Today's Teamster News 01.14.16

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters, West Virginia Workers Stand Strong Against Right to Work  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall joined hundreds of labor union and community members at the State Capitol today to voice their opposition to right-to-work legislation introduced today in West Virginia. Delegates are expected to move forward on the measure as early as tomorrow...
NLRB Joint-Employer Rule Likely Headed For Appellate Review  Law360  ...The National Labor Relations Board’s new joint-employer standard is likely headed to an appeals court, after the board's ruling on Tuesday that Browning-Ferris and staffing agency Leadpoint, the parties in the case central to the new standard, unlawfully refused to bargain with the Teamsters. The ruling came four months after the NLRB adopted a looser joint-employer test...
Federal Appellate Court Enforces NLRB Ruling Against Chicago Parking Valet  Local 727  ...A federal appellate court judge has enforced a decision and order issued last year by the National Labor Relations Board against Chicago Parking Valet in which the NLRB found the company had engaged in unfair labor practices. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the NLRB’s decision and once again ordered the company to desist its unfair labor practices...
Teamsters Local 1932 hires new general manager  Examiner ...On Tuesday night at the regular meeting of the San Bernardino Public Employees Association/ Teamsters Local 1932 Board of Directors, General Manager Deidre Rodriguez stepped down. The board voted to hire Randy Korgan as the new manager in her place. Korgan most recently served as Teamsters Joint Council 42 Organizing Director...
Teamsters Members Win Over $70,000 in Overtime Back Pay  Local 2010  ...Christmas came for early for some members of Teamsters Local 2010 working in the UCSD Eye Institute. On December 22, 2015, 19 workers were awarded checks ranging from $126 to $5,074 for back pay owed for unpaid overtime. “If it wasn’t for the Teamsters we would have never gotten paid,” Leslie Medina said.  “With your help, we got what was owed us"...
Treasury Department Announces Additional January Public Sessions for Feedback on CSPF Rescue Plan  Teamster.org  ...The Treasury Department announced the details today for two additional public sessions in January for Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund retirees and participants to offer feedback on the proposed rescue plan. The sessions will be hosted by Treasury appointee Kenneth R. Feinberg...
Large pension cuts topic of Teamsters meeting Thursday  Kansas City Star  ...Kansas City area retired Teamsters will meet Thursday in another effort to head off large cuts to their pension checks set to hit next summer. The Missouri-Kansas City Committee to Protect Our Pensions is holding the afternoon session to educate and mobilize beneficiaries of the Central States Pension Fund. Thursday’s meeting includes an address by Jim Kabell, president of the Missouri-Kansas-Nebraska Conference of Teamsters...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
DuluxGroup workers in Australia strike amid looming job cuts  Sydney Morning Herald   ...More than 100 staff at DuluxGroup have been barricaded from the paint maker's Brisbane factory after they voted to go on strike following the company's refusal to remove a cap on redundancy entitlements.
Dulux - which has branded the strike as "opportunistic" -  has installed temporary fencing on council land near the factory at Rocklea...
In Name of Patient Safety and Future of National Healthcare, UK Doctors Strike  Common Dreams  ...Tens of thousands of junior doctors across the United Kingdom joined in strikes and pickets on Tuesday, protesting what they describe as "a fundamental breakdown in trust...for which the government is directly responsible." The strike stems from a dispute over pay and working conditions, weekend shifts in particular...
Toronto's outside workers union announces strike mandate  Toronto Sun  ...Toronto's outside civic workers have voted to strike if negotiations with the city fail, the union announced late Wednesday. CUPE Local 416, representing 6,000 employees including garbage collectors, sought the strike mandate after the city applied for a provincial conciliator late last month...
Canada won't commit yet to Feb. 4 TPP signing  CBC  ...Canada's international trade minister says her government hasn't decided whether it will participate in an expected signing ceremony for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Auckland, New Zealand early next month. "We are aware that some of the countries are talking about a signing in New Zealand. Canada hasn't yet taken a decision," Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Vancouver Tuesday...
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama's man appeals to Turnbull for help  Sydney Morning Herald  ...The US Ambassador to Australia says he wants Malcolm Turnbull to argue the case for the Trans-Pacific Partnership when he visits Washington next week, where members of Congress are undecided about how to vote. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama used his last State of the Union address to appeal to Congress to approve the 12-nation mega trade deal...
Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia might join TPP, says Miti  The Star  ...Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia have actually expressed interest to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), said the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti). Miti said this in its written response to issues raised by Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram recently that countries such as Thailand and the Philippines had opted to distance themselves from this treaty...
Guest of Rep. Peter DeFazio at State of the Union has seen effect of trade agreements firsthand  Register-Guard  ...DeFazio places the blame for Phillips’ troubles squarely on the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which he and other critics say rewarded American companies that moved jobs overseas. NAFTA supporters say the tariff-cutting, investment-encouraging deal has helped boost the economies of the three signatories — the United States, Canada and Mexico. DeFazio has been a long-standing critic, however...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right to work one of 1st bills out of gate; opposition organized  Metro News  ...Republican legislative leaders are making right to work legislation a top priority for the 2016 Regular Legislative Session. The first bill introduced in the state Senate on Wednesday was the one written to make West Virginia a right to work state. Opponents of the legislation in West Virginia called right to work “destructive” legislation that, in their views, would clear the way for lower wages and the weakening of work protections...
Minimum wage question headed toward 2016 ballot in Maine  Maine Sun Journal  ...Leaders of a statewide referendum campaign to incrementally boost Maine's minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $12 an hour by 2025 said Wednesday they would deliver more than 80,000 petition signatures to the secretary of state's office Thursday. The campaign, Mainers for Fair Wages, needed just over 61,000 signatures from Maine voters to put the question on the ballot in 2016...
Supporters of redistricting amendment nearing signature goal  The Southern  ...Changing the way Illinois’ legislative districts are drawn is one of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s priorities, and he may get some help this year from outside the General Assembly. Despite the Republican governor’s stance on the issue and his ongoing stalemate with legislative Democrats, putting the once-a-decade redistricting process in the hands of an independent commission has widespread bipartisan support...
Workers In Right To Work States Are Less Likely To Have Access To Retirement Plans  NH Labor News  ...Wide differences in access to and participation in employer-based retirement plans exist across states, with variations by employer size and industry type as well as by workers’ income, age, education, race and ethnicity, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The report, Who’s In, Who’s Out: A Look at Access to Employer-Based Retirement Plans and Participation in the States, examines the rates of access to and participation in plans in all 50 states...
New York Governor Calls For Paid Family Leave With Moving Story About Caring For His Late Father  Think Progress  ...In his State of the State address on Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) called for the passage of legislation that would ensure that state residents can take 12 weeks of paid family leave for a new child or a serious illness. Toward the end of his speech, he shared the story of caring for his late father, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, at the end of his life last year...
