Today's Teamster News 09.24.14

Teamster News
Tentative agreement reached with Fred Meyer over grocery contract  Teamsters Local 117   ...Teamsters Local 117 has achieved a fully-recommended tentative agreement with Fred Meyer over a contract involving 388 warehouse workers employed at the company’s grocery distribution center in Puyallup.  The Union and the Company reached the agreement late Monday night with the assistance of a federal mediator...
U.S. FTC mulling antitrust lawsuit against Sysco, US Foods deal  Reuters   ...The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering a possible antitrust lawsuit against Sysco Corp's $3.5 billion deal to buy debt-ridden US Foods from private equity, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday citing people with knowledge of the matter...
Teamsters ratify new RTC bus contract  Reno Gazette-Journal   ...The contract is retroactive to July 1 and "includes substantial improvements to employee wages and benefits," the Teamsters said in a statement...
NUC: Picketers Express Outrage At Buffett's NetJets  MarketWatch   ...Hundreds of picketers charged Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., with attacking the livelihoods of middle class families. Unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers picketed at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC)...
Shareholder Group Sues Darden Over Red Lobster Sale  Orlando Sentinel   ...Darden Restaurants is facing a second lawsuit from a Teamsters shareholder group in Connecticut over the controversial sale of Red Lobster in July...
Oxford Concludes Contract With Teamsters  South Chester County Weeklies   ...Negotiations between the Oxford Area School District and the Teamsters Local Union No. 384 for service and support staff have come to a conclusion with a new contract. The new agreement, approved by the school board at its Sept. 16 meeting, runs from the end of the last contract on July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2016...
Trade
France’s Latest Calls For TTIP Transparency Fall On Deaf Ears  EurActiv   ...Matthias Fekl, the new French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, has joined his predecessors in calling for the publication of the trade negotiation mandate between the EU and the United States. The continued lack of transparency in the negotiations could lead to the failure of TTIP...
State Battles
Facebook set to join rush to abandon rightwing lobby group Alec  Guardian   ...Alec has attracted global criticism for its opposition to legislation that would curb carbon emissions, anti-union policies and championing of extreme rightwing policies at the state level...
Council To Vote On $15.37 Minimum Wage For Workers At Big Hotels  Los Angeles Times   ...Labor groups are rallying behind the plan now before lawmakers, saying that it could pull hotel workers' families out of poverty and inject more spending into the local economy. Several council members favor the increase, including Councilman Curren Price, who said it would make Los Angeles "a progressive leader" for the nation...
Moral Mondays Movement Spreads To Alabama  San Francisco Chronicle   ...The Moral Mondays movement has spread to Alabama, focusing on a Republican governor and Legislature just as the founders of the protests have done in North Carolina...
GOP’s vote-suppressing militia: Why Scott Walker’s thugs are getting violent  Salon   ...A visit to the group’s Facebook page features makes it clear exactly who they are targeting. All of the pictures on the page feature African-Americans. The group is trying to get African-Americans who may have outstanding warrants arrested in order to keep them from voting...
Wisconsin Voter ID Law Ruling Threatens Chaos On Election Day  The Guardian   ...Election officials and civil liberties advocates are predicting that a surprise court ruling that lifted a stay on Wisconsin’s controversial voter-ID law will produce chaos on election day, as estimates suggest that up to 300,000 eligible voters may not have the documentation now required to vote...
War On Workers
More Fiery Oil Train, Pipeline Accidents Unless Government Acts: Report  NBC News   ...If the U.S. doesn’t quickly address the safe transportation of oil and gas, Americans could pay the price with more fiery train and pipeline accidents, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online as 'Nudge' to Employers  Bloomberg   ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work...
Worker Killed in Explosion at Idaho Dairy  Associated Press   ...the explosion occurred at about 6 a.m. Monday as 30-year-old Dayne A. Hansen of Rupert did welding work on a trailer...
Jersey City construction worker killed at NYC site is identified  NJ.com   ...The worker, identified by The New York Post as Rodolfo Vasquez-Galian, was removing soil from the site when a concrete slab supporting a neighboring building's foundation fell and crushed him to death, according to the news organization's website...
1 In 5 Workers Laid Off In Past 5 Years Still Unemployed, Survey Finds  Huffington Post   ...Twenty-two percent of workers laid off in the past five years are still unemployed, according to a new survey...
More Americans Forgo Marriage as Economic Difficulties Hit Home  Wall Street Journal   ...As long-term financial security becomes a pipe dream for more Americans, a growing share is giving up on marriage. One in five U.S. adults aged 25 or older had never been married in 2012, a record high…
Mercedes labor chief seeks UAW foothold in Alabama  Associated Press   ...The head labor official on Daimler AG’s supervisory board says he considers it “unacceptable” that the German automaker’s Mercedes plant in Alabama stands alone among the company’s factories around the world without union representation for its workers...
Pfizer Seeking Inversions Shows Companies Unfazed by Lew  Bloomberg   ...Pfizer Inc. has approached Actavis Plc to express its interest in an acquisition that could allow the U.S. drugmaker to move overseas and reduce taxes, in a sign the Obama administration’s efforts to curtail such deals could fall short...
A Failure To Treat Workers with Respect Could Be Uber’s Achilles’ Heel  MIT Technology Review   ...Uber will fire a driver if his or her performance rating (an aggregate of the ratings provided by customers of that driver) falls below a certain level. ... There is no mentoring, training, or improvement program—nothing...
Americans Are O.K. With Big Business. It’s Business Lobbying Power They Hate.  New York Times   ...Americans are more likely than respondents in any country surveyed except Italy to believe that corporate lobbyists exercise a high degree of influence over the national government, with 59 percent of American survey respondents saying that corporate lobbyists have “a lot of influence” over policy...

