Today's Teamster News 12.14.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Testify About Republic Services' Radioactive Landfill  Teamster.org  ...On Tuesday, Teamsters testified at the St. Louis Tribunal that is investigating human rights violations against communities surrounding Republic Services’ West Lake Superfund landfill site in Bridgeton, Mo. The tribunal will report to the United Nations Human Rights and Environment Program.
An underground fire has been raging for five years at the West Lake complex...
Uber: On the Road to Nowhere  American Prospect  ...Working with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, hundreds of app-based drivers have helped persuade the Seattle City Council to vote initial approval—7 to 0—of a bill that would allow them to unionize. It would be the nation’s first law allowing app-based “independent contractor” drivers to unionize. A final vote is tentatively scheduled for December 14...
Chicago-Area Coca-Cola Refreshments Workers to Unite at Rally  Local 727  ...Hundreds of Coca-Cola Refreshments workers will rally in solidarity and in continued support of their unfair labor practice strike on Monday, Dec. 14. More than 300 Teamsters Local 727-represented Coca-Cola Refreshments workers initiated an unfair labor practice strike Dec. 3 after the beverage industry behemoth continually violated federal labor laws by intimidating workers, circumventing the union and engaging in overall bad faith bargaining during negotiations for a new contract...
SEIU, Teamsters Mourn San Bernardino Dead  Labor Press  ....Most of the 15 people killed in the mass murder at a holiday party for county workers here Dec. 2 were union members. Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents San Bernardino County environmental health specialists, has identified 10 of the dead and 10 of the 21 people wounded as members, and the Teamsters said three of the dead and two of the wounded were members of Local 1932...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers Strike At Mexican Border Factory  Fronteras  ...At least 100 workers at a Mexican border factory in Ciudad Juárez are on strike protesting low wages and a hostile workplace. The factory packages printer ink for the American company Lexmark. The highest paid workers claim they earn 77 cents an hour. Several dozen workers who said they were fired this week after demanding a pay raise have set up a protest camp outside the factory...
Workers at Irish Life to hold one day strike  Irish Times  ...Workers at insurance giant Irish Life have voted to hold a one-day strike this Thursday. A dispute has been ongoing since the beginning of November, when four two-hour stoppages were held. The dispute centres on the company’s unilateral imposition of a new pay model...
Thousands of Morocco Public Employees Wage Strike  Solidarity Center  ...Thousands of public-sector employees rallied and marched as part of a national strike yesterday in which workers in local agencies and up to 80 percent in government ministries walked off the job. Workers seek to draw attention to the unwillingness of the government to negotiate with them on such issues as wages and retirement. The strike, held on International Human Rights Day, aimed to “defend the gains of retirement for workers, trade union freedoms, rights and dignity”...
House Passes Trade Component, but Trans-Pacific Partnership Still in Doubt  Wall Street Journal  ...The House passed a key component of President Barack Obama’s trade policy Friday, but tepid support among Republicans and business groups for his big Pacific trade agreement could keep that deal from coming to a vote until the final weeks of his presidency, if then. A customs bill that cleared the House on Friday gives American steel companies greater ability to challenge subsidized and dumped steel from China and other countries...
TPP faces US roadblock  Financial Review  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership suffered a serious setback to being implemented by the pact's lead economy, after the powerful United States Senate leader stunned trade watchers by declaring Congress should not vote on the accord until after next November's presidential election. The blunt message from influential Republican Mitch McConnell means the TPP is likely to face at least 12 months in limbo...
House votes to boost enforcement of trade deals, block climate change provisions  US News & World Report  ...As negotiators in Paris worked to finalize a global agreement on climate change, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill Friday that would block trade deals from being used to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Supporters said the wide-ranging bill would beef up enforcement of U.S. trade agreements and help prevent counterfeit goods from entering the country...
The Empire Strikes Back: the Return of the WTO  Counterpunch  ...In the last two years, we have witnessed the rise of mega regional trade deals. TTIP is one such example of a potential trade deal between the US and the EU. These deals have many similarities. They are designed to open up new markets for global corporations and create the conditions for them to be as lucrative as possible...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
U.S. states pass laws backing Uber's view of drivers as contractors  Reuters  ...State legislators in Ohio and Florida are moving ahead with regulations governing Uber and other ride services that would designate all drivers as independent contractors, bolstering a critical but much-disputed aspect of Uber's business model. The states would join North Carolina, Arkansas, and Indiana in requiring the contractor designation as part of new laws governing so-called transportation network companies...
Federal judges to weigh in on redistricting 13 News Now  ...Heading to court today: a potential change in Congressional district boundaries that would re-assign more than one million voters. Federal judges will weigh in on whether to proceed with redrawing Virginia's congressional districts, or wait for the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal. This comes after the court ruled the current boundaries pack too many African-American voters into the Commonwealth's 3rd District...
Speaker Unsure if House Will Vote on Right-to-Work in 2016  Ozarks First  ...The state House’s Republicans have met to discuss priorities for the coming session, but their leader won’t predict an answer for one key question - whether right-to-work will come to a vote in his chamber. Many speculate that if backers in the state House can’t find more support for right-to-work than it had this year, when they failed to overturn Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) veto, it won’t be brought up for a vote...
The fight over right-to-work  DPost.com  ...The battle lines have formed for the Legislature’s 2016 debate on a right-to-work bill. The West Virginia Business and Industry Council (BIC) has made it its top priority and legislative leaders have it near the top of their to-do lists. Union opponents packed the House of Delegates’ largest meeting room during a November WVU presentation on the topic. Proponents say it will boost jobs and wages and lure new business to the state. Opponents say it will kill jobs, lower wages and do nothing to help business...

U.S. LABOR
Kohler Company forced back to bargaining table  FightBack News  ...As of last week, Kohler Company and United Auto Workers Local 833 went back to the bargaining table for negotiations amidst a strike now entering its fourth week. The negotiations come as company production at its facilities remain largely closed, with the overwhelming majority of members continuing the stand on their picket lines...

Construction workers rally in Manhattan for safer worksites  AM New York  ...Thousands of construction workers rallied outside of City Hall on Thursday, displaying a row of eight black coffins and demanding the city enforce stricter safety measures at construction sites. Many marchers claimed non-union workers posed greater risks at construction sites because they do not go through the same stringent safety requirements as their union counterparts...

WMUR booted from next Democratic debate  Politico  ...New Hampshire’s most influential television station is being pushed out of next week’s Democratic debate. The reason? A labor dispute between a handful of employees at the station, WMUR, and its owner, the Hearst Corporation. At issue is an accusation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1228 that WMUR is trying to strip pensions from about a dozen of its employees because they decided to join the union...

USW reviewing new U.S. Steel proposal  NWI.com  ...U.S. Steel has proposed a new contract to the United Steelworkers union, and local union presidents are headed to Pittsburgh to discuss it. Negotiations have been ongoing for six months. U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal, which have declined to comment on specifics during the contract talks, have both asked for concessions they say are necessary...

King Soopers and City Market Ratify Agreements with UFCW Local 7  PR Newswire  ...The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today announced that associates working at King Soopers and City Market stores in Colorado have ratified new labor agreements with UFCW Local 7. The contracts cover more than 10,000 associates working in 103 stores, 36 fuel centers and pharmacy technicians in 78 pharmacies in Colorado, including Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Grand Junction, Longmont, Parker and Pueblo...

