TEAMSTERS
Teamsters: Seattle Drivers Win a Voice With Historic City Council Vote Teamster.org ...Drivers in Seattle’s for-hire industry won the right to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions through an initiative passed by the City Council today. The Mike O’Brien-sponsored bill will now move to the mayor’s desk for his signature. Drivers and community supporters celebrated the bill’s passage...
Seattle first U.S. city to let Uber drivers unionize Detroit News ...Seattle on Monday became the first city in the nation to allow drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions. Supporters erupted into cheers after the City Council voted 8-0 in favor of the legislation, which is seen as a test case for the changing 21st century workforce. The Teamsters Union Local 117 also celebrated the vote, while the National Right To Work Legal Foundation criticized it as a violation of drivers’ rights...
Teamsters Make Progress at Carhaul Talks, More Negotiations to be Scheduled Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union and carhaul employer representatives continue to discuss and exchange proposals for a new national contract that are responsive to the concerns of the membership. Based on the talks just concluded last week, we can report some tentative progress. Many of the contract proposals have been resolved, but both sides still need to focus on the economic issues. The parties have decided to suspend talks over the holidays...
AFSCME and University reach tentative contract agreement Workday Minnesota ...AFSCME will brief clerical and technical workers this week on a tentative contract settlement with the University of Minnesota that the union said "begins to close the gap between the haves and have-nots at the University." The union credited solidarity among its local unions and with Teamsters Local 320 for leading to a breakthrough in the six-month negotiations...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Hundreds of Myanmar Garment Workers Mark Seventh Day of Labor Strike Radio Free Asia ...More than 200 garment workers in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon Monday marked the seventh day of a strike demanding full salary for November after the owner of the factory that employs them docked their pay for failing to meet production targets. The workers have been protesting since Dec. 7...
Steelworkers union calls on Canada, U.S. to reject TPP Canadian Manufacturing ...The executive board of the United Steelworkers have adopted a formal resolution urging Ottawa and Washington to reject the tentative Trans-Pacific Partnership. The union says the resolution is the precursor for a “fully engaged” TPP rejection campaign that will get underway in both Canada and the U.S. “The TPP will only continue the failed trade policies of the past"...
Major Summit Could Put World's Poorest Inhabitants on Corporate Chopping Block Alternet ...Last week, 453 civil society groups including trade unions, farmers, environmentalists, public interest groups and development advocates from over 150 countries wrote an urgent letter to members of the WTO to “express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO.” The 10th Ministerial meeting of the WTO is occurring against a backdrop of accelerated “mega-regional” comprehensive pro-corporate “trade” deals...
TPP trade agreement undercuts biologic patents Washington Examiner ...An important part of the deal is protection of intellectual property — including copyright, trademarks and patents — which are necessary for commercial and scientific innovation. The biggest obstacle to congressional approval, however, appears to be the deal's inadequate protection of intellectual property in "biologic" medicines...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Takes a Hit Hoosier Ag Today ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal recently suffered a huge setback after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview Congress should not take up the trade deal before the November elections. McConnell told the Washington Post that President Obama would be making a big mistake by pushing for a vote on TPP during the election cycle...
Don’t Be Misled; The TPP Is Still Coming Full Steam (opinion) OurFuture.org ...Recently there have been news reports that Republicans are going to delay TPP until after the 2016 elections. Do not be misled; this is a bargaining ploy. They want the Obama administration to make “side agreements” that give corporations even more. We have to keep up the fight, and keep getting the word out. People opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “trade” agreement have recently had their hopes lifted...
India's October tea output drops 7% as workers strike Economic Times ...India's tea production in key October month dropped 7 per cent from a year earlier to 158.06 million kg, the state-run Tea Board said in a statement, as a strike called by plantation workers in southern India hit plucking. Production in the southern state of Kerala, where plantation workers went on strike demanding higher wages, dropped 60 percent...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-Wing GOP Governor Succeeds in Making More People Go Hungry Alternet ...Maine's Gov. Paul LePage can now claim the proud policy achievement of making more needy people go hungry. David Farmer reports in Daily Bangor News that during LePage's administration, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which administers SNAP benefits, has been so badly mismanaged it risks losing federal funding. The USDA also admonished the organization for failing to process applications in a timely way...
Amid $15 debate, tipped workers call for one minimum wage Times Union ...If state lawmakers approve a raise for all workers during the next legislative session, those earning tips say it’s time to dismantle the state’s two-tiered wage system. In a letter sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Co-Founder and Co-Director Saru Jayaraman called on the governor to move to abolish the separate tipped minimum wage for certain workers in the restaurant and hospitality industries...
New state laws address gender pay gap, child care, disability leave SF Chronicle ...About three dozen employment laws take effect in California next year, including ones that bolster equal-pay protections, help workers with chronic health conditions and give parents unpaid time off to research schools and deal with child care emergencies. The most significant law on an annual list put out by the California Chamber of Commerce is SB358, the widely publicized Fair Pay Act...
Senate’s Motives At Issue As Redistricting Trial Starts CBS ...The decisions prompting state Senate leaders to choose a redistricting plan they recommended to a Leon County judge took center stage Monday, the first day of a trial to determine whether that map should go to the Florida Supreme Court. Circuit Judge George Reynolds has the task of recommending to the Supreme Court either the Senate’s redistricting proposal or one of several plans offered by a coalition of voting-rights groups...
Lincolnshire creates right-to-work zone that unions oppose Daily Herald ...Lincolnshire has become the first town in the Chicago area to establish itself as a right-to-work zone, a move critics have assailed as anti-union. t's also a move experts say is sure to face a legal challenge. To create the zone, the village board approved an ordinance preventing local employers from requiring workers to pay union dues with payroll deductions...
U.S. LABOR
Detroit casino workers ratify new contract Detroit Free Press ...Workers at Detroit's three casinos ratified a new five-year contract Sunday — ending months of contentious and complicated negotiations and providing relief to thousands of workers. Joe Daugherty, president of Unite Here Local 24 and head of the bargaining committee for a group of unions, said in an e-mail that a majority of workers at all three casinos approved the contract...
UAW-Nexteer workers to vote on second deal Detroit News ...UAW Local 699 President Rick Burzynski believes a second tentative agreement reached with Nexteer Automotive addresses concerns that led to a 20-hour strike and 97 percent of membership rejecting a first deal. “We pretty much addressed everything that our workers wanted,” he said Monday morning, a week after workers walked off their jobs and picketed the Chinese-owned auto supplier...
NLRB certifies VW Chattanooga election results Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board has certified the results of the United Auto Workers election held at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant on Dec. 3 and 4. Maintenance, or skilled trades, workers at the plant agreed to be represented by the UAW for collective bargaining purposes by a margin of 108 to 44...
Progress made in UAW, Kohler talks Sheboygan Press ...The Kohler Co. strike has entered its fifth week, with more talks scheduled for today between the company and the United Auto Workers Local 833. Union officials weren’t immediately available for comment Monday morning but posted on the UAW Local 833 Facebook page on Friday, Dec. 11, that there was “good movement in talks with the company today”...
IBEW 125 members ratify contract at Pacificorp NW Labor Press ...In votes counted Dec. 14, members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125 approved a new four-year contract with Pacific Power by a 72 percent margin. Local 125’s previous collective bargaining agreement with Pacific Power expired Jan. 26, 2015. In June and again in August, members voted down company proposals by overwhelming margins, and on Sept. 1, 2015, they authorized the union to call a strike...
Chicago Teachers Union’s Overwhelming Approval of Strike Shows Power of Bottom-up Organizing In These Times ...The numbers are in from the Chicago Teachers Union's strike authorization vote, and it's not even close. After three days of voting last week, 22,678 of the union's 24,752 eligible members cast ballots, and 96.05 percent of them voted “yes”—88 percent of all CTU members. The nation's third-largest — and arguably most important — teachers union has sent a clear message that they are willing to walk off the job amid their current round of contract negotiations...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New rule: Truck drivers must electronically record hours Newsday ...An estimated 3 million commercial truck and bus drivers must electronically record their hours behind the wheel under a new government rule aimed at enforcing regulations designed to prevent fatigue. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released the long-awaited rule on Thursday. Drivers have been required to keep paper logs of their hours dating back to 1938...
After Paris, There Is Some Room for Hope The Nation ... it will undoubtedly be many years before renewable forms of energy—wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and others still in development—replace fossil fuels as the world’s leading energy providers. Nonetheless, 2015 can be viewed as the year in which the epochal transition from one set of fuels to another took off, with renewables making such significant strides...
On policing, the national mood turns toward reform Washington Post ...In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired his police chief and faces a growing clamor for his resignation. In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired her police chief and abandoned plans to seek reelection. And in San Francisco, protesters are demanding the head of yet another police chief, prompting Mayor Edwin Lee to vow last week to overhaul police procedures regarding deadly force...
A Tense Baltimore Braces for A Verdict The Atlantic ...As the jury prepares to deliver a verdict in the trial of the first of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore police department is taking pains to reach out to the community and signal that it is ready to respond to any outcome, including protest. Community activists, meanwhile, say that distrust of the police still runs deep...
Robert Reich: Why the Middle Class Is in Revolt and Susceptible to a Dangerous 'Strongman' Alternet ...Now someone comes along who’s even more of a bully than those who for years have bullied them economically, politically, and even violently. The attraction is understandable, even though misguided. If not Donald Trump, then it will be someone else posing as a strongman. If not this election cycle, it will be the next one. The revolt of the anxious class has just begun...
Flood of Anti-Muslim Violence Driving Record Year for Crimes of Hate Common Dreams ...2015 is shaping up to be "one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history," according to reports, as increasing xenophobia and hateful rhetoric has propelled a record number of attacks on mosques and Islamic centers across the U.S...
Showing posts with label IBEW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IBEW. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Monday, December 14, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.14.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Testify About Republic Services' Radioactive Landfill Teamster.org ...On Tuesday, Teamsters testified at the St. Louis Tribunal that is investigating human rights violations against communities surrounding Republic Services’ West Lake Superfund landfill site in Bridgeton, Mo. The tribunal will report to the United Nations Human Rights and Environment Program.
An underground fire has been raging for five years at the West Lake complex...
Uber: On the Road to Nowhere American Prospect ...Working with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, hundreds of app-based drivers have helped persuade the Seattle City Council to vote initial approval—7 to 0—of a bill that would allow them to unionize. It would be the nation’s first law allowing app-based “independent contractor” drivers to unionize. A final vote is tentatively scheduled for December 14...
Chicago-Area Coca-Cola Refreshments Workers to Unite at Rally Local 727 ...Hundreds of Coca-Cola Refreshments workers will rally in solidarity and in continued support of their unfair labor practice strike on Monday, Dec. 14. More than 300 Teamsters Local 727-represented Coca-Cola Refreshments workers initiated an unfair labor practice strike Dec. 3 after the beverage industry behemoth continually violated federal labor laws by intimidating workers, circumventing the union and engaging in overall bad faith bargaining during negotiations for a new contract...
SEIU, Teamsters Mourn San Bernardino Dead Labor Press ....Most of the 15 people killed in the mass murder at a holiday party for county workers here Dec. 2 were union members. Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents San Bernardino County environmental health specialists, has identified 10 of the dead and 10 of the 21 people wounded as members, and the Teamsters said three of the dead and two of the wounded were members of Local 1932...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers Strike At Mexican Border Factory Fronteras ...At least 100 workers at a Mexican border factory in Ciudad Juárez are on strike protesting low wages and a hostile workplace. The factory packages printer ink for the American company Lexmark. The highest paid workers claim they earn 77 cents an hour. Several dozen workers who said they were fired this week after demanding a pay raise have set up a protest camp outside the factory...
Workers at Irish Life to hold one day strike Irish Times ...Workers at insurance giant Irish Life have voted to hold a one-day strike this Thursday. A dispute has been ongoing since the beginning of November, when four two-hour stoppages were held. The dispute centres on the company’s unilateral imposition of a new pay model...
Thousands of Morocco Public Employees Wage Strike Solidarity Center ...Thousands of public-sector employees rallied and marched as part of a national strike yesterday in which workers in local agencies and up to 80 percent in government ministries walked off the job. Workers seek to draw attention to the unwillingness of the government to negotiate with them on such issues as wages and retirement. The strike, held on International Human Rights Day, aimed to “defend the gains of retirement for workers, trade union freedoms, rights and dignity”...
House Passes Trade Component, but Trans-Pacific Partnership Still in Doubt Wall Street Journal ...The House passed a key component of President Barack Obama’s trade policy Friday, but tepid support among Republicans and business groups for his big Pacific trade agreement could keep that deal from coming to a vote until the final weeks of his presidency, if then. A customs bill that cleared the House on Friday gives American steel companies greater ability to challenge subsidized and dumped steel from China and other countries...
TPP faces US roadblock Financial Review ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership suffered a serious setback to being implemented by the pact's lead economy, after the powerful United States Senate leader stunned trade watchers by declaring Congress should not vote on the accord until after next November's presidential election. The blunt message from influential Republican Mitch McConnell means the TPP is likely to face at least 12 months in limbo...
House votes to boost enforcement of trade deals, block climate change provisions US News & World Report ...As negotiators in Paris worked to finalize a global agreement on climate change, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill Friday that would block trade deals from being used to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Supporters said the wide-ranging bill would beef up enforcement of U.S. trade agreements and help prevent counterfeit goods from entering the country...
