TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Applaud Supreme Court's Refusal to Hear Amerijet Lawsuit Teamster.org ...Teamsters Airline Division Director Capt. David Bourne in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of a petition this week by Amerijet International Inc.: “It comes as no surprise that the Supreme Court would refuse to hear this case, and in doing so, uphold the Eleventh Circuit Court’s reasoning that this lawsuit is without merit. The lawsuit by Amerijet is unnecessary and a blatant abuse of the legal process in an effort to circumvent the legally established standards of labor law”...
Judge: Con-way Violated Rights of Workers in Los Angeles Teamster.org ...Con-way Freight, Inc. violated the rights of workers who were trying to form their union with the Teamsters and must re-hire two workers it unlawfully fired during the organizing campaign, among other remedies, an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled. The workers at Con-way’s Los Angeles terminal were trying to join Local 63. The company must cease its illegal activities, reinstate the two fired workers and pay them back wages and benefits, and take other steps...
Pettiness Reaches New Heights At Résidences Soleil Teamsters Canada ...Unhappy with being forced to pay half of its workers’ life insurance premiums, Résidences Soleil owner Eddy Savoie is taking it out on his workers by making them pay… for their coffee! This bizarre story began in October 2012 when the management of Résidences Soleil decided to do away with its long-standing practice of paying 50% of its employees’ life insurance premiums. Teamsters Local Union 106 filed grievances to protest against this arbitrary decision...
Concord city employees to strike Wednesday Contra Costa Times ...Barring a last minute deal, the city's largest employee union will strike Wednesday to protest alleged unfair labor practices in the public works department. Teamsters Local 856 represents 137 employees, including administrative, clerical and maintenance staffers. The union also represents police dispatchers, but they will report to work Wednesday...
San Francisco tech shuttles get long-term approval USA Today ...San Francisco’s tech shuttles that service Facebook, Google and other companies have gained a permanent place in the city’s transportation system. The Teamsters have been involved in helping to organize shuttle drivers and other workers at Silicon Valley tech giants including Apple, eBay, Facebook and Yahoo. “We are pleased with this ruling, which protects daily public transit riders and the shuttle drivers who deserve to be treated properly and with dignity,” said Rome Aloise...
21 Organizations Fighting for Labor Rights in the Food System Huffington Post ...In Tracy, California, Teamsters members are fighting poverty wages and severe violations of basic rights at Taylor Farms. And more than 11,000 Teamsters workers have united to defeat a mega-merger of U.S. Foods and Sysco, which would have jeopardized thousands of broadline food service and transportation jobs...
Local 727 Beverage Members Stand Together for Strong Contracts in Niles, Alsip Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 members at Coca-Cola Refreshments and Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Distribution wore their unity loud and proud on Tuesday, November 17, as negotiations continued for new contracts with both companies. Hundreds of members sported red Teamster T-shirts as they started their shifts in beverage production and warehouse facilities in Chicago, Niles and Alsip, Ill. Local 727 also brought food and refreshments to members in Niles and Alsip, rallying together in support of new agreements...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Petrobras holdout strikers to vote on new deal Thursday Reuters ...A union representing workers in the Brazil's top oil region will vote on Thursday on a contract offer from state-run oil company Petrobras on Thursday or continue a strike, the most disruptive in 20 years, the union said Wednesday. The union, Sindipetro Norte Fluminense, called the vote after Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is known, agreed to discuss its demand that members receive back pay for all the days they were on strike...
Prospects dim for 2016 Pacific Rim trade vote in US Congress Reuters ...A 12-nation Pacific Rim free-trade deal, facing stiff opposition from many Democrats and unexpected resistance from Republicans, is unlikely to be voted on by the U.S. Congress before President Barack Obama leaves office, according to some Republican lawmakers and aides. A veteran Senate Republican aide, who asked not to be identified, said Republican leaders intend to shelve the deal until after the November 2016 presidential election...
House Democrats call TPP 'too big' to pass Congress The Hill ...A half dozen House Democrats asserted on Wednesday that opposition is growing for a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement as the White House ramps up efforts to build support for the deal. The six Democrats — Reps. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.), Mark Pocan (Wis.) and Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) — said the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal is “too big” to pass Congress and must be scrapped...
Pacific Rim trade pact praised, panned as proposed deal faces uphill battle in to Congress AP ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific nations is drawing potential new members from Asia and criticism from those excluded, as it heads for a tough ride in the U.S. Congress. Leaders of the trade grouping that spans the Pacific Rim met alongside a regional economic summit on Wednesday in the Philippines and President Barack Obama urged them to ratify the deal "as quickly as possible"...
Obama expects TPP approval from Canada after first meeting with Trudeau Globe and Mail ...Barack Obama said he expects Canada will sign on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The President of the United States made the comment following his first formal meeting with new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Liberal government has officially been non-committal on the deal...
APEC Protesters Defy Water Cannons as TPP Signing Announced TeleSUR ...While APEC condemned “terrorism” and called for an international security response in the summit's last day, protesters continued to slam free trade. Philippine police pushed back crowds with water canons in Manila on Thursday as demonstrators protested the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, soon after member states agreed that the the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement would be signed on Feb. 4, 2016...
UK PM to Get $15 Mln Private Jet Ahead of Public Austerity Cuts Sputnik News ...David Cameron will be given his own version of the US President's Air Force One. This is despite the government's commitments to cutting billions of pounds of public spending. A Royal Air Force Voyager A330 is to be re-fitted at the taxpayers' expense, in order to provide private transportation for Mr Cameron, senior ministers, and possibly members of the royal family...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
77 California cities on ‘economically challenged’ list SacBee ...Nearly a third of Californians live in 77 “economically challenged” cities – including Los Angeles – with high levels of poverty, and low levels of income and employment, a new study declares. Moreover, says the report from the National Resource Network, California’s distressed cities are more than a quarter of the 297 U.S. cities over 40,000 population that fall into that category...
New York Cities to Raise Minimum Wage for City Workers Wall Street Journal ...Buffalo and Rochester are moving to raise the minimum wage of municipal employees to $15 an hour as part of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s push to raise the wage floor for all workers. The Democratic governor joined the mayors of both cities for their announcements on Wednesday...
Gov. Cuomo: State should enact $2B tax cut if minimum wage is raised to $15/hour Daily News ...Gov. Cuomo suggested Wednesday that the state enact a $2 billion tax cut if the Legislature approves his plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. At an event in Buffalo, Cuomo accused businesses of “stealing from taxpayers” by paying workers low wages knowing those same employees can also qualify for state welfare assistance. The governor called the situation a “scam” and “the mother of all loopholes”...
Democrats attack Rep. Bishop on union wage votes The Detroit News ...The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running drive-time radio ads this week linking U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop’s votes on prevailing wage bill provisions with campaign donations from the powerful DeVos family of Grand Rapids. The ads, on the air in Metro Detroit and Lansing, charge that the Rochester Republican “wants to gut prevailing wage laws that make sure construction workers get paid a fair local wage”...
U.S. LABOR
Airport workers at 7 U.S. hubs to strike Wednesday night Washington Post ...Airport workers at seven of the busiest U.S. airports are going on strike Wednesday night to protest what they say are poor working conditions and retaliation for unionizing. More than 2,000 workers, including cleaners, wheelchair attendants, and baggage handlers plan to strike at Fort Lauderdale, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Newark Liberty and New York’s Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, the Service Employees International Union said...
SEIU, Local 1021 returns to work as negotiators meet with county, mediator The Reporter ...Following a two-day strike action Wednesday, members of Service Employees International Union, Local 1021 voted to take a breather today as union negotiators meet with Solano County negotiators and a mediator. John Stead-Mendez, SEIU executive director, explained that the membership wanted the bargaining team to focus on negotiations and not worry about the striking workers...
Ford's UAW agreement in jeopardy after defeats at big plants Crain's ... Leaders of the United Auto Workers union scrambled Wednesday to salvage a proposed labor agreement with Ford, warning rank-and-file members that a rejection of the deal could jeopardize investments that would sustain U.S. factory jobs. With three-fourths of the national Ford union voted counted, 52 percent have rejected the proposed contract, Jimmy Settles, head of the UAW's Ford Department, said at UAW Local 600 in Dearborn, Michigan...
UAW Taking 'Micro' Approach to Unionizing Volkswagen Plant ABC ...The United Auto Workers union is back with a more concentrated approach after suffering a bitter loss in its efforts to gain collective-bargaining rights for all blue-collar workers at Volkswagen's plant in Tennessee. The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday granted a petition by a small group of skilled-trades workers to hold a vote on being represented by the UAW for collective bargaining purposes...
Rauner Strikes Contract Deals With Unions, Takes Aim At AFSCME Progress Illinois ...The state of Illinois and a number of labor unions have reached four-year contract agreements, the Rauner administration said Wednesday. In announcing the new agreements, the Rauner administration used the opportunity to take aim at AFSCME Council 31. The union and the administration have yet to reach a new contract agreement...
Remembering the Life and Music of Labor Agitator Joe Hill, Who Was Executed 100 Years Ago Today In These Times ...Joe Hill saw his music as a weapon in the class war, composing songs to be sung on soapboxes, picket lines or in jail. And 100 years ago today, the forces of capital and the state of Utah executed him. Born Joel Hagglund in Sweden, Hill immigrated to the United States in 1902. Hill became politicized, eventually joining the Industrial Workers of the World...
Money and clout on the line for teachers union in 2016 CAL Matters ...The California Teachers Association, one of Sacramento’s most powerful interests, is heading into an extraordinary year with decisions on the ballot, in the Capitol and in the courts holding the potential to impact its clout for many years to come. Billions of dollars for schools will likely be at stake on the 2016 ballot as well as pivotal campaigns for state Legislature and a question about union pensions...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Koch intelligence agency Politico ...The political network helmed by Charles and David Koch has quietly built a secretive operation that conducts surveillance and intelligence gathering on its liberal opponents, viewing it as a key strategic tool in its efforts to reshape American public life.
The operation, which is little-known even within the Koch network, gathers what Koch insiders refer to as “competitive intelligence” that is used to try to thwart liberal groups and activists...
Elizabeth Warren Blasts Tax Plan as 'Giant Wet Kiss' to Corporate America Common Dreams ...Denouncing a "rigged" system that favors corporations over middle-class Americans, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a "must-watch" speech on Wednesday that any reform of the U.S. corporate tax code must force big businesses to "substantially increase" the amount of federal tax they pay. Warren's address at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "staked out the left-wing position on corporate tax reform," Politico said...
Growing Number of Voters Have Families Impacted by Immigration Policy NBC ...For a significant number of potential 2016 voters, immigration policies are not an abstraction but have a direct impact for their loved ones. As many as 1.5 million U. S. citizen relatives of immigrants awaiting deportation relief under the president's stalled executive action program will be eligible to vote for president next year...