Seattle Considers Measure to Let Uber and Lyft Drivers Unionize  New York Times  ...The proposed law is the latest labor issue to bedevil Uber, which lets people hail rides through a smartphone app and takes a roughly 20 to 30 percent cut of each fare. Uber has faced questions about whether its workers should be classified as full-time employees instead of freelancers, and the company, based in San Francisco, is embroiled in a class-action lawsuit on the issue...

The Coming Chicago Teachers Union Strike Could Be a Watershed Moment for a City in Crisis  In These Times  ... The contract the union negotiated during that strike has expired, and CTU members began voting Wednesday on whether to authorize another walkout. Given the strong internal push to vote “yes” and assuming the union meets the legally required yes vote threshold of 75% of its members, we will likely see another Chicago teachers strike sometime next year. Yet a victory this time around will require more than proving that a strike can be a galvanizing tool for workers in the 21st century...
What Economic Recovery? A Good Job is Still Hard to Find  Alternet   ...Encouraging though it may be, the latest nationwide strong jobs report doesn’t change the big picture: the economic recovery, officially underway since June 2009, is still leaving millions of working Americans behind. Earlier this week, a new report from the Alliance for a Just Society highlights the failure of our economic policies to produce the full-time living wage jobs working people need to sustain their families...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New York City to Aid Immigrants Amid Stalled National Reforms  New York Times  ...Immigration reform may be in political and legal limbo nationally, but New York City is moving ahead on a plan of its own. The city will spend $7.9 million next year to boost its immigration services throughout the five boroughs, deploying community organizations to help residents seek free legal services to apply for protection from deportation or even for citizenship...
Video Shows LA Police Fatally Shoot Suspect in the Back as He Is Crawling Away  Slate  ...A shocking video has emerged that shows two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shoot and kill an armed suspect in Lynwood on Saturday as he is walking away. Perhaps most shocking of all is how the two police officers keep firing their guns even as the suspect was knocked to the ground and appears to be crawling away. The man, who died at the scene, was identified as 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson, a father of three...
Historic Climate Deal Reached, But Campaigners say the Work is Just Beginning  Common Dreams  ...The global talks known as COP21 ended Saturday with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a carbon emissions-slashing deal.  But climate campaigners are saying that the agreement doesn't go far enough, and that the real work is just beginning. While Reuters described the deal's adoption as "setting the course for a 'historic' transformation of the world's fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming"...

Today's Teamster News 09.29.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Retirees, Workers Deserve to Receive Their Pensions  Huffington Post  ...The golden years of everyday Americans who worked hard for decades to put away money for retirement are increasingly being jeopardized by the nation's pension system. Earlier this month, several hundred Teamster members and retirees came to Washington to voice outrage over proposed rules governing pension cuts and support for legislation offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) that would bolster multi-employer plans...
Teamsters Local 357, Republic Airways Reach Tentative Agreement on New Contract  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local 357 and Republic Airways Holdings Inc. announced today that they have reached a consensual tentative agreement on the terms of a new three-year contract for the 2,100 Republic pilots represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “This milestone is long overdue,” said Captain Jim Clark, Teamsters Local 357 president...
Teamsters-Sun Tran contract includes some 50% pay raises  Arizona Daily Star  ...A labor contract released Monday details pay raises of up to 50 percent for some Sun Tran workers. Teamsters Local 104 and Sun Tran management firm Professional Transit Management signed the two-year contract on Sept. 16, ending a 42-day bus strike in Tucson. Details of the contract were first made public Monday...
FedEx stockholders approve union-backed proposal  Commercial Appeal  ...FedEx stockholders on Monday approved a Teamsters-backed resolution that proposes an easier path for share owners to promote candidates for the board of directors. It was the only shareholder proposal adopted during the Memphis-based company's annual meeting, and the first such proposal to pass since 2010...
Browning-Ferris Joint-Employer Row Back At NLRB  Law360  ...The Teamsters on Friday filed an unfair labor charge against the successor company to Browning-Ferris Industries, bringing the parties at the center of the board’s decision changing the joint-employer standard head-to-head for another round after the company refused to bargain with the union. Workers at a recycling plant owned by Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc., now owned by Republic Services Inc., had voted to be represented by Teamsters Local 350...

Global Labor & Trade
Chief TPP negotiators race to wrap up broad trade deal  Japan Times  ...Chief negotiators from the United States, Japan and 10 other countries restarted talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative Saturday, seeking to conclude years of negotiations before tight political schedules in some countries crimp the chances of making a quick deal. Ahead of a TPP ministerial meeting beginning Wednesday, the top working-level officials will try to reduce differences over thorny issues...
The unexpected upshot of John Boehner’s ouster: The Trans-Pacific Partnership is in danger  Salon  ...Even if negotiators work out a tentative agreement this week, the biggest announcement on TPP may have already happened. That would be last Friday’s resignation of House Speaker John Boehner. We don’t even know if the meetings in Atlanta can produce a deal, given all the deadlocks and unresolved provisions between the nations involved. But even if there’s a big announcement this week, the administration won’t have John Boehner in their corner...
TTIP negotiations not even half done  Politico  ...Negotiations on a massive EU-U.S. trade agreement are not even halfway complete, according to a new European Commission internal assessment, and the lack of progress is raising questions about Brussels’ hopes for concluding the agreement before the end of the Obama administration...
Conservatives line up support from auto-parts makers for TPP deal  Globe and Mail  ...The governing Conservatives have lined up enough support for a massive Pacific Rim trade agreement from big auto-parts makers to expose a split in the industry ahead of talks this week that may yield a 12-country deal. Talks between trade ministers resume shortly in Atlanta and one of the most contentious subjects is provisions agreed to by Japan and the United States that some warn could sideswipe some of the 80,000 auto-parts manufacturing jobs in Canada...
Good chance for conclusion of TPP: Mustapa  News Straits Times  ...There is a 50:50 chance for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations to be concluded in the US this Thursday, says International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. "It is 50:50 with a slight edge for conclusion," he told the Business Times before leaving for Atlanta this afternoon. The two-day ministerial round of talks opens tomorrow...
Japan considers making new offer on U.S. rice in Atlanta TPP talks  Japan Times  ... Japan is considering sweetening the pot for U.S. rice farmers in a bid to reach agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a source close to the matter said Monday. As talks resumed on Saturday between the United States, Japan and 10 other countries negotiating the bloc in Atlanta, Washington and Tokyo remained at odds...
Fiscal Austerity May Jeopardize Brazil's Poverty Alleviation Program  Truthout  ...Latin America's largest economy, Brazil, has succeeded in lifting 36 million people out of extreme poverty over the past 12 years. But it has still a long way to go towards promoting inclusive and sustainable growth. Financial crisis and fiscal austerity goals resulting in a cut to the 2015 budget of almost USD23 billion may imperil social achievements, according to experts...
UN Finally Puts Child Slavery on Development Agenda  Solidarity Center   ...Last week the United Nations passed its next set of commitments for development, the “Sustainable Development Goals,” for the coming 15 years and added important labor issues that its member states are obligated to prioritize. “This is significant,” said child labor crusader and Nobel Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi at the UN Summit, “because for the first time these goals include the issues of child slavery, labor and trafficking, and has brought forth the language to address them”...

