TEAMSTERS
Hoffa Says Release of TPP Text Does Little to Allay Workers' Concerns About Deal Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the White House today releasing the text of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal which would lead to tens of thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas and lower wages for many Americans: "While we are pleased that Congress and the public will now be able to see the entire text of this massive agreement, viewing it in person will not make it any better for U.S. workers"...
Hoffa: Safety Can't Be Compromised as Part of Transportation Funding Bill Huffington Post ...Congress is on the cusp of doing something it hasn't done in more than a decade - approve a long-term highway bill. A bipartisan collection of lawmakers in both the House and Senate should be lauded for the difficult work they have accomplished thus far in attempting to enact a six-year funding measure. This includes rejecting an amendment that would have allowed heavier trucks on the nation's thoroughfares...
House Moves Multi-Year Transportation Bill Forward, but Concerns for Drivers Remain Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa after the House today overwhelming approved a six-year, $340 billion transportation funding bill that would invest in much-needed infrastructure improvements while protecting motorists from heavier trucks on the road:
“A bipartisan collection of lawmakers came together today to back a long-term plan for transportation"...
Teamsters Local 700 Stands Up for Firefighters and Paramedics Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 700 represents 31 hardworking firefighters and paramedics at the Summit Fire Department whose jobs are on the line as the Village of Summit threatens to outsource their services to nearby Bedford Park. Local 700 filed a complaint on Oct. 27 with the Illinois Labor Relations Board against the Village of Summit for violating the collective bargaining agreement...
Pennsylvanians Elect Teamster-Endorsed Judges Throughout Court System PR Newswire ...Pennsylvania's working families won a major victory at the polls on Nov. 3 when voters elected judges throughout the court system that were endorsed by labor unions across the state. The results sent a strong message to special interest groups that poured millions into the state to support anti-union and anti-worker candidates – Pennsylvania's courts are not for sale...
BMWED/Teamsters Holds Advanced Officer Education Program Teamster.org ...Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWED) members from several System Federations gathered once again in Hendersonville, Tenn. to participate in the BMWED two-week Advanced Officer Education Program this past July. The educational courses take place at Volunteer State Community College, with curriculum focused on union-specific subjects...
Teamsters Address Outstanding Contract Proposals With Coke, Company Cuts Meeting Short Local 727 ...Even before contract negotiations resumed on Thursday, November 5, Coca-Cola representatives made it clear to Teamsters Local 727 they had to cut the day short. Management kicked off the morning by addressing just one lone provision among its dense and varied contract proposals. The company initially offered no movement or other specifics regarding the remaining proposals on the table...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
21 Workers Die in Pakistan Factory Collapse; Many Missing Solidarity Center ...Workers once again gave their lives for their jobs when a plastic bag factory collapsed in Lahore, Pakistan, yesterday, killing at least 21 and injuring dozens. Between 150 and 200 workers, including child laborers, were in the factory when the building collapsed. Rescuers, who mostly include members of the Pakistan Army, report hearing voices in the rubble, and family members say they have received calls from relatives trapped in the debris...
Obama tells Congress he will sign TPP The Hill ...President Obama notified Congress on Thursday that he intends to sign a broad trade agreement spanning from Asia to Latin America. The president’s notification was expected soon after the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was released around 3:30 a.m. Thursday. The message kicks off a period of at least 90 days before Obama can sign the agreement...
Obama Faces Tough Battle In House To Pass TPP Forbes ...President Obama now faces probably his toughest political challenge since passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2009 – persuading Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Republicans, who have been reliable yes votes on free trade agreements since the beginning of time, aren’t so sure about this one...
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): ‘Worse Than We Thought’. A Total Corporate Power Grab Nightmare Global Research ...As expert analysis of the long-shrouded, newly publicized Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) final text continued to roll out on Thursday, consensus formed around one fundamental assessment of the 12-nation pact: It’s worse than we thought. In fact, Public Citizen charged, the TPP rolls back past public interest reforms to the U.S. trade model while expanding problematic provisions demanded by the hundreds of official U.S. corporate trade advisers...
Civil Society Reacts to Finally-Released TPP Text CTC ...The United States formally entered into negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in February 2008. For years afterwards, the public had to rely on leaked documents to learn what U.S. negotiators were proposing in our names. On November 5, 2015, text for the TPP was officially released for the first time. Within hours, a broad range of civil society organizations representing the labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, LGBT and other social movements issued statements...
TPP nations agree to abstain from currency wars Japan Times ...The dozen countries that signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership have committed to refraining from competitive currency devaluations and to being transparent about their exchange-rate policies, the U.S. said. Negotiators for Pacific Rim nations including Japan, Australia and Vietnam agreed last month to the deal...
TPP Caves to the Tobacco Industry, Threatens Public Health CPATH ...The vacuous “tobacco control” provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) virtually capitulates to the demands of multinational tobacco corporations, jeopardizing nations’ health and economic welfare. Public health and medical advocates in the U.S. and abroad consistently urged negotiators to exclude tobacco control protections from trade challenges under the TPP...
As US Promotes TPP As A Way To Improve Labor Standards, Guatemala Shows Failed Promises Of Previous Trade Deals IBTimes ...When the country joined the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2006, proponents of the deal said it would improve conditions for workers, raise wages and make it easier for laborers to organize. Seven years later, Guatemala was named the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. Supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are making many of the same promises...
Mass European Protest against TTIP corporate Takeover: EU Commission Sanctions “Revolution Against Law” Global Research ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has its objectors – mainly the citizens of the countries involved in what can only be seen as confirmation of a corporate takeover. Governments have confirmed that democracy is no longer a principle worth pursuing. Three million citizens have signed a petition voicing their opposition, of which 500,000 were from Britain alone...
Canada’s Montreal hit with massive student anti-austerity protest RT ...A few thousand students marched through the streets of Montreal protesting the Canadian government’s austerity measures and calling for “a massive reinvestment in public services.” Around 2,000 members of a local student organization ASSÉ (Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante) took part in a large demonstration against what they call the “pillaging of public services” by Quebec’s provincial government...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Pennsylvania Supreme Court sweep gives Democrats legislative redistricting control Daily Kos ...In what was by far the most important victory of the night, Democrats swept three seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, giving them a five to two majority; previously, Republicans had controlled the bench three to two, with two vacancies. This victory isn't simply about ensuring a more just court, though undoubtedly the cause of fairness will benefit greatly. It will also have an enormous impact on the next round of legislative redistricting...
Failed prevailing wage repeal petition drive prompts calls for investigation, prosecution MLive ...A group seeking to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law turned in an estimated 161,781 invalid signatures, prompting rejection by the Board of State Canvassers and calls for investigation, prosecution and a review of circulator laws. The board officially killed the petition drive Thursday afternoon...
Reform Wins: Ohio Bans Gerrymandering While Maine and Seattle Bust Big Money The Nation ... In Ohio, 71 percent of voters backed Issue 1, a constitutional amendment to ban partisan gerrymandering and establish a bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission to draw legislative district lines that promote real competition. In Maine, 55 percent of voters backed a proposal to dramatically strengthen the state’s 19-year-old old Clean Elections system...
Activists in Portland and beyond fight for $15 minimum wage Oregon Live ...The latest minimum-wage movement caught fire in New York City in 2012, when a couple of hundred fast-food workers walked off the job and demanded higher pay. Since then, their $15-an-hour rallying cry has reverberated across the country. In the Northwest, local leaders say Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, a socialist elected in 2013 on a platform that included a $15-an-hour minimum, sparked action...
Elizabeth joins municipal paid sick leave movement NJ Biz ...Earlier this week, Elizabeth became New Jersey's 10th municipality to pass a paid sick leave initiative after voters approved a ballot-box question. The new ordinance will largely mirror those that have come before it in other New Jersey municipalities, allowing private-sector workers the ability to accrue up to an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, with a 40-hour-per-year cap for workers at businesses with 10 or more employees...
U.S. LABOR
Sweet Relief: A Strong October Jobs Report The Atlantic ...After three consecutive months of disappointing jobs reports, October finally delivered the strong numbers economists had been hoping for. The report from the Labor Department shows that the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent, and the economy added 271,000 jobs in October—beating expectations of 180,000. That’s the strongest showing in 2015 thus far...
GM and UAW Come to Agreement US News & World Report ...United Auto Workers union members at General Motors appear poised to approve a new four-year contract with the company. Workers at two union locals at a huge factory in Lordstown, Ohio, east of Cleveland, and at an SUV assembly plant near Lansing, Michigan, voted overwhelmingly for the deal on Friday. Glenn Johnson, president of one of two locals at the sprawling Lordstown complex that makes the Chevrolet Cruze, said 72 percent of 3,000 workers at the assembly plant voted yes...
Kaiser mental health workers set to strike Nov. 16 SF Gate ...Nearly 1,400 Kaiser mental health workers in Northern California will walk off their jobs Nov. 16 to protest what union officials say are too few mental health care employees to meet patient demand. The workers — psychologists, social workers and therapists — criticize Kaiser’s management, which they say understaffs mental health services...
ATI to terminate health insurance for 2,200 USW workers at end of November Ellwood City Ledger ...The United Steelworkers have claimed in a posting on their website that Allegheny Technologies will terminate healthcare coverage for all of the 2,200 locked out union workers at the end of November. USW representatives said ATI recently mailed a letter to the homes of all locked out union workers detailing its intent to cut insurance benefits on Nov. 30...
3 Depressing Findings From A Huge New Study Of The Gender Pay Gap Think Progress ...On the whole, the average woman with a year-round full-time job can expect to make just 79 percent of what a man doing the same makes in a year. There are many factors that go into the disparity. But new data released from PayScale on Thursday tells a different story. Even with all of the variables taken into consideration, women in the survey made 2.7 percent less than men...
Now White People Are Dying From Our Terrible Economic Policies, Too The Nation ... A demographic analysis of public health trends in recent years shows that middle-aged whites are living more miserable and sicker lives—and also appear to be dying at a higher rate. From 1999 to 2013, Princeton University researchers observed a disturbing jump in deaths among whites aged 45 to 54...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Austerity’s Grim Legacy New York Times ...The Obama administration and its counterparts realized that in a slumping economy budget deficits were helpful, not harmful. And the money-printing and borrowing worked: A repeat of the Great Depression, which seemed all too possible at the time, was avoided. Then it all went wrong. And the consequences of the wrong turn we took look worse now than the harshest critics of conventional wisdom ever imagined....
