Teamster airline mechanics fight for safety

Members of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition (TAMC) came to Washington last week to air their grievances and fight to improve airline safety.

TAMC members held several Capitol Hill meetings.

TAMC Chairman Chris Moore led the effort to meet with a bipartisan group of policy experts and legislative staff. He was joined by International Representative and TAMC Board Member Bob Fisher; Gary Kagel, a member of the TAMC Steering Committee from Local 769; Tom Reid, a TAMC Steering Committee member from Local 210; and Greg Unterseher, a business agent from Local 1224.

The TAMC requested that global drug testing standards be brought into uniform parity so that testing can be fair and equal for all airline mechanics.Airline repair stations exist all over the world and many carriers based in the U.S. outsource their repairs to foreign countries.Each nation has different standards for their drug testing, some of which are lower that the standards in the U.S.

Additionally, the TAMC lobbied for a moratorium on the certification of new repair stations worldwide following three consecutive reports by the U.S. Office of the Inspector General detailing an extensive failure by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to properly oversee existing repair stations.The TAMC believes that if the FAA cannot oversee existing repair stations, new ones should not be certified until all of the existing stations are able to be examined for compliance on a regular basis.

Moore was pleased with the meetings and is hopeful that action on these items can happen soon:

Our number-one goal is to improve safety and conditions for airline mechanics and the flying public. To that extent, these past two days have been full of productive and informative meetings with policy makers across the political spectrum and I’m hoping we can get some attention paid to these issues.

Captain David Bourne, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division, applauded the efforts of the TAMC to pressure lawmakers on airline safety issues:

I’m grateful for the work of the entire TAMC. The FAA needs to remember their commitment to the safety of the flying public. The efforts of the TAMC are important in keeping the spotlight on these issues.

The TAMC represents more than 18,000 aviation mechanics and related workers at seven airlines, including United, ExpressJet, Frontier, Horizon Air, NetJets, Piedmont Airlines and UPS. The Coalition will continue to fight for good working conditions for airline mechanics and safer skies.
For more information, visit www.teamsterair.org/tamc.

Today's Teamster News 08.20.15

Teamsters
City Council Stands In Way Of Carriage Horse Ban, de Blasio Tells Activists  New York Times   ...Mayor Bill de Blasio made a promise as a candidate to animal-rights activists that he would end the Central Park horse-carriage industry on the first day of his administration. Nearly 600 days into his tenure, the horses are still clopping. And the mayor has a new message for activists: Talk to somebody else...
Strike Out  Tucson Weekly   ...Shortly after his return, he had an altercation with a bus rider who snuck in a beer. The man ended up throwing the beer in Kirk's face, after Kirk asked him to get rid of it. "Passengers realize that there is no accountability ... the disrespect ... they don't have to abide by any rules," he says. All-in-all, there have been 22 assaults on bus drivers in the past 13 months, according to the Teamsters Local Union 104, which is leading the strike. That includes beer-throwing, spitting and more violent incidents...
Bus Service Resumes To Normal In Loudoun County  Washington Post   ...Teamsters Local 570 and Transdev have been in talks over a collective bargaining agreement for the past six months, according to Loudoun County officials...

Global Labor & Trade
Chinese Shares Trade Lower Again After Days Of Volatility  BBC News   ...The mainland's benchmark Shanghai Composite was 1.5% down to 3,735.92 points. The negative open comes after the index had seen strong volatility since the beginning of the week...
Russia Used To Have A Powerful Weapon In Its Energy Sector. Not Anymore.  Washington Post   ...For years, Russia’s ability to choke off energy shipments any time tensions spiked with the West was a potent threat, one that could force much of Europe to shiver during the wintertime. But with energy prices swooning, the Kremlin’s pipeline politics are looking a lot less threatening...