State & Living Wage Battles
Immigration bill clears NC Senate  Charlotte Observer  ...The state Senate voted 28-17 to restrict forms of identification for non-citizens and ban counties and municipalities from having “sanctuary city” policies that limit enforcement of immigration laws. The bill was approved largely along party lines, with Sen. Josh Stein of Raleigh as the only Democrat voting yes...
Contractors Ask Legislature to Preserve Prevailing Wage  WDET  ...A group of construction contractors and trade unions is pushing back against an effort at the state Capitol to repeal prevailing wage requirements on many publicly funded projects. State and local prevailing wage rules require contractors to pay union-level wages on schools and other public building projects. A petition drive led by non-union builders has gathered signatures to put the question before the Legislature....
US politicians agree to delay minimum wage increase  Radio New Zealand  ...The United States House of Representatives has voted to delay until 2017 a 50 cent increase in the American Samoa minimum wage due to come into effect at the end of this month. The bill sponsored by American Samoa's congresswoman Aumua Amata now goes to the US Senate for consideration. If passed by the full Congress, the measure would still need to get to President Obama for approval...
Changes could be coming for Minneapolis workers  Kare11  ...The city of Minneapolis is looking to change how employers schedule and pay their workers. The "Working Families Agenda" has three key issues: fair scheduling, earned sick time and wage theft. "I'm here to continue to listen and that's what we're doing," said Elizabeth Glidden, city council vice president...
Support for fuel terminals is support for state’s workers (opinion) News Tribune ...The governor, the executives of King and Pierce County, the Seattle City Council, some members of the Tacoma City Council and others should seriously rethink their opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal in Bellingham and the Millennium Bulk Terminal and Vancouver Energy export terminals in Vancouver. While these export terminals provide construction and operational jobs, they are also important private investments in Washington’s trade infrastructure...

U.S. Labor
UAW gets yes vote at Warren Truck  Detroit Free Press  ...A majority of production workers at Warren Truck Assembly narrowly voted in favor of a proposed national agreement on Monday with Fiat Chrysler, giving the UAW its first glimmer of hope in recent days that it can convince a majority of workers to ratify the proposed contract. The UAW is scrambling to win support from about 40,000 Fiat Chrysler workers that it represents at 37 different UAW local units...
Al Jazeera America Will Not Recognize Union: NLRB Elections Underway  International Business Times  ...After several weeks, the management at Al Jazeera America (AJAM) has decided not to recognize the union drive announced by staffers on Sept. 3, putting into motion an election in which votes will be cast by employees and administered by the National Labor Relations Board, International Business Times has learned from a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Elections are happening Tuesday...
UFCW Local 5 still negotiating with Safeway  Supermarket News  ...United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 5, which represents 14,000 Safeway employees in parts of Northern California, is continuing to negotiate with the company nearly a year after the previous contract expired.
UFCW Local 8-Golden State announced a tentative agreement last week with 9,000 Safeway employees in Northern and Central California...
Marco Rubio's paid family leave plan would do little to expand paid family leave  Daily Kos  ...Four in five Americans thinks companies should be required to "offer paid leave to parents of new children and employees caring for sick family members." So trust a Republican to come up with a paid family leave policy that doesn't require anything and benefits business, not workers. Marco Rubio is the one Republican presidential candidate with any plan on this issue...
After Decades of Discrimination, Farm Workers Get Pesticide Protections  Common Dreams  ...Farm workers will now have sweeping new protections from pesticides under new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules announced Monday—safeguards which labor leaders say eluded farm workers for decades due to racial discrimination. The new rules [were] announced by EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, and United Farm Workers (UFW) president Arturo Rodriguez...
In America, the Poorer You Are, the Poorer Your Children Will Be  The Nation  ...When people talk about “balancing work and family,” they’re usually talking more about the workplace than what’s going on at home. Now we’re starting to get data on what the workaday life looks like from a kid’s eye view, and it doesn’t look good...

Social Justice & Other News
What John Boehner’s Surprise Resignation Means For Immigration Reform  Think Progress  ...House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is the favorite to succeed John Boehner (R-OH) after his surprise resignation as the House Speaker last week. The appointment of McCarthy, who represents a heavily Latino district, to preside over a more radically conservative Republican caucus could have implications for immigration reform...
Humane Criminal Justice Is Not Hopeless  Slate  ...Pope Francis concluded his historic first visit to the United States on Sunday, spending most of his final few hours with women and men imprisoned at Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and putting an exclamation mark on a central theme of his visit: the need to infuse more dignity and hope into America’s criminal justice system...
US supreme court: conservatives set to retake reins after year of liberal wins  The Guardian  ...The supreme court returns on Monday for a new series of cases, and all indications point to equally dramatic plot twists involving race, class and murder. While 2014-15 will be remembered for surprise wins by the liberal wing of the court, particularly two blockbuster decisions endorsing gay marriage and Obamacare, legal experts expect this year will see a clutch of decisions that reassert the power of the conservative majority...
Trump’s Tax Plan Is A Big Giveaway To The Wealthiest  Think Progress  ...On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will unveil a detailed tax reform plan — and he is already positioning it as a populist proposal. In a press alert about the plan, the campaign states, “Essentially, the plan is a major tax reduction for almost all citizens and corporations, in particular, those in the middle and lower income classes.” But the plan has a number of provisions that will overwhelmingly help the already well off...

Today's Teamster News 09.08.15

Teamsters
Hoffa Pledges Solidarity With UAW In Big Three Negotiations  Teamster.org  ...In remarks at the Detroit Labor Day Parade today, International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa pledged solidarity with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in their contract negotiations with the Big Three: Ford, Chrysler and GM. “I know you haven’t picked a target yet, but it’s one of those three,” Hoffa said. “If the UAW goes on strike, I make a pledge on behalf of the 1.4 million Teamster members – we will honor your picket lines"...
Workers at Center of NLRB's 'Joint Employer' Ruling Vote to Join Teamsters Union  Teamster.org  ...The California waste workers at the center of a recent major National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ‘joint employer’ ruling have voted overwhelmingly in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 350 in Daly City, Calif. Workers with Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI), which is now owned by Republic Services, cast their ballots in a union representation election in April 2014...
Teamsters win election in labor case at center of recent NLRB ruling  LA Times  ...Workers at the Silicon Valley recycling plant that was central to a recent landmark National Labor Relations Board ruling have voted in support of being represented by the Teamsters union. The vote involved Browning-Ferris Industries, a Houston waste management company that used a subcontractor, Leadpoint Business Services, to staff its recycling center in Milpitas, Calif...
Glimmer of hope in ending the Tucson bus strike  Tucson News Now  ...The Teamsters Local 104 union and Sun Tran will meet for an all-day session on Tuesday to see if the two sides can come to an agreement to end the 33-day-old walkout. Regardless of the outcome on Tuesday, the two sides have also scheduled another all-day meeting for Thursday...
Silicon Valley’s Labor Uprising  In These Times  ...The Teamsters have seen four union victories in 2015: the warehouse workers at Google Express, waste disposal workers at Genentech, and workers at two transportation companies that collectively serve Apple, Genentech, Yahoo, eBay, Zynga, Evernote and Amtrak. These are the drivers of the infamous symbols of Silicon Valley’s burgeoning class war: the elite private buses from San Francisco and environs to Silicon Valley...
Richard Greenwald: Power in a union  (opinion) Daily News  ...As workers in old-line industries wake up, workers in emerging ones are coming to realize that unions are not anathema to their experience. Here, the hero of the day is Rome Aloise, international vice president and secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 853 on the West Coast. The Teamsters have been building on their history of aggressive organizing efforts...
This Labor Day, Let’s Look to the Future  Teamster.org  ..."The first Monday in September is set aside to remember the workers who made this country great. For more than 100 years, the hard work and dedication of Teamster members have been a symbol of pride, strength and unity throughout America. Typically, we look back to honor the countless union members, labor leaders and other historically significant figures who paved the way. This Labor Day, however, I want us to look to the future"...