With the "Robin Hood Tax," a Grassroots Movement Seeks to Bring Wall Street to Heel Truthout ...Across the country, movements are rising up to challenge politicians who balance public budgets on the backs of working people instead of taxing corporations. "Municipal frugality" and "shared sacrifice" are examples of the political doublespeak and hypocrisy that governments employ while the 1% hoards its record levels of wealth...
Obama to reject Keystone XL pipeline in victory for environmental activists The Guardian ...Barack Obama is expected on Friday to reject a proposal from TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline through the American heartland, the Guardian has learned. The decision, to be announced with US secretary of state John Kerry from the White House, ends years of review and debate about the project...
Locked Up & Neglected After Fleeing Danger, Immigrant Women Detainees Launch Hunger Strike in Texas Democracy Now ...Last week, 27 immigrant women detained at the for-profit T. Don Hutto facility in Austin began refusing meals, demanding an end to mistreatment and their immediate release. Most are asylum seekers from Central America, which has seen a surge in migrants fleeing violence and abuse. The detainees said they’ve faced threats and unjustified surveillance as they languish in custody without hope of freedom...
Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts
Friday, November 6, 2015
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.04.15
TEAMSTERS
Union Resubmits Proposals, Seeks Strong Comprehensive Agreement With Great Lakes Coca-Cola Local 727 ...Bargaining continued for a third day on Monday, November 2, as the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee resubmitted its non-economic proposals to Great Lake Coca-Cola Distribution management. Although GLCCD representatives have not yet offered any substantive movement on initial proposals, the union is making significant organizational progress throughout negotiations...
Drivers at three Port of Long Beach, Los Angeles carriers end strike Landline ...A strike by port drivers working for three port motor carriers at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has ended. Labor organizers, however, say a dispute over the classification of drivers as independent contractors rolls on. A five-day driver strike and picket at XPO Logistics, Intermodal Bridge Transport and Gold Pint Transportation ended late last week according to Justice for Port Drivers organization, which is backed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Indian capital a mess as sanitation workers strike USA Today ...Delhi is a mess, and a worse one than usual. Since late last month sanitation workers here have been on strike, refusing to pick up garbage and even dumping piles of trash in the streets. Sanitation workers have one key demand: their salaries...
Petrobras Oil Output Cut as Workers Protest Austerity Bloomberg ...Petroleo Brasileiro SA said its oil and natural-gas production has been cut because of a strike by workers protesting job losses, spending reductions and asset sales at Brazil’s state-controlled producer. The biggest output cuts came on Monday, the second day of the strike, when production fell 273,000 barrels a day...
Policy fights await release of trade deal The Hill ...The Obama administration is preparing to release the text of the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, setting the stage for a host of policy fights that could threaten congressional approval of the president’s prized trade deal. Obama has little margin for error as his administration and supporters of the deal press lawmakers to back a 12-nation pact...
TPPA deal will be made public in 2 weeks, says minister Malaysian Insider ...The contents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will be made public in two weeks' time, Second International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said. He said as the government had concluded the TPP with the parties involved, the next step is to present the details to the people. It will then be brought before a special parliamentary session in January next year for debate and a vote by the 222 lawmakers...
Text Still Secret One Month After TPP Deal (opinion) Huffington Post ...Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12 nation agreement seven years in the making, were finally concluded a month ago. Yet the Obama administration still has not released the text of the agreement. Not even to Congress, much less the public. But this has not stopped the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the office responsible for the negotiations, from making outlandish claims about how great the TPP is...
Political Expert Calls US-Initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership ‘Nonsense’ Sputnik ...The US invited Russia and China to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). According to political expert Alexei Skopin, the United States pursues its own goals creating such partnerships and does not always declare them openly. The Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes 12 countries so far, was reached on October 5 and is designed to create a free trade area (FTA) in the Asia-Pacific region...
An Urgent Warning Of What TTIP Has In Store Morning Star ...Canada is the most sued country in the “developed” world, and that should sound alarm bells in Britain. Several weeks ago hundreds of thousands of people across Europe and Britain marched to protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a massive planned new trade deal between Europe and the US...
Canada presses pause on austerity after Justin Trudeau’s election win The Guardian ...While Canada is hitting the pause button on austerity, the UK chancellor, is on fast-forward. George Osborne’s 2015 spending review will see a further £20bn cut from public spending to achieve balance by 2019, a move which follows a halving of the deficit over the course of the last parliament...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Kentucky elects right-to-work governor Politico ...Tea Party Republican Matt Bevin beat Democrat Jack Conway for Kentucky’s governorship Tuesday night, an upset victory in one of the last strongholds for Democrats in the right-to-work South. Activists on both side of the right-to-work debate led aggressive outreach in the run-up to the election, and this loss surely stings for the AFL-CIO and its affiliate Working America...
GOP candidates for governor talk right-to-work, rural issues in first forum Columbia Missourian ...It didn't take Republican gubernatorial candidates long to hit their party's bread and butter Tuesday night. A full choir of supporters and GOP lawmakers at Missouri Farm Bureau headquarters applauded promises to ban mandatory union fees with a right-to-work law and resist Medicaid expansion...
Thanks To Virginia Reforms, These People Are Voting For The First Time In Decades Think Progress ...Before McAuliffe’s reforms, felons in Virginia had a particularly hard time becoming full citizens after their convictions. In most states, voting rights are automatically restored once a felon is released from prison. But in Virginia, felons were required to first get off parole or probation, then file a voting rights restoration application with the governor’s office, a process that was supposed to take 45 to 60 days but often took much longer...
Leading Fight Against Money in Politics, Maine Voters Back Clean Elections Common Dreams ...Maine voters on Tuesday reaffirmed their desire to keep the influence of big money out of politics by passing the Clean Elections Initiative, a move that campaigners say serves as a "flare to a nation" desperate to "reclaim control of our democracy" in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. According to the Bangor Daily News, the Initiative passed 55 to 45 percent...
Scandal, Explicit Emails, Behind The Most Expensive Supreme Court Race In American History Think Progress ...$15,850,297. That’s how much candidates and interested groups have spent to influence the race for three seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, according to Justice At Stake, a watchdog group which tracks state judicial races. And that number is only likely to grow as it is based on records that have already been filed in this election...
SEIU starts competing effort to put minimum wage on California ballot SacBee ...California’s largest labor union on Tuesday unveiled its own bid to increase the statewide minimum wage, setting up dueling pay measures aimed for next year’s ballot amid persistent concerns over income inequality. The proposed initiative, supported by the Service Employees International Union’s state council, would boost the base wage to $15 per hour by 2020...
Portland, Maine, Rejects $15 Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...In a rare setback for living wage activists, voters in Portland, Maine, shot down a $15 minimum wage proposal on Tuesday, voting against a ballot measure that would have doubled the wage floor in just four years. Under the proposal, all employers with 500 or more workers would have had to pay at least $15 per hour by 2017...
The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis: Tax Breaks Offered to Rich While Austerity Measures Imposed on Poor Democracy Now ...The Obama administration recently warned Puerto Rico faces a humanitarian crisis unless Congress takes steps to address its crushing debt. The White House wants lawmakers to approve bankruptcy protection for the U.S. territory, expand Medicaid and impose a control board to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances...
U.S. LABOR
NLRB hearing to delay UAW election at Chattanooga's VW plant Times Free Press ...A union election planned for later this week at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant is expected to be delayed due to a hearing over whether the 164 maintenance workers slated to vote are too small of a unit. Attorneys for VW and the United Auto Workers argued today at a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Chattanooga that will continue into Wednesday...
Slight majority support GM-UAW deal so far The Detroit News ...With about one-third of ballots cast, voting on General Motors Co.’s tentative agreement with the UAW is close, with a slight majority of workers supporting the deal. Voting results at some larger facilities have been tight and roughly two-thirds of the 52,600 hourly workers have not had the opportunity to vote yet. The union is expected to release final results as early as this weekend...
USW files additional unfair labor charges against ATI Business Times ...The United Steelworkers have filed a total of 18 unfair labor practice charges against Allegheny Technologies Inc., the union said in an update to its members Monday. The pending charges cover ATI's decision to lock out more than 2,000 union employees in August as well as the company's conduct at the bargaining table, according to the union...
The Uphill Battle For Strippers’ Rights Think Progress ...Some dancers flock to the industry in part because of perceived scheduling flexibility, but they often end up just as binding as many other jobs. Most clubs require a dancer to come in a minimum number of days a week and assign them to either a day or night shift. Some also tell dancers what time to show up – even charging them a fine if they’re late...
Wages for top earners soared in 2014: Fly top 0.1 percent, fly EPI ...After dipping slightly in 2013, annual earnings of the top 1.0 percent of wages earners grew 4.9 percent in 2014, and the top 0.1 percent’s earnings grew 8.9 percent, according to our analysis of the latest Social Security Administration wage data. This analysis provides the first look at the likely trend of the household incomes of the top 1.0 percent...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
How Bathroom Fears Conquered Transgender Rights in Houston The Atlantic ...After a hard-fought campaign that drew national attention from Hollywood celebrities and presidential. candidates, voters rejected the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or Proposition 1, handing a victory to conservative critics who argued that its expansive protections for transgender people could endanger women and children...
Republicans Demonize Disabled Social Security Recipients in Latest Budget Alternet ...Having failed in numerous frontal assaults on Social Security, the Republican congressional leadership several years ago adopted a new strategy for dismantling the program: attack and demonize Disability Insurance, which they consider to be its soft underbelly. With last week’s passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, they drew blood...
New Study Shows Antarctic Melting Approaching 'Unstoppable' Tipping Point Common Dreams ...A new study published Monday warns that "unstoppable" melting in West Antarctica could make a three-meter increase in sea level "unavoidable." According to researchers at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the vulnerable Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica "has most likely been destabilized." They point to recent studies indicating that this area of the ice continent is "the first element in the climate system about to tip"...
How GOP & HMOs Undercut Obamacare's Nonprofit Option, Leaving 500K Uninsured Democracy Now ...As the Obamacare open enrollment period begins, it’s the end for many healthcare co-ops, leaving hundreds of thousands of people scrambling to find coverage. The co-ops were founded to offer a cheaper alternative on insurance exchanges after Democrats stopped demanding a public option. But since going live three years ago, the co-ops have faced major cutbacks from the Republican-controlled Congress...
Union Resubmits Proposals, Seeks Strong Comprehensive Agreement With Great Lakes Coca-Cola Local 727 ...Bargaining continued for a third day on Monday, November 2, as the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee resubmitted its non-economic proposals to Great Lake Coca-Cola Distribution management. Although GLCCD representatives have not yet offered any substantive movement on initial proposals, the union is making significant organizational progress throughout negotiations...
