TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Despite Deal, Resistance to TPP Grows in All Corners Huffington Post ...We know a bad deal when we see one and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) just announced in Atlanta sure looks like one. Hundreds of Teamsters were joined in the streets of Atlanta this past week by other fair trade advocates sticking up for everyday Americans who could be damaged by the TPP. Unfortunately, negotiators from the U.S. and the other involved nations did not listen...
Shuttle Drivers with Dollar Thrifty Choose Teamsters Local 299 Teamster.org ...Detroit shuttle drivers with Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings, have voted to join the Teamsters. The 15 shuttle drivers transport passengers to and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the rental car facility. They united seeking respect and the protections of a union contract...
Tentative Agreement Reached for Teamster Flight Attendants at NetJets Teamster.org ...In a message to Teamster flight attendants at NetJets Aviation (NJA) this week, Teamsters Local 284 President Paul Suffoletto announced that a tentative agreement covering NJA’s 278 flight attendants had been reached. As with any tentative agreement, there’s still work to be done to finalize the definitions, develop implementation timelines and transition agreements, create explanatory materials, and proof and clean up the language before it is submitted to the flight attendants for a ratification...
Illinois Training Center Goes Extra Mile Teamster.org ...Talking with Mike Borjas, the director of the Illinois Teamsters Joint Council No. 25 Employers Apprenticeship and Training Fund in Joliet, Illinois, you’d think that he was drawing up a lesson plan for training military personnel. But, his goal is providing the best training for Teamsters working in the construction trades as he can. Fortunately for the union, he is accomplishing this every day...
Bid to unionize Uber, Lyft advances Seattle Times ...Seattle City Council members voted 7-0 in a committee Friday to move ahead with a bill that would help independent-contractor drivers for companies like Uber to unionize. The bill, championed by Councilmember Mike O’Brien in partnership with the Teamsters Local 117, is a new approach by labor organizers to unionize workers who lack certain rights because they’re not classified as employees...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Pacific Rim trade pact gets skeptical greeting in U.S. Congress Reuters ...A 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact hammered out over the weekend in Atlanta got a rocky response in Washington on Monday from U.S. lawmakers, indicating it has a long, difficult road ahead as Congress considers whether or not to approve it. Even influential Republicans, who had championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), initially criticized the result but didn't pinpoint specific concerns...
Republicans Sour on Obama's Trade Pact The Atlantic ...Having secured a landmark trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, President Obama is now relying on trade-loving Republicans to ratify it in Congress. But as details of the pact emerge, the chances of widespread GOP support are dicier than they once were. Senior Republicans have long been the loudest cheerleaders for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yet on Monday those same Republicans criticized the very deal that they gave Obama the power to strike...
Sanders Condemns 'Disastrous' TPP as Ministers Seal Deal for Corporate Elite Common Dreams ...Amid a last minute scramble, leaders from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries announced Monday that they had reached agreement on a sweeping trade deal, one that critics, including US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, say will slash standards and protections for both consumers and workers—with impacts to be felt across the globe...
Will Hillary Clinton flip on trade? Politico ...As much as she might want it, Hillary Clinton won’t get a free pass on free trade. Clinton has presented herself as a skeptic of the biggest trade deal in recent history, saying this summer that “we should be prepared to walk away” from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership unless it boosts Americans’ wages and national security. But with a deal announced Monday after months of backstage wrangling, she will be under intense pressure to take a stance...
Trade Officials Announce Conclusion of TPP—Now the Real Fight Begins (opinion) EFF ...Trade officials have announced today that they have reached a final deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Their announcement came after a drawn out round of negotiation in Atlanta, Georgia, which was mainly held up around disagreements over medicine patent rules and tariffs over autos and dairy. We have no reason to believe that the TPP has improved much at all from the last leaked version released in August...
Air France Workers Rip Shirts From Top Managers in Jobs Protest Bloomberg ...Air France executives were forced to flee with their clothes in tatters after workers stormed a meeting at Charles de Gaulle airport in protest at 2,900 planned job cuts. Violence erupted Monday as Air France told its works council that 300 pilots, 900 flight attendants and 1,700 ground staff might have to go after failed productivity talks with flight crew...
Outrage Stirred as Police Deploy Snipers to 'Observe' Anti-Austerity March in UK Common Dreams ...As the national Conservative Party in the U.K. held its annual meeting in Manchester over the weekend, an anti-austerity demonstration against the ruling party's economic policies attracted not only tens of thousands of people to march peacefully... but a few police snipers to keep "watch" over those who oppose the government's gutting of the public sector...
South Africa: 30,000 Miners Strike Over Pay Demand Morning Star ...Some 30,000 South African coalminers downed tools on Sunday night after cross-sector pay talks broke down. Conciliation came to an abrupt end last week when parties could not reach an agreement over demands by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) demand for a 1,000 rand (£48) rise for the lowest paid workers and 14 per cent for artisans, miners and officials...
Indigenous Communities Seek Autonomous Development Projects in Guatemala Truthout ...As Guatemala faces its greatest political crisis since the 1980s, behind the scenes, plans for the United States' Alliance for Prosperity continue to move along. The expansion of hydroelectric construction projects and the further integration of electric grids are central to the plan, yet these projects threaten indigenous communities' land rights...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Maine Governor Revives Old Rule To Punish Poor People For Saving Money Think Progress ...Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has already knocked tens of thousands of people of his state’s food stamps rolls through a variety of stringent new rules for the program, but he’s not done. At a hearing Tuesday, state officials will lay out a new barrier to entry for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applicants that most other states have abandoned in recent years...
Opponents ask court to relax Wisconsin voter ID requirements Journal Sentinel ...Opponents of Wisconsin's voter identification law argued in federal court Monday that the legislation is improperly restrictive and should be expanded to allow people to use more forms of ID. The case represents the latest push from the American Civil Liberties Union against a law that has been the focus of a string of legal battles since it was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker four years ago...
Hearing set on Voter ID legal challenge Winston-Salem Journal ...The voter ID law will be back in federal court later this month. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder plans to hold a hearing Oct. 23 to get an update on efforts to settle the legal claims against the photo ID requirement. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s Voter Information Verification Act...
These Lawmakers Want D.C. To Be The First City To Guarantee Paid Family Leave Think Progress ...On Tuesday, seven city councilmembers in the District of Columbia will introduce a paid family leave bill that would create the most progressive system in the country and serve as a model for other cities that might be interested in paid leave. If it eventually gets passed and signed into law, it would be the first city-level program in the country...
Alabama ‘clarifies’ voter ID confusion (opinion) Boston Globe ...If anyone still doubts that the Republican push for voter identification is really about limiting the franchise of Democratic voters — and in particular African-American voters — the state of Alabama has helpfully cleared up the confusion. In 2014, Alabama passed a law that required all of its citizens have a photo ID in order to vote...
U.S. LABOR
Adjuncts Win Union Contract at Maryland Institute College of Art In These Times ...The national movement to unionize part-time faculty at U.S. colleges and universities has secured an initial beachhead in the Baltimore area with ratification of a first contract between Service Employees International Union Local 500 and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Voting on the ratification concluded in mid-September and a formal signing ceremony for the pact is set for October 8, labor representatives report...
We must despise our kids: Our ugly war on teachers must end now Salon ...With September’s data in, we can see how many teachers went back to school this year. And Gould finds that the tremendous gap that opened up when local budgets crashed during the recession has not come close to being filled. At the peak, we had 8.1 million public K-12 education teachers and staff in July 2008. Seven years later, we have far less, 7.8 million, despite a larger population of students that need to be served...
Contra Costa County Nurses Begin Two-Day Strike Tues. Oct 6 IndyBay ...Nurses who work at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and clinics across the County will officially begin a two-day strike Tuesday, October 6, after what nurses say is the County’s continued failure to address serious patient care concerns. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents almost 1,000 County registered nurses, nurse practitioners and public health nurses, called on the County to immediately improve working conditions...
Supreme Court ‘right-to-work’ case could speed decline of unions Al Jazeera ...The Supreme Court will soon take up a case that could impose a de facto “right-to-work” rule across the public sector, eliminating public employee unions’ ability to require fees from nonmembers and, labor leaders say, threatening the unions’ survival. Labor officials often complain that right-to-work rules create a “free rider” problem...
UAW pledges new approach to members for FCA deal Detroit News ...United Auto Workers leaders are promising to handle a second round of contract talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV differently than the first discussions that culminated with membership overwhelmingly voting down a tentative four-year deal. In separate messages published online Monday, UAW President Dennis Williams and Vice President Norwood Jewell said they will not only address members’ issues with the contract itself, but communicate better...
Deere deal: Did UAW workers come out ahead? Des Moines Register ...United Auto Workers voted Sunday to ratify a six-year contract with Deere & Co., deciding that a modest pay bump and increased job security outweighed increases in their medical costs. The Moline, Ill.-based maker of iconic farm and construction equipment said the United Auto Workers union notified the company...
A Union Leader Who Always Knew Which Side He Was On The Nation ...Marty Beil knew which side he was on. He was a union man. Indeed, as Congressman Mark Pocan noted after Beil’s death last week at age 68, “Marty embodied the longstanding Wisconsin tradition of fighting for workers’ rights and protections.” Beil’s commitment to trade unionism was old-school and unequivocal. He was ready to bargain; but if the deal was no good, he took the fight to the streets...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Infrastructure Creaks, Congress Dithers Wall Street Journal ...Back in July, Congress failed, once again, to pass a long-term highway bill to make improvements in the nation’s transportation system. Instead of funding big infrastructure needs with a multiyear plan, as once was the norm in Washington, lawmakers passed a bill covering a grand total of three months—the 34th time since 2009 Congress has passed a temporary Band-Aid...
'Once-In-A-Millenium' Flooding Creates 'Otherworldly Scenes' in South Carolina Common Dreams ...South Carolina's once-in-a-millennium flooding this weekend left at least seven people dead and much of the state paralyzed—and as rains continued into Monday morning, officials warned that the deluge is likely to worsen. Climate scientists have linked South Carolina's catastrophic rains to climate change. "Joaquin has been traveling over a record-warm ocean surface and undoubtedly that has contributed to its rapid intensification," Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told The Huffington Post...
War Crime in Afghanistan?: Outrage After U.S. Airstrike on Hospital Kills 22 Patients & Staff Democracy Now ...Doctors Without Borders is demanding an independent international inquiry into a U.S. airstrike Saturday on an Afghan hospital in the city of Kunduz that killed 22 people, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, three of them children. At least three dozen people were injured. The attack continued for 30 minutes after the U.S. and Afghan militaries were informed by telephone that the hospital was being bombed...