Hysterical Corporate Media Fueling War Fervor, Xenophobia in 24/7 Cycle Common Dreams ...Just as they did in the wake of 9/11, corporate media outlets—led by cable news networks—are spreading hysteria, fueling anti-immigrant sentiment, and beating the drum for war by providing "context-free coverage of terror," as one analyst put it this week. The 24/7 coverage of Friday's attacks in Paris and their aftermath, marked by speculation and sensationalism, is only helping the media conglomerates...
In Minneapolis, Local Black Lives Matter Activists Draw on a Growing National Network Truth Out ...Like many groups, BLM Minneapolis emerged as the wider movement for black lives exploded into headlines last year. The last few months, the group has been working to further involve community members in their strategizing and decision-making processes, as well as create opportunities to mobilize more broadly around the forces impacting black, Latino and indigenous city residents...
With Demands for Racial Justice, Student 'BlackOut' Actions Sweep US Common Dreams ...Students at colleges and universities from coast to coast walked out of class, held rallies and teach-ins, and protested on Wednesday as part of a coordinated national day of action demanding racial justice both on- and off-campus. The actions were both inspired by and in solidarity with recent protests at the University of Missouri and other institutions...
Showing posts with label airport strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airport strike. Show all posts
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.17.15
Teamsters
Bipartisan Coalition Upholds Gov. Nixon Veto of Right-to-Work in Victory for Working Families Teamster.org ...Today, a bipartisan group of state legislators in the Missouri House and Senate came together to protect working families by voting to sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of so-called right-to-work legislation. “I would like to thank the state legislators who put aside their partisan differences and came together to uphold Gov. Nixon’s veto,” said Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa...
Teamsters Support Murray-Scott Legislation to Strengthen Worker Protections Under NLRA Teamster.org ...The Teamsters applaud today’s introduction of the Workplace Action for a Growing Economy (WAGE) Act by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). The WAGE Act is a positive step forward, addressing the shortcomings of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in the areas of workers protections and penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights...
Tucson bus strike ends after union vote Arizona Daily Star ...The 42-day Tucson bus strike ended Wednesday when drivers, mechanics and other members of Teamsters Local 104 voted to accept a new contract. The vote was 351-41, an 89 percent approval, said Teamsters Local 104 President Andy Marshall. Everyone gets a raise under the new contract, he said, but he wouldn’t release contract details, saying he didn’t want to inflame opinions...
Bus Strike Ends! The Teamsters Approve Sun Tran's Two-Year Deal Tucson Weekly ...With a vote of 351 to 41, the bus drivers and mechanics who have been picketing for six weeks approved a deal between the Teamsters Local Union 104 and Professional Transit Management—the company contracted by the city of Tucson to oversee Sun Tran. The two had reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama upbeat on prospects for Pacific trade deal Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was confident Pacific Rim nations could nail down an agreement on a free-trade pact this year although approval by the U.S. Congress was not guaranteed. Speaking to a group of corporate executives, Obama said trade ministers should soon have an opportunity to close a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Ministers to reconvene TPP talks in late September Japan Times ...Ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries will meet in late September in Atlanta as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free-trade zones, negotiation sources said Thursday. A meeting of chief negotiators from the United States, Japan, Canada and nine other member countries involved in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership talks will begin from Sept. 26...
Final push for Pacific Rim pact set for end of September Globe and Mail ...An effort to land a massive Pacific Rim free trade agreement within weeks is under way, raising the prospect the wide-ranging Trans-Pacific Partnership could dominate the final stretch of the Canadian election campaign. Chief negotiators for the 12 countries involved, including Canada, will begin meeting in Atlanta on Sept. 26...
Chilean Airport Workers Strike, Leave Thousands Stranded Aviation Pros ...On the heels of strikes in throughout Europe last month and Seattle just last week, Chilean airport workers have begun a 24-hour strike that has left an estimated 70,000 travelers stranded in the South American country, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The airport strike is led by air traffic controllers and ground support staff demanding better retirement benefits...
Worker Rights under Siege at Oil Refinery in Kyrgyzstan Solidarity Center ...The recent firing of a union leader at a Chinese-owned oil refinery in Kyrgyzstan is the company’s latest attempt in the past two years to prevent workers from forming a union, according to the global union IndustriALL and workers. Zhanaydar Ahmetov, leader of the trade union committee at China Petrol Company Zhongda was fired and locked out of the plant on August 29, the second union leader dismissed in two years, factory workers say...
Border Force workers strike over wages Daily Mail ...Strikes by Department of Immigration and Border Protection employees are expected to cause a week of disruptions at international and domestic airports across the country. The employees, including those from Border Force, began the protected industrial action in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia on Wednesday and plan more until Wednesday next week. The action comes as Community and Public Sector Union members vote on a proposed enterprise agreement...
State & Living Wage Battles
'Right to work' measure dies in Missouri House St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Applause erupted in the the House chamber Wednesday as Republican leaders' goal to make Missouri the 26th "right to work" state died when members failed to vote to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto. The measure, which prohibits companies from requiring union membership or dues as conditions of employment, was pushed through the legislative session in May as Republicans used aggressive tactics...
Union members relieved after right-to-work legislation fails Columbia Missourian ...The Missouri House of Representatives voted 96-63 to uphold the governor's veto, falling 13 votes short of an override. House Bill 116 would have made it illegal for employers to require employees to join a union as a condition of employment. The victory for organized labor was watched closely nationwide. The bill would have made Missouri the 26th right-to-work state in the country, and its failure was cheered by dozens of union members in the House galleries...
Oregon's minimum wage will stay $9.25 in 2016 KATU ...Oregon's minimum wage will stay the same in 2016. The wage is re-calculated each year because of a state law passed by voters in 2002 that ties it to inflation. The wage will remain stuck at $9.25 this January because it is pegged to the Consumer Price Index, which showed little inflation, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said Wednesday. The Legislature considered several bills earlier this year that would have raised the minimum wage — each lacked sufficient support...
Missouri legislators block cities from raising minimum wage Business Journal ...Missouri legislators voted Wednesday to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a measure to stop municipalities from raising minimum wages above the ceiling set by the state. The Missouri House voted 114-46, and later in the day the Senate voted 23-9 to override the veto. That exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to override the Democratic governor's July veto of House Bill 722...
California Workers Could See More Protection Against Wage Theft RH Reality Check ...While California has some of the strongest wage theft laws in the country, regulators have little authority to enforce those laws. That may change after a bill passed last week by the Democratic-led state legislature. SB 588, sponsored by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), would give the California labor commissioner such authority...
Bill seeks to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour in Florida Click Orlando ...As the debate over minimum wage continues across the country, two local bills could soon change the minimum wage in Florida. Two Florida state senators on Thursday will call on legislators to sign bills that would raise the minimum wage in the state to $15 per hour. Both bills would nearly double the state's current minimum wage, which is $8.05...
U.S. Labor
Seattle teachers back in the classroom after tentative deal ends strike Daily Kos ...Seattle teachers went back to work Wednesday to prepare for schools to open on Thursday after the Seattle Education Association and school district management reached a tentative deal to end the teachers strike that delayed the scheduled start of the school year. The teachers were pushing for improved pay after six years without a cost of living increase, as well as for mandatory recess, equity teams in all schools, and limits on the influence of standardized testing...
FCA-UAW contract sets new wage range for 2nd tier Detroit Free Press ...Both new and longtime autoworkers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles represented by the UAW will receive wage increases under a new four-year contract if they vote to ratify it in the coming weeks, the Free Press has learned. A new tentative agreement between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler would set a new wage range for entry-level workers of more than $17 an hour to more than $25 per hour over a period of several years...
Healthcare Workers at Chapman Global Medical Center Vote to Join SEIU-UHW OC Weekly ...In a surprisingly quick campaign, hundreds of healthcare workers at Chapman Global Medical Center in Orange decided to unionize. The vote to join the Service Employee International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) passed Tuesday by a dominating three-to-one margin. Two-hundred and twenty nurses, cooks, medical records clerks, janitors and others will now experience the benefits of being in a union...
Labor law has been frozen for 60 years. Democrats are trying to crack it open. Washington Post ...A new attempt by Democrats to boost worker bargaining power has a lot of failure behind it. The American workplace has changed a whole lot over the past half century. But the major law that governs how workers and employees interact — the National Labor Relations Act — has been essentially frozen since 1947, when the law was reformed to constrain worker power. Liberal legislators are trying to make the law a tool for collective action again...
How Unions Boost Democratic Participation American Prospect ...As part of ongoing research, James Feigenbaum, an economics PhD candidate at Harvard, ran a regression using American National Election Studies data suggesting that union members are about 4 percentage points more likely to vote and 3 points more likely to register (after controlling for demographic factors) and individuals living in a union household are 2.5 points more likely to vote and register...
America’s Poverty Problem Hasn’t Changed The Atlantic ...On Wednesday, the Census Bureau released its latest data on income and poverty for the country, and despite a falling unemployment rate and a rising GDP—two promising macroeconomic signs—things haven’t improved all that much for American families in the past year. America’s poverty problem is basically the same. So the biggest news in the data dump was the shifting methodology behind it all...
Social Justice & Other News
'Perilously' Outdated Voting Machines Threaten 2016 Election, Report Finds Common Dreams ...Electronic voting machines in 43 states are at least a decade old, "perilously close to the end of most systems' expected lifespan," and could pose a risk to the 2016 election, a new study from the the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law finds. After a 10 month probe that included interviews with over 100 election officials and experts in every state, the investigators concluded that the threat also extends to "significant percentages of machines" in swing states...
#NoHateDebate: GOP candidates met with protest over their anti-immigrant rants RT ...Hours before Republican presidential candidates are to clash in a televised debate, dozens of protesters rallied in Los Angeles to express their anger over GOP rhetoric on immigration. The rally occupied streets near the Ronald Reagan Library, where the debate is to start at 8 p.m. EST. Some of the protesters got their anger out on a giant effigy of the leading candidate Donald Trump, slapping and punching it...
Many Jails Are Illegal Debtors' Prisons Truthout ...Congress outlawed debtors' prisons nearly 200 years ago. Since then, federal courts have made it clear that indigent people can not be jailed for being unable to pay legal debts. Still, legal advocates estimate that thousands of low-income people in the South and across the United States are illegally jailed every year because they are unable to pay off legal debts to municipal courts, even when they are trying hard to do so. Debtors' prison practices have an especially heavy impact on communities of color...
Arrest of Muslim Teen for Bringing Clock to School 'Inevitable Byproduct of Culture of Fear' Common Dreams ...A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday. Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling...
Huckabee Says Kim Davis Should Be Able To Discriminate Because Muslim Inmates Can Grow Beards Think Progress ...Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been the most vocal supporter of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriages licenses. He has said he would go to jail on her behalf and has used her situation to argue for strengthening “religious liberty.” But during Wednesday night’s GOP debate, he proved he doesn’t actually understand the meaning of religious freedom...
Bipartisan Coalition Upholds Gov. Nixon Veto of Right-to-Work in Victory for Working Families Teamster.org ...Today, a bipartisan group of state legislators in the Missouri House and Senate came together to protect working families by voting to sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of so-called right-to-work legislation. “I would like to thank the state legislators who put aside their partisan differences and came together to uphold Gov. Nixon’s veto,” said Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa...