Global Labor &Trade
Japan, U.S. to resume TPP auto talks Wednesday in Washington  Japan Times  ...Japan and the United States will resume bilateral talks Wednesday in Washington on auto trade issues under the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative, the Foreign Ministry said. The negotiations, to continue through Friday, will follow a ministerial meeting of all 12 TPP countries in late July in Hawaii, where they failed to secure a much-anticipated broad agreement...
US, Japan keen to strike a quick agreement on TPP  Today  ...In what may be an injection of political capital into the stalled talks on the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso and United States Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have agreed this week that the two countries should work on concluding the agreement at an early date. Mr Aso told reporters that he discussed with Mr Lew the need to quickly strike a deal on the US-led TPP pact...
China free trade agreement should be renegotiated or blocked, say unions  The Guardian  ...Unions are urging parliament to block the China-Australia free trade agreement (Chafta) if Canberra does not reopen negotiations with Beijing, taking a stronger line than the federal opposition which has suggested safeguards for Australian jobs could be enshrined in domestic law without jeopardising the deal. Representatives of the ACTU – the peak union body – told the treaties committee on Monday that the problems “lie with the text of the agreement itself”...
HHI workers strike, more strikes to follow  IHS Maritime  ....Workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) went on strike on 4 September and are planning more industrial action this month. From 0800-1200hrs local time on 4 September, HHI workers refused to work, causing the world's biggest shipbuilder to suspend production at its Ulsan yard. That followed a previous strike on 26 August. A joint strike with workers from South Korea's two other major shipbuilders, Samsung HI and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, is also planned for 9 September...
Thousands Reach Austria as Refugee Crisis Issues 'Wake-up Call'  Common Dreams  ...Thousands of refugees were welcomed into Austria on Saturday after epic journeys from Hungary that many were forced to begin to take on foot. As USA Today reports, Hungary, which had spent days stopping migrants from leaving by train, provided buses to take them into Austria. The government relented under international pressure and after desperate refugees who had camped out at the Budapest train station simply began walking toward the border...

State & Living Wage Battles
Right-to-work veto clash looms in Missouri  Kansas City Star  ...After nearly a year of debate, procedural hijinks and political maneuvering, the question of whether to make Missouri the country’s 26th right-to-work state will come to a head this month. Neither side seems particularly confident in the outcome. A bill passed by the General Assembly this spring would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to be required to become a union member or to pay dues to a labor organization as a condition of employment...
Right-to-work debate dominates St. Louis Labor Day Parade  St. Louis Today  ...It was a common message in the banners on the floats, which read “Right to Work is Wrong For Missouri” and “Right to Work Leads Missouri Right to the Bottom.” And it was a common refrain from parade-watchers, many of them decked out in brightly colored T-shirts touting their opposition to the “right to work” legislation the Legislature passed this year...
Workers march through Trenton to call for minimum wage hike  NJ.com  ...As the nation recognized Labor Day, workers from across New Jersey marched on Monday through Trenton to show support for raising the minimum wage and other labor issues. With elected officials by their sides, workers from New Jersey's Service Employees International Union marched from Trenton City Hall to the Statehouse, according to an NJTV News report...
Voter ID law still faces pushback after legislative changes  Daily Tar heel ...North Carolina will join more than 30 states requiring some form of ID at the polls when the law goes into effect in 2016. Seven of those states mandate photo ID, while the rest grant exceptions for acceptable excuses or nonphoto ID. North Carolina lawmakers have defined reasonable impediments as including issues with transportation to the polls, a lack of documentation and family responsibilities...
Unions’ ranks grow in right-to-work Arizona  AZ Central  ...Arizona labor unions have something to celebrate this Labor Day, with union membership in the state rising last year for the first time since the start of the recession. Unionized workers rose from 5 percent of the state’s labor force in 2013 to 5.3 percent in 2014, an increase of 16,000 workers over the year to a total of 138,000 union members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Walmart Says Its Reforming Its Brutal Scheduling System, but Workers Tell a Different Story  The Nation  ...Walmart is the American economy’s Invisible Hand, and it giveth and taketh away. So just months after announcing grand plans to give workers raises and better schedules, the mega-retailer appears to be rolling back its generosity, hour by hour. Bloomberg News reports that at various stores workers have seen systematic cutbacks to their schedules...

U.S. Labor
Unions look to bolster numbers, power at Detroit's annual Labor Day parade  Michigan Radio  ...Thousands of union members marched into downtown Detroit Monday as part of the city’s annual Labor Day parade. The UAW is in the midst of bargaining new contracts with Detroit automakers. The current “two-tier” wage system dividing older and newer assembly line workers members is expected to be a central issue, as are health care and profit-sharing...
UAW in no rush to pick contract target from Detroit 3  Detroit Free Press  ...UAW President Dennis Williams said Monday the union is making progress with all three Detroit automakers and is not ready yet to pick a target in its contract negotiations, even though there are only seven days left before contracts expire for about 141,000 autoworkers. Williams, who spoke at the Ford National Program Center near Hart Plaza in Detroit, said he is in no rush to name a lead company...
What The Uber Economy Means For The Future Of Work  Think Progress  ...Rideshare service Uber is facing the possible rupture of its entire business model in a key case that could have even further reaching implications for the U.S. economy. Uber is facing accusations that it illegally misclassifies its drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, therefore ducking responsibility for a variety of schedule and wage protections afforded to employees...
10 times GOP candidates gave labor a giant middle finger  Salon  ...With a crowded field of 17 candidates, the GOP’s 2016 presidential slate features at least two leading Republican candidates who have risen to right-wing notoriety by pushing laws stripping collective bargaining rights from most public employees and another favorite who insists that Americans should just “work longer hours.” And that’s just a start...
Just in Time for Labor Day, NLRB Rules in Favor of Hooters Workers  In These Times ...Just in time for Labor Day, the leading workers’ rights agency within the U.S. government has a tip for the waitresses serving up beer and chicken wings at Hooters. The tip from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is not an extravagant one, nor is it exclusive to the wait staff at Hooters restaurants. Instead, it is a re-affirmation of the labor board’s basic policy that employers cannot use mandatory arbitration agreements to limit the labor rights of employees...
Obama Marks Labor Day With New Order Expanding Paid Sick Leave  Common Dreams  ...President Barack Obama on Monday will issue an executive order expanding paid sick leave for federal contract employees and call on Congress to pass similar legislation, marking Labor Day with a speech at a morning rally in Boston, Massachusetts, where voters recently approved a more worker-friendly policy. The order will require federal contractors to offer one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked...
The media vs. the American worker: How the 1 percent hijacked the business of news  Salon  ...Working people, meanwhile, find themselves lavished with much less attention. And forget about unions, which, even in their diminished state, still represent millions and millions of people. The number of outlets with reporters dedicated to covering labor issues has steadily shrunk in recent years, even as the technological revolution makes an examination of modern-day labor practices more important than ever...
Can Millennials Save Unions?  The Atlantic  ...With irreverent, Internet-fluent headlines, Gawker is seen as a prototypical Millennial media company. For that reason, many saw Gawker’s move as a sign of more to come. “If the unionization effort succeeds, it will be a big PR boost for the ailing labor movement,” wrote Steven Greenhouse, the former labor reporter for The New York Times, on the eve of the vote. “It will show that unions, which have focused in recent years on organizing low-wage workers, can also attract hip, highly educated workers, many of them Ivy League graduates”...