What's next for new Jersey paid sick leave bill?  NorthJersey.com  ...The failure to advance a sick leave bill feared by business leaders but once touted by state New Jersey Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto as a top legislative priority has left both sides wondering what comes next. The bill, which would have required employers to give their workers paid sick leave, was never even posted for a vote...
NAACP: Postpone NC voter ID trial until after primaries  Journal Now  ...The N.C. NAACP is asking a federal judge to postpone a trial on the state’s photo ID requirement until after the March 15 primary, according to court documents filed Tuesday. The trial is set to start Jan. 25 in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem. The state NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others sued North Carolina and Gov. Pat McCrory in 2013 after state Republican legislators passed a controversial sweeping elections law known as the Voter Information Verification Act...
Study: Minimum Wage Hikes Don't Hurt the Restaurant Industry  Eater  ...When restaurants raise prices to offset moderate increases to the minimum wage, the industry as a whole is not adversely affected. Like, at all. This is the conclusion of a study (see below) released last month by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration entitled "Have Minimum Wage Increases Hurt the Restaurant Industry? The Evidence Says No!"...
DC Council to consider bills on low-wage worker schedules  WJLA  ...The D.C. Council is considering two bills that are meant to provide low-wage workers with more predictable work hours. One bill would require the retail and food-service industries in the District of Columbia to provide their employees with written schedules at least 21 days in advance. The other would require janitors and maintenance workers in large office buildings to be given at least 30 hours of work per week...

U.S. LABOR
ArcelorMittal could idle some lines at Indiana Harbor  NWI Times  ...ArcelorMittal, one of Northwest Indiana's largest employers, may want to idle more operations at its steelmaking operations at Indiana Harbor in East Chicago. ArcelorMittal is currently discussing operations in East Chicago with the United Steelworkers union, as the two sides try to reach a new three-year labor pact...
Labor talks between Sonoma County, SEIU heading toward impasse  Press Democrat  ...Labor negotiations between Sonoma County and its largest union — representing more than half of the county’s 4,100 public employees — are nearing a stalemate that could drag out contract talks for months. The county has initiated impasse proceedings with the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which staged a three-day strike in November that disrupted some county services...
Sweet'N Low Workers Rally Outside Fort Greene Packing Plant to Save Jobs  DNA Info  ...Workers are saying “hell no” to Sweet’N Low manufacturer Cumberland Packing after the company announced last week it would end production at its Fort Greene plant. “We’re outraged, to say the least,” said UFCW Local 2013 President Louis Mark Carotenuto. Carotenuto said the workers, who have been called part of the Cumberland family, have since received little information about what’s going to happen to their jobs...
Mega-fleet XPO the latest to be hit with misclassification suit from port drivers  CCJ  ...Truck operators for three drayage carriers owned by carrier conglomerate XPO Logistics have filed a class action lawsuit seeking payment over alleged misclassification as contractors instead of employees, which led to lower wages and denial of state mandated breaks, plaintiffs claim...
Will St. Paul, Minnesota Teachers Soon Be Out on Strike?  In These Times  ...St. Paul teachers union organizer Patrick Burke says that the union has been practicing proactive behavior prevention strategies for a while now, with virtually no support from the district. The latest round of shocking school-based incidents, then, stand as more of a final straw than first steps on the road to a walk out. The union and district began contract negotiations in May of 2015, and Burke says the St. Paul Federation of Teachers put 25 proposals on the table...
UFW informs workers of undocumented rights in wake of ICE raids  Turnto23  ...One by one members of the UFW foundation approached people in Lamont passing out red cards that have the Fourth and Fifth Amendment on them in Spanish. The two amendments give workers constitutional protection from unlawful searches and the right to remain silent. On the other side of the card there are three statements that the UFW says the workers can say to the ICE agent...
Bar Associations Are Much More Like Unions Than Friedrichs’ Attorney Acknowledged  OnLabor  ...If the Supreme Court overturns Abood, it is not clear how States could continue to require lawyers to pay dues to State Bars.  Clearly much of what State bars do to regulate the legal profession involves questions of public policy.  And just as some teachers may disagree with the union’s position on teacher tenure or class size, some lawyers disagree with the bar association’s position on multi-jurisdictional practice or referral fees...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Myth of the middle class: Most Americans don’t even have $1,000 in savings  Salon  ...What exactly is the middle class? A new study suggests that the U.S. hardly even has one. More than half of Americans — 56 percent, to be exact — have less than $1,000 combined in their checking and savings accounts, according to a recent survey, Forbes reported...
Obama’s Immigration Raids Are Turning Latino Communities Into Ghost Towns  Think Progress  ...Even though the raids have so far been concentrated in Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia, there has been a ripple effect across the country. Latino immigrants in other states — afraid of becoming the next individuals arrested in what they perceive to be random targetings — are resorting to hiding in their homes, keeping their children home from school, and calling on legal residents to do their grocery shopping for them...
The influence of special interests extends to local editorial pages  Sunlight Foundation  ...The editorial pages of local newspapers still remain a key gathering place for debates about local and regional matters of importance. It is also a place where industries and individuals alike seek to influence policymakers at the local level. Alaska Dispatch News columnist Dermot Cole recently took this tactic to task after an op-ed on the seemingly obscure topic of occupational licensing was placed in the Dispatch News by Mark Holden, a senior vice president at Koch Industries...
Koch Daddy and the Nazis, a Revealing History from Jane Mayer  PR Watch  ...Mayer uncovers new information about how Fred Koch joined forces with a genuine Nazi sympathizer from the U.S. to build a refinery personally approved by Adolf Hitler himself, one of the three largest refineries in the Third Reich, which was used to create fuels for Hitler's deadly attacks on peaceful nations. While Mayer does not call Fred Koch a "Nazi sympathizer" himself, readers may disagree when reading Fred Koch's public praise for Germany under Hitler, as well as the other Axis powers, Japan and Italy...

Clinton, Sanders and O'Malley Address Police Violence and White Privilege at Brown and Black Forum  Truthout  ...Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley fielded pointed questions about police violence, racial justice, reparations, white privilege and deportations at the Iowa Brown & Black Forum on Monday night. The Iowa Brown & Black Forum has been bringing presidential candidates to one of the whitest states in the country in order for them to speak on issues of diversity since 1984...

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 12.08.15

TEAMSTERS
More Facebook Drivers Join Teamsters, Ratify Strong Agreement  Teamster.org  ...Shuttle drivers who transport Facebook employees to and from work have joined Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., and ratified a strong agreement providing for significant wages, benefit improvements and gains mirroring or exceeding the Facebook/Loop Transportation contract already in place. These drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., will supplement the drivers who work for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation...
