Today's Teamster News 03.20.14

Teamster News
CCTA Strike Continues, Management Awaits Offer  Vermont Public Radio   ...Two days into their strike, Chittenden County Transportation Authority bus drivers represented by Teamsters Local 597 said Tuesday they have prepared a counter-offer for management...
Amboy School District Workers Ratify Teamster Contract  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...Secretaries, aides, cooks and custodians with Amboy Community School District 272 in central Illinois, who are members of Teamsters Local 722, recently ratified a new three-year agreement that includes better wages, paid holidays and stronger contract language...
Teamsters Union: Hernando violated hiring process for fire chief   Hernando Today   ...Dan Oliver, a steward for Teamsters Local 79, said Hernando County violated its own hiring policy by not posting a job opening for public safety director in-house before seeking outside candidates...
Teamsters Union: More rail workers needed to solve grain transportation backlog  The Canadian Press   ...A cold winter and a record crop have been blamed for a grain transportation backlog, but a Teamsters spokesman says that’s not the whole story...
Trade
Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal Would Deepen Income Divide  Truthout   ...“Those at the top have never done better,” President Obama ruefully acknowledged in his January 28 State of the Union speech. “But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened.”...
China Keeps Moving Forward While America Falls Behind – and We Are Doing Nothing About It!  Trade Reform   ...Our political leaders often deemphasize the downturn in American manufacturing by touting a focus on areas such as new, high tech manufacturing and alternative energy, but it appears China has the same goals and is taking targeted steps to meet them...
Korea Trade Agreement – Exports Actually Decrease  Trade Reform ...Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, never talks about balance of trade. But the USTR is embarrassed that our exports to Korea actually decreased since the Korea trade and global government agreement was passed. Yes. Exports (not net exports) decreased...
State News
“Right to Work” bill trying to gain steam in Missouri  KBIA   "...I’ve seen folks go down to parts of Mississippi and were working for $12 an hour, union jobs, while up in Missouri they’re making $28 an hour at the time..."
Right-to-work is dangerous fraud (Opinion)  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ..The right-to-work proposal being considered in the Missouri Legislature is a dangerous fraud.As American citizens, we already have the right to seek employment and to work. But under a right-to-work law, we would continue to work — for less money and fewer benefits than we already have...
Gov. Cuomo Signs Bill Extending Effective Date of New Independent Contractor Law in New York  Independent Contractor Compliance   ...After months of uncertainty, the law of independent contractor misclassification in New York State will change on April 10, 2014. The new law affects transportation and delivery companies in New York that classify certain drivers that deliver commercial goods in the state as independent contractors...
Thirty-nine Moral Monday Georgia activists arrested in daylong Medicaid expansion protests at the Gold Dome  Creative Loafing   ...Nearly 40 Moral Monday Georgia activists today were arrested for interrupting proceedings throughout the Georgia Capitol in an effort to urge Gov. Nathan Deal to expand Medicaid - and block legislation that would strip him of the authority to do so...
Wisconsin Republican Legislator Tears Into His Own Party For Voter Suppression  ThinkProgress   ...it ought to be abundantly clear to everybody in this state that there is no massive voter fraud. The only thing that we do have in this state is we have long lines of people who want to vote. And it seems to me that we should be doing everything we can to make it easier, to help these people get their votes counted...
Costly Loans Are Drawing Attention From States  New York Times   ...States are increasing efforts to shield vulnerable Americans from short-term loans with interest rates that can exceed 300 percent...
Minnesota GOP Lawmaker Says Sick Leave, Equal Pay Bills Make Women 'Look Like Whiners' Huffington Post   ...A package of bills in Minnesota that would enhance women's economic security by raising the minimum wage, providing paid family and sick leave and addressing the gender pay gap makes women "look like whiners," said State Rep. Andrea Kieffer (R) last week...
War on Workers
McDonald's Reviews Wage Theft Claims As Workers In 30 Cities Protest For Overtime Pay  Forbes   ...Tuesday’s protest in midtown Manhattan was one of dozens planned in 30 cities across the U.S., coming as McDonald’s faces class-action lawsuits in New York, California and Michigan for what workers describe as “wage theft...”
Fast-food workers get new ally in New York City fight for fair pay  The Guardian   ...A hotline for fast-food workers to anonymously report allegations of illegal or unjust pay practices by their bosses would be set up in New York under plans to build on a national campaign to improve conditions for American workers...
Supremes Could Decide Sky's the Limit for Campaign Donations  Public News Service   ...Another major Supreme Court decision on campaign finance could come as early as next week. In McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission, Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon said his First Amendment rights are violated when he cannot give a $2,600 donation to as many parties and candidates for federal office as he pleases. Many groups working to get money out of politics hope the high court rules against McCutcheon...
Reports of the Death of a National License-Plate Tracking Database Have Been Greatly Exaggerated  The Intercept   ... the databases are growing at a furious pace due to rapidly improving technology and ample federal grant money for more cameras and more computers. Tens if not hundreds of millions of observations per month are streaming into bulging electronic archives, often remaining there indefinitely, for a vast array of clients in both the public and private sector...
Expand Overtime Pay? GOP Says No  In These Times   ...Republicans apparently don’t believe that Americans who work longer hours should get paid more...
Meet the ‘Missing Workers’  In These Times   ...More than 5 million Americans have given up hope of a job. Who are they?...
7-11 Clerk Says She Was Fired For Giving Freezing Homeless Man A $1 Cup Of Coffee ThinkProgress   ...The worker felt compelled to help him after her own recent brush with homelessness...
Woman Whose Boss Told Her ‘It’s Best You Go Home With Your Babies’ Won’t Get Discrimination Trial  ThinkProgress   ...Angela Ames was on her first morning back from maternity leave and couldn’t gain access to the lactation room when her department head told her, “I think it’s best that you go home to be with your babies,” handing her a pen and paper and dictating the contents of a resignation letter...
Hershey Investors Suing Over Child Labor Can Pursue Files  Bloomberg   ...Hershey Co., the largest chocolate maker in the U.S., was ordered to face a lawsuit by investors seeking to force it to turn over records about cocoa from African farms that may use illegal child labor...
The Law that Launched a Boondoggle: Gold for Executives, Contempt for Taxpayers  CounterPunch   ...Jamie Dimon took high heat over his 74% mega-raise, but he’s not at fault. The blame goes to a 1993 boondoggle for bigwigs—a boondoggle that’s cost taxpayers by the billions ever since. Congress should call a halt, and the country’s mood could push it to do just that...
Miscellaneous
IRS says security breach affected 20,000 employees, but no taxpayer records  Reuters   ...The personal data of about 20,000 U.S. Internal Revenue Service employees going back to 2007 or earlier may have been exposed on the Internet, but no general taxpayer information or records were part of the security breach, the agency said on Tuesday...
Toyota and Justice Department said to reach $1.2 billion settlement in criminal case  Los Angeles Times   ...Toyota Motor Co. and the Justice Department have agreed on a $1.2-billion settlement to close a criminal probe into whether the automaker handled cases of sudden acceleration...
Google Won’t Face Group E-Mail Privacy Lawsuit: Judge  Bloomberg News   ...Google Inc. won a major victory in its fight against claims it illegally scanned private e-mail messages to and from Gmail accounts, defeating a bid to unify lawsuits in a single group case on behalf of hundreds of millions of Internet users...

