Today's Teamster News 11.24.15

TEAMSTERS
Shuttle Bus Drivers For Apple, Ebay, Yahoo, Silicon Valley Giants Approve Labor Contract, Winning Pay Raises And Benefits  IBTimes  ...Shuttle bus drivers for some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley have scored a boost in working standards. Nearly 100 workers at Compass Transportation, a firm that provides bus service for companies like Apple, eBay and Yahoo, approved a labor agreement Sunday that includes significant pay raises and new benefits. It comes months after the drivers voted to join the Teamsters union...
Silicon Valley’s Bus Drivers Are Fighting Their Way Into The Region’s Uneven Economic Boom Think Progress  ...Private bus routes that inspired rowdy protests around Silicon Valley in recent years will now deliver some shared prosperity in that booming but divided region. Drivers on the routes are seeing their wages and benefits increase dramatically thanks to unionization and contract negotiations. Drivers joined the Teamsters as protests and media scrutiny put pressure on tech firms and bus vendors alike over the past few years...
Coca-Cola Offers Insulting Economics Package, Ignores Vast Majority of Teamster Proposals  Local 727  ...With only one more day of contract negotiations on the calendar, management for Coca-Cola returned to the bargaining table with Local 727 on Monday admitting they “didn’t know where to begin.” Cola-Cola management offered no explanation for what they’ve been doing with their time throughout the previous eight bargaining sessions. Instead, when negotiations came to a close on Nov. 23, the company ignored nearly all of the union’s outstanding proposals...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
New police raids, more arrests in attacks on Korean trade union rights  IUF.org  ...The increasingly authoritarian government of Korean President Park Geun-hye is stepping up its attacks on trade unions and their rights. Two-hundred police raided the office of the KCTU Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union (KPTU) on November 6, seizing documents of the union's Cargo Truckers Solidarity Division (KPTU-TruckSol), whose members transporting products for the food company Pulmone are fighting for union recognition and safe working conditions...
Indonesian workers strike against new pay regulations  Bangkok Post  ...Thousands of Indonesian workers rallied in several cities on Tuesday to demand the government repeal a new rule that they say limits pay increases. Labour unions say the rule only allows a maximum 10% increase per year in monthly salaries and puts them in a weak position in negotiations with employers...
Obama Talks TPP Abroad While Concerns Persist for Voters At Home, New Polling Shows  American Manufacturing  ...President Obama is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this week where 19 world leaders gather annually to discuss growth and trade. The hot topic at this year’s meeting: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The president will be selling its benefits to his counterparts, but Americans back home are far from convinced...
China and U.S. Say They’ve Made Strides in Trade Talks  New York Times  ...In their first top-level trade talks since President Obama hosted China’s leader in September, the United States and China said on Monday that they had made progress on sticking points, including preventing the theft of trade secrets and opening the Chinese market more broadly to American multinationals...
TPP allows Internet censorship to favour big corporations, say Pakatan MPs   Malaysian Insider ...The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will protect the interests of big corporations more than the rights of Internet users, opening the door to wider censorship, Pakatan Harapan lawmakers said today. Internet service providers (ISP) would be given the role of "internet police" in the new trade pact when it comes to copyrighted content...
TPP: Massive giveaway to corporate interests  (opinion) The Hill  ...What does it take to bring Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump together? One terrible trade deal - the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The reasoning behind this diverse opposition is simple – the TPP is a massive giveaway to corporate special interests that will give hardworking Americans two things they can’t afford – lost jobs and lower wages...
Pacific Trade and Worker Rights  (editorial) New York Times  ...Obama administration officials say the T.P.P. goes further on labor standards than those earlier pacts. For example, the T.P.P.’s labor chapter requires all 12 countries to adopt minimum wage, working hour and occupational safety regulations. That is an improvement, but it could turn out to be mostly symbolic because the agreement does not specify how countries should set minimum wages. Nor does it establish any minimum standard for safety regulations...
Five years into austerity, Britain prepares for more cuts  Reuters  ...After laying off nearly half its staff over the last five years, scaling back street cleaning and relying on volunteers to work at some of its libraries, the London borough of Lewisham is getting ready for what could be much more painful spending cuts. Officials in Lewisham's town hall, like those across the country, know they will have to shoulder much of Chancellor George Osborne's renewed push to fix Britain's budget...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Constitutional amendment for higher minimum wage sought  Review Journal  ...Backers of raising Nevada's minimum wage filed a proposed constitutional amendment Monday that would abolish the state's existing two-tiered system and gradually increase the rate to $13 an hour. The initiative filed with the secretary of state's office by the Committee to Raise the Minimum Wage in Nevada would set a rate of $9.25 an hour beginning in late 2018...
Thanksgiving Is Almost Here, and Over a Million New Yorkers Might Go Hungry  The Nation  ...This Thanksgiving, New Yorkers will be asked to “Remember the Needy.” But for millions of households, that starts with thinking about themselves. The latest statistics on hunger in the city tells the proverbial Tale of Two Cities as a Tale of Two Pantries.  New York’s abysmal wealth gap is evident in many indicators: unemployment rates, rent hikes, surveys showing heavy economic anxiety...
Right-to-Work Whack-a-Mole  American Prospect  ...Right-to-work legislation continues to bubble up in states that have been successful in staving off such laws. Call it a never-ending game of right-to-work whack-a-mole. Last week, West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole called for lawmakers to pass right-to-work legislation in what he—and conservatives invariably—characterize as an attempt to attract businesses to the economically downtrodden region...
Who Turned My Blue State Red?  (opinion) New York Times  ...In eastern Kentucky and other former Democratic bastions that have swung Republican in the past several decades, the people who most rely on the safety-net programs secured by Democrats are, by and large, not voting against their own interests by electing Republicans. Rather, they are not voting, period. They have, as voting data, surveys and my own reporting suggest, become profoundly disconnected from the political process...
Pittsburgh paid sick leave law effective date delayed  Lexology  ...While the City of Pittsburgh previously announced that its Paid Sick Days Act (“PSDA”) would become effective on January 11, 2016, a Court order, as part of a lawsuit against the City challenging the validity of the PSDA, has extended this date by 60 days, to March 11, 2016.  The one-page order from the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas broadly covers “implementation, application and enforcement” of the PSDA...