More Facebook shuttle drivers join Teamsters, get new contract  USA Today  ...The seven drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., a corporate transportation provider based in Burlingame, Calif., shuttle Facebook employees to and from work. They will supplement the 90 or so drivers working for Loop Transportation, which has a contract with Facebook. Back in February, those drivers approved a contract negotiated between Loop and Teamsters Local 853 of San Leandro, Calif...
It's Time to Take a Stand for Workers on TPP  Huffington Post  ...We serve as representatives of American organized workers on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN) and together have stated that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a bum deal we cannot support. By registering our dissent to the ACTPN report that endorses the agreement, the Teamsters, the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers are letting Congress and the public know this deal fails everyday Americans...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Industry Discord Threatens Quick Approval Of TPP Trade Agreement   IBTimes  ...Six years of negotiations on a massive free-trade agreement among Asia-Pacific nations have produced an accord that’s generating lukewarm support from corporate America. Skepticism from industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals and financial services is now dimming the prospects for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office...
WTO Orders Sanctions Unless US Cuts Consumer Labels, Disproving Obama TPP Claims  Huffington Post  ...Yesterday's World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the country-of-origin meat labels (COOL) that Americans rely on to make informed choices about their food provides a glaring example of how trade agreements can undermine U.S. public interest policies. The ruling is a nightmare for the Obama administration's uphill battle to build support for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is Part of Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”  Global Research  ...The TPPA aims to enforce a common regulatory framework structured around the norms of American trade policies that govern rules for tariffs and trade disputes, patents and intellectual property, foreign investment, and other areas. Despite a level of secrecy that barred even elected public representatives of participating countries from access to the deal’s draft, advisors from major multinational corporations played a consistent, key role in forming the deal’s proposed measures...
Scottish Cabinet to Be Handed Petition to Block TTIP Trade Deal With US  Sputnik News ...A petition calling on the SNP-controlled Scottish government to oppose a controversial EU-US trade deal is due to go before the Cabinet on Tuesday, according to the anti-TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) grassroots movement. The TTIP trade deal has faced sharp criticism from activists and policymakers...
There is no EU solution to climate change as long as TTIP exists  (opinion) Independent  ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) now being negotiated between the EU and the USA exemplifies the contradiction between Europe’s rhetoric on free trade and climate change. The European Commission has admitted that TTIP represents a danger to biodiversity, natural resources and the environment...
IBEW and Ontario Northland reach deal  Canadian Press  ... A five-year agreement has been reached between the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Ontario Northland president Corina Moore says the company is pleased that an agreement has been reached with the union, which "has shown tremendous leadership and commitment to the company"...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
3 minimum wages in Oregon? Lawmaker's proposal would do just that  Oregon Live  ...Hoping to avoid a ballot fight in 2016, a Democratic state senator is crafting a proposal for three minimum wages in Oregon. A draft bill by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, would divide the state into three regions — Portland, the Willamette Valley and everywhere else — with different minimums for each. The Portland metro area, including Washington and Clackamas counties, would have the highest...
Lincolnshire considers going 'right to work' in village limits  Chicago Tribune  ...The Lincolnshire Village Board might soon give unionized employees who work at private companies inside village boundaries the choice of whether or not to pay union dues. And a variety of interests from outside their boundaries might gather in Village Hall, either to support or protest the move...
Right-to-Work vote could cause lingering tension in Missouri Senate in 2016  Missourinet  ...The 2016 legislative session could be tense at times in the Senate from the aftermath of Republicans forcing a vote on a right to work bill. The proposal would have prevented workers from having to pay union dues as a requirement for employment.  Democrat Leader Joe Keaveny said some Democrats are still upset with Republicans. "I’ve got some that are still pretty energized and I’ve got some that would like to move on. I would like to see us work our way through this,” said Keaveny...
Civil Rights Commission Committee To Hold Hearing On Kansas Voter ID Law  KCUR  ...The Kansas voter ID law will be the subject of  a U.S. Civil Rights Commission committee hearing next month. The Kansas voter ID law is one of most restrictive in the country. Pushed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, it demands voters not only have photo ID but they prove they are American citizens...
Koch-Funded Special Interest Groups and Utilities Bankrolling ALEC Meeting  Truthout  ...Koch-funded groups and utilities are bankrolling ALEC's closed-door winter meeting and parties for state legislators that are underway in Scottsdale, Arizona, at a luxury resort and spa. The three-day gathering is bringing together lobbyists and legislators to plan their 2016 bill agenda for the upcoming legislative session....

U.S. LABOR
UAW workers picketing outside Nexteer Automotive as strike begins  MLive  ...Workers represented by the UAW at Nexteer Automotive walked off their jobs at midnight Tuesday, Dec. 8, after the union failed to reach a new contract agreement with the company. Some of those workers appeared minutes later outside the gates of the sprawling manufacturing complex...
Unions For Workers At Detroit Casinos Reach Tentative Deal  CBS  ...Unions representing workers at Detroit’s three casinos have reached a tentative contract agreement that would cover about 7,000 workers. The Detroit Free Press reports the Detroit Casino Council, a consortium of four unions, reached the deal Sunday with Greektown Casino, MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity Casino...
Trump Las Vegas Workers Vote For UNITE HERE Union  NH Labor News  ...After two days of voting in a National Labor Relations Board election, a majority of workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas have voted “YES” to be represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 of UNITE HERE. Over 500 employees of the hotel are in the union’s bargaining units and were eligible to vote. Trump Las Vegas workers voted in the NLRB election on December 4 and 5 at their hotel...
UFCW Local 7 Grocery Workers Overwhelmingly Approve New Contracts  UFCW  ...Following three months of intense and challenging negotiations, members of UFCW Local 7 who work at King Soopers, Safeway and Albertsons stores in Denver, Colo., voted overwhelmingly to approve their new collective bargaining agreements. The new 40 month contracts are some of the best in the country...
Teacher contract dispute deepens, tests state law before union strike vote  Chicago Tribune  ...The school board has rejected the Chicago Teachers Union's demand to move contract talks to a final stage, setting up a new fight as teachers prepare to vote later this week on whether to authorize their leaders to call a strike. The union filed an unfair labor practice on Monday with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, demanding talks proceed to a fact-finding phase...
Day-Care Costs Can Drive a Family Into Poverty Before a Child Reaches Kindergarten  The Nation  ...The cost of daycare can drive a family into poverty before a child reaches kindergarten, but it’s also likely to impoverish her teacher first. While preschool programs are expanding nationwide, somehow, they cost parents everything while paying teachers nothing simultaneously. And childcare providers are so underfunded overall that the system leaves both teachers and families impoverished...
