TEAMSTERS
Arbitrator Rules Parking Employer Created ‘Sham’ Company to Avoid Paying Union Local 727 ...An arbitrator has ordered PAS, LLC to pay Teamsters Local 727 more than $225,000 in back dues, penalties and late fees after the Chicago parking employer created a “sham” company to avoid its financial obligations to the union. In July 2013, VPS of Illinois closed its business without paying thousands of dollars owed to the union...
NY-NJ port authority revises truck-replacement plan JOC ...Environmental groups have insisted that older trucks need to be phased out to reduce unhealthy emissions. Allied with the environmentalists is the Teamsters union, which has tried for years to organize port drivers. A likely side effect of banning older trucks would be to encourage a shift from owner-operators to company employees who would be eligible to unionize...
Teamsters invited to pension session Press Gazette ...The Wisconsin Committees to Protect Pensions will hold an informational meeting for active and retired Teamsters. Dobbs will talk about new developments in the effort to stop the cuts from taking effect this summer, legislative proposals introduced in Congress to try to stop the cuts and other information for Teamsters and retirees who want to take action to oppose the proposed cuts...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Colombian Unions to Protest Paltry Minimum Wage Increase TeleSUR ...Labor leaders in Colombia say the Constitutional Court has previously ruled that wage increase cannot fall below the rate of inflation. Fabio Arias, secretary-general of Colombia's United Workers Trade Union Federation, said Wednesday that his organization will submit a formal complaint before the country's Council of State over a decree raising the minimum wage by only 7 percent...
Delhi's sanitation workers to go on indefinite strike from January 27 Economic Times ...Scores of municipal sanitation workers on Wednesday decided to go on an indefinite strike from January 27 claiming the civic bodies' failure in meeting their demands, including regularization of salary. The workers have been sitting on a relay hunger strike for the past month at the Jantar Mantar under various unions...
Ontario prepares for looming strike by correctional workers Globe and Mail ...This week across Ontario, however, the sudden appearance of construction crews outside jails has prompted weary acceptance that a looming strike could be long and, according to the correctional union, dangerous for the managers forced to operate the institutions. By Thursday, there was ample evidence that the province was preparing for protracted labour action...
Hundreds of advocacy groups ask Congress to block Obama’s Pacific Rim trade pact Washington Post ...A coalition of more than 1,500 interest groups is sending a letter to Congress on Thursday demanding that lawmakers block the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact championed by the Obama administration. Labor unions, environmental groups, consumer advocates and faith groups are among the 1,525 organizations...
Pacific Trade Deal Foes Say Keystone Case Shows Pact's Risk Bloomberg ...A legal dispute over the Keystone XL oil pipeline is giving opponents of a Pacific trade agreement a fresh argument in their effort to get Congress to kill the pact. They say the case announced Wednesday, in which TransCanada Corp. is seeking arbitration to recover $15 billion tied to the Obama administration’s rejection of Keystone, shows how foreign companies could use provisions of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement to challenge U.S. policy on the environment and other matters...
World Bank: TPP Trade Deal to Benefit Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia Most by 2030 Sputnik News ...The US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal is set to provide economic impetus predominantly to Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia among other parties to the agreement by 2030, a Global Economic Prospects report showed...
India set to push for liberalisation of services trade at WTO Geneva talks Economic Times ...Reinstating its stand of continuing with the Doha Development Agenda, India will push for liberalising services trade at the World Trade Organization talks in Geneva. 23 countries of the WTO are separately negotiating the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), which aims at opening up markets and improving rules in areas such as licensing, financial services, telecom, ecommerce, maritime transport and professionals moving abroad temporarily to provide services...
U.S. Says `Tremendous Progress' Made on South Africa Trade Talks Bloomberg ...South Africa and the U.S. made “tremendous progress” on talks to resolve a trade dispute between the two nations, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard said. South Africa has been under pressure to reach agreement with the U.S. to open its market to American chicken and beef products in order to retain preferential trade benefits...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Martinez revives right-to-work debate in New Mexico Las Cruces Sun-News ...Republican Gov. Susana Martinez is reviving the right-to-work debate in New Mexico, saying she’ll include the issue on the agenda for the upcoming legislative session. She made the announcement Thursday during a panel discussion before a crowded room of business leaders...
Minimum wage boost hangs over California budget negotiations SacBee ...They haven’t yet acquired enough signatures to go before voters, but ballot initiatives to bump California’s minimum wage to $15 figured into early discussions of the state budget proposal unveiled Thursday. Organized labor groups across the country have focused their energy on the push for a $15 wage...
Cuomo eyeing plan to give New Yorkers 12 weeks paid family leave NY Post ...Gov. Cuomo is mulling a plan to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to New Yorkers in the coming year after Mayor de Blasio allowed city workers to receive the benefit in 2014. Gubernatorial aides met with advocates Dec. 29 in Manhattan to talk providing paid time off for employees with a new child, an injury or a sick family member...
Paid Family Leave Gets More Attention, but Workers Still Struggle New York Times ...This year is shaping up to be a big one for paid family leave. On Thursday, the Independent Democratic Conference, a breakaway group of New York state senators, plans to introduce 12 weeks of paid leave as part of its legislative agenda; Gov. Andrew Cuomo is reportedly considering similar legislation...
Virginia to use new congressional map this year, benefiting Democrats Daily Kos ...In yet another victory for Democrats, the federal court hearing a lawsuit challenging the state's congressional lines just ruled that elections this year must go forward under a new map proposed by a court-appointed expert, one that all but guarantees that GOP Rep. Randy Forbes' 4th District will turn solidly blue...
Democrats call for redistricting reform AJC ...Three Democratic lawmakers are pushing to create an independent commission to redraw political lines in the future. Sen. Elena Parent (D – Atlanta), Rep. Pat Gardner (D – Atlanta) and Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D – Decatur) said the legislation would be a fairer way to redraw current legislative and congressional district lines in coming years...
"Gov. Snyder Should Be Arrested": Flint Residents Demand Justice over Water Poisoning Democracy Now ...Protests are growing in Flint, Michigan, over the state’s cover-up of the ongoing water contamination crisis. Filmmaker Michael Moore is asking fans to sign a petition on his website calling for the immediate resignation of Governor Rick Snyder. In an open letter to the governor, he writes: "[Y]ou have effectively poisoned, not just some, but apparently ALL of the children in my hometown of Flint"...
U.S. LABOR
One Step Closer To Collective Bargaining, Some Temp Workers Unionize NPR ...Advocates for temporary workers are celebrating a decision by the National Labor Relations Board to broaden the definition of joint employers — a move that could bring many temp workers closer to collective bargaining. One of the first to join a union following the new rule is a group of Guatemalans in New Bedford, Mass...
Strong Job Growth In 2015 Still Couldn’t Give Workers A Raise Think Progress ...The economy added 292,000 jobs in December while the unemployment rate stayed at 5 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Analysts had expected 200,000 jobs to be added. However, gains in wages were weak. Hourly earnings fell 1 cent in December after a 5-cent increase in November, and average hourly earnings have risen just 2.5 percent over the last year...
Company must pay after making workers clock out for bathroom breaks KCCI ...A Pennsylvania company that publishes business newsletters will pay about $1.75 million to thousands of employees who had to clock out while going on short breaks, including for the bathroom. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a federal judge has given the U.S. Department of Labor and the Malvern-based company, American Future Systems Inc., until Thursday to submit proposals on managing payment...
Rauner implements merit pay for some workers; AFSCME opposed NW Herald ...Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration is starting a new compensation system for some state workers that includes merit pay and bonuses for saving taxpayers money, a plan the former businessman says will make government more efficient. It's the latest sticking point in long-running negotiations between Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 36,000 state employees...
When companies hire temp workers by race, black applicants lose out Reveal News ...When its clients wanted to hire temp workers based on race, sex or age, Automation was happy to oblige, according to dozens of former employees. Often, the practice was blatant. A manager at a Georgia manufacturing plant asked Christie Ragland not to send him “any black thugs,” she said...
This Supreme Court Case Could Make All Public Unions ‘Right to Work’ The Nation ...O n January 11, the Supreme Court will hear argument on Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a full-bore attack on public-sector unions. The lead Friedrichs plaintiffs, a group of fiercely anti-union California public-school teachers, seek to reverse Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977) on First Amendment grounds. Abood has provided the bedrock constitutional analysis and recommended administrative structure for public-sector unionism...
Can Millennials Save Organized Labor? Labor 411 ...A new Pew survey reveals how Millennials, the oft-hyped demographic, view key social institutions. It turns out that Millennials have a more positive view of many major social institutions than their elders and that one of the most notable examples is organized labor. Labor unions are viewed more positively today than they were five years ago by all age groups, but the uptick in opinion is especially notable among those born after 1980...
Why Do Americans Work So Much? The Atlantic ...In a new paper, Friedman tries to figure out why increased productivity has not translated into increased leisure time. American inequality means that the gains of increasing productivity are not widely shared. In other words, most Americans are too poor to work less...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
A Rush of Central Americans Compounds Obama’s Immigration Task NY Times ...When mothers and children streamed across the Texas border in 2014, the Obama administration devised a strategy to manage the influx, putting them in detention centers to convince others that illegal crossers would be caught and sent back. But that strategy is now under intense legal and political attack, leaving the administration with limited options...
Bernie Sanders Demands President Obama End ‘Inhumane’ Roundups Of Immigrant Families Think Progress ...Vermont Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote to the White House on Thursday, demanding an end to the stepped up immigration raids and deportations of Central Americans that the Obama Administration announced just before Christmas. Just after the new year, more than 100 people were arrested in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, including many women and children...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Cheers Bernie's Fight to "Hold Big Banks Accountable" Common Dreams ...Sen. Bernie Sanders got a shout-out from big bank critic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday a day after the presidential hopeful gave a policy speech laying out his tough on Wall Street stance. During his speech in New York on Wednesday, Sanders said, "Wall Street and corporate greed is destroying the fabric of our nation." He also vowed to break up too-big-to- fail banks...
Making the World Safe for Predatory Capitalism CounterPunch ...Steve Jobs used old-fashioned anti-raiding agreements to keep competitors from enticing away his workers. Gates and Google have both engaged in anti-competitive practices that likely would have brought antitrust enforcement in prior decades. And Amazon has prospered not only because of low prices and good service, but also by being exempted from the requirement to collect the same sales tax as its brick-and-mortar competitors...
Oregon Sheriff Meets Ammon Bundy, Greets Him With Handshake Not Handcuffs Think Progress ...The treatment of armed militants conducting an illegal occupation in Oregon differs greatly from the response to overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations by unarmed individuals protesting police misconduct. In Ferguson, for example, protesters were met by police with military-style equipment, full riot gear, and tear gas...
Showing posts with label Colombia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colombia. Show all posts
Friday, January 8, 2016
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.07.15
Teamsters
EVSC, Teamsters Butt Heads Again TriState Homepage ...Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and Teamsters Local 215 together again in the same room – but still unable to agree.