Drivers at three Port of Long Beach, Los Angeles carriers end strike Landline ...A strike by port drivers working for three port motor carriers at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has ended. Labor organizers, however, say a dispute over the classification of drivers as independent contractors rolls on. A five-day driver strike and picket at XPO Logistics, Intermodal Bridge Transport and Gold Pint Transportation ended late last week according to Justice for Port Drivers organization, which is backed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Indian capital a mess as sanitation workers strike USA Today ...Delhi is a mess, and a worse one than usual. Since late last month sanitation workers here have been on strike, refusing to pick up garbage and even dumping piles of trash in the streets. Sanitation workers have one key demand: their salaries...
Petrobras Oil Output Cut as Workers Protest Austerity Bloomberg ...Petroleo Brasileiro SA said its oil and natural-gas production has been cut because of a strike by workers protesting job losses, spending reductions and asset sales at Brazil’s state-controlled producer. The biggest output cuts came on Monday, the second day of the strike, when production fell 273,000 barrels a day...
Policy fights await release of trade deal The Hill ...The Obama administration is preparing to release the text of the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, setting the stage for a host of policy fights that could threaten congressional approval of the president’s prized trade deal. Obama has little margin for error as his administration and supporters of the deal press lawmakers to back a 12-nation pact...
TPPA deal will be made public in 2 weeks, says minister Malaysian Insider ...The contents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will be made public in two weeks' time, Second International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said. He said as the government had concluded the TPP with the parties involved, the next step is to present the details to the people. It will then be brought before a special parliamentary session in January next year for debate and a vote by the 222 lawmakers...
Text Still Secret One Month After TPP Deal (opinion) Huffington Post ...Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12 nation agreement seven years in the making, were finally concluded a month ago. Yet the Obama administration still has not released the text of the agreement. Not even to Congress, much less the public. But this has not stopped the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the office responsible for the negotiations, from making outlandish claims about how great the TPP is...
Political Expert Calls US-Initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership ‘Nonsense’ Sputnik ...The US invited Russia and China to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). According to political expert Alexei Skopin, the United States pursues its own goals creating such partnerships and does not always declare them openly. The Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes 12 countries so far, was reached on October 5 and is designed to create a free trade area (FTA) in the Asia-Pacific region...
An Urgent Warning Of What TTIP Has In Store Morning Star ...Canada is the most sued country in the “developed” world, and that should sound alarm bells in Britain. Several weeks ago hundreds of thousands of people across Europe and Britain marched to protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a massive planned new trade deal between Europe and the US...
Canada presses pause on austerity after Justin Trudeau’s election win The Guardian ...While Canada is hitting the pause button on austerity, the UK chancellor, is on fast-forward. George Osborne’s 2015 spending review will see a further £20bn cut from public spending to achieve balance by 2019, a move which follows a halving of the deficit over the course of the last parliament...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Kentucky elects right-to-work governor Politico ...Tea Party Republican Matt Bevin beat Democrat Jack Conway for Kentucky’s governorship Tuesday night, an upset victory in one of the last strongholds for Democrats in the right-to-work South. Activists on both side of the right-to-work debate led aggressive outreach in the run-up to the election, and this loss surely stings for the AFL-CIO and its affiliate Working America...
GOP candidates for governor talk right-to-work, rural issues in first forum Columbia Missourian ...It didn't take Republican gubernatorial candidates long to hit their party's bread and butter Tuesday night. A full choir of supporters and GOP lawmakers at Missouri Farm Bureau headquarters applauded promises to ban mandatory union fees with a right-to-work law and resist Medicaid expansion...
Thanks To Virginia Reforms, These People Are Voting For The First Time In Decades Think Progress ...Before McAuliffe’s reforms, felons in Virginia had a particularly hard time becoming full citizens after their convictions. In most states, voting rights are automatically restored once a felon is released from prison. But in Virginia, felons were required to first get off parole or probation, then file a voting rights restoration application with the governor’s office, a process that was supposed to take 45 to 60 days but often took much longer...
Leading Fight Against Money in Politics, Maine Voters Back Clean Elections Common Dreams ...Maine voters on Tuesday reaffirmed their desire to keep the influence of big money out of politics by passing the Clean Elections Initiative, a move that campaigners say serves as a "flare to a nation" desperate to "reclaim control of our democracy" in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. According to the Bangor Daily News, the Initiative passed 55 to 45 percent...
Scandal, Explicit Emails, Behind The Most Expensive Supreme Court Race In American History Think Progress ...$15,850,297. That’s how much candidates and interested groups have spent to influence the race for three seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, according to Justice At Stake, a watchdog group which tracks state judicial races. And that number is only likely to grow as it is based on records that have already been filed in this election...
SEIU starts competing effort to put minimum wage on California ballot SacBee ...California’s largest labor union on Tuesday unveiled its own bid to increase the statewide minimum wage, setting up dueling pay measures aimed for next year’s ballot amid persistent concerns over income inequality. The proposed initiative, supported by the Service Employees International Union’s state council, would boost the base wage to $15 per hour by 2020...
Portland, Maine, Rejects $15 Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...In a rare setback for living wage activists, voters in Portland, Maine, shot down a $15 minimum wage proposal on Tuesday, voting against a ballot measure that would have doubled the wage floor in just four years. Under the proposal, all employers with 500 or more workers would have had to pay at least $15 per hour by 2017...
The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis: Tax Breaks Offered to Rich While Austerity Measures Imposed on Poor Democracy Now ...The Obama administration recently warned Puerto Rico faces a humanitarian crisis unless Congress takes steps to address its crushing debt. The White House wants lawmakers to approve bankruptcy protection for the U.S. territory, expand Medicaid and impose a control board to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances...
U.S. LABOR
NLRB hearing to delay UAW election at Chattanooga's VW plant Times Free Press ...A union election planned for later this week at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant is expected to be delayed due to a hearing over whether the 164 maintenance workers slated to vote are too small of a unit. Attorneys for VW and the United Auto Workers argued today at a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Chattanooga that will continue into Wednesday...
Slight majority support GM-UAW deal so far The Detroit News ...With about one-third of ballots cast, voting on General Motors Co.’s tentative agreement with the UAW is close, with a slight majority of workers supporting the deal. Voting results at some larger facilities have been tight and roughly two-thirds of the 52,600 hourly workers have not had the opportunity to vote yet. The union is expected to release final results as early as this weekend...
USW files additional unfair labor charges against ATI Business Times ...The United Steelworkers have filed a total of 18 unfair labor practice charges against Allegheny Technologies Inc., the union said in an update to its members Monday. The pending charges cover ATI's decision to lock out more than 2,000 union employees in August as well as the company's conduct at the bargaining table, according to the union...
The Uphill Battle For Strippers’ Rights Think Progress ...Some dancers flock to the industry in part because of perceived scheduling flexibility, but they often end up just as binding as many other jobs. Most clubs require a dancer to come in a minimum number of days a week and assign them to either a day or night shift. Some also tell dancers what time to show up – even charging them a fine if they’re late...
Wages for top earners soared in 2014: Fly top 0.1 percent, fly EPI ...After dipping slightly in 2013, annual earnings of the top 1.0 percent of wages earners grew 4.9 percent in 2014, and the top 0.1 percent’s earnings grew 8.9 percent, according to our analysis of the latest Social Security Administration wage data. This analysis provides the first look at the likely trend of the household incomes of the top 1.0 percent...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
How Bathroom Fears Conquered Transgender Rights in Houston The Atlantic ...After a hard-fought campaign that drew national attention from Hollywood celebrities and presidential. candidates, voters rejected the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or Proposition 1, handing a victory to conservative critics who argued that its expansive protections for transgender people could endanger women and children...
Republicans Demonize Disabled Social Security Recipients in Latest Budget Alternet ...Having failed in numerous frontal assaults on Social Security, the Republican congressional leadership several years ago adopted a new strategy for dismantling the program: attack and demonize Disability Insurance, which they consider to be its soft underbelly. With last week’s passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, they drew blood...
New Study Shows Antarctic Melting Approaching 'Unstoppable' Tipping Point Common Dreams ...A new study published Monday warns that "unstoppable" melting in West Antarctica could make a three-meter increase in sea level "unavoidable." According to researchers at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the vulnerable Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica "has most likely been destabilized." They point to recent studies indicating that this area of the ice continent is "the first element in the climate system about to tip"...
How GOP & HMOs Undercut Obamacare's Nonprofit Option, Leaving 500K Uninsured Democracy Now ...As the Obamacare open enrollment period begins, it’s the end for many healthcare co-ops, leaving hundreds of thousands of people scrambling to find coverage. The co-ops were founded to offer a cheaper alternative on insurance exchanges after Democrats stopped demanding a public option. But since going live three years ago, the co-ops have faced major cutbacks from the Republican-controlled Congress...
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Ballot box provides push to raise wages
Just a couple of years ago, getting the minimum wage raised above $10 an hour seemed like a fantasy. But lawmakers in more and more cities are hearing the cry of workers who live there, and the movement for fair wages blossomed. But it's not done yet.
The Fairness Project, backed by unions, is pushing forward to help with 2016 ballot campaigns where voters themselves will get a chance to vote on whether to substantially raise the minimum wage more broadly. Initial efforts are being centered in California, Maine and Washington, D.C., but the group plans to get involved in other states as well.
As The Washington Post notes, the movement has history on its side:
The Teamsters have continually stressed that raising wages increases respect and dignity for everyday Americans in the workplace. Higher wages is a central tenet of our new "Let's Get America Working" campaign because it improves lives for families and brings in more business. More money to spend means higher sales.
Joining a union is the best way to raise salaries. But for those without such an option, raising the minimum wage is a place to start. While too many lawmakers aren't acting on the issue, the public is. And the U.S. will benefit because of it.
The Fairness Project, backed by unions, is pushing forward to help with 2016 ballot campaigns where voters themselves will get a chance to vote on whether to substantially raise the minimum wage more broadly. Initial efforts are being centered in California, Maine and Washington, D.C., but the group plans to get involved in other states as well.As The Washington Post notes, the movement has history on its side:
According to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, minimum wage measures have been tried 20 times in 16 states since 1996, and all but two succeeded. The earlier victories came in waves, starting with the “living wage” movement in the 1990s. The campaigns even work in conservative states: in 2004, John Kerry lost Florida, but a minimum wage hike passed with 70 percent of the vote.
Even though those measures may not have made it through state legislatures, in combination, they do seem to add momentum for minimum wage hikes on the federal level — Congress responded with legislation in 1997 after a spate of ballot initiatives, and again in 2007 and 2008. Sometimes, just the credible threat of a ballot initiative can spur state houses to action where previously they had no interest, although the final result may end up watered down.
