Today's Teamster News 10.11.14

A note to our readers: TeamsterNation will take a short break over the next two days. We will return on Tuesday, Oct. 14. 
Teamster News
Teamsters' teach-in spotlights environmental injustice at hazardous Missouri landfill  Peoples World   ...Corporate environmental injustice - in this case, Republic Service at its toxic waste landfill and Superfund site in Bridgeton, Missouri - led the discussion at an October 3 St. Louis teach-in on the dump, its future and responsibility for cleaning it up...
FedEx workers at New Jersey facility reject union representation  Reuters   ...Workers at a New Jersey facility of package delivery company FedEx Corp (FDX.N) unit FedEx Freight voted against union membership on Friday...
Collective agreement reached between the Canadian Transit Company and Teamsters Local 879  KCEN-TV   ...The Honourable Dr. K. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women, congratulated the Canadian Transit Company and Teamsters Local 879 today on reaching a new collective agreement covering 14 employees working as general maintenance employees, janitors, patrolmen and traffic guards at the Ambassador Bridge...
Golden Gate Bridge Workers To Hold One Day Strike Next Friday  San Francisco Appeal   ...Tim Jenkins, a labor representative of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 856, said the District’s bus workers, servicers, mechanics and dispatchers work hard and fear that the new contract proposed by the District will deprive them of quality, affordable health insurance...
4 Arrested In Culinary Protest Near Red Rock Resort  KSNV   ...During the protest, Culinary organizing director Donell Henderson was arrested after he attempted to park a truck on Charleston for people giving speeches to stand on. Police took the truck away. Not long afterward, three organized labor leaders were intentionally arrested: Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Culinary President Ted Pappageorge and Chris Griswold, the secretary-treasurer of California Teamsters Local 986...
Bell Island Workers Get 4.5 Percent Raise, Signing Bonus  The Telegram   ...Keith Hollahan, business agent for the Teamsters, said the offer accepted was very close to what the union had been asking...
Chicago's 2014 Columbus Day Parade  ABC News   ...The parade will start on State at Wacker Drive and continue south to Van Buren. Serving as this year's Grand Marshal is John Coli, President, Teamsters Joint Council 25 and Vice President, Central Region, International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Taking on Water, May Sink  Forbes   ...There are two big problems. One is that Congress is in a less charitable mood where trade is concerned than it was the last time it was asked to ratify a free trade agreement. The other is Japan, which stubbornly refuses to drop its tariffs on agricultural exports, even though all other parties to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have committed to eliminate or phase out their tariffs on everything...
TTIP Negotiating Mandate Finally Declassified  EurActiv   ...The Council of the European Union Thursday (9 October) finally published the secret negotiating mandate for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the US...
State Battles
Teachers protest pension tax at Snyder town hall  WOOD-TV   ... Outside the event at Noto’s restaurant in Cascade Township were several dozen teachers protesting the governor’s visit. Among them was JoAnne Peterson, who taught at Grand Rapids City High for 35 years before retiring in 2010. But then something happened that she had never planned for: A tax on her pension was instituted...