State & Living Wage Battles
Unions Press Congress To Take Off On FAA Bill  The Hill   ...The AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department is pushing Congress to approve a new round of funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) when lawmakers return to Washington next month. The FAA bill, which includes funding for air traffic controllers, is scheduled to expire on Sept. 30...
Missouri Orders New Measures To Prevent Spread Of Bridgeton Landfill Fire  St. Louis Post Dispatch   ...Missouri regulators are ordering the owner of the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill to add more safeguards and develop a backup plan to prevent the spread of an underground fire past existing defenses...
Landfill Fire Slowing, Closer To Radioactive Waste  KMOX   ...The Pattonville Fire Protection District is keeping a close eye on the Bridgeton Landfill, after new data shows the underground fire may be getting closer to nuclear material buried in the nearby Westlake Landfill...
Justice Dept. Presses Civil Rights Agenda In Local Courts  New York Times   ...Burlington, Wash., was a small city fighting what seemed like a local lawsuit. Three poor people said that their public lawyers were too overworked to adequately represent them in municipal court cases. The dispute went mostly unnoticed for two years, until the Obama administration became involved. Unannounced, the Justice Department filed documents in the case and told the judge that he had broad authority to demand changes in Burlington and nearby Mount Vernon. The judge quickly agreed and ordered the cities to hire a new public defense supervisor. He also said he would monitor their legal aid program for three years...
After Criticism, HUD Says It’s Trying To Give The Boot To Public Housing Families Who Earn Too Much Money  Washington Post   ...In response to an unsparing audit by its watchdog, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has flipped its stance and now says it is urging housing authorities nationwide to evict tenants who earn too much to qualify for government subsidies...
Court Documents: Legal Challenge To N.C. Voter ID Could Be Settled  Winston-Salem Journal   ...The recent federal trial on North Carolina’s Voter Information Verification Act that ended about two weeks ago did not deal with the state’s photo ID requirement that goes into effect in 2016. It only dealt with other provisions of the law, which reduced the early voting period, eliminated same-day voter registration, prohibited county election officials from counting ballots cast in the wrong precinct but correct county, and abolished preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds...
KC City Council To Meet, Clarify Minimum Wage Issues  WDAF   ...Workers in Kansas City could get some clarity on the minimum wage issue Thursday afternoon after the City Council meets to discuss the ordinance. The council meets at 3 p.m...

U.S. Labor
Uber Missed Criminal Records Of Drivers, Prosecutors Assert  New York Times   ...For more than a year, regulators in various cities have questioned whether Uber, the ride-hailing service, vets its drivers for criminal backgrounds as carefully as traditional taxi companies. Now the district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles have offered perhaps the most concrete evidence to date that people convicted of murder, sex offenses and various property crimes have driven for Uber, despite assurances from the company that it employs “industry-leading” screening...
Private Prison Firms Buy Access To Public Officials At Lavish Industry Conferences  Truthout   ...The prison industry in the United States has grown so large that there are no less than seven professional associations for people who work at prisons and jails. The industry conferences held by these associations provide a perfect venue for private corrections companies to influence government officials with little public oversight, according to a recent report by the watchdog group In The Public Interest (ITPA)...

Social Justice & Other News
U.S. Consumer Prices Rise For Sixth Straight Month  Wall Street Journal   ...The consumer-price index, which reflects what Americans pay for everything from razors to radishes, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in July from a month earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday. From a year earlier, prices are up a very mild 0.2%, but when excluding volatile food and energy categories, the gain in the so-called core index was a more solid 1.8%...
The Military’s Outdated Gender Standards Are Finally Breaking Down  Think Progress   ...While women still face numerous obstacles when it comes to serving in the military, one barrier is soon to be broken. In an interview with the Navy Times Tuesday Adm. Jon Greenert said women would soon be welcome to participate in one of the military’s most elite units: – the Navy SEALs...
Goldman Sachs' New Loan Program Enters Underregulated, Potentially Abusive Loan Marketplace  Truthout   ...Though the bank itself hadn't directly seeded high-interest mortgages into communities of color around the country, like Countrywide or other banks that offered mortgages directly had done, Goldman Sachs had profited from selling subprime mortgage-backed securities - and from betting on the failure of these same products. "That was one of the reasons the [financial] crisis really took off," Murray said...
Ohio Planned To Import Death Penalty Drug Illegally  Mother Jones   ...The state of Ohio planned to illegally import sodium thiopental, a drug used for executions, according to a Food and Drug Administration letter obtained by BuzzFeed through a Freedom of Information Act request...
A Regulator’s Deal With Promontory Skirts A Big Problem  New York Times  ...Since by necessity it focuses on specific allegations, it leaves untouched a larger problem that goes beyond breaches of consultants’ supposed independence: the increasing extent to which regulators and prosecutors have come to rely on consultants to investigate suspected bank wrongdoing, rather than devoting the time and resources to do investigations themselves...
Black Lives Matter Isn't Stopping  Politico   ...Memo to 2016 candidates from Black Lives Matter: We will continue to disrupt your events no matter what you do or say, and we won’t stop anytime soon...
Obama Administration Plans To Overhaul Rules On Student Debt Forgiveness  Washington Post   ...The Obama administration said Wednesday it will overhaul the loan forgiveness process for students who believe they have been defrauded by their colleges, in light of the collapse of controversial for-profit Corinthian Colleges...

