org  ...Pilots employed by Kalitta Air, LLC, have voted overwhelmingly, 213-7, to authorize a strike against the Ypsilanti, Mich.-based cargo airline.  Kalitta Air operates a fleet of Boeing 747 aircraft in support of the global network of DHL Express, a division of the German logistics company, Deutsche Post DHL.  Ninety-two percent of eligible pilots voted...
Decision to Close N.C. MillerCoors Brewery Draws Scrutiny at Senate Antitrust Hearing  Teamster.org  ...At a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing yesterday, concerns were raised about the recent decision by MillerCoors to close its Eden, N.C., brewery by the end of 2016. The decision to close the Eden brewery, which would eliminate roughly 10 percent of MillerCoors’ total production capacity and destroy about 450 Teamster jobs, was announced on Sept.14, 2015...
Teamsters Announce Fund to Assist San Bernardino Victims, Families  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Joint Council 42 has created a support fund for the victims and families impacted by the San Bernardino shooting. Three Teamster members were killed and two were wounded in the shooting. “This is a tragic loss for the families of the victims and for our union family. Our Teamster brothers and sisters and their families need our support and we are here to help them,” said Randy Cammack...
Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Outside Workers Reject Contract Offer  Local 727  ...Outside workers at Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Distribution rejected the company’s four-year contract offer while inside workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify their new contract on Sunday, Dec. 6. Before the outside workers take a strike vote, the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee will ask the company to return to the bargaining table in good faith in order to avoid a labor dispute...
University Teamsters voting on tentative contract  Workday Minnesota  ...Members of Teamsters Local 320 (link is external) employed at the University of Minnesota are voting on a tentative contract settlement that includes a 2 percent wage increase and six weeks of paid maternity leave. Members are voting by mail, with ballots to be counted Dec. 21, the union said. The Local 320 contract covers some 1,100 custodial, food service, animal and land care workers...
Significant Wage And Benefit Gains For Facebook Drivers In Teamsters Contract  Labor Press  ...Silicon Valley drivers who shuttle Facebook employees have joined Teamsters Local 853, ratifying what the union says is a strong labor contract. The Teamsters contract includes significant wage and benefits improvements. Teamsters International Vice President and Local 853 Secretary Treasurer says the Teamsters are moving "to bring drivers in the entire shuttle bus industry into the Teamsters Union"...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Canada: Cabdrivers Stage Uber Protest  NYTimes  ...Cabdrivers seeking a legal crackdown against Uber, the ride-sharing service, snarled traffic on expressways and downtown streets in Toronto on Wednesday. The disruption began during the morning rush hour with slow-moving convoys of taxis. Later, cabdrivers blocked a major downtown intersection. A police officer on a bicycle suffered minor injuries...
“No one has ever tried this before”: Mexican, U.S. Workers Bring Employer Charges Under NAFTA  In These Times  ...A transnational coalition of labor unions and community groups in the United States and Mexico charged multinational retail corporation Chedraui Commercial Group with violations of municipal, federal, and international labor law on November 12, filing unprecedented dual claims under compliant mechanisms embedded within the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)...
Lawmakers strike deal on key trade legislation  The Hill  ...House and Senate lawmakers on Wednesday announced a deal that would bolster U.S. customs enforcement, among the key trade items on President Obama’s legislative agenda. After months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, top lawmakers said they had reconciled their differences on the measure that funds the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency...
Levin urges Dems to oppose customs bill deal  The Hill  ...A top House Democrat is urging his colleagues to oppose a deal on a customs enforcement measure, according to a letter obtained by The Hill. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, expressed serious concerns about climate, human trafficking, immigration and currency provisions in the final House-Senate conference report released Wednesday...
Laid-off Newberg paper mill workers protest trade deal  Business Journal  ...Roughly 250 workers lost their jobs when a Newberg paper mill closed Nov. 17. On Tuesday, many returned to the mill to protest the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which they said would move U.S. jobs overseas. We don’t want other hard-working Oregon families to suffer the same hardships we have," said John Haslett, in a news release...