U.S. LABOR
SEIU-UHW Revives Ballot Measure To Cap Hospital Executives' Pay  California Healthline  ...On Friday, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West revived a ballot measure that would cap hospital executives' pay after dropping a similar initiative 18 months ago, the Sacramento Business Journal reports. In November 2013, SEIU-UHW filed two proposed ballot initiatives with the state Attorney General's Office...
A holiday boost for UAW workers  The Detroit News  ...An estimated 142,000 American autoworkers, including 60,000 in Michigan, will receive retroactive pay and $3,000-$10,000 signing bonuses before Christmas, following contract ratifications between Detroit’s Big Three and the United Auto Workers. Collectively, contract bonuses from General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are estimated to put more than $400 million, before taxes, into the pockets of hourly union members...
Disney workers mount H-1B challenge  Politico  ...Disney caught some bad press in June after the New York Times and other outlets reported that the company planned to lay off about 250 workers and replace them with guest workers. Now those workers are filing complaints against Disney. At least 23 of them petitioned the EEOC to hear their case...
Wage Gap Between Men and Women Closing For Wrong Reason: Male Wages Are Falling  Alternet  ...The wage gap between men and women is finally starting to close—but only because male wages are falling, according to a new briefing paper released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute. “No one in this country should work full-time and live in poverty,” said Massachsetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren at a Capitol Hill press conference to release the report...
The faces of the new food revolution  Al Jazeera  ...The “food movement” is complex and often misunderstood. Read snarky Slate articles and you might be led to believe the movement is a white, elitist phenomenon whose poster child is a Lululemon-wearing, latte-sipping Whole Foods shopper and whose de facto guru is Michael Pollan. In other words: out of touch with working Americans. But the people on the frontlines of the struggle to make healthy, sustainable, local food accessible to all Americans defy this stereotype...
How Delusional Nostalgia Is Killing the White Working Class  Alternet  ...A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute finds there are a few things you can count on about those who believe America’s best days are behind us. They are overwhelmingly white, and if you dig a bit deeper and examine the socioeconomics, often working class. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they stubbornly believe white people are subject to the same levels of racism as black and other people of color. They think the U.S. was a better place in the 1950s, when Jim Crow was law, immigrants were overwhelmingly European, women knew their place, and gay people were essentially invisible...