Today's Teamster News 08.17.15

Teamsters
SunTran Strike: Teamsters Say Their Offer Rejected; SunTran Still Says, “Let’s Talk.”  KQTH   ...The SunTran strike has been dragging on for nine days now. Late Friday afternoon, the Teamsters said SunTran rejected another offer the union proposed late Thursday, though SunTran says it's still interested in talking more about the proposal...
Teamsters Union Approves Contract With County  Laconia Daily Sun   ...The contract was approved by a 2-1 vote of the County Commissioners last week, the commissioners announced Wednesday. This week the pact was approved by a majority vote of union membership. The contract will now go the Belknap County Convention for approval of the cost items...
Anti-Union Campaign In Full Swing At Google Express  San Francisco Chronicle   ...While the rest of the on-demand economy struggles to come to terms with the fallout from start-ups' reliance on classifying employees as independent contractors, Google Express — which does not use independent contractors but instead subcontracts its workforce through a staffing agency — is facing labor troubles of its own. And the battle is heating up...

Global Labor & Trade
Germany's Merkel To Face Down Party Rebels In Greek Bailout Vote  Huffington Post   ...In a major test of her authority, Chancellor Angela Merkel will ask skeptical German lawmakers to back an 86 billion euro ($95.5 billion) bailout for Greece on Wednesday despite uncertainty over whether the IMF will play a role in the rescue...

State & Living Wage Battles
Ulster County Considers Raising Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour For Its Employees  Daily Freeman   ...Ulster County Legislature Chairman John Parete has proposed establishing a $15-an-hour minimum wage for county employees. “If we’re going to try to save the world, we’ve got to start leading from right here,” said Parete, D-Boiceville. “It might be an awful good signal to the world that we’re progressive and we care about the people that are servicing us and servicing our county...
Researchers: Voter ID Confusion May Have Turned An Election  Jacksonville Daily Progress   ...Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist, and other researchers talked to 400 registered voters who didn't participate in the election in District 23, which experts said was the only congressional district in the state with competitive candidates from both major parties. The district sprawls the Trans-Pecos region from San Antonio to El Paso County. Confusion over ID rules potentially discouraged up to 9 percent of voters from casting ballots, the researchers found. “When you look at the people who were confused, those voters overwhelmingly favored Pete Gallego,” Jones said. “If they hadn’t been confused, it’s quite possible that Pete Gallego would have won.”...
Paid Sick Leave Vote Put On Hold  Spokane Spokesman-Review   ...City Council President Ben Stuckart said some council members had hoped to vote later this month on a plan that would require businesses to offer their workers one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. That amounts to three days a year for full-time workers...
Los Angeles Is Facing A Housing Affordability Crisis  BuzzFeed   ...Los Angeles appears to be facing a growing crisis after two new reports showed that it has the least affordable housing in the U.S., stagnant wages, and a market that favors a “wealthy minority.”...
ATI Locks Out Union Workers  Pittsburgh Post Gazette   ...On Friday, union officials said non-essential union workers were told to go home and that they would be paid through today. Mr. Troyan, 59, who works at a furnace at the company’s new, $1.2 billion Brackenridge mill, said he was told to report for his shift, which started at 7 p.m. Friday and ends at 7 a.m. today...