New report finds Americans lack economic mobility, opportunity  PBS  ...A report on poverty published on Thursday found a striking lack of economic mobility in America, that 43 percent of Americans born into families in the bottom fifth of the economic ladder are stuck there as adults, while 40 percent born in the top fifth stay there. The data was part of Opportunity, Responsibility and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Railroads Beat Back New Safety Rules After Derailments  ABC  ...A pair of train derailments in 2012 that killed two people in Maryland and triggered a fiery explosion in Ohio exposed a little-known and unsettling truth about railroads in the U.S. and Canada: No rules govern when rail becomes too worn down to be used for hauling hazardous chemicals, thousands of tons of freight or myriad other products on almost 170,000 miles of track...
Climate Inaction Risks Warming Far Beyond 2°C Threshold: Exxon (Yes, Exxon)  Common Dreams  ..Blink and you'll miss it, but one line in a recent Washington Post interview on climate change with experts from fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil offhandedly suggests a nightmarish, desperate future if global leaders don't act fast—one that centers around a possible average temperature rise of up to 7 or more degrees Celsius. "With no government action, Exxon experts told us during a visit to The Post last week, average temperatures are likely to rise by a catastrophic 5 degrees Celsius...
Trump New Low: Ban All Muslim Immigration to U.S.  Daily Beast  ...After weeks of ramping up rhetoric against worshippers of Islam, the Republican presidential frontrunner says they have a ‘great hatred towards Americans.’ Donald Trump said Monday as president he would halt all Muslim immigration to the United States. His xenophobic rhetoric has intensified in the last week...
'No human being is illegal': linguists argue against mislabeling of immigrants  The Guardian  ...Santa Ana is among many linguists who argue that the phrase “illegal immigrants” is neither “accurate nor neutral”. Other law-breakers are not referred to as illegal, making immigrants an outlier in the naming system, he said...
Trump and the “Low-Skilled” Labor Myth  (opinion) New Republic  ...In an otherwise sensible column about the limitations and possible consequences of dubbing Donald Trump a fascist, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat suggests that one of “the legitimate reasons” Trump’s campaign has endured so long is that conservative voters share a “reasonable skepticism about the bipartisan consensus favoring ever more mass low-skilled immigration”...
Chicago on the Brink After Release of New Police Killing Video  Common Dreams  ...Outraged citizens of Chicago say they are taking to the streets Monday night after the Cook County State's Attorney on Monday announced there will be no charges filed against the police officer who fatally shot Ronald Johnson III, a black man, last year—a decision that was prompted by what Johnson's family attorney described as "a whitewash, a cover-up"...  

Today's Teamster News 12.04.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Statement on San Bernardino County Shootings  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters Union is deeply saddened by the tragic event in San Bernardino County, Calif., which has taken the lives of 14 people, injured 21 and shaken the community at large. As the news continues to unfold, we are saddened to learn that some of the victims were members of Teamsters Local 1932. “Today is a sad day, as we join the San Bernardino community with a heavy heart in mourning this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and everyone impacted by this senseless tragedy,” said Jim Hoffa...
Teamsters end strike at Portland-area beer distributor, vote to return to work  Oregon Live  ...A 16-day strike at a Portland-area beer and wine distributor ended Wednesday with a union offer to go back to work, but the company's general manager said striking workers need to report to him Friday to keep their jobs. Representatives of labor and management issued news releases about the latest developments in the labor dispute at General Distributors Inc. in Oregon City. Teamsters Local 162, based in Portland, represents about 80 workers at General Distributors...
Coke workers strike in Alsip and Niles  Chicago Tribune  ...James Shears has worked at Coca-Cola bottling plants in the south suburbs for almost a half-century and said he has never seen contract negotiations break down as badly as they have over the last six months. Shears joined other members of the Teamsters Local 727 on the picket line early Thursday morning, as about 300 workers at the plants in Alsip and Niles began striking to protest what they claim are unfair labor practices...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
1,200 Irish Life workers to take strike action  Breaking News  ...1,200 workers at Irish Life in Dublin and Dundalk are to hold two, one day, strikes. The action has been announced for December 17 and January 20. A dispute has been ongoing since the beginning of November, over a new pay model. Unite, which represents the staff, also has said the company is refusing to attend the Labour Court...
Protests erupt as Ecuador scraps presidential term limits  DW.com  ...Protesters armed with sticks and rocks battled riot police in the capital where lawmakers engaged in a marathon nine-hour debate before lifting term limits, stripping collective bargaining rights for public sector workers and placing the military in charge of domestic security. Rights groups have criticized Correa for using his monopoly across all branches of government to stifle dissent, and they fear the latter measure will even further restrict freedom of expression...
Ryan promotes trade, falls short of endorsing TPP  The Hill  ...Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called for boosting U.S. exports but fell short of endorsing an expansive Pacific Rim trade deal that could go before Congress next year. Ryan, who as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee was one of the leaders who guided trade promotion authority through the House, will play a critical role in whether the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) earns enough support to clear Congress...
Reichert Says About 15 Republicans Will Oppose TPP Over Tobacco  MyInforms  ....Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA), the chairman of the House Ways & Means trade subcommittee, warned Thursday (Dec. 3) that securing congressional passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will be more difficult than the winning approval of the fast-track bill in June, in part because at the moment roughly 15 House Republicans who voted for fast track would oppose TPP over its treatment of tobacco...
How the Toxic Trade Deal You've Never Heard Of Could Kill the Climate  Common Dreams  ...As world leaders attempt to hammer out a global climate deal in Paris this week, trade officials are meeting in Geneva to continue negotiations on the mammoth Trade in Services Agreement (TISA)—and according to secret documents published Thursday, "the objectives of each could not be more diametrically opposed." The latest publication by WikiLeaks exposes new threats from TISA, the least well-known of the so-called Big Three "strategic neoliberal trade deals being advanced by the Obama administration"...
New TTIP 'Transparency' Agenca Still Leaves Public in the Dark  (opinion) War on Want  ...This week’s concession to create more access to secretive EU-US trade deal documents falls woefully short of any meaningful transparency for the 500 million people of Europe. An agreement between the European Commission and European Parliament to make key Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) texts available to all 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) was announced yesterday...
Greek capital brought to a standstill as workers strike against austerity  Euro News  ...Protesters marched through the streets of Athens on Thursday as over two-and-a-half-million workers took part in a general strike that has brought public services to a standstill. The 24-hour walkout is in response to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ acceptance of a new package of austerity measures by the country’s lenders, that includes a total overhaul of the social security and pension system...
In Oaxaca, Teachers Won’t Give Up the Fight  NACLA  ...Instead of facing off with the PRI-led state government, this time the union is up against global financiers, national economic elites, its own national union, and all the major political parties in Mexico. Each of these groups support a constitutional reform that would privatize schools, punitively evaluate teachers, and standardize education. The measure threatens the guarantee of a free public education and basic job security...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
What Scott Walker’s Elimination Of Wisconsin’s Living Wage Law Means For Workers  Think Progress  ...Last year, 100 low-wage workers in Wisconsin decided to sue their governor, Scott Walker (R), over their pay. The state had a century-old statute on the books saying that the minimum wage “shall be not less than a living wage,” enough “to permit an employee to maintain herself or himself in minimum comfort, decency, physical and moral well-being.” But this week they were handed a final defeat: A judge dismissed their lawsuit...