SOCIAL JUSTICE &OTHER NEWS
In Biggest Tax Evasion Scheme of Its Kind, Big Pharma Becomes Behemoth  Common Dreams  ...Big Pharma just became Huge Pharma. Creating the world's largest drugmaker—and paving the way for higher pharmaceutical prices—Viagra-maker Pfizer Inc. and Allergan PLC, which manufactures Botox, said Monday that they would merge in a so-called inversion deal worth up to about $155 billion...
Texas wants immigration case delay that could push Supreme Court decision beyond Obama's term  US News & World Report  ...Texas asked the Supreme Court Monday for more time to answer the Obama administration's immigration appeal, a delay that probably would prevent the plan to shield millions of immigrants from deportation from taking effect during Barack Obama's presidency. The plan that Obama unveiled a year ago mainly affects people who are living in the country illegally, but who have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents...
'Now More Than Ever': In Paris and Beyond, Climate Movement Will Be Heard  Common Dreams  ...The march may be cancelled, security may be strengthened, but the global climate movement is vowing that its voice will still be heard as world leaders convene in Paris for international negotiations over the future of the planet. Citing security concerns in the wake of the attacks in Paris, the city's Prefecture of Police on Wednesday cancelled a massive climate justice march planned for November 29...
Black Lives Matter Protesters Shot in Minneapolis  Slate  ...Police in Minneapolis were looking for three white male suspects Tuesday morning after gunmen opened fire and injured five people at a Black Lives Matter protest around 10:45 p.m. on Monday night, reported the Star Tribune. The protests where the shooting took place have been going on for more than a week, with demonstrators calling for answers in the death of 24-year-old Jamar Clark, a black man who was shot in the head by a police officer. Witnesses said Clark was in handcuffs when he was shot...
Chicago officer who shot black teen 16 times to face murder charge, reports say  The Guardian  ...A charge of murder is expected to be filed against a white Chicago police officer accused of shooting a black teenager 16 times, just one day before a deadline by which a judge has ordered the city to release a squad-car video of the incident. Veteran officer Jason Van Dyke is expected to be indicted on Tuesday on a murder charge in the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald...
Why Trump's Race-Baiting Works  Slate ...Donald Trump has spent most of his campaign indulging and encouraging nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment. When it came to other racial and ethnic groups, however, Trump was silent, even telling crowds that he had a “great relationship with the blacks.” This past weekend, that changed. While Trump has been explicit with his nativist, and now racist, rhetoric, he’s not an innovator. If large numbers of Republicans are responsive to Trump’s vitriol, it’s because he echoes—in less coded terms—the discourse of much of right-wing media...
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Elected After Popular Uprising, Defends Local Control of Schools  Democracy Now  ...The education system of Newark, New Jersey has faced years of crisis, with high dropout rates, low-performing schools and a state takeover dating back two decades. In 2010, Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Democratic Mayor Cory Booker of Newark and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg joined forces to revamp Newark schools. But despite trumpeting their plan as a model for national school reform, millions of dollars flowed not to schools but to outside consultants...

Today's Teamster News 06.17.14

Teamster News
EVSC School Board extends 'final offer' to Teamsters Local 215 employee groups  Evansville Courier & Press   ...The Evansville Vanderburgh School Board voted Monday night to extend their original contract offer to employee groups represented by Teamsters Local 215 — bus drivers, bus aides, custodians, special education assistants and secretaries — after those members who voted on it earlier this month overwhelmingly rejected it; and then made a counter-offer...  
Trade
Bipartisan Group of 150+ Members of Congress Urge Commerce Department to Act on Dumping of Steel Pipe  Trade Reform   ...the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) praised a bipartisan group of more than 150 Members of Congress for signing a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker urging a thorough investigation of the dumping of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) steel pipe in the U.S. market by South Korea...
State Battles
San Francisco Leads The Way With $15 Minimum Wage Ballot Measure  Los Angeles Times   ...Unlike in Seattle, San Francisco employers would have to comply regardless of their companies' size and receive no credit for sick or healthcare pay they already provide. Workers who receive tips are included....
Who In Maine Benefits From A $10.10 Minimum Wage?  Bangor Daily News   ...112,000 workers in Maine, 20.2% of workers, would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10...
Low-Income Restaurant Workers Want Gov. Cuomo And State Labor Dept. To Help Them Wage War Against Wage Theft  New York Daily News   ...it is estimated that low-income workers are robbed of more than $1 billion every year. Yet the law puts no resources toward enforcement, which means that in the rare instances workers win their wage theft complaints, they seldom collect...
War On Workers
Hell on Wheels: Are bad trucking laws partially to blame for Tracy Morgan's accident?  The New Republic   ...Two days before Kevin Roper crashed his Walmart big rig into Tracy Morgan’s limousine, critically injuring the comedian and killing his colleague James McNair, the Senate Appropriations Committee quietly loosened the laws governing truckers’ hours on the road...
Kochs launch new super PAC for midterm fight  Politico   ...The new group aims to spend more than $15 million in the 2014 midterm campaigns — part of a much larger spending effort expected to total $290 million...
Cantor Shocker and New Survey Put Anger at Wall Street at Center of Political Debate  Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research   ...A 64 percent majority believes "the stock market is rigged for insiders and people who know how to manipulate the system..."
The coming 'tsunami of debt' and financial crisis in America (opinion)  The Guardian   ...the debt held by American households is rising ominously. And unless our economic policies change, that debt balloon, powered by radical income inequality, is going to become the next bust...
Without Highway Bill, 700,000 Jobs at Risk  AFL-CIO Now   ...If Congress doesn’t act soon, more than 700,000 middle class jobs building the nation’s highways, bridges and transit systems will be at risk. While the legislation authorizing the spending for those vital projects doesn’t expire until Sept. 30, the Highway Trust Fund that helps states pay for transportation construction and upkeep is running out of money and layoffs could begin later next month...