The sticking points in negotiations aren't getting any grease. Union dues and third-party arbitration for employee grievances remain a focal point that neither side is willing to give up. Paul Green, speaking on behalf of Teamsers, begged the EVSC to get back to the table. “It's tearing this community apart.” Teamsters President, Chuck Whobrey wants to meet again for more negotiations...
American Friends of Yitzhak Rabin to Honor Randy Cammack, President, Teamsters Joint Council 42, and Ken Howard, President, SAG-AFTRA BusinessWire ...American Friends of Yitzhak Rabin (AFYR) announced today that they will honor Randy Cammack, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42, with the 2015 Yitzhak Rabin Leadership and Public Service Award at a gala dinner at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on July 9, 2015. AFYR will also recognize Ken Howard, President, SAG-AFTRA, with the 2015 Yitzhak Rabin Legacy Award...
This Airline’s Scheduling System Is Making Its Pilots Exhausted The Nation ...Like many Allegiant passengers, pilots have voiced major frustrations with Allegiant’s flight schedules, arguing that the company has instituted a new scheduling system called “Preferential Bidding,” which they say makes pilots’ schedules more precarious and undermines the industry-wide standard of seniority-based scheduling...
Global Labor & Trade
Mexico sees TPP deal in July Herald Sun ...Mexico is confident that an agreement on a major free-trade pact spanning the Pacific Ocean can be reached in late July in what would be a milestone with the potential to reshape economic ties between Asia and the Americas, a top government official has said. "Around 10 per cent of issues are still to be agreed, but I hope we can seal an agreement in a final round of negotiations at the end of the month," economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo said in an interview...
Trans-Pacific Partnership building momentum for deal this summer Globe and Mail ...Canada and the 11 other countries taking part in Pacific Rim trade talks will push for a deal at a meeting of ministers expected to take place in late July or early August, sources say. It is a sign of the increasing momentum of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks and sets the stage for Ottawa to make what are expected to be controversial concessions in the weeks before a federal election campaign begins...
U.S. trade deficit widens; weakness abroad fuels export drop Reuters ...The U.S. trade deficit widened in May, fueled by a drop in exports that could heighten concerns over weak overseas demand and a strong U.S. dollar. The Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that the trade gap grew $1.2 billion to $41.9 billion. That was less than the $42.6 billion deficit expected by analysts and suggests Wall Street economists may slightly raise their forecasts for economic growth in the second quarter...
Labor Lost the Fight Over Fast Track. But the Fact That Unions Oppose the TPP at All Is a Big Deal. In These Times ...Organized labor’s recent “victory” over President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative, was short-lived, as “fast track” was passed by Congress shortly after it had been denied him earlier in the month. But labor’s strong opposition to the deal is worth examining a bit more closely. That the TPP could so easily be linked by its critics to the job-killing, wage-reducing interests of the “one percent” reflects deep and changing understandings of how the global economy works...
Greece Is Just The Beginning Of The Great Austerity Backlash Huffington Post ...The global politics of austerity seeped into the press room of the White House on Monday, the day after the Greeks voted overwhelmingly to reject a harsh bailout deal with Europe. Now that the planet’s economies have essentially become one, and the world’s top dozen banks control $30 trillion in assets, the callous demands of a new and even larger “money power” is starting to spark a worldwide backlash...
The economic spasm that could overshadow Greece CBS ...While much of the financial community's attention is riveted on Greece's debt crisis, another economic drama is playing out in China that could have a far great impact on the global economy. China's stock markets have been falling rapidly for nearly a month, and by last week had dropped about 30 percent...
Bernie Sanders Backs Greek Rejection Of Austerity Measures Huffington Post ...Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voiced his support for Greece’s decision to reject a bailout deal that would have come with more austerity measures for the country. “I applaud the people of Greece for saying ‘no’ to more austerity for the poor, the children, the sick and the elderly,” Sanders said in a statement Sunday...
Rights for Kuwait Domestic Workers: ‘Cautiously Good Step’ Solidarity Center ...There is some good news for domestic workers in Kuwait: The National Assembly adopted a new law in June that will grant them unprecedented legal rights. The law applies to family maids, baby sitters, cooks and drivers. More than 660,000 domestic workers are currently employed in Kuwait, most of them migrant workers from Asia and Africa. Human Rights Watch researcher Rothna Begum says this is a “major step forward” for Kuwait...
Colombia’s Fensuagro Union is Revolutionary, Persecuted, and Undaunted Counterpunch ...Fensuagro, the largest agricultural workers union in Colombia, held its 11th National Congress on June 5 – 8 in Bogota. The theme there was: “We advance for peace, rural peoples’ rights, and food sovereignty.” Fensuagro – the full name is the United Agricultural Trade Union Federation – reelected Húbert Ballesteros as vice president and member of its board of directors. Ballesteros, however, is a political prisoner...
State & Living Wage Battles
Scott Walker Tries To Use A Back Door To Get Rid Of Wisconsin’s Living Wage Law Think Progress ...After months of uproar over provisions to slash hundreds of millions of dollars from state universities and strip the values of “truth” and “service” from their mission, lawmakers in Madison missed their July 1 deadline to pass the budget. The change to the wage law comes just as low-income workers in the state are suing Governor Walker for refusing to consider their complaint that the current state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is not a living wage...
Puerto Ricans have a message for the US: 'Give us the tools to help ourselves' The Guardian ...Since the April day in 1899 when Americans formally took over the island, Puerto Ricans have felt uneasy about their status within the United States. And as the island faces a debt crisis that has cratered its economy and sent its leaders to Washington to plead for more sovereign powers, the issue has taken on a new urgency...
Kinder calls for public debates over right-to-work proposal St. Louis Public Radio ...Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is proposing that Gov. Jay Nixon and state Attorney General Chris Koster engage in public debates with him in the coming weeks over the issue of right to work. Nixon recently vetoed a right-to-work bill, which would bar employers and unions from requiring all workers to pay dues if a majority voted to join a union...
GOP Senators to make run at repealing prevailing wage law Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel ...Republicans who control the state Senate plan to insert a provision into the state budget Tuesday that will repeal the prevailing wage law for local governments. The law sets the minimum salaries for construction workers when they build roads, schools and other publicly funded projects...
Group backing repeal of Michigan's prevailing wage raises $1 million for ballot campaign Crain's Detroit ...A group leading a petition drive to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage law has raised more than $1 million for the effort, campaign finance records show. Protecting Michigan Taxpayers spent close to $342,000 from April 21 to June 29, according to a campaign finance statement it filed Monday with the Michigan secretary of state. The group’s biggest backer, the Michigan Freedom Fund — an organization with ties to the DeVos family — gave $372,200 in direct and in-kind contributions...
Kansas isn’t joining 14 states poised to raise minimum wage The Wichita Eagle ...Fourteen states and the District of Columbia will see their minimum wage increase this summer or next year, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Kansas won’t be joining them. The minimum wage in Kansas is $7.25 per hour – the same as the federal minimum wage – and attempts to increase it this year gained little traction in the Republican-dominated Legislature...
Portland City Council votes to raise minimum wage to $10.10 an hour Portland Press Herald ...The Portland City Council voted 6-3 Monday night to create a city minimum wage of $10.10 an hour on Jan. 1, increase it a year later, and tie future minimum wages to inflation. After a debate that lasted nearly two hours and drew pleas from advocates and opponents, the council passed a plan first put forth by Mayor Michael Brennan...
U.S. Labor
Staples Deal With USPS Is Illegal: NLRB 24/7 ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a complaint against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) related to the housing of contract postal units in Staples Inc. stores. The NLRB has determined that the USPS violated the law when it opened its first postal counter in a Staples store in late 2013. The contract between the USPS and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) states that USPS management must bargain with the union before entering a deal like the one with Staples...
EVSC, Teamsters Butt Heads Again TriState Homepage ...Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and Teamsters Local 215 together again in the same room – but still unable to agree.
The sticking points in negotiations aren't getting any grease. Union dues and third-party arbitration for employee grievances remain a focal point that neither side is willing to give up. Paul Green, speaking on behalf of Teamsers, begged the EVSC to get back to the table. “It's tearing this community apart.” Teamsters President, Chuck Whobrey wants to meet again for more negotiations...
American Friends of Yitzhak Rabin to Honor Randy Cammack, President, Teamsters Joint Council 42, and Ken Howard, President, SAG-AFTRA BusinessWire ...American Friends of Yitzhak Rabin (AFYR) announced today that they will honor Randy Cammack, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42, with the 2015 Yitzhak Rabin Leadership and Public Service Award at a gala dinner at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on July 9, 2015. AFYR will also recognize Ken Howard, President, SAG-AFTRA, with the 2015 Yitzhak Rabin Legacy Award...
This Airline’s Scheduling System Is Making Its Pilots Exhausted The Nation ...Like many Allegiant passengers, pilots have voiced major frustrations with Allegiant’s flight schedules, arguing that the company has instituted a new scheduling system called “Preferential Bidding,” which they say makes pilots’ schedules more precarious and undermines the industry-wide standard of seniority-based scheduling...
Global Labor & Trade
Mexico sees TPP deal in July Herald Sun ...Mexico is confident that an agreement on a major free-trade pact spanning the Pacific Ocean can be reached in late July in what would be a milestone with the potential to reshape economic ties between Asia and the Americas, a top government official has said. "Around 10 per cent of issues are still to be agreed, but I hope we can seal an agreement in a final round of negotiations at the end of the month," economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo said in an interview...
Trans-Pacific Partnership building momentum for deal this summer Globe and Mail ...Canada and the 11 other countries taking part in Pacific Rim trade talks will push for a deal at a meeting of ministers expected to take place in late July or early August, sources say. It is a sign of the increasing momentum of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks and sets the stage for Ottawa to make what are expected to be controversial concessions in the weeks before a federal election campaign begins...
U.S. trade deficit widens; weakness abroad fuels export drop Reuters ...The U.S. trade deficit widened in May, fueled by a drop in exports that could heighten concerns over weak overseas demand and a strong U.S. dollar. The Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that the trade gap grew $1.2 billion to $41.9 billion. That was less than the $42.6 billion deficit expected by analysts and suggests Wall Street economists may slightly raise their forecasts for economic growth in the second quarter...
Labor Lost the Fight Over Fast Track. But the Fact That Unions Oppose the TPP at All Is a Big Deal. In These Times ...Organized labor’s recent “victory” over President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative, was short-lived, as “fast track” was passed by Congress shortly after it had been denied him earlier in the month. But labor’s strong opposition to the deal is worth examining a bit more closely. That the TPP could so easily be linked by its critics to the job-killing, wage-reducing interests of the “one percent” reflects deep and changing understandings of how the global economy works...
Greece Is Just The Beginning Of The Great Austerity Backlash Huffington Post ...The global politics of austerity seeped into the press room of the White House on Monday, the day after the Greeks voted overwhelmingly to reject a harsh bailout deal with Europe. Now that the planet’s economies have essentially become one, and the world’s top dozen banks control $30 trillion in assets, the callous demands of a new and even larger “money power” is starting to spark a worldwide backlash...