House Bill 337 Would Make Ohio a 'Right to Work' State  Gateway News  ...Dozens of union members and supporters packed two Statehouse hearing rooms and hallways Dec. 1 in a show of opposition to right-to-work legislation being considered by state lawmakers. At issue is HB 377, which would bar mandatory union membership or dues payments. Comparable law changes have been proposed in past general assemblies and a stalled constitutional amendment petition effort...
Legislative plan would set regional minimum wage rates  Portland Tribune  ...Spurred by two ballot initiatives to raise Oregon’s minimum wage, a Portland lawmaker plans to propose legislation in February that would set different regional minimum wage rates based on cost of living and median income. Sen. Michael Dembrow, who chairs the Senate workforce committee, said a legislative agreement could help avert an acrimonious and prolonged battle over minimum wage at the ballot box...
Alabama governor falsely claims state made deal with feds on voter ID  MSNBC  ...Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley responded Wednesday to a lawsuit challenging his state’s voter ID law by claiming that the state already came to an agreement with the federal government that addresses concerns about the law. But Bentley’s claim is flatly false: Alabama’s deal with the Feds had nothing to do with the ID law...
Bill would require all Harrisburg businesses to provide paid sick leave  ABC27  ...Thousands of people who work in the city of Harrisburg do not get paid sick leave, many make minimum wage.
“Life is hard enough as it is you do not need the pressure of an employer saying if you do not come in today, do not bother coming in tomorrow,” said Brad Koplinski, Harrisburg city councilman. Koplinski has introduced legislation that would require businesses in the city to provide five sick days for both full and part-time employees...

U.S. LABOR
UFCW Members at El Super Strike In Protest Against the Company’s Unfair Labor Practices  UFCW  ...On the day before Thanksgiving, El Super workers at seven unionized locations in Southern California decided to strike the company over unfair labor practices. Picket lines were established at 4 a.m. asking consumers to do their Thanksgiving shopping elsewhere. El Super union members have been working without a new and fair contract since September 2013...
UAW Election at Volkswagen's Tennessee Plant Ends Friday  ABC  ...Workers will finish casting their ballots Friday in the latest effort by the United Auto Workers union to organize at Volkswagen's lone U.S. plant in Tennessee. The two-day vote is scheduled to conclude at 8:30 p.m. EST, the end of the work day at the plant. The election involves 162 skilled trades workers, who are responsible for repairing and maintaining machines and robots at the Chattanooga factory...
Asarco's unions protest company's tactics  Arizona Daily Star  ...Union miners rallied Tuesday afternoon at Asarco’s Tucson headquarters to protest what they say are unfair contract negotiating tactics by the copper-mining company. The United Steelworkers, the lead among eight labor unions representing about 2,000 Asarco workers, said Asarco has announced its intent to unilaterally implement the company’s “last, best and final” contract proposal on Tuesday, calling the move “illegal”...
Mixed Verdict for Donald Blankenship, Ex-Chief of Massey Energy, After Coal Mine Blast  New York Times  ...Donald L. Blankenship, whose leadership of the Massey Energy Company was widely criticized after 29 workers were killed in the Upper Big Branch mine in 2010, was convicted Thursday of conspiring to violate federal safety standards, becoming the most prominent American coal executive ever convicted of a crime related to mining deaths...
The Entire Labor Movement Should Be Paying Attention to Wisconsin’s Kohler Strike  In These Times  ...Two thousand workers at the Kohler faucet plant in Northern Wisconsin have been walking the picket since November 16. Such a strike would have been commonplace decades ago. Nowadays it is a rarity. Major strikes of over 1,000 workers are few and far between. Even rarer are open-ended strikes at an industrial plant. The Kohler strike is an open-ended, large scale, non-publicity style strike in manufacturing, a traditionally organized industry...
Wage Growth Stagnated Even As November’s Job Growth Was Strong  Think Progress  ...The economy added 211,000 jobs in November while the unemployment rate stayed the same at 5 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Analysts had expected 200,000 jobs to be added. November’s gains came in construction (46,000), professional and technical services (28,000), health care (24,000), food and drink places (32,000), and retail (31,000)...
The Incredible Shrinking Incomes of Young Americans  The Atlantic  ...American families are grappling with stagnant wage growth, as the costs of health care, education, and housing continue to climb. But for many of America's younger workers, "stagnant" wages shouldn't sound so bad. In fact, they might sound like a massive raise. Since the Great Recession struck in 2007, the median wage for people between the ages of 25 and 34, adjusted for inflation, has fallen in every major industry except for health care...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
20 People Now Own As Much Wealth as Half of All Americans  The Nation  ...The 400 richest Americans now have more wealth than the bottom 61 percent of the population, a report released on Wednesday by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) reveals. According to “Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us,” just the twenty individuals at the top of the pile now control more wealth than the bottom half of the population...
6 Noxious Facts About America's Billionaires  Alternet  ...When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that he will give away 99 percent of his personal fortune—now estimated at $44 billion—during his lifetime, he was lauded in newspapers and TV broadcasts from coast to coast. But few people noted that giving away his billions will still leave Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan and newborn daughter Max, with at least $440 million to live on...
Here’s Why Hundreds of Immigrants in Detention Have Gone on Hunger Strike  Mother Jones  ...After spending months holed up in detention centers, more than 100 undocumented immigrants in California and Alabama launched a hunger strike on the evening before Thanksgiving. The following Monday, they were joined by dozens of other frustrated immigrants at three more detention centers in California, Colorado, and Texas. Their protest is the latest in a wave of hunger strikes at immigrant detention facilities across the country...
Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Has Gone From Fringe To Mainstream, Report Says  Think Progress  ...Anti-Muslim rhetoric, recently on display as lawmakers discuss the issue of resettling Syrian refugees, began on the fringes of the far-right and has infiltrated mainstream politics, according to a new report released by the National Security Network. “The current political climate is the culmination of a years-long and well-funded effort to bring Islamophobia and xenophobia from the far-right fringe to the political mainstream,” report authors J. Dana Stuster and Samuel Davidoff-Gore write...
Bombing Hasn’t Worked. Bombing Won’t Work. And Yet, We Will Bomb  The Nation  ...“If a man beats his head against the wall,” the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci once wrote, “it’s his head that breaks and not the wall.” In the wake of the horrific attacks in Paris, the British political class has been suffering terrible headaches. Once again, all its leaders can come up with is more bombing—this time, against ISIS in Syria. The logic is always the same: We must do something. Bombing is something. We must bomb...