Teamsters Support Murray-Scott Legislation to Strengthen Worker Protections Under NLRA Teamster.org ...The Teamsters applaud today’s introduction of the Workplace Action for a Growing Economy (WAGE) Act by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). The WAGE Act is a positive step forward, addressing the shortcomings of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in the areas of workers protections and penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights...
Tucson bus strike ends after union vote Arizona Daily Star ...The 42-day Tucson bus strike ended Wednesday when drivers, mechanics and other members of Teamsters Local 104 voted to accept a new contract. The vote was 351-41, an 89 percent approval, said Teamsters Local 104 President Andy Marshall. Everyone gets a raise under the new contract, he said, but he wouldn’t release contract details, saying he didn’t want to inflame opinions...
Bus Strike Ends! The Teamsters Approve Sun Tran's Two-Year Deal Tucson Weekly ...With a vote of 351 to 41, the bus drivers and mechanics who have been picketing for six weeks approved a deal between the Teamsters Local Union 104 and Professional Transit Management—the company contracted by the city of Tucson to oversee Sun Tran. The two had reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama upbeat on prospects for Pacific trade deal Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was confident Pacific Rim nations could nail down an agreement on a free-trade pact this year although approval by the U.S. Congress was not guaranteed. Speaking to a group of corporate executives, Obama said trade ministers should soon have an opportunity to close a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Ministers to reconvene TPP talks in late September Japan Times ...Ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries will meet in late September in Atlanta as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free-trade zones, negotiation sources said Thursday. A meeting of chief negotiators from the United States, Japan, Canada and nine other member countries involved in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership talks will begin from Sept. 26...
Final push for Pacific Rim pact set for end of September Globe and Mail ...An effort to land a massive Pacific Rim free trade agreement within weeks is under way, raising the prospect the wide-ranging Trans-Pacific Partnership could dominate the final stretch of the Canadian election campaign. Chief negotiators for the 12 countries involved, including Canada, will begin meeting in Atlanta on Sept. 26...
Chilean Airport Workers Strike, Leave Thousands Stranded Aviation Pros ...On the heels of strikes in throughout Europe last month and Seattle just last week, Chilean airport workers have begun a 24-hour strike that has left an estimated 70,000 travelers stranded in the South American country, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The airport strike is led by air traffic controllers and ground support staff demanding better retirement benefits...
Worker Rights under Siege at Oil Refinery in Kyrgyzstan Solidarity Center ...The recent firing of a union leader at a Chinese-owned oil refinery in Kyrgyzstan is the company’s latest attempt in the past two years to prevent workers from forming a union, according to the global union IndustriALL and workers. Zhanaydar Ahmetov, leader of the trade union committee at China Petrol Company Zhongda was fired and locked out of the plant on August 29, the second union leader dismissed in two years, factory workers say...
Border Force workers strike over wages Daily Mail ...Strikes by Department of Immigration and Border Protection employees are expected to cause a week of disruptions at international and domestic airports across the country. The employees, including those from Border Force, began the protected industrial action in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia on Wednesday and plan more until Wednesday next week. The action comes as Community and Public Sector Union members vote on a proposed enterprise agreement...
State & Living Wage Battles
'Right to work' measure dies in Missouri House St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Applause erupted in the the House chamber Wednesday as Republican leaders' goal to make Missouri the 26th "right to work" state died when members failed to vote to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto. The measure, which prohibits companies from requiring union membership or dues as conditions of employment, was pushed through the legislative session in May as Republicans used aggressive tactics...
Union members relieved after right-to-work legislation fails Columbia Missourian ...The Missouri House of Representatives voted 96-63 to uphold the governor's veto, falling 13 votes short of an override. House Bill 116 would have made it illegal for employers to require employees to join a union as a condition of employment. The victory for organized labor was watched closely nationwide. The bill would have made Missouri the 26th right-to-work state in the country, and its failure was cheered by dozens of union members in the House galleries...
Oregon's minimum wage will stay $9.25 in 2016 KATU ...Oregon's minimum wage will stay the same in 2016. The wage is re-calculated each year because of a state law passed by voters in 2002 that ties it to inflation. The wage will remain stuck at $9.25 this January because it is pegged to the Consumer Price Index, which showed little inflation, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said Wednesday. The Legislature considered several bills earlier this year that would have raised the minimum wage — each lacked sufficient support...
Missouri legislators block cities from raising minimum wage Business Journal ...Missouri legislators voted Wednesday to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a measure to stop municipalities from raising minimum wages above the ceiling set by the state. The Missouri House voted 114-46, and later in the day the Senate voted 23-9 to override the veto. That exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to override the Democratic governor's July veto of House Bill 722...
California Workers Could See More Protection Against Wage Theft RH Reality Check ...While California has some of the strongest wage theft laws in the country, regulators have little authority to enforce those laws. That may change after a bill passed last week by the Democratic-led state legislature. SB 588, sponsored by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), would give the California labor commissioner such authority...
Bill seeks to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour in Florida Click Orlando ...As the debate over minimum wage continues across the country, two local bills could soon change the minimum wage in Florida. Two Florida state senators on Thursday will call on legislators to sign bills that would raise the minimum wage in the state to $15 per hour. Both bills would nearly double the state's current minimum wage, which is $8.05...
U.S. Labor
Seattle teachers back in the classroom after tentative deal ends strike Daily Kos ...Seattle teachers went back to work Wednesday to prepare for schools to open on Thursday after the Seattle Education Association and school district management reached a tentative deal to end the teachers strike that delayed the scheduled start of the school year. The teachers were pushing for improved pay after six years without a cost of living increase, as well as for mandatory recess, equity teams in all schools, and limits on the influence of standardized testing...
FCA-UAW contract sets new wage range for 2nd tier Detroit Free Press ...Both new and longtime autoworkers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles represented by the UAW will receive wage increases under a new four-year contract if they vote to ratify it in the coming weeks, the Free Press has learned. A new tentative agreement between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler would set a new wage range for entry-level workers of more than $17 an hour to more than $25 per hour over a period of several years...
Healthcare Workers at Chapman Global Medical Center Vote to Join SEIU-UHW OC Weekly ...In a surprisingly quick campaign, hundreds of healthcare workers at Chapman Global Medical Center in Orange decided to unionize. The vote to join the Service Employee International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) passed Tuesday by a dominating three-to-one margin. Two-hundred and twenty nurses, cooks, medical records clerks, janitors and others will now experience the benefits of being in a union...
Labor law has been frozen for 60 years. Democrats are trying to crack it open. Washington Post ...A new attempt by Democrats to boost worker bargaining power has a lot of failure behind it. The American workplace has changed a whole lot over the past half century. But the major law that governs how workers and employees interact — the National Labor Relations Act — has been essentially frozen since 1947, when the law was reformed to constrain worker power. Liberal legislators are trying to make the law a tool for collective action again...
How Unions Boost Democratic Participation American Prospect ...As part of ongoing research, James Feigenbaum, an economics PhD candidate at Harvard, ran a regression using American National Election Studies data suggesting that union members are about 4 percentage points more likely to vote and 3 points more likely to register (after controlling for demographic factors) and individuals living in a union household are 2.5 points more likely to vote and register...
America’s Poverty Problem Hasn’t Changed The Atlantic ...On Wednesday, the Census Bureau released its latest data on income and poverty for the country, and despite a falling unemployment rate and a rising GDP—two promising macroeconomic signs—things haven’t improved all that much for American families in the past year. America’s poverty problem is basically the same. So the biggest news in the data dump was the shifting methodology behind it all...
Social Justice & Other News
'Perilously' Outdated Voting Machines Threaten 2016 Election, Report Finds Common Dreams ...Electronic voting machines in 43 states are at least a decade old, "perilously close to the end of most systems' expected lifespan," and could pose a risk to the 2016 election, a new study from the the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law finds. After a 10 month probe that included interviews with over 100 election officials and experts in every state, the investigators concluded that the threat also extends to "significant percentages of machines" in swing states...
#NoHateDebate: GOP candidates met with protest over their anti-immigrant rants RT ...Hours before Republican presidential candidates are to clash in a televised debate, dozens of protesters rallied in Los Angeles to express their anger over GOP rhetoric on immigration. The rally occupied streets near the Ronald Reagan Library, where the debate is to start at 8 p.m. EST. Some of the protesters got their anger out on a giant effigy of the leading candidate Donald Trump, slapping and punching it...
Many Jails Are Illegal Debtors' Prisons Truthout ...Congress outlawed debtors' prisons nearly 200 years ago. Since then, federal courts have made it clear that indigent people can not be jailed for being unable to pay legal debts. Still, legal advocates estimate that thousands of low-income people in the South and across the United States are illegally jailed every year because they are unable to pay off legal debts to municipal courts, even when they are trying hard to do so. Debtors' prison practices have an especially heavy impact on communities of color...
Arrest of Muslim Teen for Bringing Clock to School 'Inevitable Byproduct of Culture of Fear' Common Dreams ...A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday. Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling...
Huckabee Says Kim Davis Should Be Able To Discriminate Because Muslim Inmates Can Grow Beards Think Progress ...Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been the most vocal supporter of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriages licenses. He has said he would go to jail on her behalf and has used her situation to argue for strengthening “religious liberty.” But during Wednesday night’s GOP debate, he proved he doesn’t actually understand the meaning of religious freedom...
Monday, August 3, 2015
Today's Teamster News 08.03.15
Teamsters
Silicon Valley Drivers Vote Unanimously in Favor of Contract Proposal Teamster.org ...Shuttle drivers for seven big Silicon Valley companies voted overwhelmingly today to approve a union proposal for a first contract that includes industry-leading wages and benefits. The drivers employed by contractor Compass Transportation/Transdev voted 75-0 in favor. The drivers are members of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif. The proposal is the result of nearly five months of negotiations with the company...
Fort Riley Veterans Graduate From Military Job Training Program Teamster.org ...Today, Teamster representatives were joined by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in a ceremony recognizing the graduates of a program that helps active military personnel transition to a career in transportation. The ceremony was held at the Army’s installation in Fort Riley, Kan. The innovative six-week program is the result of a partnership between the Teamsters Military Assistance Program, the U.S. Army, Fort Sill, ABF Freight, Soldier For Life, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command...
Strike threat looms in anticipation of Sun Tran, Labor Union contract renewal Tucson News Now ...The threat of a bus strike looms again in Tucson, as talks continue between Sun Tran bus drivers and management over a new contract. The dangers bus drivers face, the risk on the road and their paycheck are all items that are up for negotiation. Sun Tran officials have provided the Teamsters Local Union with a final offer, and union members will vote on it during three meetings scheduled to take place on Saturday, Aug 1...
Apple, Yahoo shuttle drivers unanimously approve union wage package USA Today ...Shuttle drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay and several other Silicon Valley companies voted Saturday to approve a union wage and benefits package. The drivers who transport workers to and from those tech firms, as well as to Zynga, Amtrak, Evernote and Genentech, are employed by Compass Transportation. Back in February, the 160 drivers voted for representation by Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif...