Showing posts with label NetJets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NetJets. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.02.15
Teamsters
The Sinister Motives Lurking Beneath Amazon.com's Minnesota Debut Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 120 and workers across Minnesota are questioning the motives behind Amazon.com, Inc., as the company prepares to break ground on a new distribution facility, while driving down wages for workers. After facing community pressure, Amazon, a multi-billion dollar corporation, recently withdrew its request for more than $6.4 million in tax incentives...
Teamsters Local 284 President Paul Suffoletto Responds to Management Changes at NetJets Teamster.org ...Today, the Teamsters Union was informed of a change in leadership at NetJets, Inc., which could impact hundreds of Teamsters Local 284-represented flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, stock clerks, maintenance controllers and flight dispatchers. The Teamsters Union was informed that CEO Jordan Hansell has left NetJets. Adam Johnson will replace Hansell as Chairman and CEO...
Port truck drivers: Companies must share blame WJCL News ...Drivers of trucks that service the Savannah ports have scheduled a press conference Tuesday at which they are expected to make the claim that trucking companies must share the blame for the recent spate of truck-related fatal accidents in the area. Drivers said in a press release issued Monday that long hours, low pay, and pressure from the trucking companies to deliver as many loads as possible a day all contribute to unsafe working conditions...
Global Labor & Trade
Dems in pressure cooker on trade The Hill ...House Democrats are in a pressure cooker ahead of a high-stakes vote on a vital piece of President Obama's ambitious trade agenda. The White House, joining the powerful business lobby, is applying a full court press in an effort to rally lawmakers behind contentious fast-track legislation that would grant the administration new powers to seal enormous international trade deals that would rank atop Obama's economic achievements...
Congress may take up Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal this week Michigan Radio ...Michigan’s congressional delegation is divided as a major new trade deal tops the agenda this week. The “Trans Pacific Partnership” would cover U-S imports and exports from a dozen nations. Flint Congressman Dan Kildee says the deal doesn’t do enough to address human rights and currency manipulation...
WikiLeaks Launches Campaign to Offer $100,000 "Bounty" for Leaked Drafts of Secret TPP Chapters Democracy Now ...Critics, including a number of Democratic lawmakers, oppose the TPP, saying it will fuel inequality, kill jobs, and undermine health, environmental and financial regulations. The negotiations have been secret, and the public has never seen most of the deal’s text. This morning the whistleblowing group WikiLeaks launched a campaign to change that. The group is seeking to raise $100,000 to offer what they describe as a bounty for the leaking of the unseen chapters of the TPP...
Australian MPs allowed to see top-secret trade deal text but can't reveal contents for four years The Guardian ...Australian politicians have been told they can view the current confidential negotiating text for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, but only if they agree not to divulge anything they see for four years, despite expectations the deal could be finalised within months...
Don't Reward Human Traffickers (opinion) Roll Call ...The horrors along the Thai-Malaysian border revealed in the past week have shocked our consciences, and put the scourge of human trafficking at the front of international news. As shocking as those stories are, they are not the first reports from Malaysia. This reality is why I introduced an amendment to the “fast track” trade promotion bill that for the first time prohibits expedited, unamendable congressional consideration for any trade deal including the very worst human trafficking country...
UK rail strikes suspended after 2% pay rise offer BBC ...Planned rail strikes by workers from the RMT union have been suspended after an offer of a 2% pay rise this year, the arbitration service Acas has said. Acas said four days of talks helped "formulate" revised proposals for the RMT and other unions to consider. The RMT has 16,000 members at Network Rail in operations and maintenance...
Two Years Later, Murder Charges for Rana Plaza Tragedy, But Justice Elusive Common Dreams ...Bangladeshi police on Monday formally filed murder charges against 41 people for the Rana Plaza factory collapse over two years ago that killed 1,138 workers in what is is believed to be the worst single tragedy in the history of the world's garment industry. However, officials from the numerous Western retail corporations that did business with the factory—including Walmart, The Children’s Place, Benetton, Zara, and Mango—were not named among those facing charges...
State & Living Wage Battles
Right-to-work opponents run TV ads to press governor to follow through with his veto St. Louis Public Radio ...Although Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon already has declared he’ll veto an anti-union bill known as “right to work,’’ a labor coalition has launched a TV ad campaign anyway. The ad blitz is likely just the first salvo in what could be a summer-long effort by both sides to sway the public and politicians on the bill...
California Senate approves another minimum wage hike KTVL ...The California Senate has approved a plan to again raise California's minimum wage, lifting it to $13 an hour in 2017, then tied to the rate of inflation after that. Senators on Monday approved the bill, SB3 by Sen. Mark Leno, on a 23-15 vote, with Republican lawmakers opposed...
California lawmakers advance 'wage theft' bill for workers KSBY ...California lawmakers have advanced a "wage theft" bill in an effort to crack down on employers that shortchange workers. The state Senate on Monday approved the proposal on a 24-12 vote. SB588 by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon would make it easier for the state labor commissioner to collect unpaid wages on behalf of workers...
Absentee voter ID bill dead in Alabama Legislature, lawmakers say AL.com ...A bill that would require voters to submit a copy of their photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot in the state of Alabama is dead, Rep. Reed Ingram said. Currently, Alabama is one of only three states that require a photo ID to submit an absentee ballot. The new rule would have required absentee voters to submit a copy of their photo ID on the frontend as well...
Legislature reinstates prevailing wages as part of deal with Dems Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Prevailing wages for school construction projects were resurrected Monday on the last day of the legislative session in an end-game concession to the Democratic minority. The state Senate amended Assembly Bill 172, rescinding a law already signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval that exempts schools from prevailing wage requirements...
Nevada legislature approves state's largest-ever tax hike USA Today ...The Nevada legislature approved the state's largest-ever tax hike that will raise up to $1.1 billion in new and extended taxes to initiate far-reaching reforms in Nevada's struggling K-12 education system. In a 30 to 10 vote Sunday, the Assembly approved all three major facets of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval's tax plan...
How the Retail Industry Keeps People of Color in Poverty The Nation ...A new report by the think tank Demos and the NAACP shows that the retail industry, a leading source of employment in the post-recession "recovery,” is creating many more bad jobs than good ones—and blacks and Latinos are stuck in the lowest-paid positions with the least opportunity for advancement. Some leading retailers have faced legal challenges in recent years over racial or gender discrimination against workers, but the most harmful forms of racial bias operate just below the surface...
Robert Reich on the Real Texas Disaster: Clueless Pols Who Hate the Feds Until They Don't Alternet ...Texas dislikes the federal government so much that eight of its congressional representatives, along with Senator Ted Cruz,opposed disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy – adding to the awkwardness of their lobbying for the federal relief now heading Texas’s way. Yet even before the current floods, Texas had received more disaster relief than any other state...
U.S. Labor
Texas court upholds labor board's union election rule The Hill ...The Obama administration should be allowed to speed up the process by which employees unionize, a federal judge ruled Monday. Judge Robert Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas tossed out a lawsuit from business...
30,000 Teachers Walk Out in Protest of Big Class Sizes in Washington State In These Times ...On Tuesday, May 19, thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Seattle to support a rolling strike by public school teachers across Washington state. The teachers are protesting what they say are unacceptably high class sizes and low pay, stemming from their state legislature’s failure to fully fund public education...
GE Begins Union Contract Talks Finances ...GE today began negotiations on a new national contract with the International Union of Electronic Workers/Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA). Negotiations with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) will begin tomorrow, June 2, 2015. GE holds separate talks with each union. The current four-year contracts with the unions expire at midnight on June 21, 2015...
For UAW members, two-tier wage issue is personal St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The Austin family's dilemma is an emotionally charged example of why UAW President Dennis Williams is under pressure from rank-and-file union members to overhaul the two-tier wage system in contract talks this summer with the Detroit Three automakers. For decades, the UAW fought to get comparable pay for union members doing similar work. But in 2007, as the Detroit automakers were starting to bleed cash, UAW leaders agreed to create two classes of workers...
Miscellaneous
Glenn Greenwald: As Bulk NSA Spying Expires, Scare Tactics Can’t Stop "Sea Change" on Surveillance Democracy Now ...The government’s authority to sweep up millions of Americans’ phone records has expired. The practice exposed by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden could now face limited reforms as the Senate weighs the USA FREEDOM Act, which would require the government to ask phone companies for a user’s data rather than vacuuming up all the records at once...
New Data Offer First Infuriating Glimpse At How The Richest 0.001 Percent Pay Income Taxes Think Progress ...Tax day doesn’t sting much if you live at the gilded edge, according to new data on how the top one-hundredth of one percent and the top one-thousandth of a percent of all filers pay their income taxes. People who make tens of millions of dollars enjoyed falling income tax rates and ballooning wealth for a decade as middle-class taxpayers floundered...
The Sinister Motives Lurking Beneath Amazon.com's Minnesota Debut Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 120 and workers across Minnesota are questioning the motives behind Amazon.com, Inc., as the company prepares to break ground on a new distribution facility, while driving down wages for workers. After facing community pressure, Amazon, a multi-billion dollar corporation, recently withdrew its request for more than $6.4 million in tax incentives...
Teamsters Local 284 President Paul Suffoletto Responds to Management Changes at NetJets Teamster.org ...Today, the Teamsters Union was informed of a change in leadership at NetJets, Inc., which could impact hundreds of Teamsters Local 284-represented flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, stock clerks, maintenance controllers and flight dispatchers. The Teamsters Union was informed that CEO Jordan Hansell has left NetJets. Adam Johnson will replace Hansell as Chairman and CEO...
Port truck drivers: Companies must share blame WJCL News ...Drivers of trucks that service the Savannah ports have scheduled a press conference Tuesday at which they are expected to make the claim that trucking companies must share the blame for the recent spate of truck-related fatal accidents in the area. Drivers said in a press release issued Monday that long hours, low pay, and pressure from the trucking companies to deliver as many loads as possible a day all contribute to unsafe working conditions...
Global Labor & Trade
Dems in pressure cooker on trade The Hill ...House Democrats are in a pressure cooker ahead of a high-stakes vote on a vital piece of President Obama's ambitious trade agenda. The White House, joining the powerful business lobby, is applying a full court press in an effort to rally lawmakers behind contentious fast-track legislation that would grant the administration new powers to seal enormous international trade deals that would rank atop Obama's economic achievements...
