Teamsters deliver petitions telling UPS to drop ALEC membership

Teamsters deliver petitions to UPS this morning in Washington.

The Teamsters have for some time been calling for UPS to drop its membership in the anti-worker American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). But today, it showed the union's largest employer it is not alone in its stance.

In separate events in Washington and Atlanta, Teamster representatives led delegations that included environmental and community activists in delivering thousands of signed petitions to company offices in both cities. In all, some 75,000 signed petitions collected call on UPS to drop its ALEC membership.

Ken Hall, Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer and Package Division Director, said:

There is absolutely no good reason why UPS should continue its membership in ALEC. ALEC is an organization that is committed to destroying every protection and gain middle class working families have fought so hard to secure. 

Representatives from Local 639 in Washington and Local 728 in Atlanta led the delegations. The Teamsters Union represents more than 250,000 members at UPS and UPS Freight. UPS continues as an active member of ALEC despite the state legislative group's anti-worker and anti-union agenda.

The signatures were collected during a massive petition drive led by the Teamsters, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Stand UP to ALEC, Jobs with Justice and the American Postal Workers Union.

Randy Brown, President of Local 728 and a former UPS driver, led the delegation that delivered the petitions to UPS world headquarters. He expressed his disappointment in the package delivery giant's refusal to leave ALEC:

UPS' membership in ALEC is distributing to me on a personal level. How can a company with the largest unionized workforce in the country participate in an organization that attacks the very workers that makes UPS so successful? It's time for UPS to do the right thing and leave ALEC.

Today's action is just the latest in the fight to get UPS to quit ALEC. In July, hundreds of Teamsters demonstrated outside ALEC's annual meeting in San Diego and called on the company to drop its affiliation with the group.

ALEC has served as a legislative clearinghouse which authors model bills that are often brought to state capitals by lawmakers and introduced as-is. The group also acts to connect lawmakers with corporate big-wigs. It is funded, in part, by billionaire industrialists the Koch Brothers.

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...

Today's Teamster News 09.30.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Statement on Presidential Endorsement Process  Teamster.org  ...On Tuesday, Sept. 29 the Teamsters Union General Executive Board decided to not endorse a presidential candidate at this time. The Teamsters look forward to meeting with Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and any other candidate, regardless of party affiliation, who is committed to improving the lives of America’s working families...
Teamsters Call on UPS CEO to Get Company Out of ALEC During Protest in Detroit  Teamster.org  ...Detroit Teamsters were joined by representatives from labor, environmental, community, and religious groups at a protest today outside a Detroit Economic Club luncheon where UPS CEO David Abney was the keynote speaker. The group staged the protest to call on UPS to cease all affiliation with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
Seabury Connector drivers & attendants join Teamsters 639  UnionCity  ...Bus drivers and attendants at Seabury Connector have organized with Teamsters Local 639. "These drivers work hard every day transporting seniors around the nation’s capital and now have the opportunity to get the justice they deserve with a Teamster contract," reports Local 639. The organizing win is the seventh consecutive victory for Local 639, which notes that  "Expanding our membership brings greater power to all our members"...
Brockton custodians ratify Teamsters contract with city  The Enterprise  ...More than 120 custodians, craftsmen and truck drivers employed by the Brockton Public Schools have ratified their first-ever collective bargaining agreement with Teamsters Local 653 in Easton. That includes members of the Brockton Public School Custodians Association, which agreed last fall during a controversial series of collective bargaining discussions to accept lower pay rates for school crossing-guard duty...
Homeless tech bus driver finds new home  SF Chronicle  ...Roughly 180 bus drivers organized by the Teamsters continue to fight for higher wages and a more comprehensive benefits package. Compass has not yet agreed to what the drivers have asked for. Among the points of disagreement: the number of paid holidays for drivers and the amount Compass should pay for drivers’ health care and 401(k) plans, union members said...

Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S. agree to aim for conclusion of TPP talks this week  Japan Times  ...Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden agreed Tuesday that the two countries will cooperate in an effort to conclude talks on a Pacific free trade initiative this week, according to statements by both governments. Biden and Abe agreed that their negotiating teams for the Trans-Pacific Partnership would work closely together “with the goal of resolving the limited number of outstanding issues at the upcoming ministers meeting in Atlanta”...
House Dems want investigation of Malaysia's raised trafficking status   The Hill  ...Six House Democrats have asked the State Department’s watchdog to investigate the process that led to an upgrade of Malaysia’s human trafficking status. Reps. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Alan Grayson (Fla.), Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), Brad Sherman (Calif.) and Barbara Lee (Calif.) are questioning whether the administration promoted Malaysia to preserve fast-track authority for a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade deal...
Thousands of Ontario jobs at stake in Pacific Rim trade talks  The Star  ...The livelihoods of thousands of Ontario autoworkers and farmers are on the negotiating table as Canada heads into a round of high-stakes trade bargaining this week with the United States and 10 other Pacific Rim countries. Concluding the talks, which would create a massive free-trade zone touching four continents, hinges on the participants’ ability to overcome deep divisions...
Ottawa area farmers hold tractor protest against the Trans Pacific Partnership  Canadians.org  ...Ottawa area farmers brought a long convoy of tractors into downtown Ottawa this morning for a protest against the concessions the Harper government is poised to make at the Trans Pacific Partnership talks in Atlanta this week. CBC has reported, "Canada is preparing to open the border to more American milk, without getting reciprocal access for Canadian dairy farmers in the United States"...
EU ambassador: TTIP conclusion next year ‘feasible’  Politico  ...EU Ambassador the the U.S. David O’Sullivan said Tuesday that he believes Brussels and Washington could complete their bilateral trade pact by next year, but emphasized that the talks aren’t happening in a vacuum. “We are negotiating very seriously, and we have a common objective to try to conclude this agreement with this administration”...
NWC workers strike over health insurance coverage  Jamaica Observer  ...Over 1200 National Water Commission (NWC) workers stopped working islandwide this morning, further threatening the poor water supply caused by months of drought. They are protesting against a decision by the NWC’s management to transfer their health insurance coverage from Medecus to Sagicor. The workers are represented by four trade unions...
Kerala’s plantation workers’ strike: Poor pay and strong union  Indian Express ...Kerala’s plantation sector has come to a standstill following the agitation of three lakh estate workers demanding that the daily wage be increased from Rs 232 to Rs 500. The demand has suddenly arisen as a fall-out of the historic agitation of women workers at the Munnar Kannan Devan Hills Plantations Limited (KDHPL), earlier this month...

State & Living Wage Battles
7 Disastrous Effects Of The Illinois Budget Crisis  Think Progress  ...First term Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) has been in office for eight months and the state has not had a budget for nearly half that time. The governor is trying to tie passage of the new budget to changes in labor laws — including creating “right-to-work zones” — that would hurt state workers and to changes in the tax code, but the legislature refuses to sign the package...
Immigration bill heads to Gov. Pat McCrory  News & Observer  ...The [NC] state House voted 70-43 Tuesday night to restrict forms of ID for non-citizens and ban counties and municipalities from having “sanctuary city” policies that limit enforcement of immigration laws. The bill will be sent to the governor. Supporters of the measure say local governments shouldn’t get to opt out of federal laws...
Right-to-work vote opens rift in Missouri’s GOP  Kansas City Star  ...Kidd was one of 20 GOP lawmakers who voted against overriding Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a so-called “right-to-work” bill. The bill would have made it a misdemeanor for anyone to be required to become a union member or to pay dues to a labor organization as a condition of employment. And Republican opposition killed it. That vote earned Kidd and his colleagues some powerful enemies...
W.Va. officials to reveal new prevailing wage Wednesday  Associated Press  ...West Virginia workforce officials say they are releasing the state’s new prevailing wage, which relied on a survey that received high participation marks from contractors. WorkForce West Virginia will release new minimum wages for public construction projects Wednesday. Agency spokeswoman Chelsea Ruby says 74 percent of contractors surveyed responded, with surveys sent to more than 5,000 businesses...
Minimum Wage Fight For $15: Oregon Ballot Measure Planned If Lawmakers Don't Pass Increase, Activists Say  IB Times  ...Oregon voters may get to raise the state’s minimum wage next fall if a group of labor unions and social activists gets its way. Unless state lawmakers pass a bill to increase the wages early next year, the Raise the Wage coalition will gather enough signatures to put the measure on the November ballot in 2016, the group's leaders announced this week...
Group launches ballot initiative to mandate paid sick leave in Michigan  MLive  ...A group of activists on Tuesday announced a statewide ballot initiative aimed at enacting a law that would require Michigan employers to offer all workers one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. The law would allow workers to take paid time off for personal or family health needs...
Protesters call for $15 minimum wage at Oak Park rally  Chicago Tribune  ...Dozens of fast food workers and supporters gathered inside Oak Park Village Hall Sept. 28 to call for the village to raise its minimum wage. Oak Park voters backed a "living wage" for village employees and contractors hired by the village in a 2009 referendum. The Oak Park Village Board has discussed the issue in the years since, but stalled on voting on any measure...