U.S. Labor
How America's Global Financial System Blocks Development  Huffington Post   ...Just a few years ago, Ben Bernanke, then the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, talked about a global savings glut. And yet investment projects with high social returns were being starved of funds. That remains true today. The problem, then as now, is that the world's financial markets, meant to intermediate efficiently between savings and investment opportunities, instead misallocate capital and create risk...
FAA Still Working To Fix Flight Delays After Computer Outage  BuzzFeed   ...The Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday said it was still working to resume normal air traffic operations after flights along the East Coast were disrupted Saturday because of a computer problem, delaying some flights in the Washington, D.C. area for hours...
Bankruptcy Loses Its Stigma - For Wealthy Corporations  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...The finance industry urged lawmakers to ignore factors such as overly easy and tricky credit or lagging middle-class incomes. It achieved its key goal - making it harder and costlier for consumers to go to court to escape debt - largely by arguing that bankruptcy was booming because it had "lost its stigma."...
Walmart's Use Of Tax Havens Hurts Small Businesses  Cap Times   ...ATF says Walmart may have skirted U.S. securities law by not properly reporting its tax-haven subsidiaries. But even if hiding them runs afoul of the law, using tax havens to avoid U.S. taxes is perfectly legal. Yet every time a big corporation uses accounting schemes to avoid paying its full measure of taxes — the typical use of tax havens — small businesses and working families pay the price, either in higher taxes or deteriorating public services...
Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas In A Brutal Workplace  New York Times   ...Even as the company tests delivery by drone and ways to restock toilet paper at the push of a bathroom button, it is conducting a little-known experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers, redrawing the boundaries of what is acceptable. The company, founded and still run by Jeff Bezos, rejects many of the popular management bromides that other corporations at least pay lip service to and has instead designed what many workers call an intricate machine propelling them to achieve Mr. Bezos’ ever-expanding ambitions...

Social Justice & Other News
Julian Bond, Former N.A.A.C.P. Chairman And Civil Rights Leader, Dies At 75  New York Times   ...Julian Bond, a former chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a charismatic figure of the 1960s civil rights movement, a lightning rod of the anti-Vietnam War campaign and a lifelong champion of equal rights for minorities, died on Saturday night, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was 75...
Exclusion Of Blacks From Juries Raises Renewed Scrutiny  New York Times   ...Here are some reasons prosecutors have offered for excluding blacks from juries: They were young or old, single or divorced, religious or not, failed to make eye contact, lived in a poor part of town, had served in the military, had a hyphenated last name, displayed bad posture, were sullen, disrespectful or talkative, had long hair, wore a beard...
David Denson Becomes First Openly Gay Player On MLB-Affiliated Team  Huffington Post   ..."Talking with my teammates, they gave me the confidence I needed, coming out to them," Denson told the newspaper. "They said, "You're still our teammate. You're still our brother. We kind of had an idea, but your sexuality has nothing to do with your ability. You're still a ballplayer at the end of the day. We don't treat you any different. We've got your back.'...
Black Lives Matter Joins A Long Line Of Protest Movements That Have Shifted Public Opinion — Most Recently, Occupy Wall Street  Salon.com   ...By introducing the phrase “black lives matters” into our culture – primarily through the use of social media but also by engaging in protest and civil disobedience – BLM has shifted public opinion. A new Pew Research Center poll discovered that the number of Americans who believe that changes are needed to give African-Americans equal rights has swelled from 46 percent to 59 percent just in the past year. Among white Americans, the number has increased from 39 percent to 53 percent. Among Republicans, it spiked from 27 percent to 42 percent...
NC House Passes Bill That Regulates Drone Usage  WNCN   ...As drones become more popular across the nation, North Carolina lawmakers are working to create regulations for the technology. The State House passed Senate Bill 446 this week that develops guidelines for operating drones. The bill now moves on to the Senate...
FAA Considering New Drone Registration Rules  CBS News   ...The Department of Transportation is reviewing whether the FAA has the authority to require drones be registered at their point of sale, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told CBS News on Friday...
When Public Servants Refuse To Serve The Public  The Atlantic   ...Is it possible to agree on what religious freedom is not? It’s not a right to wear a Marine uniform but refuse to fight. It’s not a right to be a county clerk and decide which citizens you will serve and which you won’t. Religious “accommodation” doesn’t mean what Liberty Counsel thinks it means. If a person can perform the duties of a job with some adjustment for religious belief, that’s an accommodation. If they’re not willing to do the job, they have to leave. That’s not just a requirement of law; honor requires it as well...
Lawyers: Immigrant Family Detention Still Lengthy And Unsafe  ABC News   ...A group of immigrant rights lawyers say that detention of women and children caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally is lengthy and unsafe, challenging the government's claims that immigrant families are held only briefly and that their detention doesn't violate a longstanding ban...