ABF Freight, Teamsters Graduate New Class Of Military Drivers Times Record ...A truck driver training program class jointly operated by ABF Freight, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the U.S. Army will graduate this week. ABF Freight is a subsidiary of Fort Smith-based ArcBest Corp. Known as the Teamsters Military Assistance Program, the program was created to help soldiers transition to civilian careers...
Global Labor & Trade
Talks for Pacific trade deal stall at a critical step New York Times ...Trade negotiators from the United States and 11 other Pacific nations were headed toward failure Friday, with difficult talks on the largest regional trade agreement ever breaking down over protections for pharmaceutical companies and access to agriculture markets on both sides of the Pacific. Negotiators will return to their home countries to obtain high-level sign-offs for a small number of final sticking points on the agreement...
Ministers fail to cinch major trade pact Politico ...Top trade officials from the United States, Canada and 10 other Pacific rim nations fell short of concluding the biggest trade pact in history on Friday because of differences over agricultural, autos and pharmaceuticals, but said significant progress had been made. “We’re confident that TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] is within reach,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Friday...
U.S. Bends on Patent Data as Dairy Vexes Pacific Trade Talks Bloomberg ...The U.S. on Thursday abandoned its longstanding position on the confidentiality of some patent data as officials immersed themselves in the minutiae of Asia-Pacific dairy markets in a bid to clinch a landmark trade deal. A day marked by widespread frustration with the slow pace at which Canada took up talks on opening its dairy sector gave way to grinding, all-night talks on the quotas and tariffs that would be applied to products such as whey protein, cheese and milk powder...
Trans-Pacific Partnership delegates fail to reach final deal; pharmaceuticals, cars, dairy key sticking points ABC ...Delegates negotiating a Pacific free trade agreement have failed to reach a final deal after several days of intense talks in Hawaii. The talks were halted after a dispute flared between Japan and North America over autos, New Zealand dug in over dairy trade and no agreement was reached on monopoly periods for next-generation drugs...
McConnell warns Obama against tobacco carve-out in trade deal The Hill ...Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is warning U.S. officials negotiating a massive trans-Pacific trade agreement for President Obama not to target tobacco growers in a final deal. McConnell said singling out the tobacco industry would set a dangerous precedent for future trade deals, in a letter to Obama’s top trade representative...
Silicon Valley Drivers Vote Unanimously in Favor of Contract Proposal Teamster.org ...Shuttle drivers for seven big Silicon Valley companies voted overwhelmingly today to approve a union proposal for a first contract that includes industry-leading wages and benefits. The drivers employed by contractor Compass Transportation/Transdev voted 75-0 in favor. The drivers are members of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif. The proposal is the result of nearly five months of negotiations with the company...
Fort Riley Veterans Graduate From Military Job Training Program Teamster.org ...Today, Teamster representatives were joined by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in a ceremony recognizing the graduates of a program that helps active military personnel transition to a career in transportation. The ceremony was held at the Army’s installation in Fort Riley, Kan. The innovative six-week program is the result of a partnership between the Teamsters Military Assistance Program, the U.S. Army, Fort Sill, ABF Freight, Soldier For Life, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command...
Strike threat looms in anticipation of Sun Tran, Labor Union contract renewal Tucson News Now ...The threat of a bus strike looms again in Tucson, as talks continue between Sun Tran bus drivers and management over a new contract. The dangers bus drivers face, the risk on the road and their paycheck are all items that are up for negotiation. Sun Tran officials have provided the Teamsters Local Union with a final offer, and union members will vote on it during three meetings scheduled to take place on Saturday, Aug 1...
Apple, Yahoo shuttle drivers unanimously approve union wage package USA Today ...Shuttle drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay and several other Silicon Valley companies voted Saturday to approve a union wage and benefits package. The drivers who transport workers to and from those tech firms, as well as to Zynga, Amtrak, Evernote and Genentech, are employed by Compass Transportation. Back in February, the 160 drivers voted for representation by Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif...
ABF Freight, Teamsters Graduate New Class Of Military Drivers Times Record ...A truck driver training program class jointly operated by ABF Freight, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the U.S. Army will graduate this week. ABF Freight is a subsidiary of Fort Smith-based ArcBest Corp. Known as the Teamsters Military Assistance Program, the program was created to help soldiers transition to civilian careers...
Global Labor & Trade
Talks for Pacific trade deal stall at a critical step New York Times ...Trade negotiators from the United States and 11 other Pacific nations were headed toward failure Friday, with difficult talks on the largest regional trade agreement ever breaking down over protections for pharmaceutical companies and access to agriculture markets on both sides of the Pacific. Negotiators will return to their home countries to obtain high-level sign-offs for a small number of final sticking points on the agreement...
Ministers fail to cinch major trade pact Politico ...Top trade officials from the United States, Canada and 10 other Pacific rim nations fell short of concluding the biggest trade pact in history on Friday because of differences over agricultural, autos and pharmaceuticals, but said significant progress had been made. “We’re confident that TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] is within reach,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Friday...
U.S. Bends on Patent Data as Dairy Vexes Pacific Trade Talks Bloomberg ...The U.S. on Thursday abandoned its longstanding position on the confidentiality of some patent data as officials immersed themselves in the minutiae of Asia-Pacific dairy markets in a bid to clinch a landmark trade deal. A day marked by widespread frustration with the slow pace at which Canada took up talks on opening its dairy sector gave way to grinding, all-night talks on the quotas and tariffs that would be applied to products such as whey protein, cheese and milk powder...
Trans-Pacific Partnership delegates fail to reach final deal; pharmaceuticals, cars, dairy key sticking points ABC ...Delegates negotiating a Pacific free trade agreement have failed to reach a final deal after several days of intense talks in Hawaii. The talks were halted after a dispute flared between Japan and North America over autos, New Zealand dug in over dairy trade and no agreement was reached on monopoly periods for next-generation drugs...
McConnell warns Obama against tobacco carve-out in trade deal The Hill ...Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is warning U.S. officials negotiating a massive trans-Pacific trade agreement for President Obama not to target tobacco growers in a final deal. McConnell said singling out the tobacco industry would set a dangerous precedent for future trade deals, in a letter to Obama’s top trade representative...
Obama Administration Ignores Malaysia’s Trafficking Record (opinion) New York Times ...After one year on the State Department’s list of countries that are failing to combat modern-day slavery, Malaysia has been upgraded to a higher category. That judgment, part of an annual evaluation of how 188 countries deal with human trafficking, strains credulity, given how little Malaysia has done to address the problem. The decision has raised suspicions that Malaysia’s status was changed to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Getting the TPP right: What needs to happen in Hawaii (opinion) The Hill ...When done right, on a level playing field, trade can be a powerful tool for global growth and rising living standards. But too often, past trade deals have not lived up to this standard. Instead, they’ve created a massively tilted playing field that has incentivized a global race to the bottom on labor practices, environmental protections and human rights...
Stocks Plunge in Greece as Athens Exchange Reopens New York Times ...Investors issued a vote of no confidence in Greece’s economy on Monday, dumping Greek stocks as trading on the Athens stock exchange resumed for the first time in five weeks. Shares on the exchange initially dropped by 22.8 percent as trading began, with bank stocks falling 30 percent. Banks have been among the hardest-hit sectors of the Greek economy, and they are dependent on emergency cash from the European Central Bank to stay afloat...
Black Unionists Try to Save South Africa From Becoming a Failed State Truthout ...Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the largest union in South Africa, and Zwelinzima Vavi, the former general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) visited Washington, DC, this month to discuss the crisis within South African trade unions. They spoke of the betrayal by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in failing to implement the 1955 Freedom Charter and the deleterious impact of neoliberal economic policies...
Plane passengers face delays as Melbourne Airport workers strike Herald Sun ...The Community and Public Sector Union has warned of significant disruptions and delays at all Australian international air and shipping ports ahead of its latest round of industrial action. The union has detailed four-hour rolling stoppages in protest of the Federal Government’s approach to working rights, conditions and pay. Union members from the Depart of Immigration and Border Protection, Department of Agriculture, including quarantine, and Australian Border Force Marine Union will observe stoppages...
Oaxaca, Mexico, Faces Police Militarization as Governor Acts to Preempt Education Protests Truthout ...Thousands of federal and state police troops were dispatched in mid-July to the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico to guard strategic buildings, patrol the skies and ensure that protesters cannot take over local radio stations. The aim of this heightened police militarization? To prevent protesting teachers from exerting pressure on the administration of Gabino Cué Monteagudo, the current governor of Oaxaca, in their efforts to resist nationally imposed education reforms...
State & Living Wage Battles
A $15 Minimum Wage Would Increase The Price Of A Big Mac By Less Than 20 Cents Think Progress ...If the minimum wage were increased to $15 an hour, prices at fast food restaurants would rise by an estimated 4.3 percent, according to a new study. That would mean a McDonald’s Big Mac, which currently goes for $3.99, would cost about 17 cents more, or $4.16. The price increases would be a good deal larger if the minimum wage were raised to $22 an hour, or average private sector pay: the authors found they would increase by 25 percent, raising the price of a Big Mac by about a dollar...
Scott Walker Stresses Importance Of Education Days After Cutting Education Funding By $250 Million Think Progress ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) went on Fox & Friends Thursday to discuss his entry into the 2016 presidential race. But the governor who recently earned negative headlines for cutting hundreds of millions from the state’s top-tier university system made a curious claim: that the key to boosting wages wasn’t the minimum wage, but education...
How Childcare Actually Causes Poverty in America The Nation ....Activists are pushing for a $15 hourly base wage for preschool teachers and childcare workers. Many are currently college grads earning poverty wages, which have basically stagnated for nearly twenty years. The raise would be a major step toward providing livable wages for the service working families can’t live without. As the Fight for 15 movement gains momentum for fast food and retail workers, advocates are asking, if the people who prepare your lunch deserve a living wage, surely so do the people preparing our toddlers for school?...
Chris Christie’s violent fantasies: National teachers union deserves a “punch in the face” Salon ...Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said during a television interview Sunday that the national teachers union deserves a “punch in the face.” While campaigning for re-election in 2013, the New Jersey Governor scolded a local teacher after she challenged him on his claims that the state’s schools were failing. “I am tired of you people,” Christie yelled at the teacher, “What do you want?”...
Report: About 40% of workers in Ariz., U.S. have no paid sick leave Yuma Sun ...Close to half of Arizona’s private-sector workers, more than 934,000 people, do not have access to paid sick leave, according to a report Wednesday by a group pushing for such laws. But the National Partnership for Women and Families said Arizona is not alone: More than 43 million people, accounting for about 39 percent of private-sector workers in the country, currently don’t have the ability to earn paid sick leave, it said...
Without prevailing wage, pay will plummet, leader says The Times ...Without the state's prevailing wage law, construction workers would see their wages drop dramatically, a local labor leader says. "You'll see minimum wage within a couple of years," said Kevin Dale, business manager for Laborers International Union Local 393 in Marseilles. "You'll be making the same amount as the person flipping hamburgers at McDonald's when there's no prevailing wage." Earlier this year, Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed repealing the prevailing wage law...
Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy, And The Poor Are Paying The Price Think Progress ...Depending who you ask in Puerto Rico, the debt crisis was caused by neo-colonial and imperialist policies from the U.S., the Puerto Rican government’s wasteful overspending and corruption, or the cadre of hedge funds that are currently profiting from the island’s woes. Add to that toxic mix a series of free-trade agreements that triggered mass outsourcing, and a population in rapid decline due to out-migration...
U.S. Labor
Verizon Workers to Stay on Job Without New Contract New York Times ...Verizon and unions representing workers in nine states said employees will work without a contract as more negotiations are scheduled. The wireless carrier and leaders of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers announced the decision early Sunday, shortly after a contract covering 39,000 workers expired...
Bankruptcy Judge Gives Go-Ahead for Mass Firings of Unionized A&P Grocery Workers In These Times ...The mass firings of workers at the A&P supermarket chain is set to begin in mid-September, following action this week by a federal bankruptcy court approving a plan to quickly shed some 2,500 jobs at the ailing grocery retailer. The job cuts are a first step in a broader plan to dismember the entire 300-store chain, with expected job losses of 15,000 or more...
Negotiations begin for AT&T, Communications Workers of America Local 10 ...AT&T has begun negotiations on contracts with 27,000 of its employees in the Southeast territory. Southeast region employees, who are represented by the Communications Workers of America, include employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The CWA issued a news release Sunday saying that representatives from both sides met Saturday. However, AT&T regional spokeswoman Kelly Starling said negotiations have been ongoing since June...
Why Unions Aren't Uniting Behind Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders Bloomberg ...In the failed fight to stop fast track, organized labor spoke—largely—with one voice. The main U.S. union federation, the AFL-CIO, announced a temporary freeze on PAC contributions, and its affiliate unions mostly complied. Unions across the industry spectrum warned Democrats against siding with Obama on trade. Some big unions were quieter than others, but none defected to shield the president. The same can’t be said for labor’s presidential endorsement process...
Social Justice & Other News
Border Jails Facing Bond Defaults as Immigration Boom Goes Bust Bloomberg ...ails built to profit from an illegal immigration boom are weighing down the finances of rural counties in the U.S. Sunbelt as border apprehensions slow and the federal government orders the release of more migrants. In Texas, the heart of a jail-building boom over the past decade, nine of 21 counties that created agencies to issue about $1.3 billion in municipal bonds to build privately run correctional facilities largely for migrants have defaulted on their debt...
In St. Louis, Black Youths Bear Brunt of Dysfunctional Justice System Common Dreams ...Black kids in St. Louis, Missouri are being disproportionately impacted by unconstitutional and discriminatory miscarriages of justice within the Family Court system, according to a two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. "In short, Black children are subjected to harsher treatment because of their race," the findings report reads...
Getting the TPP right: What needs to happen in Hawaii (opinion) The Hill ...When done right, on a level playing field, trade can be a powerful tool for global growth and rising living standards. But too often, past trade deals have not lived up to this standard. Instead, they’ve created a massively tilted playing field that has incentivized a global race to the bottom on labor practices, environmental protections and human rights...
Stocks Plunge in Greece as Athens Exchange Reopens New York Times ...Investors issued a vote of no confidence in Greece’s economy on Monday, dumping Greek stocks as trading on the Athens stock exchange resumed for the first time in five weeks. Shares on the exchange initially dropped by 22.8 percent as trading began, with bank stocks falling 30 percent. Banks have been among the hardest-hit sectors of the Greek economy, and they are dependent on emergency cash from the European Central Bank to stay afloat...
Black Unionists Try to Save South Africa From Becoming a Failed State Truthout ...Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the largest union in South Africa, and Zwelinzima Vavi, the former general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) visited Washington, DC, this month to discuss the crisis within South African trade unions. They spoke of the betrayal by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in failing to implement the 1955 Freedom Charter and the deleterious impact of neoliberal economic policies...
Plane passengers face delays as Melbourne Airport workers strike Herald Sun ...The Community and Public Sector Union has warned of significant disruptions and delays at all Australian international air and shipping ports ahead of its latest round of industrial action. The union has detailed four-hour rolling stoppages in protest of the Federal Government’s approach to working rights, conditions and pay. Union members from the Depart of Immigration and Border Protection, Department of Agriculture, including quarantine, and Australian Border Force Marine Union will observe stoppages...
Oaxaca, Mexico, Faces Police Militarization as Governor Acts to Preempt Education Protests Truthout ...Thousands of federal and state police troops were dispatched in mid-July to the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico to guard strategic buildings, patrol the skies and ensure that protesters cannot take over local radio stations. The aim of this heightened police militarization? To prevent protesting teachers from exerting pressure on the administration of Gabino Cué Monteagudo, the current governor of Oaxaca, in their efforts to resist nationally imposed education reforms...
State & Living Wage Battles
A $15 Minimum Wage Would Increase The Price Of A Big Mac By Less Than 20 Cents Think Progress ...If the minimum wage were increased to $15 an hour, prices at fast food restaurants would rise by an estimated 4.3 percent, according to a new study. That would mean a McDonald’s Big Mac, which currently goes for $3.99, would cost about 17 cents more, or $4.16. The price increases would be a good deal larger if the minimum wage were raised to $22 an hour, or average private sector pay: the authors found they would increase by 25 percent, raising the price of a Big Mac by about a dollar...
Scott Walker Stresses Importance Of Education Days After Cutting Education Funding By $250 Million Think Progress ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) went on Fox & Friends Thursday to discuss his entry into the 2016 presidential race. But the governor who recently earned negative headlines for cutting hundreds of millions from the state’s top-tier university system made a curious claim: that the key to boosting wages wasn’t the minimum wage, but education...
How Childcare Actually Causes Poverty in America The Nation ....Activists are pushing for a $15 hourly base wage for preschool teachers and childcare workers. Many are currently college grads earning poverty wages, which have basically stagnated for nearly twenty years. The raise would be a major step toward providing livable wages for the service working families can’t live without. As the Fight for 15 movement gains momentum for fast food and retail workers, advocates are asking, if the people who prepare your lunch deserve a living wage, surely so do the people preparing our toddlers for school?...
Chris Christie’s violent fantasies: National teachers union deserves a “punch in the face” Salon ...Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said during a television interview Sunday that the national teachers union deserves a “punch in the face.” While campaigning for re-election in 2013, the New Jersey Governor scolded a local teacher after she challenged him on his claims that the state’s schools were failing. “I am tired of you people,” Christie yelled at the teacher, “What do you want?”...
Report: About 40% of workers in Ariz., U.S. have no paid sick leave Yuma Sun ...Close to half of Arizona’s private-sector workers, more than 934,000 people, do not have access to paid sick leave, according to a report Wednesday by a group pushing for such laws. But the National Partnership for Women and Families said Arizona is not alone: More than 43 million people, accounting for about 39 percent of private-sector workers in the country, currently don’t have the ability to earn paid sick leave, it said...
Without prevailing wage, pay will plummet, leader says The Times ...Without the state's prevailing wage law, construction workers would see their wages drop dramatically, a local labor leader says. "You'll see minimum wage within a couple of years," said Kevin Dale, business manager for Laborers International Union Local 393 in Marseilles. "You'll be making the same amount as the person flipping hamburgers at McDonald's when there's no prevailing wage." Earlier this year, Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed repealing the prevailing wage law...
Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy, And The Poor Are Paying The Price Think Progress ...Depending who you ask in Puerto Rico, the debt crisis was caused by neo-colonial and imperialist policies from the U.S., the Puerto Rican government’s wasteful overspending and corruption, or the cadre of hedge funds that are currently profiting from the island’s woes. Add to that toxic mix a series of free-trade agreements that triggered mass outsourcing, and a population in rapid decline due to out-migration...
U.S. Labor
Verizon Workers to Stay on Job Without New Contract New York Times ...Verizon and unions representing workers in nine states said employees will work without a contract as more negotiations are scheduled. The wireless carrier and leaders of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers announced the decision early Sunday, shortly after a contract covering 39,000 workers expired...
Bankruptcy Judge Gives Go-Ahead for Mass Firings of Unionized A&P Grocery Workers In These Times ...The mass firings of workers at the A&P supermarket chain is set to begin in mid-September, following action this week by a federal bankruptcy court approving a plan to quickly shed some 2,500 jobs at the ailing grocery retailer. The job cuts are a first step in a broader plan to dismember the entire 300-store chain, with expected job losses of 15,000 or more...
Negotiations begin for AT&T, Communications Workers of America Local 10 ...AT&T has begun negotiations on contracts with 27,000 of its employees in the Southeast territory. Southeast region employees, who are represented by the Communications Workers of America, include employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The CWA issued a news release Sunday saying that representatives from both sides met Saturday. However, AT&T regional spokeswoman Kelly Starling said negotiations have been ongoing since June...
Why Unions Aren't Uniting Behind Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders Bloomberg ...In the failed fight to stop fast track, organized labor spoke—largely—with one voice. The main U.S. union federation, the AFL-CIO, announced a temporary freeze on PAC contributions, and its affiliate unions mostly complied. Unions across the industry spectrum warned Democrats against siding with Obama on trade. Some big unions were quieter than others, but none defected to shield the president. The same can’t be said for labor’s presidential endorsement process...
Social Justice & Other News
Border Jails Facing Bond Defaults as Immigration Boom Goes Bust Bloomberg ...ails built to profit from an illegal immigration boom are weighing down the finances of rural counties in the U.S. Sunbelt as border apprehensions slow and the federal government orders the release of more migrants. In Texas, the heart of a jail-building boom over the past decade, nine of 21 counties that created agencies to issue about $1.3 billion in municipal bonds to build privately run correctional facilities largely for migrants have defaulted on their debt...
In St. Louis, Black Youths Bear Brunt of Dysfunctional Justice System Common Dreams ...Black kids in St. Louis, Missouri are being disproportionately impacted by unconstitutional and discriminatory miscarriages of justice within the Family Court system, according to a two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. "In short, Black children are subjected to harsher treatment because of their race," the findings report reads...
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.22.15
Teamsters
Port Truck Drivers At Pac 9 Begin Strike Teamster.org ...Port truck drivers at Pac 9 in Los Angeles/Long Beach began a strike today to protest against their continued misclassification as independent contractors. While on strike they will continue their legal fight to recoup stolen wages and many will support their families by working at one of four Teamster companies - Eco Flow Transportation, Shippers Transport Express, Toll Group or Horizon Lines...
Local 727 Protects Wages, Working Conditions for Arlington OTB Members Local 272 ...Teamsters Local 727-represented Arlington Racecourse OTB workers ratified a new one-year agreement that protects their wages, benefits and working conditions. The agreement also includes an economic re-opener in the event that gaming legislation is passed. “The state’s horseracing industry is facing obstacles, but we were able to preserve our members’ jobs and secure fair wages and working conditions,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727...