Today's Teamster News 06.08.14

Teamsters
Dispatchers, Customer Service Reps Unite for Teamster Representation  teamster.org   ...Dispatchers and customer service representatives at Cook DuPage Transportation (CDT) joined their paratransit driver and garage attendant co-workers by voting for Teamsters Local 727 representation on June 2... 
Trade
The Real Effects of KORUS Can Be Seen in Our Struggling Economy  Economy in Crisis   ...Since it was enacted, our total trade deficit with South Korea has been over 55 billion dollars. Our exports actually fell by 12 percent in the first month, which was exactly the opposite of what we were told would happen…
State Battles
Infrastructure Sticker Shock: Financing Costs More than Construction  Washington's Blog   ...California needs $700 billion in infrastructure over the next decade, and the state doesn’t have that sort of money in its general fund. Where will the money come from? ... The Chinese government has a hidden funding source: it owns its own banks. That means it gets its financing effectively interest-free...
New signature rule causing headaches for candidates, state election officials  Wisconsin State Journal   ...(Lt. Gov. candidate Mary Jo) Walters said the new law is an effort at “voter intimidation” akin to putting the recall petitions online...
War on Workers
Lack of funding is the real VA scandal  Physicians for a National Health Program   ...There are two primary reasons for the problem of wait times. One has to do with Congress’ consistent failure to provide adequate funding so that the VA could hire more staff to care for an increasing number of veterans who live longer with complex service and age related health problems...
Genius deal? Apple's staff paid less than Coles' checkout workers  Sydney Morning Herald   ...Tech giant Apple has struck a new pay deal with retail staff that locks in starting rates lower than supermarket checkout workers and probable pay cuts in real terms every year for the next four years....
America’s Wealthiest Family Uses Phony Philanthropy to Increase Personal Wealth  Jobs With Justice   ...America’s richest family contributes almost none of their personal wealth to the family’s charity, according to a new report by the Walmart 1 Percent...
CEO Performance Pay is Bad for Everyone Except CEOs  Next New Deal   ...CEO pay is not just unfair, but harmful. It’s bad for businesses, workers, and taxpayers, and it’s one of the reasons that the economy remains sluggish...
University Presidents Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank While the People Who Work for Them Are on Food Stamps  History News Network   ...as the incomes of the 25 best-paid public university presidents soared, the livelihoods of their faculty deteriorated. This deterioration resulted largely from the fact that tenured and tenure-track faculty were replaced with adjuncts (part-time instructors, paid by the course) and contingents (temporary faculty)...
Miscellaneous
Feds propose chemical safety overhaul  The Hill   ...The 121-page plan calls for strengthened regulations at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as steps to protect chemical plants from the threat of a terrorist strike....
Billionaire Heir Sentenced To Four Months In Jail For Sexually Assaulting His Stepdaughter  ThinkProgress   ...A Wisconsin billionaire pled guilty to sexual assault of his stepdaughter, but was only sentenced to four months in jail on Friday. Samuel Curtis Johnson III, heir to the SC Johnson cleaning supplies empire, will have to serve at least 60 days of his sentence and pay a fine up to $6,000...

Teamsters, Fast Track opponents making an impact. You can too.

Demos Demopoulos, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 553,
denouncing Fast Track at a New York press conference last week.

Members of Congress are starting to listen to the thousands of Teamsters who are calling, emailing, rallying and telling them face-to-face: Vote NO on Fast Track.

Fast Track is a bill that would prevent Congress from vetting every detail of trade deals (like the TPP) to make sure they benefit American workers and not multinational corporations. America has lost 60,000 factories over the past 13 years, so we clearly don't need to be signing any more of these so-called 'free-trade' agreements.

Teamsters and allies such as the Citizens Trade Campaign, CWA and the Sierra Club are leading a grass-roots campaign to stop Fast Track. Over the past few weeks, Teamsters and allies made tens of thousands of telephone calls and sent even more emails to their representatives in Congress. It's working, but we can't stop now.

Tomorrow is a Teamsters Day of Action to call your member of Congress to vote no on Fast Track. The number is 1-888-979-9806. You'll hear a message that tells you exactly what to do. Can't call? Send an email. Just click here for a sample message to send to your representative in Congress. Your local may be participating in one of dozens of nationwide rallies tomorrow to oppose Fast Track, so contact your local or check here to see if there's one near you.

Opposition to Fast Track is building in the Senate, as Majority Leader Harry Reid said he will not bring it to the floor. The real battle right now is in the House, where Speaker John Boehner will work to pass Fast Track if he can get the votes. It's important to spread the word that 87 percent of Republican voters (a group Bohener has to be concerned about) oppose Fast Track, according to a poll released yesterday.