Today's Teamster News 01.19.14

Who Speaks for the Carriage Horses?  New York Times   ...“Ban them?” the mother, Lesley Fabri, 60, exclaimed after her ride. “That’s the whole reason we’re here!”...
Carriage rides have a certain magic (opinion)  Livingtson County News   ...I will decline to go down the rabbit hole of debating the issue more than to say that the carriage business in New York and other major cities is perfectly legal and well-regulated...
Industry powers with access to TPP plans lavish money on Congress  RT.com   ... current members of Congress received around US$24 million in the last ten years from organizations represented on an exclusive industry board, created and staffed by Congress. This board has inside access - such as not even granted to members of Congress, much less the public - to the highly-secretive negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which promises to give powerful industry players more clout over global trade rights...
Insight: Battle over police pensions in U.S. cities takes ugly turn  Reuters   ...A drive by some American cities to cut costly police retirement benefits has led to an extraordinary face-off between local politicians and the law enforcement officers who work for them...
Freedom Industries, Company Behind West Virginia Chemical Spill, Files For Bankruptcy  Huffington Post   ...The company behind the massive chemical spill that made tap water unsafe for more than 300,000 West Virginians has filed for bankruptcy...
South Korea pulled strings as Cambodia’s military cracked down on protesters  Global Post   ...As workers who stitch for Western brands demand a livable wage, South Korea urged Cambodian forces to protect corporate interests...
Hershey's to make 3-D chocolate printer  CNN Money   ...Because apparently Americans don't have easy enough access to junk food, soon getting a candy bar could be as easy as hitting "print."...
A nearly 17-year-old is reportedly author of malware that led to Target’s data breach  Wall Street Journal   ...The  Target Corp. data breach that has hurt its sales and has made many consumers skittish about using their cards has been traced to a Russian teenager who authored the malware used in the security breach, according to a cyber-intelligence firm...
@Work Advice: Homeless, not hopeless  Washington Post   ...A competent junior co-worker recently confided to me that he has been living out of his car since his lease ended a month ago. He has acquired credit card debt while being underpaid and working long hours for two years at our 50-person organization. His finances are reaching a breaking point...
Missouri at center of new GM, Ford pickup rollouts  St. Louis Post Dispatch   ...When production of these new pickups starts this year, Missouri will become an epicenter of pickup production in the U.S., with thousands of the vehicles rolling off assembly lines every week...