The economic spasm that could overshadow Greece CBS ...While much of the financial community's attention is riveted on Greece's debt crisis, another economic drama is playing out in China that could have a far great impact on the global economy. China's stock markets have been falling rapidly for nearly a month, and by last week had dropped about 30 percent...
Bernie Sanders Backs Greek Rejection Of Austerity Measures Huffington Post ...Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voiced his support for Greece’s decision to reject a bailout deal that would have come with more austerity measures for the country. “I applaud the people of Greece for saying ‘no’ to more austerity for the poor, the children, the sick and the elderly,” Sanders said in a statement Sunday...
Rights for Kuwait Domestic Workers: ‘Cautiously Good Step’ Solidarity Center ...There is some good news for domestic workers in Kuwait: The National Assembly adopted a new law in June that will grant them unprecedented legal rights. The law applies to family maids, baby sitters, cooks and drivers. More than 660,000 domestic workers are currently employed in Kuwait, most of them migrant workers from Asia and Africa. Human Rights Watch researcher Rothna Begum says this is a “major step forward” for Kuwait...
Colombia’s Fensuagro Union is Revolutionary, Persecuted, and Undaunted Counterpunch ...Fensuagro, the largest agricultural workers union in Colombia, held its 11th National Congress on June 5 – 8 in Bogota. The theme there was: “We advance for peace, rural peoples’ rights, and food sovereignty.” Fensuagro – the full name is the United Agricultural Trade Union Federation – reelected Húbert Ballesteros as vice president and member of its board of directors. Ballesteros, however, is a political prisoner...
State & Living Wage Battles
Scott Walker Tries To Use A Back Door To Get Rid Of Wisconsin’s Living Wage Law Think Progress ...After months of uproar over provisions to slash hundreds of millions of dollars from state universities and strip the values of “truth” and “service” from their mission, lawmakers in Madison missed their July 1 deadline to pass the budget. The change to the wage law comes just as low-income workers in the state are suing Governor Walker for refusing to consider their complaint that the current state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is not a living wage...
Puerto Ricans have a message for the US: 'Give us the tools to help ourselves' The Guardian ...Since the April day in 1899 when Americans formally took over the island, Puerto Ricans have felt uneasy about their status within the United States. And as the island faces a debt crisis that has cratered its economy and sent its leaders to Washington to plead for more sovereign powers, the issue has taken on a new urgency...
Kinder calls for public debates over right-to-work proposal St. Louis Public Radio ...Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is proposing that Gov. Jay Nixon and state Attorney General Chris Koster engage in public debates with him in the coming weeks over the issue of right to work. Nixon recently vetoed a right-to-work bill, which would bar employers and unions from requiring all workers to pay dues if a majority voted to join a union...
GOP Senators to make run at repealing prevailing wage law Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel ...Republicans who control the state Senate plan to insert a provision into the state budget Tuesday that will repeal the prevailing wage law for local governments. The law sets the minimum salaries for construction workers when they build roads, schools and other publicly funded projects...
Group backing repeal of Michigan's prevailing wage raises $1 million for ballot campaign Crain's Detroit ...A group leading a petition drive to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage law has raised more than $1 million for the effort, campaign finance records show. Protecting Michigan Taxpayers spent close to $342,000 from April 21 to June 29, according to a campaign finance statement it filed Monday with the Michigan secretary of state. The group’s biggest backer, the Michigan Freedom Fund — an organization with ties to the DeVos family — gave $372,200 in direct and in-kind contributions...
Kansas isn’t joining 14 states poised to raise minimum wage The Wichita Eagle ...Fourteen states and the District of Columbia will see their minimum wage increase this summer or next year, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Kansas won’t be joining them. The minimum wage in Kansas is $7.25 per hour – the same as the federal minimum wage – and attempts to increase it this year gained little traction in the Republican-dominated Legislature...
Portland City Council votes to raise minimum wage to $10.10 an hour Portland Press Herald ...The Portland City Council voted 6-3 Monday night to create a city minimum wage of $10.10 an hour on Jan. 1, increase it a year later, and tie future minimum wages to inflation. After a debate that lasted nearly two hours and drew pleas from advocates and opponents, the council passed a plan first put forth by Mayor Michael Brennan...
U.S. Labor
Staples Deal With USPS Is Illegal: NLRB 24/7 ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a complaint against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) related to the housing of contract postal units in Staples Inc. stores. The NLRB has determined that the USPS violated the law when it opened its first postal counter in a Staples store in late 2013. The contract between the USPS and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) states that USPS management must bargain with the union before entering a deal like the one with Staples...
A Worker’s Take on the New Overtime Proposal The Nation ...As a manager for a national auto supply chain, Lora McCrary puts in between 50 and 70 hours a week remodeling stores across the country. But because she’s a salaried employee, she’s ineligible to earn overtime pay. The long hours and the weeks spent on the road and living out of hotels have taken a toll on her emotionally and physically...
UFCW local sets meeting to discuss A&P future Supermarket News ...Uncertainty over the future of A&P has prompted several locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to call member meetings to discuss the chain’s financial situation, including one scheduled for Wednesday by UFCW Local 1776 in Philadelphia...
Transit union leaders hope to resume negotiations toward contract agreement soon Fox6 News ...Leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 held a news conference early Monday morning, July 6th at 1:00 a.m. Union leaders said they will not strike on Monday, and said they’d like to resume negotiations in an effort to come to a deal on a new contract. During their news conference, union leaders said they want a deal convenient for both sides...
How Politics Gutted Workplace Safety Slate ...OSHA has issued only 36 health standards and relies on mostly outdated exposure limits for the 470 substances it regulates; many more substances go unregulated. It rarely uses the general duty clause to cite alleged health violations, having concluded that the burden of proof is too steep. Hindered by court decisions, the White House, an often-hostile Congress, a weak underlying statute, and—some say —its own timidity, the agency is still searching for ways to protect workers from fumes, vapors, dusts, fibers, and liquids that can kill or incapacitate them...
Unions Must Act Now to Survive Supreme Court Deathblow Counterpunch ...Unions have a decision to make: organize or die. It’s that simple. These are the only two options now that the Supreme Court announced it would hear the case “Friedrichs v. California Teacher Association.” The court intends to take aim at the head of organized labor by ruling against the California Teachers Association, and in the process fundamentally change labor law in a way that would cripple public sector unions, the last bastion of significant social power in the U.S. labor movement...
Miscellaneous
Fatal shooting sparks national immigration debate MSNBC ...The fallout from a seemingly random fatal shooting at a crowded tourist spot in San Francisco last week has ignited a national debate over the city’s decades-old tradition of offering safe haven to undocumented immigrants. Now used as fodder in political rallying cries on immigration, the shooting mounts pressure on these so-called “sanctuary cities” – municipalities that have openly defied federal immigration policies and taken a more welcoming tact toward undocumented immigrants...
Corporate Capitalism Is the Foundation of Police Brutality and the Prison State (opinion) Alternet ...We discuss issues of race while ignoring the economic, bureaucratic and political systems of exploitation—all of it legal and built into the ruling apparatus—that are the true engines of racism and white supremacy. No discussion of race is possible without a discussion of capitalism and class. And until that discussion takes place, despite all the proposed reforms to the criminal justice system, the state will continue to murder and imprison poor people of color with impunity...
What Donald Trump Doesn't Understand About Immigrants and Crime (opinion) The Atlantic ...If Donald Trump were right, policing and immigration reform would be easy. We’d just round up all the immigrants, ship them away, and crime would disappear. But most immigrants, like most native-born Americans, are simply hardworking people trying to feed their families and help their kids succeed. Targeting them won’t end crime, but it will increase their alienation, making effective crime prevention and policing more difficult...
UFCW local sets meeting to discuss A&P future Supermarket News ...Uncertainty over the future of A&P has prompted several locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to call member meetings to discuss the chain’s financial situation, including one scheduled for Wednesday by UFCW Local 1776 in Philadelphia...
Transit union leaders hope to resume negotiations toward contract agreement soon Fox6 News ...Leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 held a news conference early Monday morning, July 6th at 1:00 a.m. Union leaders said they will not strike on Monday, and said they’d like to resume negotiations in an effort to come to a deal on a new contract. During their news conference, union leaders said they want a deal convenient for both sides...
How Politics Gutted Workplace Safety Slate ...OSHA has issued only 36 health standards and relies on mostly outdated exposure limits for the 470 substances it regulates; many more substances go unregulated. It rarely uses the general duty clause to cite alleged health violations, having concluded that the burden of proof is too steep. Hindered by court decisions, the White House, an often-hostile Congress, a weak underlying statute, and—some say —its own timidity, the agency is still searching for ways to protect workers from fumes, vapors, dusts, fibers, and liquids that can kill or incapacitate them...
Unions Must Act Now to Survive Supreme Court Deathblow Counterpunch ...Unions have a decision to make: organize or die. It’s that simple. These are the only two options now that the Supreme Court announced it would hear the case “Friedrichs v. California Teacher Association.” The court intends to take aim at the head of organized labor by ruling against the California Teachers Association, and in the process fundamentally change labor law in a way that would cripple public sector unions, the last bastion of significant social power in the U.S. labor movement...
Miscellaneous
Fatal shooting sparks national immigration debate MSNBC ...The fallout from a seemingly random fatal shooting at a crowded tourist spot in San Francisco last week has ignited a national debate over the city’s decades-old tradition of offering safe haven to undocumented immigrants. Now used as fodder in political rallying cries on immigration, the shooting mounts pressure on these so-called “sanctuary cities” – municipalities that have openly defied federal immigration policies and taken a more welcoming tact toward undocumented immigrants...
Corporate Capitalism Is the Foundation of Police Brutality and the Prison State (opinion) Alternet ...We discuss issues of race while ignoring the economic, bureaucratic and political systems of exploitation—all of it legal and built into the ruling apparatus—that are the true engines of racism and white supremacy. No discussion of race is possible without a discussion of capitalism and class. And until that discussion takes place, despite all the proposed reforms to the criminal justice system, the state will continue to murder and imprison poor people of color with impunity...
What Donald Trump Doesn't Understand About Immigrants and Crime (opinion) The Atlantic ...If Donald Trump were right, policing and immigration reform would be easy. We’d just round up all the immigrants, ship them away, and crime would disappear. But most immigrants, like most native-born Americans, are simply hardworking people trying to feed their families and help their kids succeed. Targeting them won’t end crime, but it will increase their alienation, making effective crime prevention and policing more difficult...
Friday, April 10, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.10.15
Teamsters
Teamsters: Long Beach Approves Construction Agreement Press-Telegram ...The City of Long Beach, California, has approved a new project labor agreement (PLA) for construction projects. This agreement puts into a motion an agreement to hire unionized labor for use on construction projects costing more than $500,000 each. Hundreds of construction workers in Southern California are represented by Teamsters Local 952, 166 and others...