Here's more good news. As Politico reported, opposition to Fast Track is growing among Democrats:

...On Monday, 550 labor, environmental and consumer advocacy groups – including the United Autoworkers, which has lent Obama critical backing on previous free trade pacts such as the South Korea deal – sent a letter to Congress urging them to reject the fast-track bill.

The fight is far, far from over. What the big corporations want from Congress, the big corporations generally get. Supporters of Fast Track will likely come up with some sort of cosmetic improvement, like the U.S.-Colombia Labor Action Plan. The LAP fig leaf was supposed to prevent continued murders of union leaders in Colombia after the so-called free-trade deal was ratified. It didn't. Colombian union leader Luis Marin Rolong Ever was murdered in cold blood by unknown gunmen on January 4. His killer may never be punished. 

The South Korea Free Trade deal won UAW support because it was supposed to increase U.S. exports of automobiles. It didn't.  The U.S. sold hardly any automobiles to S. Korea while we're being flooded with Kias and Hyundais.

So please, if you value your good American job, call 1-888-979-9806, email, rally or sign the petition.

Today's Teamster News 01.19.14

Who Speaks for the Carriage Horses?  New York Times   ...“Ban them?” the mother, Lesley Fabri, 60, exclaimed after her ride. “That’s the whole reason we’re here!”...
Carriage rides have a certain magic (opinion)  Livingtson County News   ...I will decline to go down the rabbit hole of debating the issue more than to say that the carriage business in New York and other major cities is perfectly legal and well-regulated...
Industry powers with access to TPP plans lavish money on Congress  RT.com   ... current members of Congress received around US$24 million in the last ten years from organizations represented on an exclusive industry board, created and staffed by Congress. This board has inside access - such as not even granted to members of Congress, much less the public - to the highly-secretive negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which promises to give powerful industry players more clout over global trade rights...
Insight: Battle over police pensions in U.S. cities takes ugly turn  Reuters   ...A drive by some American cities to cut costly police retirement benefits has led to an extraordinary face-off between local politicians and the law enforcement officers who work for them...
Freedom Industries, Company Behind West Virginia Chemical Spill, Files For Bankruptcy  Huffington Post   ...The company behind the massive chemical spill that made tap water unsafe for more than 300,000 West Virginians has filed for bankruptcy...
South Korea pulled strings as Cambodia’s military cracked down on protesters  Global Post   ...As workers who stitch for Western brands demand a livable wage, South Korea urged Cambodian forces to protect corporate interests...
Hershey's to make 3-D chocolate printer  CNN Money   ...Because apparently Americans don't have easy enough access to junk food, soon getting a candy bar could be as easy as hitting "print."...
A nearly 17-year-old is reportedly author of malware that led to Target’s data breach  Wall Street Journal   ...The  Target Corp. data breach that has hurt its sales and has made many consumers skittish about using their cards has been traced to a Russian teenager who authored the malware used in the security breach, according to a cyber-intelligence firm...
@Work Advice: Homeless, not hopeless  Washington Post   ...A competent junior co-worker recently confided to me that he has been living out of his car since his lease ended a month ago. He has acquired credit card debt while being underpaid and working long hours for two years at our 50-person organization. His finances are reaching a breaking point...
Missouri at center of new GM, Ford pickup rollouts  St. Louis Post Dispatch   ...When production of these new pickups starts this year, Missouri will become an epicenter of pickup production in the U.S., with thousands of the vehicles rolling off assembly lines every week...

Japan to enter TPP talks, more US jobs likely to be killed

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced today his country will join talk on the latest job-killing trade deal, the TPP. Japan's entry into the talks will likely make the deal even more offensive to average Americans.

The United States' trade gap with Japan is second only to China, $76.3 billion for 2012. Two-thirds of that is due to automotive products.

U.S. lawmakers who represent manufacturing districts sent a letter to President Obama objecting to Japan's entry into the talks. CQ today reported:

Dozens of Democrats in the House and Senate on Thursday lacerated Japan over long-standing barriers that have kept U.S. cars out of the Japanese market, warning that a slowly recovering American auto industry would suffer even more economic pain if Tokyo is allowed to join an Asia-Pacific free-trade agreement. 

In a letter to President Barack Obama, 35 Democratic House members, many of them members of the Ways and Means Committee, and eight senators, including Michigan’s Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, noted that Japan’s web of regulations that effectively blocks U.S. automakers from selling their cars and trucks in Japan is too deeply rooted to be resolved by the trade agreement, known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP), an initiative launched by Obama in 2010. 