Three ways TTIP will violate your human rights  Independent  ...TTIP is promoted as being focused on the “shared values” of the USA and EU, including “upholding and promoting human rights”. However, the USA and EU prefer to protect corporations from human rights law; they were the strongest opponents of a UN move to create a binding mechanism for holding corporations accountable to international human rights law...
TTIP is a disaster for the Left. But Brexit would be worse  (opinion) New Statesmen  ...Combined with this trade agenda Cameron wants to cut the ‘burden’ of regulation. We should not be under any illusions: a UK outside the EU and governed by the Tories would lead to even further trade liberalisation, even more damaging trade deals and a deregulated corporate free-for-all...
'Austerity is hitting poorest children hardest', Welsh researchers claim  Wales Online  ...Austerity policies across Europe are hitting the poorest children hardest and local councils should do more to protect their rights, say researchers in Wales. The Wales Observatory on Human Rights of Children and Young People, which is based at Swansea University, has compiled a report on the effects of austerity polices based on evidence drawn from across Europe...
Ghana: Port Drivers' Union Want Burkinabe Counterparts Out  All Africa  ...According to the drivers, an illegal document called 'Bond de Chargement' has been imposed on them and failure to pay usually results in them being assaulted at the Burkinabe border. The chairman of the Joint Association of Port Transport Union, Husein Isahak said if the authorities fail to come to their aid, they will be forced to retaliate...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
NY Board Upholds $15 Minimum Wage for Fast-Food Workers  ABC  ...A state oversight board on Wednesday upheld the decision by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration to gradually raise the hourly minimum wage for many fast-food workers to $15. The New York Industrial Board of Appeals rejected the National Restaurant Association's arguments that that the wage order was unconstitutional, arbitrary, unsupported by the evidence and focused improperly on fast-food chains with more than 30 locations...
The public doesn’t support restrictive voter ID laws, but many new ones will be in force in 2016  Reuters  ...Defenders of photo ID laws regularly cite public opinion polls that show widespread support for their arguments. Yet these polls reveal no such support, and they prove nothing about this new restrictive legislation because the polls’ questions cover a far broader range of IDs than the actual laws accept as proof of identity. The Texas photo ID law and recent polls in Texas offer a telling example of the disparity between the laws’ actual content and what poll respondents can assume are in them...
Michigan Senate delays bill that would impact minimum wage for people under 20  WSBT  ...The minimum wage in the state is $8.15 an hour right now. It will increase to $8.50 in January. Right now 16 and 17-year-olds can be paid 85 percent of the current minimum wage. The bill being considered would allow employers to put 18 and 19-year-olds in that same category. Supporters say fewer 16 and 17-year-olds are applying for jobs...
Puerto Rico Legislature Approves Bill to Expand Paid Sick Leave Use  Lexology  ...Seeking to allow non-exempt employees to use paid sick leave for the illnesses of their family members and others, the Puerto Rico Legislature has sent a bill to Governor Alejandro García-Padilla to so amend the Commonwealth’s existing paid sick leave law. If House Bill 695 is approved, the amendments would become effective immediately. The Governor has 30 days to approve or veto HB 695...
Massachusetts’ Plan To Force State Prisoners To Pay Room And Board Will Do Far More Harm Than Good  Think Progress  ...Massachusetts currently spends at least $53,000 a year on every inmate — $1.2 billion in total. On Tuesday, the senate minority leader proposed a bill that would make 10,000 prisoners bear some of that financial burden. Under Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr’s (R-Gloucester) latest proposal, inmates would have to pay $2 a day for their food and housing...

U.S. LABOR
Talks continue between UAW, Kohler  Sheboygan Press  ...Talks are continuing between the Kohler Co. and the union representing about 2,100 striking production workers, company officials confirmed Wednesday, though neither side has indicated whether progress has been made toward a new labor pact. The talks come as United Auto Workers Local 833 members continue their more than 3-week-old strike, which has surpassed the duration of the union's last strike in 1983...