U.S. Labor
At the ‘Big 3’ grocers, bargaining begins with UFCW  NW Labor Press  ...Bargaining has begun over new union contracts for 10,000 workers at Fred Meyer, Safeway and Albertsons stores in Portland and Bend, Oregon. And for the first time, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 will be bargaining with all grocery, meat, central checkout, and non-food contracts at a single table...
Ford UAW workers threaten strike; FCA-UAW contract hangs in balance  MLive  ..Workers at Ford Motor Co.'s Kansas City, Mo. truck plant are on a five-day strike notice over disagreements with the Dearborn company. The Kansas City plant employs about 7,500 workers, who build the Ford F-150. The announcement Tuesday from Settles comes as Fiat Chrysler workers continue to vote on a tentative contract between the UAW and FCA...
UAW-FCA deal appears headed for defeat  Detroit News  ...The tentative four-year contract between the United Auto Workers and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles appears headed for defeat, after a majority of members at both the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant and Toledo Assembly Complex voted it down, The Detroit News has learned. A UAW spokesman Wednesday said he the UAW was not commenting while voting is ongoing, and a FCA spokeswoman declined comment...
Labor talks ongoing for USW, U.S. Steel  Business Times  ...The United Steelworkers and United States Steel Corp. continue to meet in Pittsburgh over efforts to reach a new contract, but a final deal has yet to be reached, according to an update posted to the union's website Monday. "Our bargaining team met among themselves and with company representatives for several hours on Monday, discussing a wide range of issues"...
Rank-and-File Teachers Object As Nation's Biggest Union Weighs Early Clinton Endorsement  Common Dreams  ...A  rumored presidential endorsement by the nation's largest union is exposing a rift between rank-and-file members who are "feeling the Bern" and leadership who appear more willing to err on the Clinton side of caution. Various news reports have indicated that an announcement by the 3-million strong National Education Association is expected sometime this week...
Income Inequality Would Be Much Worse If Women Hadn’t Entered The Workforce  Think Progress  ...A new analysis from the Center for American Progress (CAP), which houses ThinkProgress, finds that between 1963 and 2013, income inequality among the bottom 95 percent of married couples increased by nearly 25 percent. Yet without a concurrent increase in women’s earnings, which rose fivefold over the same period, inequality would have grown more than 50 percent faster, rising instead by 38 percent...

Social Justice & Other News 
The Data Are Damning: How Race Influences School Funding  The Atlantic  ...In America, schools with a lot of minority students are chronically underfunded. Is that the case because these students are poor, and poor communities have fewer resources for funding their schools? Or, is it because of the color of these students’ skin?Unsettlingly, recent research from data scientist David Mosenkis finds that poverty alone does not explain the underfunding... 
Robert Reich: Donald Trump & Jeb Bush Plans Would Slash Taxes for the 1 Percent  Democracy Now  ...On the campaign trail, Republican candidates are proposing massive new tax cuts for the rich despite growing economic inequality across the country. On Monday, Donald Trump unveiled a plan to lower the income tax rate to the lowest level since 1931, cut corporate taxes and abolish the estate tax. Meanwhile, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has proposed broad tax cuts for individuals and corporations as part of his economic plan...