“These long-standing, economically harmful practices are not susceptible to cursory negotiation at this stage, three years into the U.S. involvement in the TPP negotiations and close to the administration’s target date of concluding talks by the end of this year,” the letter said.

Today is also the first year anniversary of the South Korean job-killing trade deal. Public Citizen reminds us that U.S. exports to South Korea are down 9 percent, while imports are up 30 percent:

The actual outcomes of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that took effect one year ago, March 15, have been exactly the opposite of what the Obama administration promised, Public Citizen said today. Despite government data once again demonstrating the damage caused by yet another “trade” agreement based on the model of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Obama administration is trying to sell massive Trans-Pacific and European agreements based on the same model with the same false promises. 

Rob Scott at the Economic Policy Institute piles on, telling us Japan is practically closed to foreign auto imports. The trade deficit with Japan costs millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs in the U.S., he writes:

The U.S. trade deficit with Japan has increased steadily over the past four years, reaching $79.9 billion in 2012, an increase of $13.4 billion (20.2 percent) over the 2011 bilateral deficit of $66.5 billion. Two of the most important causes of persistent U.S.-Japan trade deficits are currency manipulation and Japan’s vast and impenetrable network of non-tariff trade barriers... Unless Japan is willing to end its currency manipulation and informal trade barriers once and for all, it should not even be allowed to participate in the TPP negotiations.

Stay tuned.

Today's Teamster News 03.15.12

U.S.-Korea free trade pact takes effect amid controversy  Reuters   ...A long-delayed U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement (FTA) that has stirred controversy in both countries took effect on Thursday, although the opposition in Seoul has vowed to renegotiate it if it wins elections this year...
Trade Issues With China Flare Anew  New York Times   ...Five separate issues — involving auto parts, cars, solar panels, anti-subsidy laws and rare earth metals — are the subject of separate initiatives by American officials, European officials or both...
Bank of America: Too Crooked To Fail  Rolling Stone   ...The bank has defrauded everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed. So why does the government keep bailing it out?...
Where Was Walker Wednesday? In Palm Beach, Taking Down $200,000+   The Political Environment   ...Yeah, Scott Walker could 'return' to the private sector any old time where he wouldn't be tied to a crap salary from taxpayers of $144,000 a year, but while he's still got the job and unlimited "personal time, wink-wink" - - why not jet off to Palm Beach, Florida, or as they call it there, "the ATM of American politics "- - and pick up a cool $200,000+ in campaign cash and pledges from folks you've never met?...
Support for repeat right-to-work bill diminishing  Associated Press   ...The latest version of right-to-work legislation is losing the steam it needs to pass in New Hampshire...
Nichols, Teamsters to meet March 21  Quad Cities Business Journal   ...Another round of contract negotiations is scheduled for March 21 after representatives of Nichols Aluminum and striking Teamsters Local 371 returned to the table Monday...

WA longshoremen: ‘We’re all going to jail as a union’

West Coast longshoremen may be in the fight of their lives. Their foe is a grain terminal that's partly owned by a South Korean shipping company. The grain terminal owner wants to bust the union, ILWU Local 21. What's more disturbing is that Congress is now considering a trade deal with South Korea that would further embolden South Korean companies to break our laws.

According to Public Citizen, the proposed South Korean trade deal,

...includes extraordinary foreign investor rights and their private “investor-state” enforcement – in which a foreign corporation is empowered to directly challenge U.S. laws as trade pact violations before foreign tribunals to demand compensation. 

But back to the longshoremen.

On Friday, their protest shut down the grain terminal. One person was arrested.
You'll recall that a week ago Thursday the longshoremen turned back a BNSF grain train at the Port of Longview in the third major protest that week. The previous Monday, 100 union members were arrested for tearing down a fence.

The target of the longshoremen's ire is EGT, which is owned by three other companies: St. Louis-based Bunge North America, Japan-based Itochu Corp. and Korean shipper Pan Ocean STX.

Scott Mason, president of Tacoma-based ILWU Local 23, said,

EGT would like to be the Walmart of the grain business and force everyone else into their agenda.

Three years ago, port commissioners (backed by the longshoremen) took 6 acres from a locally owned company at the port and leased to EGT Development, which planned to build a $200 million grain elevator. The longshoremen supported the taking of the land by eminent domain because the new grain facility would create 50 jobs.

The Salem-News reports,

EGT imported nonunion construction workers from out-of-state to do most of the work. It now wants to operate the facility with nonunion, out-of-state labor.

Members of ILWU are employed at port grain export terminals coastwise under the Northwest Grainhandlers Agreement, which is set to expire later this year. The union believes if EGT is operating without a contract it will reverberate in upcoming negotiations.

EGT sued the port in January in federal court, claiming they’re not bound by the contract to hire union labor.

The local paper says labor leaders on the West Coast are watching the standoff carefully, fearful that a victory by the grain elevator company will embolden grain companies at other ports to challenge the union.