Congress may take up Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal this week Michigan Radio ...Michigan’s congressional delegation is divided as a major new trade deal tops the agenda this week. The “Trans Pacific Partnership” would cover U-S imports and exports from a dozen nations. Flint Congressman Dan Kildee says the deal doesn’t do enough to address human rights and currency manipulation...
WikiLeaks Launches Campaign to Offer $100,000 "Bounty" for Leaked Drafts of Secret TPP Chapters Democracy Now ...Critics, including a number of Democratic lawmakers, oppose the TPP, saying it will fuel inequality, kill jobs, and undermine health, environmental and financial regulations. The negotiations have been secret, and the public has never seen most of the deal’s text. This morning the whistleblowing group WikiLeaks launched a campaign to change that. The group is seeking to raise $100,000 to offer what they describe as a bounty for the leaking of the unseen chapters of the TPP...
Australian MPs allowed to see top-secret trade deal text but can't reveal contents for four years The Guardian ...Australian politicians have been told they can view the current confidential negotiating text for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, but only if they agree not to divulge anything they see for four years, despite expectations the deal could be finalised within months...
Don't Reward Human Traffickers (opinion) Roll Call ...The horrors along the Thai-Malaysian border revealed in the past week have shocked our consciences, and put the scourge of human trafficking at the front of international news. As shocking as those stories are, they are not the first reports from Malaysia. This reality is why I introduced an amendment to the “fast track” trade promotion bill that for the first time prohibits expedited, unamendable congressional consideration for any trade deal including the very worst human trafficking country...
UK rail strikes suspended after 2% pay rise offer BBC ...Planned rail strikes by workers from the RMT union have been suspended after an offer of a 2% pay rise this year, the arbitration service Acas has said. Acas said four days of talks helped "formulate" revised proposals for the RMT and other unions to consider. The RMT has 16,000 members at Network Rail in operations and maintenance...
Two Years Later, Murder Charges for Rana Plaza Tragedy, But Justice Elusive Common Dreams ...Bangladeshi police on Monday formally filed murder charges against 41 people for the Rana Plaza factory collapse over two years ago that killed 1,138 workers in what is is believed to be the worst single tragedy in the history of the world's garment industry. However, officials from the numerous Western retail corporations that did business with the factory—including Walmart, The Children’s Place, Benetton, Zara, and Mango—were not named among those facing charges...
State & Living Wage Battles
Right-to-work opponents run TV ads to press governor to follow through with his veto St. Louis Public Radio ...Although Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon already has declared he’ll veto an anti-union bill known as “right to work,’’ a labor coalition has launched a TV ad campaign anyway. The ad blitz is likely just the first salvo in what could be a summer-long effort by both sides to sway the public and politicians on the bill...
California Senate approves another minimum wage hike KTVL ...The California Senate has approved a plan to again raise California's minimum wage, lifting it to $13 an hour in 2017, then tied to the rate of inflation after that. Senators on Monday approved the bill, SB3 by Sen. Mark Leno, on a 23-15 vote, with Republican lawmakers opposed...
California lawmakers advance 'wage theft' bill for workers KSBY ...California lawmakers have advanced a "wage theft" bill in an effort to crack down on employers that shortchange workers. The state Senate on Monday approved the proposal on a 24-12 vote. SB588 by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon would make it easier for the state labor commissioner to collect unpaid wages on behalf of workers...
Absentee voter ID bill dead in Alabama Legislature, lawmakers say AL.com ...A bill that would require voters to submit a copy of their photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot in the state of Alabama is dead, Rep. Reed Ingram said. Currently, Alabama is one of only three states that require a photo ID to submit an absentee ballot. The new rule would have required absentee voters to submit a copy of their photo ID on the frontend as well...
Legislature reinstates prevailing wages as part of deal with Dems Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Prevailing wages for school construction projects were resurrected Monday on the last day of the legislative session in an end-game concession to the Democratic minority. The state Senate amended Assembly Bill 172, rescinding a law already signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval that exempts schools from prevailing wage requirements...
Nevada legislature approves state's largest-ever tax hike USA Today ...The Nevada legislature approved the state's largest-ever tax hike that will raise up to $1.1 billion in new and extended taxes to initiate far-reaching reforms in Nevada's struggling K-12 education system. In a 30 to 10 vote Sunday, the Assembly approved all three major facets of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval's tax plan...
How the Retail Industry Keeps People of Color in Poverty The Nation ...A new report by the think tank Demos and the NAACP shows that the retail industry, a leading source of employment in the post-recession "recovery,” is creating many more bad jobs than good ones—and blacks and Latinos are stuck in the lowest-paid positions with the least opportunity for advancement. Some leading retailers have faced legal challenges in recent years over racial or gender discrimination against workers, but the most harmful forms of racial bias operate just below the surface...
Robert Reich on the Real Texas Disaster: Clueless Pols Who Hate the Feds Until They Don't Alternet ...Texas dislikes the federal government so much that eight of its congressional representatives, along with Senator Ted Cruz,opposed disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy – adding to the awkwardness of their lobbying for the federal relief now heading Texas’s way. Yet even before the current floods, Texas had received more disaster relief than any other state...
U.S. Labor
Texas court upholds labor board's union election rule The Hill ...The Obama administration should be allowed to speed up the process by which employees unionize, a federal judge ruled Monday. Judge Robert Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas tossed out a lawsuit from business...
30,000 Teachers Walk Out in Protest of Big Class Sizes in Washington State In These Times ...On Tuesday, May 19, thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Seattle to support a rolling strike by public school teachers across Washington state. The teachers are protesting what they say are unacceptably high class sizes and low pay, stemming from their state legislature’s failure to fully fund public education...
GE Begins Union Contract Talks Finances ...GE today began negotiations on a new national contract with the International Union of Electronic Workers/Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA). Negotiations with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) will begin tomorrow, June 2, 2015. GE holds separate talks with each union. The current four-year contracts with the unions expire at midnight on June 21, 2015...
For UAW members, two-tier wage issue is personal St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The Austin family's dilemma is an emotionally charged example of why UAW President Dennis Williams is under pressure from rank-and-file union members to overhaul the two-tier wage system in contract talks this summer with the Detroit Three automakers. For decades, the UAW fought to get comparable pay for union members doing similar work. But in 2007, as the Detroit automakers were starting to bleed cash, UAW leaders agreed to create two classes of workers...
Miscellaneous
Glenn Greenwald: As Bulk NSA Spying Expires, Scare Tactics Can’t Stop "Sea Change" on Surveillance Democracy Now ...The government’s authority to sweep up millions of Americans’ phone records has expired. The practice exposed by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden could now face limited reforms as the Senate weighs the USA FREEDOM Act, which would require the government to ask phone companies for a user’s data rather than vacuuming up all the records at once...
New Data Offer First Infuriating Glimpse At How The Richest 0.001 Percent Pay Income Taxes Think Progress ...Tax day doesn’t sting much if you live at the gilded edge, according to new data on how the top one-hundredth of one percent and the top one-thousandth of a percent of all filers pay their income taxes. People who make tens of millions of dollars enjoyed falling income tax rates and ballooning wealth for a decade as middle-class taxpayers floundered...
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.10.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Denounce Inclusion of Pension Reform Bill to Omnibus Spending Bill teamster.org ...“Today we have seen the ugly side of political backroom dealings as thousands of retirees may have their pensions threatened by proposed legislation that reportedly includes massive benefit cuts...
Friday deadline looms in behind-the-scenes battle over truck safety TeamsterNation ...More people will die if Congress weakens truck safety to make the trucking industry happy. And Congress may just do that as it races to meet the Dec. 12 deadline to pass a budget bill. Teamsters are joined with safety advocates to fight an effort to let truck drivers work 82 hours a week...
More Drowsy, Overworked Truck Drivers New York Times ...the rider that Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, is pushing on behalf of trucking interests. This atrocious giveaway would suspend existing Department of Transportation truck safety regulations put in place in 2012 following a lengthy, transparent and data-driven process to make sure truck drivers get sufficient rest when operating on the nation’s highways...
Booker fights to keep sleep rules for truckers Newark Star Ledger ...A giant spending bill needed to fund the U.S. government past Thursday also could suspend rules governing when truckers can be behind the wheel, an effort drawing from opposition from U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and others...
Teamsters Urge Facebook To Boost Pay For Shuttle Drivers USA Today ...In a letter obtained by USA TODAY, Teamsters official Rome Aloise called on Zuckerberg to amend Facebook's contract with Loop Transportation, the contractor who employs the drivers, to allow for improved wages...
Hoffa To Congress: Stop Bailout For UPS, Protect Retiree Benefits teamster.org ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today wrote a letter that was sent to the Congressional leadership and circulated to all members of Congress, expressing strong opposition to proposed legislation that would result in a $2 billion bailout of United Parcel Service (UPS)...
Teamsters At Las Vegas Hotel Ratify First Contract teamster.org ...The workers ratified their five-year contract by a vote of 23 to 3 on December 8, 2014. The group includes warehouse workers, groundskeepers and valets. The Cromwell, the only boutique hotel on the Strip, was built as the Barbary Coast Hotel & Casino and was later know as Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon...
Leslie Marshall Show Features Teamsters Fight At NetJets teamster.org ...More than 600 Teamster members are currently in a fight for fair wages and benefits from NetJets, an airline for the global super-rich. Paul Alves, a Teamsters Airline Division representative, talks with Leslie Marshall about that fight and what it means for Teamsters who work hard, transporting multi-millionaires and billionaires and their pampered pets...
Ed O’Neill: An Interview With a Modern Family Man and Union Guy Capital and Main ...So, I’ve always been, in my heart of hearts, a teamster, a union guy...
Trade
Americans Protest Against TPP, Too Free Malaysia Today ...An hour of noisy protests ensured that chief negotiators involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks today were aware of growing US public opposition to the trade agreement and the dim prospects that US President Barack Obama will obtain Fast Track trade authority, Public Citizen said...
Got a T-Shirt? Chances Are Child Labor Was Involved AFL-CIO Blog ...Cotton production involves the most child labor and forced labor in the world, according to the 2014 “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor” by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs...
State Battles
WMC agenda includes right-to-work, tax breaks for the rich, unfettered frac sand mining The Capital Times …The state's biggest business lobby has laid out its legislative agenda for tax breaks, union busting and frac sand mining, and Republican lawmakers are lining up to carry it out...