The Empire Strikes Back: the Return of the WTO Counterpunch ...In the last two years, we have witnessed the rise of mega regional trade deals. TTIP is one such example of a potential trade deal between the US and the EU. These deals have many similarities. They are designed to open up new markets for global corporations and create the conditions for them to be as lucrative as possible...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
U.S. states pass laws backing Uber's view of drivers as contractors Reuters ...State legislators in Ohio and Florida are moving ahead with regulations governing Uber and other ride services that would designate all drivers as independent contractors, bolstering a critical but much-disputed aspect of Uber's business model. The states would join North Carolina, Arkansas, and Indiana in requiring the contractor designation as part of new laws governing so-called transportation network companies...
Federal judges to weigh in on redistricting 13 News Now ...Heading to court today: a potential change in Congressional district boundaries that would re-assign more than one million voters. Federal judges will weigh in on whether to proceed with redrawing Virginia's congressional districts, or wait for the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal. This comes after the court ruled the current boundaries pack too many African-American voters into the Commonwealth's 3rd District...
Speaker Unsure if House Will Vote on Right-to-Work in 2016 Ozarks First ...The state House’s Republicans have met to discuss priorities for the coming session, but their leader won’t predict an answer for one key question - whether right-to-work will come to a vote in his chamber. Many speculate that if backers in the state House can’t find more support for right-to-work than it had this year, when they failed to overturn Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) veto, it won’t be brought up for a vote...
The fight over right-to-work DPost.com ...The battle lines have formed for the Legislature’s 2016 debate on a right-to-work bill. The West Virginia Business and Industry Council (BIC) has made it its top priority and legislative leaders have it near the top of their to-do lists. Union opponents packed the House of Delegates’ largest meeting room during a November WVU presentation on the topic. Proponents say it will boost jobs and wages and lure new business to the state. Opponents say it will kill jobs, lower wages and do nothing to help business...
U.S. LABOR
Kohler Company forced back to bargaining table FightBack News ...As of last week, Kohler Company and United Auto Workers Local 833 went back to the bargaining table for negotiations amidst a strike now entering its fourth week. The negotiations come as company production at its facilities remain largely closed, with the overwhelming majority of members continuing the stand on their picket lines...
What Economic Recovery? A Good Job is Still Hard to Find Alternet ...Encouraging though it may be, the latest nationwide strong jobs report doesn’t change the big picture: the economic recovery, officially underway since June 2009, is still leaving millions of working Americans behind. Earlier this week, a new report from the Alliance for a Just Society highlights the failure of our economic policies to produce the full-time living wage jobs working people need to sustain their families...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New York City to Aid Immigrants Amid Stalled National Reforms New York Times ...Immigration reform may be in political and legal limbo nationally, but New York City is moving ahead on a plan of its own. The city will spend $7.9 million next year to boost its immigration services throughout the five boroughs, deploying community organizations to help residents seek free legal services to apply for protection from deportation or even for citizenship...
Video Shows LA Police Fatally Shoot Suspect in the Back as He Is Crawling Away Slate ...A shocking video has emerged that shows two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shoot and kill an armed suspect in Lynwood on Saturday as he is walking away. Perhaps most shocking of all is how the two police officers keep firing their guns even as the suspect was knocked to the ground and appears to be crawling away. The man, who died at the scene, was identified as 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson, a father of three...
Historic Climate Deal Reached, But Campaigners say the Work is Just Beginning Common Dreams ...The global talks known as COP21 ended Saturday with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a carbon emissions-slashing deal. But climate campaigners are saying that the agreement doesn't go far enough, and that the real work is just beginning. While Reuters described the deal's adoption as "setting the course for a 'historic' transformation of the world's fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming"...
Teamsters Testify About Republic Services' Radioactive Landfill Teamster.org ...On Tuesday, Teamsters testified at the St. Louis Tribunal that is investigating human rights violations against communities surrounding Republic Services’ West Lake Superfund landfill site in Bridgeton, Mo. The tribunal will report to the United Nations Human Rights and Environment Program.
An underground fire has been raging for five years at the West Lake complex...
Uber: On the Road to Nowhere American Prospect ...Working with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, hundreds of app-based drivers have helped persuade the Seattle City Council to vote initial approval—7 to 0—of a bill that would allow them to unionize. It would be the nation’s first law allowing app-based “independent contractor” drivers to unionize. A final vote is tentatively scheduled for December 14...
Chicago-Area Coca-Cola Refreshments Workers to Unite at Rally Local 727 ...Hundreds of Coca-Cola Refreshments workers will rally in solidarity and in continued support of their unfair labor practice strike on Monday, Dec. 14. More than 300 Teamsters Local 727-represented Coca-Cola Refreshments workers initiated an unfair labor practice strike Dec. 3 after the beverage industry behemoth continually violated federal labor laws by intimidating workers, circumventing the union and engaging in overall bad faith bargaining during negotiations for a new contract...
SEIU, Teamsters Mourn San Bernardino Dead Labor Press ....Most of the 15 people killed in the mass murder at a holiday party for county workers here Dec. 2 were union members. Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents San Bernardino County environmental health specialists, has identified 10 of the dead and 10 of the 21 people wounded as members, and the Teamsters said three of the dead and two of the wounded were members of Local 1932...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers Strike At Mexican Border Factory Fronteras ...At least 100 workers at a Mexican border factory in Ciudad Juárez are on strike protesting low wages and a hostile workplace. The factory packages printer ink for the American company Lexmark. The highest paid workers claim they earn 77 cents an hour. Several dozen workers who said they were fired this week after demanding a pay raise have set up a protest camp outside the factory...
Workers at Irish Life to hold one day strike Irish Times ...Workers at insurance giant Irish Life have voted to hold a one-day strike this Thursday. A dispute has been ongoing since the beginning of November, when four two-hour stoppages were held. The dispute centres on the company’s unilateral imposition of a new pay model...
Thousands of Morocco Public Employees Wage Strike Solidarity Center ...Thousands of public-sector employees rallied and marched as part of a national strike yesterday in which workers in local agencies and up to 80 percent in government ministries walked off the job. Workers seek to draw attention to the unwillingness of the government to negotiate with them on such issues as wages and retirement. The strike, held on International Human Rights Day, aimed to “defend the gains of retirement for workers, trade union freedoms, rights and dignity”...
House Passes Trade Component, but Trans-Pacific Partnership Still in Doubt Wall Street Journal ...The House passed a key component of President Barack Obama’s trade policy Friday, but tepid support among Republicans and business groups for his big Pacific trade agreement could keep that deal from coming to a vote until the final weeks of his presidency, if then. A customs bill that cleared the House on Friday gives American steel companies greater ability to challenge subsidized and dumped steel from China and other countries...
TPP faces US roadblock Financial Review ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership suffered a serious setback to being implemented by the pact's lead economy, after the powerful United States Senate leader stunned trade watchers by declaring Congress should not vote on the accord until after next November's presidential election. The blunt message from influential Republican Mitch McConnell means the TPP is likely to face at least 12 months in limbo...
House votes to boost enforcement of trade deals, block climate change provisions US News & World Report ...As negotiators in Paris worked to finalize a global agreement on climate change, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill Friday that would block trade deals from being used to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Supporters said the wide-ranging bill would beef up enforcement of U.S. trade agreements and help prevent counterfeit goods from entering the country...
The Empire Strikes Back: the Return of the WTO Counterpunch ...In the last two years, we have witnessed the rise of mega regional trade deals. TTIP is one such example of a potential trade deal between the US and the EU. These deals have many similarities. They are designed to open up new markets for global corporations and create the conditions for them to be as lucrative as possible...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
U.S. states pass laws backing Uber's view of drivers as contractors Reuters ...State legislators in Ohio and Florida are moving ahead with regulations governing Uber and other ride services that would designate all drivers as independent contractors, bolstering a critical but much-disputed aspect of Uber's business model. The states would join North Carolina, Arkansas, and Indiana in requiring the contractor designation as part of new laws governing so-called transportation network companies...
Federal judges to weigh in on redistricting 13 News Now ...Heading to court today: a potential change in Congressional district boundaries that would re-assign more than one million voters. Federal judges will weigh in on whether to proceed with redrawing Virginia's congressional districts, or wait for the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal. This comes after the court ruled the current boundaries pack too many African-American voters into the Commonwealth's 3rd District...
Speaker Unsure if House Will Vote on Right-to-Work in 2016 Ozarks First ...The state House’s Republicans have met to discuss priorities for the coming session, but their leader won’t predict an answer for one key question - whether right-to-work will come to a vote in his chamber. Many speculate that if backers in the state House can’t find more support for right-to-work than it had this year, when they failed to overturn Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) veto, it won’t be brought up for a vote...
The fight over right-to-work DPost.com ...The battle lines have formed for the Legislature’s 2016 debate on a right-to-work bill. The West Virginia Business and Industry Council (BIC) has made it its top priority and legislative leaders have it near the top of their to-do lists. Union opponents packed the House of Delegates’ largest meeting room during a November WVU presentation on the topic. Proponents say it will boost jobs and wages and lure new business to the state. Opponents say it will kill jobs, lower wages and do nothing to help business...
U.S. LABOR
Kohler Company forced back to bargaining table FightBack News ...As of last week, Kohler Company and United Auto Workers Local 833 went back to the bargaining table for negotiations amidst a strike now entering its fourth week. The negotiations come as company production at its facilities remain largely closed, with the overwhelming majority of members continuing the stand on their picket lines...
Construction workers rally in Manhattan for safer worksites AM New York ...Thousands of construction workers rallied outside of City Hall on Thursday, displaying a row of eight black coffins and demanding the city enforce stricter safety measures at construction sites. Many marchers claimed non-union workers posed greater risks at construction sites because they do not go through the same stringent safety requirements as their union counterparts...
WMUR booted from next Democratic debate Politico ...New Hampshire’s most influential television station is being pushed out of next week’s Democratic debate. The reason? A labor dispute between a handful of employees at the station, WMUR, and its owner, the Hearst Corporation. At issue is an accusation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1228 that WMUR is trying to strip pensions from about a dozen of its employees because they decided to join the union...
USW reviewing new U.S. Steel proposal NWI.com ...U.S. Steel has proposed a new contract to the United Steelworkers union, and local union presidents are headed to Pittsburgh to discuss it. Negotiations have been ongoing for six months. U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal, which have declined to comment on specifics during the contract talks, have both asked for concessions they say are necessary...
King Soopers and City Market Ratify Agreements with UFCW Local 7 PR Newswire ...The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today announced that associates working at King Soopers and City Market stores in Colorado have ratified new labor agreements with UFCW Local 7. The contracts cover more than 10,000 associates working in 103 stores, 36 fuel centers and pharmacy technicians in 78 pharmacies in Colorado, including Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Grand Junction, Longmont, Parker and Pueblo...
Seattle Considers Measure to Let Uber and Lyft Drivers Unionize New York Times ...The proposed law is the latest labor issue to bedevil Uber, which lets people hail rides through a smartphone app and takes a roughly 20 to 30 percent cut of each fare. Uber has faced questions about whether its workers should be classified as full-time employees instead of freelancers, and the company, based in San Francisco, is embroiled in a class-action lawsuit on the issue...
The Coming Chicago Teachers Union Strike Could Be a Watershed Moment for a City in Crisis In These Times ... The contract the union negotiated during that strike has expired, and CTU members began voting Wednesday on whether to authorize another walkout. Given the strong internal push to vote “yes” and assuming the union meets the legally required yes vote threshold of 75% of its members, we will likely see another Chicago teachers strike sometime next year. Yet a victory this time around will require more than proving that a strike can be a galvanizing tool for workers in the 21st century...What Economic Recovery? A Good Job is Still Hard to Find Alternet ...Encouraging though it may be, the latest nationwide strong jobs report doesn’t change the big picture: the economic recovery, officially underway since June 2009, is still leaving millions of working Americans behind. Earlier this week, a new report from the Alliance for a Just Society highlights the failure of our economic policies to produce the full-time living wage jobs working people need to sustain their families...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New York City to Aid Immigrants Amid Stalled National Reforms New York Times ...Immigration reform may be in political and legal limbo nationally, but New York City is moving ahead on a plan of its own. The city will spend $7.9 million next year to boost its immigration services throughout the five boroughs, deploying community organizations to help residents seek free legal services to apply for protection from deportation or even for citizenship...
Video Shows LA Police Fatally Shoot Suspect in the Back as He Is Crawling Away Slate ...A shocking video has emerged that shows two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shoot and kill an armed suspect in Lynwood on Saturday as he is walking away. Perhaps most shocking of all is how the two police officers keep firing their guns even as the suspect was knocked to the ground and appears to be crawling away. The man, who died at the scene, was identified as 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson, a father of three...
Historic Climate Deal Reached, But Campaigners say the Work is Just Beginning Common Dreams ...The global talks known as COP21 ended Saturday with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a carbon emissions-slashing deal. But climate campaigners are saying that the agreement doesn't go far enough, and that the real work is just beginning. While Reuters described the deal's adoption as "setting the course for a 'historic' transformation of the world's fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming"...
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.08.15
TEAMSTERS
More Facebook Drivers Join Teamsters, Ratify Strong Agreement Teamster.org ...Shuttle drivers who transport Facebook employees to and from work have joined Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., and ratified a strong agreement providing for significant wages, benefit improvements and gains mirroring or exceeding the Facebook/Loop Transportation contract already in place. These drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., will supplement the drivers who work for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation...
More Facebook shuttle drivers join Teamsters, get new contract USA Today ...The seven drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., a corporate transportation provider based in Burlingame, Calif., shuttle Facebook employees to and from work. They will supplement the 90 or so drivers working for Loop Transportation, which has a contract with Facebook. Back in February, those drivers approved a contract negotiated between Loop and Teamsters Local 853 of San Leandro, Calif...
