Today's Teamster News 04.13.15

Teamsters
Gregory Floyd Named Teamsters International Trustee   Teamster.org   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced today that Gregory Floyd was appointed to serve as an International Trustee on the General Executive Board. Floyd is the President of Teamsters Local 237 in New York City, the union’s largest local chapter with more than 24,000 members that work in the public sector...
Ron Herrera Appointed Teamsters Western Region International Vice President  Teamster.org   ...Herrera has served on the General Executive Board as an International Trustee since 2012. Herrera, who was also recently appointed director of the Teamsters Solid Waste, Recycling and Related Industries Division, has spent his entire career as a vocal advocate for workers in Southern California. He is also Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 396 in Covina, Calif., Executive Director of the National Hispanic Caucus and Recording Secretary of Joint Council 42...
Willbros' Investors Call for Sale of Oil & Gas Business; Launch Watchdog Website  Teamster.org   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters have joined with other investors of Willbros Group [NYSE: WG] to demand swift and drastic actions by Willbros’ board of directors including the sale of its Oil and Gas segment. Willbros stock price has dropped 73 percent over the past year, hitting a record low of $1.50 in recent weeks...
Teamsters Gain Ally In Mexican Trucking Challenge  Law360   ...A truck drivers' lobbying group has launched a bid to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Ninth Circuit challenge of an Obama administration move to open the U.S. border to Mexican trucking services...
Failed fast track is nearly upon us -- again   TeamsterNation   ...Despite the Teamsters and our allies making clear that U.S. residents will be hurt if fast track can be used to quickly push secret trade deals like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress, some lawmakers had decided to side with big business instead...

Global Labor & Trade
Greece defends bailout tactics as latest deadline looms   The Guardian   ...Eurozone officials disagreed with this assessment, saying Athens was still able to meet its international obligations, and regarded its ability to pay public sector wages and pensions as a domestic problem, according to the report. They deplored Greece’s unwillingness to discuss cuts to public sector pensions...
50 Reasons We Cannot Afford the TPP   Public Citizen   ...The TPP would extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) model that has contributed to massive U.S. trade deficits and job loss, downward pressure on middle class wages, unprecedented levels of inequality, lagging exports, new floods of agricultural imports, and the loss of family farms...
When corporate profit trumps human rights, we all lose  (opinion) The Hill   ...The United States is the largest economy in the world and a global leader in the advancement of human rights. We should not reward countries that abuse the human rights of LGBT people and women with a trade agreement that would establish those countries as privileged trading partners...
What Is a 'Corporatist Agenda,' and Where Can We Find One?  (opinion) Huffington Post   ...The White House has several serious challenges with this narrative. First, TPP looks like a corporatist agenda, walks like one, quacks like one, and has the same effect on my daily life as a corporatist agenda. When you say, "It's not a corporatist agenda," you immediately put your credibility in doubt...
What's driving Seattle's opposition to international trade pact? Income inequality, Bellevue rep says  Puget Sound Business Journal   ...The massive Trans Pacific Partnership is in “real trouble,” and much of that is because average voters find nothing in it for them. Regional debate about the 12-nation TPP trade agreement has been fiery recently, with the Seattle City Council last month unanimously voting to oppose it in the current form...

State & Living Wage Battles
Judge Overturns Gov. Rauner’s Order Restricting Union Dues   CBS   ...A judge has issued an order requiring Illinois government agencies to immediately reinstate mandatory union dues for nonmembers. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner last month issued an executive order ending the dues, which nonmembers must pay to cover the cost of non-political union activities that benefit all employees...
Gov. Rauner hopes deal will speed resolution of union dues dispute  State Journal-Register ...Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration has agreed to allow government agencies to resume taking fees from the paychecks of nonunion members to cover union representation while his lawsuit challenging the legality of the fees is resolved in court...
Reining in payday loans falls by wayside in New Mexico   Associated Press   ...High-interest lending practices have been a target of consumer advocates for decades in New Mexico, one of the poorest states in the country. They failed again this year in the Legislature, however, as bills that would have capped interest rates on payday loans at 36 percent fell by the wayside...
Why the federal government still sometimes doesn’t obey its own minimum wage laws   Washington Post   ...The Service Contract Act is obscure, and the Department of Labor has to police every complaint, so sometimes it's just overlooked. In its complaint, Good Jobs Nation says in total the violations have deprived 65 workers of $1,578,700 in wages at three workplaces over the two years the statute covers. Their findings illustrate the difficulty the federal government has had in enforcing its own laws...
Federal janitors and zoo groundskeepers file wage theft complaint   Daily Kos   ...The minimum wage isn't the only wage rate that applies—or should apply—to many federal contract workers, and a group of people who work in Washington, DC, institutions say they're not getting the pay they're legally entitled to. Janitors at the Department of Education, groundskeepers at the National Zoo, and tour bus drivers under a contract with the National Park Service say they haven't been getting the SCA-mandated prevailing wage
Workers Sue Walmart For Manipulating Employee Classification To Deny Them Overtime Pay  Think Progress   ...because they are labeled managers, they are exempt from federal overtime laws that require employers to pay workers time and a half for more than 40 hours of work a week. The lawsuit alleges that they “were ‘managers’ in name only because they did not have the managerial duties or authority”...