Today's Teamster News 07.11.13

Low-Wage Workers Hit Hardest In The Recovery: Study  Huffington Post   ...Workers in low-wage industries have lost a greater share of their inflation-adjusted income during the economic recovery than better-paid workers have, according to a new analysis from the National Employment Law Project...
Billionaire Koch Brother Says Eliminating The Minimum Wage Will Help The Poor  ThinkProgress   ...On Wednesday, the Charles Koch Foundation launched a $200,000 media campaign in Wichita, Kansas, with a hint of expanding it elsewhere...
The Big Problems in Obama's Big Trade Deals (opinion)  US News   ...The U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) make up the majority of the world's global domestic product and are already plagued by oversight and accountability issues. The vulnerable communities that will be impacted are wide-ranging, spanning the environmental, labor and health sectors...
The wheels are coming off the whole of southern Europe  Telegraph   ...Europe’s debt-crisis strategy is near collapse. The long-awaited recovery has failed to take wing. Debt ratios across southern Europe are rising at an accelerating pace. Political consent for extreme austerity is breaking down in almost every EMU crisis state...
Smithfield CEO Faces Grilling in Senate on Food Safety  Reuters   ...Chinese plans to buy America's Smithfield Foods—the world's biggest pork producer—faces scrutiny Wednesday when U.S. senators question Smithfield's chief executive about food safety and foreign ownership...
FAA Ups Requirements for Co-Pilots on Passenger Planes  NBC News ...The federal government is toughening the qualifications for co-pilots on American passenger planes — days after a crash landing in San Francisco in which pilot experience has become a question...
Two Supreme Court Cases That Could Hurt Organized Labor  The Atlantic   ...Amid the ruckus over its voting rights and gay marriage rulings, the justices quietly accepted a pair of cases that could make it nearly impossible for private sector unions to organize new members...
FedEx Settles Lawsuit Over Claims It Overcharged Customers  Bloomberg News   ...FedEx Corp. agreed to settle a lawsuit over claims the company was “systematically overcharging” customers by billing for deliveries to businesses and government offices at higher residential rates...
Judge blocks portion of Michigan state Capitol access policy  Sheboygan Press   ...Groups of up to 20 people can gather in the state Capitol without a permit, a federal judge ruled, striking down portions of the current policy requiring permits for all activities as an unconstitutional infringement on free speech rights...
D.C. Council approves ‘living wage’ bill over Wal-Mart ultimatum  Washington Post   ...D.C. lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill requiring certain large retailers to pay their employees a 50 percent premium over the city’s minimum wage, a day after Wal-Mart warned the law would jeopardize their plans in the city...
Teamsters ratify new OTS contract with 6.4 percent raise  Honolulu Star Adviser   ...Honolulu’s bus drivers ratified a new five-year labor contract Tuesday with Oahu Transit Services, Inc. The new pact covers 1,400 bus drivers, clerical and maintenance members of Teamsters Local 996...
Mass. Teamsters back Clark in run  Wicked Local Winchester   ...Teamsters Local 25, representing more than 11,000 workers in Massachusetts, this week announced its support for state Sen. Katherine Clark in the race for U.S. Congress to represent the fifth district...
City lawmakers delay approving contract with Rural/Metro as ambulance strike looms  Buffalo News   ...For Buffalo residents, this might not be the best time to have a medical emergency. The Common Council on Tuesday put off renewing a contract with Rural/Metro Medical Services, which handles as many as 34,000 emergency calls a year in the City of Buffalo...
Rural/Metro Putting Profits Ahead Of People  Tony Trupiano Show   ...Labor radio host Tony Trupiano interviews Local 375 members in Buffalo about their fight to win a fair contract with Rural/Metro medical service. Download the audio here...
Hoffa: Congress Must Vet the Pacific Rim Trade Proposal  IBT   ...Workers across Michigan and the U.S. are working harder today for less pay than they received just a few years ago. Jobs that once allowed wage earners to support their families disappeared during the last recession, replaced by jobs that pay poverty wages. But more importantly, millions of good jobs have been exported over the past 20 years because of bad trade deals...
30 arrested during UMWA protest in W.Va.  WHTM   ...United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard told the crowd that every union is threatened if Patriot gets away with shedding legacy costs and breaking promises...