Employee Misclassification Hearings Begin in Georgia Teamster.org ...Today in Savannah, Georgia, the site of one of the nation's largest ports, a public hearing will be conducted to hear cases of employee misclassification - 2,000 of which have been brought by port truck drivers misclassified as independent contractors. “We’re the lowest paid in the industry. Everybody else got a future in it but the driver. It’s time for a change and that’s why we’re raising our voices tomorrow.” John Jackson, Savannah, port driver...
Contract Truck Drivers Strike Indefinitely Against Pacific 9 Transportation In LA CBS ...Port truck drivers went on strike Tuesday to improve conditions for themselves, their families and all drivers. Workers declared their intent to not return to Pac 9 until they are properly classified as employees and provided safe trucks to drive, officials said. In fact, several workers have already joined a new Teamster company. “Pac 9 drivers have courageously withstood retaliation and mistreatment by their employer for over two years,” said Fred Potter, Teamsters Port Division Director...
Port truck drivers plan sixth strike against company LA Times ...Drivers at a trucking company serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports plan to walk away from their jobs Tuesday in an ongoing struggle to be deemed employees, a union representative said. The picket lines, scheduled to go up around the company’s truck yard and port terminals at 6 a.m. Tuesday, will mark the sixth strike against the company in nearly two years, Teamsters Union spokeswoman Barbara Maynard said...
Global Labor & Trade
Thousands of Garment Factory Workers Across Cambodia Are Fainting on the Job In These Times ...At the end of June, nearly 350 workers fainted in garment factories across Cambodia, with more than 100 collapsing on one day alone. These developments are part of a much wider pattern in the country: In 2011, there were 2,071 incidents of workers fainting, in 2012 there were 2,100. Last spring, nearly 120 workers fainted at two textile factories that make products for Puma and Adidas. From July of last year on, there were 733 fainting incidents across 14 different factories...
Work moves ahead on TPP trade pact, but nations still divided over deal Pew Research Center ...Trade ministers from the U.S. and 11 other nations from both sides of the Pacific will meet in Hawaii next Tuesday to attempt to finalize what would be the world’s largest regional trade and investment agreement: the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But while the pact has general public support in most of the countries involved, there are also deep partisan divisions in some of them over the issue. This partisanship suggests that TPP, one of President Barack Obama’s principal foreign economic policy legacies, is not yet a done deal...
US, Malaysia show least support for Trans-Pacific partnership - poll Turkish Weekly ...Americans and Malaysians show least support for the US-promoted Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal among all participants, with 38 percent of citizens backing the potential agreement, Pew Research Center poll, issued on Tuesday, found. “The weakest support is in the US and in Malaysia (38%),” the poll read. The TPP is set to become the largest free trade deal, involving 12 countries from the Asia-Pacific region...
Ottawa says it won’t be 'bullied' by U.S. over TPP dairy negotiations Globe & Mail ...The Canadian government says it will not be bullied as the United States ratchets up pressure on Canada’s heavily protected dairy sector ahead of what could be the final round of talks for a Pacific Rim trade deal spanning 12 countries. More than 20 members of U.S. Congress have written a letter to the Canadian government accusing it of being “unwilling to seriously engage in market access discussions regarding dairy”...
Company v Country: Investigating the booming and lucrative business of multinational companies suing governments (radio) BBC ...The strangely-named investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) system is built into thousands of treaties between countries around the world. It is a key part of negotiations for a new trade and investment treaty between the US and the EU. Yet on both sides of the Atlantic, resistance is mounting. Michael Robinson digs into the ISDS mechanism to find out if the fears are justified. Are these little-known lawsuits threatening the democratic process?...
Trade debate masks America’s competitive disadvantage (opinion) PBS ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership may be out of the headlines momentarily, but it continues to be as contentious as ever. the debate fails to include the real issue: the ability of the United States as a country to compete in the world economy. A winning strategy for the U.S. today requires much more than cooperation between government and business. We need a highly skilled work force, which in turn means a world-class education system and access for all. We need to repair and improve our infrastructure...
Austerity-hit Ireland debates how to spend extra €1.5bn Financial Times ...For two days last week, politicians, civil society activists and business leaders gathered at Dublin Castle to discuss something rare in austerity-ravaged Ireland — how to spend an extra €1.5bn. The sum represents the “fiscal space” the government says it has to cut taxes and increase spending in the 2016 budget...
Greece's debt crisis explained, in mythological terms LA Times ...Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras successfully persuaded his fellow Greeks to reject austerity measures in a recent referendum, but it was a "Pyrrhic victory" since he now faces an even more devastated economy and deeper austerity cuts. Against his own party's ideals, Tsipras has now committed himself to more "draconian" budget cuts, with Greece forced to carry out the "Sisyphean task" of ever-increasing austerity...
State & Living Wage Battles
National push for $15 minimum wage hits home for U.S. Senate workers Washington Post ...Baker is among a group of federal contract workers who are joining with union-backed advocates to call on lawmakers to do more to protect an increasingly privatized federal workforce, where low wages and minimal benefits often clash with the rhetoric espoused by elected leaders. “We work for them every day,” Baker said. “They have a clean environment; they’ve got good food to eat. They say, ‘Thank you very much’ and ‘Good work.’ But that’s not enough. I need more so I can pay my bills -- $15 and a union”...
North Carolina Just Relaxed Its Voter ID Law, But Will Voters Get The Memo? Huffington Post ...Voting rights advocates were at least somewhat pleased when the North Carolina General Assembly unexpectedly voted in June to modify the state's strict requirement that voters present government-issued photo ID at the polls. But now, they're concerned that the state won't adequately educate people about the softened ID law before it goes into effect next year...
L.A. County supervisors agree to boost minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 LA Times ...Organized labor won an important victory Tuesday when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to increase the minimum wage to $15, but it now faces a more daunting political challenge: convincing other local governments to join the movement. The widely anticipated move by the nation’s largest local government applies to unincorporated areas and hundreds of thousands of employees, mirroring a similar action by the city of Los Angeles...
New York fast food workers’ $15 wage vote on Wednesday KFOR ...New York’s fast food workers could soon get paid a lot more. On Wednesday, the wage board is set to vote on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 an hour. The meeting will be held in New York City at 2.30 pm. New York’s minimum wage for all workers has risen from $7.25 to $8.75 an hour in the last two years. By the end of this year, it will be $9...
If you want a living wage, be prepared to go on strike for it (opinion) The Guardian ...Is the best way to achieve higher wages really legislation? Many think so. Across the country, working people are eagerly waiting to feel the effects of new laws that raise the minimum wage. Seattle will see an increase to $15 by 2021, and Los Angeles will see the same increase by 2020. But this strategy detracts from the only power dynamic that can actually overturn economic inequality: class struggle...
How the American South Drives the Low-Wage Economy American Prospect ...Today, as the auto and aerospace manufacturers of Europe and East Asia open low-wage assembly plants in Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi, the South has assumed a comparable role once more. Indeed, the South today shares more features with its antebellum ancestor than it has in a very long time. White Southern elites and their powerful allies among non-Southern business interests seek to expand to the rest of the nation the South’s subjugation of workers and its suppression of the voting rights of those who might oppose their policies...
U.S. Labor
1,000 NYC airport workers set to strike starting Wednesday Associated Press ...More than 1,000 subcontracted airport security officers, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants at the city's two major airports plan to strike starting Wednesday night, according to a union that seeks to represent them. Officials with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union said picketing would begin at Kennedy Airport at 10 p.m. Wednesday and at LaGuardia at 6 a.m. Thursday...
UAW Donates $50,000 in Memory of the Charleston 9 AFL-CIO ...Members of the UAW on Thursday announced a $50,000 donation to the Rev. Clementa Pinckney fund in honor of the Charleston 9 who were tragically murdered on June 17. “UAW members often speak of bridging the gap to lift up our communities. Through our long history of civil rights advocacy, economic justice advocacy and economic fairness advocacy, the very ideals that we have come to learn were so near and dear to those who lost their lives June 17 at the Emanuel AME Church,” said UAW President Dennis Williams...
Legislators told trucking companies deliberately misclassify workers Savannah Now ...Two independent truckers choked up separately as they testified before a legislative committee Tuesday about the toll they say comes from companies misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees. The emotional moments came in the middle and end of a daylong hearing by a subcommittee of the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee assigned to study worker classification...
Unemployment Rates a Mixed Bag Associated Press ...Unemployment rates fell last month in 21 U.S. states and were unchanged in 17, as widespread job growth and a shrinking workforce reduce the ranks of those out of work. The Labor Department said Tuesday that unemployment rates rose in 12 states. Employers added jobs in 31 states and cut them in 17, with little change in the remaining two states. The figures reflect steady hiring nationwide. Employers added 223,000 jobs in June, and the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent from 5.5 percent...
Time Is Political Jacobin ...A recent survey of New York City retail workers found that only 17 percent of workers had a regular work schedule. Retail workers reported that in order to get more hours or more desirable shifts they sometimes had to compete with coworkers to sell a certain amount, or sign up the most people for store credit cards. In this way, they were battling with each other just for the ability to work and earn more...
Miscellaneous
Obama Administration Announces New Rules Protecting Military Families From Predatory Lenders Think Progress ...America’s armed forces personnel will no longer be exposed to exploitative payday loans after the Department of Defense (DOD) put new, long-delayed rules into place on Tuesday. The news marks a victory for an idea that had seemed at risk of being killed just months ago by lawmakers friendly to the lending industry...
Five Years Later, the Unfulfilled Promise of Dodd-Frank Common Dreams ...With several key promises of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act still unfulfilled, "Americans cannot be comforted that Wall Street will not wreak havoc again," according to a new report from the watchdog group Public Citizen. "Five years after President Barack Obama signed this legislation, Dodd-Frank remains largely incomplete," said Bartlett Naylor, Public Citizen’s financial policy advocate and author of the report...
6 insidious ways the one percent is ripping you off Salon ...In the wake of the financial crisis, there was a momentof hope that predatory businesses would no longer be able to pick at our bones like vultures. Instead, we’ve seen Dodd-Frank weakened and stalled, and the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stymied at every turn. In the latest round, Republicans are thwarting the confirmation of Richard Cordray to lead the Bureau. Meanwhile, we continue to get fleeced...
“I Will Light You Up!” Disturbing Dashcam Footage Shows the Traffic Stop That Led to Sandra Bland’s Arrest. Slate ...Tuesday afternoon saw the release of extraordinary dashcam footage of the traffic stop that led to Bland’s arrest. In the video, you can see Bland’s car making a lane change right before the officer who was driving behind her, who has been identified as Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Brian Encinia, pulls her over. “You seem very irritated,” he says to her, while standing next to the driver’s side window...
Why the Black Lives Matter Protest at Netroots Nation Was Long Overdue (opinion) The Nation ...The action kicked off a necessary conversation about the Democratic candidates’ reluctance to address racism directly, the problem with saying “all lives matter,” and why economic populism devoid of a race and gender analysis will neither satisfy nor mobilize a sizeable chunk of progressive voters. These activists have changed the tone for the 2016 election season, putting Democrats on notice that they cannot expect the support of black voters—particularly young black voters—without speaking directly and meaningfully to issues of race and state power currently gripping the country...