Kentucky’s right to work movement changing battlefields (opinion) The Courier-Journal ...Republicans failed to capture control of Kentucky’s state House of Representatives in November’s election, putting the conservative goal of passing a statewide right-to-work law out of reach for at least another two years...
UAW certified to represent VW workers in Tennessee Detroit Free Press …An accounting firm has certified that the UAW represents more than 45% of Volkswagen workers, giving the union the ability to meet with the automaker's management on a regular basis….
Senate Panel Approves Atlantic City Financial Rescue Plan Press of Atlantic City ...A New Jersey Senate committee Monday approved a rescue plan designed to fix Atlantic City’s fiscal crisis by providing a stable source of casino payments to support the declining tax base...
$15 Minimum Wage Could Be On Tacoma Ballot In 2015 News Tribune ...Tacoma could be the state’s latest battleground for a $15 minimum wage...
Florida Minimum Wage To Top $8 As Debate Grows Florida Today ...The automatic increase of 12 cents an hour, recalculated by law each year based on the federal Consumer Price Index, will increase the state minimum wage to $8.05 in January, up from $7.93. Voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment aimed at annual minimum-wage hikes...
War on Workers
Supreme Court: Amazon need not pay workers for security check time cnet …The justices say theft prevention screening isn't integral to warehouse employees' jobs, so Amazon doesn't have to provide compensation...
The Battle Over Working Time: A Countermovement Against Neoliberalism American Prospect ...Fast Food workers, taxi drivers, port truckers, Wal-Mart employees, car washers, Fed Ex freight truck drivers and many health-care workers are all organizing unions...
Big Job Gains and Rising Pay in Labor Data New York Times …employers added 321,000 jobs in November, a much stronger number than economists had predicted and the 10th consecutive month of net job gains above 200,000. Even more significant was that the improving job market finally delivered a sharp jump in average hourly earnings for ordinary workers that was double the anticipated 0.2 percent increase…
Wages Are Finally Rising, But America Still Needs A Big Raise Washington Post ...Increased productivity, in other words, has gone to increased profits instead of increased wages. The result, as you can see, is a big gap between how much workers are making now and how much they would have been making if wages had grown the 4 percent-a-year that they should have...
Miscellaneous
US Court Extends NSA Surveillance Rules In Current Form Computer World ...A U.S. secret court has extended the authorization of the National Security Agency to continue surveillance of phone records in its current form after a reform bill ran into difficulties in the Senate...
Teamsters Denounce Inclusion of Pension Reform Bill to Omnibus Spending Bill teamster.org ...“Today we have seen the ugly side of political backroom dealings as thousands of retirees may have their pensions threatened by proposed legislation that reportedly includes massive benefit cuts...
Friday deadline looms in behind-the-scenes battle over truck safety TeamsterNation ...More people will die if Congress weakens truck safety to make the trucking industry happy. And Congress may just do that as it races to meet the Dec. 12 deadline to pass a budget bill. Teamsters are joined with safety advocates to fight an effort to let truck drivers work 82 hours a week...
More Drowsy, Overworked Truck Drivers New York Times ...the rider that Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, is pushing on behalf of trucking interests. This atrocious giveaway would suspend existing Department of Transportation truck safety regulations put in place in 2012 following a lengthy, transparent and data-driven process to make sure truck drivers get sufficient rest when operating on the nation’s highways...
Booker fights to keep sleep rules for truckers Newark Star Ledger ...A giant spending bill needed to fund the U.S. government past Thursday also could suspend rules governing when truckers can be behind the wheel, an effort drawing from opposition from U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and others...
Teamsters Urge Facebook To Boost Pay For Shuttle Drivers USA Today ...In a letter obtained by USA TODAY, Teamsters official Rome Aloise called on Zuckerberg to amend Facebook's contract with Loop Transportation, the contractor who employs the drivers, to allow for improved wages...
Hoffa To Congress: Stop Bailout For UPS, Protect Retiree Benefits teamster.org ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today wrote a letter that was sent to the Congressional leadership and circulated to all members of Congress, expressing strong opposition to proposed legislation that would result in a $2 billion bailout of United Parcel Service (UPS)...
Teamsters At Las Vegas Hotel Ratify First Contract teamster.org ...The workers ratified their five-year contract by a vote of 23 to 3 on December 8, 2014. The group includes warehouse workers, groundskeepers and valets. The Cromwell, the only boutique hotel on the Strip, was built as the Barbary Coast Hotel & Casino and was later know as Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon...
Leslie Marshall Show Features Teamsters Fight At NetJets teamster.org ...More than 600 Teamster members are currently in a fight for fair wages and benefits from NetJets, an airline for the global super-rich. Paul Alves, a Teamsters Airline Division representative, talks with Leslie Marshall about that fight and what it means for Teamsters who work hard, transporting multi-millionaires and billionaires and their pampered pets...
Ed O’Neill: An Interview With a Modern Family Man and Union Guy Capital and Main ...So, I’ve always been, in my heart of hearts, a teamster, a union guy...
Trade
Americans Protest Against TPP, Too Free Malaysia Today ...An hour of noisy protests ensured that chief negotiators involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks today were aware of growing US public opposition to the trade agreement and the dim prospects that US President Barack Obama will obtain Fast Track trade authority, Public Citizen said...
Got a T-Shirt? Chances Are Child Labor Was Involved AFL-CIO Blog ...Cotton production involves the most child labor and forced labor in the world, according to the 2014 “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor” by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs...
State Battles
WMC agenda includes right-to-work, tax breaks for the rich, unfettered frac sand mining The Capital Times …The state's biggest business lobby has laid out its legislative agenda for tax breaks, union busting and frac sand mining, and Republican lawmakers are lining up to carry it out...
Kentucky’s right to work movement changing battlefields (opinion) The Courier-Journal ...Republicans failed to capture control of Kentucky’s state House of Representatives in November’s election, putting the conservative goal of passing a statewide right-to-work law out of reach for at least another two years...
UAW certified to represent VW workers in Tennessee Detroit Free Press …An accounting firm has certified that the UAW represents more than 45% of Volkswagen workers, giving the union the ability to meet with the automaker's management on a regular basis….
Senate Panel Approves Atlantic City Financial Rescue Plan Press of Atlantic City ...A New Jersey Senate committee Monday approved a rescue plan designed to fix Atlantic City’s fiscal crisis by providing a stable source of casino payments to support the declining tax base...
$15 Minimum Wage Could Be On Tacoma Ballot In 2015 News Tribune ...Tacoma could be the state’s latest battleground for a $15 minimum wage...
Florida Minimum Wage To Top $8 As Debate Grows Florida Today ...The automatic increase of 12 cents an hour, recalculated by law each year based on the federal Consumer Price Index, will increase the state minimum wage to $8.05 in January, up from $7.93. Voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment aimed at annual minimum-wage hikes...
War on Workers
Supreme Court: Amazon need not pay workers for security check time cnet …The justices say theft prevention screening isn't integral to warehouse employees' jobs, so Amazon doesn't have to provide compensation...
The Battle Over Working Time: A Countermovement Against Neoliberalism American Prospect ...Fast Food workers, taxi drivers, port truckers, Wal-Mart employees, car washers, Fed Ex freight truck drivers and many health-care workers are all organizing unions...
Big Job Gains and Rising Pay in Labor Data New York Times …employers added 321,000 jobs in November, a much stronger number than economists had predicted and the 10th consecutive month of net job gains above 200,000. Even more significant was that the improving job market finally delivered a sharp jump in average hourly earnings for ordinary workers that was double the anticipated 0.2 percent increase…
Wages Are Finally Rising, But America Still Needs A Big Raise Washington Post ...Increased productivity, in other words, has gone to increased profits instead of increased wages. The result, as you can see, is a big gap between how much workers are making now and how much they would have been making if wages had grown the 4 percent-a-year that they should have...
Miscellaneous
US Court Extends NSA Surveillance Rules In Current Form Computer World ...A U.S. secret court has extended the authorization of the National Security Agency to continue surveillance of phone records in its current form after a reform bill ran into difficulties in the Senate...
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Today's Teamster News 10.28.14
Teamster News
Zodiac Workers Approve New Contract, End Strike KTEN ...Workers from the largest employer in Cooke County will be heading back to work Monday after about a month on the picket line. Employees at the Zodiac Seats manufacturing facility in Gainesville approved a new contract by an overwhelming margin earlier Saturday afternoon. Teamsters Local 767 representative Terry Johnson says the key issues of the contract dispute were work environment, seniority rights, and work schedules...
NetJets To The Middle Class: Subsidize The Global Super-Rich teamster.org ...Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc. is demanding compensation and benefit cuts from more than 600 employees represented by the Teamsters Union as part of a plan to lower prices for its wealthy customers. The Columbus, Ohio-based business jet operator is owned by Warren Buffet's holding company and provides business and leisure travel to the global super-rich...
Celebration Of Life: Brian Robert Davis teamster.org ...Please join us in celebrating the life and accomplishments of Joint Council No. 28 Freight Director and Local 174 Business Agent Brian Davis...
Trade
Anti-TTIP Front Condemns Government For Supporting Free Trade Proposal Malta Today ...Social Europe: Front Against TTIP (Malta) condemned the government for supporting the proposed Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, while discussions on the free trade agreement are still ongoing between the European Union and the United States...
South Korea: Bitter harvest: Exploitation and forced labour of migrant agricultural workers in South Korea Amnesty International ...The migrant workers on whom South Korean agriculture depends suffer appalling living and working conditions, and the government's Employment Permit Scheme (EPS) directly contributes to this exploitation, according to a new report (Bitter Harvest) from Amnesty International...
State Battles
Labor Group To Sue Scott Walker's Administration For Minimum Wage Study Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A labor group plans to sue Gov. Scott Walker's administration Monday as part of an ongoing effort to force an increase in Wisconsin's minimum wage...
West Lake Protesters Warn Of 'Hidden Dangers' KSDK ...Protesters hit the streets of North St. Louis County again Sunday, but this time the demonstrations had to do with the World War Two-era nuclear waste buried at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton. The waste site sits adjacent to an underground fire at the Bridgeton Landfill...
The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster Rolling Stone ...Brownback turned out to be even more radical when it came to economic policy. In 2012, he enacted the largest package of tax cuts in Kansas history, essentially transforming his state into a lab experiment for extreme free-market ideology. The results (disastrous) have reduced the governor to making appearances at grim strip malls like this one in a desperate attempt to salvage his re-election bid...