OOIDA Files As Intervenor In Lawsuit Over Open Border To Mexican Trucks Land Line Magazine ...The granting of long-haul trucking authority to Mexico-domiciled motor carriers operating in the U.S. would adversely affect small-business truckers and highway safety, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association stated in a federal court filing on Tuesday, April 7. On behalf of the Association and its members, OOIDA filed a petition to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Global Labor & Trade
White House Reveals Desperate Lack Of Support For TPP Truthout ...The White House is having a hard time generating any momentum for fast-track trade authority for the TPP and other agreements. The Obama administration pushed to stop the Seattle City Council from opposing fast-track legislation and the TPP, but instead got a unanimous vote against them from a major port city that trades with Asia...
As Oil Money Flowed, Clinton Turned Back on Rights Abuses in Colombia: Report Common Dreams ...A new investigative look at the ties between big business interests in Colombia, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her family's charitable foundation are raising troubling questions about the role that corporate trade deals and big oil may have played in softening the powerful Democrat's position on human rights in the South American country...
One Lethal Loophole In The TPP CounterPunch ...After spending five long years negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Obama administration is now pushing for the fast-track authority from Congress that would make it easier to get the final deal approved. One serious problem is that the TPP is not likely to include rules on currency, which is leading lawmakers from both parties to consider opposing the agreement. They are right to be concerned...
Fast track on trade is wrong track for America (opinion) The Register-Guard ...The TPP is built upon the foundation of the failed NAFTA and Korea “free trade” agreements. It incorporates all their shortcomings, which directly led to the loss of 743,000 American jobs and put downward pressure on wages in a wide variety of occupations. The new provisions will make it easier for corporations to challenge our labor, environmental and consumer protection laws...
Are These Strikes a Sign of Growing Militancy Among China’s Workers? The Nation ...It seems that even if not directly in contact, workers are aligned in their pushback against global manufacturing’s “race to the bottom.” As the relentless pressure to suppress labor costs begins to finally bottom out, workers may find new leverage on the shop floor, across the city, and maybe even across borders...
Protesters march in France as nationwide strikes target schools, Eiffel Tower and airspace US News ...Thousands of protesters, many blowing whistles and waving union flags, marched through Paris and other French cities on Thursday in a day of nationwide strikes.The protesters aired an array of grievances against state funding cuts, planned increases in the retirement age, and business-friendly reforms that could make firing workers easier...
State & Living Wage Battles
Politicians Try To Union-Bust Their Way To The White House Newsweek ...Fiery labor icon Mother Jones cannot be resting peacefully beneath the crabgrass in the Union Miners’ Cemetery, not far from Springfield, Illinois, where Bruce Rauner, the recently elected Republican governor, has launched an unprecedented attack on organized labor. Rauner is challenging public and private unions on several fronts—even pushing the state’s municipalities to create “right-to-work zones”...
Officials Use Decrepit Bridges, Highways To Make Their Point Washington Post ...In about 150 other cities, mayors and other officials will do stand-ups in front of bridges that need replacement and congested highways to make the point. The mayors say they’ll descend on Washington on May 11 to lobby Congress, but the attention they get Thursday will be played out on television, in print and online to the public at large...
California Lawmakers Propose Expanding Benefits To Some Immigrants San Francisco Chronicle ...California legislative leaders took a bold step Tuesday toward protecting immigrants living in the country without documentation by backing legislation to offer Medi-Cal and other public services to a population they said they want to help move out of the shadows...
Unions Oppose Bill That Would Bar Managers From Joining Albany Times Union ...In a week full of bills that have Nevada unions crying foul, an Assembly committee has passed an amended version of a bill that would dramatically change collective bargaining rules for Nevada public employees...
Senate Democrats Are Getting Fed Up With The SEC's Delay On CEO Pay Rule Huffington Post ...Senate Democrats are losing patience with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the agency's failure to implement a new CEO pay rule. Democrats have been pushing the SEC for nearly five years to move forward with the rule, which Congress required the agency to develop under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. The rule would mandate that companies publicly disclose the ratio of their CEO's pay to the median earnings of workers at the firm...
Wall Street has gobbled up billions of New York City pension dollars Daily Kos ...Wall Street, not retired workers, has been getting the profits from New York City's pension funds, according to the city comptroller's office. Management fees have sucked up more than $2 billion over 10 years, virtually erasing gains for the funds that provide pensions for 715,000 city workers...
What corporate America should do for low-wage workers (opinion) Fortune ...On April 15, fast food, retail, and other low-wage workers are planning a wave of actions to demand a $15 minimum wage. This should be a wake-up call to the business community. It’s a moral disgrace that so many hard-working Americans have to scrape to get by on a minimum wage that is 25% below what it was in 1968...
U.S. Labor
Conservative Groups Rally Behind Gerawan Farming Capital & Main ...This year the Gerawans’ local state Assembly member, Republican Jim Patterson of Fresno, introduced Assembly Bill 1389. It would allow outside anti-union parties (such as Silvia Lopez) to inject themselves into mandatory mediation proceedings on the same basis as the union’s elected negotiating committee. Further, it would permit growers to decertify unions that “abandon” workers for three years...
Bank Workers Tell Their Bosses: Stop Making Us Sell Shady Products To Poor People Think Progress ...The newest line of criticism for the banking industry is coming from within, as a group of rank-and-file banking employees prepare to demand that their employer stop ordering them to use predatory sales tactics and start treating them as a valued piece of the workforce...
Miscellaneous
New Minutes Show Federal Reserve Sticking To A Gradual Approach On Rates Washington Post ...Members of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee were divided at the mid-March meeting over whether to raise interest rates in June or to wait a bit longer, but they remained united in their expectation that they would raise rates gradually...
Defenders of Wealth Blame Workers For Lousy Recovery, Not Policies Protecting Profits Alternet ...The Wall Street financed group Third Way and the Wall Street Journal gave us more proof for this proposition yesterday with a new explanation for the "jobless recovery." Their basic story is that the economy lost routine, relatively low-skilled jobs, but it now needs workers with high-skills for the new jobs that are being created...
Teamsters: Long Beach Approves Construction Agreement Press-Telegram ...The City of Long Beach, California, has approved a new project labor agreement (PLA) for construction projects. This agreement puts into a motion an agreement to hire unionized labor for use on construction projects costing more than $500,000 each. Hundreds of construction workers in Southern California are represented by Teamsters Local 952, 166 and others...
OOIDA Files As Intervenor In Lawsuit Over Open Border To Mexican Trucks Land Line Magazine ...The granting of long-haul trucking authority to Mexico-domiciled motor carriers operating in the U.S. would adversely affect small-business truckers and highway safety, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association stated in a federal court filing on Tuesday, April 7. On behalf of the Association and its members, OOIDA filed a petition to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Global Labor & Trade
White House Reveals Desperate Lack Of Support For TPP Truthout ...The White House is having a hard time generating any momentum for fast-track trade authority for the TPP and other agreements. The Obama administration pushed to stop the Seattle City Council from opposing fast-track legislation and the TPP, but instead got a unanimous vote against them from a major port city that trades with Asia...
As Oil Money Flowed, Clinton Turned Back on Rights Abuses in Colombia: Report Common Dreams ...A new investigative look at the ties between big business interests in Colombia, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her family's charitable foundation are raising troubling questions about the role that corporate trade deals and big oil may have played in softening the powerful Democrat's position on human rights in the South American country...
One Lethal Loophole In The TPP CounterPunch ...After spending five long years negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Obama administration is now pushing for the fast-track authority from Congress that would make it easier to get the final deal approved. One serious problem is that the TPP is not likely to include rules on currency, which is leading lawmakers from both parties to consider opposing the agreement. They are right to be concerned...
Fast track on trade is wrong track for America (opinion) The Register-Guard ...The TPP is built upon the foundation of the failed NAFTA and Korea “free trade” agreements. It incorporates all their shortcomings, which directly led to the loss of 743,000 American jobs and put downward pressure on wages in a wide variety of occupations. The new provisions will make it easier for corporations to challenge our labor, environmental and consumer protection laws...
Are These Strikes a Sign of Growing Militancy Among China’s Workers? The Nation ...It seems that even if not directly in contact, workers are aligned in their pushback against global manufacturing’s “race to the bottom.” As the relentless pressure to suppress labor costs begins to finally bottom out, workers may find new leverage on the shop floor, across the city, and maybe even across borders...
Protesters march in France as nationwide strikes target schools, Eiffel Tower and airspace US News ...Thousands of protesters, many blowing whistles and waving union flags, marched through Paris and other French cities on Thursday in a day of nationwide strikes.The protesters aired an array of grievances against state funding cuts, planned increases in the retirement age, and business-friendly reforms that could make firing workers easier...
Politicians Try To Union-Bust Their Way To The White House Newsweek ...Fiery labor icon Mother Jones cannot be resting peacefully beneath the crabgrass in the Union Miners’ Cemetery, not far from Springfield, Illinois, where Bruce Rauner, the recently elected Republican governor, has launched an unprecedented attack on organized labor. Rauner is challenging public and private unions on several fronts—even pushing the state’s municipalities to create “right-to-work zones”...
Officials Use Decrepit Bridges, Highways To Make Their Point Washington Post ...In about 150 other cities, mayors and other officials will do stand-ups in front of bridges that need replacement and congested highways to make the point. The mayors say they’ll descend on Washington on May 11 to lobby Congress, but the attention they get Thursday will be played out on television, in print and online to the public at large...
California Lawmakers Propose Expanding Benefits To Some Immigrants San Francisco Chronicle ...California legislative leaders took a bold step Tuesday toward protecting immigrants living in the country without documentation by backing legislation to offer Medi-Cal and other public services to a population they said they want to help move out of the shadows...
Unions Oppose Bill That Would Bar Managers From Joining Albany Times Union ...In a week full of bills that have Nevada unions crying foul, an Assembly committee has passed an amended version of a bill that would dramatically change collective bargaining rules for Nevada public employees...
Senate Democrats Are Getting Fed Up With The SEC's Delay On CEO Pay Rule Huffington Post ...Senate Democrats are losing patience with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the agency's failure to implement a new CEO pay rule. Democrats have been pushing the SEC for nearly five years to move forward with the rule, which Congress required the agency to develop under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. The rule would mandate that companies publicly disclose the ratio of their CEO's pay to the median earnings of workers at the firm...
Wall Street has gobbled up billions of New York City pension dollars Daily Kos ...Wall Street, not retired workers, has been getting the profits from New York City's pension funds, according to the city comptroller's office. Management fees have sucked up more than $2 billion over 10 years, virtually erasing gains for the funds that provide pensions for 715,000 city workers...
What corporate America should do for low-wage workers (opinion) Fortune ...On April 15, fast food, retail, and other low-wage workers are planning a wave of actions to demand a $15 minimum wage. This should be a wake-up call to the business community. It’s a moral disgrace that so many hard-working Americans have to scrape to get by on a minimum wage that is 25% below what it was in 1968...
U.S. Labor
Conservative Groups Rally Behind Gerawan Farming Capital & Main ...This year the Gerawans’ local state Assembly member, Republican Jim Patterson of Fresno, introduced Assembly Bill 1389. It would allow outside anti-union parties (such as Silvia Lopez) to inject themselves into mandatory mediation proceedings on the same basis as the union’s elected negotiating committee. Further, it would permit growers to decertify unions that “abandon” workers for three years...