U.S. Labor
Doctors at University of California health clinics go on strike  LA Times  ...Unionized doctors began a strike Saturday at student health clinics on University of California  campuses in Southern California, saying administrators had acted unfairly during negotiations for the physicians' first contract...
Striking Lyondell Houston refinery workers to weigh final offer  Reuters   ...More than 400 striking hourly workers represented by the United Steelworkers union (USW) at Lyondell Basell Industries' Houston refinery are scheduled to vote on the company's last, best and final offer on Monday and Tuesday, a local union official said on Sunday...
NEA: No Child Left Behind rewrite doesn’t level the playing field   Washington Post   ...The head of the country’s largest teachers union said that her organization does not support a bipartisan proposal in the Senate to replace the nation’s main federal education law because it does not go far enough to create equal educational opportunities for poor children...

Miscellaneous
Report Reveals How Corporate Tax Dodgers Avoid Paying Their Fair Share - or Any Share At All  Common Dreams   ...Pointing to egregious examples of Fortune 500 corporations "manipulating the tax system to avoid paying even a dime in tax on billions of dollars in U.S. profits," a new report from Citizens for Tax Justice makes a sharp case for corporate tax reform..,
Will Hillary's Constant Feeding at the Corporate Trough Make it Hard for Her to Embrace Needed Populism?   (opinion) Alternet   ...The Clinton campaign plans to focus on “economic security” – but the question is: whose? Clinton can adopt classical Democratic positions based on expanding the safety and boosting wages, but her ability to truly transform America's economy and reduce economic inequality will be hampered if she feels indebted to the very same corporations that made her husband and her rich...