Most recently, in 2014, minimum wage measures passed in Arkansas, Alaska, Nebraska, and South Dakota. This latest wave is even more ambitious than the first and second, says Brian Kettenring, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy — and it benefits from the narrative around inequality that arose during an economic recovery that delivered very little wage growth.Of course, the movement continues elsewhere, and it should. In Syracuse, N.Y., for example, the mayor announced that the minimum wage for city employees would be raised to $15 an hour. And the Dallas City Council is currently debating whether to extend a minimum wage in excess of $10 an hour to contract workers in the city such as sanitation workers.
The Teamsters have continually stressed that raising wages increases respect and dignity for everyday Americans in the workplace. Higher wages is a central tenet of our new "Let's Get America Working" campaign because it improves lives for families and brings in more business. More money to spend means higher sales.
Joining a union is the best way to raise salaries. But for those without such an option, raising the minimum wage is a place to start. While too many lawmakers aren't acting on the issue, the public is. And the U.S. will benefit because of it.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.17.15
Teamsters
Arbitration Looming In Oxford County Sheriff's Deputy Pay Dispute NPR ...The labor dispute between Oxford County and the Teamsters Union over deputy pay rates will likely go to interest arbitration, say union officials, after the county failed to agree to a pay increase...
FTC Gives Ground On Merger Challenges Wall Street Journal ...Amid growing pressure from congressional Republicans, the Federal Trade Commission is revising procedures for challenging mergers it believes are anticompetitive, a move that could factor into its pending case against the deal that would combine Sysco Corp. and US Foods Inc...
Trade
What Would A Worker-Friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership Look Like? (opinion) The Week ...The biggest potential problem with TPP is that past international trade deals have eroded middle-class jobs, particularly in manufacturing, while increasing incomes at the top, thus creating even more of an hourglass economy...
State Battles
Editorial: From 'right-to-work' to the 'servant economy' St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The decline of America’s middle class in the past four decades is attributable to many factors, one of them being the decline in union membership; right-to-work depresses union membership further. It will decrease dues payments that unions tend to spend on candidates who support unions, most of whom are not Republicans...
Wisconsin 'dead last' in the Midwest in creating jobs? PolitiFact Wisconsin ...Among the 10 Midwestern states we’ve checked on previous "dead last" claims, Wisconsin is at the bottom, if not "dead last"...
A Tale Of Two States Huffington Post ...Those two governors took these two states -- Minnesota and Wisconsin -- down two very different paths. Today, Minnesota's unemployment rate is 3.6 percent -- far below the nationwide rate of 5.7 percent - while Wisconsin's job growth has been among the worst in the region and its income growth has been among the worst in the nation...
Nevada Bill Aims To Scrap Minimum Wage That Voters Passed By Ballot Initiative ThinkProgress ...In 2006, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment that sets a standard minimum wage, but Hardy’s resolution would repeal it and give the legislature the ability to control the wage...
Illinois Unions Ramp Up To Thwart 'Right To Work' Chicago Tribune ...Illinois is surrounded by states that have adopted right-to-work laws that allow some workers to refrain from paying union dues, including Indiana, Iowa and Michigan. And the anti-union momentum shows no signs of slowing down, though it's a bigger challenge in Illinois, which has a Democrat-controlled legislature less likely to approve such a change...
You Try Living On The Minimum Wage (opinion) New York Times ...Over half a million workers in New York State subsist on the minimum wage of $8.75 an hour. That’s about $18,000 a year for those working 40 hours a week. Anyone who thinks that is generous should try spending just $350 a week on food, housing, gas and heat...
Bills Coming Monday Would Raise Minimum Wage By City Or Statewide Vote Denver Post ...On Monday, state Rep. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, will announce two new pieces of legislation that could give a pay raise to Colorado's minimum-wage earners. One bill would let voters in 2016 set the minimum wage as well as a formula to grant increases, with a goal of reaching $12.50 an hour by 2020. If that fails, another bill would let cities with a high cost of living — resort towns such as Aspen, and Telluride, and possibly Denver and Boulder — to set their own local minimum wages...
War on Workers
Worker Killed At Port Of Anchorage Alaska Public Media ...A worker was killed at the Port of Anchorage earlier today while handling military equipment. Lindsey Whitt is the head of the External Affairs for the Port, and says this morning’s incident involved cargo shipping to the 1st Stryker Brigade in Fairbanks...
McDonald’s Workers Complain Of Widespread Burns And Injuries BuzzFeed News ...Nearly 30 McDonald’s employees in stores across 19 cities have filed complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that allege the fast food giant creates a hazardous working environment that has led to widespread burns and other injuries to employees...
Faith V. Greed: The Battle Between Faith-Based Organizations And The Payday Loan Industry Consumerist ...“The Bible condemns gaining wealth through usury; and the writers of Scripture warn about gaining wealth through exploiting the poor… [but] The State of Alabama allows Payday lenders to charge an annual interest rate of 456%.” So reads a 2014 Alabama Baptist State Convention resolution condemning predatory payday loans and recommending a 36% cap on interest rates. This resolution is just one of many efforts by faith-based organizations all around the country to combat the payday loan industry and other questionable financial products they believe are hurting low-income Americans and eroding communities...
To fix inequality, Democrats are pushing unions The Washington Post ...At a time when GOP is gaining ground in very public attacks on labor, the left is coming to the defense of collective bargaining...
Miscellaneous
Oil Pipeline Boom Goes On Despite Keystone XL Setback USA Today ...While the Keystone project awaits a final decision, scenes like these are unfolding almost every week in lesser-known developments that have quietly added more than 11,600 miles of pipeline to the nation's domestic oil network. Overall, the network has increased by almost a quarter in the last decade. And the work dwarfs Keystone. About 3.3 million barrels per day of capacity have been added since 2012 alone — five times more oil than the Canada-to-Texas Keystone line could carry if it's ever built...
A Police Gadget Tracks Phones? Shhh! It’s Secret New York Times ...A powerful new surveillance tool being adopted by police departments across the country comes with an unusual requirement: To buy it, law enforcement officials must sign a nondisclosure agreement preventing them from saying almost anything about the technology...
Arbitration Looming In Oxford County Sheriff's Deputy Pay Dispute NPR ...The labor dispute between Oxford County and the Teamsters Union over deputy pay rates will likely go to interest arbitration, say union officials, after the county failed to agree to a pay increase...
FTC Gives Ground On Merger Challenges Wall Street Journal ...Amid growing pressure from congressional Republicans, the Federal Trade Commission is revising procedures for challenging mergers it believes are anticompetitive, a move that could factor into its pending case against the deal that would combine Sysco Corp. and US Foods Inc...
Trade
What Would A Worker-Friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership Look Like? (opinion) The Week ...The biggest potential problem with TPP is that past international trade deals have eroded middle-class jobs, particularly in manufacturing, while increasing incomes at the top, thus creating even more of an hourglass economy...
State Battles
Editorial: From 'right-to-work' to the 'servant economy' St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The decline of America’s middle class in the past four decades is attributable to many factors, one of them being the decline in union membership; right-to-work depresses union membership further. It will decrease dues payments that unions tend to spend on candidates who support unions, most of whom are not Republicans...
Wisconsin 'dead last' in the Midwest in creating jobs? PolitiFact Wisconsin ...Among the 10 Midwestern states we’ve checked on previous "dead last" claims, Wisconsin is at the bottom, if not "dead last"...
A Tale Of Two States Huffington Post ...Those two governors took these two states -- Minnesota and Wisconsin -- down two very different paths. Today, Minnesota's unemployment rate is 3.6 percent -- far below the nationwide rate of 5.7 percent - while Wisconsin's job growth has been among the worst in the region and its income growth has been among the worst in the nation...
Nevada Bill Aims To Scrap Minimum Wage That Voters Passed By Ballot Initiative ThinkProgress ...In 2006, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment that sets a standard minimum wage, but Hardy’s resolution would repeal it and give the legislature the ability to control the wage...
Illinois Unions Ramp Up To Thwart 'Right To Work' Chicago Tribune ...Illinois is surrounded by states that have adopted right-to-work laws that allow some workers to refrain from paying union dues, including Indiana, Iowa and Michigan. And the anti-union momentum shows no signs of slowing down, though it's a bigger challenge in Illinois, which has a Democrat-controlled legislature less likely to approve such a change...
You Try Living On The Minimum Wage (opinion) New York Times ...Over half a million workers in New York State subsist on the minimum wage of $8.75 an hour. That’s about $18,000 a year for those working 40 hours a week. Anyone who thinks that is generous should try spending just $350 a week on food, housing, gas and heat...
Bills Coming Monday Would Raise Minimum Wage By City Or Statewide Vote Denver Post ...On Monday, state Rep. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, will announce two new pieces of legislation that could give a pay raise to Colorado's minimum-wage earners. One bill would let voters in 2016 set the minimum wage as well as a formula to grant increases, with a goal of reaching $12.50 an hour by 2020. If that fails, another bill would let cities with a high cost of living — resort towns such as Aspen, and Telluride, and possibly Denver and Boulder — to set their own local minimum wages...
War on Workers
Worker Killed At Port Of Anchorage Alaska Public Media ...A worker was killed at the Port of Anchorage earlier today while handling military equipment. Lindsey Whitt is the head of the External Affairs for the Port, and says this morning’s incident involved cargo shipping to the 1st Stryker Brigade in Fairbanks...
McDonald’s Workers Complain Of Widespread Burns And Injuries BuzzFeed News ...Nearly 30 McDonald’s employees in stores across 19 cities have filed complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that allege the fast food giant creates a hazardous working environment that has led to widespread burns and other injuries to employees...
Faith V. Greed: The Battle Between Faith-Based Organizations And The Payday Loan Industry Consumerist ...“The Bible condemns gaining wealth through usury; and the writers of Scripture warn about gaining wealth through exploiting the poor… [but] The State of Alabama allows Payday lenders to charge an annual interest rate of 456%.” So reads a 2014 Alabama Baptist State Convention resolution condemning predatory payday loans and recommending a 36% cap on interest rates. This resolution is just one of many efforts by faith-based organizations all around the country to combat the payday loan industry and other questionable financial products they believe are hurting low-income Americans and eroding communities...
To fix inequality, Democrats are pushing unions The Washington Post ...At a time when GOP is gaining ground in very public attacks on labor, the left is coming to the defense of collective bargaining...