Bank Workers Tell Their Bosses: Stop Making Us Sell Shady Products To Poor People Think Progress ...The newest line of criticism for the banking industry is coming from within, as a group of rank-and-file banking employees prepare to demand that their employer stop ordering them to use predatory sales tactics and start treating them as a valued piece of the workforce...
Miscellaneous
New Minutes Show Federal Reserve Sticking To A Gradual Approach On Rates Washington Post ...Members of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee were divided at the mid-March meeting over whether to raise interest rates in June or to wait a bit longer, but they remained united in their expectation that they would raise rates gradually...
Defenders of Wealth Blame Workers For Lousy Recovery, Not Policies Protecting Profits Alternet ...The Wall Street financed group Third Way and the Wall Street Journal gave us more proof for this proposition yesterday with a new explanation for the "jobless recovery." Their basic story is that the economy lost routine, relatively low-skilled jobs, but it now needs workers with high-skills for the new jobs that are being created...
Monday, February 2, 2015
We've had 20 years of broken promises from trade agreements. Let's not have any more.
Pretty soon the world will learn how badly the U.S. government broke its promises about the trade deal with South Korea.
There isn't any way the treaty known as KORUS lived up to its advance billing. We were promised it would increase U.S. exports from $10 billion to $11 billion.
After two years, U.S. exports to South Korea fell by $3.1 billion.
We were told it would support 70,000 American jobs from increased goods exports alone.
After two years, it cost 60,000 U.S. jobs, most of them good-paying jobs in manufacturing.
It is now extremely unlikely the United States recovered from those losses and met the promises made three years ago by KORUS supporters.
Same with NAFTA.
NAFTA was supposed to create 170,000 new jobs.
After nearly 20 years, NAFTA cost 1 million jobs.
Caterpillar, Inc. lobbied for NAFTA claiming it would stop the company from outsourcing jobs. By 2008, Caterpillar laid off 338 workers in Illinois and moved their jobs to Mexico, while 105 workers lost their jobs at Caterpillar's Georgia plant because of imports from Mexico.
How about Colombia? Remember how a trade deal with Colombia was going to end the violence that made it the worst country in the world to be a trade unionist?
That didn't happen either. The violence in Colombia got worse. There were four more union leaders murdered in 2013 than in 2012.
Remember CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement? It was supposed to raise the standard of living for Central Americans.
It didn't.
In El Salvador, unemployment increased by 71 percent. Unescorted children -- CAFTA kids -- created a crisis at the U.S. border as they tried to escape the violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Now we're hearing more promises about new trade deals: TPP, TTIP, TISA. The Economic Policy Institute issues a blunt warning:
Presidents of both parties from Clinton through Obama have sold free trade agreements on the basis of export growth. But free trade agreements impact a lot more than exports—they increase imports and encourage outsourcing, which means fewer American jobs.
We should stop negotiating new free trade agreements, and work to fix the ones we have. The United States needs to base its projections on the real impact of free trade agreements—including effects on exports and imports, outsourcing, wages, and employment.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
US government says labor standards still violated by Latin American free trade partners
The labor protections written into trade deals with Latin America aren't being enforced, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
We're not surprised.
Teamsters said three years ago that a so-called trade deal with Colombia wouldn't end assassinations of trade unionists. Sadly, we were right.
Three years ago, proponents of the treaty to empower corporations in Colombia came up with something called a 'Labor Action Plan' (LAP). It was theoretically supposed to end anti-union violence. What it really did was give some lawmakers a fig leaf to let them vote for the treaty and pretend they care for workers' rights.
Violence against trade unionists is increasing in Colombia. There were four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012.
Now the GAO says labor protections aren't being enforced in Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli at the Washington Office on Latin America reviewed the GAO report and concluded:
We're not surprised.
Teamsters said three years ago that a so-called trade deal with Colombia wouldn't end assassinations of trade unionists. Sadly, we were right.
 |
| Rallying against the murder of unionists. |
Three years ago, proponents of the treaty to empower corporations in Colombia came up with something called a 'Labor Action Plan' (LAP). It was theoretically supposed to end anti-union violence. What it really did was give some lawmakers a fig leaf to let them vote for the treaty and pretend they care for workers' rights.
Violence against trade unionists is increasing in Colombia. There were four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012.
Now the GAO says labor protections aren't being enforced in Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli at the Washington Office on Latin America reviewed the GAO report and concluded:
A main part of the GAO’s assessment addressed compliance with the U.S.-Colombia Labor Action Plan (LAP), whose implementation has been partial and incomplete.
Many challenges remain with the LAP. The GAO noted that the U.S. agencies responsible for enforcing labor provisions, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), both reported that Colombia has “made meaningful progress” with certain aspects of the plan, such as the creation of institutions and changes in legislation, including the establishment of criminal penalties for efforts to undermine collective bargaining rights. Unfortunately, the enforcement of these actions remains a serious issue.
The USTR admits that fines for labor abuses are not being collected, and that new forms of abusive contracting remain a problem as employers continue to find legal loopholes that allow them to avoid directly contracting workers. WOLA has received reports from unions and labor activists within the priority sectors of the LAP indicating that impunity remains the norm for labor killings, and that retaliation against unions and labor activists who attempt to defend their right to organize and collective bargain are rampant.
Colombia’s Ministry of Labor has done little to deal with blatant anti-unionization efforts by employers in the sugar, ports, oil palm, and energy sectors, and to address the mass firing and other reprisals against workers who organize. Further, the Ministry has done little to tackle racial discrimination and specific concerns faced by Afro-Colombian workers.
In examining the situation in selected countries with trade agreements, the GAO identified another major concern. Key players in partner countries, such as labor unions, have not filed complaints when their rights were violated due to a lack of understanding on how to do so. Since 2008, the DOL has only received four formal complaints alleging violations of FTA Labor Provisions in Latin American countries. Compounding the problem, the GAO found that DOL exceeded its timeframe for investigating and reporting on these claims by an average of almost nine months, prolonging negative labor conditions for workers. Only one of the four complaints has been resolved.Reason enough to oppose the new 'trade deals' coming down the pike.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Today's Teamsters News 11.24.14
Teamsters
Billion-dollar California salad company exploits undocumented migrants, say workers and Teamsters Guardian ...Taylor Farms, the world’s largest supplier of ‘healthy, wholesome’ cut vegetables and salad, denies claims it threatened to call immigration officials to keep workers on ‘temporary’ status, exposing them to dangerous working conditions...
Local labor organization to host awards banquet TH Online ...Dr. Liang Chee Wee and John Rosenthal (from Teamsters Local 120) will be named the labor and management recipients of the "Bob Bennett Recognition for Good Faith in Collective Bargaining" at the Dubuque Area Labor-Management Council's awards banquet Tuesday at the Grand River Center...
Trade
Scot Gov chiefs to analyse implications of TTIP Farmers Guardian ...As well as looking at agriculture, the environment and climate change, the discussions will also analyse the potential benefits for the Scottish economy of reducing trade barriers with the USA...
State Battles
Illinois Law to Fix $111 Billion Pension Deficit, Worst in U.S., Is Struck Down Bloomberg ...Illinois will have to find a new way to fix the worst pension shortfall in the U.S. after a judge struck down a 2013 law that included raising the retirement age...
Editorial: Indiana voting laws need quick, aggressive action Tribune Star ...Pretending to eradicate fraud, the ID laws in reality made it harder for two Democratic-leaning segments of the population, the poor and elderly, to vote. Voter ID laws, on average, decrease turnouts by 4 to 5 percentage points, according to Michael McDonald, the University of Florida political scientist overseeing the Elections Project...
War on Workers
Ex-Amazon Worker Plans Hunger Strike In Front Of Jeff Bezos’ Office To Protest Employee Treatment International Business Times ...A former Amazon product manager who says he was fired for voicing concerns about a software glitch is planning to starve himself in front of the CEO’s office to raise awareness about the treatment of Amazon employees...
Protesting GM Auto Workers Attacked by US Embassy Staff Real News ...US labor activists have filed a complaint with the Dept. of Justice and the SEC, charging the General Motors Company with a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, says Frank Hammer, retired General Motors employee and former president and chairman of Local 909 in Warren, Michigan...
Why Germans Work Fewer Hours But Produce More: A Study In Culture KNOTE ...Since the working day is focused on delivering efficient productivity, the off hours are truly off hours. Because of the focused atmosphere and formal environment of German businesses, employees don’t necessarily hang out together after work. Germans generally value a separation between private life and working life...
More Mass Graves in Mexican Search for Missing Students telesur ...Civilians and nongovernmental organizations in Mexico found four more mass graves Sunday, as part of the search efforts to locate the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College that went missing after being detained by Iguala police on the night of September 26...
Indian tea workers kill owner during pay talks New York Daily News ...The owner of the Sonali tea estate in West Bengal was dragged out of the payment talks beaten up and stabbed by a crowd, reports the BBC. Police say the owner had not paid workers for up to three months...
Worker dies while changing truck tire at Whiteford truck stop Monroe News ...A 69-year-old Toledo man collapsed and died while changing a truck tire at a Whiteford Township truck stop Wednesday night....
Billion-dollar California salad company exploits undocumented migrants, say workers and Teamsters Guardian ...Taylor Farms, the world’s largest supplier of ‘healthy, wholesome’ cut vegetables and salad, denies claims it threatened to call immigration officials to keep workers on ‘temporary’ status, exposing them to dangerous working conditions...
Local labor organization to host awards banquet TH Online ...Dr. Liang Chee Wee and John Rosenthal (from Teamsters Local 120) will be named the labor and management recipients of the "Bob Bennett Recognition for Good Faith in Collective Bargaining" at the Dubuque Area Labor-Management Council's awards banquet Tuesday at the Grand River Center...
Trade
Scot Gov chiefs to analyse implications of TTIP Farmers Guardian ...As well as looking at agriculture, the environment and climate change, the discussions will also analyse the potential benefits for the Scottish economy of reducing trade barriers with the USA...
State Battles
Illinois Law to Fix $111 Billion Pension Deficit, Worst in U.S., Is Struck Down Bloomberg ...Illinois will have to find a new way to fix the worst pension shortfall in the U.S. after a judge struck down a 2013 law that included raising the retirement age...
Editorial: Indiana voting laws need quick, aggressive action Tribune Star ...Pretending to eradicate fraud, the ID laws in reality made it harder for two Democratic-leaning segments of the population, the poor and elderly, to vote. Voter ID laws, on average, decrease turnouts by 4 to 5 percentage points, according to Michael McDonald, the University of Florida political scientist overseeing the Elections Project...
War on Workers
Ex-Amazon Worker Plans Hunger Strike In Front Of Jeff Bezos’ Office To Protest Employee Treatment International Business Times ...A former Amazon product manager who says he was fired for voicing concerns about a software glitch is planning to starve himself in front of the CEO’s office to raise awareness about the treatment of Amazon employees...
Protesting GM Auto Workers Attacked by US Embassy Staff Real News ...US labor activists have filed a complaint with the Dept. of Justice and the SEC, charging the General Motors Company with a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, says Frank Hammer, retired General Motors employee and former president and chairman of Local 909 in Warren, Michigan...