Today's Teamster News 10.27.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Local 1205 Members at Baumann Buses Overwhelmingly Approve Contract  Teamster.org  ...In a secret ballot vote that was completed this afternoon, by a margin of 84 percent to 16 percent, Teamsters Local 1205 members working for Baumann/Acme Buses approved a new three-year union contract. This new contract, with its complex details, was recommended by the elected rank-and-file negotiating committee...
Baltimore Sun Drivers, Mailers, Pressmen Ratify New Teamster Contract  Teamster.org  ...After two years of difficult negotiations, tentative agreements for three departments at the Baltimore Sun represented by Local 355 and Local 888 were ratified at a jointly-held membership meeting Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015. The company had sought to shift the full burden of healthcare premium costs to workers, among other regressive demands, but bargaining committee members representing drivers and printers (Local 355) and mailers (Local 888) endorsed agreements that preserve current healthcare contributions and enhances job security...
Trucker strike begins at ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles  Press-Telegram  ...A group of truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike Monday, but port officials said the labor action had minimal impact on cargo operations. The “unfair labor practice” strike includes drivers “misclassified as independent contractors” rather than employees by Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistic, said Barb Maynard of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
President says Indonesia intends to join TPP trade deal  Reuters  ...Indonesian President Joko Widodo, speaking after a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, said his Southeast Asian country intends to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the United States has forged with 11 other nations. "We are the largest economy in Southeast Asia," Widodo said through a translator. "And Indonesia intends to join the TPP"...    
Chamber holds off on endorsing trade deal  Washington Examiner  ...Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue held off on endorsing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal the White House recently concluded negotiations on, stating that even he was not certain what was in the fine print of the deal. The Chamber is one of the leading advocates for free-trade policies, and its support will be crucial to getting the deal approved by Congress...
The TPP: An Attack on the Internet  Counterpunch  ...Wikileaks, the on-line bible of revealed secrets, published several leaked sections of what its editors believe is the final edition and the collective groan morphed into an outcry. It was, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it, “all that we feared.” The TPP internationalizes some of the worst inequities and abuses specific signing governments are currently committing and nowhere is that more true than with surveillance and communications repression...
Years after the Rana Plaza tragedy, too many of Bangladesh’s factories are still “death traps”  Quartz  ...The 2013 garment factory collapse at Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza, which killed at least 1,133 people, was seen around the world as a wake-up call. There had already been several deadly tragedies in the country’s massive and growing garment industry, such as the 2012 Tazreen Fashions fire, but the deaths at Rana Plaza were on a new scale. Nobody could ignore the dire conditions that workers toiled in any longer...
17,000 workers strike at Egypt’s largest public textile factory  Al Bawaba  ...A strike by 17,000 workers at Egypt’s largest public sector textile company entered its sixth day Monday, making it the largest and longest-lasting Mahallah workers action since ex-army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office over a year ago. Labor Minister Gamal Sorour said after meetings on Monday with officials in Gharbiya province, home to the beleaguered Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, that workers must resume production immediately...
Portugal's Democracy Cracks Under Weight Of Austerity  Huffington Post  ...Elections in Portugal this week offered the latest sign that when an individual European nation’s voters challenge eurozone austerity policies, the monetary union -- and the international creditors it represents -- takes precedence. Portugal’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, fueled an ongoing debate about the future of European democracy on Thursday when he reappointed an outgoing center-right prime minister despite election results...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Group challenges $1M drive to repeal prevailing wage  Detroit Free Press  ...The ballot committee Protect Michigan Jobs filed a challenge Monday to a $1-million business-backed petition drive to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law, saying more than 40% of the signatures submitted are duplicates or otherwise invalid. The group pushing to repeal the law, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, disputes the finding, and now it will be up to the state Board of Canvassers -- and possibly the courts -- to decide the issue...
Voter ID lawsuit hearing tentatively set for January Daily  Tarheel  ...A federal judge refused to dismiss challenges to North Carolina’s Voter ID law during a court hearing on Friday, and set a new tentative hearing for Jan. 16. The N.C. General Assembly passed the law two years ago, requiring voters to have photo ID when voting in-person. It would go into effect in 2016, possibly influencing the upcoming presidential primaries...
Why Are So Many Food Charities Shutting Down In Ohio?  Think Progress  ...As the Thanksgiving season starts, Ohio’s food charities are in rocky shape. About 40 food pantries in the state have been forced to close down or merge with another outfit in the past 16 months. Despite the closures, Ohioans can still turn to more than 1,700 individual food pantries around the state. But the contraction in food charities’ presence is a reminder of how precarious the nation’s volunteer-driven anti-hunger efforts are these days...
Supporters of higher minimum wage in capital seek compromise as vote looms  Sacramento Bee  ...Proponents of an embattled plan to raise Sacramento’s minimum wage are rushing to craft a new compromise in advance of Tuesday’s scheduled City Council vote, but it is far from certain that a deal can be reached. The plan would gradually hike the minimum wage in the city to $12.50 an hour by 2020...

U.S. LABOR
A Significant Deal for Automakers and Unions  The Atlantic  ...For nearly a decade, new workers hired at unionized auto plants across the country have started their jobs knowing a troubling fact: They made less than their colleagues, sometimes half as much. And no matter how hard they worked, they could never earn the wages of the people standing next to them on the assembly line. But, in a deal reached Sunday night, the UAW and GM announced that they had hammered out an agreement that would get rid of the two-tier wage system...
UAW members anxiously await details of GM contract  Detroit Free Press  ...One down, another close to the finish line and one more to go. That's pretty much where things stand in the UAW's contract talks with the Detroit Three. The UAW reached a new tentative agreement with General Motors shortly before midnight on Sunday but that agreement still has a long way to go before it becomes official...
UFCW 8-Golden State Members Ratify Agreements with Rite Aid  Business Wire  ...Concluding two years of collective bargaining, members of UFCW 8-Golden State have voted overwhelmingly to ratify new agreements with the Rite Aid drug store in the northern and southern regions of the state. UFCW 8-Golden State President Jacques Loveall praised the agreements, which cover approximately 2,500 Rite Aid Clerks and Pharmacists between the Oregon border and Kern County...
Union elections are rigged against workers  The Hill  ...Over the past couple of years, low-wage McDonalds, Wal-Mart and federal contract workers have been striking to win a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Some people ask us, “Why don’t you stop striking and just hold a union election?” The truth is America’s low-wage workers are striking because union election rules are rigged against us...
The Hellish Conditions Facing Workers At Chicken Processing Plants  Think Progress  ...In a report released on Tuesday, Oxfam America is launching a new campaign to address what it says are rampant health and safety issues, as well as low pay and few benefits, that face the people who process chicken in the country’s plants. Consumer demand has been growing. That demand has come with increased pressure on processing line speeds, which are twice as fast today as they were in 1979...