Miscellaneous
Oil Pipeline Boom Goes On Despite Keystone XL Setback USA Today ...While the Keystone project awaits a final decision, scenes like these are unfolding almost every week in lesser-known developments that have quietly added more than 11,600 miles of pipeline to the nation's domestic oil network. Overall, the network has increased by almost a quarter in the last decade. And the work dwarfs Keystone. About 3.3 million barrels per day of capacity have been added since 2012 alone — five times more oil than the Canada-to-Texas Keystone line could carry if it's ever built...
A Police Gadget Tracks Phones? Shhh! It’s Secret New York Times ...A powerful new surveillance tool being adopted by police departments across the country comes with an unusual requirement: To buy it, law enforcement officials must sign a nondisclosure agreement preventing them from saying almost anything about the technology...
Monday, April 14, 2014
Maine lawmakers reject proposal for right-to-work zones
 |
| It got stopped in Maine |
By a vote of 91-55, the Maine House of Representatives decided right-to-work doesn't create jobs.
The Associated Press reports:
Maine lawmakers have rejected Gov. Paul LePage's proposal to offer business tax breaks and workers the ability not to pay labor union fees in certain parts of the state.
The Republican governor's proposal aims attract companies that invest more than $50 million and create at least 1,500 jobs to the former Loring Air Force Base and Brunswick Naval Air Station. Businesses would get tax and energy cost relief and assistance to help train and recruit workers. It would also create "right-to-work zones," meaning non-union employees wouldn't have to pay fees to negotiate or administer contracts.Don Berry, president of the Maine AFL-CIO, called LePage's proposal a re-election stunt because it wouldn't support workers and businesses already in the state:
We should be building our economy from the bottom up and the middle out. That means supporting Maine businesses and workers who are here. This bill gives away the store to big business from away but does nothing for the small businesses and workers who are here.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Maine to Congress: Don't pull a fast one on America by fast tracking trade deals
(UPDATES with new 9th graf to add the senate approved the resolution too.)
Maine lawmakers want Congress to vet every word of an upcoming trade deal to make sure it doesn't harm American families.
Mainers don't think members of Congress should pull a fast one on American workers with "fast track" legislation that doesn't let them examine trade deals before they're passed.
Many in Congress seem open to approving fast track for trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Maine's state lawmakers think that's a bad idea.
Maine's Legislature approved a joint resolution last week calling on Congress to reject fast track as a way to pass the TPP and the upcoming Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA). The resolution points out that fast track violates the U.S. Constitution, which requires the Senate to negotiate trade pacts.
The Maine lawmakers made it clear in the resolution that they're not against trade, they're just against unfair trade:
As stated in the resolution:
Maine lawmakers want Congress to vet every word of an upcoming trade deal to make sure it doesn't harm American families.
Mainers don't think members of Congress should pull a fast one on American workers with "fast track" legislation that doesn't let them examine trade deals before they're passed.
Many in Congress seem open to approving fast track for trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Maine's state lawmakers think that's a bad idea.
Maine's Legislature approved a joint resolution last week calling on Congress to reject fast track as a way to pass the TPP and the upcoming Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA). The resolution points out that fast track violates the U.S. Constitution, which requires the Senate to negotiate trade pacts.
The Maine lawmakers made it clear in the resolution that they're not against trade, they're just against unfair trade:
...the State strongly supports international trade when fair rules of trade are in place and seeks to be an active participant in the global economy, and the State seeks to maximize the benefits and minimize any negative effects of international trade.They're concerned that the upcoming trade deals will exchange safe American products for foods that make our families sick. Both the TPP and TAFTA could override the state's authority to protect the public health and safety:
...existing trade agreements ... can undermine Maine's constitutionally guaranteed authority to protect the public health, safety and welfare...Maine's representatives passed the resolution on Thursday, and state senators adopted the same language on Friday.
As stated in the resolution:
We ... request that the President of the United States, the United States Congress and the United States Trade Representative seek to develop a new middle ground approach to consultation that meets the constitutional requirements for treaty review and approval while at the same time allowing the United States Trade Representative adequate flexibility to negotiate the increasingly complicated provisions of international trade treaties.Unfortunately, the Maine resolution carries no federal weight on its own. However, if states join together to oppose fast track, Congress will have to begin to listen.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Today's Teamster News 02.07.13
401Ks are a disaster (opinion) USA Today ...Recent and near-retirees, the first major cohort of the 401(k) era, do not have nearly enough in retirement savings to even come close to maintaining their current lifestyles...
RBS fined $612 million for rate rigging Reuters ...Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $612 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle allegations it manipulated benchmark interest rates, and regulators warned there is more to come in the global investigation. RBS became the third bank to pay fines in the Libor scandal...
China made 1.2B mobile phones in 2012 ZDNet ...China produced 1.18 billion mobile phones in 2012, accounting for more than 50 percent of mobile phone sales worldwide...
China unveils major tax reforms to make rich pay more The Guardian ...China has unveiled sweeping tax reforms to make wealthy state-owned firms, property speculators and the rich pay more to narrow the gap between the urban elite and hundreds of millions of rural poor...
Greece orders seamen back to work on 6th day of strike BBC ...Workers manning ferry services to Greece's numerous islands have been demanding the payment of wages more than six months in arrears and the signing of collective work contracts with ferry companies...
Thanks To Congressional Incompetence, Saturday Mail Delivery Is History ThinkProgress ...Under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Congress has for years forced the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pensions for its employees, a requirement not made of any other public or private institution...
Pointless attacks on unions in Kansas, Missouri (opinion) Kansas City Star ...The unnecessary attacks on unions demonstrate how susceptible state legislatures are to outside forces...
Hearing on Missouri 'right to work' bill attracts crowd Associated Press ...A standing room only crowd spilled into the Capitol hallway Wednesday to watch a Missouri House committee hearing on a bill barring payment of union dues as a condition of employment...
Senate approves constitutional amendment on union elections Northwest Indiana Times ...All union organizing elections would have to be conducted by secret ballot under an amendment to the Indiana Constitution approved 33-16 by the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday...
Local 150 will appeal judge’s dismissal of its challenge to right-to-work law Post-Tribune ...Attorneys for International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 filed the notice to appeal Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond...
Maine Voter ID Law Not Recommended By Independent Elections Panel Huffington Post ..."The Commission, by a 4 to 1 vote, finds that the negative aspects of a Voter ID law outweigh its potential benefits and recommends that a Voter ID system not be pursued in Maine," read the report from the five-member panel...
Rich DeVos family gave $1.75 million to fight Michigan's Proposal 2 on union collective bargaining Michigan Live ...Betsy DeVos, Dan DeVos, Dick DeVos, Doug DeVos, Elisabeth DeVos, Helen DeVos, Maria DeVos, Pamella DeVos and Richard DeVos altogether gave $2.8 million to the Republican party, political candidates and conservative causes in Michigan last year, a MIRS report calculates...
Right-to-work bill finding little support in NH House Nashua Telegraph ...The House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee dealt a blow to the latest attempt to pass right-to-work legislation in New Hampshire. The committee voted 13-5 to recommend House Bill 322 be killed when the full House takes up the measure...
Sprucing Up Suppression: Pennsylvania GOP Proposes New Election-Rigging Scheme Center for Media and Democracy ...Pennsylvania's Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi intends to introduce legislation that would award that state's electoral votes proportionally according to the popular vote, rather than according to the winner in each Congressional district. If the plan had been in place for last November's election Romney would have received 8 of Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes...
Labor lawyer: Kansas union bill will silence workers Associated Press ...The payroll bill is one of several proposed measures that Democrats and union representatives see as eroding the rights of public employees to participate in the political process, whether it be supporting candidates with political action committees or advocating public policy changes...
Talks of Bus Strikes Still Alive The Coastal Source ...Talks of a possible bus strike for Beaufort County Schools are still up in the air...The Teamsters Union and Durham Services are trying to reach a compromise about possible pay raises for current bus drivers and better benefits, but Tuesday afternoon, rumors spread that Durham Bus Services walked out of the meeting...
Cecil supervisors approve police, public works contracts Observer-Reporter ...Public works employees, members of Teamsters Local 205, will receive a 3 percent salary increase over the course of their four-year contract...
RBS fined $612 million for rate rigging Reuters ...Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $612 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle allegations it manipulated benchmark interest rates, and regulators warned there is more to come in the global investigation. RBS became the third bank to pay fines in the Libor scandal...
China made 1.2B mobile phones in 2012 ZDNet ...China produced 1.18 billion mobile phones in 2012, accounting for more than 50 percent of mobile phone sales worldwide...
China unveils major tax reforms to make rich pay more The Guardian ...China has unveiled sweeping tax reforms to make wealthy state-owned firms, property speculators and the rich pay more to narrow the gap between the urban elite and hundreds of millions of rural poor...
Greece orders seamen back to work on 6th day of strike BBC ...Workers manning ferry services to Greece's numerous islands have been demanding the payment of wages more than six months in arrears and the signing of collective work contracts with ferry companies...
Thanks To Congressional Incompetence, Saturday Mail Delivery Is History ThinkProgress ...Under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Congress has for years forced the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pensions for its employees, a requirement not made of any other public or private institution...
Pointless attacks on unions in Kansas, Missouri (opinion) Kansas City Star ...The unnecessary attacks on unions demonstrate how susceptible state legislatures are to outside forces...
Hearing on Missouri 'right to work' bill attracts crowd Associated Press ...A standing room only crowd spilled into the Capitol hallway Wednesday to watch a Missouri House committee hearing on a bill barring payment of union dues as a condition of employment...
Senate approves constitutional amendment on union elections Northwest Indiana Times ...All union organizing elections would have to be conducted by secret ballot under an amendment to the Indiana Constitution approved 33-16 by the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday...
Local 150 will appeal judge’s dismissal of its challenge to right-to-work law Post-Tribune ...Attorneys for International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 filed the notice to appeal Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond...
Maine Voter ID Law Not Recommended By Independent Elections Panel Huffington Post ..."The Commission, by a 4 to 1 vote, finds that the negative aspects of a Voter ID law outweigh its potential benefits and recommends that a Voter ID system not be pursued in Maine," read the report from the five-member panel...
Rich DeVos family gave $1.75 million to fight Michigan's Proposal 2 on union collective bargaining Michigan Live ...Betsy DeVos, Dan DeVos, Dick DeVos, Doug DeVos, Elisabeth DeVos, Helen DeVos, Maria DeVos, Pamella DeVos and Richard DeVos altogether gave $2.8 million to the Republican party, political candidates and conservative causes in Michigan last year, a MIRS report calculates...