It's Time to Take a Stand for Workers on TPP Huffington Post ...We serve as representatives of American organized workers on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN) and together have stated that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a bum deal we cannot support. By registering our dissent to the ACTPN report that endorses the agreement, the Teamsters, the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers are letting Congress and the public know this deal fails everyday Americans...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Industry Discord Threatens Quick Approval Of TPP Trade Agreement IBTimes ...Six years of negotiations on a massive free-trade agreement among Asia-Pacific nations have produced an accord that’s generating lukewarm support from corporate America. Skepticism from industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals and financial services is now dimming the prospects for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office...
WTO Orders Sanctions Unless US Cuts Consumer Labels, Disproving Obama TPP Claims Huffington Post ...Yesterday's World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the country-of-origin meat labels (COOL) that Americans rely on to make informed choices about their food provides a glaring example of how trade agreements can undermine U.S. public interest policies. The ruling is a nightmare for the Obama administration's uphill battle to build support for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is Part of Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” Global Research ...The TPPA aims to enforce a common regulatory framework structured around the norms of American trade policies that govern rules for tariffs and trade disputes, patents and intellectual property, foreign investment, and other areas. Despite a level of secrecy that barred even elected public representatives of participating countries from access to the deal’s draft, advisors from major multinational corporations played a consistent, key role in forming the deal’s proposed measures...
Scottish Cabinet to Be Handed Petition to Block TTIP Trade Deal With US Sputnik News ...A petition calling on the SNP-controlled Scottish government to oppose a controversial EU-US trade deal is due to go before the Cabinet on Tuesday, according to the anti-TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) grassroots movement. The TTIP trade deal has faced sharp criticism from activists and policymakers...
There is no EU solution to climate change as long as TTIP exists (opinion) Independent ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) now being negotiated between the EU and the USA exemplifies the contradiction between Europe’s rhetoric on free trade and climate change. The European Commission has admitted that TTIP represents a danger to biodiversity, natural resources and the environment...
IBEW and Ontario Northland reach deal Canadian Press ... A five-year agreement has been reached between the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Ontario Northland president Corina Moore says the company is pleased that an agreement has been reached with the union, which "has shown tremendous leadership and commitment to the company"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
3 minimum wages in Oregon? Lawmaker's proposal would do just that Oregon Live ...Hoping to avoid a ballot fight in 2016, a Democratic state senator is crafting a proposal for three minimum wages in Oregon. A draft bill by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, would divide the state into three regions — Portland, the Willamette Valley and everywhere else — with different minimums for each. The Portland metro area, including Washington and Clackamas counties, would have the highest...
Lincolnshire considers going 'right to work' in village limits Chicago Tribune ...The Lincolnshire Village Board might soon give unionized employees who work at private companies inside village boundaries the choice of whether or not to pay union dues. And a variety of interests from outside their boundaries might gather in Village Hall, either to support or protest the move...
Right-to-Work vote could cause lingering tension in Missouri Senate in 2016 Missourinet ...The 2016 legislative session could be tense at times in the Senate from the aftermath of Republicans forcing a vote on a right to work bill. The proposal would have prevented workers from having to pay union dues as a requirement for employment. Democrat Leader Joe Keaveny said some Democrats are still upset with Republicans. "I’ve got some that are still pretty energized and I’ve got some that would like to move on. I would like to see us work our way through this,” said Keaveny...
Civil Rights Commission Committee To Hold Hearing On Kansas Voter ID Law KCUR ...The Kansas voter ID law will be the subject of a U.S. Civil Rights Commission committee hearing next month. The Kansas voter ID law is one of most restrictive in the country. Pushed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, it demands voters not only have photo ID but they prove they are American citizens...
Koch-Funded Special Interest Groups and Utilities Bankrolling ALEC Meeting Truthout ...Koch-funded groups and utilities are bankrolling ALEC's closed-door winter meeting and parties for state legislators that are underway in Scottsdale, Arizona, at a luxury resort and spa. The three-day gathering is bringing together lobbyists and legislators to plan their 2016 bill agenda for the upcoming legislative session....
U.S. LABOR
UAW workers picketing outside Nexteer Automotive as strike begins MLive ...Workers represented by the UAW at Nexteer Automotive walked off their jobs at midnight Tuesday, Dec. 8, after the union failed to reach a new contract agreement with the company. Some of those workers appeared minutes later outside the gates of the sprawling manufacturing complex...
Unions For Workers At Detroit Casinos Reach Tentative Deal CBS ...Unions representing workers at Detroit’s three casinos have reached a tentative contract agreement that would cover about 7,000 workers. The Detroit Free Press reports the Detroit Casino Council, a consortium of four unions, reached the deal Sunday with Greektown Casino, MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity Casino...
Trump Las Vegas Workers Vote For UNITE HERE Union NH Labor News ...After two days of voting in a National Labor Relations Board election, a majority of workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas have voted “YES” to be represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 of UNITE HERE. Over 500 employees of the hotel are in the union’s bargaining units and were eligible to vote. Trump Las Vegas workers voted in the NLRB election on December 4 and 5 at their hotel...
UFCW Local 7 Grocery Workers Overwhelmingly Approve New Contracts UFCW ...Following three months of intense and challenging negotiations, members of UFCW Local 7 who work at King Soopers, Safeway and Albertsons stores in Denver, Colo., voted overwhelmingly to approve their new collective bargaining agreements. The new 40 month contracts are some of the best in the country...
Teacher contract dispute deepens, tests state law before union strike vote Chicago Tribune ...The school board has rejected the Chicago Teachers Union's demand to move contract talks to a final stage, setting up a new fight as teachers prepare to vote later this week on whether to authorize their leaders to call a strike. The union filed an unfair labor practice on Monday with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, demanding talks proceed to a fact-finding phase...
Day-Care Costs Can Drive a Family Into Poverty Before a Child Reaches Kindergarten The Nation ...The cost of daycare can drive a family into poverty before a child reaches kindergarten, but it’s also likely to impoverish her teacher first. While preschool programs are expanding nationwide, somehow, they cost parents everything while paying teachers nothing simultaneously. And childcare providers are so underfunded overall that the system leaves both teachers and families impoverished...
New report finds Americans lack economic mobility, opportunity PBS ...A report on poverty published on Thursday found a striking lack of economic mobility in America, that 43 percent of Americans born into families in the bottom fifth of the economic ladder are stuck there as adults, while 40 percent born in the top fifth stay there. The data was part of Opportunity, Responsibility and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Railroads Beat Back New Safety Rules After Derailments ABC ...A pair of train derailments in 2012 that killed two people in Maryland and triggered a fiery explosion in Ohio exposed a little-known and unsettling truth about railroads in the U.S. and Canada: No rules govern when rail becomes too worn down to be used for hauling hazardous chemicals, thousands of tons of freight or myriad other products on almost 170,000 miles of track...
Climate Inaction Risks Warming Far Beyond 2°C Threshold: Exxon (Yes, Exxon) Common Dreams ..Blink and you'll miss it, but one line in a recent Washington Post interview on climate change with experts from fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil offhandedly suggests a nightmarish, desperate future if global leaders don't act fast—one that centers around a possible average temperature rise of up to 7 or more degrees Celsius. "With no government action, Exxon experts told us during a visit to The Post last week, average temperatures are likely to rise by a catastrophic 5 degrees Celsius...
Trump New Low: Ban All Muslim Immigration to U.S. Daily Beast ...After weeks of ramping up rhetoric against worshippers of Islam, the Republican presidential frontrunner says they have a ‘great hatred towards Americans.’ Donald Trump said Monday as president he would halt all Muslim immigration to the United States. His xenophobic rhetoric has intensified in the last week...
'No human being is illegal': linguists argue against mislabeling of immigrants The Guardian ...Santa Ana is among many linguists who argue that the phrase “illegal immigrants” is neither “accurate nor neutral”. Other law-breakers are not referred to as illegal, making immigrants an outlier in the naming system, he said...
Trump and the “Low-Skilled” Labor Myth (opinion) New Republic ...In an otherwise sensible column about the limitations and possible consequences of dubbing Donald Trump a fascist, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat suggests that one of “the legitimate reasons” Trump’s campaign has endured so long is that conservative voters share a “reasonable skepticism about the bipartisan consensus favoring ever more mass low-skilled immigration”...
Chicago on the Brink After Release of New Police Killing Video Common Dreams ...Outraged citizens of Chicago say they are taking to the streets Monday night after the Cook County State's Attorney on Monday announced there will be no charges filed against the police officer who fatally shot Ronald Johnson III, a black man, last year—a decision that was prompted by what Johnson's family attorney described as "a whitewash, a cover-up"...
More Facebook Drivers Join Teamsters, Ratify Strong Agreement Teamster.org ...Shuttle drivers who transport Facebook employees to and from work have joined Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., and ratified a strong agreement providing for significant wages, benefit improvements and gains mirroring or exceeding the Facebook/Loop Transportation contract already in place. These drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., will supplement the drivers who work for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation...
More Facebook shuttle drivers join Teamsters, get new contract USA Today ...The seven drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., a corporate transportation provider based in Burlingame, Calif., shuttle Facebook employees to and from work. They will supplement the 90 or so drivers working for Loop Transportation, which has a contract with Facebook. Back in February, those drivers approved a contract negotiated between Loop and Teamsters Local 853 of San Leandro, Calif...
It's Time to Take a Stand for Workers on TPP Huffington Post ...We serve as representatives of American organized workers on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN) and together have stated that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a bum deal we cannot support. By registering our dissent to the ACTPN report that endorses the agreement, the Teamsters, the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers are letting Congress and the public know this deal fails everyday Americans...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Industry Discord Threatens Quick Approval Of TPP Trade Agreement IBTimes ...Six years of negotiations on a massive free-trade agreement among Asia-Pacific nations have produced an accord that’s generating lukewarm support from corporate America. Skepticism from industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals and financial services is now dimming the prospects for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office...
WTO Orders Sanctions Unless US Cuts Consumer Labels, Disproving Obama TPP Claims Huffington Post ...Yesterday's World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the country-of-origin meat labels (COOL) that Americans rely on to make informed choices about their food provides a glaring example of how trade agreements can undermine U.S. public interest policies. The ruling is a nightmare for the Obama administration's uphill battle to build support for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is Part of Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” Global Research ...The TPPA aims to enforce a common regulatory framework structured around the norms of American trade policies that govern rules for tariffs and trade disputes, patents and intellectual property, foreign investment, and other areas. Despite a level of secrecy that barred even elected public representatives of participating countries from access to the deal’s draft, advisors from major multinational corporations played a consistent, key role in forming the deal’s proposed measures...
Scottish Cabinet to Be Handed Petition to Block TTIP Trade Deal With US Sputnik News ...A petition calling on the SNP-controlled Scottish government to oppose a controversial EU-US trade deal is due to go before the Cabinet on Tuesday, according to the anti-TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) grassroots movement. The TTIP trade deal has faced sharp criticism from activists and policymakers...
There is no EU solution to climate change as long as TTIP exists (opinion) Independent ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) now being negotiated between the EU and the USA exemplifies the contradiction between Europe’s rhetoric on free trade and climate change. The European Commission has admitted that TTIP represents a danger to biodiversity, natural resources and the environment...
IBEW and Ontario Northland reach deal Canadian Press ... A five-year agreement has been reached between the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Ontario Northland president Corina Moore says the company is pleased that an agreement has been reached with the union, which "has shown tremendous leadership and commitment to the company"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
3 minimum wages in Oregon? Lawmaker's proposal would do just that Oregon Live ...Hoping to avoid a ballot fight in 2016, a Democratic state senator is crafting a proposal for three minimum wages in Oregon. A draft bill by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, would divide the state into three regions — Portland, the Willamette Valley and everywhere else — with different minimums for each. The Portland metro area, including Washington and Clackamas counties, would have the highest...
Lincolnshire considers going 'right to work' in village limits Chicago Tribune ...The Lincolnshire Village Board might soon give unionized employees who work at private companies inside village boundaries the choice of whether or not to pay union dues. And a variety of interests from outside their boundaries might gather in Village Hall, either to support or protest the move...
Right-to-Work vote could cause lingering tension in Missouri Senate in 2016 Missourinet ...The 2016 legislative session could be tense at times in the Senate from the aftermath of Republicans forcing a vote on a right to work bill. The proposal would have prevented workers from having to pay union dues as a requirement for employment. Democrat Leader Joe Keaveny said some Democrats are still upset with Republicans. "I’ve got some that are still pretty energized and I’ve got some that would like to move on. I would like to see us work our way through this,” said Keaveny...
Civil Rights Commission Committee To Hold Hearing On Kansas Voter ID Law KCUR ...The Kansas voter ID law will be the subject of a U.S. Civil Rights Commission committee hearing next month. The Kansas voter ID law is one of most restrictive in the country. Pushed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, it demands voters not only have photo ID but they prove they are American citizens...
Koch-Funded Special Interest Groups and Utilities Bankrolling ALEC Meeting Truthout ...Koch-funded groups and utilities are bankrolling ALEC's closed-door winter meeting and parties for state legislators that are underway in Scottsdale, Arizona, at a luxury resort and spa. The three-day gathering is bringing together lobbyists and legislators to plan their 2016 bill agenda for the upcoming legislative session....