Now EGT is trying to divide and conquer. It just announced it will hire the operating engineers for 25-35 jobs at the facility.

Reports The Daily News,

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701, based in Gladstone, Ore., agreed to work for General Construction and take the 25 to 35 jobs at the terminal.

Friday morning, union picketers held signs stating "ILWU Jurisdiction" and "701 Scabs" while walking back and forth on port-owned property on East Mill Road outside the EGT gates. A 20-foot-tall, inflatable cartoon rat stood at the tent.

Here's what ILWU Local 21 President Dan Coffman had to say:

We are going to fight for our jobs in our jurisdiction. We have worked this dock for 70 years, and to have a big, rich corporation come in and say, ‘We don’t want you,’ is a problem. We’re all together. We’re all going to jail as a union.

Solidarity.

No, the unions didn't ruin Detroit

Globalization destroyed the Motor City, and a lot of other towns, too: Flint, Youngstown, Toledo, Benton Harbor, Gary, Rockford, to name just a few.

These were once thriving manufacturing centers. Not anymore. We've lost much of our auto industry to Mexico, which now sells us $42 billion more autos, trucks and automotive parts than we sell them. Mexico! Where do you think Mexico got its auto industry from? Can you say NAFTA?

The corporate and financial elite want you to believe that the high wages earned by union members are the reason American manufacturers can't compete in the global marketplace. They just hate it when they have to pay their workers living wages. That's why they pour hundreds of millions of dollars into think tanks, political committees, advertising campaigns and phony grass roots groups like the Tea Party. They spread their message through these groups because they want you to grab on to feel-good words like "freedom" and "opportunity." Then they want to scare you by waving their voodoo charm word "protectionism." Then they want to get another job-killing trade deal passed so they can cut your pay or, better yet, send your job to Malaysia.

Has anyone noticed that South Korea enjoyed tremendous economic growth since 1970 while its union membership grew by a whopping 239 percent? Michael Collins noticed over at the Economic Populist.  In a post titled, "Strong unions -- the worst nightmare of the financial elite," he writes,

A look at the growth in gross domestic product ... shows that the nation with the most powerful union movement, the Republic of Korea, had the most consistent growth in GDP since 1996.

Collins notes there are two powerful unions in S. Korea:

...the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KFTU) and somewhat larger Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU). Both are in clear opposition to austerity programs and the labor disruptions caused by globalization and elitist contrived austerity programs. KFTU  is clear about its underlying philosophy. The organization opposes "the uncontrolled rampage of globalisation, which is threatening to reduce systems of social justice and economic democracy to shambles."

The Korean unions want the job-killing trade deal that's coming to Congress soon about as much as we do. That is to say, not at all. 

It would be nice if our leaders listened to the people who make economies strong, instead of the financial elites who simply want to plunder what's left.

Today's Teamster News 02.22.11

Thousands take Wisconsin labor protest into its eighth day  Detroit Free Press   ...Thousands of people descended on the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison today to chant and sing, hoist signs and denounce Gov. Scott Walker for what they view as a direct assault on organized labor...
Unions See Political Financial Motive in Governor's Bill  WBAY   ...Leaders at the local Teamsters 662 chapter accuse the governor of trying to bust unions for political reasons.
Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Budget Dispute  New York Times   ...Even before the new governor was sworn in last month, executives from the Koch-backed group had worked behind the scenes to try to encourage a union showdown...
New York's Teamsters Local 237 to bus in support to union protesters in Wisconsin  Daily News   ...Local 237, which represents various city workers, intends to "bus a couple hundred" members to Madison - possibly this week...
'Right to work' bill sparks clash at the Statehouse   Journal and Courier   ...Over the protests of thousands of union workers, Indiana Republicans are pushing ahead with a bill that could incite the same kind of legislative stalemate that has frozen Wisconsin's state government...
Ohio, Indiana See Protests Against Anti-Union Bills  firedoglake   ... In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich is pushing pretty much the exact same bill as Scott Walker in Wisconsin...
ABF seeks appeal in Teamsters, YRC suit  The City Wire   ...Fort Smith-based ABF filed Friday (Feb. 18) an appeal as part of its effort to sue YRC and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters for violations of a wage agreement...
Teamsters, UAW on opposite sides of trade pact  The Oakland Press   ...The Teamsters have attacked the South Korean Free Trade Agreement supported by the United Auto Workers... 