Philadelphia Students Strike to Support Teachers  Portside   ...Two days after the Philadelphia School Reform Commission unilaterally canceled the teachers' contract and announced it would impose changes, hundreds of high school students went on "strike" Wednesday to support their teachers...
Study: Voter ID Laws Cut Turnout By Blacks, Young  Associated Press   ...tates that toughened their voter identification laws saw steeper drops in election turnout than those that did not, with disproportionate falloffs among black and younger voters, a nonpartisan congressional study released Wednesday concluded...
New right-to-farm laws protect Big Ag, not small farmers  Aljazeera America   ...The new wave of state right-to-farm laws is meant to stop environmental regulation and animal rights activists and protect industrial-scale agriculture. Across the country, supporters of right-to-farm laws are demanding that there be no restrictions on fertilizer use or animal antibiotics — even when they are used solely for growth stimulation and create human health problems — and no limits on puppy mills or crowding and caging of farm animals...
War on Workers
Bank Of America’s No-Bid Prison Contract Facing Criticism In Congress  firedoglake   ...Bank of America received an extremely lucrative and favorable deal to be the exclusive provider of technology and financial services in all federal prisons. The terms of the Bank of America deal are so favorable that even members of Congress seem uneasy. Treasury gave the contract out without competitive bid and and the transparency most federal contracts are required to have...
EXCLUSIVE: Bank of America’s horrid “customer service” scandal  Salon   ...Tony (last name not included for fear of reprisal on the job) has worked at Bank of America for 11 years as a customer service associate. He takes phone calls from customers whose needs range from a simple change of address to a family crisis that leaves the caller unable to pay their bills, and he tries to help them solve their problems. And Tony and his coworkers are organizing. Bank of America has had more complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau than any other American financial institution...
22 States Where Adjunct Faculty Are Organizing for Justice  In These Times   ...A wave of organizing is sweeping contingent faculty. Below, a list of current campaigns in 22 states and D.C. shows how far and wide this wave has spread. The new thing is the Metro Strategy, where multiple institutions are targeted at once so a whole regional workforce becomes unionized. This takes advantage of how contingent (also known as adjunct) faculty members typically commute among various campuses, facing equally bad working conditions everywhere they go...
Walmart Health Insurance Could Leave A Really Sick Worker Broke  Forbes   ...First the Walmart employee would face the $2,750 deductible, less the $250 reimbursement, or $2,500. That leaves $27,500, 20 percent of which is $5,500. Walmart’s insurance would require the employee to pay $5,000. An employee in for an extended stay or possibly an operation now faces bills of $7,500. That may be affordable for employees who make higher salaries, but it isn’t for the bulk of Walmart workers...
Kia Worker Suffocated To Death  LaGrange News   ...Investigators and Kia officials are staying tight-lipped about the cause of an accident that killed a 57-year-old Lanett, Alabama, man Tuesday at the sprawling Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia plant in West Point...
Worker killed after machinery falls in Baltimore  Associated Press   ...A man has died after a piece of machinery fell on him at a building in downtown Baltimore...
Miscellaneous
Amazon to open first physical store for holiday season – report  Associated Press   ...E-commerce giant plans its first physical store for Manhattan, possibly temporarily, set to open for the holiday shopping season...