‘Right To Work’ Harms Working Families (opinion) Louisville Courier Journal ...Kentucky remains the only state in the South not to pass one of these laws, which shows our political independence and common sense. But Republicans in Frankfort, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and a group of out-of-state, big-moneyed special interests are doing everything in their power to change that. I strongly oppose right-to-work legislation because I love Kentucky and want a bright future for our children and grandchildren. Right to work is a sham. It is, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “a false slogan” which will “rob us of our civil rights and job rights.”...
To see how Citizens United is hurting democracy, look at local elections msnbc ... in a scandal one news report called a “nightmare scenario” of corruption, former Utah Attorney General John Swallow used “independent” groups to orchestrate advertising for his 2012 campaign from payday loan companies, which he had in exchange promised to regulate lightly, according to an investigation by Utah’s legislature. Swallow’s campaign staff had created a web of benignly named groups, like the Proper Role of Government Education Association, to conceal more than $450,000 in spending by the lenders...
War on Workers
7 things the middle class can't afford anymore USA Today ...54% of people gave up purchasing big ticket items like TVs or electronics so they can go on a vacation...
The Real Crazy Train: Moving Bakken Crude By Rail (opinion) San Francisco Chronicle ...Community concerns include environmental risks but center on public safety because Bakken oil is more volatile than most other crudes. A derailed tanker train loaded with Bakken crude exploded in July 2013, killing 47 people in Canada and alerting transportation officials and the public to the real hazards of transporting this easily ignited oil. For Benicians, potentially explosive trains are no theoretical debate as two 50-car trains would pass daily through the north end of town...
How 'flexible' schedules have become a trap for working parents Vox ... According to a recent study, many workers in similar retail jobs with "just-in-time" scheduling can be called in for a shift just two hours ahead of time, and most are not guaranteed a minimum number of hours each week. That means paychecks fluctuate as much as shifts...
New fight over Ebola quarantine looms as nurse returns to Maine FOX News ...A nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa before being briefly and controversially quarantined in New Jersey could be the focus of a new battle over state health policy as she returns to her home state of Maine...
CNN poll: Voters are angry CNN Politics ...Nearly 7 in 10 Americans are angry at the direction the country is headed and 53% of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama's job performance, two troubling signs for Democrats one week before the midterm elections...
The Stealth Campaign to Buy US Courts truthout ...the RSLC has run an aggressive—and successful—strategy to turn states red and keep them that way. This year, the group expanded from legislative and gubernatorial races, putting $5 million into a “Judicial Fairness Initiative” with the aim to elect judges who are “supportive of restraining government.” So far, the RSLC has funded judicial campaigns in Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and North Carolina. The group is still monitoring races in Ohio, Texas and Michigan...
Worker dies after Veolia industrial blast in Canada AFP ...A Veolia worker who was injured during a weekend blast at an industrial plant in Canada died Monday, officials said. Four other staff also were hospitalized Saturday in the as-yet-unexplained explosion that collapsed the roof at the Veolia ES Canada Industrial facility in Sarnia, Ontario...
Worker killed in construction accident in Phoenix azfamily.com ...A construction worker is dead after he got caught and crushed in a piece of equipment Monday afternoon...
Miscellaneous
NSA Director Was Investing In Shady Foreign Markets While Spying On Shady Foreign Markets Inquisitr ...Keith Alexander, the former National Security Agency Director owned and sold shares in commodities linked to China and Russia… all while the NSA was heavily spying on China and Russia. Depending on who you ask, it’s either a question of insider trading, cashing in on incidental job knowledge, or a case of coincidence...
Zodiac Workers Approve New Contract, End Strike KTEN ...Workers from the largest employer in Cooke County will be heading back to work Monday after about a month on the picket line. Employees at the Zodiac Seats manufacturing facility in Gainesville approved a new contract by an overwhelming margin earlier Saturday afternoon. Teamsters Local 767 representative Terry Johnson says the key issues of the contract dispute were work environment, seniority rights, and work schedules...
NetJets To The Middle Class: Subsidize The Global Super-Rich teamster.org ...Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc. is demanding compensation and benefit cuts from more than 600 employees represented by the Teamsters Union as part of a plan to lower prices for its wealthy customers. The Columbus, Ohio-based business jet operator is owned by Warren Buffet's holding company and provides business and leisure travel to the global super-rich...
Celebration Of Life: Brian Robert Davis teamster.org ...Please join us in celebrating the life and accomplishments of Joint Council No. 28 Freight Director and Local 174 Business Agent Brian Davis...
Trade
Anti-TTIP Front Condemns Government For Supporting Free Trade Proposal Malta Today ...Social Europe: Front Against TTIP (Malta) condemned the government for supporting the proposed Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, while discussions on the free trade agreement are still ongoing between the European Union and the United States...
South Korea: Bitter harvest: Exploitation and forced labour of migrant agricultural workers in South Korea Amnesty International ...The migrant workers on whom South Korean agriculture depends suffer appalling living and working conditions, and the government's Employment Permit Scheme (EPS) directly contributes to this exploitation, according to a new report (Bitter Harvest) from Amnesty International...
State Battles
Labor Group To Sue Scott Walker's Administration For Minimum Wage Study Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A labor group plans to sue Gov. Scott Walker's administration Monday as part of an ongoing effort to force an increase in Wisconsin's minimum wage...
West Lake Protesters Warn Of 'Hidden Dangers' KSDK ...Protesters hit the streets of North St. Louis County again Sunday, but this time the demonstrations had to do with the World War Two-era nuclear waste buried at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton. The waste site sits adjacent to an underground fire at the Bridgeton Landfill...
The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster Rolling Stone ...Brownback turned out to be even more radical when it came to economic policy. In 2012, he enacted the largest package of tax cuts in Kansas history, essentially transforming his state into a lab experiment for extreme free-market ideology. The results (disastrous) have reduced the governor to making appearances at grim strip malls like this one in a desperate attempt to salvage his re-election bid...
‘Right To Work’ Harms Working Families (opinion) Louisville Courier Journal ...Kentucky remains the only state in the South not to pass one of these laws, which shows our political independence and common sense. But Republicans in Frankfort, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and a group of out-of-state, big-moneyed special interests are doing everything in their power to change that. I strongly oppose right-to-work legislation because I love Kentucky and want a bright future for our children and grandchildren. Right to work is a sham. It is, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “a false slogan” which will “rob us of our civil rights and job rights.”...
To see how Citizens United is hurting democracy, look at local elections msnbc ... in a scandal one news report called a “nightmare scenario” of corruption, former Utah Attorney General John Swallow used “independent” groups to orchestrate advertising for his 2012 campaign from payday loan companies, which he had in exchange promised to regulate lightly, according to an investigation by Utah’s legislature. Swallow’s campaign staff had created a web of benignly named groups, like the Proper Role of Government Education Association, to conceal more than $450,000 in spending by the lenders...
War on Workers
7 things the middle class can't afford anymore USA Today ...54% of people gave up purchasing big ticket items like TVs or electronics so they can go on a vacation...
The Real Crazy Train: Moving Bakken Crude By Rail (opinion) San Francisco Chronicle ...Community concerns include environmental risks but center on public safety because Bakken oil is more volatile than most other crudes. A derailed tanker train loaded with Bakken crude exploded in July 2013, killing 47 people in Canada and alerting transportation officials and the public to the real hazards of transporting this easily ignited oil. For Benicians, potentially explosive trains are no theoretical debate as two 50-car trains would pass daily through the north end of town...
How 'flexible' schedules have become a trap for working parents Vox ... According to a recent study, many workers in similar retail jobs with "just-in-time" scheduling can be called in for a shift just two hours ahead of time, and most are not guaranteed a minimum number of hours each week. That means paychecks fluctuate as much as shifts...
New fight over Ebola quarantine looms as nurse returns to Maine FOX News ...A nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa before being briefly and controversially quarantined in New Jersey could be the focus of a new battle over state health policy as she returns to her home state of Maine...
CNN poll: Voters are angry CNN Politics ...Nearly 7 in 10 Americans are angry at the direction the country is headed and 53% of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama's job performance, two troubling signs for Democrats one week before the midterm elections...
The Stealth Campaign to Buy US Courts truthout ...the RSLC has run an aggressive—and successful—strategy to turn states red and keep them that way. This year, the group expanded from legislative and gubernatorial races, putting $5 million into a “Judicial Fairness Initiative” with the aim to elect judges who are “supportive of restraining government.” So far, the RSLC has funded judicial campaigns in Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and North Carolina. The group is still monitoring races in Ohio, Texas and Michigan...
Worker dies after Veolia industrial blast in Canada AFP ...A Veolia worker who was injured during a weekend blast at an industrial plant in Canada died Monday, officials said. Four other staff also were hospitalized Saturday in the as-yet-unexplained explosion that collapsed the roof at the Veolia ES Canada Industrial facility in Sarnia, Ontario...
Worker killed in construction accident in Phoenix azfamily.com ...A construction worker is dead after he got caught and crushed in a piece of equipment Monday afternoon...
Miscellaneous
NSA Director Was Investing In Shady Foreign Markets While Spying On Shady Foreign Markets Inquisitr ...Keith Alexander, the former National Security Agency Director owned and sold shares in commodities linked to China and Russia… all while the NSA was heavily spying on China and Russia. Depending on who you ask, it’s either a question of insider trading, cashing in on incidental job knowledge, or a case of coincidence...
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.24.14
Teamster News
Tentative agreement reached with Fred Meyer over grocery contract Teamsters Local 117 ...Teamsters Local 117 has achieved a fully-recommended tentative agreement with Fred Meyer over a contract involving 388 warehouse workers employed at the company’s grocery distribution center in Puyallup. The Union and the Company reached the agreement late Monday night with the assistance of a federal mediator...
U.S. FTC mulling antitrust lawsuit against Sysco, US Foods deal Reuters ...The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering a possible antitrust lawsuit against Sysco Corp's $3.5 billion deal to buy debt-ridden US Foods from private equity, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday citing people with knowledge of the matter...
Teamsters ratify new RTC bus contract Reno Gazette-Journal ...The contract is retroactive to July 1 and "includes substantial improvements to employee wages and benefits," the Teamsters said in a statement...
NUC: Picketers Express Outrage At Buffett's NetJets MarketWatch ...Hundreds of picketers charged Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., with attacking the livelihoods of middle class families. Unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers picketed at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC)...
Shareholder Group Sues Darden Over Red Lobster Sale Orlando Sentinel ...Darden Restaurants is facing a second lawsuit from a Teamsters shareholder group in Connecticut over the controversial sale of Red Lobster in July...