Today's Teamster News 03.14.15

Teamsters
FedEx Freight Workers In California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 439  teamster.org   ...A group of 50 drivers at FedEx Freight’s Stockton, Calif., terminal have voted to join Teamsters Local 439. The vote took place Thursday, March 12 and today, and the workers voted 33 to 12 to become Teamsters...
Teamsters Testify About UNFI At Supply Chain Commission Hearing  teamster.org   ...Former Workers Tell Commission Members About UNFI’s Abuses...
Drivers For Facebook Contractor Loop Transp. Gain Strong Agreement, Wage Increases  teamster.org   ...Drivers for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation are now covered under a Teamsters Local 853 contract, providing for wage increases, health care benefits and a number of improvements to their working conditions. The contract, which workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify on Feb. 21, went to Facebook for its agreement as Loop’s paying client before implementation...
San Bernardino County Public Employees To Vote In Teamster Election  teamster.org   ... Ballots were mailed out this week to more than 15,000 San Bernardino, Calif., county, city and agency employees to vote in an election for Teamsters representation...
Teamsters Continue Fight To Unionize More Bay Area Drivers KGO ...The Teamsters hit the streets of San Francisco for a rally. They're handing out union cards to the drivers of Bauer Transportation, a company contracted to drive workers to some Bay Area tech companies, including Cisco and Google...
Woodbridge Winery Workers Join Teamsters Local 601 In California  teamster.org   ...Nearly 50 workers at Woodbridge Winery in Acampo, Calif. joined Teamsters Local 601 in Stockton, voting 32-13 in favor of representation. The new bargaining unit of cellar operation employees includes 46 workers who are seeking improved pay, benefits and the protection of a union contract...
Trade
Unhappy Third Birthday for Korea FTA Drags Down Obama Push for Fast Track  Public Citizen Global Trade Watch   ...U.S. Exports Down, Imports from Korea Up and Job-Killing Trade Deficit With Korea Balloons 84 Percent on Third Anniversary of Korea Pact, Which Is TPP Template...
Progressives: We’ve Never Heard Of This “Progressive” Group Backing Obama’s Trade Deal  BuzzFeed News   ...The “Progressive Coalition For American Jobs,” run by former Obama campaign staffers, purports to represent the progressive left on the trade deal that the progressive left hates...
Major Unions Stepping up Battle against Free-Trade Pact  Associated Press   ...the Teamsters union called for U.S. negotiators on the trade pact to press for a crackdown on Mexican cross-border trucking as part of the emerging agreement...
‘Exploitation’: Clothing Labels Accused Of Cambodia Worker Discrimination, Child Labor  RT   ...HRW [Human Rights Watch] says workers in Cambodia’s garment factories, producing name-brand clothing sold in the US, Canada and Europe, often come to grips with "discriminatory and exploitative labor conditions." According to HRW, the combination of short-term contracts which make it easier to get rid of workers at any moment, poor government labor inspection and enforcement, as well as aggressive tactics against independent unions make it extremely difficult for workers to assert their rights...
State Battles
Push to rewrite Kansas collective bargaining laws stalls  Kansas City Star   ...The committee was set to vote Friday on both measures, but Chairwoman and Olathe Republican Julia Lynn canceled the meeting. Lynn said she’s not sure when the votes will occur and said House GOP leaders have signaled that they’re reluctant to tackle such issues...
Chumbley: Right to work all wrong for Missouri  Springfield News-Leader   ...Missouri's General Assembly is preparing to pass the deceptively titled Right to Work and Paycheck Protection bills. These bills are an attack on workers and an offense to the God of justice...
Union members rally against GOP labor bills outside Legislature  Las Vegas Review-Journal   ... Hundreds of union members rallied in front of the Nevada Legislature on Thursday to protest Republican efforts to curb collective bargaining and push public employee retirement reforms...
Union workers to protest Walker in NH  New Hampshire Union Leader   ...Union members and organizers plan to protest outside when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks to a state Republican Party event Saturday at Concord High School...
WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signs prevailing wage change, Coal Jobs and Safety Act  WOWK TV   ...Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed three bills into law March 12, including one that changes West Virginia's prevailing wage law...
Maine Republicans Try Again To Push Through 'Right-to-Work' Legislation  NPR   ...Republicans are once again trying to move a so-called "right-to-work" bill through the Legislature. Their goal is to put an end to a long-standing requirement that public and private sector workers in a unionized shops must either join the union or pay representation fees as a condition of employment...
Senate Kills Bill To Restore State Minimum Wage  New Hampshire Union Leader   ...The Republican-dominated state Senate has rejected a bill to restore a state minimum wage in New Hampshire. The legislation would have set the hourly rate at $8.25 in 2016, $9 in 2017 and $10 in 2018...
War on Workers
The Retirement Savings Gap Between Haves and Have-Nots Is Getting Bigger  Bloomberg   ...The median retirement account balance when you look across all households? $2,500...
Dangerous Trains, Aging Rails (opinion)  New York Times   ...To protect communities and the environment, the Transportation Department needs to act quickly to require more resilient rail cars, improve the safety of rail infrastructure and operations, and reduce the volatility of oil at the wellhead, before it is loaded onto trains...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Fall Amid Rough Weather  Wall Street Journal   ...U.S. retail sales fell for the third consecutive month in February as a mix of bad weather and consumer caution outweighed an improving labor market and cheap gasoline prices...

California bill to make employers responsible for temp hires moves forward in Legislature

The Teamsters bill to establish joint employer liability for employers when their temporary agencies break California labor laws passed the Assembly Floor with 45 votes.

That's the great news from Brother Doug Bloch, political director for Teamsters Joint Council 7 in California.

You may remember how Teamsters and Taylor Farms workers lobbied lawmakers earlier this month on the bill. Here's a picture:

Brother Doug continued:

This was a tremendous collective effort on the part of many of our Joint Council 7 and 42 Local unions.  We really saw what happens when our Locals get involved in politics on the local level -- making endorsements and DRIVE contributions -- and how that helped us influence legislators.  We reached out to legislators in their districts, making a big difference. 

Furthermore, in our effort to connect organizing and legislation, we put Taylor Farms and their temporary agencies front and center in this fight, with workers and Teamsters hitting the capitol on three separate lobby days, mobilizing over 100 people.  The bravery of Taylor Farms workers and the horror stories they told led some opponents of the bill to distance themselves from Taylor Farms as a "bad actor" in this industry. 

Next we move on to the Senate.  A great effort so far with more work to come!

Looking forward to another Teamster victory!