Latest GOP Buzzword for Turning Social Security Into A Welfare Program: Means-Testing  Salon  ...Means-testing Social Security is a popular position among Republican presidential candidates this election cycle—if not among prospective voters. That means, essentially, turning the nation’s retirement system into a welfare program, targeted at those with real hardships. If they get their way, not only will Social Security benefits be slashed for millions, but something fundamental will have changed: our national retirement system will be transformed from a social insurance program to a welfare program...
Top-Secret Pentagon Program Exploited Aid Workers as Covert Spies  Common Dreams  ... A new investigation published Monday reveals that the U.S. Pentagon for years funneled millions to a charity organization employing it to serve as the front group for global espionage—very real revelations that experts warn could have dangerous implications for aid workers worldwide...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
In Student Victory, U. of Mississippi Removes State Flag with Confederate Emblem  Democracy Now ...Early Monday morning, three campus police officers at the University of Mississippi removed the state flag with its Confederate emblem from the grounds of the school’s campus in Oxford. The move comes after the student government voted to remove the flag. Mississippi’s flag is the latest Confederate symbol to be targeted for removal from a public space since a white supremacist killed nine African-American worshipers in Charleston, South Carolina, four months ago...
Disturbing Video Shows School Cop Body Slam and Drag a Black Female Student  Mother Jones  ...Authorities in Richland County, South Carolina, are investigating a video that surfaced Monday showing a uniformed officer aggressively confronting a high school student. The video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellphone by a classmate, shows a white male officer standing over a black female student...

Today's Teamster News 10.20.15

TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Congress Should Rebuild Roads, Not Lengthen Trailers  Huffington Post  ...America's highways can be a dangerous place for motorists. That's why it makes no sense that some in Congress want to cave to trucking industry interests and approve the use of even longer double trailers on over-congested highways. Such a move further hampers highway safety and could potentially cause an uptick of deaths on the nation's thoroughfares...
Coca-Cola Workers Vote Teamsters Yes In Pennsylvania  Teamster.org  ...By a majority vote, production workers at the Coca Cola manufacturing facility in Allentown, PA have voted to join Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown. There are 90 employees in the union bargaining unit, all of which work in the syrup production facility, the key ingredient in Coca-Cola beverages...
Teamsters Local 745 Wins Two Organizing Campaigns  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas recently won two organizing campaigns, with more than 20 workers on their way to more secure futures. In the first victory, on October 7, 2015 workers at Exel, a distribution center in Socorro, Texas, near El Paso, voted 8 to 4 to join Local 745. There are 12 warehouse workers in the bargaining unit. On October 9, workers at Darling International in Dallas, a grease recycling company, voted 6 to 2 to join Local 745...
Teamsters Say Union Buster C&S Wholesale Grocers Aims To Kill Jobs at Safeway  In These Times  ...Teamster members and their supporters are mobilizing to block a union busting effort at two huge warehouses controlled by the Safeway supermarket chain, one of several food retailers recently combined into national grocery store colossus by Wall Street private equity firm Cerberus Capital. The two warehouses are located in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and currently employ about 700 workers, most of them represented by the Teamsters...
EVSC, Teamsters Optimistic of Reaching Deal  TriState Homepage  ...The Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and a local union remain at odds and without a contract, but leaders from both sides still have hope. At Monday night's EVSC School Board meeting, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey expressed optimism about reaching a deal. The school board matched the sentiment. However, nothing beyond that was discussed...
3 senators set news conference to state opposition to 33-foot trailers  The Trucker  ...Three senators - two Democrats and one Republican - say they will hold a news conference in front of the Capitol Wednesday to discuss their bipartisan opposition to a federal mandate that would allow large trucks to pull double 33-foot trailers on the nation’s highways. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., say they will be joined by representatives from the trucking industry, Teamsters, law enforcement and a safety advocacy group...
Teamsters: Canadians Choose Change  Teamsters Canada  ...Canadians made their choice. They sent a clear message by electing a Liberal majority. Canadians are eager for change and expressed it eloquently. The challenges ahead are great, but this new generation of politicians was brought to power with a strong mandate. The drawn-out election campaign allowed Justin Trudeau to speak out on several issues that are important not only for the workers we represent, but for all citizens of this country...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Opposition's Trudeau wins, raising doubts on TPP  Nikkei  ...Canada's opposition Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, defeated Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party in Monday's snap election, ending nine years of Conservative rule. The shift in power to the center-left party casts uncertainty on whether Canada will ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Trudeau, 43, has been critical of the TPP...
Public Services Under Attack through TTIP and CETA Atlantic Trade Deals  Global Research  ...Public services in the European Union (EU) are under threat from international trade negotiations that endanger governments’ ability to regulate and citizens’ rights to access basic services. The EU’s CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) agreement with Canada, the ratification of which could begin in 2016, and the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) treaty under negotiation with the United States are the latest culmination in such efforts...
TTIP Already 'Rewriting the Rule Book' for EU Food Standards, New Report Finds  Common Dreams  ...The pending Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will likely spark a "race to the bottom" for national policies that regulate everything from the air we breath to the food we eat and, according to a new report, the controversial pact is already pushing European governments to loosen key food safety standards. Put forth by the UK-based social justice organization Global Justice now, the report, published Sunday, highlights a component of the pact known as "regulatory cooperation" or "regulatory coherence"...
The TPP: Priority #1 of US Multinational Corporations  TeleSUR  ...Although the full TPP document is still being kept secret — to all but the representatives of multinational corporations who chaired the 30 committees and told the government trade representatives what to negotiate, some details of the super-secret deal have been leaking out. And if the leaks are any indication of what’s to come when full details are released, consumers, workers, and everyone concerned about the growing global “corporatization” of democracy, are in for a big shock...
Obama takes to op-ed pages to push Trans-Pacific Partnership  CNN  ...President Barack Obama is taking to the op-ed pages of several local newspapers to make his case for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. On Saturday, the Concord Monitor of New Hampshire published an op-ed under Obama's byline advocating for the deal and why it stands to benefit New Hampshire. The day before, the Tampa Bay Times published virtually the same op-ed by Obama...
Canadians hit at politics of austerity  Financial Times  ...The politics of austerity took a beating in the Canadian federal election on Monday, as the Liberal party of Justin Trudeau swept to victory on a platform of increasing the budget deficit to fund infrastructure projects and thereby stimulate the economy. Under Mr Trudeau, the Liberals tacked to the left this year, arguing that Canada should take advantage of the current low level of interest rates to increase borrowing and bolster an economy left reeling by lower prices for oil and other commodities...
Greece eyes new reforms as workers call strike, farmers mobilize  Reuters  ...Greece's international lenders will start assessing its economic reforms this week as the debt-riddled nation braced for more economic pain and its largest union called for a nationwide strike on Nov. 12. The Greek parliament last week approved a first raft of reforms to the pension and tax systems, sought by lenders as a condition for up to 86 billion euros in aid. The retirement age will incrementally rise to 67...
