These Teamsters fought, and these Teamsters won!

Local 856's action in September. Months later, they're working.

Our brothers and sisters at Local 856 fought for seven months against illegal furloughs by the City of Concord, Calif. Last week, they won. 

The city's voters passed a measure two years ago that raised city revenue to maintain and protect their municipal services. But the city ignored the voters’referendum and forced 150 Teamster city workers to take 13 unpaid furlough days. Local 856 told us 

The City’s own budget projection includes sizable surpluses; however it is still forcing furlough days and cutting city services. City employees maintain that in some cases, furloughs actually exacerbate costs by increasing the amount of overtime the city must pay other employees to cover essential functions.

They came to work in protest on their first furlough day in September. They showed up at Todos Santos Square in October to distribute leaflets. They enlisted the support of the mayor and other political leaders. They came to meetings and met with local businesses who were concerned about cuts to city services. 

Their activism paid off. The furloughs were ended and their pay restored on March 5. 

The Contra Costa Times reported on Friday, 

After months of tense negotiations, the tug-of-war between the city and its largest union has ended with a deal eliminating a controversial furlough program and restoring pay for city workers for the first time since the economy plummeted. 

The City Council unanimously approved the contract with 150 city workers represented by International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 856 on March 5. 

The package of givebacks begins the return to the higher pay scales of 2008. Pay for the union's members has dropped 14 percent since the economy sank. This contract restores an estimated 10 percent.

The workers answer 911 calls,repair and maintain city streets, monitor water and sewer lines, keep city parks safe and clean, issue business licenses and building permits, process background checks, subpoenas,restraining orders and impounded cars and many other public services.

They make us all proud to be Teamsters!

Today's Teamster News 12.26.12

Washington’s Serious People Are on the War Path Against Middle-Income and Poor People  Economy in Crisis   ...The Serious People in Washington, such as The Washington Post (both the opinion and news sections), the Wall Street Campaign to Fix the Debt, and the Republican Congressional leadership are in full budget-cutting frenzy. They demand cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and everything else that benefits middle income and poor people because, well, because the market demands it...
Shoppers Disappoint Retailers This Holiday Season  Associated Press   ...U.S. shoppers spent cautiously this holiday season, a disappointment for retailers who slashed prices to lure people into stores and now must hope for a post-Christmas burst of spending...
Why Malls Are Getting Mauled  Jeff Jordan   ...Online retailers are relentlessly gaining share in many retail categories, and offline players are fighting for progressively smaller pieces of the retail pie.  A number of physical retailers have already succumbed to online competition including Circuit City, Borders, CompUSA, Tower Records and Blockbuster, and many others are showing signs of serious economic distress...
Ted Koppel: “Fox News is Bad for America”  The Big Picture   ...He notes that there is no question when watching FoxNews where the ideological bent comes from...
Decline in foreclosure backlog may give false hope  Palm Beach Post   ...More than 40 percent of foreclosures cleared from Florida’s courts in recent months were dismissals, cases that likely will boomerang back into the overloaded judicial system when lenders are better prepared to continue their pursuit...
Teamsters picket Paterson's Crown Roll Leaf  The Record   ...About 50 employees who picketed outside Crown Roll Leaf, Inc. on Monday are preparing for a possible strike later this week to protest proposed new contract terms that call for 10-percent pay cuts and increases to health-care costs, union members said...

Today's Teamster News 08.29.12

The Jobs Crisis  Nieman Reports   ...even with the most optimistic assumptions about economic growth, current trends indicate that the average American’s wages will drop about 20 percent. One big factor is that more and more good jobs will go overseas, leaving even America’s best and brightest no alternative but to enter the service industry...
Principal reduction: A lifeline for underwater homeowners (opinion)  The Hill   ...it’s important for federal policy makers to continue to pursue foreclosure mitigation efforts including reducing the outstanding principal on homes for borrowers whose mortgages greatly exceeds the value of their homes...
Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital  Rolling Stone   ...How the GOP presidential candidate and his private equity firm staged an epic wealth grab, destroyed jobs – and stuck others with the bill...
"Fuck You, Tyrants!": Ron Paul Supporters Rebel on Convention Floor  Mother Jones   ..."They're cheating. The Republican National Committee is not transparent and does not have integrity. They stole votes."..
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra asks musicians' union for deep cuts and concessions  Indianapolis Star   ...According to committee chairman Rick Graef, a horn player with the ISO for the past two decades, management wants to reduce the number of musicians under contract from 87 to 63, cut wages by 45 percent, reduce the schedule from 52 to 36 weeks and revisit the terms of the musicians’ pension...
Tacoma: Council executes new contract with Teamsters Local 117, calling for pay raises amid grim budget forecast   The News Tribune   ...Tacoma’s City Council unanimously executed a new contract for 239 city employees across various departments today — an agreement that will cost the city about $125,000 more per year in pay raises covered by the next general fund budget...