Right-to-work bill finding little support in NH House Nashua Telegraph ...The House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee dealt a blow to the latest attempt to pass right-to-work legislation in New Hampshire. The committee voted 13-5 to recommend House Bill 322 be killed when the full House takes up the measure...
Sprucing Up Suppression: Pennsylvania GOP Proposes New Election-Rigging Scheme Center for Media and Democracy ...Pennsylvania's Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi intends to introduce legislation that would award that state's electoral votes proportionally according to the popular vote, rather than according to the winner in each Congressional district. If the plan had been in place for last November's election Romney would have received 8 of Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes...
Labor lawyer: Kansas union bill will silence workers Associated Press ...The payroll bill is one of several proposed measures that Democrats and union representatives see as eroding the rights of public employees to participate in the political process, whether it be supporting candidates with political action committees or advocating public policy changes...
Talks of Bus Strikes Still Alive The Coastal Source ...Talks of a possible bus strike for Beaufort County Schools are still up in the air...The Teamsters Union and Durham Services are trying to reach a compromise about possible pay raises for current bus drivers and better benefits, but Tuesday afternoon, rumors spread that Durham Bus Services walked out of the meeting...
Cecil supervisors approve police, public works contracts Observer-Reporter ...Public works employees, members of Teamsters Local 205, will receive a 3 percent salary increase over the course of their four-year contract...
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Today's Teamster News 01.30.13
Wall Street Banks Seize Opportunity to Profit from Nation's Unemployed Common Dreams ...'Too Big to Fail' banks including JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp and Bank of America have seized on an opportunity to profit off the nation's jobless by siphoning millions of dollars in fees from state unemployment programs...
Case-Shiller Index Shows Home Prices Increased 5.5% From a Year Ago in November 2012 Economic Populist ...home prices are now comparable to September 2003...
Ray LaHood to step down as U.S. transportation secretary Washington Post ...Ray LaHood, the Illinois Republican who turned distracted driving into a national crusade while serving a Democratic president, will step down after four years as transportation secretary in the Obama administration...
Obama Urges Speed on Immigration Plan, but Exposes Conflicts New York Times ...President Obama challenged Congress on Tuesday to act swiftly to put 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States on a clear path to citizenship...
31 Senate Republicans Opposed Sandy Relief After Supporting Disaster Aid For Home States Think Progress ...When the Senate passed the long-delayed $50.5 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package Monday, 36 Republicans voted against the bill. But of the 32 no-votes from Senators who are not brand-new members, at least 31 came from Republicans who had previously supported emergency aid efforts following disasters in their own states...
Viewpoint: The Decline of Unions Is Your Problem Too TIME ...If we want a better economy, then, we need a better story about how the economy works, in which a union worker is not a cost but a customer...
Right-to-work legislation returns to Augusta Bangor Daily News ...Two controversial proposals that would make Maine a “right-to-work” state are back on the table in Augusta...
Michigan asks for state high court ruling on 'right-to-work' law Reuters ...Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has asked the state Supreme Court to rule whether a law passed last month making payment of union dues voluntary is constitutional, a move critics said was designed to circumvent legal challenges by labor unions...
Gov. Rick Snyder Backs Off ‘Unfair’ Electoral Rigging Plan Think Progress ...Gov. Rick Snyder (R) came out against the plan this year...
Republicans say Electoral College changes not in store for Ohio Plain Dealer ...Ohio's Republican leaders...told The Plain Dealer this week that they are not pursuing plans to award electoral votes proportionally by congressional district...
Bill Gates: nice charity work, shame about the business practices The Guardian ...Perhaps the Republic Services dispute indicates that relying upon the generosity of billionaires is not a model upon which we can build a just and equal society – especially since the road to billionaire-dom oft seems paved with exploitation of workers, tax avoidance (hello Microsoft), and ever-decreasing wages...
Republic Services replacement worker fires shot in air at picket line MENAFN.com ...a replacement worker fired shots into the air at a picket line at the company's North Shelby Landfill in Millington...About 180 Teamsters went on strike early Monday morning over what they charge is the company's unfair labor practices...
‘Conciliators’ will decide on raise for sheriff’s staff Columbus Dispatch ...Pickaway County is pleading poverty, but unionized sheriff’s-office employees contend that the county can afford to award them their first pay raises since 2009...Teamsters Local 285, which represents 30 corrections and communications employees, sought a 4 percent raise each of the next three years...
Case-Shiller Index Shows Home Prices Increased 5.5% From a Year Ago in November 2012 Economic Populist ...home prices are now comparable to September 2003...
Ray LaHood to step down as U.S. transportation secretary Washington Post ...Ray LaHood, the Illinois Republican who turned distracted driving into a national crusade while serving a Democratic president, will step down after four years as transportation secretary in the Obama administration...
Obama Urges Speed on Immigration Plan, but Exposes Conflicts New York Times ...President Obama challenged Congress on Tuesday to act swiftly to put 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States on a clear path to citizenship...
31 Senate Republicans Opposed Sandy Relief After Supporting Disaster Aid For Home States Think Progress ...When the Senate passed the long-delayed $50.5 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package Monday, 36 Republicans voted against the bill. But of the 32 no-votes from Senators who are not brand-new members, at least 31 came from Republicans who had previously supported emergency aid efforts following disasters in their own states...
Viewpoint: The Decline of Unions Is Your Problem Too TIME ...If we want a better economy, then, we need a better story about how the economy works, in which a union worker is not a cost but a customer...
Right-to-work legislation returns to Augusta Bangor Daily News ...Two controversial proposals that would make Maine a “right-to-work” state are back on the table in Augusta...
Michigan asks for state high court ruling on 'right-to-work' law Reuters ...Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has asked the state Supreme Court to rule whether a law passed last month making payment of union dues voluntary is constitutional, a move critics said was designed to circumvent legal challenges by labor unions...
Gov. Rick Snyder Backs Off ‘Unfair’ Electoral Rigging Plan Think Progress ...Gov. Rick Snyder (R) came out against the plan this year...
Republicans say Electoral College changes not in store for Ohio Plain Dealer ...Ohio's Republican leaders...told The Plain Dealer this week that they are not pursuing plans to award electoral votes proportionally by congressional district...
Bill Gates: nice charity work, shame about the business practices The Guardian ...Perhaps the Republic Services dispute indicates that relying upon the generosity of billionaires is not a model upon which we can build a just and equal society – especially since the road to billionaire-dom oft seems paved with exploitation of workers, tax avoidance (hello Microsoft), and ever-decreasing wages...
Republic Services replacement worker fires shot in air at picket line MENAFN.com ...a replacement worker fired shots into the air at a picket line at the company's North Shelby Landfill in Millington...About 180 Teamsters went on strike early Monday morning over what they charge is the company's unfair labor practices...
‘Conciliators’ will decide on raise for sheriff’s staff Columbus Dispatch ...Pickaway County is pleading poverty, but unionized sheriff’s-office employees contend that the county can afford to award them their first pay raises since 2009...Teamsters Local 285, which represents 30 corrections and communications employees, sought a 4 percent raise each of the next three years...
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Today's Teamster News 10.11.12
Workers Threaten To 'Take Action' On Retailer's Busiest Day [UPDATE] Huffington Post ...Employees at 28 Walmarts in 12 different cities walked out of work Tuesday, but things may get a whole lot worse for the biggest retailer in the U.S. come Black Friday...
Judges say South Carolina law doesn’t discriminate, but must wait until 2013 to take effect Associated Press ...A three-judge panel has upheld South Carolina’s law requiring voters to show photo identification but has delayed enforcement until next year — adding to the list of states that have had to postpone or drop strict ID or voting laws they wanted in place for the Nov. 6 elections...
Former Walker aide takes plea deal in politicking case Associated Press ...One of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's former top aides has agreed to plead to one felony misconduct charge in a deal with Milwaukee County prosecutors that would keep the governor off the witness stand...
Unions looking for boost in Michigan Journal Gazette ...Organized labor in Michigan seems to have taken a look at its neighbors and decided a pre-emptive strike on union-busting is in order. A referendum on Michigan ballots next month – Proposal 2 – would write collective bargaining rights into the state constitution and invalidate all laws restricting those rights.
Live From Battleground Ohio: One Door at a Time In These Times ... The plan is to have the parking lot shipshape for Thursday evening’s rally, which will feature Teamster President Jim Hoffa and AFSCME President Lee Saunders...
Arkansas Best, Teamsters agree on contract talks City Wire ...The dealing is set to begin Dec. 18 on a contract that will expire March 31, according to a statement issued Wednesday (Oct. 10) by Fort Smith-based Arkansas Best...
Union makes 'last best offer' to South Berwick Seacoastonline ...The Town Council next week will discuss the "last best offer" of the Teamsters union for two new contracts for the town's professional and public works employees...
Judges say South Carolina law doesn’t discriminate, but must wait until 2013 to take effect Associated Press ...A three-judge panel has upheld South Carolina’s law requiring voters to show photo identification but has delayed enforcement until next year — adding to the list of states that have had to postpone or drop strict ID or voting laws they wanted in place for the Nov. 6 elections...
Former Walker aide takes plea deal in politicking case Associated Press ...One of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's former top aides has agreed to plead to one felony misconduct charge in a deal with Milwaukee County prosecutors that would keep the governor off the witness stand...
Unions looking for boost in Michigan Journal Gazette ...Organized labor in Michigan seems to have taken a look at its neighbors and decided a pre-emptive strike on union-busting is in order. A referendum on Michigan ballots next month – Proposal 2 – would write collective bargaining rights into the state constitution and invalidate all laws restricting those rights.
Live From Battleground Ohio: One Door at a Time In These Times ... The plan is to have the parking lot shipshape for Thursday evening’s rally, which will feature Teamster President Jim Hoffa and AFSCME President Lee Saunders...
Arkansas Best, Teamsters agree on contract talks City Wire ...The dealing is set to begin Dec. 18 on a contract that will expire March 31, according to a statement issued Wednesday (Oct. 10) by Fort Smith-based Arkansas Best...
Union makes 'last best offer' to South Berwick Seacoastonline ...The Town Council next week will discuss the "last best offer" of the Teamsters union for two new contracts for the town's professional and public works employees...
Monday, October 8, 2012
Today's Teamster News 10.08.12
Obama Better For Economy, Workers And Economists Agree Huffington Post ...Economists gave Obama's economic plan an average grade of 3.15 on a five-point scale: nearly 50 percent higher than their 2.14 grade of Romney's plan, according to a new survey by The Economist...
Real-Live Voter Fraud Washington Monthly ...What do forged absentee ballots and vote-buying have in common? They occur more often than in-person impersonation (which is virtually non-existent) and are unaffected by voter ID laws...