Today's Teamster News 08.27.11

Teamsters Joins AFL-CIO to Blast Obama as Timid  US News & World Report   ...The Teamsters today joined the AFL-CIO in demanding that President Obama stop caving in to the GOP and offer a new jobs program that he will fight for...
Rep. Duffy not allowed in Labor Day parade in Wausau  WAOW.com   ...The parade is sponsored by the Marathon County Labor Council...
Protesters return to the Capitol  Superior Telegram   ...Wisconsin's capitol city is home this week to a national Democracy Convention...
SB5 supporters should pay attention to history (opinion)  Newark Advocate   ...Supporters of Senate Bill 5, which would gut public employee collective bargaining, might have taken heed of the experience of those who supported a "right to work" amendment to the Ohio Constitution that was placed on the ballot in 1958...
Scott prepares, serves meals at Orlando elementary  Orlando Sentinel   ...In his first visit to a traditional public school since taking office in January, Gov. Rick Scott this morning donned an apron and gloves to prepare and serve meals to students at Audubon Park Elementary School in Orlando...
Prison privatization to proceed despite resignation of Ed Buss  Orlando Sentinel   ...several obstacles still stand in the way of the plan mandated by the Legislature earlier this year ... Scott has even expressed concern that it might not save money, meaning the project would be axed...
State in recession, report says; experts differ  The Journal Gazette   ...Indiana is one of 12 states in "recessionary territory," according to a controversial Wells Fargo report...
U.S. investigating work conditions for foreign students at Hershey warehouse  Philly.com   ...At the same time, the organizations responsible for employing the students were seeking to resolve a standoff with them by offering a week's paid vacation and cultural-enhancing day trips to Philadelphia, Amish country, and Gettysburg...

VIDEO: Enslaved student guestworkers revolt at Hershey's in PA

Foreign students who scraped up between $3,000 and $6,000 to enter a State Department J-1 visa program were essentially enslaved by a Hershey's subcontractor in Palmyra, Pa.

They thought they were part of a cultural exchange program to learn about America.

They learned about America all right.

On Aug. 17, the students walked off the job in a mass protest. Three local union leaders were arrested. Reports Courthouse News Service,

Four hundred foreign students complained to the State Department that the Hershey chocolate company abused a foreign-exchange program to put them to work packing chocolate and stashed them in overpriced company housing that leaves them only $40 to $140 for a week's work.

The National Guestworker Alliance claims Hershey abused the J-1 student guestworker program, violated labor laws, intimidated, coerced and threatened them with deportation.

In an Aug. 17 letter to the State Department's Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, 12 named students said they protested the abuses on behalf of more than 400 similarly situated "Hershey guestworkers."

The students say they were recruited in their homelands around the world, including in China, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Mongolia, Romania, Ghana, and Thailand, and that they paid $3,000 to $6,000 apiece to participate in what they were told would be a cultural exchange program, "as well as to work for three months."

Some people were shocked by the story. But anyone who's been paying attention to the vicious assault on American workers (say, the Teamsters) wasn't surprised at all. We knew, for example, that the EEOC has filed charges against employers for bringing hundreds of Indian and Thai workers here to work as slaves in shipyards and on farms. Tens of thousands of prisoners work for companies such as Boeing  (yes, we meant "tens of thousands"). And many jobs in this country amount to indentured servitude.

Hershey's was never going to win a Model Employer award any time soon. A few years ago they shut down a York Peppermint Patty plant in Reading, Pa., and moved it to Mexico. It wasn't the first plant Hershey's moved overseas. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa was not pleased:

That plant stood for decades in Reading, providing countless families with good wages and job security. Members of this community helped build that company and this is how they are repaid. Hershey’s actions are unconscionable in this economic climate.

It wasn't the first plant Hershey's moved overseas. And it won't be the last. Unless, of course, they've figured out that it's cheaper to use indentured servants here in America and save their moving costs.

WGAL-TV has some great video of the foreign exchange students here.