The rich at Caterpillar try to impoverish the workers at Caterpillar

Rich, profitable Caterpillar wants to give its top executives a raise and cut worker pay.

Just because it can.

Steve Greenhouse at the New York Times reported Sunday,

Despite earning a record $4.9 billion profit last year and projecting even better results for 2012, the company is insisting on a six-year wage freeze and a pension freeze for most of the 780 production workers at its factory here. Caterpillar says it needs to keep its labor costs down to ensure its future competitiveness. 

The company’s stance has angered the workers, who went on strike 12 weeks ago. “Considering the offer they gave us, it’s a strike we had to have,” said Albert Williams, a 19-year Caterpillar employee, as he picketed in 99-degree heat outside the plant, which makes hydraulic parts and systems essential for much of the company’s earth-moving machinery. 

Caterpillar, which has significantly raised its executives’ compensation because of its strong profits, defended its demands, saying many unionized workers were paid well above market rates. To run the factory during the strike, the company is using replacement workers, managers and a few union members who have crossed the picket line.

This is just gross.

Hamilton Nolan at Gawker has a great idea: Tie the CEO pay to workers' pay.  He writes,

...what Caterpillar and its executives are doing is wrong. They are taking from the poor to enrich the already wealthy. They are using the unemployment crisis as a weapon to pitch working class people against one another. So here's an idea: let's just tie executive pay to worker pay, by law. Pick a maximum multiple that a CEO can make. 20 times that of an average worker? 50 times? 100 times? The number is less important than the principle. Once corporate executives are tied to their workers in pay, the low man needs to get a raise in order for the high man to get a raise. The economic interest of the executive class is aligned with that of the working class.

Then, he writes, "watch it fly."

Wouldn't it be nice?

Today's Teamster News 06.23.11

Teamsters at odds with BMW  The Press-Enterprise   ...Southern California Teamsters, furious that luxury vehicle manufacturer BMW is firing its unionized workers and turning its Ontario distribution center over to an outside contractor, say they'll fight on national and possibly international levels...
Senate Healthcare and Pension Reform Bill is 'Terrible' for Workers, Says Teamsters VP   Point Pleasant Patch   ...Monday's state Senate vote undermines collective bargaining, says Fred Potter...
New Jersey union sues over pension fund payments  Reuters   ...A New Jersey labor union filed a lawsuit on Wednesday over the failure by Governor Chris Christie to make payments to the state's pension funds, claiming workers' constitutional rights were violated... 
Battle over beer legislation  WISN.com   ...A group of Republican lawmakers is urging Gov. Scott Walker to kill a measure they recently passed. The craft brewer provision...
O'Brien says right-to-work veto override vote can wait until fall  Manchester Union-Leader   ...Speaker of the House William O’Brien said he will wait until the fall to attempt an override of Gov. Lynch’s veto of the right-to-work bill...
Unions: 2nd vote possible if state concessions rejected  Connecticut Post   ...If state unions narrowly reject a $1.6 billion concessions package by week's end, labor leaders may find a way to try to salvage the deal and push forward with a second vote...

Today's Teamster News 05.14.11

Could Scott Walker’s overreach cost GOP a Senate seat they might have won?  Wshington  Post   ...One key takeaway from the news that Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl is set to retire is that the national Republican Party could end up coming to regret Governor Scott Walker’s overreach in a major way...
Live-blogging the 'We Are Wisconsin' rally at the Capitol on May 14  Isthmus   ...Join us here starting early Saturday afternoon for the "We Are Wisconsin" rally on the Capitol Square, marking the 90th day since protests started in downtown Madison over Gov. Scott Walker's agenda for the state...
Connecticut Unions Agree to $1.6 Billion in Givebacks  New York Times   ...
Threatened with nearly 5,000 layoffs, representatives for 45,000 unionized state employees agreed Friday to $1.6 billion in concessions over two years to help balance a budget that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says includes pain for everyone: record tax increases, substantial program cuts and worker givebacks in health care, pension benefits and wages...
Ohio: A New Kind of Battleground  The Nation   ...Although more and better jobs are what Ohio most needs, in mid-March Governor John Kasich introduced a budget that is sure to lead to dramatic job losses, with tens of thousands of public employees set to be laid off...
The Myth of Moderate Mitch  The New Republic   ...Elected with the help of donations from the Koch brothers, (Daniels) signed bills that abolished the right of teachers to bargain for anything other than wages and wage-related benefits and initiated the largest private-school voucher program in the country... he’s also privatized a state highway ... he supports Paul Ryan’s plan to cut taxes for the rich while starving Medicare...
Bill Nemitz: Dill's win unmistakably a message to Augusta  Portland Press-Herald   ..."I have not heard a single person raise any substantive issue other than Governor LePage and the crisis of leadership in Augusta," Dill said. "I mean, not a single person!"...
TN bill to curb teacher bargaining rights advances  Business Week   ...A proposal to curb Tennessee teachers' collective bargaining rights is once again advancing in the House after an amendment was withdrawn Tuesday to do away with negotiations altogether...