Why Germans Work Fewer Hours But Produce More: A Study In Culture KNOTE ...Since the working day is focused on delivering efficient productivity, the off hours are truly off hours. Because of the focused atmosphere and formal environment of German businesses, employees don’t necessarily hang out together after work. Germans generally value a separation between private life and working life...
More Mass Graves in Mexican Search for Missing Students telesur ...Civilians and nongovernmental organizations in Mexico found four more mass graves Sunday, as part of the search efforts to locate the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College that went missing after being detained by Iguala police on the night of September 26...
Indian tea workers kill owner during pay talks New York Daily News ...The owner of the Sonali tea estate in West Bengal was dragged out of the payment talks beaten up and stabbed by a crowd, reports the BBC. Police say the owner had not paid workers for up to three months...
Worker dies while changing truck tire at Whiteford truck stop Monroe News ...A 69-year-old Toledo man collapsed and died while changing a truck tire at a Whiteford Township truck stop Wednesday night....
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Colombia plan to strengthen workers' rights isn't working, witness says
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| Jorge Parra, John Walsh, and Manuel Ospina at the GM workers protest outside the US Embassy in Bogota. |
Colombia is the most dangerous place to be a trade unionist, and Brother Walsh works for justice in Latin America and the Caribbean. He is Portland regional vice president for the GCC/IBT 767M and serves on the board of directors of Witness for Peace, a grassroots nonprofits that tries to change U.S. policies and corporate practices that contribute to poverty and oppression.
Walsh visited the injured GM workers' protest at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. The workers had been there for more than 1,000 days, protesting GM's refusal to put them on light duty after they were injured. According to Worker's World,
Since the beginning of the occupation, the workers have demanded that GM fulfill its legal obligation to place them in jobs they can perform despite their injuries. If they cannot work, GM is obligated to provide them with lifetime income. GM has gotten around the law, the workers say, by forging medical records to make the injuries appear not work-related.The injured workers have held hunger strikes from time to time. Recently, Brother Jorge Parra (pictured above) sewed his lips shut to show his commitment to the cause.
Brother Walsh shared his observations about Colombia with us:
“In Colombia, starting a union is easy, but keeping one going is difficult – it’s the reverse of the U.S.”
So says Jorge Eliécer Caicedo, leader of a local in the Colombian agricultural union Sintrainagro. Since he’s had the experience of visiting the U.S., where he spent time with Los Angeles-area Teamsters, he has a firsthand sense of the labor movement here.
An example of what he’s talking about in Colombia is the sugar cane refinery La Cabaña, where in 2012 Sintrainagro organized 600 workers, and 115 of them were quickly fired; another 100 were on the verge of losing their jobs when we met with Sintrainagro in May.
This happens because workers lack permanent employment. Companies hire for a limited time, and when that time is up, union members don’t get rehired. We heard the same story from workers with another cane- cutters union, Sintracatorce, and from the women of the flower workers union, Untraflores, whose product gets sold mostly in the United States.
The abuse is not limited to work in the fields. Workers on the docks, at Coca-Cola, in the transit system, in health care and for the phone company all told us the same thing. The failure to hire on a permanent basis violates the US-Colombia Labor Action Plan. The plan was supposed to guarantee union rights before the two countries implemented a free trade agreement, but enforcement is feeble. Even when the Colombian Ministry of Labor assesses fines for violations, there is no guarantee the fine will actually be collected, because that is the responsibility of a different agency of the Colombian government.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Getting the fig leaf ready for fast-tracking TPP
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| A garment factory in VIetnam. |
It's a crime in Vietnam to try to form a union, according to a report by the Workers' Rights Consortium. Child slavery is tolerated, pregnant women are fired and wages are routinely stolen.
The U.S. Trade Representative, who's negotiating the TPP, is getting a fig leaf ready to disguise Vietnam's labor record, according to Inside U.S. Trade:
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is actively negotiating with Vietnamese officials an action plan to strengthen labor rights in Vietnam in the context of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and Ways and Means Democratic staff are providing input to this process along with a group of like-minded House Democratic offices, according to congressional aides.A similar trick was used to get the Colombia 'trade' deal passed. It was a fig leaf that allowed members of Congress to vote for the Colombia 'trade' deal. A 'Labor Action Plan' was drawn up, along with promises that Colombia would do better.
Three years later, Colombia is still the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist -- just as the Teamsters predicted.
As we reported in April, violence against trade unionists is increasing in Colombia. There were four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012. Public Citizen tells us:
In the three years since the LAP was unveiled, 73 Colombian unionists have been murdered ... Colombia’s workers have also endured 31 murder attempts and 953 death threats since the LAP was announced. These crimes have not resulted in any captures, trials, or convictions. The overall impunity rate for unionist murders from 1977 through the present is 87%, while impunity for anti-union death threats stands at 99.9%.
Colombia’s unions and the National Union School conclude that the decision to sign the LAP “was taken by the Colombian government as a step toward unfreezing the FTA with the United States rather than as an institutional mechanism to promote real protection of the labor and union rights that Colombian workers have lacked for so long.”Let's not get fooled again.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.03.14
Teamster News
Pepsi Workers Hit Picket Line WIBC ...Teamsters Local 135 Spokesman Jeff Combs says they're officially on strike. They picketed outside the Pepsi distribution facility on (Indianapolis') far northwest side. He says their last contract expired Saturday...
Teamsters Win Executive Pay Reform At Gannett teamster.org ...Yesterday, a historic executive pay reform proposal from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund became the first of its kind to receive a majority of the shares cast at a publically-traded company's annual meeting of shareholders...
Trade
US Senators Voice Doubts On Obama Trade Agenda ABC News ...Lawmakers provided a reality check Thursday to the Obama administration's optimism over its trade agenda following some progress in key negotiations with Japan...
In Colombia, Free Trade Brings More Poverty and More Killings truthout ..."In 2013, 26 trade unionists were murdered, four more than in 2012," according to the AFL-CIO. "Attempted murders also increased, from seven to 13...
State Battles
Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S. Think Progress ...Seattle will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour over the coming years under a deal brokered by Mayor Ed Murray and blessed by labor and business groups alike...
California's Bid To Tax Companies Who Don't Share The Wealth Washington Post ...Last week, a committee of California's Senate ... recommended to the full Senate a bill that would cut the state’s taxes on companies with lower ratios between their chief executives’ pay and the pay of their median workers, and raise taxes on companies with the kind of insanely high gap between chief executive and median worker pay that has become the norm in American business...
Conservative ALEC Gathering In Kansas City Will Work On Policy And Power Kansas City Star ...When U.S. Senate Republicans blocked action this week on a bill to raise the federal minimum wage, they echoed a longstanding anti-worker, pro-business campaign by the American Legislative Exchange Council. The council, known widely as ALEC, promotes a free-market, limited-government agenda...
War On Workers
Look Who The Folks Who Took Down ACORN Are Targeting Now The Nation ...Right-wing operatives with links to big retailers going after worker centers like the Restaurant Opportunities Center....
Bankers Learn What Happens In Vegas, Can Land Back In D.C. Bloomberg Businessweek ...While the union’s ranks of maids, dishwashers, cooks and cocktail servers may not pay much attention to financial regulation, its researchers have dug deep into the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to pressure ...(Deutsche Bank AG) to the bargaining table....
Drone Operator Fined After Almost Hitting NYC Pedestrian Bloomberg ...Two weeks after a judge overturned the first U.S. fine for recklessly flying a drone, the government tested its authority again by citing the operator of an unmanned helicopter that crash-landed 20 feet from a pedestrian in New York City...
Everyone is under surveillance now, says whistleblower Edward Snowden The Guardiain ...the US government has programs in place to spy on hundreds of millions of people’s emails, social networking posts, online chat histories, browsing histories, telephone records, telephone calls and texts – “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet”, in the words of one leaked document...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Creates 288,000 Jobs In April, Unemployment Falls to 6.3% Huffington Post ...The U.S. Economy added 288,000 jobs in April as the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday...
The Jobs Report Isn’t as Good as It Looks New York Times ...The number of people in the labor force fell by a whopping 806,000, wiping out the February and March gains and a bit of January as well…. Both hours worked and wages were unchanged...
Buildings collapse on K Street in Northwest Washington Washington Post ...One building completely collapsed and two others, including an adult club, were damaged Friday afternoon near Mount Vernon Square, injuring one person and snarling rush-hour traffic as firefighters investigated and searched the debris...
Pepsi Workers Hit Picket Line WIBC ...Teamsters Local 135 Spokesman Jeff Combs says they're officially on strike. They picketed outside the Pepsi distribution facility on (Indianapolis') far northwest side. He says their last contract expired Saturday...
Teamsters Win Executive Pay Reform At Gannett teamster.org ...Yesterday, a historic executive pay reform proposal from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund became the first of its kind to receive a majority of the shares cast at a publically-traded company's annual meeting of shareholders...
Trade
US Senators Voice Doubts On Obama Trade Agenda ABC News ...Lawmakers provided a reality check Thursday to the Obama administration's optimism over its trade agenda following some progress in key negotiations with Japan...
In Colombia, Free Trade Brings More Poverty and More Killings truthout ..."In 2013, 26 trade unionists were murdered, four more than in 2012," according to the AFL-CIO. "Attempted murders also increased, from seven to 13...
State Battles
Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S. Think Progress ...Seattle will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour over the coming years under a deal brokered by Mayor Ed Murray and blessed by labor and business groups alike...
California's Bid To Tax Companies Who Don't Share The Wealth Washington Post ...Last week, a committee of California's Senate ... recommended to the full Senate a bill that would cut the state’s taxes on companies with lower ratios between their chief executives’ pay and the pay of their median workers, and raise taxes on companies with the kind of insanely high gap between chief executive and median worker pay that has become the norm in American business...
Conservative ALEC Gathering In Kansas City Will Work On Policy And Power Kansas City Star ...When U.S. Senate Republicans blocked action this week on a bill to raise the federal minimum wage, they echoed a longstanding anti-worker, pro-business campaign by the American Legislative Exchange Council. The council, known widely as ALEC, promotes a free-market, limited-government agenda...
War On Workers
Look Who The Folks Who Took Down ACORN Are Targeting Now The Nation ...Right-wing operatives with links to big retailers going after worker centers like the Restaurant Opportunities Center....
Bankers Learn What Happens In Vegas, Can Land Back In D.C. Bloomberg Businessweek ...While the union’s ranks of maids, dishwashers, cooks and cocktail servers may not pay much attention to financial regulation, its researchers have dug deep into the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to pressure ...(Deutsche Bank AG) to the bargaining table....
Drone Operator Fined After Almost Hitting NYC Pedestrian Bloomberg ...Two weeks after a judge overturned the first U.S. fine for recklessly flying a drone, the government tested its authority again by citing the operator of an unmanned helicopter that crash-landed 20 feet from a pedestrian in New York City...