Today's Teamster News 0615.15

Teamsters
Hoffa Statement on Fast Track Trade Package Vote  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the House’s rejection of a Senate-approved fast track trade package that would have made it easier for bad trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to move through Congress: “For more than two decades, the Teamsters and our fair trade allies have stood up for workers and all Americans by fighting to stop fast track"...
West Coast Truckers Poised to Strike, Say They’re Owed Nearly $1 Billion in Stolen Wages  In These Times  ...IBT, which moves merchandise for Sony, Toyota, General Electric, Target and JC Penney, among others, is a subsidiary of the Chinese Government-owned COSCO Logistics Americas network and employes 88 drivers, according to the union supporting driver efforts, Teamsters Local 848. The drivers contest that their status as independent contractors is wrong and creates wage theft that amounts to almost $1 billion yearly in California alone, according to estimates by local allies...
Teamster support split between Van Hollen, Edwards in Md. Senate race  Washington Post  ...U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) announced Friday that he has won the endorsement of the Washington-area Joint Council of Teamsters — not to be confused with Teamsters Local 639, which endorsed his rival, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), on Wednesday. Van Hollen and Edwards are competing for the Democratic nomination to fill the seat of Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)...

Global Labor & Trade
House Democrats rebuff Obama on trade, delivering major defeat  Washington Post  ...House Democrats dealt President Obama a humiliating defeat on his free-trade initiative Friday, derailing a key priority for the president and rebuffing his rare, personal pleas for their support. The defeat at the hands of his own party placed Obama’s trade agenda in limbo and exposed deep party divisions on economic policy, leaving the pro-trade Democrats marginalized by the anti-corporate wing of the party...
House Fast-Track Rejection a Blow to Global Trade Negotiations  Bloomberg  ...President Barack Obama’s efforts to strike a trade deal with Pacific Rim nations stumbled Friday when his fellow Democrats blocked legislation giving him enhanced negotiating authority that he and analysts said is crucial to concluding the talks. Trade promotion authority, or fast-track, is important because leaders in other countries won’t risk political capital selling trade deals to their constituents knowing Washington could then amend the pact...
How labor beat Obama on trade — for now  Washington Post  ...A massive trade deal with 12 Pacific Rim countries was supposed to be the one thing President Obama could get through Congress in the second half of his last term in office. It was also one of the biggest fights organized labor has picked after years and years of declining influence and legislative defeat. And while the war isn't over, the fact that the House failed today to pass “fast track” authority is a significant triumph for the unions that had staked much of their political capital on its defeat...
Labor’s Might Seen in Failure of Trade Deal as Unions Allied to Thwart It  New York Times  ...Depleted by decades of diminishing reach and struggling to respond to recent anti-union laws, the labor movement has nonetheless found a way to assert itself politically by wreaking havoc on President Obama’s trade agenda, a top priority of his final years in office...
Hillary Clinton calls on Obama to negotiate a better trade deal  Washington Post  ...Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton broke weeks of silence on the trade debate that has deeply divided her party, telling a crowd here Sunday that she sides with House Democrats who led a rebellion against President Obama's trade agenda...
Fast Track Down  Huffington Post ...The Fast Track trade authority package was rejected Friday because two years of effort by a vast corporate coalition, the White House and GOP leaders -- and weeks of deals swapped for yes votes -- could not assuage a majority in the House of Representatives facing constituents' concerns that more of the same trade policy would kill more jobs, push down wages and open a Pandora's box of other damaging consequences...
Liberals Deal Obama a Stunning Blow on Trade—but One More Showdown Awaits  The Nation  ...The House of Representatives threw President Obama’s trade agenda off the rails Friday, dealing Obama arguably his biggest defeat as president—and one that was fueled by sustained opposition from the party’s left flank. There’s one more vote coming Tuesday before we can officially say fast-track authority is indefinitely dead...
Brazil teacher strike in Sao Paulo state ends  BBC News  ...After almost three months of strikes, public school teachers in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo have voted to return to work. Thousands of protesters from one of the largest teachers' unions in the Americas met in the centre of Sao Paulo to cast their vote. It began after the state government failed to offer a salary increase. A union leader said the strike had lost force when strike payments had had to be reduced...