Today's Teamsters News 02.18.11

Hoffa Praises Wisconsin Demonstrators  IBT   ...Hoffa saluted the tens of thousands of people streaming into Wisconsin’s capital this week to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal...
State Democrats absent for vote as Wisconsin budget protests swell  CNN   ...Wisconsin state senators are expected to reconvene Friday as lawmakers wrangled over a bill that would strip teachers and other public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights and cut their benefits...
A third day of protests begins against the Walker budget bill for Wisconsin  The Daily Page   ..."Brothers and sisters! Monday, two thousand T.A.'s from the university came to the Capitol. Tuesday, 20,000 firefighters and teamsters and SEIU members came. Welcome to day three..."
Ohio Residents Also Protesting  neon tommy   ...The outpouring of anger by Wisconsin residents upset over proposed anti-union legislation spread across the Midwest Thursday as thousands of protestors in Ohio, which faces a similar measure, descended on the statehouse...
Teamsters head opposes Korean trade pact  Detroit News   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, in a break from the Obama administration and the United Auto Workers union, opposes the Korea Free Trade Agreement...
Truckers to Speak Out on HOS Proposal  Journal of Commerce   ...Carriers, drivers expected to oppose shorter hours at FMCSA listening session today...
Coke, NLRB reach union settlement  (Local 728) Atlanta Business Chronicle   ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Wednesday ordered a subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Co., Coca-Cola Refreshments USA Inc., to post a statement in two metro Atlanta bottling facilities, telling employees of their legal right to form a union...
Another female staffer attacked at Monroe prison  Associated Press   ...“We have been saying for months that there is an urgent need for fundamental changes at the DOC to ensure the safety of Correctional Employees. This incident reinforces that need,” said Tracey A. Thompson, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 117...

VIDEO: How will the Tea Partiers in Congress vote on S. Korea NAFTA?

President Obama is likely to send the job-killing trade deal with S. Korea to Congress for approval sometime soon. Many Democrats will vote against it, so Obama is counting on Republican support. But an increasing number of Republicans are dubious about voting for the deal. Acording to Global Trade Watch, during the 2010 campaign,

...a record number of 75 Republicans adopted some fair trade messaging ... 43 of whom won their races. More than sixty races became "fair trade offs," where both the Democrat and Republican ran on fair trade themes. Only 37 candidates campaigned in favor of more North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)-style trade agreements - about half of these candidates lost ...

There are 50-odd members of the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, and many rank-and-fileTea Partiers oppose this deal. They've put up a website explaining their opposition:

Opposition is gaining among grassroots activists who historically opposed NAFTA, those who are alarmed at the violation of U.S. sovereignty, and even among conservative/libertarian “free traders” who now admit that the NAFTA-style Korea trade deal is not a true free-trade agreement.

Here's a video showing an unelected Tea Partier asking Tea Party members of Congress how they'll vote on the deal. Note that Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican, didn't say he'd vote against it.

Given that the union-busting billionaire Koch brothers fund the Tea Party, we're strongly doubting the Tea Party Caucus will join Democrats to kill the job-killing S. Korean trade bill. But time will tell.

VIDEO: Rock 'em, sock 'em speech from Sherrod Brown on help for NAFTA victims

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program ended Saturday. That means 155,000 to 170,000 people who lost their jobs because of trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA will also lose their benefits.


Congressional Republicans are holding up the extension of the program because they want the Obama administration to send three job-killing trade deals to Congress, and not just the job-killing trade deal for S. Korea. They hope Obama will back down and agree to also send deals with Colombia and Panama to Congress for a vote in exchange for extending the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

Here's Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, denouncing Republicans for once again trying to screw working families.

Today's Teamster News 01.31.11

Inflation in China May Limit U.S. Trade Deficit  New York Times   ...Inflation is starting to slow China’s mighty export machine, as buyers from Western multinational companies balk at higher prices...
Unrest in Egypt Unsettles Global Markets  New York Times   ...the situation in Egypt has the potential to cause more widespread uncertainty, especially if oil and other commodities keep surging or the unrest spreads to more countries in the Middle East...
What’s at Stake in the N.F.L.’s Labor Talks  New York Times   ...In the last two weeks, personalities as disparate as the Pittsburgh Steelers chairman emeritus Dan Rooney and Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie aired their concerns about the pace of negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement, which expires March 3...
State workers fear likely pension fees  Miami Herald   ...Florida is the last state not to require employees to contribute to their own pension, while some states offer free retirement to only a limited class of workers...
Wis. unions gird for cuts from Walker  NECN   ...Forcing concessions from state employees is a popular talking point for Gov. Scott Walker and one that likely will find a central place in his first State of the State speech on Tuesday...
Unethical Predatory Practices  Economy in Crisis   ...The United States is told that it must oblige to its commitment to “free trade,” not because it is in our best interest but because it is in our foreign creditors best interest...
Fight to finish on U.S.-S. Korea trade pact  AFP   ...With US President Barack Obama and his main foes both embracing a trade pact with South Korea, opponents are racing against the clock to regain momentum while supporters are leaving nothing to chance...