U.S. LABOR
UAW workers picketing outside Nexteer Automotive as strike begins MLive ...Workers represented by the UAW at Nexteer Automotive walked off their jobs at midnight Tuesday, Dec. 8, after the union failed to reach a new contract agreement with the company. Some of those workers appeared minutes later outside the gates of the sprawling manufacturing complex...
Unions For Workers At Detroit Casinos Reach Tentative Deal CBS ...Unions representing workers at Detroit’s three casinos have reached a tentative contract agreement that would cover about 7,000 workers. The Detroit Free Press reports the Detroit Casino Council, a consortium of four unions, reached the deal Sunday with Greektown Casino, MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity Casino...
Trump Las Vegas Workers Vote For UNITE HERE Union NH Labor News ...After two days of voting in a National Labor Relations Board election, a majority of workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas have voted “YES” to be represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 of UNITE HERE. Over 500 employees of the hotel are in the union’s bargaining units and were eligible to vote. Trump Las Vegas workers voted in the NLRB election on December 4 and 5 at their hotel...
UFCW Local 7 Grocery Workers Overwhelmingly Approve New Contracts UFCW ...Following three months of intense and challenging negotiations, members of UFCW Local 7 who work at King Soopers, Safeway and Albertsons stores in Denver, Colo., voted overwhelmingly to approve their new collective bargaining agreements. The new 40 month contracts are some of the best in the country...
Teacher contract dispute deepens, tests state law before union strike vote Chicago Tribune ...The school board has rejected the Chicago Teachers Union's demand to move contract talks to a final stage, setting up a new fight as teachers prepare to vote later this week on whether to authorize their leaders to call a strike. The union filed an unfair labor practice on Monday with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, demanding talks proceed to a fact-finding phase...
Day-Care Costs Can Drive a Family Into Poverty Before a Child Reaches Kindergarten The Nation ...The cost of daycare can drive a family into poverty before a child reaches kindergarten, but it’s also likely to impoverish her teacher first. While preschool programs are expanding nationwide, somehow, they cost parents everything while paying teachers nothing simultaneously. And childcare providers are so underfunded overall that the system leaves both teachers and families impoverished...
New report finds Americans lack economic mobility, opportunity PBS ...A report on poverty published on Thursday found a striking lack of economic mobility in America, that 43 percent of Americans born into families in the bottom fifth of the economic ladder are stuck there as adults, while 40 percent born in the top fifth stay there. The data was part of Opportunity, Responsibility and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Railroads Beat Back New Safety Rules After Derailments ABC ...A pair of train derailments in 2012 that killed two people in Maryland and triggered a fiery explosion in Ohio exposed a little-known and unsettling truth about railroads in the U.S. and Canada: No rules govern when rail becomes too worn down to be used for hauling hazardous chemicals, thousands of tons of freight or myriad other products on almost 170,000 miles of track...
Climate Inaction Risks Warming Far Beyond 2°C Threshold: Exxon (Yes, Exxon) Common Dreams ..Blink and you'll miss it, but one line in a recent Washington Post interview on climate change with experts from fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil offhandedly suggests a nightmarish, desperate future if global leaders don't act fast—one that centers around a possible average temperature rise of up to 7 or more degrees Celsius. "With no government action, Exxon experts told us during a visit to The Post last week, average temperatures are likely to rise by a catastrophic 5 degrees Celsius...
Trump New Low: Ban All Muslim Immigration to U.S. Daily Beast ...After weeks of ramping up rhetoric against worshippers of Islam, the Republican presidential frontrunner says they have a ‘great hatred towards Americans.’ Donald Trump said Monday as president he would halt all Muslim immigration to the United States. His xenophobic rhetoric has intensified in the last week...
'No human being is illegal': linguists argue against mislabeling of immigrants The Guardian ...Santa Ana is among many linguists who argue that the phrase “illegal immigrants” is neither “accurate nor neutral”. Other law-breakers are not referred to as illegal, making immigrants an outlier in the naming system, he said...
Trump and the “Low-Skilled” Labor Myth (opinion) New Republic ...In an otherwise sensible column about the limitations and possible consequences of dubbing Donald Trump a fascist, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat suggests that one of “the legitimate reasons” Trump’s campaign has endured so long is that conservative voters share a “reasonable skepticism about the bipartisan consensus favoring ever more mass low-skilled immigration”...
Chicago on the Brink After Release of New Police Killing Video Common Dreams ...Outraged citizens of Chicago say they are taking to the streets Monday night after the Cook County State's Attorney on Monday announced there will be no charges filed against the police officer who fatally shot Ronald Johnson III, a black man, last year—a decision that was prompted by what Johnson's family attorney described as "a whitewash, a cover-up"...
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.2.15
TEAMSTERS
San Bernardino County Public Employees Ratify Teamster Contract Teamster.org ...San Bernardino County employees, who are members of Teamsters Local 1932, ratified their first collective bargaining agreement yesterday. The agreement, ratified by over 80 percent of the votes cast, supported improvements in wages and benefits for the 11,000 workers who provide critical services to the residents of California’s largest county. “This is another big win for working families in Southern California,” said Randy Cammack, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42...
American Airlines Workers with Teamsters, CWA Ratify Groundbreaking Agreement Teamster.org ...Passenger service workers with American Airlines, who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Association, have voted to ratify a groundbreaking five-year agreement.The contract covering nearly 15,000 workers provides for initial average wage increases of 30 percent and improved benefits, among a number of other industry-leading gains...
American Air reservations agents approve contract with pay raises USA Today ...American Airlines reservations agents have voted to ratify a 5-year contract that gives pay raises to about 14,500 airline employees. The Communications Workers of America and the Teamsters said Monday that about 9,500 workers voted, with 73% voting to ratify the contract. According to the unions, workers will get immediate raises averaging 30%, putting them above pay levels for comparable workers at Delta Air Lines...
First Transit Agrees to Meet Again After Paratransit Drivers Unanimously Reject Contract Offer Local 727 ...First Transit management has agreed to meet again with the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee after drivers at the DuPage paratransit facility unanimously rejected the company’s unreasonable last, best and final contract offer on Nov. 24. The offer included meager wages and benefits far below the industry standards. “Over and over, we told the company that this offer was unacceptable and that they needed to do better, but they refused to listen,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727...
Coca-Cola Teamsters Demand Respect as Final Day of New Contract Negotiations Begins Local 727 ...The Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee and Coca-Cola Refreshments met for more than 14 hours on Nov. 30 to try to come to terms on a new contract. After bargaining late into the night and early morning hours, both sides have returned to the table on Tuesday, Dec. 1 for what is expected to be another marathon session of negotiations. Coca-Cola Teamsters overwhelmingly voted on Sunday to authorize an unfair labor practice strike...
Teamsters oppose longer tractor-trailers on roadways Tire Business ...The U.S. Senate on Nov. 18 removed language from a spending bill that would force states to allow an increase in the length of tractor trailers. Previously, the Senate had instructed the chamber’s negotiators on the long-term highway bill to oppose any federal mandate that would require states to accept twin 33-foot trailers on their roadways, according to the Teamsters, which noted that the trailers are currently outlawed in 39 states — with UPS and Fed Ex among companies pushing the policy change...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
In South Korea, a Dictator’s Daughter Cracks Down on Labor The Nation ...Following in the footsteps of her dictator father, South Korea’s President, Park Geun-hye, is cracking down on labor and citizens groups opposed to the increasingly authoritarian policies of her ruling “New Frontier” party known as Saenuri. The situation could reach a critical point this weekend, when tens of thousands of workers organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) join forces with farmers, students, and other civic organizations...
At Paris climate summit, environmentalists lobby against Trans-Pacific trade deal Washington Post ...Environmental activists are traveling to Paris this week, using the global climate conference as a platform to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal they say undermines the summit’s goals. Representatives and lobbyists for the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade plan to meet with delegates and host strategy sessions and other public events at the Paris conference to voice their opposition to the trade deal...
On World AIDS Day, Here Are 12 Reasons TPP Is Bad for People with AIDS AFLCIO ...December 1 is World AIDS Day, a day described as "an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died." The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a complex trade deal that we're still trying to figure out all the ramifications of. Here are 12 ways TPP could be bad for people with AIDS...
The TPP State of Play: How We Defeat the Largest Trade Deal in History EFF ...The official release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on November 5 not only confirmed our fears about how it would threaten our rights online and over our digital devices, but also kicked off a 90-day countdown to President Obama signing the deal. A few days later, the White House formally requested the International Trade Commission (ITC) to begin its study of the impacts of the TPP on the U.S. economy...
Vancouver city council considering officially opposing TPP deal Globe and Mail ...Vancouver city councilors, concerned about whether the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact will put the city at risk from lawsuits by global corporations, say they’ll decide next month whether to become the first Canadian city to officially oppose the deal. Councillors asked city staff on Tuesday to examine concerns that the TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement provision – also known as ISDS – will compromise the city’s authority...
Greece Media Workers Go on Anti-Austerity Strike – Trade Unions Sputnik News ...Greek journalists protest on Wednesday against austerity measures adopted by Athens, several trade unions announced in a joint statement. "Media workers, together with all the working people of the country, call for retaining social security (basic and supplementary pensions), social benefits, health care," the unions stated...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New public-sector ‘right-to-work’ measure filed in Oregon NW Labor Press ...On Nov. 20, anti-union attorney Jill Gibson turned in the first batch of 1,432 signatures on a new Oregon ballot measure, aimed at November 2016, that would eliminate any requirement for public employees to pay union dues or “fair share” fees to cover the costs of union representation. Gibson submitted four other versions of the same measure in March, but withdrew them in April and October after she determined that the measures would do poorly among voters...
State Gives Back Government Money To Study Paid Leave, Says Leave Isn’t About Caregiving Think Progress ...In September, the federal Department of Labor announced that it had awarded $1.55 million in grant money to help states and cities research the need and design for potential paid family leave programs. Tennessee was one of the five lucky states to win money. But just two months later, the commission abruptly announced it was giving back the money it had itself applied for...
ALEC Invites Politicians to "Plan Your 2016 Agenda" at ALEC Confab in Scottsdale Truthout ...ALEC's Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force has been the source of a slew of anti-worker bills including attacks on organized labor, attacks on higher wages, and efforts to limit benefits for workers. In Arizona, legislators will get an update on the success of these efforts to crush the only representative of working families in the workplace entitled: "From Right-to-Work to Paycheck Protection, An Update on State Labor Issues"...
Fight against Voter ID law continues Daily Tarheel ...To chants of “Sí, se puede,” people of different ages, races and genders held posters with phrases like “Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears” at an N.C. NAACP press conference Tuesday. The news conference marked exactly 60 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. The conference announced the new “It’s Our Time, It’s Our Vote” campaign, with one of its goals to push voter registration for 80 days until registration cutoff for the spring primary elections...
Judge dismisses attempt to raise state minimum wage Daily Cardinal ...A Dane County judge dismissed Tuesday a 2014 lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker’s administration that attempted to raise the state’s minimum wage. The lawsuit, brought by liberal labor group Wisconsin Jobs Now, alleged the state was “failing to secure reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency, and moral well being,” according to the original petition...
Scott Walker Boots 15,000 People Off Food Stamps In Three Months Think Progress ...In just three months, 15,000 people in Wisconsin have already lost food stamps thanks to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) decision to enforce full work requirements for the program in Milwaukee despite economic conditions dire enough to trigger a federal reprieve. Walker’s administration made the policy change in April. The 15,000 bumped from the rolls from May to July is only half the number the state predicts will ultimately lose food stamps...
Ohio House Republicans to proceed carefully on 'right-to-work' bill Cleveland ...Ohio House Republicans say they expect a lengthy discussion on a so-called "right-to-work" bill, though they hesitate to say whether they will ultimately pass it. A number of Republican leaders say they personally support House Bill 377, which would prohibit private-sector labor union membership as a condition of employment...
Submitting to Wall Street Vultures, Puerto Rico Narrowly Avoids Massive Default Common Dreams ...Debt-choked Puerto Rico on Tuesday "narrowly avoided" economic default by scrounging together an 11th-hour payment toward its $354 million debt to Wall Street vulture funds, an unexpected move likely resulting from the island's submission to austerity cuts and other drastic government measures. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), speaking after a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning with Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, said the commonwealth had "narrowly avoided a complete default"...
California Cities Build Momentum on Minimum Wage Boosts KQED ...In the last three years, 15 of the 30 cities and counties nationwide that have voted to increase the minimum wage have been in California, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “California is a state that has made it very clear to cities and counties that they have the authority to pass a higher minimum wage,” said Laura Huizar, staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project...
Walmart Threatens City Council For Considering Minimum Wage Increase Think Progress ...A California city is experiencing a tactic Walmart has become known for: threats over a minimum wage hike. The city of Desert Hot Springs, California is considering a minimum wage increase to boost residents’ incomes and therefore help attract more retailers. But the proposal has drawn the protests of the country’s largest retailer, Walmart...
U.S. LABOR
UAW circulates 'scab' list in Kohler strike Sheboygan Press ...United Auto Workers Local 833 leaders have begun circulating a list of union members who have crossed picket lines in the now 2-week-old Kohler Co. strike, though they insist the individuals will be left alone. The list, which was obtained by the Sheboygan Press and verified by UAW Local 833 leaders, includes 13 circled names with the heading, “No longer our union brothers or sisters.” It goes on to state, “A scab is a scab”...