State & Living Wage Battles
Oregon Becomes Fourth State To Pass Law Guaranteeing Paid Sick Days  Think Progress  ...On Friday, Oregon’s state House passed a bill that would require most employers to offer five days of paid sick leave to their employees. If the governor signs it into law as advocates believe she will, it will be the fourth state in the country with such a requirement. Oregon’s bill applies to businesses with 10 or more employees and allows workers to accrue an hour of sick time for every 30 they work...
Maine House rejects ‘right-to-work’ bills  Portland Press Herald  ...The Democrat-controlled Maine House rejected several “right-to-work” bills Friday that are backed by the LePage administration but opposed by the state’s labor unions. The votes followed more than an hour of debate on an issue that has cropped up repeatedly in the Legislature in recent years...
Scott Walker and the Fate of the Union  NYTimes Magazine  ...Walker credits Act 10 in part for the decline in Wisconsin’s unemployment rate since he took office in 2011 and has said he considers right-to-work “one more arrow in that quiver” for the creation of jobs. But since 2011, the state has fallen to 40th out of the 50 states in job growth and 42nd in wage growth. Wisconsin legislators are now considering repealing the state’s prevailing-wage law. Like right-to-work, the prevailing-­wage bill is being promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council in states across the country...
The GOP plan to beat Snyder, labor on prevailing wage  Detroit Free Press ...It's the Republican legislative majority's No. 1 priority: Repeal a 50-year-old Michigan law that requires contractors to pay union-scale wages to workers on taxpayer-funded construction projects. But the obstacles are formidable: Gov. Rick Snyder supports the existing law. So do organized labor and (if you believe a recent union-commissioned poll) most Michigan voters...
Andrew Cuomo Goes Full Scott Walker  The Albany Project  ...Democratic state Senator Mike Gianaris raised a few eyebrows last month when he directly compared Andrew Cuomo to a fellow Koch-funded governor, Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Gianaris was referring at the time to Cuomo’s increasingly bitter war on public school teachers. But yesterday, Andrew Cuomo went even further, attacking those who oppose his giveaway to a handful of hedge fund billionaires on constitutional grounds...
Los Angeles mayor enacts $15-an-hour minimum wage  USA Today  ...In becoming the largest city in the country to mandate a $15-an-hour minimum wage, Los Angeles could put the pressure on other cities in what is sure to become a potent issue in next year's presidential election. Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the measure into law Saturday. It will require employers to gradually raise minimum wages until they reach $15 an hour...

U.S. Labor
These Carwashers Were Being Paid as Little as $125 a Week  The Nation  ...The New York City Council just pushed through landmark legislation to revamp labor protections in one of the city’s least-regulated industries and pave the way for unionization.The new licensing rules aim to prevent the wage theft that drives one of the classic little luxuries of urban life. Carwashes are known as a “runaway” industry running on the exploitation of immigrant workers...
The SEIU's efforts to mobilize at McDonald's  Daily Herald  ...Despite so much movement on the wage front, however, for the other part of the workers' demand -- the full slogan is "$15 and a union" -- the path appears much less clear. As far as the campaign is aware, fast food workers haven't actually tried for union elections at any of their employers. For them, a "union" means something different from the strict work rules and grievance processes common to organized labor...
FairPoint workers win Maine unemployment benefits for time on strike  Portland Press Herald  ...The Maine Bureau of Unemployment Compensation has determined that FairPoint Communications workers involved in the four-month strike that ended in February are entitled to receive unemployment benefits for the time they were off the job, a decision that is expected to be appealed by the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company...

Miscellaneous
Dark Money Under Fire as Election 2016 Heats Up  Common Dreams  ...While Democratic candidates are lining up to denounce the huge influence that dark money is having on politics in the U.S., a new report says that 2016 presidential candidates are relying on such secret contributions "like never before." In a speech before thousands, likely watched by millions more, Hillary Clinton formally launched her presidential bid on Saturday. During the address given on New York's Roosevelt Island, the Democratic frontrunner railed against the "endless flow of secret, endless money" in politics...
Elizabeth Warren dresses down Jamie Dimon: Senator fires back at JPMorgan’s mansplainer-in-chief  Salon  ...Elizabeth Warren ascended to political stardom with a no-holds-barred willingness to rake Wall Street executives over the coals — and the Massachusetts senator displayed that trademark grit late this week, in the wake of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s suggestion this week that the former Harvard Law professor doesn’t quite understand how global banking works...
CIA torture appears to have broken spy agency rule on human experimentation  The Guardian  ...CIA director George Tenet approved abusive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, designed by CIA contractor psychologists. But the revelation of the guidelines has prompted critics of CIA torture to question how the agency could have ever implemented what it calls “enhanced interrogation techniques” – despite apparently having rules against “research on human subjects” without their informed consent...