Oxford Concludes Contract With Teamsters South Chester County Weeklies ...Negotiations between the Oxford Area School District and the Teamsters Local Union No. 384 for service and support staff have come to a conclusion with a new contract. The new agreement, approved by the school board at its Sept. 16 meeting, runs from the end of the last contract on July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2016...
Trade
France’s Latest Calls For TTIP Transparency Fall On Deaf Ears EurActiv ...Matthias Fekl, the new French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, has joined his predecessors in calling for the publication of the trade negotiation mandate between the EU and the United States. The continued lack of transparency in the negotiations could lead to the failure of TTIP...
State Battles
Facebook set to join rush to abandon rightwing lobby group Alec Guardian ...Alec has attracted global criticism for its opposition to legislation that would curb carbon emissions, anti-union policies and championing of extreme rightwing policies at the state level...
Council To Vote On $15.37 Minimum Wage For Workers At Big Hotels Los Angeles Times ...Labor groups are rallying behind the plan now before lawmakers, saying that it could pull hotel workers' families out of poverty and inject more spending into the local economy. Several council members favor the increase, including Councilman Curren Price, who said it would make Los Angeles "a progressive leader" for the nation...
Moral Mondays Movement Spreads To Alabama San Francisco Chronicle ...The Moral Mondays movement has spread to Alabama, focusing on a Republican governor and Legislature just as the founders of the protests have done in North Carolina...
GOP’s vote-suppressing militia: Why Scott Walker’s thugs are getting violent Salon ...A visit to the group’s Facebook page features makes it clear exactly who they are targeting. All of the pictures on the page feature African-Americans. The group is trying to get African-Americans who may have outstanding warrants arrested in order to keep them from voting...
Wisconsin Voter ID Law Ruling Threatens Chaos On Election Day The Guardian ...Election officials and civil liberties advocates are predicting that a surprise court ruling that lifted a stay on Wisconsin’s controversial voter-ID law will produce chaos on election day, as estimates suggest that up to 300,000 eligible voters may not have the documentation now required to vote...
War On Workers
More Fiery Oil Train, Pipeline Accidents Unless Government Acts: Report NBC News ...If the U.S. doesn’t quickly address the safe transportation of oil and gas, Americans could pay the price with more fiery train and pipeline accidents, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online as 'Nudge' to Employers Bloomberg ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work...
Worker Killed in Explosion at Idaho Dairy Associated Press ...the explosion occurred at about 6 a.m. Monday as 30-year-old Dayne A. Hansen of Rupert did welding work on a trailer...
Jersey City construction worker killed at NYC site is identified NJ.com ...The worker, identified by The New York Post as Rodolfo Vasquez-Galian, was removing soil from the site when a concrete slab supporting a neighboring building's foundation fell and crushed him to death, according to the news organization's website...
1 In 5 Workers Laid Off In Past 5 Years Still Unemployed, Survey Finds Huffington Post ...Twenty-two percent of workers laid off in the past five years are still unemployed, according to a new survey...
More Americans Forgo Marriage as Economic Difficulties Hit Home Wall Street Journal ...As long-term financial security becomes a pipe dream for more Americans, a growing share is giving up on marriage. One in five U.S. adults aged 25 or older had never been married in 2012, a record high…
Mercedes labor chief seeks UAW foothold in Alabama Associated Press ...The head labor official on Daimler AG’s supervisory board says he considers it “unacceptable” that the German automaker’s Mercedes plant in Alabama stands alone among the company’s factories around the world without union representation for its workers...
Pfizer Seeking Inversions Shows Companies Unfazed by Lew Bloomberg ...Pfizer Inc. has approached Actavis Plc to express its interest in an acquisition that could allow the U.S. drugmaker to move overseas and reduce taxes, in a sign the Obama administration’s efforts to curtail such deals could fall short...
A Failure To Treat Workers with Respect Could Be Uber’s Achilles’ Heel MIT Technology Review ...Uber will fire a driver if his or her performance rating (an aggregate of the ratings provided by customers of that driver) falls below a certain level. ... There is no mentoring, training, or improvement program—nothing...
Americans Are O.K. With Big Business. It’s Business Lobbying Power They Hate. New York Times ...Americans are more likely than respondents in any country surveyed except Italy to believe that corporate lobbyists exercise a high degree of influence over the national government, with 59 percent of American survey respondents saying that corporate lobbyists have “a lot of influence” over policy...
Tentative agreement reached with Fred Meyer over grocery contract Teamsters Local 117 ...Teamsters Local 117 has achieved a fully-recommended tentative agreement with Fred Meyer over a contract involving 388 warehouse workers employed at the company’s grocery distribution center in Puyallup. The Union and the Company reached the agreement late Monday night with the assistance of a federal mediator...
U.S. FTC mulling antitrust lawsuit against Sysco, US Foods deal Reuters ...The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering a possible antitrust lawsuit against Sysco Corp's $3.5 billion deal to buy debt-ridden US Foods from private equity, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday citing people with knowledge of the matter...
Teamsters ratify new RTC bus contract Reno Gazette-Journal ...The contract is retroactive to July 1 and "includes substantial improvements to employee wages and benefits," the Teamsters said in a statement...
NUC: Picketers Express Outrage At Buffett's NetJets MarketWatch ...Hundreds of picketers charged Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., with attacking the livelihoods of middle class families. Unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers picketed at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC)...
Shareholder Group Sues Darden Over Red Lobster Sale Orlando Sentinel ...Darden Restaurants is facing a second lawsuit from a Teamsters shareholder group in Connecticut over the controversial sale of Red Lobster in July...
Oxford Concludes Contract With Teamsters South Chester County Weeklies ...Negotiations between the Oxford Area School District and the Teamsters Local Union No. 384 for service and support staff have come to a conclusion with a new contract. The new agreement, approved by the school board at its Sept. 16 meeting, runs from the end of the last contract on July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2016...
Trade
France’s Latest Calls For TTIP Transparency Fall On Deaf Ears EurActiv ...Matthias Fekl, the new French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, has joined his predecessors in calling for the publication of the trade negotiation mandate between the EU and the United States. The continued lack of transparency in the negotiations could lead to the failure of TTIP...
State Battles
Facebook set to join rush to abandon rightwing lobby group Alec Guardian ...Alec has attracted global criticism for its opposition to legislation that would curb carbon emissions, anti-union policies and championing of extreme rightwing policies at the state level...
Council To Vote On $15.37 Minimum Wage For Workers At Big Hotels Los Angeles Times ...Labor groups are rallying behind the plan now before lawmakers, saying that it could pull hotel workers' families out of poverty and inject more spending into the local economy. Several council members favor the increase, including Councilman Curren Price, who said it would make Los Angeles "a progressive leader" for the nation...
Moral Mondays Movement Spreads To Alabama San Francisco Chronicle ...The Moral Mondays movement has spread to Alabama, focusing on a Republican governor and Legislature just as the founders of the protests have done in North Carolina...
GOP’s vote-suppressing militia: Why Scott Walker’s thugs are getting violent Salon ...A visit to the group’s Facebook page features makes it clear exactly who they are targeting. All of the pictures on the page feature African-Americans. The group is trying to get African-Americans who may have outstanding warrants arrested in order to keep them from voting...
Wisconsin Voter ID Law Ruling Threatens Chaos On Election Day The Guardian ...Election officials and civil liberties advocates are predicting that a surprise court ruling that lifted a stay on Wisconsin’s controversial voter-ID law will produce chaos on election day, as estimates suggest that up to 300,000 eligible voters may not have the documentation now required to vote...
War On Workers
More Fiery Oil Train, Pipeline Accidents Unless Government Acts: Report NBC News ...If the U.S. doesn’t quickly address the safe transportation of oil and gas, Americans could pay the price with more fiery train and pipeline accidents, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online as 'Nudge' to Employers Bloomberg ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work...
Worker Killed in Explosion at Idaho Dairy Associated Press ...the explosion occurred at about 6 a.m. Monday as 30-year-old Dayne A. Hansen of Rupert did welding work on a trailer...
Jersey City construction worker killed at NYC site is identified NJ.com ...The worker, identified by The New York Post as Rodolfo Vasquez-Galian, was removing soil from the site when a concrete slab supporting a neighboring building's foundation fell and crushed him to death, according to the news organization's website...
1 In 5 Workers Laid Off In Past 5 Years Still Unemployed, Survey Finds Huffington Post ...Twenty-two percent of workers laid off in the past five years are still unemployed, according to a new survey...
More Americans Forgo Marriage as Economic Difficulties Hit Home Wall Street Journal ...As long-term financial security becomes a pipe dream for more Americans, a growing share is giving up on marriage. One in five U.S. adults aged 25 or older had never been married in 2012, a record high…
Mercedes labor chief seeks UAW foothold in Alabama Associated Press ...The head labor official on Daimler AG’s supervisory board says he considers it “unacceptable” that the German automaker’s Mercedes plant in Alabama stands alone among the company’s factories around the world without union representation for its workers...
Pfizer Seeking Inversions Shows Companies Unfazed by Lew Bloomberg ...Pfizer Inc. has approached Actavis Plc to express its interest in an acquisition that could allow the U.S. drugmaker to move overseas and reduce taxes, in a sign the Obama administration’s efforts to curtail such deals could fall short...
A Failure To Treat Workers with Respect Could Be Uber’s Achilles’ Heel MIT Technology Review ...Uber will fire a driver if his or her performance rating (an aggregate of the ratings provided by customers of that driver) falls below a certain level. ... There is no mentoring, training, or improvement program—nothing...
Americans Are O.K. With Big Business. It’s Business Lobbying Power They Hate. New York Times ...Americans are more likely than respondents in any country surveyed except Italy to believe that corporate lobbyists exercise a high degree of influence over the national government, with 59 percent of American survey respondents saying that corporate lobbyists have “a lot of influence” over policy...
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.23.14
Teamster News
More Labor Problems at Buffett's NetJets IBT ...As contract talks drag on at Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers are picketing at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC). NUC is a coalition between the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), the pilots' union, and the Teamsters, which represents all of the other unionized NetJets employees...
Trade
TTIP: don’t mention the job losses The Broker ...The headline finding from the official assessment of TTIP is that there will be a loss of at least one million jobs in the EU and US as a direct result of the agreement’s coming into force...
State Battles
Moral Mondays battles low pay, injustice, racism and more Indianapolis Star ...About 200 people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday to fight for better pay, affordable health care, equal justice and other causes...