NLRB could impound VW ballots after Chattanooga union vote Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board could impound ballots cast Thursday and Friday after the union election at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant pending a review of an appeal by the automaker. Jessica Kahanek, an NLRB spokeswoman, said Tuesday she couldn't say for sure that will be the case after the VW election in which 164 maintenance workers will vote on whether they want the United Auto Workers to represent them for collective bargaining purposes...
Cool Job: For IBEW official, Circle of Lights is a labor of love IndyStar ...Around Thanksgiving, many Central Indiana families look forward to another beloved local holiday tradition when the Circle of Lights, presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and Electrical Workers of IBEW No. 481, illuminates Monument Circle. Steve Menser, the business manager/financial secretary of the union local, has assisted with installing the Circle of Lights decorations for the past 26 years...
Dead, White, and Blue: The Great Die-Off of America's Blue Collar Whites Alternet ...While the lifespan of affluent whites continues to lengthen, the lifespan of poor whites has been shrinking. As a result, in just the last four years, the gap between poor white men and wealthier ones has widened by up to four years. The New York Times summed up the Deaton and Case study with this headline: “Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap”...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Congress reaches deal on 5-year highway bill Politico ...Lawmakers are on track to clear a massive transportation infrastructure bill as soon as this week, a legislative coup a decade in the making that will give new House Speaker Paul Ryan something to crow about. Negotiators from both chambers of Congress tasked with hashing out a final deal are set to announce an agreement Tuesday afternoon after a majority of conferees signed off on the package...
Supreme Court timetable gives President Obama an opening on immigration USA Today ...The Supreme Court moved President Obama a step closer Tuesday to getting a final verdict before leaving office on his plan to protect more than 4 million undocumented immigrants from threatened deportation. The justices turned down Texas' request for an additional month to respond to the Justice Department's request for a high court hearing, leaving open the chance for a spring showdown over the controversial executive action...
The Deadliest County for Police Killings in America The Atlantic ...While attempting to track every police killing in the United States during 2015, journalists at The Guardian discovered that cops in Kern County aren’t just the deadliest force in the state relative to the population, they are the deadliest in the nation. “In all, 13 people have been killed so far this year by law enforcement officers in Kern County, which has a population of just under 875,000”...
Police Officer Who Killed Tamir Rice Says He Shouted Warnings Before Shooting Slate ...The police officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland just over a year ago said he “continuously” shouted “show me your hands” in the moments before he decided to fire at Rice. Security footage of the park where Rice was shot on Nov. 22, 2014, showed that Officer Timothy Loehmann opened fire about 1.7 seconds after jumping out of the police cruise...
San Bernardino County Public Employees Ratify Teamster Contract Teamster.org ...San Bernardino County employees, who are members of Teamsters Local 1932, ratified their first collective bargaining agreement yesterday. The agreement, ratified by over 80 percent of the votes cast, supported improvements in wages and benefits for the 11,000 workers who provide critical services to the residents of California’s largest county. “This is another big win for working families in Southern California,” said Randy Cammack, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42...
American Airlines Workers with Teamsters, CWA Ratify Groundbreaking Agreement Teamster.org ...Passenger service workers with American Airlines, who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Association, have voted to ratify a groundbreaking five-year agreement.The contract covering nearly 15,000 workers provides for initial average wage increases of 30 percent and improved benefits, among a number of other industry-leading gains...
American Air reservations agents approve contract with pay raises USA Today ...American Airlines reservations agents have voted to ratify a 5-year contract that gives pay raises to about 14,500 airline employees. The Communications Workers of America and the Teamsters said Monday that about 9,500 workers voted, with 73% voting to ratify the contract. According to the unions, workers will get immediate raises averaging 30%, putting them above pay levels for comparable workers at Delta Air Lines...
First Transit Agrees to Meet Again After Paratransit Drivers Unanimously Reject Contract Offer Local 727 ...First Transit management has agreed to meet again with the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee after drivers at the DuPage paratransit facility unanimously rejected the company’s unreasonable last, best and final contract offer on Nov. 24. The offer included meager wages and benefits far below the industry standards. “Over and over, we told the company that this offer was unacceptable and that they needed to do better, but they refused to listen,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727...
Coca-Cola Teamsters Demand Respect as Final Day of New Contract Negotiations Begins Local 727 ...The Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee and Coca-Cola Refreshments met for more than 14 hours on Nov. 30 to try to come to terms on a new contract. After bargaining late into the night and early morning hours, both sides have returned to the table on Tuesday, Dec. 1 for what is expected to be another marathon session of negotiations. Coca-Cola Teamsters overwhelmingly voted on Sunday to authorize an unfair labor practice strike...
Teamsters oppose longer tractor-trailers on roadways Tire Business ...The U.S. Senate on Nov. 18 removed language from a spending bill that would force states to allow an increase in the length of tractor trailers. Previously, the Senate had instructed the chamber’s negotiators on the long-term highway bill to oppose any federal mandate that would require states to accept twin 33-foot trailers on their roadways, according to the Teamsters, which noted that the trailers are currently outlawed in 39 states — with UPS and Fed Ex among companies pushing the policy change...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
In South Korea, a Dictator’s Daughter Cracks Down on Labor The Nation ...Following in the footsteps of her dictator father, South Korea’s President, Park Geun-hye, is cracking down on labor and citizens groups opposed to the increasingly authoritarian policies of her ruling “New Frontier” party known as Saenuri. The situation could reach a critical point this weekend, when tens of thousands of workers organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) join forces with farmers, students, and other civic organizations...
At Paris climate summit, environmentalists lobby against Trans-Pacific trade deal Washington Post ...Environmental activists are traveling to Paris this week, using the global climate conference as a platform to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal they say undermines the summit’s goals. Representatives and lobbyists for the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade plan to meet with delegates and host strategy sessions and other public events at the Paris conference to voice their opposition to the trade deal...
On World AIDS Day, Here Are 12 Reasons TPP Is Bad for People with AIDS AFLCIO ...December 1 is World AIDS Day, a day described as "an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died." The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a complex trade deal that we're still trying to figure out all the ramifications of. Here are 12 ways TPP could be bad for people with AIDS...
The TPP State of Play: How We Defeat the Largest Trade Deal in History EFF ...The official release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on November 5 not only confirmed our fears about how it would threaten our rights online and over our digital devices, but also kicked off a 90-day countdown to President Obama signing the deal. A few days later, the White House formally requested the International Trade Commission (ITC) to begin its study of the impacts of the TPP on the U.S. economy...
Vancouver city council considering officially opposing TPP deal Globe and Mail ...Vancouver city councilors, concerned about whether the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact will put the city at risk from lawsuits by global corporations, say they’ll decide next month whether to become the first Canadian city to officially oppose the deal. Councillors asked city staff on Tuesday to examine concerns that the TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement provision – also known as ISDS – will compromise the city’s authority...
Greece Media Workers Go on Anti-Austerity Strike – Trade Unions Sputnik News ...Greek journalists protest on Wednesday against austerity measures adopted by Athens, several trade unions announced in a joint statement. "Media workers, together with all the working people of the country, call for retaining social security (basic and supplementary pensions), social benefits, health care," the unions stated...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New public-sector ‘right-to-work’ measure filed in Oregon NW Labor Press ...On Nov. 20, anti-union attorney Jill Gibson turned in the first batch of 1,432 signatures on a new Oregon ballot measure, aimed at November 2016, that would eliminate any requirement for public employees to pay union dues or “fair share” fees to cover the costs of union representation. Gibson submitted four other versions of the same measure in March, but withdrew them in April and October after she determined that the measures would do poorly among voters...
State Gives Back Government Money To Study Paid Leave, Says Leave Isn’t About Caregiving Think Progress ...In September, the federal Department of Labor announced that it had awarded $1.55 million in grant money to help states and cities research the need and design for potential paid family leave programs. Tennessee was one of the five lucky states to win money. But just two months later, the commission abruptly announced it was giving back the money it had itself applied for...
ALEC Invites Politicians to "Plan Your 2016 Agenda" at ALEC Confab in Scottsdale Truthout ...ALEC's Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force has been the source of a slew of anti-worker bills including attacks on organized labor, attacks on higher wages, and efforts to limit benefits for workers. In Arizona, legislators will get an update on the success of these efforts to crush the only representative of working families in the workplace entitled: "From Right-to-Work to Paycheck Protection, An Update on State Labor Issues"...
Fight against Voter ID law continues Daily Tarheel ...To chants of “Sí, se puede,” people of different ages, races and genders held posters with phrases like “Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears” at an N.C. NAACP press conference Tuesday. The news conference marked exactly 60 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. The conference announced the new “It’s Our Time, It’s Our Vote” campaign, with one of its goals to push voter registration for 80 days until registration cutoff for the spring primary elections...
Judge dismisses attempt to raise state minimum wage Daily Cardinal ...A Dane County judge dismissed Tuesday a 2014 lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker’s administration that attempted to raise the state’s minimum wage. The lawsuit, brought by liberal labor group Wisconsin Jobs Now, alleged the state was “failing to secure reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency, and moral well being,” according to the original petition...
Scott Walker Boots 15,000 People Off Food Stamps In Three Months Think Progress ...In just three months, 15,000 people in Wisconsin have already lost food stamps thanks to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) decision to enforce full work requirements for the program in Milwaukee despite economic conditions dire enough to trigger a federal reprieve. Walker’s administration made the policy change in April. The 15,000 bumped from the rolls from May to July is only half the number the state predicts will ultimately lose food stamps...
Ohio House Republicans to proceed carefully on 'right-to-work' bill Cleveland ...Ohio House Republicans say they expect a lengthy discussion on a so-called "right-to-work" bill, though they hesitate to say whether they will ultimately pass it. A number of Republican leaders say they personally support House Bill 377, which would prohibit private-sector labor union membership as a condition of employment...
Submitting to Wall Street Vultures, Puerto Rico Narrowly Avoids Massive Default Common Dreams ...Debt-choked Puerto Rico on Tuesday "narrowly avoided" economic default by scrounging together an 11th-hour payment toward its $354 million debt to Wall Street vulture funds, an unexpected move likely resulting from the island's submission to austerity cuts and other drastic government measures. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), speaking after a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning with Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, said the commonwealth had "narrowly avoided a complete default"...
California Cities Build Momentum on Minimum Wage Boosts KQED ...In the last three years, 15 of the 30 cities and counties nationwide that have voted to increase the minimum wage have been in California, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “California is a state that has made it very clear to cities and counties that they have the authority to pass a higher minimum wage,” said Laura Huizar, staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project...
Walmart Threatens City Council For Considering Minimum Wage Increase Think Progress ...A California city is experiencing a tactic Walmart has become known for: threats over a minimum wage hike. The city of Desert Hot Springs, California is considering a minimum wage increase to boost residents’ incomes and therefore help attract more retailers. But the proposal has drawn the protests of the country’s largest retailer, Walmart...
U.S. LABOR
UAW circulates 'scab' list in Kohler strike Sheboygan Press ...United Auto Workers Local 833 leaders have begun circulating a list of union members who have crossed picket lines in the now 2-week-old Kohler Co. strike, though they insist the individuals will be left alone. The list, which was obtained by the Sheboygan Press and verified by UAW Local 833 leaders, includes 13 circled names with the heading, “No longer our union brothers or sisters.” It goes on to state, “A scab is a scab”...
NLRB could impound VW ballots after Chattanooga union vote Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board could impound ballots cast Thursday and Friday after the union election at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant pending a review of an appeal by the automaker. Jessica Kahanek, an NLRB spokeswoman, said Tuesday she couldn't say for sure that will be the case after the VW election in which 164 maintenance workers will vote on whether they want the United Auto Workers to represent them for collective bargaining purposes...
Cool Job: For IBEW official, Circle of Lights is a labor of love IndyStar ...Around Thanksgiving, many Central Indiana families look forward to another beloved local holiday tradition when the Circle of Lights, presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and Electrical Workers of IBEW No. 481, illuminates Monument Circle. Steve Menser, the business manager/financial secretary of the union local, has assisted with installing the Circle of Lights decorations for the past 26 years...
Dead, White, and Blue: The Great Die-Off of America's Blue Collar Whites Alternet ...While the lifespan of affluent whites continues to lengthen, the lifespan of poor whites has been shrinking. As a result, in just the last four years, the gap between poor white men and wealthier ones has widened by up to four years. The New York Times summed up the Deaton and Case study with this headline: “Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap”...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Congress reaches deal on 5-year highway bill Politico ...Lawmakers are on track to clear a massive transportation infrastructure bill as soon as this week, a legislative coup a decade in the making that will give new House Speaker Paul Ryan something to crow about. Negotiators from both chambers of Congress tasked with hashing out a final deal are set to announce an agreement Tuesday afternoon after a majority of conferees signed off on the package...
Supreme Court timetable gives President Obama an opening on immigration USA Today ...The Supreme Court moved President Obama a step closer Tuesday to getting a final verdict before leaving office on his plan to protect more than 4 million undocumented immigrants from threatened deportation. The justices turned down Texas' request for an additional month to respond to the Justice Department's request for a high court hearing, leaving open the chance for a spring showdown over the controversial executive action...
The Deadliest County for Police Killings in America The Atlantic ...While attempting to track every police killing in the United States during 2015, journalists at The Guardian discovered that cops in Kern County aren’t just the deadliest force in the state relative to the population, they are the deadliest in the nation. “In all, 13 people have been killed so far this year by law enforcement officers in Kern County, which has a population of just under 875,000”...
Police Officer Who Killed Tamir Rice Says He Shouted Warnings Before Shooting Slate ...The police officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland just over a year ago said he “continuously” shouted “show me your hands” in the moments before he decided to fire at Rice. Security footage of the park where Rice was shot on Nov. 22, 2014, showed that Officer Timothy Loehmann opened fire about 1.7 seconds after jumping out of the police cruise...