Striking Teamsters rally at TW Perry with support from unions, community

"One day after MLK day we're still out here fighting for economic justice."

Teamsters striking at TW Perry since Jan. 6 took it to the bosses today with help from the Metro Washington DC Labor Council, AFL-CIO and DC Jobs with Justice. They held a spirited rally at the TW Perry lumber store in Springfield, standing in solidarity with the courageous workers. 

TW Perry was once a family-run business that looked out for its workers. The Springfield, Va.-based building supply company treated its workers with respect and paid them enough to raise a family. Now, TW Perry executives are busy raking in generous profits while the workers, members of Teamsters Local 639, haven't received a raise in six years. 

A story on teamster.org explained shortly after the strike began: 

"Our boss took away King Day
at the same time he's trying
to raise our healthcare to 48%." 

"We've been in negotiations with the company for over a year and going through a mediator," said Local 639 Business Agent Bill Davis. "But Perry has continued to make outrageous demands and not show up at bargaining sessions." 

After TW Perry proposed its "last, best and final" offer last month, Teamsters moved to strike this week, putting up their picket line as the first major snowstorm and frigid Arctic temperatures gripped the DC area. "We're staying warm, and we'll be out here as long as it takes to get a fair contract," said Davis. 

TW Perry is trying to impose changes in grievance and arbitration procedures on the workers along with quadrupling their health care contributions and attacking their retirement security. The workers have gone without a raise for seven years.

Supporters from labor and the community boarded buses in Washington, D.C., and began the rally at 11:00 AM at the TW Perry Springfield store.

DC Jobs With Justice ‏@DCJWJ and the Metro Washington DC Labor Council @DCLabor tweeted some great photos from the action.

Out here in Springfield Va w @Teamsters
@UFCW400 @TheIronworkers @DCLabor
fighting for a fair contract

Teamsters help Walmart workers reach goal of 1,600 Black Friday protests

Walmart workers appear to have met their goal of protests at 1,600 stores with help from Teamsters and other groups across the United States.

The Walmart workers' organization, OUR Walmart, reports 'the biggest, boldest and most exciting Black Friday ever!' Hundreds of Walmart workers went on strike and in Washington, D.C. and Southern California they held the first ever sit-down strikes in Walmart’s history. Their website, Blackfridayprotests.org, had a half-million visits, #WalmartStrikers trended on Twitter and received plenty of local and national news coverage.

Teamsters Local 340 Business Agent Business Agent Joe Piccone was among the two dozen people protesting Walmart's retaliation against its employees in Scarborough, Maine. WCHS6 reported they...

...marched through the Walmart parking lot in Scarborough and took their protest right outside Walmart's front doors. The group passed out flyers informing employees they had a right to form a union. 

The rally was short lived because the police asked them to move their protest to the far side of the parking lot or be arrested for trespassing. Protesters complied, but said they won't stop fighting until Walmart starts paying a living wage, which economists say is $15 an hour. Employees are paid a little more than $8 an hour.

Local 817 Teamster Kenny McLeod Sr and IATSE member Dan Mahoney, above, supported Walmart workers in East Meadow, N.Y.

Minnesota Teamsters joined a large Walmart action in St. Paul. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported: 

Instead of shopping for deals, 500 people descended on Wal-Mart and McDonald’s in St. Paul’s Midway shopping district on Black Friday to demand higher wages and sick leave for all employees. 

Closely guarded by police on foot, bikes and in squad cars, protest leaders yelled into bullhorns “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” 

Participants waved large signs that said, “I stand with Wal-Mart strikers,” and “Pay your associates a living wage.”

Above, Local 817 Teamsters Mike Devereaux and Teamster Local 814's John Becker show their support of fair wages for Walmart employees in North Bergen, N.J.

Brother Tony Vaccaro sent us the photo below and told us:

Black Friday Protest at Walmart in Amherst (Buffalo) New York. The rally was organized by the Buffalo Coalition of Economic Justice who delivered a petition to the store manager following the rally.  

Dozens of union leaders and community activists braved the mid 20's temperatures to send a message to the Corporate giant while local television  and radio stations were present. 