MBIE workers to go on strike  3News  ...Staff at the controversy-plagued Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment are going on strike. More than 1000 workers have voted to take industrial action on November 5 and November 23. Their union, the Public Service Association, says MBIE is refusing to offer any pay increases and management continue to contribute to poor workplace culture. "These people help keep to set the standard for all New Zealand workers"...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
The Kochs Want to End WI's Era of Clean Government  PR Watch  ...Following the bipartisan "John Doe" investigation into campaign finance violations by Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin Republicans are out for revenge. And the Kochs have their back. This week, the Wisconsin state legislature will take up a trifecta of bills that will undermine the state's long traditions of clean and transparent government. One bill will gut the state's campaign finance laws...
Judge Refuses To Expand Wisconsin Voter ID Law To Help Students And Veterans Vote  Think Progress  ...On Monday, a federal district court in Wisconsin rejected demands from local students, veterans, and low-income residents to allow them to use alternative forms of voter ID or have the ability to sign a sworn affadavit at the ballot box. A lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the strict voter ID law Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed in 2011 placed “an unjustified burden” on their ability to vote...
Judge to rule on Kentucky county's right-to-work law  Reuters  ...A federal judge is poised to rule on a union challenge to a Kentucky county's right-to-work ordinance, in a closely watched case testing the legality of local bans on union security agreements. Twenty-five states have right-to-work laws prohibiting provisions in collective bargaining agreements calling on workers to pay money to labor unions as a condition of employment. But Kentucky, which has no statewide right-to-work law, became a testing ground for local laws...
Veterans Don't Want Lawmakers to Repeal Prevailing Wage  WILX  ...Some veterans who work in the construction industry are trying to convince state lawmakers not to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law. Around 9% of construction workers are veterans, compared to 6% of the rest of the workforce. The prevailing wage law requires contractors to pay union-scale salaries for all taxpayer-funded projects...
Right to Work lawmakers impose their own 'union dues'  MLive  ...When Republican legislators pushed through a contentious Right To Work law two years ago, they said they were freeing unionized workers from a system that "confiscated" a portion of employee paychecks through union dues. Yet those GOP lawmakers hypocritically engage in their own rigid employment system. The leadership of both parties essentially charges legislative aides dues by instructing them to contribute hundreds of dollars for their respective party's campaign activities...
Robert Reich: Working Full Time and Living in Abject Poverty - That's What Today's Minimum Wage Will Get You  Alternet  ...Have you noticed how often conservatives who disagree with a policy proposal call it a “job killer?” They’re especially incensed about proposals to raise the federal minimum wage. They claim it will force employers to lay off workers. But as Princeton University economist Alan Krueger pointed outrecently in the New York Times, “research suggests that a minimum wage set as high as $12 an hour will do more good than harm for low-wage workers”...
Can Drought-Ridden California Keep Growing?  The Atlantic  ...As the population of the San Joaquin Valley swells despite city-planning and water-system crises, it’s the poor, rural communities that tend to be worst off. Emissions from transportation, mostly from trucks, are what primarily make the region’s air quality among the worst in the nation. The zip codes with the highest rate of respiratory risk have poor and predominantly Hispanic populations. And lately, the drought has made air even more unbreathable...

U.S. LABOR
Grocery workers ratify new contract with Safeway  Business Journal  ...Grocery-store workers at Safeway and Vons stores in Northern and Central California have ratified a new contract, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union announced Friday afternoon. The four-year contract between Local UFCW 8-Golden State ­covers about 9,000 workers at 130 Safeway stores, including about 15 in the Sacramento region...
UAW members to begin voting on new FCA contract  The Detroit News  ...As 40,000 United Auto Workers members begin voting Tuesday on the latest tentative agreement between the union and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, hostility that fueled an overwhelmingly majority of workers to reject the first four-year deal appears to have been dialed down to a simmer. Since the new deal was reached just prior to a strike deadline on Oct. 7, there have been no large protests planned, social media chatter has cooled and talk on many factory floors is that the deal is far improved...
Steelmakers still ask for layoffs, concessions  NWI Times  ...The United Steelworkers union is fighting U.S. Steel on layoffs, and taking a break from negotiations with ArcelorMittal. The USW won't resume talks with ArcelorMittal until Oct. 25. The union told its members little progress has been made in talks over the past week with the Luxembourg-based steelmaker...
AT&T, Communications Workers of America Reach Tentative Agreements In AT&T Southeast Wireline Contract Negotiations  MarketWatch  ...AT&T today announced that AT&T southeast wireline operations have reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America in southeast wireline contract negotiations. Additionally, the Company reached tentative agreements with the CWA on two southeast regional contracts. They cover about 24,000 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee...
Union workers picket to get better deal with AT&T  Robesonian  ...Thirteen members of Local 3609 of the Communications Workers of America joined fellow-union members in nine states Friday on informational picket lines to build public support in their effort to get a better contract with AT&T. “We want to reach a fair contract. We want to provide the quality service our customers deserve,” said Local President Nathan Mason...
Why We Need to Take Care of the Workers Behind Home Healthcare  The Nation  ... Since home-based healthcare services is one of the fastest growing sectors, home care jobs are being redefined largely by market trends. But a program developed through the SEIU home care union in Washington sees the sector’s expansion as a platform to systematically transform one of the lowest-paid jobs into a career of the future...
No Haitians need apply: Horribly racist help wanted ad sparks outrage, investigation  Salon  ...An outrageous help-wanted ad in a New York newspaper has sparked a torrent of outrage. The ad in the New City (N.Y.) Pennysaver, filled with spelling errors, seeks a “Laid back nurse, no haitians, must have strong respiratory mngt” for in-home nursing positions in West Haverstraw, Rockland County. After the ad sparked a torrent of public outrage on social media, New York State Sen. David Carlucci posted on Twitter that he would call an investigation...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
What happened to the president's immigration programs?  LA Times  ...Demonstrators are fasting this week in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, protesting a suit brought by 26 states that seeks an end to the temporary protection from deportation granted to immigrants by executive action. A panel of three appeals court judges heard arguments July 10 but has delayed ruling nearly a month beyond its self-imposed 60-day deadline...
Ferguson Traffic Fines Reform Is Having A Surprising Side Effect  Think Progress  ...A tiny Missouri town disbanded its police department last week, acknowledging that its old way of operating was untenable under a new state law restricting towns in St. Louis County from using cops, courts, and speed traps as a money mill. The law was prompted by federal investigations in the wake of Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson’s killing of unarmed teenager. Those inquiries revealed systematic exploitation of the traffic court system to ensnare drivers – predominantly people of color and low means...