The jobs numbers: never mind the quantity, check the quality The Guardian ...more workers are in stuck in part-time jobs because their hours were cut back or they're unable to find full-time positions. The number of workers in this category shot up to 8.5 million in September – an increase of 581,000 from last month...
Desperately Chasing Jobs in a Polarized Wisconsin Town (television review) New York Times ...the energy and political capital expended on those 120 potential jobs are a sign of how desperate things are in Janesville and surrounding Rock County, where the closing of the auto plant is estimated to have cost 11,000 jobs. (The film makes no reference to Representative Paul D. Ryan...
Andy Kroll, The Death of the Golden Dream of Higher Education TomDispatch ...For the first time in generations, California's community colleges and state universities are turning away qualified new students and shrinking their enrollments as state funding continues its long, slow decline...
Wells Fargo boosts lobbying presence in Maine, elsewhere Bangor Daily News ...After becoming a national bank, Wells Fargo now has lobbyists bending state legislators’ ears everywhere from Denver to Baton Rouge, La. In Maine, state records show Wells lobbied on three bills, including one that would require banks to provide original documents while foreclosing. It was vetoed by the governor. Wells had no lobbyists in Maine five years ago...
Real-Live Voter Fraud Washington Monthly ...What do forged absentee ballots and vote-buying have in common? They occur more often than in-person impersonation (which is virtually non-existent) and are unaffected by voter ID laws...
The jobs numbers: never mind the quantity, check the quality The Guardian ...more workers are in stuck in part-time jobs because their hours were cut back or they're unable to find full-time positions. The number of workers in this category shot up to 8.5 million in September – an increase of 581,000 from last month...
Desperately Chasing Jobs in a Polarized Wisconsin Town (television review) New York Times ...the energy and political capital expended on those 120 potential jobs are a sign of how desperate things are in Janesville and surrounding Rock County, where the closing of the auto plant is estimated to have cost 11,000 jobs. (The film makes no reference to Representative Paul D. Ryan...
Andy Kroll, The Death of the Golden Dream of Higher Education TomDispatch ...For the first time in generations, California's community colleges and state universities are turning away qualified new students and shrinking their enrollments as state funding continues its long, slow decline...
Wells Fargo boosts lobbying presence in Maine, elsewhere Bangor Daily News ...After becoming a national bank, Wells Fargo now has lobbyists bending state legislators’ ears everywhere from Denver to Baton Rouge, La. In Maine, state records show Wells lobbied on three bills, including one that would require banks to provide original documents while foreclosing. It was vetoed by the governor. Wells had no lobbyists in Maine five years ago...
Saturday, February 11, 2012
How's that Tea Party Economics working for you?
It's been a year now since Tea Party quislings swept into governors' offices across the country. They promised to shrink government in order to unleash the powers of free enterprise.
Once elected, that isn't exactly what happened. They shrunk funding for education, pensions and health care. But their governments stayed pretty much the same size. We assume their cronies got what working families didn't.
Anyhoo, we thought we'd take a look at how well the Tea Party playbook worked out. Did austerity for the 99 percent coupled with tax breaks and giveaways to the 1 percent improve their states' economies?
Let's start with Maine, which has possibly the wingnuttiest governor in the country. Paul LePage, you'll recall, took down a mural depicting labor history in Maine at the state's Department of Labor. He also followed the Tea Party recipe for economic success. According to the Bangor Daily News:
Well, then let's look at the second most wingnutty governor: Wisconsin's Koch whore Scott Walker. He campaigned on a promise of creating 250,000 jobs. If you listen to Walker now, his attacks on working families "reforms" are working and he's created jobs. But then you have to remember that 69 percent of what comes out of Scott Walker's mouth is a lie, so you need to dig a little deeper.
According to Express Milwaukee,
Oh wait, the business experience involved ripping off the government.
Scott, however, did promise to create 700,000 jobs as governor.
Here's what he's done, according to The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting:
Time for a new playbook.
Once elected, that isn't exactly what happened. They shrunk funding for education, pensions and health care. But their governments stayed pretty much the same size. We assume their cronies got what working families didn't.
Anyhoo, we thought we'd take a look at how well the Tea Party playbook worked out. Did austerity for the 99 percent coupled with tax breaks and giveaways to the 1 percent improve their states' economies?
...the state lost more jobs per capita in 2011 than every other state in the nation, shedding 7,200 jobs...Whoops.
According to Express Milwaukee,
Jobs have been lost in each month since Walker's budget has been in effect.So much for Scotty Boy. How about a Tea Party governor with business experience, like Florida's Pink Slip Rick Scott?
...Even worse, Walker's Wisconsin is moving in the opposite direction as the rest of the country. While the United States as a whole has been adding jobs for 22 months as part of the broader national recovery, Wisconsin is the only state to have shed jobs in each of the past six months.
Scott, however, did promise to create 700,000 jobs as governor.
Here's what he's done, according to The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting:
The jobless rate is falling because so many Floridians have stopped looking for work that they aren’t being counted anymore.Oh, and when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts? He ranked 47th out of 50 governors in job creation.
Steep cuts in state spending have further squeezed the poor and unemployed, and in turn, the municipalities in which they live.
The majority of new jobs are in the lowest-paying sectors.
Wages have fallen for the poorest workers.
Poverty has increased.
Florida has one of the highest populations of uninsured in the country.
Time for a new playbook.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Today's Teamster News 02.10.12
Haridopolos: Private prison vote is next week Orlando Sentinel ...Haridopolos was coy though when asked if that meant he had the votes to pass the bill. “We’ll see,” he said...
Pro-labor Republicans recruit challengers for right-to-work supporters in Indiana House Associated Press ...some candidates, such as high school teacher Diana Boersma, are taking on powerful House members, such as Rep. Douglas Gutwein of Francesville. Others, such as Randy Conner and Jon D. Hare, are challenging freshmen legislators elected in 2010's Republican sweep...
ALEC wrote parts of LePage education agenda Maine's Majority ...ALEC, a corporate-funded organization that encourages conservative lawmakers to advance big business-friendly laws on the state level, is currently under fire for its efforts to influence the legislative process in several states, including Maine...
Jobs, Economy Most Important Issues To NH Residents WMUR ...Coming in a distant second place is the Republican majority in the Legislature...
SD Panel Strikes Down Collective Bargaining Ban Keloland.com ...Lawmakers unanimously rejected a bill Wednesday that would have ended collective bargaining for public employees in South Dakota...
This is no bailout for Main Street America The Guardian ...While the government's help to homeowners is far from adequate or just, it represents a partial and late recognition of trickle-down economics' inadequacy as policy...
Disgruntled Greeks Start 48-Hour National Strike New York Times ...Greek workers walked off the job for the second time this week on Friday in a snap 48-hour general strike called to protest new austerity measures the country must take to avert a disastrous default next month...
This Teamsters Memo Shows How The Threat Of A Union Strike Could Seal Hostess' Fate Business Insider ...union officials are calling Hostess's demands — which include a five-year wage freeze and scrapping employer contributions to health and pension plans — unreasonable...
Pro-labor Republicans recruit challengers for right-to-work supporters in Indiana House Associated Press ...some candidates, such as high school teacher Diana Boersma, are taking on powerful House members, such as Rep. Douglas Gutwein of Francesville. Others, such as Randy Conner and Jon D. Hare, are challenging freshmen legislators elected in 2010's Republican sweep...
ALEC wrote parts of LePage education agenda Maine's Majority ...ALEC, a corporate-funded organization that encourages conservative lawmakers to advance big business-friendly laws on the state level, is currently under fire for its efforts to influence the legislative process in several states, including Maine...
Jobs, Economy Most Important Issues To NH Residents WMUR ...Coming in a distant second place is the Republican majority in the Legislature...
SD Panel Strikes Down Collective Bargaining Ban Keloland.com ...Lawmakers unanimously rejected a bill Wednesday that would have ended collective bargaining for public employees in South Dakota...
This is no bailout for Main Street America The Guardian ...While the government's help to homeowners is far from adequate or just, it represents a partial and late recognition of trickle-down economics' inadequacy as policy...
Disgruntled Greeks Start 48-Hour National Strike New York Times ...Greek workers walked off the job for the second time this week on Friday in a snap 48-hour general strike called to protest new austerity measures the country must take to avert a disastrous default next month...
This Teamsters Memo Shows How The Threat Of A Union Strike Could Seal Hostess' Fate Business Insider ...union officials are calling Hostess's demands — which include a five-year wage freeze and scrapping employer contributions to health and pension plans — unreasonable...
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Today's Teamster News 01.10.12
China’s Slowest Import Growth in Two Years Deepens Global Risks: Economy Bloomberg ...Imports ... rose 11.8 percent from a year before, less than all 21 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, a government report showed today in Beijing...
Afghanistan: 'Slave-like' conditions at Swedish army base revealed Morning Star ...Kitchen staff at Sweden's military base in Afghanistan have been working in "slave-like conditions," a Swedish newspaper has revealed...
There Are 5,000 Janitors in the U.S. with PhDs Gizmodo ...some 17 million college-educated Americans have jobs that don't require their level of education...
Indiana House Dems end chamber boycott, GOP plans initial vote on divisive labor bill Associated Press ...Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said the right-to-work bill will get a committee vote Tuesday morning and could make it out of his chamber by the end of the week if Democrats continue to attend House sessions...
Group to push ‘Right to work’ ballot initiative PoliticM ...While many state legislators shy from the issue, an outside group plans to file an initiative petition this month to place a so-called “right to work” constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot (in Missouri)...
Conservative Maine News Site Fires White Nationalist Writer Hatewatch ...one of the center’s newly hired writers, Leif Parsell, has a long history of espousing white superiority and may even have ties to neo-Nazi organizations...
Area Teamsters join national pipeline strike Citizens Voice ...A national strike of Teamsters pipeline construction workers has spread to Wyoming and Bradford counties, where about 25 workers walked off the job on Friday over a breakdown in retirement negotiations with an association that administers pipeline labor contracts...
Afghanistan: 'Slave-like' conditions at Swedish army base revealed Morning Star ...Kitchen staff at Sweden's military base in Afghanistan have been working in "slave-like conditions," a Swedish newspaper has revealed...
There Are 5,000 Janitors in the U.S. with PhDs Gizmodo ...some 17 million college-educated Americans have jobs that don't require their level of education...
Indiana House Dems end chamber boycott, GOP plans initial vote on divisive labor bill Associated Press ...Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said the right-to-work bill will get a committee vote Tuesday morning and could make it out of his chamber by the end of the week if Democrats continue to attend House sessions...