Monday, October 19, 2015
Today's Teamster News 10.19.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters, Elected Officials, Community Leaders Tell Safeway To Keep Jobs In Maryland Teamster.org ...Safeway employees, Teamsters, elected officials and community leaders in Maryland rallied today outside the Collingwood distribution center to protest Cerberus Capital Management’s (Safeway’s new owner) plan to shutter the facility in less than 60 days. Safeway’s warehouse operator C&S Wholesalers abruptly sent a WARN notice to union officials of Teamsters Local 639 and 730 announcing their plan to close the facility...
How the “Wal-Mart effect” squeezes workers in the vast infrastructure behind your groceries Washington Post ...In the early afternoon of Oct. 6, a couple of lawyers from a company called C&S Wholesale Grocers arrived at the union hall of Teamsters Local 639 in Northeast Washington. Phil Giles, the union’s vice president, was already worried. Ever since C&S's Collington Services unit took over warehouse operations for Safeway, the workers who moved goods in and out of two facilities in Landover and Upper Marlboro, Md., figured their jobs might be at risk...
Twenty Taylor Farms Workers Hospitalized After Company Tells Employees To Keep Working Amid Spill Teamster.org ...Workers at Taylor Farms in Tracy, Calif. were hospitalized yesterday after being told to return to work as a chemical spill took place inside the salad processing facility. When they complained about the overpowering fumes, a supervisor in charge instructed them to go back to work. “Taylor Farms’ routine mistreatment of its workers in Tracy knows no bounds, and yesterday it nearly amounted to a death sentence for its employees,” said Ashley Alvarado, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 601...
Coca-Cola syrup plant workers in Lehigh Valley vote to join union Morning Call ...About 80 workers at the Coca-Cola Lehigh Valley Syrup plant in Upper Macungie Township have voted to unionize for the first time. Brian Taylor, a trustee and organizer with Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown, said this week that workers voted 58-24 on Oct. 1 for union representation. He said the union next hopes to meet with management and negotiate a labor deal...
Teamster car-haulers reject contract proposal JOC ...Teamsters union negotiators are heading back to the table with carhauling employers after union members that haul automobiles rejected a new national contract last week. The tentative National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement, which covers about 6,000 Teamster carhaulers, was overwhelming rejected by rank-and-file union members. Out of the 2,865 Teamster carhaulers at 39 locals who voted Oct. 15, 2,493 or 87 percent rejected the contract...
School bus workers vow strike after rejecting final contract offer at Hauppauge meeting Newsday ...A narrow majority of voting workers for a Ronkonkoma-based school bus company that transports 15,000 Long Island children each school day voted Saturday to reject a final contract offer and vowed to strike. Teamsters Local 1205 officials instructed workers to go to work Monday, but to be prepared in the event a union representative is waiting, ready to lead them in a picket line...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Obama shrugs off Hillary’s opposition to Pacific trade deal Yahoo ...the president faces new opposition to the trade deal from Hillary Clinton, who not only served as his secretary of state but played a large role in advancing the agreement. In 2012, while it was still being negotiated, the future 2016 presidential candidate famously called it “the gold standard.” But at this week’s Democratic debate, she repudiated it...
Orrin Hatch holds cards on trade deal Politico ...No one fought harder to give President Barack Obama trade promotion authority to complete a landmark 12-nation deal than Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. Now, no lawmaker may be more disappointed with the result — or better positioned to torpedo the deal if he chooses to oppose it...
China lays out ‘countermeasures’ to offset exclusion from TPP Financial Times ...China has “countermeasures” that it can take to offset the negative economic impact of the country’s exclusion from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, its National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. Sheng Laiyun, NBS spokesman, waded into a growing debate in Beijing about the costs of being left out of the TPP...
TTIP is already letting big business shape our laws (opinion) Independent ...The concern about TTIP isn’t that "US standards are bad" and "European standards are good", but that policy-making across the world is already too geared to promoting the interests of big business. The VW scandal is just the most recent example of how serious the consequences of such a model are to our future. But TTIP will deepen that exact system...
Brazil's president backs finance minister, austerity drive Reuters ...Brazil President Dilma Rousseff on Sunday expressed support for Finance Minister Joaquim Levy and said the government will continue efforts to push austerity measures through Brazil's Congress. "Finance Minister Levy stays," Rousseff told reporters during a visit to Sweden, following a flurry of speculation in Brazilian media in recent days that the finance chief was getting ready to step down...
Greece Approves First Austerity Bill Wall Street Journal ...Greece’s lawmakers approved Friday the first bill containing tough austerity measures and economic overhauls agreed under its new bailout program. After a week-long debate, the bill, which includes stricter pension rules, tax hikes and tougher fines for tax evasion, was passed by the majority of Greece’s 300 lawmakers...
Children among Six Dead in Uzbek Cotton Harvest So Far Solidarity Center ...Six people, including two boys, one age 2, another age 17, died this month in circumstances related to Uzbekistan’s fall harvest, according to the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights. Uzbekistan primarily uses forced labor for cotton harvesting in September and October, and last year, at least 17 people died during the harvest season...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Prevailing Wage supporters will speak out for veterans WLNS ...Michigan war veterans who currently work in the construction industry will speak out in support of the state’s Prevailing Wage laws. The 50-year-old law requires workers on state-financed government construction projects to be paid local wage and benefit rates, which are based on union contracts...
Voters Could Change Ohio's Minimum Wage Daily Record ...A group has submitted initial petition language to the attorney general's office as part of an effort to increase Ohio's minimum wage. Stand Up Ohio wants the latter to be increased to $10 per hour as of Jan. 1, 2017, then upped 50 cents annually through 2021, when it would reach $12. After that, the rate would be adjusted for inflation...
After Destroying Homeless Camps, Hawaii Declares State Of Emergency On Homelessness Think Progress ...On Friday, Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) signed an emergency proclamation on the state of its homeless population. The state has come under scrutiny, however, for often dealing with its burgeoning homeless population by simply cracking down on those who are on the streets...
Clinton slams Alabama’s ‘discriminatory’ voter law The Hill ...Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Saturday accused Alabama lawmakers of advancing “discriminatory” laws to roll back voting rights, as she looks to shore up support with black voters. In her first visit to Alabama as a presidential candidate, Clinton elevated her call for voting rights as she condemned the state’s decision last week to close 31 driver’s license offices...
The States Where $15 Isn’t A Living Wage Think Progress ...A new report from The Alliance For A Just Society argues that $15 may still fall short of a living wage. The report defines a living wage as “…one that allows families to meet their basic needs, without public assistance, and that provides them some ability to deal with emergencies and plan ahead. It is not a poverty or survival wage.” The cost of living calculation they use has some cushion to it...
We've seen what happens without a prevailing wage in Michigan (opinion) Detroit Free Press ...Somehow in Michigan, the value of our state’s long-standing and valuable prevailing wage law has been turned into a union versus business issue, and has been presented by some lawmakers as something that adds expenses to the ultimate cost of taxpayer-funded state and local construction projects. Nothing could be further from the truth. But that’s not stopping a misguided effort in the Legislature to try to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage laws...
U.S. LABOR
UAW workers more positive about new Fiat Chrysler contract USA Today ...A better deal, greater efforts to explain it and negotiations fatigue might be enough to ratify the new tentative agreement between the United Auto Workers union and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Unionized Fiat Chrysler workers will vote Tuesday and Wednesday on whether to ratify a new contract that will govern their working lives for the next four years. The mood heading into the vote suggests ratification is possible, but far from assured...
NLRB rules United Steelworkers Union can continue to represent UniFirst employees TribLive ...While the United Steelworkers Union continues its stalemate with Allegheny Technologies, it can celebrate at least one recent victory. The National Labor Relations Board ruled Oct. 1 that the USW still rightfully represents the workers at UniFirst, in New Kensington. UniFirst is a national company that supplies uniforms and workplace products to businesses...
Leaked Documents Show How Harvard Administration Wants To Defeat Grad Student Union In These Times ...Harvard’s grad students have launched a union campaign, and Harvard’s administration has launched its response. Internal documents from the administration to the faculty, which were leaked to me, reveal some fascinating developments in these increasingly common anti-union drives of elite Ivy League universities. First, university administrations have grown highly sensitized to any perception that they or their faculty are using intimidation and coercion to bust unions of academic workers...
Workers Fight Back Against Racism, Wage Theft, Toxic Hazards, and Chronic Overwork at Brooklyn B&H Warehouse The Nation ... The workers accuse the famed photo-gadget emporium of discrimination against the largely Latino immigrant warehouse workforce. On a typical workday, according to a list of charges issued by workers and their legal counsel, workers labor several hours straight without eating or drinking, sometimes in sweltering heat...
Contract battle between NBC10 & IBEW Local 98 comes to an end Business Journal ...NBC10’s striking photographers and technicians voted Friday to ratify a new four-year contract after more than three weeks off the job, NBC10 and other sources confirmed Friday morning. A source told the Philadelphia Business Journal that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, who represents the striking workers, relented on one issue...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Prisoners' Families Organize to Resist Incarceration and Its Costs Truthout ...Across the United States, family members have similar stories of the financial costs of their loved ones' incarceration. In September 2015, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Forward Together and Research Action Design released "Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families." The report, which includes interviews, surveys and focus groups with formerly incarcerated people and family members in 14 states, examines the financial and emotional costs of incarceration...
Homan Square revealed: how Chicago police 'disappeared' 7,000 people The Guardian ...Police “disappeared” more than 7,000 people at an off-the-books interrogation warehouse in Chicago, nearly twice as many detentions as previously disclosed, the Guardian can now reveal. From August 2004 to June 2015, nearly 6,000 of those held at the facility were black, which represents more than twice the proportion of the city’s population. But only 68 of those held were allowed access to attorneys or a public notice of their whereabouts...
Rich Nations Failing to Meet Climate Obligations at Expense of Poor: Report Common Dreams ...The U.S. and other wealthy nations are not pulling their weight in the climate change fight and may be setting the world on an even more devastating climate track, a new report published Monday reveals. Globally, governments' pledges to limit greenhouse gas emissions are not adequate to stave off an average surface temperature warming of 2°C...
How the “Wal-Mart effect” squeezes workers in the vast infrastructure behind your groceries Washington Post ...In the early afternoon of Oct. 6, a couple of lawyers from a company called C&S Wholesale Grocers arrived at the union hall of Teamsters Local 639 in Northeast Washington. Phil Giles, the union’s vice president, was already worried. Ever since C&S's Collington Services unit took over warehouse operations for Safeway, the workers who moved goods in and out of two facilities in Landover and Upper Marlboro, Md., figured their jobs might be at risk...
Twenty Taylor Farms Workers Hospitalized After Company Tells Employees To Keep Working Amid Spill Teamster.org ...Workers at Taylor Farms in Tracy, Calif. were hospitalized yesterday after being told to return to work as a chemical spill took place inside the salad processing facility. When they complained about the overpowering fumes, a supervisor in charge instructed them to go back to work. “Taylor Farms’ routine mistreatment of its workers in Tracy knows no bounds, and yesterday it nearly amounted to a death sentence for its employees,” said Ashley Alvarado, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 601...
Coca-Cola syrup plant workers in Lehigh Valley vote to join union Morning Call ...About 80 workers at the Coca-Cola Lehigh Valley Syrup plant in Upper Macungie Township have voted to unionize for the first time. Brian Taylor, a trustee and organizer with Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown, said this week that workers voted 58-24 on Oct. 1 for union representation. He said the union next hopes to meet with management and negotiate a labor deal...
Teamster car-haulers reject contract proposal JOC ...Teamsters union negotiators are heading back to the table with carhauling employers after union members that haul automobiles rejected a new national contract last week. The tentative National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement, which covers about 6,000 Teamster carhaulers, was overwhelming rejected by rank-and-file union members. Out of the 2,865 Teamster carhaulers at 39 locals who voted Oct. 15, 2,493 or 87 percent rejected the contract...
School bus workers vow strike after rejecting final contract offer at Hauppauge meeting Newsday ...A narrow majority of voting workers for a Ronkonkoma-based school bus company that transports 15,000 Long Island children each school day voted Saturday to reject a final contract offer and vowed to strike. Teamsters Local 1205 officials instructed workers to go to work Monday, but to be prepared in the event a union representative is waiting, ready to lead them in a picket line...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Obama shrugs off Hillary’s opposition to Pacific trade deal Yahoo ...the president faces new opposition to the trade deal from Hillary Clinton, who not only served as his secretary of state but played a large role in advancing the agreement. In 2012, while it was still being negotiated, the future 2016 presidential candidate famously called it “the gold standard.” But at this week’s Democratic debate, she repudiated it...
Orrin Hatch holds cards on trade deal Politico ...No one fought harder to give President Barack Obama trade promotion authority to complete a landmark 12-nation deal than Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. Now, no lawmaker may be more disappointed with the result — or better positioned to torpedo the deal if he chooses to oppose it...
China lays out ‘countermeasures’ to offset exclusion from TPP Financial Times ...China has “countermeasures” that it can take to offset the negative economic impact of the country’s exclusion from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, its National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. Sheng Laiyun, NBS spokesman, waded into a growing debate in Beijing about the costs of being left out of the TPP...
TTIP is already letting big business shape our laws (opinion) Independent ...The concern about TTIP isn’t that "US standards are bad" and "European standards are good", but that policy-making across the world is already too geared to promoting the interests of big business. The VW scandal is just the most recent example of how serious the consequences of such a model are to our future. But TTIP will deepen that exact system...