Social Justice & Other News
Immigration reformers seize on Pope Francis’s visit  The Hill  ...Immigration reformers on and off of Capitol Hill are hoping Pope Francis's visit to Washington this month will serve as a catalyst for ending immigrant detentions. The Obama administration has stirred a whirlwind of criticism for expanding its detention of illegal immigrant families in response to last summer's migrant surge — a policy many Democrats and human rights advocates have condemned as harmful to the health of the women and children being held...
Is Southern California the New Deep South?  Slate  ...While the Deep South has moved away from capital punishment, Riverside County, California, has become the buckle of a new Death Belt. An hour’s drive from Los Angeles, with a population of 2.3 million (6 percent of California’s population), Riverside has produced more death sentences since 2010 than any other county in America except one—Los Angeles County, which is four times its size...
Baltimore to pay Freddie Gray's family $6.4m in wrongful death settlement  The Guardian  ...The city of Baltimore says it has reached a $6.4m wrongful death settlement with the family of Freddie Gray, a black man who died after suffering a critical spine injury while in police custody. Gray’s death in April sparked protests, rioting and unrest that shook Baltimore for days. Six Baltimore police officers face criminal charges...

NLRB win for Teamsters is a victory for millions

The Teamsters were at the forefront of a significant victory for workers last week. And the decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could provide a voice for millions of additional Americans.

As part of the NLRB's "joint employer" ruling, employers that rely on temporary or contracted workers can now be held accountable for the actions of the firms they use to oversee workers.The ruling will have a significant impact on how franchisers like McDonald's and other mostly low-income employers do business.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said:

This decision will make a tremendous difference for workers' rights on the job. Employers will no longer be able to shift responsibility for their workers and hide behind loopholes to prevent workers from organizing or engaging in collective bargaining. This is a victory for workers across America.

The NLRB ruling resulted from a 2013 case brought by Local 350 in Daly City, Calif. against Browning-Ferris, a waste management company that is owned by Republic Services -- the second-largest waste services company in the U.S. The union maintained that Republic had control over wage and working conditions for its workers employed through Leadpoint Services, a staffing agency, and counted as a joint employer with that agency.

The Teamsters have repeatedly fought against employers shifting responsibility of their workforce, whether through misclassification at companies like FedEx, at our nation's ports or through the use of staffing agencies in the food processing industry at companies like Taylor Farms.

It's time for corporations to realize that mistreatment in the workplace is not acceptable. The NLRB's decision will give more workers the ability to stand up for their rights and to be able to rely on unions to advocate for their jobs. That's real justice for everyday Americans.

Today's Teamster News 09.30.14

Teamster News
Gov. Brown Signs Protections For Temp Workers Into Law  teamster.org   ...Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1897 into law Sunday. The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015, will hold companies accountable for serious violations of the rights of workers on their premises that are committed by their own labor suppliers...
Teach-in this weekend about Bill Gates' burning, radioactive landfill in Missouri  TeamsterNation   ...There's only one place in the country where a landfill fire smolders hundreds of away a nuclear dump site, and there are hundreds of Teamsters families living near it...
Parents, Health Officials Search For Answers About Sick Kids  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Kirbi Pemberton pulled her 7-year-old daughter out of Rose Acres Elementary School in Maryland Heights this year over her concerns about potential health risks from the nearby radioactive West Lake Landfill...
Woot! Local 117 Teamsters ratify Fred Meyer contract!  TeamsterNation   ...Great news from Washington State, where our brothers and sisters from Teamsters Local 117 voted on Saturday to ratify a contract with Fred Meyer, a subsidiary of Kroger, Inc. They stood together and bargained a contract that maintains affordable health care and protects members against subcontracting...
Teamsters win arbitration award giving Corrections’ employees 9.8% raises over two years  The News Tribune   ...The ruling in favor of the Teamsters provides pay raises of 5.5 percent in July 2015 and another 4.3 percent in 2016 — with additional raises of 2.5 percent for select positions. About 6,000 employees at the Department of Corrections are covered by the Teamsters contract...
Trade
History’s largest trade agreements are being negotiated in secret  Aljazeera America   ...For the past four years, Froman and Selig have headed the U.S. team of unelected representatives secretly negotiating history’s two biggest trade agreements. If both treaties — drafted on behalf of 1.6 billion people — are approved, they will regulate almost three-quarters of all trade and investment in the world. The deals would void national legislation on environmental policy, labor rights, financial regulation and intellectual property...
Voters Will Oppose Politicians Who Support “NAFTA-Style” Trade Deals  Trade Reform   ...the polling overwhelmingly shows that the public “gets it” that these “trade” agreements have been used to send jobs out of the country and force wages down...
China's Tech Factories Turn To Student Labor  Wall Street Journal   ...Schools send thousands of teenagers here to put together electronic devices for some of the world's largest brands. Many students say they are given no choice. "I was suddenly told I had to spend the summer making computers or I couldn't graduate," said a 16-year-old girl surnamed Xiao...
State Battles
Early voting in Ohio blocked (UPDATED)  SCOTUS Blog   ...With just sixteen hours before polling stations were to open in Ohio, the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon blocked voters from beginning tomorrow to cast their ballots in this year’s general election...
Large Oil Company Bolts From ALEC  National Journal   ...Occidental Petroleum sent a letter Friday to an investment-management company indicating its intention to sever ties with ALEC, a conservative coalition of state legislators and major corporations that actively opposes environmental regulations...
Expedia under fire over membership to rightwing lobby group Alec  Guardian   ...Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company, has declined to follow the lead of other big internet firms, instead choosing to remain a member of a controversial rightwing lobby group that works against climate change legislation...
Silicon Valley's Done With American Legislative Exchange Council  U.S. News   ...ALEC takes a conservative, national political approach down to the state level through model bills that do the bidding of big, corporate interests which provide the funding. ALEC bills are generally promoted word for word at the state level by GOP legislators on issues ranging from information technology to renewable energy...
45 Million Americans Still Stuck Below Poverty Line: Census  Huffington Post   ...Median household income barely budged last year, edging up to $51,939 from $51,759 in 2012, the Census Bureau noted separately. Median income is still far from the $56,436 in 2007 and the all-time high of $56,895 in 1999...
Taxis In Washington DC Losing Their Identity With Modern Makeover As Drivers Compete With Car-Sharing App Uber  ABC News   ...The car-sharing service launched in San Francisco in 2010 has since gone global, invariably causing a chorus of complaint and sparking legal challenges from local cab industries...
Arguments Set This Week In Arkansas Voter ID Case  Times Record   ...Arkansas’ highest court is set to take up a case this week that could decide whether the state’s voters will be required to show photo identification at the polls in the November election...
War On Workers
FAA Approves Drone Use For Hollywood Productions, Sets Guidelines – Update  Deadline Hollywood   ...The FAA has approved the limited use of drones as camera platforms for film and TV productions, opening the skies to swarms of small, camera-mounted planes and mini-helicopters over film locations across the country. Unmanned aerial cameras are legal elsewhere in the world, but have been prohibited for commercial use in the U.S. until now...
Finally, the Truth About the A.I.G. Bailout (opinion)  New York Times   ...the government has never provided a plausible explanation for why the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which had enormous leverage over banks like Goldman thanks to its role as their regulator, didn’t lean on them to accept less than 100 cents on the dollar in their payouts from A.I.G...
Almost Three-Quarters Of Big Companies To Increase Outsourcing  Computer Weekly   ...Almost three quarters of global businesses will increase their investment in outsourced services, according to research by KPMG. The research also indicates that more firms are taking advantage of global delivery models including functions such as finance, procurement and HR delivered centrally, often offshore...
Philadelphia zoo worker killed after being pinned under golf cart, report says  South Jersey Times   ...The 57-year-old employee became trapped under the cart around 11 a.m. at the zoo, located on West Girdard Avenue. He was then taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he died, according to the report...
Trump Seeks Pact To End Union Pension To Save Atlantic City Casino  Reuters   ...Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc is seeking to impose a new contract on its unionized workers and end pension contributions as part of a plan backed by billionaire Carl Icahn to save the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey...
Miscellaneous
NTSB: Truck showed no signs of trying to avoid North Texas softball team's bus  Dallas Morning News   ...National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Sunday that the truck drove through the median for 820 feet on a shallow angle before colliding with the bus. It did not brake or appear to take any action to avoid the crash. They found no apparent problems with the truck’s brakes...
Walmart Faults Tracy Morgan for Not Wearing Seatbelt During Car Accident (Exclusive)  Hollywood Reporter   ...Among nine affirmative defenses, Walmart says that injuries "were caused, in whole or in part, by plaintiffs' failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device."...
Will More Coal, Oil Trains Rumble Through Northwest?  Public News Service   ...About two dozen projects have been proposed in the past two years to move the Northwest toward becoming a transportation hub for coal, oil and gas to Asia...