Group to push ‘Right to work’ ballot initiative PoliticM ...While many state legislators shy from the issue, an outside group plans to file an initiative petition this month to place a so-called “right to work” constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot (in Missouri)...
Conservative Maine News Site Fires White Nationalist Writer Hatewatch ...one of the center’s newly hired writers, Leif Parsell, has a long history of espousing white superiority and may even have ties to neo-Nazi organizations...
Area Teamsters join national pipeline strike Citizens Voice ...A national strike of Teamsters pipeline construction workers has spread to Wyoming and Bradford counties, where about 25 workers walked off the job on Friday over a breakdown in retirement negotiations with an association that administers pipeline labor contracts...
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Teamsters tell ME lawmakers: Stop the War on Workers
The fight for working families starts in Maine. Gov. Paul LePage is already collecting $500-a-head from anti-worker donors three years before he's up for re-election, the Bangor Daily News reports.
The Kennebec Journal tells us
A year after major labor battles in other states -- most notably Wisconsin -- the Maine AFL-CIO and other labor organizations are gearing up to oppose legislation that they describe as anti-labor...
The most controversial of the labor bills is L.D. 309, which would end the practice of requiring state employees who aren't in unions to pay a portion of union dues. The bill was held over from last year's session, following a contentious public hearing.
LePage has been a vocal supporter of L.D. 309, saying it's not right to force some state workers to contribute to unions they didn't choose to join.
Unions say that because the contracts they negotiate cover all workers, regardless of whether they are members, it's not fair if some workers don't contribute.
While some union members at the State House on Wednesday held posters that said "Stop the War on Workers" and "Jobs, Not Attacks," LePage issued a statement saying he's trying to lower the cost of government to help the working class.Mark us down as not believing LePage.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Maine voter suppression law defeated!
Maine's Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law in June requiring voters to register at least two business days before an election. Since 1973, Maine had a pratice of same-day voter registration on election day.
The law is part of a trend nationwide of lawmakers trying to pass laws to keep potential voters from casting ballots.
The referendum was put on the ballot and voters -- including Teamters -- vetoed it.
Traci Place, a business agent with Teamsters Local 340 in Maine, said:
Obviously this is a huge victory. The law was a recent change to voter registration and it didn't make any sense. It was just more of the same from Paul LePage and his regime in trying to suppress our voices in Maine, and the voters wouldn’t let their voices be suppressed.It just goes to show: When the 99 percent stand up to the one percent, we win.
Today's Teamster News 11.09.11
Unions see Ohio victory as springboard for resurgence, boost for 2012 election Associated Press ...Labor unions are celebrating one of their biggest victories in decades after turning back an Ohio law that curbed collective bargaining rights for the state’s public workers...
Author of Arizona Immigration Law Loses Recall Election Associated Press ...Senate President Russell Pearce conceded defeat Tuesday in an unprecedented recall election, a stunning turnabout for the author of Arizona's tough immigration law and one of the most powerful politicians in the state...
Liz Mathis Wins State Senate District 18 KCRG-TV9 ...Linn County voters extended Democratic control of the Iowa Senate by electing Liz Mathis to fill a vacant seat in Iowa Senate 18 ... Mathis ... made jobs, improving the business climate and education the basis of her campaign...
Union message in Scott defeat Detroit Free Press ...State Rep. Paul Scott, R-Grand Blanc, became the first state legislator in a generation to be recalled from office Tuesday, losing a close vote that was called after Scott and his Republican colleagues in Lansing enacted sweeping tax and budget reforms earlier this year...
Mainers vote to continue Election Day registration Bangor Daily News ...By a relatively wide margin, Mainers on Tuesday overturned a recently passed law that would have ended a 38-year-old practice of allowing voters to register on Election Day...
2011 election results: Steve Beshear wins in Kentucky, Phil Bryant elected in Mississippi Politico ...Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear cruised to a second term over Republican David Williams Tuesday in a win that offers Democrats a 2012 template for how to run in a dismal economic environment...
Author of Arizona Immigration Law Loses Recall Election Associated Press ...Senate President Russell Pearce conceded defeat Tuesday in an unprecedented recall election, a stunning turnabout for the author of Arizona's tough immigration law and one of the most powerful politicians in the state...
Liz Mathis Wins State Senate District 18 KCRG-TV9 ...Linn County voters extended Democratic control of the Iowa Senate by electing Liz Mathis to fill a vacant seat in Iowa Senate 18 ... Mathis ... made jobs, improving the business climate and education the basis of her campaign...
Union message in Scott defeat Detroit Free Press ...State Rep. Paul Scott, R-Grand Blanc, became the first state legislator in a generation to be recalled from office Tuesday, losing a close vote that was called after Scott and his Republican colleagues in Lansing enacted sweeping tax and budget reforms earlier this year...
Mainers vote to continue Election Day registration Bangor Daily News ...By a relatively wide margin, Mainers on Tuesday overturned a recently passed law that would have ended a 38-year-old practice of allowing voters to register on Election Day...
2011 election results: Steve Beshear wins in Kentucky, Phil Bryant elected in Mississippi Politico ...Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear cruised to a second term over Republican David Williams Tuesday in a win that offers Democrats a 2012 template for how to run in a dismal economic environment...
Monday, October 3, 2011
Voting will be denied to 5 million voters
"This year there's been a significant wave of new laws in states across the country that have the effect of cracking down on voting rights. It is the most significant rollback in voting rights in decades," said Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center. "More voters may be affected than the margin of victory in two out of the past three presidential elections."
The report sums up the scary statistics on voter suppression:
Already 19 new laws and two new executive actions are in place. At least 42 bills are still pending, and at least 68 more were introduced but failed.
These new laws could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.
The states that have already cut back on voting rights will provide 171 electoral votes in 2012 – 63 percent of the 270 needed to win the presidency.Koch-funded ALEC is behind "voter ID" laws already being pushed by corporate-puppet governors like John Kasich, Rick Snyder and Scott Walker. Now Governors Gone Wild have the help of Secretary of States Gone Wild, in places like Maine and Colorado.
Maine Secretary of State Charles Summers sent a letter last week to hundreds of college students who were legally registered to vote in Maine, scaring them by implying they may have violated election laws and encouraging them to re-register elsewhere.
This week, a Denver court is expected to decide whether Secretary of State Scott Gessler can keep eligible, registered voters in Denver from voting. Gessler’s efforts could have an impact on Initiative 300, an all-mail-in ballot referendum to allow Denver workers to earn paid sick days.
If Gessler wins, this could begin a cycle of registered voters being deemed “inactive,” and no longer receiving mail ballots. If Gessler gets his way, the disenfranchised would include about 55,000 voters, including Latino and African American voters, as well as young voters, the disabled and war veterans.
Charming.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Nice. ME taxpayers pay for lawmaker's junket to Koch-funded confab
 |
| Can't pay for his own breakfast at Denny's. |
Here's the press statement from Maine's Majority:
Rep. Andre Cushing (R-Hampden) sought and received $2,102.08 in taxpayer-funded reimbursements for travel and registration fees related to his attendance at the annual American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting in New Orleans last month....
A number of bills sponsored by Maine Republicans this year had ALEC's fingerprints on them, including LD1333, which eliminated consumer health care protections, anti-union legislation, and laws requiring voters to show IDs at the polls.
"ALEC's sole purpose is to advance corporate interests at the expense of working families," said Chris Korzen, executive director of Maine's Majority. "It's bad enough that Andre Cushing and other Republican legislators have allowed this agenda to invade our legislative process, but it's an absolute outrage that they would make taxpayers foot the bill...Cushing's tab includes airfare, taxi, hotel and two $12 breakfasts at Denny's.
For more information about ALEC, go to http://www.alecexposed.com/. And for some intel about what went on at the highly secretive conference that Cushing attended, check out ThinkProgress's post here.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
It's our turn: Ballot referenda in ID, ME, OH
Usually it's the corporate-backed Tea Party types who sponsor ballot initiatives to roll back progress. But now it's labor's turn. There are three big ballot referenda coming up in the fall, and we're hoping they mark a turning point in the referendum wars.
You probably knew about SB5 in Ohio. But did you know that Idaho voters will cast ballots on three anti-teacher initiatives in November 2012? The Huffington Post reports,
corporate stooge Ohio Gov. John Kasich's heinous SB5 law.
The Teamsters' friends at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center will support these efforts. They're important not just in and of themselves, but because they'll help build a progressive movement for strengthening democracy through the ballot box.
And just for good measure, did we mention that Arizona is likely to recall their Senate president, Russell Pearce? He's an ALEC puppet who promoted anti-immigration laws on behalf of the private prison industry (they need more "customers," you know).
 |
| Ohio Teamsters in the early stages of the fight against SB5. |
You probably knew about SB5 in Ohio. But did you know that Idaho voters will cast ballots on three anti-teacher initiatives in November 2012? The Huffington Post reports,
SB 1108 restricts teachers' collective bargaining rights and ends tenure for new teachers, SB 1184 funds the purchase of technology and laptops for students from the pot of money used to pay teachers' salaries and SB 1110 implements a merit pay system for teachers.
This spring, educators and students in Idaho turned out at the statehouse to protest the measures, which were introduced by Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna.
Penni Cyr, president of the state teachers' union, the Idaho Education Association, told The Huffington Post that the laws were an overreach by some conservatives in the legislature and were even opposed by some Republican members..."One out of four teachers in Idaho could ultimately lose their jobs because of the money that is being moved to pay for technology."
...Cyr pointed to the fact that organizers were able to get far more signatures than were necessary to qualify for referendums on the ballot.In Maine, reports HuffPo,
...a coalition is working to reinstate same-day voter registration after Gov. Paul LePage (R) signed a bill overturning the 38-year-old law in June.And as of now, thinks are looking good for repeal of
The registration deadline was pushed back to two business days before election day.
Maine citizens have the ability to essentially veto a law by ballot initiative. The Protect Maine Votes coalition -- 18 groups that include unions, civil libertarians, consumer advocates and homeless groups -- has turned in more than enough signatures to meet the 57,277-signature threshold to get the measure on the ballot in November, but it is waiting for the state to certify that they are valid.
The Teamsters' friends at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center will support these efforts. They're important not just in and of themselves, but because they'll help build a progressive movement for strengthening democracy through the ballot box.
And just for good measure, did we mention that Arizona is likely to recall their Senate president, Russell Pearce? He's an ALEC puppet who promoted anti-immigration laws on behalf of the private prison industry (they need more "customers," you know).
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