Today's Teamster News 03.12.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Back School Bus Drivers in Fight Against ‘Rampant’ Wage Theft  In These Times   ...More than 350 Baltimore-area bus drivers, who are members of Teamsters Local 570, are preparing to celebrate victory in a $1.25 million wage theft case against Durham School Services, an Illinois-based bus-contracting company with operations across much of the country...
Teamsters Stand Up for Port Truck Drivers at Skechers  teamster.org   ...Join port truck drivers who are standing up for their rights by signing this online petition. They were fired by Skechers' trucking contractor, Green Fleet Systems, after they exercised their rights on the job...
Illinois Teamsters Training Fund Certifies 1,300 Drivers in 2013  teamstersjc25.com   ...For the third consecutive year, more than 1,000 truck drivers, students and military veterans across Illinois completed safety and licensing training with Teamsters Joint Council 25...
Teamsters Taxi Association Turn Up the Heat in D.C. Politics   teamster.org   ...In an effort to gain more information to help us fight for D.C. taxi drivers’ interests, the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association has sent a survey to D.C. mayoral candidates and to D.C. City Councilmembers. See the survey here...
UK Pension Funds Join With Teamsters Union In Submitting Resolution To National Express Annual General Meeting  teamster.org   ...The shareholder proposal calls for the Board to expand the role and responsibilities of its Safety and Environment Committee to provide quality oversight of the company's human capital management and to adopt a meaningful and enforceable workplace human rights policy...
Trade
NAFTA Report Warns Of Trade Deal Environmental Disasters  Huffington Post   ...A report aims to offer an object lesson to President Barack Obama: Free trade deals have high costs in unintended consequences for the environment, people's way of life, and local sovereignty...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Reveals Deadly Cost of American Patents  naked capitalism   ... a cancer specialist in New Zealand (one of the TPPA counties) warned that the TPPA would prolong the high cost of treating breast cancer because of new rules to protect biotechnology-based cancer drugs from competition from generics. And this will affect the lives of cancer patients...
Ford to Move Production of Large Trucks from Mexico to Ohio  Fox Business   ...The automaker said it will invest $168 million in the Cleveland-area facility, which currently makes Ford’s E-series vans. Ford expects the plant to begin production of the F-650 and        F-750 commercial trucks early next year before they go on sale in the spring of 2015...
Chinese components found in B-1 bombers and F-16 fighters  RT   ...A Pentagon investigation has found that despite prohibitions by federal law, multiple US aircraft and weaponry are housing Chinese parts and raw materials...
State Battles
Pennsylvania GOP aims to end legal exemptions for unions  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   ..."It would criminalize members engaged in protected activity," he continued, "such as organizing drives and picket lines..."
How the GOP ambushed the VW union election  The Hill   ...One local group, Southern Momentum, played a critical role in this frenzy of anti-unionism. Southern Momentum claims to represent ordinary Volkswagen workers, but surprisingly for a grassroots organization, it engaged the services of Projections, Inc., one of the nation’s leading union avoidance firms...
Moral Mondays call for change  WBNG 12 Action News   ...Binghamton, NY community members are pushing for a state budget that works more for the middle class. Opposition to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget extended Monday from religious leaders and labor groups to parents and working families...
Vermont Governor Shumlin calls for wage increase  Associated Press   ...Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin called on lawmakers Monday to raise the state minimum wage but details about how it will be implemented have yet to be finalized. Shumlin is proposing an incremental increase to $10.10 by 2017...
Wisconsin big business interests back campaign finance bill  The Cap Times   ...A campaign finance bill that would ease a number of political contribution rules and expand the time period during which lobbyists can contribute to state campaigns is backed by two of the biggest special interest groups in Wisconsin...
FBI investigating Idaho prison run by Corrections Corporation of America VT Digger   ...The FBI is investigating Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) after its Idaho prison was so violent inmates dubbed it “Gladiator School,” according to a report by the Associated Press...
War on Workers
Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay  New York Times   ...On Thursday, the president will direct the Labor Department to revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for several million additional fast-food managers, loan officers, computer technicians and others whom many businesses currently classify as “executive or professional” employees to avoid paying them overtime...
Deal reached to protect retiree committee in Detroit bankruptcy case  The Detroit News   ...The city’s lawyers Tuesday announced they have reached a deal that will protect members of a retiree committee from lawsuits associated with Detroit’s bankruptcy case...
Port trucking almost at a halt behind Unifor pickets  Vancouver Sun   ...Trucking operations at Port Metro Vancouver container terminals ground to a near-halt Monday as about 300 unionized terminal truck drivers set up pickets to join more than 1,000 non-union drivers who withdrew their services more than a week ago...
5 reasons slaves still catch your seafood dinner  The Salon   ...The $7.3 billion seafood industry in Thailand still use slave labor. What's worse: America keeps giving it a pass...
Americans' Views on Quality Job Prospects Still Recovering  Gallup   ...Twenty-seven percent of Americans say it is now a good time to find a "quality job." This is up from the low levels between 2009 and 2012, but the last time Americans' optimism about job prospects reached 30% was January 2008...
Safety Flaws Found in New Inspections of Factories in Bangladesh  New York Times   ...A team plans to assess 1,500 garment factories by early September. Reports on the first 10 factories ... found that some factories lacked adequate fire doors, did not have required sprinkler systems and had dangerously high weight loads on several floors...