Port Truck Drivers At Pac 9 Begin Strike Teamster.org ...Port truck drivers at Pac 9 in Los Angeles/Long Beach began a strike today to protest against their continued misclassification as independent contractors. While on strike they will continue their legal fight to recoup stolen wages and many will support their families by working at one of four Teamster companies - Eco Flow Transportation, Shippers Transport Express, Toll Group or Horizon Lines...
Local 727 Protects Wages, Working Conditions for Arlington OTB Members Local 272 ...Teamsters Local 727-represented Arlington Racecourse OTB workers ratified a new one-year agreement that protects their wages, benefits and working conditions. The agreement also includes an economic re-opener in the event that gaming legislation is passed. “The state’s horseracing industry is facing obstacles, but we were able to preserve our members’ jobs and secure fair wages and working conditions,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727...
Employee Misclassification Hearings Begin in Georgia Teamster.org ...Today in Savannah, Georgia, the site of one of the nation's largest ports, a public hearing will be conducted to hear cases of employee misclassification - 2,000 of which have been brought by port truck drivers misclassified as independent contractors. “We’re the lowest paid in the industry. Everybody else got a future in it but the driver. It’s time for a change and that’s why we’re raising our voices tomorrow.” John Jackson, Savannah, port driver...
Contract Truck Drivers Strike Indefinitely Against Pacific 9 Transportation In LA CBS ...Port truck drivers went on strike Tuesday to improve conditions for themselves, their families and all drivers. Workers declared their intent to not return to Pac 9 until they are properly classified as employees and provided safe trucks to drive, officials said. In fact, several workers have already joined a new Teamster company. “Pac 9 drivers have courageously withstood retaliation and mistreatment by their employer for over two years,” said Fred Potter, Teamsters Port Division Director...
Port truck drivers plan sixth strike against company LA Times ...Drivers at a trucking company serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports plan to walk away from their jobs Tuesday in an ongoing struggle to be deemed employees, a union representative said. The picket lines, scheduled to go up around the company’s truck yard and port terminals at 6 a.m. Tuesday, will mark the sixth strike against the company in nearly two years, Teamsters Union spokeswoman Barbara Maynard said...
Global Labor & Trade
Thousands of Garment Factory Workers Across Cambodia Are Fainting on the Job In These Times ...At the end of June, nearly 350 workers fainted in garment factories across Cambodia, with more than 100 collapsing on one day alone. These developments are part of a much wider pattern in the country: In 2011, there were 2,071 incidents of workers fainting, in 2012 there were 2,100. Last spring, nearly 120 workers fainted at two textile factories that make products for Puma and Adidas. From July of last year on, there were 733 fainting incidents across 14 different factories...
Work moves ahead on TPP trade pact, but nations still divided over deal Pew Research Center ...Trade ministers from the U.S. and 11 other nations from both sides of the Pacific will meet in Hawaii next Tuesday to attempt to finalize what would be the world’s largest regional trade and investment agreement: the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But while the pact has general public support in most of the countries involved, there are also deep partisan divisions in some of them over the issue. This partisanship suggests that TPP, one of President Barack Obama’s principal foreign economic policy legacies, is not yet a done deal...
US, Malaysia show least support for Trans-Pacific partnership - poll Turkish Weekly ...Americans and Malaysians show least support for the US-promoted Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal among all participants, with 38 percent of citizens backing the potential agreement, Pew Research Center poll, issued on Tuesday, found. “The weakest support is in the US and in Malaysia (38%),” the poll read. The TPP is set to become the largest free trade deal, involving 12 countries from the Asia-Pacific region...
Ottawa says it won’t be 'bullied' by U.S. over TPP dairy negotiations Globe & Mail ...The Canadian government says it will not be bullied as the United States ratchets up pressure on Canada’s heavily protected dairy sector ahead of what could be the final round of talks for a Pacific Rim trade deal spanning 12 countries. More than 20 members of U.S. Congress have written a letter to the Canadian government accusing it of being “unwilling to seriously engage in market access discussions regarding dairy”...
Company v Country: Investigating the booming and lucrative business of multinational companies suing governments (radio) BBC ...The strangely-named investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) system is built into thousands of treaties between countries around the world. It is a key part of negotiations for a new trade and investment treaty between the US and the EU. Yet on both sides of the Atlantic, resistance is mounting. Michael Robinson digs into the ISDS mechanism to find out if the fears are justified. Are these little-known lawsuits threatening the democratic process?...
Trade debate masks America’s competitive disadvantage (opinion) PBS ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership may be out of the headlines momentarily, but it continues to be as contentious as ever. the debate fails to include the real issue: the ability of the United States as a country to compete in the world economy. A winning strategy for the U.S. today requires much more than cooperation between government and business. We need a highly skilled work force, which in turn means a world-class education system and access for all. We need to repair and improve our infrastructure...
Austerity-hit Ireland debates how to spend extra €1.5bn Financial Times ...For two days last week, politicians, civil society activists and business leaders gathered at Dublin Castle to discuss something rare in austerity-ravaged Ireland — how to spend an extra €1.5bn. The sum represents the “fiscal space” the government says it has to cut taxes and increase spending in the 2016 budget...
Greece's debt crisis explained, in mythological terms LA Times ...Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras successfully persuaded his fellow Greeks to reject austerity measures in a recent referendum, but it was a "Pyrrhic victory" since he now faces an even more devastated economy and deeper austerity cuts. Against his own party's ideals, Tsipras has now committed himself to more "draconian" budget cuts, with Greece forced to carry out the "Sisyphean task" of ever-increasing austerity...
State & Living Wage Battles
National push for $15 minimum wage hits home for U.S. Senate workers Washington Post ...Baker is among a group of federal contract workers who are joining with union-backed advocates to call on lawmakers to do more to protect an increasingly privatized federal workforce, where low wages and minimal benefits often clash with the rhetoric espoused by elected leaders. “We work for them every day,” Baker said. “They have a clean environment; they’ve got good food to eat. They say, ‘Thank you very much’ and ‘Good work.’ But that’s not enough. I need more so I can pay my bills -- $15 and a union”...
North Carolina Just Relaxed Its Voter ID Law, But Will Voters Get The Memo? Huffington Post ...Voting rights advocates were at least somewhat pleased when the North Carolina General Assembly unexpectedly voted in June to modify the state's strict requirement that voters present government-issued photo ID at the polls. But now, they're concerned that the state won't adequately educate people about the softened ID law before it goes into effect next year...
L.A. County supervisors agree to boost minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 LA Times ...Organized labor won an important victory Tuesday when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to increase the minimum wage to $15, but it now faces a more daunting political challenge: convincing other local governments to join the movement. The widely anticipated move by the nation’s largest local government applies to unincorporated areas and hundreds of thousands of employees, mirroring a similar action by the city of Los Angeles...
New York fast food workers’ $15 wage vote on Wednesday KFOR ...New York’s fast food workers could soon get paid a lot more. On Wednesday, the wage board is set to vote on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 an hour. The meeting will be held in New York City at 2.30 pm. New York’s minimum wage for all workers has risen from $7.25 to $8.75 an hour in the last two years. By the end of this year, it will be $9...
If you want a living wage, be prepared to go on strike for it (opinion) The Guardian ...Is the best way to achieve higher wages really legislation? Many think so. Across the country, working people are eagerly waiting to feel the effects of new laws that raise the minimum wage. Seattle will see an increase to $15 by 2021, and Los Angeles will see the same increase by 2020. But this strategy detracts from the only power dynamic that can actually overturn economic inequality: class struggle...
How the American South Drives the Low-Wage Economy American Prospect ...Today, as the auto and aerospace manufacturers of Europe and East Asia open low-wage assembly plants in Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi, the South has assumed a comparable role once more. Indeed, the South today shares more features with its antebellum ancestor than it has in a very long time. White Southern elites and their powerful allies among non-Southern business interests seek to expand to the rest of the nation the South’s subjugation of workers and its suppression of the voting rights of those who might oppose their policies...
U.S. Labor
1,000 NYC airport workers set to strike starting Wednesday Associated Press ...More than 1,000 subcontracted airport security officers, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants at the city's two major airports plan to strike starting Wednesday night, according to a union that seeks to represent them. Officials with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union said picketing would begin at Kennedy Airport at 10 p.m. Wednesday and at LaGuardia at 6 a.m. Thursday...
UAW Donates $50,000 in Memory of the Charleston 9 AFL-CIO ...Members of the UAW on Thursday announced a $50,000 donation to the Rev. Clementa Pinckney fund in honor of the Charleston 9 who were tragically murdered on June 17. “UAW members often speak of bridging the gap to lift up our communities. Through our long history of civil rights advocacy, economic justice advocacy and economic fairness advocacy, the very ideals that we have come to learn were so near and dear to those who lost their lives June 17 at the Emanuel AME Church,” said UAW President Dennis Williams...
Legislators told trucking companies deliberately misclassify workers Savannah Now ...Two independent truckers choked up separately as they testified before a legislative committee Tuesday about the toll they say comes from companies misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees. The emotional moments came in the middle and end of a daylong hearing by a subcommittee of the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee assigned to study worker classification...
Unemployment Rates a Mixed Bag Associated Press ...Unemployment rates fell last month in 21 U.S. states and were unchanged in 17, as widespread job growth and a shrinking workforce reduce the ranks of those out of work. The Labor Department said Tuesday that unemployment rates rose in 12 states. Employers added jobs in 31 states and cut them in 17, with little change in the remaining two states. The figures reflect steady hiring nationwide. Employers added 223,000 jobs in June, and the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent from 5.5 percent...
Time Is Political Jacobin ...A recent survey of New York City retail workers found that only 17 percent of workers had a regular work schedule. Retail workers reported that in order to get more hours or more desirable shifts they sometimes had to compete with coworkers to sell a certain amount, or sign up the most people for store credit cards. In this way, they were battling with each other just for the ability to work and earn more...
Miscellaneous
Obama Administration Announces New Rules Protecting Military Families From Predatory Lenders Think Progress ...America’s armed forces personnel will no longer be exposed to exploitative payday loans after the Department of Defense (DOD) put new, long-delayed rules into place on Tuesday. The news marks a victory for an idea that had seemed at risk of being killed just months ago by lawmakers friendly to the lending industry...
Five Years Later, the Unfulfilled Promise of Dodd-Frank Common Dreams ...With several key promises of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act still unfulfilled, "Americans cannot be comforted that Wall Street will not wreak havoc again," according to a new report from the watchdog group Public Citizen. "Five years after President Barack Obama signed this legislation, Dodd-Frank remains largely incomplete," said Bartlett Naylor, Public Citizen’s financial policy advocate and author of the report...