Brazil's president backs finance minister, austerity drive Reuters ...Brazil President Dilma Rousseff on Sunday expressed support for Finance Minister Joaquim Levy and said the government will continue efforts to push austerity measures through Brazil's Congress. "Finance Minister Levy stays," Rousseff told reporters during a visit to Sweden, following a flurry of speculation in Brazilian media in recent days that the finance chief was getting ready to step down...
Greece Approves First Austerity Bill Wall Street Journal ...Greece’s lawmakers approved Friday the first bill containing tough austerity measures and economic overhauls agreed under its new bailout program. After a week-long debate, the bill, which includes stricter pension rules, tax hikes and tougher fines for tax evasion, was passed by the majority of Greece’s 300 lawmakers...
Children among Six Dead in Uzbek Cotton Harvest So Far Solidarity Center ...Six people, including two boys, one age 2, another age 17, died this month in circumstances related to Uzbekistan’s fall harvest, according to the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights. Uzbekistan primarily uses forced labor for cotton harvesting in September and October, and last year, at least 17 people died during the harvest season...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Prevailing Wage supporters will speak out for veterans WLNS ...Michigan war veterans who currently work in the construction industry will speak out in support of the state’s Prevailing Wage laws. The 50-year-old law requires workers on state-financed government construction projects to be paid local wage and benefit rates, which are based on union contracts...
Voters Could Change Ohio's Minimum Wage Daily Record ...A group has submitted initial petition language to the attorney general's office as part of an effort to increase Ohio's minimum wage. Stand Up Ohio wants the latter to be increased to $10 per hour as of Jan. 1, 2017, then upped 50 cents annually through 2021, when it would reach $12. After that, the rate would be adjusted for inflation...
After Destroying Homeless Camps, Hawaii Declares State Of Emergency On Homelessness Think Progress ...On Friday, Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) signed an emergency proclamation on the state of its homeless population. The state has come under scrutiny, however, for often dealing with its burgeoning homeless population by simply cracking down on those who are on the streets...
Clinton slams Alabama’s ‘discriminatory’ voter law The Hill ...Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Saturday accused Alabama lawmakers of advancing “discriminatory” laws to roll back voting rights, as she looks to shore up support with black voters. In her first visit to Alabama as a presidential candidate, Clinton elevated her call for voting rights as she condemned the state’s decision last week to close 31 driver’s license offices...
The States Where $15 Isn’t A Living Wage Think Progress ...A new report from The Alliance For A Just Society argues that $15 may still fall short of a living wage. The report defines a living wage as “…one that allows families to meet their basic needs, without public assistance, and that provides them some ability to deal with emergencies and plan ahead. It is not a poverty or survival wage.” The cost of living calculation they use has some cushion to it...
We've seen what happens without a prevailing wage in Michigan (opinion) Detroit Free Press ...Somehow in Michigan, the value of our state’s long-standing and valuable prevailing wage law has been turned into a union versus business issue, and has been presented by some lawmakers as something that adds expenses to the ultimate cost of taxpayer-funded state and local construction projects. Nothing could be further from the truth. But that’s not stopping a misguided effort in the Legislature to try to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage laws...
U.S. LABOR
UAW workers more positive about new Fiat Chrysler contract USA Today ...A better deal, greater efforts to explain it and negotiations fatigue might be enough to ratify the new tentative agreement between the United Auto Workers union and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Unionized Fiat Chrysler workers will vote Tuesday and Wednesday on whether to ratify a new contract that will govern their working lives for the next four years. The mood heading into the vote suggests ratification is possible, but far from assured...
NLRB rules United Steelworkers Union can continue to represent UniFirst employees TribLive ...While the United Steelworkers Union continues its stalemate with Allegheny Technologies, it can celebrate at least one recent victory. The National Labor Relations Board ruled Oct. 1 that the USW still rightfully represents the workers at UniFirst, in New Kensington. UniFirst is a national company that supplies uniforms and workplace products to businesses...
Leaked Documents Show How Harvard Administration Wants To Defeat Grad Student Union In These Times ...Harvard’s grad students have launched a union campaign, and Harvard’s administration has launched its response. Internal documents from the administration to the faculty, which were leaked to me, reveal some fascinating developments in these increasingly common anti-union drives of elite Ivy League universities. First, university administrations have grown highly sensitized to any perception that they or their faculty are using intimidation and coercion to bust unions of academic workers...
Workers Fight Back Against Racism, Wage Theft, Toxic Hazards, and Chronic Overwork at Brooklyn B&H Warehouse The Nation ... The workers accuse the famed photo-gadget emporium of discrimination against the largely Latino immigrant warehouse workforce. On a typical workday, according to a list of charges issued by workers and their legal counsel, workers labor several hours straight without eating or drinking, sometimes in sweltering heat...
Contract battle between NBC10 & IBEW Local 98 comes to an end Business Journal ...NBC10’s striking photographers and technicians voted Friday to ratify a new four-year contract after more than three weeks off the job, NBC10 and other sources confirmed Friday morning. A source told the Philadelphia Business Journal that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, who represents the striking workers, relented on one issue...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Prisoners' Families Organize to Resist Incarceration and Its Costs Truthout ...Across the United States, family members have similar stories of the financial costs of their loved ones' incarceration. In September 2015, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Forward Together and Research Action Design released "Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families." The report, which includes interviews, surveys and focus groups with formerly incarcerated people and family members in 14 states, examines the financial and emotional costs of incarceration...
Homan Square revealed: how Chicago police 'disappeared' 7,000 people The Guardian ...Police “disappeared” more than 7,000 people at an off-the-books interrogation warehouse in Chicago, nearly twice as many detentions as previously disclosed, the Guardian can now reveal. From August 2004 to June 2015, nearly 6,000 of those held at the facility were black, which represents more than twice the proportion of the city’s population. But only 68 of those held were allowed access to attorneys or a public notice of their whereabouts...
Rich Nations Failing to Meet Climate Obligations at Expense of Poor: Report Common Dreams ...The U.S. and other wealthy nations are not pulling their weight in the climate change fight and may be setting the world on an even more devastating climate track, a new report published Monday reveals. Globally, governments' pledges to limit greenhouse gas emissions are not adequate to stave off an average surface temperature warming of 2°C...
Monday, October 5, 2015
Today's Teamster News 10.05.15
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa Says Tenuous TPP Agreement Does Not Listen to Workers' Concerns Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to trade officials reaching an agreement on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal which would lead to thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas and unsafe food and products flooding our store shelves. “Bum trade deals like NAFTA have killed upwards of 1 million U.S. jobs, many of which moved abroad. And that’s the concern with the looming TPP"...
Don't break faith with workers on multiemployer pension plans: Marcy Kaptur and James P. Hoffa (opinion) Cleveland Plain Dealer ...This year, as we celebrate its 41st anniversary, ERISA's pension protections are crumbling. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Department held a hearing in Washington, D.C., on finalizing a rule that opens the door to significant pension cuts including for current retirees. More than 100 retirees traveled to Washington, D.C., at their own expense to protest, and dozens spoke out against the rule at the hearing...
Union Continues Fight for CVS Pharmacists’ Breaks Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 representatives continue to fight to ensure CVS pharmacist members are no longer denied their breaks and meal periods. Earlier this year, the union filed a grievance on behalf of all members for the company’s denial of uninterrupted breaks and meal periods. CVS management refused to work with the union to resolve the grievance, so Local 727’s legal department is taking the case to arbitration...
Strike, protests could happen for tech bus drivers, union warns SF Gate ...A union representing tech bus drivers warned members to prepare to strike if their employer, Compass Transportation, refuses to budge on giving them better health care benefits and more holidays. The drivers shuttle employees for large companies, including Apple, Genentech, Yahoo, eBay, PayPal and Evernote, and are represented by the Teamsters Union...
Teamsters Demand Reinstatement of Haitian Worker Unfairly Dismissed From Heineken Plant Teamsters Canada ...On September 1st, Wilson Celiné, an employee of Brasserie Nationale d’Haïti, showed up for work as usual, only to be handed a dismissal letter. Hired as a maintenance technician in 2006 by this subsidiary of multinational Heineken International, this engineer by profession and labour activist incurred the wrath of his employer by participating in a union activity and filing a complaint...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached New York Times ...The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. The Trans-Pacific Partnership still faces months of debate in Congress...
Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific Partnership Reuters ...Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal on the most sweeping trade liberalization pact in a generation that will cut trade barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an official familiar with the talks said on Monday. Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments...
Sanders blasts ‘disastrous’ Obama trade deal The Hill ...Sen. Bernie Sanders labeled a new trade deal finalized by the Obama administration on Monday as “disastrous,” and said he would work to defeat it. Sanders, the Vermont senator leading Hillary Clinton in polls of New Hampshire, said the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal will lead to the loss of U.S. jobs, adding he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the decision to complete it. “Wall Street and other big corporations have won again,” Sanders said...
TPP Would Include Auto Market Opening for Japan New York Times ...A U.S.-Japan agreement on autos trade as part of a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal would have its own dispute settlement mechanism, including penalties, if Japan does not open its market enough to U.S. vehicles, a source close to the negotiations said on Friday. Negotiators are working to finalize a trade deal which would stretch from Japan to Peru and autos trade has been one of a few remaining and politically charged sticking points...
If There Really Is a Final TPP Deal: Can It Pass Congress? When Does Congress Get to See a Final Text? Citizen.org ...If there really is a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, its fate in Congress is highly uncertain given the narrow margin by which trade authority passed this summer, the concessions made to get a deal, and growing congressional and public concerns about the TPP’s threats to jobs, wages, safe food and affordable medicines and more...
Australia, US reach trade compromise Business Review ...The US and Australia are in agreement on an elaborate compromise within the Trans-Pacific Partnership to protect the intellectual property of complex drugs known as biologics, according to industry officials and an organisation following the talks. Under the bilateral deal, whose exact language is believed to be incomplete, countries in the trade bloc would have an alternative of either providing eight years of exclusivity to biologic drugs, or providing five years of so-called data exclusivity...
Three million people across Europe call for TTIP to be scrapped Economic Voice ...A Europe-wide petition calling for a halt to the trade deals being negotiated between the EU and the USA and Canada has reached three million signatures in the space of one year, days before it will be delivered to the European Commission in Brussels. Over 500,000 of the signatures that had been collected were from people resident in the UK. This morning 3,007,065 had signed the petition...
Anti-austerity protesters march in Manchester The Guardian ...Tens of thousands of people have joined an anti-austerity protest in Manchester on the opening day of the Conservative party conference, voicing opposition to policies including spending and benefit cuts, NHS reforms and restrictions on trade unions. Up to 60,000 people are said to have joined the demonstration, which was largely peaceful...
South Africa Coal Wage Strike Starts With No Dialog Planned Bloomberg ...The largest labor union at South Africa’s biggest coal producers said no meetings are planned with the companies after a wage strike started on Sunday night. “Our members have downed tools and supported our call for a strike,” Livhuwani Mammburu, a spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers, which represents about 30,000 staff in the sector, said by phone on Monday. No meetings are scheduled with producers, including Anglo American Plc, Glencore Plc and Exxaro Resources Ltd., he said...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Back In Court For Discriminating Against Students And Veterans Think Progress ...Wisconsin once again has to defend its voter ID law in federal court, this time responding to a challenge to the law’s exclusion of veterans’ IDs, technical college IDs, and out-of-state drivers’ licenses. Staff attorney Sean Young with the American Civil Liberties Union will argue before the federal district court in Milwaukee on Monday, asking them to allow these alternative IDs to be added to the state’s strict list of acceptable documents...
Tough voter ID rules pull Kansas into multiple lawsuits Salina Journal ...Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s successful push to require new Kansas voters to document their U.S. citizenship has spawned three lawsuits, including one he pursued against a federal agency in trying to enforce the policy. Kansas is one of only four states that make new voters show a birth certificate, passport or other citizenship papers. The Kansas requirement took effect in 2013...
Hoffa Says Tenuous TPP Agreement Does Not Listen to Workers' Concerns Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to trade officials reaching an agreement on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal which would lead to thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas and unsafe food and products flooding our store shelves. “Bum trade deals like NAFTA have killed upwards of 1 million U.S. jobs, many of which moved abroad. And that’s the concern with the looming TPP"...
Don't break faith with workers on multiemployer pension plans: Marcy Kaptur and James P. Hoffa (opinion) Cleveland Plain Dealer ...This year, as we celebrate its 41st anniversary, ERISA's pension protections are crumbling. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Department held a hearing in Washington, D.C., on finalizing a rule that opens the door to significant pension cuts including for current retirees. More than 100 retirees traveled to Washington, D.C., at their own expense to protest, and dozens spoke out against the rule at the hearing...
Union Continues Fight for CVS Pharmacists’ Breaks Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 representatives continue to fight to ensure CVS pharmacist members are no longer denied their breaks and meal periods. Earlier this year, the union filed a grievance on behalf of all members for the company’s denial of uninterrupted breaks and meal periods. CVS management refused to work with the union to resolve the grievance, so Local 727’s legal department is taking the case to arbitration...
Strike, protests could happen for tech bus drivers, union warns SF Gate ...A union representing tech bus drivers warned members to prepare to strike if their employer, Compass Transportation, refuses to budge on giving them better health care benefits and more holidays. The drivers shuttle employees for large companies, including Apple, Genentech, Yahoo, eBay, PayPal and Evernote, and are represented by the Teamsters Union...