Teach-in this weekend about Bill Gates' burning, radioactive landfill in Missouri

There's only one place in the country where a landfill fire smolders next to a nuclear dump site, and more than a thousand Teamster families live near it.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the dominant shareholder in Republic Services Inc., the company that owns the West Lake Landfill burning in Bridgeton, Mo.

The Teamsters Union along with other groups will hold a public teach-in on Saturday about the threats of the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton. They will demand institutional support for health and safety protections from Republic Services, Bill and Melinda Gates, elected officials and the Environmental Protection Agency..

The teach-in will spread awareness of the environmental catastrophe at the West Lake Landfill. Discussions will be held on how to best keep area residents safe from the underground fire and uncontained buried nuclear wastes.

Lois Gibbs will be there as well. She is a mom who helped organize her community to fight for the health and wellness of their children after government officials allowed a school to be built on top of a toxic waste site in Love Canal, N.Y. Ms. Gibbs will be in St. Louis to discuss her journey from seeking the American dream to becoming the founder and executive director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice.

Sponsors of Saturday’s event include the Teamsters, Just Moms STL, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Franciscan Sisters of Mary and other supporting organizations.

Read more about the teach-in here. It's in Maryland Heights, Mo., on Oct. 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If you're interested in attending, click here. If you can't make the teach-in, you can sign a petition asking Bill Gates to put out the fire and evacuate families living near the dangerous landfill. Just click here.

Tell Bill Gates to tell Republic Services to put out the landfill fire near the nuclear dump

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the dominant shareholder of Republic Services, which owns a burning landfill near a nuclear dump.

Gates has the power to convince Republic Services to evacuate families living next to a burning landfill.

The landfill is in the St. Louis suburb of Bridgeton, Mo. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently reported,

Buying Allied Waste in 2008 brought Republic Services to the St. Louis area. The acquisition also made it the owner of an infamous landfill...an already-closed dump where a smoldering mass of underground waste was detected in December 2010... 

What the company calls a “smoldering event” triggered by a chemical reaction has produced noxious odors that blanketed nearby communities and raised the ire of residents for more than two years. That anger has gotten the attention of state and federal regulators, politicians, lawyers and national environmental figures. 

Grass-roots citizens groups have formed as the landfill burned, and it has become a cause célèbre for environmental groups worried the smoldering could reach nuclear waste illegally dumped 40 years ago in the adjacent West Lake Landfill. Some residents have filed lawsuits, others want buyouts, and federal regulators have reconsidered a plan to cap the radioactive waste. 

Even the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 9,000 of Republic’s workers and has had a contentious relationship with the company over the years, joined the chorus calling for buyouts and removal of the waste.

Please ask Bill Gates to make Republic Services put out the fire and evacuate the families nearby by signing the petition here.

State health investigators found a high rate of brain and nervous system cancers among children 17 and younger in the area near the landfill, in a report just released. There were seven such cancers in that age group compared to an expected 2.5 cases..

Parents of children at Rose Acres Elementary school believe the number of cancers among students and staff members has recently increased, and have asked the health department for a separate study at the school.

Near the burning landfill and nuclear dump is a family with four little girls. The youngest is in first grade today and the oldest is no longer with us. After a series of test her parents were told that their little girl had a rare type of brain cancer—a tumor.  They did everything medically possible to save their child but in the end, four years after she was diagnosed, she died.

Her mother never stopped looking for the cause of the cancer. As she investigated what was in the air outside her window,  she believed she found the cause of her daughter's death. Not only was the air smelly, but it contained cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and likely radioactive dust.

Today, she’s very frightened for the health of her other three girls.

Bill Gates can help protect this family and others living in the community. Please ask Bill Gates to make Republic Services clean up the dump site and evacuate the families nearby by signing the petition here.