Google: We’re parting with the climate change skeptics at ALEC Washington Post ...Google is going to stop funding a key conservative group because of its stance on climate change, executive chairman Eric Schmidt revealed Monday...
Declining median incomes becomes anti-Rick Scott talking point for Fla. Dems St. Peters Blog ...Average household incomes in South Florida are declining. A study released Thursday by the U.S. Census bureau shows median income in 2013 at $46,946 down from $48,275 in 2010...
Christie's Pension Overseer Invested New Jersey Money In Fund He Is Linked To Privately International Business Times ...Grady was pushing to invest New Jersey public money into the same Blackstone fund in which his own firm was investing -- without disclosing that fact to N.J. officials...
In Brownbackistan, Everything Is Awesome! And Don’t Let Any Liberal Tell You Different Salon.com ...You’ve got runaway incompetence in the state administration; heavy-handed partisanship, with conservative Republicans crushing moderate Republicans after the familiar pattern; corporate money—Koch Industries is based in Wichita—sloshing around like a vast underground aquifer. You’ve got privatization, deregulation, and an enthusiastic race to the bottom...
Nikki Haley Busted Inflating Job Numbers...Again FitsNews ...For a third time, a mainstream media outlet in the Palmetto State has caught S.C. Gov.Nikki Haley inflating her administration’s job numbers...
State Has No Budget For Voter ID, Agencies Say Wisconsin State Journal ...Three state agencies charged with implementing voter ID for the Nov. 4 election say they have no additional money set aside to help voters and state workers comply with the newly reinstated requirement...
War On Workers
Obama Administration Issues New Rules to Combat Tax Inversions Wall Street Journal ...The Treasury Department tightened tax rules Monday to deter U.S. companies from moving their legal headquarters to lower-tax countries, part of a White House effort to slow a wave of so-called corporate inversions that effectively reduce federal revenues...
Dangers Aside, Railways Reshape Crude Market Wall Street Journal ...But it has frightened communities across the country where first responders fear the fireballs that have erupted in the past year after some oil-train derailments. Federal regulators recently proposed new rules to require sturdier cars to carry oil, lower speed limits on some shipments and testing of the volatility of the crude transported by train...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online As 'Nudge' To Employers Bloomberg Businessweek ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work. The agency estimates that tens of thousands of injuries go unreported...
D.C. Cab Companies Blame Steep Declines In Revenue On Ridesharing WAMU ...The rise of the “ridesharing” service UberX is bleeding traditional taxicabs in Washington. Although precise District-wide data is not available, taxicab company managers and individual drivers said their business is down at least 20 percent — and in some cases much more — because they cannot compete with the unregulated, low-price competition of UberX...
Oregon Residents Challenge the State "Right-to-Farm" Law The Progressive ...Such so-called "right-to-farm" laws insulate agricultural operations -- including large industrial livestock confinement operations and, in Oregon, private timber companies -- against lawsuits as long as they're following what is (or, in some cases, may become) a "generally accepted" farming or forest practice. These can include heavy aerial pesticide applications...
U.S. Home Sales Falter as Investors Pull Back Wall Street Journal ...The decline reflected fewer purchases by investors, who helped fuel the housing-market rebound. The share of overall sales that went to investors fell to 12% last month, the lowest level since late 2009. Investors accounted for as much as 23% of sales in early 2012 as they bought up properties, many in foreclosure, at bargain prices...
Lincoln County worker killed in dump truck wreck, fire The Clarion-Ledger ...A Lincoln County road crew member was killed in what appears to be a wreck in which his dump truck left the road, hit a tree and caught on fire, according to Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing...
Construction worker killed falling from building in Waterloo CTV News ...An 18-year-old man is dead after falling from a building at the Barrel Yards development in Waterloo...
More Labor Problems at Buffett's NetJets IBT ...As contract talks drag on at Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers are picketing at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC). NUC is a coalition between the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), the pilots' union, and the Teamsters, which represents all of the other unionized NetJets employees...
Trade
TTIP: don’t mention the job losses The Broker ...The headline finding from the official assessment of TTIP is that there will be a loss of at least one million jobs in the EU and US as a direct result of the agreement’s coming into force...
State Battles
Moral Mondays battles low pay, injustice, racism and more Indianapolis Star ...About 200 people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday to fight for better pay, affordable health care, equal justice and other causes...
Google: We’re parting with the climate change skeptics at ALEC Washington Post ...Google is going to stop funding a key conservative group because of its stance on climate change, executive chairman Eric Schmidt revealed Monday...
Declining median incomes becomes anti-Rick Scott talking point for Fla. Dems St. Peters Blog ...Average household incomes in South Florida are declining. A study released Thursday by the U.S. Census bureau shows median income in 2013 at $46,946 down from $48,275 in 2010...
Christie's Pension Overseer Invested New Jersey Money In Fund He Is Linked To Privately International Business Times ...Grady was pushing to invest New Jersey public money into the same Blackstone fund in which his own firm was investing -- without disclosing that fact to N.J. officials...
In Brownbackistan, Everything Is Awesome! And Don’t Let Any Liberal Tell You Different Salon.com ...You’ve got runaway incompetence in the state administration; heavy-handed partisanship, with conservative Republicans crushing moderate Republicans after the familiar pattern; corporate money—Koch Industries is based in Wichita—sloshing around like a vast underground aquifer. You’ve got privatization, deregulation, and an enthusiastic race to the bottom...
Nikki Haley Busted Inflating Job Numbers...Again FitsNews ...For a third time, a mainstream media outlet in the Palmetto State has caught S.C. Gov.Nikki Haley inflating her administration’s job numbers...
State Has No Budget For Voter ID, Agencies Say Wisconsin State Journal ...Three state agencies charged with implementing voter ID for the Nov. 4 election say they have no additional money set aside to help voters and state workers comply with the newly reinstated requirement...
War On Workers
Obama Administration Issues New Rules to Combat Tax Inversions Wall Street Journal ...The Treasury Department tightened tax rules Monday to deter U.S. companies from moving their legal headquarters to lower-tax countries, part of a White House effort to slow a wave of so-called corporate inversions that effectively reduce federal revenues...
Dangers Aside, Railways Reshape Crude Market Wall Street Journal ...But it has frightened communities across the country where first responders fear the fireballs that have erupted in the past year after some oil-train derailments. Federal regulators recently proposed new rules to require sturdier cars to carry oil, lower speed limits on some shipments and testing of the volatility of the crude transported by train...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online As 'Nudge' To Employers Bloomberg Businessweek ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work. The agency estimates that tens of thousands of injuries go unreported...
D.C. Cab Companies Blame Steep Declines In Revenue On Ridesharing WAMU ...The rise of the “ridesharing” service UberX is bleeding traditional taxicabs in Washington. Although precise District-wide data is not available, taxicab company managers and individual drivers said their business is down at least 20 percent — and in some cases much more — because they cannot compete with the unregulated, low-price competition of UberX...
Oregon Residents Challenge the State "Right-to-Farm" Law The Progressive ...Such so-called "right-to-farm" laws insulate agricultural operations -- including large industrial livestock confinement operations and, in Oregon, private timber companies -- against lawsuits as long as they're following what is (or, in some cases, may become) a "generally accepted" farming or forest practice. These can include heavy aerial pesticide applications...
U.S. Home Sales Falter as Investors Pull Back Wall Street Journal ...The decline reflected fewer purchases by investors, who helped fuel the housing-market rebound. The share of overall sales that went to investors fell to 12% last month, the lowest level since late 2009. Investors accounted for as much as 23% of sales in early 2012 as they bought up properties, many in foreclosure, at bargain prices...
Lincoln County worker killed in dump truck wreck, fire The Clarion-Ledger ...A Lincoln County road crew member was killed in what appears to be a wreck in which his dump truck left the road, hit a tree and caught on fire, according to Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing...
Construction worker killed falling from building in Waterloo CTV News ...An 18-year-old man is dead after falling from a building at the Barrel Yards development in Waterloo...
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Today's Teamster News 03.08.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Local 856 Welcomes Mt. Diablo School District Workers teamster.org ...Five hundred Mount Diablo Unified School District workers in the maintenance and operations unit have chosen to join Teamsters Local 856, San Bruno, Calif., in an overwhelming vote today...
Teamsters Helping Teamsters driveupstandards.org ...Nance Prendota, a Teamsters Local 777 school bus driver for Illinois Central School Bus in Aurora, Ill., woke up to a house fire in mid-January that destroyed everything in its path...
Teamster bus drivers at CCTA could strike Monday WPTZ News 5 ...Teamsters Local 597, based in South Barre, Vermont, has threatened taking action on Monday if settlement is not reached...
De Blasio Whipped by Horse Lobby Daily Beast ...NYC’s new mayor is determined to get rid of Central Park’s horse-drawn carriages this year. The fact that the animal rights lobby savaged his campaign opponent is pure coincidence, his supporters say...
Members of the Teamsters and NJSAP Coalition teamsterair.org ...Minimal progress and unjustifiable demands have motivated the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP) and International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 284 Executive Boards to formally launch the NetJets Unions Coalition (NUC)...
Teamsters Local 700 Endorses Best Candidates for Working Families Teamsters Local 700 ...Teamsters Local 700, based in Park Ridge, Illinois, announced endorsements in the March 18 primary elections...
Trade
U.S. readies for more 'extremely tough' trade talks with Japan Reuters ...The United States is finding talks with Japan on opening its agricultural market "extremely tough", a senior U.S. trade official said on Friday, as the two countries prepared for another round of bilateral negotiations...
It wasn't all weather: What's behind the weak manufacturing jobs report. manufacture this ...the Department of Labor announced that America's manufacturing sector added a mere 6,000 jobs in February, with significant downward revisions for January. Additionally, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that America's trade deficit with China rose substantially in January...
A Trade Pact No One Should Want Counterpunch ...We’ve heard a lot on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but what will the Trans-Atlantic Partnership do? (Nothing good, that’s for sure.)...
Counterpoint: Don't repeat NAFTA mistakes (Opinion) Star-Tribune ...Amid secrecy and the model of broken promises, don’t ram through the TPP deal...
State Battles
Focusing on Win-Wins for Iowa Workers and Employers Iowa Senate Democrats ...This week the Senate passed a compromise version of wage theft legislation (Senate File 2295). It targets shady Iowa businesses which compete unfairly and cheat workers by shorting paychecks, confiscating tips, misclassifying workers, unauthorized paycheck deductions; and refusing to pay overtime...