Today's Teamster News 05.08.13

Ex-South Carolina governor Sanford beats Colbert Busch in special House election  Washington Post   ...The conservative electorate of South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District voted Tuesday to resurrect the political career of disgraced former governor Mark Sanford (R) by returning him to his former House seat...

Texas tragedy may cost fertilizer plant only $1 million  RT Network   ...Fifteen people died and more than 200 others were injured following an explosion at a West, Texas fertilizer plant last month, and lawyers for the facility now admit that the plant’s owners aren’t prepared to pay for the damages totaling more than $100 million in destruction. But the attorneys say the factory had only $1 million in liability coverage...
Death toll of Bangladesh building collapse tops 700   Associated Press   ...Hundreds of survivors of last month’s collapse of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh protested for compensation Tuesday, as the death toll from the country’s worst-ever industrial disaster passed 700...
Churn, baby, churn: The labor market won’t be healthy until people feel like they can quit their jobs Washington Post   ...America needs more quitters. Or the job market does, anyway. That’s the lesson to draw from the latest Labor Department report, which shows the soft underbelly of the U.S. jobs picture. The unemployment rate may be falling and the number of jobs rising. But there isn’t enough “churn” going on, a hallmark of a healthy job market, in which people freely move between positions...
Overtime pay vs. time off: GOP wants a choice, but Democrats say plan would hurt workers  Associated Press   ...It seems like a simple proposition: give employees who work more than 40 hours a week the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime pay...
Online Sales Tax Bill Passes Senate  Huffington Post   ...The Senate sided with traditional retailers and financially strapped state and local governments Monday by passing a bill that would widely subject online shopping – for many a largely tax-free frontier – to state sales taxes...
FAA reviewing lost pay for furloughed employees  The Washington Post   ...The Federal Aviation Administration says it is reviewing how and whether to make whole thousands of employees who were forced to take unpaid days off in April before Congress intervened, suspending the furloughs...
Exposing ALEC's Agenda to Defund and Dismantle Public Education (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...Iron Man 3 just opened this past weekend, followed soon by more would-be blockbusters. I'm sure a lot of these movies will be entertaining, but none will be more important or relevant than a half-hour documentary I recently watched: The United States of ALEC...
Hertz relocating corporate headquarters to Florida following Dollar Thrifty acquisition  Associated Press   ...Hertz will move its headquarters from New Jersey to Florida, putting the company in the heart of a key travel market and trimming corporate expenses after its $2.3 billion buyout of one-time rival, Dollar Thrifty...
South Jersey firms facing OSHA fines from Sandy repair jobs  Press of Atlantic City   ...Federal inspectors have assessed at least 26 companies with a total of $110,000 in fines for unsafe workplaces in New Jersey shore towns while cleaning up and repairing damage from Hurricane Sandy, an analysis of U.S. Department of Labor records shows...
Missouri lawmakers must finalize budget this week  News-Press   ...Missouri lawmakers have until Friday to finalize the state's roughly $25 billion operating budget...
Illinois Senate to vote on union-endorsed pension reform bill  Reuters ...A union-backed plan to reform the worst-funded state pension system in the United States will be introduced in the Illinois Senate this week, competing with a plan passed by the House last week...
More arrested as NC legislature protests continue  Associated Press   ...More than two dozen members of the NAACP and other activists were arrested Monday as part of continuing protests of Republican policies in the state capital, bringing to nearly 50 the number of nonviolent demonstrators facing charges...
Michigan launches $5 million veterans' homeowners assistance program  Michigan Live   ...Michigan veterans who have lost their homes or are struggling to keep them could benefit from a new $5 million housing assistance program...
Teamsters Urge Congress To Stop Dangerous Increases In Truck Weight And Size  IBT   ...Yesterday, the Teamsters, the Truck Safety Coalition, U.S. Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) and representatives of several families who have suffered death and injury as a result of truck crashes, held a news conference marking the re-introduction of legislation that would prevent an increase in size and weight allowances for trucks...
UPS Local Leaders Unanimously Endorse UPS Tentative Agreement  IBT   ...Leaders of Teamster Local Unions that represent UPS workers across the United States voted unanimously today to endorse the tentative UPS national agreement, paving the way for ballots to be prepared and sent to members...
UPS Freight Local Union Leaders Unanimously Recommend Tentative Agreement For Ratification  IBT   ...Teamster Local Union leaders representing UPS Freight workers across the country unanimously endorsed the tentative national agreement today, clearing the way for ballots to be prepared and sent to members...
US Air Mechanics File for Election to Become Teamsters  IBT   ...US Airways mechanics and related workers filed for an election today with the National Mediation Board (NMB) as part of their campaign to become Teamsters...
Osco Pharmacists Negotiations Enter Federal Mediation   IBT   ...After seven bargaining sessions over several weeks, contract negotiations for 500 Osco pharmacists have entered federal mediation...
Buy Union, Buy American: Support Teamsters Week  Labor 411   ...Consumer awareness and education are key to the success of the labor movement. We have no doubt that most Americans would choose union-made, American-made goods if only they knew which they were – and if they realized that buying those goods helps to support good middle class American jobs...
Bay City mid-management contract approval rescheduled to later this month  Michigan Live   ...The Bay City Commission has rescheduled the review of new deal with Teamsters Local 214, which represents mid-management positions including the chief accountant, information systems administrator and planning manager...