Today's Teamster News 01.18.14

Teamsters Announce Tentative Agreement With YRCW  teamster.org   ...The Teamsters Union announced today that it reached a tentative agreement with YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) that, if ratified by the membership, will provide a pathway for substantial debt reduction and refinancing initiatives that will permit the company to protect and preserve more than 30,000 good American jobs...
Teamsters and YRC hammer out new offer  The Kansas City Star   ...The new proposal will be presented Tuesday to leaders of the many Teamsters locals that represent YRC’s 26,000 union employees throughout the country...
YRC Agrees to Revised Labor Accord With Teamsters Leaders  Bloomberg News   ...YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW:US) and Teamsters union leaders reached a revised labor accord that would pave the way for refinancing the trucking company’s $1.4 billion debt and staving off default. The shares surged...
Teamsters Celebrate King’s Legacy  teamster.org   ...Teamsters across the country will honor the legacy of civil rights and labor leader Martin Luther King Jr. on January 20th...
How Walmart Organizers Turned the Internet Into a Shop Floor  In These Times   ...Walmart workers and organizers prove ‘clicktivism’ can evolve into offline activism...
Leaked Walmart Documents Reveal Propaganda Campaign to Fight Workers Attempting to Organize AlterNet   ...The mega-retailer misinforms and tells managers to tattle on employees who discuss organizing...
Missouri ALEC Co-Chair on Wages in RTW States: “Sure They Go Down” (VIDEO) We Party Patriots   ...In a video unveiled by Progress Missouri, State Senator/ALEC Co-chair Ed Emery admits that “Right-to-Work” laws would mean lower wages for Missourians. But don’t get your hopes up: this is a gotcha moment, not a rejection of anti-worker policy...
AB InBev, KKR in talks on $4.5 billion Oriental Brewery deal  Reuters   ...Anheuser-Busch InBev SA is in advanced discussions to buy South Korea's Oriental Brewery from private equity owners KKR & Co LP and Affinity Equity Partners for more than $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter...
U.S. Steps Up Scrutiny of Freight Train Safety  New York Times   ...After meeting with federal regulators on Thursday, officials from the rail and petroleum industries agreed to examine quick ways to improve the safety of freight trains carrying crude oil following a spate of fiery accidents in recent months...
Safety violations found at another Freedom chemical facility  Salon   ...The company responsible for contaminating West Virginia’s tap water had been improperly storing chemicals at more than one location...
Freedom Industries files for bankruptcy  The Charlestown Gazette   ...Freedom owes $3.6 million to its top 20 unsecured creditors, according to bankruptcy documents. The company also owes more than $2.4 million in unpaid taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, and the IRS has placed at least three liens on Freedom's property, demanding payment...
Fear Is Why Workers in Red States Vote Against Their Economic Self-Interest  Truthdig   ...Last week’s massive spill of the toxic chemical MCHM into West Virginia’s Elk River illustrates another benefit to the business class of high unemployment, economic insecurity, and a safety-net shot through with holes...
Millionaire Ga. GOPer Backs Wall Street Bailout -- Not Detroit's   Talking Points Memo   ...A multi-millionaire Georgia Republican Senate candidate wanted to be clear at a recent campaign event: He's against the autoworker bailout but is for the Wall Street bailout...
How Screwing Your Workers Gets You Rated as Top 100 Places to Work  AlterNet   ...Darden Restaurants, which owns chains like Red Lobster, bought its way into a sleazy rankings list...
Amazon hosting most of the net's malware, says security firm  The Guardian   ...Report says net's large cloud providers, including Google and GoDaddy, are unknowingly harbouring ‘on-demand’ malware...
A Sneaky Path Into Target Customers’ Wallets  New York Times   ...Entering through a digital gateway, the criminals discovered that Target’s systems were astonishingly open — lacking the virtual walls and motion detectors found in secure networks like many banks’...
America's Real Welfare Queens  Truthout   ...In 2012, the average American taxpayer making $50,000 per year paid just $36 towards the food stamps program, while an average American family making $50,000 a year pays a whopping $6,000 a year in subsidies to Republican-friendly corporations...
Restricting bankers’ pay has only made them richer  Quarz   ...thanks to Goldman Sachs’s soaring stock price, its employees are sitting on $600 million … in compensation…
Patrick Replaces Secretary of Labor after Problems Surface  Boston Globe   ...Governor Deval Patrick today announced that he is replacing his state secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Joanne F. Goldstein, who had been facing questions about the troubled launch of the state’s new online jobless benefits system...
Florida blames its troubled unemployment website entirely on vendor; feds heading here to help  Miami Herald   ...Months after its debut, Florida’s $63 million unemployment benefits website is showing signs of improvement but falls far short of adequately serving claimants who depend on it...
Pennsylvania Judge Strikes Down New Voter ID Law  ThinkProgress   ...In a major victory for proponents of voting rights, a Pennsylvania judge overturned the state’s new voter identification law on Friday...
Plain Talk: Sorry, compared to Minnesotans, we made the wrong choice  The Cap Times   ...While Minnesota's economy has seen robust growth, Wisconsin's has — generously — been called sluggish. Because of differences in how health care is viewed, Minnesotans pay far less in premiums than do Badgers. There are those who contend that the Gopher State is leaving Wisconsin in its dust...
Chicago Alderwoman Proposes City Stop Doing Business With JPMorgan Chase After It Admits to Illegal Actions  Truthout   ...“The bank has violated the city code by making admissions of dishonesty and deceit in the way they dealt with their investors in the mortgage securities and Bernie Madoff Ponzi scandals,” Hairston [said]. “We use this code against city contractors and all the small companies, why wouldn’t we use this against one of the largest banks in the world,” she said...