Chicago Teachers Union plans to vote on potential strike  Washington Post ...Chicago Teachers Union members plan to begin voting Wednesday on whether to authorize a strike, setting in motion the latest in a series of political challenges for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The teachers’ contract expired in June, and efforts to reach a one-year contract agreement with Chicago Public Schools fell apart during the summer...
Coalinga hospital workers join SEIU-UHW  Business Journal  ...Health care workers at Coalinga Regional Medical Center recently voted to join SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. Approximately 200 hundred health care workers voted to join the union, lending their support to SEIU-UHW’s campaign to fully fund Medi-Cal as well as the statewide ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021...
Capitol Food Workers Escalate Protests in Senate  Roll Call  ...Dozens of Capitol food workers went on strike Tuesday, demanding to negotiate higher wages with their management and taking their message to other Senate workspace, specifically calling on Sen. Ted Cruz, who sits on the committee that oversees their contract, to support their push for better pay and union representation. The workers flooded the Texas Republican’s office, and the hallway outside, to award Cruz the “Golden Grinch” award...
AFSCME Plans Rally As Contract Talks Drag On  Northern Public Radio  ...The state's largest public employee union remains at odds with Governor Bruce Rauner's administration on a new contract. Negotiators for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees have been meeting with the governor's staff about twice a month since the summer. But AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall says there's been little movement toward a deal...
Walmart’s Imports From China Displaced 400,000 Jobs, a Study Says  NYTimes  ...Imports from China by Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and biggest importer, eliminated or displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart’s policies. The jobs, mostly in manufacturing, represent about 13 percent of the 3.2 million jobs displaced...
Here's How Much the U.S. Middle Class Has Changed in 45 Years  Bloomberg  ...In the age of rising income inequality, the task of preserving America’s middle class has been taken on by politicians across the ideological spectrum. A new report from Pew Research Center shows just how much the economic fortunes of this group have changed since the 1970s. In every decade since then, the percentage of adults living in middle-income households has fallen...
Unwarranted Outcry: NLRB Browning-Ferris Decision Re-establishes Employer Responsibility  CAP Action  ...A recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, that attempts to more clearly define who is a joint employer—and therefore responsible for bargaining and respecting workers’ rights—has triggered the predictable conservative backlash. However, a closer look at the facts indicates just how unwarranted this backlash is. Unfortunately, these latest criticisms are merely the continuation of conservative attacks on the NLRB and its efforts to uphold workers’ rights...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Showing How US Can Stand Up to Wall Street, Europe Advances 'Robin Hood Tax'  Common Dreams  ...Ten European Union countries agreed on Tuesday to some aspects of a so-called "Robin Hood Tax" on financial transactions, offering a model for U.S. politicians who have thus far showed little resolve on standing up to Wall Street high-rollers. As Reuters explains, a financial transaction tax (FTT) "is intended to recover some of the public money used to support banks [and] to curb speculative trading"...
Immigrants Say They Suffered Abuse And Neglect At This California Detention Center  Think Progress  ...Ten men filed a complaint against an immigration detention center in California this week, alleging physical abuse, medical neglect, and retaliatory transfers while they were detainees. The complaint, filed on behalf of the ten former and current immigrant detainees by the immigrant advocacy group Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), alleges multiple incidents of physical assault...
"It's Going to Burn Our Planet": Hundreds Protest "Unacceptable" Draft Climate Accord Inside COP21  Democracy Now  ...It’s the final stretch of negotiations at the United Nations climate change summit, COP21, as representatives from nearly 200 countries attempt to reach a final deal before the weekend. A draft text released Wednesday has nearly 100 outstanding points of disagreement that still need to be resolved, including the role that wealthy and more advanced developing countries should play in helping vulnerable nations cope with the impacts of climate change...
The Psychology of the Affirmative-Action Backlash  The Nation  ...The Supreme Court re-hears Abigail Fisher’s case against the University of Texas today.  If the High Court rules in her favor, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin will shake affirmative-action policy to its core.  According to court documents, 49 students with lower scores and grades than Fisher were offered provisional admission to UT through the summer program. Only five of those arguably under-qualified students were black or Hispanic; the other 42 were white...