Teamsters Demand Reinstatement of Haitian Worker Unfairly Dismissed From Heineken Plant Teamsters Canada ...On September 1st, Wilson Celiné, an employee of Brasserie Nationale d’Haïti, showed up for work as usual, only to be handed a dismissal letter. Hired as a maintenance technician in 2006 by this subsidiary of multinational Heineken International, this engineer by profession and labour activist incurred the wrath of his employer by participating in a union activity and filing a complaint...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached New York Times ...The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. The Trans-Pacific Partnership still faces months of debate in Congress...
Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific Partnership Reuters ...Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal on the most sweeping trade liberalization pact in a generation that will cut trade barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an official familiar with the talks said on Monday. Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments...
Sanders blasts ‘disastrous’ Obama trade deal The Hill ...Sen. Bernie Sanders labeled a new trade deal finalized by the Obama administration on Monday as “disastrous,” and said he would work to defeat it. Sanders, the Vermont senator leading Hillary Clinton in polls of New Hampshire, said the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal will lead to the loss of U.S. jobs, adding he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the decision to complete it. “Wall Street and other big corporations have won again,” Sanders said...
TPP Would Include Auto Market Opening for Japan New York Times ...A U.S.-Japan agreement on autos trade as part of a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal would have its own dispute settlement mechanism, including penalties, if Japan does not open its market enough to U.S. vehicles, a source close to the negotiations said on Friday. Negotiators are working to finalize a trade deal which would stretch from Japan to Peru and autos trade has been one of a few remaining and politically charged sticking points...
If There Really Is a Final TPP Deal: Can It Pass Congress? When Does Congress Get to See a Final Text? Citizen.org ...If there really is a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, its fate in Congress is highly uncertain given the narrow margin by which trade authority passed this summer, the concessions made to get a deal, and growing congressional and public concerns about the TPP’s threats to jobs, wages, safe food and affordable medicines and more...
Australia, US reach trade compromise Business Review ...The US and Australia are in agreement on an elaborate compromise within the Trans-Pacific Partnership to protect the intellectual property of complex drugs known as biologics, according to industry officials and an organisation following the talks. Under the bilateral deal, whose exact language is believed to be incomplete, countries in the trade bloc would have an alternative of either providing eight years of exclusivity to biologic drugs, or providing five years of so-called data exclusivity...
Three million people across Europe call for TTIP to be scrapped Economic Voice ...A Europe-wide petition calling for a halt to the trade deals being negotiated between the EU and the USA and Canada has reached three million signatures in the space of one year, days before it will be delivered to the European Commission in Brussels. Over 500,000 of the signatures that had been collected were from people resident in the UK. This morning 3,007,065 had signed the petition...
Anti-austerity protesters march in Manchester The Guardian ...Tens of thousands of people have joined an anti-austerity protest in Manchester on the opening day of the Conservative party conference, voicing opposition to policies including spending and benefit cuts, NHS reforms and restrictions on trade unions. Up to 60,000 people are said to have joined the demonstration, which was largely peaceful...
South Africa Coal Wage Strike Starts With No Dialog Planned Bloomberg ...The largest labor union at South Africa’s biggest coal producers said no meetings are planned with the companies after a wage strike started on Sunday night. “Our members have downed tools and supported our call for a strike,” Livhuwani Mammburu, a spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers, which represents about 30,000 staff in the sector, said by phone on Monday. No meetings are scheduled with producers, including Anglo American Plc, Glencore Plc and Exxaro Resources Ltd., he said...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Back In Court For Discriminating Against Students And Veterans Think Progress ...Wisconsin once again has to defend its voter ID law in federal court, this time responding to a challenge to the law’s exclusion of veterans’ IDs, technical college IDs, and out-of-state drivers’ licenses. Staff attorney Sean Young with the American Civil Liberties Union will argue before the federal district court in Milwaukee on Monday, asking them to allow these alternative IDs to be added to the state’s strict list of acceptable documents...
Tough voter ID rules pull Kansas into multiple lawsuits Salina Journal ...Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s successful push to require new Kansas voters to document their U.S. citizenship has spawned three lawsuits, including one he pursued against a federal agency in trying to enforce the policy. Kansas is one of only four states that make new voters show a birth certificate, passport or other citizenship papers. The Kansas requirement took effect in 2013...
Right-to-work issue prompts push in Republican Party Joplin Globe ...In the wake of the right-to-work fight in Missouri this year, some conservative business leaders and organizations have launched a two-pronged push that, if successful, could bring changes to the state's work environment, its education and legal systems, and more. But some Republicans fear one part of that push could end up dividing the party...
Prevailing wage backers push for public vote on repeal Detroit News ...The best chance advocates have to save a Michigan law that promises better wages on public works projects is if Republican legislators ignore a petition initiative and instead let voters decide the fate of prevailing wage. The 50-year-old statute requires workers on state-financed government construction projects to be paid local wage and benefit rates, which are based on union contracts...
Koch Brothers Backing Misleading Anti-Solar Campaign in Florida Truthout ...The Koch brothers and utility giants are bankrolling a ballot initiative in Florida to block the development of home solar and to protect the utilities' continuing oligopoly on energy generation in the Sunshine State. Solar is booming in the U.S., with a thirty percent increase in generation in 2014, but surprisingly it's facing an uphill battle in Florida...
Brown proposes paid sick leave Journal-News ...Federal legislation introduced last month would mandate employers provide some form of sick days, to use to heal or to care for a sick family member. While some business professionals understand the need, they say it may not be practical. Congress is considering the Healthy Families Act, a bill that’s being pushed by 30 senators in the Senate, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio...
Lawsuit Against St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike In Court Tomorrow CBS ...It’s business versus the city in court tomorrow. St. Louis is 10 days away from a minimum wage increase to $8.25 per hour, and eventually up to $11 per hour in 2018. But Attorney Jane Dueker is representing a coalition of business groups against the minimum wage hike. Her side believes the city is not able to raise the minimum wage to higher than what the state requires...
U.S. LABOR
Bankruptcy Lawyers Strip Cash from Coal Miners’ Health Insurance Pro Publica ...As coal companies go bankrupt or shut down throughout Appalachia and parts of the Midwest, the immediate fallout includes lost jobs and devastated communities. But the Indiana case stands out as an example of how financial deals hatched far from coal country can also endanger the future safety net. At issue is health insurance promised to people who worked for the Squaw Creek Coal Company in Warrick County, Indiana...
UAW, Fiat officials miscalculated young worker angst USA Today ...UAW negotiators failed to understand the deep hostility of entry-level workers who, instead of taking a substantial raise, chose to join forces with higher-paid veterans to resoundingly defeat a proposed, four-year deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Entry-level workers, referred to as Tier 2, have been stuck in a separate, lower pay range since 2007...
Frontier strikes deals with IBEW unions in California, Florida Fierce Telecom ...Frontier has reached union labor agreements with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) AFL-CIO in California and Florida, allowing it to move forward with its $10.5 billion acquisition of Verizon's wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas that's expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016. The IBEW local unions in California and Florida said in separate statements that they support the deal...
Prevailing wage backers push for public vote on repeal Detroit News ...The best chance advocates have to save a Michigan law that promises better wages on public works projects is if Republican legislators ignore a petition initiative and instead let voters decide the fate of prevailing wage. The 50-year-old statute requires workers on state-financed government construction projects to be paid local wage and benefit rates, which are based on union contracts...
Koch Brothers Backing Misleading Anti-Solar Campaign in Florida Truthout ...The Koch brothers and utility giants are bankrolling a ballot initiative in Florida to block the development of home solar and to protect the utilities' continuing oligopoly on energy generation in the Sunshine State. Solar is booming in the U.S., with a thirty percent increase in generation in 2014, but surprisingly it's facing an uphill battle in Florida...
Brown proposes paid sick leave Journal-News ...Federal legislation introduced last month would mandate employers provide some form of sick days, to use to heal or to care for a sick family member. While some business professionals understand the need, they say it may not be practical. Congress is considering the Healthy Families Act, a bill that’s being pushed by 30 senators in the Senate, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio...
Lawsuit Against St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike In Court Tomorrow CBS ...It’s business versus the city in court tomorrow. St. Louis is 10 days away from a minimum wage increase to $8.25 per hour, and eventually up to $11 per hour in 2018. But Attorney Jane Dueker is representing a coalition of business groups against the minimum wage hike. Her side believes the city is not able to raise the minimum wage to higher than what the state requires...
U.S. LABOR
Bankruptcy Lawyers Strip Cash from Coal Miners’ Health Insurance Pro Publica ...As coal companies go bankrupt or shut down throughout Appalachia and parts of the Midwest, the immediate fallout includes lost jobs and devastated communities. But the Indiana case stands out as an example of how financial deals hatched far from coal country can also endanger the future safety net. At issue is health insurance promised to people who worked for the Squaw Creek Coal Company in Warrick County, Indiana...
UAW, Fiat officials miscalculated young worker angst USA Today ...UAW negotiators failed to understand the deep hostility of entry-level workers who, instead of taking a substantial raise, chose to join forces with higher-paid veterans to resoundingly defeat a proposed, four-year deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Entry-level workers, referred to as Tier 2, have been stuck in a separate, lower pay range since 2007...
Frontier strikes deals with IBEW unions in California, Florida Fierce Telecom ...Frontier has reached union labor agreements with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) AFL-CIO in California and Florida, allowing it to move forward with its $10.5 billion acquisition of Verizon's wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas that's expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016. The IBEW local unions in California and Florida said in separate statements that they support the deal...
These Guestworkers Just Won $20 Million Back From the Company That Trafficked Them The Nation ... They came from India to repair the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and were repaid with months of abuse. On Katrina’s 10th anniversary, both the workers and their bosses are finally getting their due. Following a landmark lawsuit victory in February, the maritime company that imported the roughly 500 “guestworkers” to repair storm-damaged Gulf Coast oil facilities has officially apologized as part of a $20 million settlement...
Video Game Voice Actors Push for Strike Over Performance Bonuses and Stressful Recordings In These Times ...Voice actors are demanding they receive residual income based on sales, with a performance bonus for every 2 million online subscribers or copies sold. This set-up is designed to ensure smaller games are unaffected, as this is the threshold at which a game can be considered a "blockbuster," according to creen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union representing the actors...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The irreversible damage of Volkswagen’s stunning deceit Salon ...Volkswagen’s ruse to circumvent U.S. auto emissions standards has left many wondering about the precise environmental impact of its cars, which emitted more pollutants than regulations allow. On September 18 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered that four Volkswagen vehicles from model years 2009 to 2015 had been rigged with illegal software. They used a sophisticated algorithm that would make the cars run cleanly during emissions tests...
How Global Warming Makes Overcrowded Prisons Even More Dangerous Mother Jones ...There is no population more captive to the effects of global warming than the incarcerated. And given the huge concentration of black and Latino prisoners in America, this is a classic case of environmental injustice, as these consequences fall widely on prisoners of color. A new study from Daniel W. E. Holt of the Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law explains over 144 pages what the climate-change toll truly is on the two-million-plus bodies caged in our prison system...
Doctors Without Borders Says U.S. May Have Committed War Crime Slate ...Doctors Without Borders said it was closing its hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Sunday, a day after it was hit by what seems to have been a U.S. airstrike. The medical charity, commonly known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, increased the death toll in the bombing, saying the total fatalities amount to 22, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, and 37 people were wounded...
Britain Says No to Slavery Reparations, But Offers to Buy Jamaica New Prison Common Dreams ...British Prime Minister David Cameron stirred outrage this week when he rejected growing calls for slavery reparations and instead offered £25 million for a new prison that would allow his government to deport Jamaican nationals incarcerated in the UK to serve out their sentences on the Caribbean island...
Video Game Voice Actors Push for Strike Over Performance Bonuses and Stressful Recordings In These Times ...Voice actors are demanding they receive residual income based on sales, with a performance bonus for every 2 million online subscribers or copies sold. This set-up is designed to ensure smaller games are unaffected, as this is the threshold at which a game can be considered a "blockbuster," according to creen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union representing the actors...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The irreversible damage of Volkswagen’s stunning deceit Salon ...Volkswagen’s ruse to circumvent U.S. auto emissions standards has left many wondering about the precise environmental impact of its cars, which emitted more pollutants than regulations allow. On September 18 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered that four Volkswagen vehicles from model years 2009 to 2015 had been rigged with illegal software. They used a sophisticated algorithm that would make the cars run cleanly during emissions tests...
How Global Warming Makes Overcrowded Prisons Even More Dangerous Mother Jones ...There is no population more captive to the effects of global warming than the incarcerated. And given the huge concentration of black and Latino prisoners in America, this is a classic case of environmental injustice, as these consequences fall widely on prisoners of color. A new study from Daniel W. E. Holt of the Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law explains over 144 pages what the climate-change toll truly is on the two-million-plus bodies caged in our prison system...
Doctors Without Borders Says U.S. May Have Committed War Crime Slate ...Doctors Without Borders said it was closing its hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Sunday, a day after it was hit by what seems to have been a U.S. airstrike. The medical charity, commonly known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, increased the death toll in the bombing, saying the total fatalities amount to 22, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, and 37 people were wounded...
Britain Says No to Slavery Reparations, But Offers to Buy Jamaica New Prison Common Dreams ...British Prime Minister David Cameron stirred outrage this week when he rejected growing calls for slavery reparations and instead offered £25 million for a new prison that would allow his government to deport Jamaican nationals incarcerated in the UK to serve out their sentences on the Caribbean island...
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