Assembly passes child care, family leave bills WGRZ.com ...The (New York) state Assembly on Wednesday passed a package of bills that aim to increase access to childcare and establish paid family leave...
West Virginia Senate passes legislation to help accommodate pregnant workers Associated Press ...The West Virginia Senate has passed legislation to help accommodate pregnant women in the workplace....
Tennessee Republicans single out unions with anti-picketing bill DailyKos ..Spurred by the fact that Tennessee added 31,000 union members last year, state Rep. Jeremy Durham has introduced a bill that would create a new "mass picketing" misdemeanor specifically aimed at labor activists...
Trampling on our First Amendment Rights Michigan AFL-CIO ...The State House is contemplating the passage of HB 4643, a bill sponsored by Representative Tom McMillin (R). HB 4643 will result in civil fines of up to $10,000 per day for picketing that is deemed illegal; creating a huge chilling effect on your First Amendment rights...
War on Workers
A vast hidden surveillance network runs across America, powered by the repo industry Beta Boston ... the most significant impact of Sousa’s business is far bigger than locating cars whose owners have defaulted on loans: It is the growing database of snapshots showing where Americans were at specific times, information that everyone from private detectives to insurers are willing to pay for...
Shocking Stat: 70% of Americans Not in the Labor Force Are Under 55 Years Old AlterNet ...Infograph shows majority of 5.8 million 'missing' workers have given up the search because there simply aren’t any jobs...
Chicago May Be The Next City To Demand Paid Sick Days For ALL Workers Huffington Post ...Chicago employers would be required to offer paid sick leave to all workers under a proposal introduced by City Councilmen Wednesday...
Container truck drivers reach tentative deal at Vancouver port arineLink ...Container truck drivers at Canada's largest port reached a new deal on Thursday, narrowly avoiding an expanded job action that would have seen some 400 unionized drivers join about 1,200 non-unionized drivers who walked off the job last week...
America's New Servant Class AlterNet ...Income inequality is creating a boom in the servant industry. Welcome to the world of Downton Abbey...
BP chief executive's pay triples in 2013 The Guardian ...The pay of Bob Dudley, BP's chief executive, tripled last year despite the legal threats still hanging over the company from the Deepwater Horizon disaster...
Boeing freezing nonunion workers' pensions in 2016 Associated Press ...Boeing Co. said Thursday it is freezing the traditional defined-benefit pensions for 68,000 nonunion employees - including managers and executives - starting in 2016...
United Airlines dumps Newark Airport union jobs for janitorial contractor that will pay lower wages Daily News ...The airline has tossed out a janitorial contractor that pays its workers $9 an hour and will replace it with a company that's expected to pay $8.25 an hour. The cold-hearted move will affect nearly 270 workers...
Miscellaneous
Who Has The Right to Track You? In These Times ...As states begin to rein in mass surveillance, corporations argue that they have a right to collect data...
Staples to close 225 North American stores BBC News ...US office supplier Staples said it will close 225 stores in North America, more than 10% of its presence, as shoppers move online and its sales slump...
Disney cuts 700 employees from its video game division Raw Story ...Walt Disney Company on Thursday confirmed that it is cutting about a quarter of the workers at its money-losing video game division...
US economy hampered by severe winter weather, Fed says The Guardian ...Federal Reserve's 'beige book' report notes that consumer spending lessened because of cold, snow and storms in winter...
How corporate America is losing the debate on taxes Washington Post ...If there is one clear loser in President Obama's budget this year, it's U.S. multinationals. Designed to plug some major leaks in the tax code, the 2015 budget proposes a total of more than $276 billion in higher taxes on overseas earnings for U.S. multinationals over the next decade, about $120 billion more than last year's budget...
New Post-ABC News poll: Keystone XL project overwhelmingly favored by Americans Washington Post ...Americans support the idea of constructing the Keystone XL oil pipeline between Canada and the United States by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, with 65 percent saying it should be approved and 22 percent opposed, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll...
Education Advocates Launch Campaign to Combat Student Debt US News ...The America that invested in and created opportunity is disappearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said...
Teamsters Local 856 Welcomes Mt. Diablo School District Workers teamster.org ...Five hundred Mount Diablo Unified School District workers in the maintenance and operations unit have chosen to join Teamsters Local 856, San Bruno, Calif., in an overwhelming vote today...
Teamsters Helping Teamsters driveupstandards.org ...Nance Prendota, a Teamsters Local 777 school bus driver for Illinois Central School Bus in Aurora, Ill., woke up to a house fire in mid-January that destroyed everything in its path...
Teamster bus drivers at CCTA could strike Monday WPTZ News 5 ...Teamsters Local 597, based in South Barre, Vermont, has threatened taking action on Monday if settlement is not reached...
De Blasio Whipped by Horse Lobby Daily Beast ...NYC’s new mayor is determined to get rid of Central Park’s horse-drawn carriages this year. The fact that the animal rights lobby savaged his campaign opponent is pure coincidence, his supporters say...
Members of the Teamsters and NJSAP Coalition teamsterair.org ...Minimal progress and unjustifiable demands have motivated the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP) and International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 284 Executive Boards to formally launch the NetJets Unions Coalition (NUC)...
Teamsters Local 700 Endorses Best Candidates for Working Families Teamsters Local 700 ...Teamsters Local 700, based in Park Ridge, Illinois, announced endorsements in the March 18 primary elections...
Trade
U.S. readies for more 'extremely tough' trade talks with Japan Reuters ...The United States is finding talks with Japan on opening its agricultural market "extremely tough", a senior U.S. trade official said on Friday, as the two countries prepared for another round of bilateral negotiations...
It wasn't all weather: What's behind the weak manufacturing jobs report. manufacture this ...the Department of Labor announced that America's manufacturing sector added a mere 6,000 jobs in February, with significant downward revisions for January. Additionally, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that America's trade deficit with China rose substantially in January...
A Trade Pact No One Should Want Counterpunch ...We’ve heard a lot on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but what will the Trans-Atlantic Partnership do? (Nothing good, that’s for sure.)...
Counterpoint: Don't repeat NAFTA mistakes (Opinion) Star-Tribune ...Amid secrecy and the model of broken promises, don’t ram through the TPP deal...
State Battles
Focusing on Win-Wins for Iowa Workers and Employers Iowa Senate Democrats ...This week the Senate passed a compromise version of wage theft legislation (Senate File 2295). It targets shady Iowa businesses which compete unfairly and cheat workers by shorting paychecks, confiscating tips, misclassifying workers, unauthorized paycheck deductions; and refusing to pay overtime...
Assembly passes child care, family leave bills WGRZ.com ...The (New York) state Assembly on Wednesday passed a package of bills that aim to increase access to childcare and establish paid family leave...
West Virginia Senate passes legislation to help accommodate pregnant workers Associated Press ...The West Virginia Senate has passed legislation to help accommodate pregnant women in the workplace....
Tennessee Republicans single out unions with anti-picketing bill DailyKos ..Spurred by the fact that Tennessee added 31,000 union members last year, state Rep. Jeremy Durham has introduced a bill that would create a new "mass picketing" misdemeanor specifically aimed at labor activists...
Trampling on our First Amendment Rights Michigan AFL-CIO ...The State House is contemplating the passage of HB 4643, a bill sponsored by Representative Tom McMillin (R). HB 4643 will result in civil fines of up to $10,000 per day for picketing that is deemed illegal; creating a huge chilling effect on your First Amendment rights...
War on Workers
A vast hidden surveillance network runs across America, powered by the repo industry Beta Boston ... the most significant impact of Sousa’s business is far bigger than locating cars whose owners have defaulted on loans: It is the growing database of snapshots showing where Americans were at specific times, information that everyone from private detectives to insurers are willing to pay for...
Shocking Stat: 70% of Americans Not in the Labor Force Are Under 55 Years Old AlterNet ...Infograph shows majority of 5.8 million 'missing' workers have given up the search because there simply aren’t any jobs...
Chicago May Be The Next City To Demand Paid Sick Days For ALL Workers Huffington Post ...Chicago employers would be required to offer paid sick leave to all workers under a proposal introduced by City Councilmen Wednesday...
Container truck drivers reach tentative deal at Vancouver port arineLink ...Container truck drivers at Canada's largest port reached a new deal on Thursday, narrowly avoiding an expanded job action that would have seen some 400 unionized drivers join about 1,200 non-unionized drivers who walked off the job last week...
America's New Servant Class AlterNet ...Income inequality is creating a boom in the servant industry. Welcome to the world of Downton Abbey...
BP chief executive's pay triples in 2013 The Guardian ...The pay of Bob Dudley, BP's chief executive, tripled last year despite the legal threats still hanging over the company from the Deepwater Horizon disaster...
Boeing freezing nonunion workers' pensions in 2016 Associated Press ...Boeing Co. said Thursday it is freezing the traditional defined-benefit pensions for 68,000 nonunion employees - including managers and executives - starting in 2016...
United Airlines dumps Newark Airport union jobs for janitorial contractor that will pay lower wages Daily News ...The airline has tossed out a janitorial contractor that pays its workers $9 an hour and will replace it with a company that's expected to pay $8.25 an hour. The cold-hearted move will affect nearly 270 workers...
Miscellaneous
Who Has The Right to Track You? In These Times ...As states begin to rein in mass surveillance, corporations argue that they have a right to collect data...
Staples to close 225 North American stores BBC News ...US office supplier Staples said it will close 225 stores in North America, more than 10% of its presence, as shoppers move online and its sales slump...
Disney cuts 700 employees from its video game division Raw Story ...Walt Disney Company on Thursday confirmed that it is cutting about a quarter of the workers at its money-losing video game division...
US economy hampered by severe winter weather, Fed says The Guardian ...Federal Reserve's 'beige book' report notes that consumer spending lessened because of cold, snow and storms in winter...
How corporate America is losing the debate on taxes Washington Post ...If there is one clear loser in President Obama's budget this year, it's U.S. multinationals. Designed to plug some major leaks in the tax code, the 2015 budget proposes a total of more than $276 billion in higher taxes on overseas earnings for U.S. multinationals over the next decade, about $120 billion more than last year's budget...
New Post-ABC News poll: Keystone XL project overwhelmingly favored by Americans Washington Post ...Americans support the idea of constructing the Keystone XL oil pipeline between Canada and the United States by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, with 65 percent saying it should be approved and 22 percent opposed, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll...
Education Advocates Launch Campaign to Combat Student Debt US News ...The America that invested in and created opportunity is disappearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said...
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