Today's Teamster News 09.10.14

Teamster News
Teamster Endorsements Announced For Santa Monica City Council Race  Santa Monica Mirror   ...The City of Santa Monica Trades & Maintenance Teamsters Local 911 have announced its endorsements of Kevin McKeown, Michael Feinstein, and Pam O’Connor for the Nov. 4 Santa Monica City Council election...
Animal Rights Activists Protested A Fashion Show Starring A ‘Breaking Amish’ Star  Vice   ...Throughout the day, Stoltz spends hours at a ballroom applying makeup and trying on clothes and her wig, but when I arrive at Central Park, I only see dozens of activists screaming at middle-age men driving horse carriages. “VICTOR D’SOUZA! ANIMAL ABUSER!” they scream as street performers dance to Papa Roach-like music...
Outdoor Flea Market Coming to Teamsters Parking Lot in Court Square  DNA Info   ..."I went ahead and spoke with the Teamsters and they were really excited about it — they want to support local vendors and the arts," she said...
Teamsters Claim Racial Wage Discriminiation by Republic; Firm Denies  waste360   ...The Teamsters union has filed a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that in Atlanta Republic Services Inc. offers overtime to white employees but not black employees. ..
Workers Apprehensive About Sysco Acquisition of US Foods  Workers Independent Radio   ...A merger between the country’s two largest food distribution companies has raised concerns that thousands of good-paying, good-benefit union jobs are at risk. Food giant Sysco has provided no assurances about what will happen after they finish their acquisition of US Foods however they claim the merger will result in 600 million dollars in savings from what they call “synergies”...
Trade
Farmers Union Opposing Trans Pacific Partnership  WNAX   ...250 Farmers Union members from across the country are in the nation’s Capital this week telling Congress to vote against the Trans Pacific Partnership...
Farm minister seeks U.S. concessions in TPP talks  Japan News   ...Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Koya Nishikawa on Tuesday requested the United States to make concessions at bilateral talks on an envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement...
State Battles
Sam Brownback Has Bankrupted State So Much He Trails Democrat Paul Davis by 10 Points in Deep Red Kansas  Grunge   ...“Governor Sam Brownback and the Republican legislature were so confident that slashing safety nets, cutting education, and spending a budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich would produce an economic bonanza, they gave the wealthy well over a billion dollars in unfunded tax cuts that has the state’s economy starved of revenue. … Kansas is lagging behind the rest of the nation in creating jobs besides facing a revenue shortfall of massive proportions.”...
Plexus has net job loss in Wisconsin according to WEDC memo  WKOW   ...An internal memo from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) shows Plexus Corp. has cut more than 300 jobs in the state since agreeing to add more jobs as part of an enterprise zone tax credit contract...
Federal Court To Hear WI Voter ID Lawsuit This Week  WKOW   ...Multiple lawsuits have been filed since the state Legislature passed the measure in 2012. The state Supreme Court ruled it constitutional earlier this summer. The three-judge panel will be asked this week to reinstate Wisconsin's voter ID law in time for the November elections...
Lawsuit Over Scott Walker Recall Election Probe To Be Argued In Appeals Court  Huffington Post   ...Prosecutors investigating Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's recall election campaign hope to convince a federal appeals court to eventually allow them to resume a probe of possible illegal fundraising and coordination with conservative groups...
DeVos family donates $1M to Michigan Republicans; Dems trail in fund-raising  Detroit Free Press   ...Members of western Michigan’s DeVos family donated nearly $1 million to the Michigan Republican Party in the latest reporting period, bringing the total amount the family has donated to the party for this election cycle to about $1.4 million, newly filed campaign finance reports show... 
Founder of 2 short-lived Columbus charter schools indicted on theft counts  Columbus Dispatch   ...Andre Rasheen Tucker, who founded the two Talented Tenth Leadership Academies, was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on Friday on two counts of theft. Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said Tucker stole checks made out to the school totaling about $7,500...
Georgia GOPer Complains About Early Voting, Excessive Black Voting  Talking Points Memo   ...A Republican state senator in Georgia has vowed to end Sunday balloting in DeKalb County due to the fact that the area is "dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches."...
Chris Christie’s downgrades start to pile up  MSNBC   ...Wall Street analysts at Fitch Ratings today downgraded New Jersey’s bond rating for the second time this year, citing the state’s poor economic performance, Gov. Chris Christie’s rosy revenue forecasts – which failed to materialize – and his decision to plug the resulting budget gap by cutting $2.4 billion in funding for the state’s strained pension system...
Common Cause and More Than 50 Other Groups Call on Google to Quit the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)  Common Cause   ...Common Cause and 54 other organizations joined Wednesday in asking Google to drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive corporate lobbying group...
NJ Leaders Seek A New Course For Atlantic City  CBS News   ...Unable to wait for any ultimate solution, officials in Atlantic City are scrambling to help displaced casino workers get government assistance and maybe even new jobs...
Microsoft Deletes ALEC Membership  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...ALEC and its allies demonize school teachers as the major cause of poor student performance while remaining silently complicit on the most serious causes—a lack of early childhood development, unsafe homes and high mobility in school districts due to poverty, drugs and alcohol. It is a perverse joke that ALEC has a long history of bitterly opposing initiatives that address these very social ills...
Council Members Aim To Boost Local Min Wage  Louisville Courier Journal   ...A long-discussed measure to raise the local minimum wage to $10.10 over three years is scheduled for a first reading by the Louisville Metro Council this week...
States move to ensure pregnant workers get fair chance to stay on job  Washington Post   ...Delaware is the latest in a growing number of states and localities to pass what lawmakers call “common sense” legislation to keep pregnant women working with certain accommodations, if warranted, as long as they don’t pose undue hardship on businesses. In the past 18 months, measures to ensure such accommodations have passed unanimously in New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I., and in West Virginia. Bipartisan efforts have resulted in laws in Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey – where only one lawmaker voted against the bill…
War On Workers
Big-Money Radical Right Groups Help Huge Grower to Avoid Paying Millions Already Owed Its Farm Workers  Huffington Post   ...Well-financed anti-labor groups related to America's radical right are coming to the aid of giant Fresno, Calif.-based Gerawan Farming to avoid implementing a union contract under which it already owes millions of dollars to thousands of its grape and tree fruit workers...
Big Tobacco’s Child Workers: Young Laborers Endure Health Risks, Harsh Conditions On U.S. Farms  Democracy Now   ...Even as tobacco companies are legally barred from selling cigarettes to children, they are reportedly profiting from child labor. Investigations by The New York Times and Human Rights Watch reveal hundreds, if not thousands, of children are working on tobacco farms in the United States...
Low Wage Growth, High Long-Term Unemployment Recognized as International Problem  naked capitalism   ...Workers not sharing in productivity gains has become normal...
Road commission worker killed by motor grader  Better Roads   ...A Kent County, Michigan, road commission worker has been killed after being hit by a motor grader...
Worker killed in industrial accident at Bridgeton refrigeration equipment factory  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Federal safety inspectors and union leaders are investigating the death of an employee Saturday at the Hussman factory here...
American Apparel to Pay $1M After Worker 'Mangled and Killed'  NBC News   ...Clothing manufacturer and retailer American Apparel has agreed to pay out more than $1 million after a factory worker was killed by an industrial knitting machine at a company facility in southern California...
Miscellaneous
Raiders To Pay $1.25 Million To Cheerleaders Over Wage Theft Lawsuit  Huffington Post   ...The Oakland Raiders have agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 90 members of the team's cheerleading squad who alleged they were underpaid or faced lengthy delays in receiving their wages in violation of California labor law...