Everyone is under surveillance now, says whistleblower Edward Snowden The Guardiain ...the US government has programs in place to spy on hundreds of millions of people’s emails, social networking posts, online chat histories, browsing histories, telephone records, telephone calls and texts – “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet”, in the words of one leaked document...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Creates 288,000 Jobs In April, Unemployment Falls to 6.3% Huffington Post ...The U.S. Economy added 288,000 jobs in April as the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday...
The Jobs Report Isn’t as Good as It Looks New York Times ...The number of people in the labor force fell by a whopping 806,000, wiping out the February and March gains and a bit of January as well…. Both hours worked and wages were unchanged...
Buildings collapse on K Street in Northwest Washington Washington Post ...One building completely collapsed and two others, including an adult club, were damaged Friday afternoon near Mount Vernon Square, injuring one person and snarling rush-hour traffic as firefighters investigated and searched the debris...
Monday, April 14, 2014
A plea for help for Colombian port truck drivers
 |
| Teamsters supporting striking port drivers in LA |
Brother John Walsh, Portland regional vice president for the GCC/IBT 767M, works for justice in Latin American and the Caribbean. He is on the board of directors of Witness for Peace, a grassroots nonprofits that tries to change U.S. policies and corporate practices that contribute to poverty and oppression.
We received a message from Brother Walsh recently, which we'd like to share:
Buenaventura, Colombia’s biggest port, reveals in stark terms what’s wrong with free trade. The people of the city are afflicted by poverty and violence, while thriving commerce puts big money in the hands of an economic and political oligarchy. But the largely Afro-Colombian population is fighting back. Having already carried out several protests, they plan a civic strike in May. Workers, especially the portworkers’ union, are actively engaged in building a movement for economic and social justice.
The port truck drivers are as far as I know unorganized and exploited. Virtually all of the trade passing through Buenaventura travels by truck over the one road between the interior of Colombia and the city, creating a great deal of potential leverage.
I’m working with Witness for Peace, where I’m a volunteer member of the national board, to pull together on short notice a delegation to accompany the May civic strike in Buenaventura.
We plan to meet with sugar cane cutters and injured GM workers as well. I’m wondering if Teamsters connected with organizing port truck drivers, or focused on stopping the TPP, would be interested - though Colombia is not presently one of the TPP countries, it could become one, and in any case the failures of the US-Colombia Labor Action Plan are a cautionary tale for future trade agreements.Specific information about the delegation is here.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.08.2014
Teamster News
Teamsters seek contract at Corona food warehouse Press-Enterprise ...Union leaders in Southern California are asking U.S. Foods, the second-largest food supplier in the country and the subject of a huge proposed merger deal, to begin contract negotiations with workers at a Corona distribution center...
Trade
What The Heck Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership And Why Should I Be Concerned? Consumerist ...It's 2014, and we're living in an increasingly globalized economy. International trade has been ramping up for centuries and a carefully plotted web of agreements keeps goods, services and money moving around the world...
Colombia's Anti-Union Violence Remains Rampant after Three Years of the FTA-Enabling Labor Action Plan Public Citizen ... 73 Colombian unionists have been murdered, according to a report released today by Colombia’s National Union School, a group recognized by the LAP as an authoritative source of monitoring data. There were more four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012...
Congress needs to act on China’s unfair trade practices Indianapolis Star ...America ran a $456 billion trade deficit in 2013, $318 billion of which came from trade with China alone. This doesn’t happen naturally. China illegally subsidizes for its state-run businesses to encourage these deficits. And it manipulates its currency to make its goods cheaper and competing American goods more expensive...
U.S. Expresses Support For Taiwan's TPP Bid Radio Taiwan International ...Taiwan's foreign ministry says the United States has openly expressed its support for Taiwan's bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
More Lawmakers Pushing Identical Bills Written By National Groups AZ Central ...Arizona lawmakers introduced six bills this session seeking a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to impose new fiscal restraints on the federal government...
Exploited Temp Workers May Finally Get Some Relief Salon ...California could become one of the first states in the nation to hold companies legally responsible for wage and safety violations by their subcontractors and temp agencies if a bill proposed Friday becomes law...
War on Workers
More Than 20 Striking Students Arrested, Belying University of California’s Era of ‘Labor Peace’ In These Times ...The work stoppage, staged in protest of past alleged attempts by UC to intimidate graduate workers for labor organizing, was quickly met with what workers say was a further attempt at intimidation: The arrest of 20 students at UC Santa Cruz who were picketing early Wednesday morning...
Paid-For Legislature Takes Teacher Tenure From Thousands In Kansas firedoglake ...Weekend, overnight exploits by purchased ideologues and rank amateurs in the Kansas State legislature stripped KS public school teachers of due process rights...
I Looked Up The Fastest-Growing Jobs In America, And Boy Was It Depressing Business Insider ...secretaries, food workers, and caretakers. The median salary for the fastest-growing raw-numbers occupations, shown in the table below, is $30,000...
Hot Air Hisses Out Of Housing Bubble 2.0: Even Two Middle-Class Incomes Aren’t Enough Anymore To Buy A Median Home Testosterone Pit ...in 40 large cities, only 10% of the homes are affordable on one median salary … and … “just 41% of homes currently for sale across 40 US cities are affordable for a family earning two median incomes…”
The Money Against The Minimum Wage Open Secrets ...The minimum wage debate is back on Capitol Hill, and the usual suspects -- trade groups in industries that hire a lot of low-wage workers …have laid out huge amounts of money … giving more than $5.5 million to Congress over the past two election cycles and spending more than $91 million on lobbying just last year...
If the New York Stock Exchange is a “High-Frequency Brothel” then the SEC is its Pimp Wall Street on Parade ...Not only are the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq allowing high frequency traders to co-locate their computers next to the main computers of the exchanges to gain a speed advantage over other customers at a monthly cost that only the very rich can afford to pay but they’re now tacking on infrastructure charges that price everyone out of efficient use of the exchanges except the very top tier of trading firms...
All Work And No Pay Moyers & Company ...You've heard about the wave of recent protests calling on fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King to raise wages for their employees, who are forced to live on next to nothing. But did you know that many workers in sit-down restaurants may be faring even worse?...
Corker Must Come Clean On The Volkswagon Union Election The Hill ...Sen. Bob Corker's problems concerning his intrusion in February's union election at Volkswagon in Chattanooga just got more serious. Confidential e-mails obtained this week by a Nashville television station...
Labor Secretary Will "Respect" NLRB Ruling Granting Northwestern Football Players Right To Unionize Des Moines Register ...U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez will respect the decision by the National Labor Relations Board last week that Northwestern football players have the right to unionize, he said at a news conference in Des Moines Saturday...
Miscelleneous
Young People Understand Unions Can Solve Problems U.S. News and World Report ...Last week, the National Labor Relations Board's Chicago Regional Director issued a notable finding: football players at Northwestern University are employees of the university for purposes of federal labor law...
Teamsters seek contract at Corona food warehouse Press-Enterprise ...Union leaders in Southern California are asking U.S. Foods, the second-largest food supplier in the country and the subject of a huge proposed merger deal, to begin contract negotiations with workers at a Corona distribution center...
Trade
What The Heck Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership And Why Should I Be Concerned? Consumerist ...It's 2014, and we're living in an increasingly globalized economy. International trade has been ramping up for centuries and a carefully plotted web of agreements keeps goods, services and money moving around the world...
Colombia's Anti-Union Violence Remains Rampant after Three Years of the FTA-Enabling Labor Action Plan Public Citizen ... 73 Colombian unionists have been murdered, according to a report released today by Colombia’s National Union School, a group recognized by the LAP as an authoritative source of monitoring data. There were more four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012...
Congress needs to act on China’s unfair trade practices Indianapolis Star ...America ran a $456 billion trade deficit in 2013, $318 billion of which came from trade with China alone. This doesn’t happen naturally. China illegally subsidizes for its state-run businesses to encourage these deficits. And it manipulates its currency to make its goods cheaper and competing American goods more expensive...
U.S. Expresses Support For Taiwan's TPP Bid Radio Taiwan International ...Taiwan's foreign ministry says the United States has openly expressed its support for Taiwan's bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
More Lawmakers Pushing Identical Bills Written By National Groups AZ Central ...Arizona lawmakers introduced six bills this session seeking a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to impose new fiscal restraints on the federal government...
Exploited Temp Workers May Finally Get Some Relief Salon ...California could become one of the first states in the nation to hold companies legally responsible for wage and safety violations by their subcontractors and temp agencies if a bill proposed Friday becomes law...
War on Workers
More Than 20 Striking Students Arrested, Belying University of California’s Era of ‘Labor Peace’ In These Times ...The work stoppage, staged in protest of past alleged attempts by UC to intimidate graduate workers for labor organizing, was quickly met with what workers say was a further attempt at intimidation: The arrest of 20 students at UC Santa Cruz who were picketing early Wednesday morning...
Paid-For Legislature Takes Teacher Tenure From Thousands In Kansas firedoglake ...Weekend, overnight exploits by purchased ideologues and rank amateurs in the Kansas State legislature stripped KS public school teachers of due process rights...
I Looked Up The Fastest-Growing Jobs In America, And Boy Was It Depressing Business Insider ...secretaries, food workers, and caretakers. The median salary for the fastest-growing raw-numbers occupations, shown in the table below, is $30,000...
Hot Air Hisses Out Of Housing Bubble 2.0: Even Two Middle-Class Incomes Aren’t Enough Anymore To Buy A Median Home Testosterone Pit ...in 40 large cities, only 10% of the homes are affordable on one median salary … and … “just 41% of homes currently for sale across 40 US cities are affordable for a family earning two median incomes…”
The Money Against The Minimum Wage Open Secrets ...The minimum wage debate is back on Capitol Hill, and the usual suspects -- trade groups in industries that hire a lot of low-wage workers …have laid out huge amounts of money … giving more than $5.5 million to Congress over the past two election cycles and spending more than $91 million on lobbying just last year...
If the New York Stock Exchange is a “High-Frequency Brothel” then the SEC is its Pimp Wall Street on Parade ...Not only are the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq allowing high frequency traders to co-locate their computers next to the main computers of the exchanges to gain a speed advantage over other customers at a monthly cost that only the very rich can afford to pay but they’re now tacking on infrastructure charges that price everyone out of efficient use of the exchanges except the very top tier of trading firms...
All Work And No Pay Moyers & Company ...You've heard about the wave of recent protests calling on fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King to raise wages for their employees, who are forced to live on next to nothing. But did you know that many workers in sit-down restaurants may be faring even worse?...
Corker Must Come Clean On The Volkswagon Union Election The Hill ...Sen. Bob Corker's problems concerning his intrusion in February's union election at Volkswagon in Chattanooga just got more serious. Confidential e-mails obtained this week by a Nashville television station...
Labor Secretary Will "Respect" NLRB Ruling Granting Northwestern Football Players Right To Unionize Des Moines Register ...U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez will respect the decision by the National Labor Relations Board last week that Northwestern football players have the right to unionize, he said at a news conference in Des Moines Saturday...