6 insidious ways the one percent is ripping you off Salon ...In the wake of the financial crisis, there was a momentof hope that predatory businesses would no longer be able to pick at our bones like vultures. Instead, we’ve seen Dodd-Frank weakened and stalled, and the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stymied at every turn. In the latest round, Republicans are thwarting the confirmation of Richard Cordray to lead the Bureau. Meanwhile, we continue to get fleeced...
“I Will Light You Up!” Disturbing Dashcam Footage Shows the Traffic Stop That Led to Sandra Bland’s Arrest. Slate ...Tuesday afternoon saw the release of extraordinary dashcam footage of the traffic stop that led to Bland’s arrest. In the video, you can see Bland’s car making a lane change right before the officer who was driving behind her, who has been identified as Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Brian Encinia, pulls her over. “You seem very irritated,” he says to her, while standing next to the driver’s side window...
Why the Black Lives Matter Protest at Netroots Nation Was Long Overdue (opinion) The Nation ...The action kicked off a necessary conversation about the Democratic candidates’ reluctance to address racism directly, the problem with saying “all lives matter,” and why economic populism devoid of a race and gender analysis will neither satisfy nor mobilize a sizeable chunk of progressive voters. These activists have changed the tone for the 2016 election season, putting Democrats on notice that they cannot expect the support of black voters—particularly young black voters—without speaking directly and meaningfully to issues of race and state power currently gripping the country...
Friday, April 3, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.03.15
Global Labor & Trade
Unions, Progressives Pressure Democrats To Oppose Trade Deals Business Journals ...Labor unions and progressive organizations are sending a message to Democrats: If you support fast-tracking trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, don’t be surprised if we oppose you in your next Democratic primary...
U.S., Japan Seek Trade Deal in Advance of Abe Washington Visit Bloomberg Business ...U.S. and Japanese negotiators are rushing to complete a trade agreement they can unveil during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington later this month, something they hope will pave the way for a broader Asia-Pacific pact involving 10 other countries...
Trade bill timeline could push Senate to act Politico ...Senate aides have circulated a tentative date of mid-April for advancing “fast-track” trade legislation in the recognition that Sens. Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden have to move quickly to finalize a deal on the bill or risk losing their chance to get it passed by the end of the spring session...
Astroturf Warning: TPP Critics Call Out Fake 'Progressive' Group Pushing Corporate Trade Agenda Common Dreams ...Critics of the corporate-friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership are lining up against what they call an "astroturf" operation claiming to represent progressives in favor of Fast Tracking the sweeping and secretive trade deal. No such progressives exist, they say...
A Turning Point For Chinese Workers In These Times ...As unions have struggled and strikes have declined in the United States in recent years, labor militancy has surged in other parts of the world—and nowhere more so than China. Now the movement appears to be starting to achieve significant institutional reform...
State & Living Wage Battles
Rand Paul’s Favorite Union-Buster Bloomberg ...Yessin, who’s represented companies in more than 200 conflicts with unions, says the NLRA doesn’t block states from letting local officials regulate some union activities. Yessin’s ideas offer conservatives a path forward on anti-union legislation known as “right-to-work” laws...
Packed House As Oswego Discusses Rauner 'Right-To-Work' Proposal Chicago Tribune ...Rauner's office has asked cities and villages across the state to support his initiatives aimed to "get the house in order" by changing how Illinois does business. One of the changes Rauner wants involves letting local communities enact "right-to-work" zones, which would allow voters to decide whether or not employees should be forced to join a union as a condition of employment...
Indiana’s Highway To Hell: Welcome To The Sick New Corporate Order Salon.com ...It’s the “circle of life,” neoliberal style: Enter into “free trade” deals which benefit global investors, then watch as wages stagnate and jobs disappear. Cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, depriving the nation of funds for infrastructure. Make under- and unemployed residents of cities like Gary, Indiana, pay tolls to make up the shortfall, and jeopardize the retirement security of middle-class Americans in sketchy privatization deals to replace lost infrastructure funding...
McDonald's Is Raising Wages For Some Workers Huffington Post ...McDonald's is finally giving some of its workers a raise. The fast-food giant on Wednesday announced plans to give employees a 10 percent pay bump and some extra benefits. The raise will affect about 90,000 workers at a small fraction of McDonald’s stores. Employees at franchises, which make up the majority of the burger chain's locations, won't be affected...
Seattle begins to phase in $15 minimum wage Union Bulletin ...Most workers in Seattle will see the minimum wage increase to $11 an hour this week. Some small businesses will get a $1 credit for employees who earn tips or get health insurance and will pay $10 an hour. It will take until 2017 for Seattle workers at large companies and chains to earn $15 an hour...
Fight “Right to Work” in Oregon Counterpunch ...There is justifiable dread that anti-union “Right to Work” laws will be purchased into existence by out-of-state billionaires championing the laws around the country. Fortunately, an antidote to Right to Work is also being publicly debated in Oregon, where there is pending legislation to push the state’s minimum wage to $15...
Candidates Who Mock The Law (opinion) Washington Post ...Mr. Bush seems to have adopted every dark-money trick in the book. Will others now follow? As it is, the presidential campaign will begin under a dark-money cloud. Americans want a president with the right stuff, and that does not mean bags of secret cash...
U.S. Labor
Philadelphia airport workers strike over wages and benefits Boston Globe ...A few dozen baggage handlers, airplane cleaners and other non-union workers went on strike at Philadelphia’s airport Thursday, demanding higher wages, benefits, and an end to what they say are unfair labor practices...
CSX Worker Struck, Killed By Train At Rail Yard WTRV ...An investigation is underway after a CSX worker was struck and killed by a train early Wednesday morning. Henrico police said the industrial accident happened around just before 3 a.m. at the ACCA train yard in the 2100 block of Westwood Avenue...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Factories Slow For Fifth Month In Row, But Economists See Rebound Wall Street Journal ...The Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday said its purchasing managers index fell for the fifth consecutive month in March, to 51.5 from 52.9 in February. The index is at its lowest reading since May 2013, though it’s still above the 50 level that reflects expansion...
When Will The NSA Stop Spying On Innocent Americans? The Atlantic ...Unless Congress acts, Americans will soon benefit from one of the Patriot Act's most important safeguards against abuse: Language in Section 215 of the law is scheduled to expire in June, depriving the FBI and NSA of a provision they've used to justify monitoring the phone calls of tens of millions of innocents...
Unions, Progressives Pressure Democrats To Oppose Trade Deals Business Journals ...Labor unions and progressive organizations are sending a message to Democrats: If you support fast-tracking trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, don’t be surprised if we oppose you in your next Democratic primary...
U.S., Japan Seek Trade Deal in Advance of Abe Washington Visit Bloomberg Business ...U.S. and Japanese negotiators are rushing to complete a trade agreement they can unveil during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington later this month, something they hope will pave the way for a broader Asia-Pacific pact involving 10 other countries...
Trade bill timeline could push Senate to act Politico ...Senate aides have circulated a tentative date of mid-April for advancing “fast-track” trade legislation in the recognition that Sens. Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden have to move quickly to finalize a deal on the bill or risk losing their chance to get it passed by the end of the spring session...
Astroturf Warning: TPP Critics Call Out Fake 'Progressive' Group Pushing Corporate Trade Agenda Common Dreams ...Critics of the corporate-friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership are lining up against what they call an "astroturf" operation claiming to represent progressives in favor of Fast Tracking the sweeping and secretive trade deal. No such progressives exist, they say...
A Turning Point For Chinese Workers In These Times ...As unions have struggled and strikes have declined in the United States in recent years, labor militancy has surged in other parts of the world—and nowhere more so than China. Now the movement appears to be starting to achieve significant institutional reform...
State & Living Wage Battles
Rand Paul’s Favorite Union-Buster Bloomberg ...Yessin, who’s represented companies in more than 200 conflicts with unions, says the NLRA doesn’t block states from letting local officials regulate some union activities. Yessin’s ideas offer conservatives a path forward on anti-union legislation known as “right-to-work” laws...
Packed House As Oswego Discusses Rauner 'Right-To-Work' Proposal Chicago Tribune ...Rauner's office has asked cities and villages across the state to support his initiatives aimed to "get the house in order" by changing how Illinois does business. One of the changes Rauner wants involves letting local communities enact "right-to-work" zones, which would allow voters to decide whether or not employees should be forced to join a union as a condition of employment...
Indiana’s Highway To Hell: Welcome To The Sick New Corporate Order Salon.com ...It’s the “circle of life,” neoliberal style: Enter into “free trade” deals which benefit global investors, then watch as wages stagnate and jobs disappear. Cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, depriving the nation of funds for infrastructure. Make under- and unemployed residents of cities like Gary, Indiana, pay tolls to make up the shortfall, and jeopardize the retirement security of middle-class Americans in sketchy privatization deals to replace lost infrastructure funding...
McDonald's Is Raising Wages For Some Workers Huffington Post ...McDonald's is finally giving some of its workers a raise. The fast-food giant on Wednesday announced plans to give employees a 10 percent pay bump and some extra benefits. The raise will affect about 90,000 workers at a small fraction of McDonald’s stores. Employees at franchises, which make up the majority of the burger chain's locations, won't be affected...
Seattle begins to phase in $15 minimum wage Union Bulletin ...Most workers in Seattle will see the minimum wage increase to $11 an hour this week. Some small businesses will get a $1 credit for employees who earn tips or get health insurance and will pay $10 an hour. It will take until 2017 for Seattle workers at large companies and chains to earn $15 an hour...
Fight “Right to Work” in Oregon Counterpunch ...There is justifiable dread that anti-union “Right to Work” laws will be purchased into existence by out-of-state billionaires championing the laws around the country. Fortunately, an antidote to Right to Work is also being publicly debated in Oregon, where there is pending legislation to push the state’s minimum wage to $15...
Candidates Who Mock The Law (opinion) Washington Post ...Mr. Bush seems to have adopted every dark-money trick in the book. Will others now follow? As it is, the presidential campaign will begin under a dark-money cloud. Americans want a president with the right stuff, and that does not mean bags of secret cash...
U.S. Labor
Philadelphia airport workers strike over wages and benefits Boston Globe ...A few dozen baggage handlers, airplane cleaners and other non-union workers went on strike at Philadelphia’s airport Thursday, demanding higher wages, benefits, and an end to what they say are unfair labor practices...
CSX Worker Struck, Killed By Train At Rail Yard WTRV ...An investigation is underway after a CSX worker was struck and killed by a train early Wednesday morning. Henrico police said the industrial accident happened around just before 3 a.m. at the ACCA train yard in the 2100 block of Westwood Avenue...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Factories Slow For Fifth Month In Row, But Economists See Rebound Wall Street Journal ...The Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday said its purchasing managers index fell for the fifth consecutive month in March, to 51.5 from 52.9 in February. The index is at its lowest reading since May 2013, though it’s still above the 50 level that reflects expansion...
When Will The NSA Stop Spying On Innocent Americans? The Atlantic ...Unless Congress acts, Americans will soon benefit from one of the Patriot Act's most important safeguards against abuse: Language in Section 215 of the law is scheduled to expire in June, depriving the FBI and NSA of a provision they've used to justify monitoring the phone calls of tens of millions of innocents...
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