Today's Teamster News 09.09.14

Teamster News
Vote On County Pay Raises In The Offing  St. Petersburg Tribune   ...The Teamsters has asked for a $15 per hour minimum. Sholtes said the request has nothing to do with a national movement among fast-food workers for a $15 minimum wage. The union used data from the living wage calculator, which sets the minimum hourly wage at $15 to support two adults and $9.63 for one adult...
EVSC board votes to accept Teamsters contract  14 News   ...Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation board members voted Monday night to accept the contracts of several employee groups, including the Teamsters Union. Members of Teamsters Local 215 includes custodians, bus drivers, bus aids, and secretaries...
Teamsters Port Division Assisting Truck Drivers Fired By TTSI  teamster.org   ...On Wednesday evening, Sept. 3, 2014, at least thirty-three (33) port truck drivers who participated in recent unfair labor practice strikes and filed “wage and hour” claims with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) were fired by their employer, Total Transportation Services Inc. (TTSI), when they refused to acquiesce to the company’s illegal demand to withdraw their claims for wage theft as misclassified “independent contractors.”...
Trade
The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership: Getting The Criticism Right  The Journal   ...As an investment agreement, the TTIP is probably bad for everyone whose name does not end in Ltd, Plc, or something similar...
China’s Runaway Steel Industry  Trade Reform   ...production capacity for China’s steel industry has grown by an astonishing 200 million tons since late 2012, to 1.1 billion tons today. (By contrast, the entire U.S. steel industry produced only 87 million tons in 2013.) Yet first half domestic consumption of steel stands at 376.1 million tons, up an anemic 0.4 percent over the same period last year. Steel exports are growing but at the expense of “increasing trade conflicts and constant trade remedy investigations.”...
State Battles
The shortfall that wouldn't die  Uppity Wisconsin   ...Today's news that the budget shortfall is nearly 2 billion dollars and apparently rising leads one to believe that maybe too little cash is sticking in Madison.  Other recent news makes it clear that the administration has been helping put more cash in the pockets of some taxpayers (and out-of-staters) than others...
As lawyers prep for John Doe hearing, legal tab tops $672,000  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...The cost to taxpayers for defending the state against lawsuits over an investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and his allies has quickly escalated to more than $672,000...
Voter ID On Trial in Texas (opinion)  New York Times   ...Laws like these used to be blocked by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required that the federal government preapprove any voting rules enacted by states and localities with a history of discriminatory voting practices. But in a destructive ruling last year, the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 as unconstitutional. Only hours after that ruling, Texas resurrected its voter-ID law, which had been stopped by Section 5...
Ruling In Nebraska Could Have Big Overall Impact On Keystone XL  Nebraska Radio Network   ...A ruling by the state Supreme Court on the law that authorized the Keystone XL route through Nebraska could have ramifications well beyond this state. Attorney General Jon Bruning is confident the Supreme Court will uphold the law that set the route...
War On Workers
The Fast Food Strikes Have Been A Stunning Success For Organized Labor  Slate   ...at this early date, it’s more useful to think of them as the spearhead of a broader living wage movement that has also seen retail workers at stores such as Walmart protest for better pay. Framed that way, the effort has been startlingly effective. For the cost of a few Super Bowl ads, the SEIU and some dedicated fast food workers have managed to completely rewire how the public and politicians thinks about wages...
STILL 1.4 Million Fewer Full-Time Jobs Than in 2008  naked capitalism   ...It’s still 1.4 million below 2008? In 2008, the economy was in full collapse mode. The Fed has expanded its balance sheet by $3.7 trillion since August 2008 and there are fewer full-time jobs now than then? Remind me again what that $3.7 trillion has bought!...
Koch 101  Slate   ...The Koch brothers are paying millions to inject libertarian ideas into high school curriculums...
Koch Industries adopts new public posture to neutralize opponents, recast image  Washington Post   ...Koch Industries, which produces goods ranging from Angel Soft toilet paper to iPhone parts, is adopting a more visible strategy to neutralize critics on the left and promote a warm, patriotic image of its multinational empire...
Evidence Says That Students Do Better In Schools With Strong Teachers’ Unions  Addicting Info   ... Collective bargaining provides a legal, structured process in which local unions and management can develop reforms, such as peer review or performance-based pay...
Senate moves forward with amendment to the Constitution on elections  The Hill   ...The Senate on Monday advanced a constitutional amendment meant to reverse two recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign spending...
Some Uber Drivers Say Company’s Promise Of Big Pay Day Doesn’t Match Reality  Washington Post   ...The lure of taking home 80 percent of the fares he collected as a driver for Uber was a sweet incentive for Demek Dagnachew to sign up with the ride-sharing service in April. But soon after he started ferrying passengers around the District in his 2012 Toyota Camry, he said he noticed his earnings didn’t quite reflect the 80/20 split he’d been promised...
Sources: Taj To File For Bankruptcy, Close In November  CBS News   ...A source confirms to CBS 3 Eyewitness News that the Taj Mahal has already begun the process for bankruptcy and layoff notices could go out to workers next week. As of August, the casino hotel had more than 2,800 employees...
State Consultant Says Bridgeton Landfill Fire Spreading North  St. Louis Post Dispatch   ...The consultant hired by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says the “subsurface fire” at the Bridgeton Landfill is expanding and moving closer to the radioactive West Lake Landfill...
Miscellaneous
Exclusive: Safety concerns dog Boeing 787  Aljazeera   ...Using a concealed camera, the worker films inside the Boeing South Carolina plant, recording his discussions with colleagues. He randomly asks 15 of his co-workers who assemble the 787 "Dreamliner" if they would fly on the plane. Ten say they would not...

Today's Teamster News 09.06.14

Teamster News
US Foods Workers In Corona, California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 63  IBT   ...On Thursday, Sept. 4, US Foods warehouse workers in Corona, Calif. voted by more than a 2-1 margin to join Teamsters Local Union 63 in Covina, Calif. The workers are concerned about job security as Sysco attempts to acquire their employer...
Teamsters, LA trucker clash over alleged firings  Journal of Commerce   ...A Teamsters-affiliated organization accused a Southern California drayage company of firing at least 33 drivers who filed wage and hour claims against the carrier, an accusation the company said is not truthful...
Tentative Agreement Reached Between MV Transportation, Teamsters  KOLO8   ...Drivers, mechanics and dispatchers for RTC RIDE and their employer, MV Transportation, have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement...
Teamsters Launch Campaign Against Republic Services’ Discrimination In The South  IBT   ...Teamsters who work at Republic Services, Bill Gates’ giant trash corporation [NYSE: RSG], are fighting back against discrimination. Republic workers wore stickers in six states today to protest Republic’s wage discrimination system. In Atlanta, new hires are paid less at all levels for doing the same job as workers hired previously...
Teamsters Rally In Chicago To Support Gov. Quinn, Stand With Workers  IBT   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said that corporate-backed candidates waging war on workers should be worried about November’s election. “They may have more money but they can’t outwork us,” Hoffa said. “We have the boots on the ground and those boots are going to go walking to the polls.”...
Trade
Negotiators Struggle To Find Benefits For Public Health In TTIP  EurActiv   ...More than a year after the launch of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks, negotiators from both sides of the Atlantic still struggle to prove the positive impact of the potential deal on public health...
State Battles
Federal Judge Orders Ohio To Undo Cuts To Early Voting  New York Times   ...The preliminary injunction issued by Judge Peter C. Economus was a setback for Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican and vocal proponent of the measures, and could affect the upcoming elections in Ohio, a closely contested swing state...
Indiana Supreme Court considers right-to-work challenge  Post-Tribune   ...The Indiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday morning over Indiana’s right-to-work case and whether it violates the state constitution clause requiring fair payment in return for services provided...
MEA: Fewer than 5,000 members opted-out of union during August window  MLive   ...The Michigan Education Association says less than 5,000 of its 110,000 active members left the union during a controversial August opt-out period, as allowed under the state’s new right-to-work law...
Koch-backed ALEC infiltrates local governments  Wisconsin Gazette   ...The American Legislative Exchange Council is taking an interest in local governments, which troubles the progressives who demonstrated for days outside the ALEC’s annual conference in Dallas earlier this summer...
War On Workers
U.S. Payroll Rise Is Weakest This Year at 142,000 for August  Bloomberg   ...American employers hired fewer workers than forecast in August and the jobless rate dropped because people left the workforce, bolstering those on the Federal Reserve who want to be more deliberate in removing monetary stimulus...
Pace of Job Growth Slows Further in August  Center for Economic Policy and Research   ...The falloff was widespread across industries.…In percentage terms, the motion pictures sector continues to be a big job loser, shedding 6,000 jobs in August -- 2.0 percent of total employment…
Don’t Blame Boomers For Unemployed Workers Leaving The Labor Force  Five Thirty Eight   ...The unemployment rate for Americans younger than 25 was 13 percent in August, compared to 4.6 percent for those 55 and older. So it makes sense that younger workers would make up an outsize share of those abandoning their job searches...
Worker Killed In Accident At Metro Airport  WXYZ   ...Prospect Airport Services says one of their workers has died after being injured on the job at Metro Airport...
Trump Taj Mahal Could Be The Next Atlantic City Casino To Close, Owners Say  NorthJersey.com   ...The owners of Trump Taj Mahal are warning that it could join the roster of closed casinos in Atlantic City, based on the company’s comments in a recent filing to the state Division of Gaming Enforcement...
One Reason Women Fare Worse in Negotiations? People Lie to Them.  Slate   ...new research supports my fear: The stereotype that women are incompetent makes people more likely to lie to them during negotiations...
Miscellaneous
Fake Cell Towers Allow The NSA And Police To Keep Track Of You  Newsweek   ...The Internet is abuzz with reports of mysterious devices sprinkled across America—many of them on military bases—that connect to your phone by mimicking cell phone towers and sucking up your data. There is little public information about these devices, but they are the new favorite toy of government agencies of all stripes; everyone from the National Security Agency to local police forces are using them...