Miscelleneous
Young People Understand Unions Can Solve Problems U.S. News and World Report ...Last week, the National Labor Relations Board's Chicago Regional Director issued a notable finding: football players at Northwestern University are employees of the university for purposes of federal labor law...
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Today's Teamster News 03.29.14
Teamster News
Truckers at Pratt Logistics in Lower Macungie Unioninze The Morning Call ...Truck drivers at a Lower Macungie cardboard box-maker now are represented by the Teamsters after a union vote taken nearly two years ago was unsealed and certified earlier this month...
CCTA: Contract Proposal from Drivers is Next Step Toward Compromise Burlington Free Press ...A contract proposal was offered Wednesday evening by Teamster bus drivers to the Chittenden County Transportation Authority management as the next installment in the contract negotiation saga...
20 Teamsters jobs in the balance with possible new sanitation contract Cumberland Times-News ...Bids for a new three-year garbage collection contract with the city of Cumberland are under review with the future of 20 city sanitation workers with Teamsters Local 453 hanging in the balance...
NetJets Unions Form Coalition, Start Picketing Campaign AIN Online ...The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 284 executive boards launched the NetJets Union Coalition last week...
Trade
Hundreds protest against trade deal msn.nz ...Hundreds attended protest rallies across the country in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal. About 15 rallies were held from 1pm on Saturday in cities and towns from Invercargill to Hokianga...
NZNO Joining Rally Against TPP Voxy ...The New Zealand Nurses Organization is joining the international rally against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement...
U.S. Trade Deficits Have Grown More Than 440% with FTA Countries, but Declined 16% with Non-FTA Countries Public Citizen ...The aggregate U.S. goods trade deficit with Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners is more than five times as high as before the deals went into effect...
Labor Crisis Begets Violence on Colombia’s Pacific Coast In These Times ...The Pacific port city of Buenaventura handles around two-thirds of the country’s maritime foreign trade and connects Colombia to 300 ports around the world. But Buenaventura is better known as an epicenter of narco-paramilitary activity, making it one of Colombia’s many sites of rampant poverty and violence, death and hopelessness...
State Battles
St. Louis Religious Leaders Declare Opposition To 'Right-To-Work' Law St. Louis Public Radio ...Top religious leaders in St. Louis — led by Catholic Archbishop Robert J. Carlson — announced Friday that they oppose legislative efforts to pass “right-to-work’’ measures that would restrict labor rights...
Missouri Senate endorses unemployment change Associated Press ...The amount of time Missourians can receive unemployment benefits would be tied to the state's jobless rate under legislation endorsed by the state Senate on Wednesday...
Leah Vukmir agrees to turn over ALEC documents to settle open records lawsuit Wisconsin State Journal ...The agreement comes as part of a lawsuit settlement between Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, and the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal advocacy group, over documents it sought related to the American Legislative Exchange Council. It includes $15,000 in payments from the state on behalf of Vukmir...
Good news for Connecticut’s governor: He got the highest state minimum wage Washington Post ...Connecticut’s Gov. Dan Malloy can breathe a little easier: he just landed the minimum wage hike he’s been pushing so hard for. The new bill will raise the minimum wage by 2017 to $10.10, the highest among any state...
Illinois House gets millionaire tax plan moving Daily Herald ...Illinois lawmakers chose to advance an additional income tax on millionaires over a broader shift of taxes toward the wealthy Thursday, setting the tone for months of debate over how much people should pay to help the state stabilize its finances...
NY AG Settles Labor Violations with 6 Domino's Franchisees Blue MauMau ...New York's Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced settlements with six Domino’s franchisees over labor violations, requiring them to pay $448,000 in restitution to 750 employees...
FedEx loses another driver misclassification case, in Maine People's World ...FedEx, notorious for misclassifying its drivers as "independent contractors" - barring them from labor law protection and avoiding paying Social Security, Medicare and workers' comp taxes, lost another misclassification case, in Maine...
War on Workers
U.S. Government Charges Kellogg With Serious Violations of Federal Law bctgm.org ...The U.S. government charged the Kellogg Company with multiple and serious violations of federal law stemming from its October 22, 2013 lockout of more than 220 workers at the company's Memphis cereal production facility...
Class-action lawsuit seeks back pay for cabdrivers Chicago Sun-Times ...Chicago taxicab companies are “misclassifying” their drivers as independent contractors and should consider them employees eligible for overtime and the state’s $8.25-an-hour minimum wage, a federal class-action lawsuit claimed Wednesday...
Walmart Gets More Heat for Low Pay AOL Jobs ...The pressure on Walmart is growing from within, as workers tell behind-the-scenes tales of overwork and underpayment at America's largest employer. But there's another, potentially more damaging source of growing criticism: the media, including the financial media that covers events from the investor's perspective...
SEPTA union boss Willie Brown: We're not afraid to strike Philadelphia Inquirer ...The chances of a transit strike against SEPTA are "very good," union president Willie Brown said Wednesday...
The troubling reason Americans are so depressed AlterNet ...Our unhappiness can be traced to feelings of "learned helplessness" -- and corporations, in part, may be to blame...
Michigan State Univ. should end union organizing seminars, say anti-union lawmakers and builders Michigan Live ...The Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan is demanding that Michigan State University cancel its Building Trades Academy program on the grounds that it encourages "organizing in non-union construction companies"...
Greek unions to hold general strike on April 9 to protest latest austerity measures Associated Press ...Greece's largest public sector union says it will join a nationwide general strike April 9 to protest austerity measures. The move means that the walkout will affect all private and public sector services...
Miscellaneous
Social Security launches expedited process for Veterans’ disability claims Belvoir Eagle
Social Security claims from veterans with a Veterans Affairs Department disability compensation rating of 100 percent permanent and total have a new process that will treat their applications as high priority and issue expedited decisions...
Truckers at Pratt Logistics in Lower Macungie Unioninze The Morning Call ...Truck drivers at a Lower Macungie cardboard box-maker now are represented by the Teamsters after a union vote taken nearly two years ago was unsealed and certified earlier this month...
CCTA: Contract Proposal from Drivers is Next Step Toward Compromise Burlington Free Press ...A contract proposal was offered Wednesday evening by Teamster bus drivers to the Chittenden County Transportation Authority management as the next installment in the contract negotiation saga...
20 Teamsters jobs in the balance with possible new sanitation contract Cumberland Times-News ...Bids for a new three-year garbage collection contract with the city of Cumberland are under review with the future of 20 city sanitation workers with Teamsters Local 453 hanging in the balance...
NetJets Unions Form Coalition, Start Picketing Campaign AIN Online ...The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 284 executive boards launched the NetJets Union Coalition last week...
Trade
Hundreds protest against trade deal msn.nz ...Hundreds attended protest rallies across the country in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal. About 15 rallies were held from 1pm on Saturday in cities and towns from Invercargill to Hokianga...
NZNO Joining Rally Against TPP Voxy ...The New Zealand Nurses Organization is joining the international rally against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement...
U.S. Trade Deficits Have Grown More Than 440% with FTA Countries, but Declined 16% with Non-FTA Countries Public Citizen ...The aggregate U.S. goods trade deficit with Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners is more than five times as high as before the deals went into effect...
Labor Crisis Begets Violence on Colombia’s Pacific Coast In These Times ...The Pacific port city of Buenaventura handles around two-thirds of the country’s maritime foreign trade and connects Colombia to 300 ports around the world. But Buenaventura is better known as an epicenter of narco-paramilitary activity, making it one of Colombia’s many sites of rampant poverty and violence, death and hopelessness...
State Battles
St. Louis Religious Leaders Declare Opposition To 'Right-To-Work' Law St. Louis Public Radio ...Top religious leaders in St. Louis — led by Catholic Archbishop Robert J. Carlson — announced Friday that they oppose legislative efforts to pass “right-to-work’’ measures that would restrict labor rights...
Missouri Senate endorses unemployment change Associated Press ...The amount of time Missourians can receive unemployment benefits would be tied to the state's jobless rate under legislation endorsed by the state Senate on Wednesday...
Leah Vukmir agrees to turn over ALEC documents to settle open records lawsuit Wisconsin State Journal ...The agreement comes as part of a lawsuit settlement between Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, and the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal advocacy group, over documents it sought related to the American Legislative Exchange Council. It includes $15,000 in payments from the state on behalf of Vukmir...
Good news for Connecticut’s governor: He got the highest state minimum wage Washington Post ...Connecticut’s Gov. Dan Malloy can breathe a little easier: he just landed the minimum wage hike he’s been pushing so hard for. The new bill will raise the minimum wage by 2017 to $10.10, the highest among any state...
Illinois House gets millionaire tax plan moving Daily Herald ...Illinois lawmakers chose to advance an additional income tax on millionaires over a broader shift of taxes toward the wealthy Thursday, setting the tone for months of debate over how much people should pay to help the state stabilize its finances...
NY AG Settles Labor Violations with 6 Domino's Franchisees Blue MauMau ...New York's Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced settlements with six Domino’s franchisees over labor violations, requiring them to pay $448,000 in restitution to 750 employees...
FedEx loses another driver misclassification case, in Maine People's World ...FedEx, notorious for misclassifying its drivers as "independent contractors" - barring them from labor law protection and avoiding paying Social Security, Medicare and workers' comp taxes, lost another misclassification case, in Maine...
War on Workers
U.S. Government Charges Kellogg With Serious Violations of Federal Law bctgm.org ...The U.S. government charged the Kellogg Company with multiple and serious violations of federal law stemming from its October 22, 2013 lockout of more than 220 workers at the company's Memphis cereal production facility...
Class-action lawsuit seeks back pay for cabdrivers Chicago Sun-Times ...Chicago taxicab companies are “misclassifying” their drivers as independent contractors and should consider them employees eligible for overtime and the state’s $8.25-an-hour minimum wage, a federal class-action lawsuit claimed Wednesday...
Walmart Gets More Heat for Low Pay AOL Jobs ...The pressure on Walmart is growing from within, as workers tell behind-the-scenes tales of overwork and underpayment at America's largest employer. But there's another, potentially more damaging source of growing criticism: the media, including the financial media that covers events from the investor's perspective...
SEPTA union boss Willie Brown: We're not afraid to strike Philadelphia Inquirer ...The chances of a transit strike against SEPTA are "very good," union president Willie Brown said Wednesday...
The troubling reason Americans are so depressed AlterNet ...Our unhappiness can be traced to feelings of "learned helplessness" -- and corporations, in part, may be to blame...
Michigan State Univ. should end union organizing seminars, say anti-union lawmakers and builders Michigan Live ...The Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan is demanding that Michigan State University cancel its Building Trades Academy program on the grounds that it encourages "organizing in non-union construction companies"...
Greek unions to hold general strike on April 9 to protest latest austerity measures Associated Press ...Greece's largest public sector union says it will join a nationwide general strike April 9 to protest austerity measures. The move means that the walkout will affect all private and public sector services...
Miscellaneous
Social Security launches expedited process for Veterans’ disability claims Belvoir Eagle
Social Security claims from veterans with a Veterans Affairs Department disability compensation rating of 100 percent permanent and total have a new process that will treat their applications as high priority and issue expedited decisions...
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