The Democrats Stand Up to the Kochs (Opinion)   New York Times   ...Democrats have for too long been passive in the face of the vast amounts of corporate money, most of it secret, that are being spent to evict them from office and dismantle their policies...           
Miscellaneous
ALEC Launches New Effort To Influence Local Government Policy  ThinkProgress ...The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization known for helping to advance corporate interests by writing and then pushing to pass conservative legislation at the state level, has created a new initiative. The new project “will offer corporate America a direct conduit into the policy making process of city councils and municipalities"...
Greek tax inspectors get anger management classes amid no ease in austerity measures  The Republic   ...Greek tax inspectors are being offered anger management classes after the government said they would have to continue enforcing a deeply unpopular emergency tax...

Today's Teamster News 10.22.11

Mexican long-haul trucks take to U.S. highways today, angers Teamsters  Examiner   ...Despite a protest rally from Teamsters, a speech from Jim Hoffa Jr. and bi-partisan Congressional members, Mexican long-haul trucks will take to U.S. highways today... Investors Ask Sotheby’s to Rethink James Murdoch’s Board Position  artinfo   ...A union-affiliated investor group, CtW Investors, publicly called upon Sotheby’s corporate board and its chairman, Michael I. Sovern, to rethink the implications of keeping James Murdoch (son of Rupert) on as a director...
Cantor Cancels Wharton School Speech Amid Plans for Protest  Bloomberg   ...House Majority Leader Eric Cantor canceled a speech today at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where anti-Wall Street protesters had planned to gather outside...
McCormick Place labor deal touted as boost for convention business  Chicago Sun-Times   ...Labor agreements with the Teamsters and carpenters unions will give large conventions the certainty about costs that they need to book shows at McCormick Place, officials said Friday in announcing the agreements...
What Rick Scott doesn't want you to see  Orlando Sentinel   ...Information is power in the framing of politics and policy, and Gov. Rick Scott's administration is working hard to tightly control what comes out...
Forecast predicts Walker won't meet jobs goal  Associated Press   ...An economic forecast by Gov. Scott Walker's own administration predicts that Wisconsin will fall far short of adding the 250,000 new private-sector jobs by 2015 that the governor promised as a key part of his successful election campaign...

Today's Teamster News 10.21.11

Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars in Finland  ABC News   ...an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work...
GOP Senator Supports ‘Infrastructure’ Spending … In Libya (VIDEO)  TalkingPointsMemo   ...a GOP senator who's up for re-election this cycle (said) on Fox News, "We can go over there and help them build their infrastructure up." That's Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). He wasn't talking about a forlorn corner of the United States, though. He was talking about Libya... 
Hertz fires 25 drivers who refuse to clock out  Seattle Times   ...Hertz has sent termination letters to 25 drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after they refused to agree to clock out for daily breaks, during which they normally pray...Officials with Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, said the two sides had tried to negotiate an agreement...
Quinn, Emmanuel expected to announce labor deals at McCormick Place  Chicago Tribune   ...The package -- which would cut crew sizes from three to two workers, give exhibitors the right to unload their own vehicles and lengthen straight-time windows -- is similar to the earlier legislative changes...
Teacher who sparred with Christie runs for office  Politico   ...Marie Corfield, a New Jersey teacher whose clash with Chris Christie at a town hall meeting made big headlines, is running for N.J. state assembly...
Public speaks out against Wisconsin Medicaid cuts  Bloomberg   ...A plan to cut about half a billion dollars from Wisconsin's Medicaid costs put forward by Gov. Scott Walker's administration drew an overwhelmingly negative response at the first of two public hearings Wednesday...
Scott struggles to find good news on jobs front  The Gainesville Sun   ...With Florida's employment market stagnating and budget revenues declining, Gov. Rick Scott jumped on the good economic news he could find Thursday, touting a new biotech company's decision to move to the Tampa Bay area. But the firm's addition of 40 new jobs will hardly put a dent in Scott's promise to create 700,000 positions in seven years, and the billing of Thursday's event as a "major" jobs announcement underscored the yearning for positive economic signs...

New IL Teamsters sign first contract

We're just catching up on this news from Chicagoland: Last month, nearly 200 Teamster school bus workers ratified their first contract with First Student -- just six months after joining Local 777 in Brookfield.

Workers at the bargaining unit, located in S. Holland, got strong wage increases, paid holidays and better health and welfare benefits for three years.

School bus workers all over the country are raising their standard of living by joining the Teamsters. They're also winning dignity and respect. I've heard school bus workers describe how they've had to work when they're sick, how they've been punished for getting off their bus to throw up, how they've had to ask for toilet paper because the restrooms aren't stocked -- and gotten three sheets.

Over the past few years, the Teamsters have organized nearly 30,000 school bus workers. Local 777 alone has organized and negotiated contracts for 1,400 school bus workers.

For those of you who aren't familiar with first contracts, they're very hard to come by. According to Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Fifty-two percent of workers who form a union are still without a contract a year after they win an election, I found, and 37 percent remain without a contract two years after the election

Teamsters take pride in the strong contracts we negotiate. That's why John Coli, president of Teamsters Joint Council 25, said what he did when the S. Holland First Student workers ratified their contract:

more hardworking men and women are realizing the long-term strength and protection of a Teamster contract.