Today's Teamster News 03.07.13

McDonald's Franchises In Pennsylvania Accused Of Exploiting Student Guest Workers  Huffington Post   ...some students received as few as four hours of work a week, at the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. After "exorbitant" deductions for housing, those wages were pushed below the legal minimum, the group says, while the students lived "up to 8 students to a room" at a cost of $300 per person...
Fast Track Authority for Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Opposed  AgWeb   ...The groups are most concerned with unfettered access to U.S. markets by Fonterra, New Zealand’s large dairy company, which controls some 90% of that country’s milk supply. ..
Florida Gets Organized to Stop the TPP  Public Citizen   ...most ... had never heard of the TPP ... Many reacted with surprise and anger when they learned about the provisions the Obama administration is secretly negotiating that give more power to corporations...
The War On Entitlements (opinion)  New York Times   ...Simply by eliminating the payroll tax earnings cap — and thus ending this regressive exemption for the top 5.2 percent of earners — would, according to the Congressional Budget Office, solve the financial crisis facing the Social Security system...
Citizens in Europe are rejecting austerity policies as deeply misguided (opinion)  The Guardian   ...European leaders recognise that, without growth, debt burdens will continue to grow, and that austerity by itself is an anti-growth strategy...
FAA says 173 air traffic control towers will close on April 7  CNN   ...The federal government will close 173 air traffic control towers at small- and medium-size airports on April 7 because of forced spending cuts...
Rahall Promotes ‘Made In America’ Bill For Infrastructure Projects  Charleston Gazette  ...The “Invest in American Jobs Act of 2013″ will require the use of products stamped “Made in America” to build highways, bridges, public transit facilities, passenger rails and airports across the country. Labor unions and manufacturing companies are backing the new legislation...
Gov: 250K Jobs Will Be 'Tough To Get'  Wisconsin Public Radio   ...Governor Scott Walker may be acknowledging he won't make his goal of creating 250,000 jobs in his first term, but Walker says he should still “aim high.”...
Game show host Bob Barker opposes bill that targets whistleblower videos  Indianapolis Star   ...Bob Barker, the former host of the TV game show “The Price is Right,” is urging Indiana’s lawmakers to defeat a bill that makes it unlawful to take unauthorized video at farms and businesses....
Teamsters Union Faces Pension Decision  WYFX   ...Members of a local teamsters union who work for a major garbage collection service are faced with a tough decision on whether to continue dumping money into their current pension plan or start investing money into the company's 401(K)...