Dirk Rasmussen of Teamsters Local 639 protested outside of a Walmart in Washington, D.C. Dave Jamiesen interviewed him for The Huffington Post:

Dirk Rasmussen had Friday off and could have slept in if he wanted to. Instead, the Maryland resident and Teamster rose early and drove to downtown Washington, eager to join a post-Thanksgiving protest against Walmart. 

"Our local [union] president encouraged us to take part," said Rasmussen, 58, who works in a lumber and building-supply warehouse. "I raised eight children on a Teamsters benefit package and Teamsters wage. I'm a firm believer in collective bargaining, and I'm very concerned about the security of this next generation." 

Black Friday may be most famous for doorbuster shopping deals, but among progressives it's becoming a regular holiday for labor demonstrations. Friday marked the third consecutive year of scattered but highly visible protests against Walmart. Demonstrators, along with an unknown number of Walmart strikers, are calling for better pay and scheduling practices from the world's largest retailer.

Today's Teamster News 01.15.11

U.S. Plans to Sue 4 States Over Laws Requiring Secret Ballots for Unionizing  New York Times   ...The (NLRB)...(plans) to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah...
Older Workers Are Keeping a Tighter Grip on Jobs  New York Times   ...28.2 million people over 55 years of age had jobs, an increase of 7.6 percent from three years earlier...
As Banks Raise Fees, You Have Options  New York Times   ...What companies don’t want to do is raise fees so much that they attract the attention of regulators...
Union: Reopen New York City OTB  (Local 858)  The Saratogian   ...efforts are ongoing with legislators and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office to resolve issues needed for OTB’s reopening...
Canadian rail workers OK strike authority  Journal of Commerce   ...Four union groups at two railroads vote to walk out if negotiations fail...
Labor board takes Daycon to court over strike  (Local 639)   The Gazette   ...Upper Marlboro cleaning company won't reinstate workers...
FedEx plans big new Atlanta distribution center  Atlanta Business Chronicle   ...FedEx Ground...has initial plans for a nearly 215,000-square-foot distribution center...
Dansville town to keep paying all health insurance premiums  The Evening Tribune   ...the Dansville town board ...(authorized) ...the town to pay the full premium on the New York State Teamsters Council Health and Hospital Fund...
Chinese High Speed Rail Delegation in Fresno  KFSN   ...California's 800 mile high speed rail system will run right through Fresno, and China wants a piece of it...
More banks walking away from homes, adding to housing crisis  Chicago Tribune   ...1,896 red flag homes in Chicago appear to have been abandoned during foreclosure process...

Today's Teamster News 1.5.11

UPS to develop health care facility in Louisville  Business First   ...United Parcel Service Inc. will build a 144,000-square-foot warehouse facility in Louisville this year to accommodate growth in its rapidly expanding health care logistics business...
Olmetti wants to serve residents of 43rd ward  JC25  ...Teamsters Local 727 business representative Carmen Olmetti, a resident of Lincoln Park, is putting his experience ... to use as a candidate for alderman of Chicago’s 43rd Ward...
National Labor Board Files for Injunction Against Local Janitorial Supplies Company  Local 639  ...After determining that Daycon Products Company has committed a series of unfair labor practices against striking workers represented by Teamsters Local 639, the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) General Counsel has taken the rare step of filing a petition before a U.S. District Court seeking injunctive relief...
Two unions agree to Marietta pay freeze  The News and Sentinel  ... the issue received a negative vote from the Teamsters...

Waters: Taxpayers lose with Bank of America deal  Marketwatch   ...A senior Democrat on Tuesday argued that the $2.8 billion settlement between mortgage giants Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Bank of America may be a 'backdoor' bailout that props the bank at the expense of taxpayers...
Big Lenders May Be First to Settle Foreclosure Probe, Iowa Says  Bloomberg   ...The five largest loan servicers, including Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co., may be the first to settle with the 50 state attorneys general probing foreclosure practices...
Attorney General Tom Miller Reneges on Promise to Prosecute Mortgage Fraud  naked capitalism   ...Less than a month ago promised that he would “put people in jail” Now he’s apparently decided to adopt a “move along, nothing to see here” posture...
Feds, DA offices open probe into botched blizzard cleanup: sources  (Local 831) New York Post  ...In the last two years, the agency's workforce has been slashed by 400 trash haulers and supervisors -- down from 6,300 -- because of the city's budget crisis...