Today's Teamster News 06.24.14

Teamster News
Teamsters, Taylor Farms clash  The Packer   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which hopes to represent Taylor Farms employees at two Tracy, Calif., facilities, claims many were denied benefits as a result of prolonged stays in temporary worker status...
With help from Teamsters, LA Uber drivers try to organize  Southern California Public Radio   ...Organizers are expecting up to 500 Uber drivers – supported by Teamsters Local 986 – to hold a demonstration Tuesday morning in front of the Uber offices in Santa Monica...
D.C. Taxicab Drivers Organize Against Ridesharing Services  WAMU   ...local labor groups are focusing on pressuring the D.C. Council to help cabbies stave off competition from the unregulated, on-demand “ridesharing” services UberX, Lyft, and Sidecar. The Teamsters Local 922 is planning to hold a cab driver rally Wednesday at Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington to call on District legislators to level a playing field where the city’s regulated taxi fleet currently feels at a disadvantage to the innovative newcomers...
Arbitration Ruling Renews CN, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Agreement  Progressive Railroading   ...CN on Friday announced it will immediately begin to implement an arbitrator's decision that set the terms and conditions of a new three-year agreement with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference-Conductors, Trainpersons and Yardpersons (TCRC-CTY)...
Trade
Thanks to Wikileaks, public can debate alarming new trade deal  Trade Reform   ...The draft agreement Wikileaks released on June 19 is fresh, written in May. It is a model of secret law, blatant in its disregard for transparency, democratic process and history. Its opening page says the terms are to remain secret for five years after negotiations formally end or the proposed new rules take effect. Talks to refine that agreement were to resume Monday in Geneva...
LIVEBLOG: Minnesota State Reps Demand Washington Act On Unfair Steel Trade  manufacture this   ...Jason Metsa, Tom Anzelc and several others followed Governor Mark Dayton’s powerful demand for federal action on unfair trade in steel ... especially tubular products being produced in South Korea and dumped at below-market prices in the U.S. market...
State Battles
We have a proven formula for success’ (opinion)  FortWayne.com   ...I recently vetoed an ordinance passed by City Council that would end collective bargaining for non-public safety union employees...
Labor Law Repeal To Hit Assembly, Again, On Tuesday  Anchorage Daily News   ...The latest effort to defeat a controversial city labor law will hit the Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night as members consider a complicated array of options from repealing the measure outright to replacing it with a watered-down version to leaving it as a referendum question on the state ballot in November's election...
The Supreme Court Ruled In Favor Of An Alabama Whistle Blower. What Does That Mean For Others Who Expose Corruption?  Birmingham News   ...Edward Lane was the director of a statewide program for Alabama's at-risk youth when he saw State Rep. Sue Schmitz was drawing pay, but doing no work, for the program. Lane fired Schmitz in 2006 and later testified at her public corruption trials regarding the "no-show" job....
Mayors Put Focus On How To Raise Wages For Lowest-Paid Workers In Cities  New York Times   ...Here at the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, which convened over the weekend, the subject of income inequality seemed to be on almost everyone’s lips, and mayors wondered aloud how best to use their powers to help the lowest-paid workers...
War On Workers
Starbucks baristudents should beware the green mermaid bearing gifts (opinion)  Guardian   ...For the first two years of their education, Starbucks students will qualify for a small scholarship from ASU, but the balance of their tuition payments will have to come from loans and students' own financial resources (aka their take-home pay as baristas)...
The CEO Aristocracy: Big Bucks For The Big Boss  Washington Post   ...Any CEO of a major company is virtually guaranteed to become a multimillionaire. In the Equilar survey, the median holding of company stock was $83 million. CEO compensation has vastly outstripped average wage gains...
Miscellaneous
Justices Uphold Emission Limits on Big Industry  New York Times   ...In a big win for environmentalists, the Supreme Court on Monday effectively endorsed the Obama administration’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from sources like power plants, even as it criticized what it called the administration’s overreaching...

Steelworkers rally to save their jobs from predatory South Korea pricing

Steelworkers like Bryan Wood are in danger of losing their jobs because of predatory pricing by South Korea. Workers have already been laid off in an Ohio steel plant and will soon lose their jobs in Pennsylvania and Texas.

Wood, a 17-year resident of Lone Star, has deep roots in a community which could be harmed by the loss of the steel plant there. "We want this facility to thrive," he said. "Goodpaying jobs help a community to thrive."

He added:

Quality, quality, quality product is what leaves this facility, and you can't get that overseas. 

The Alliance for American Manufacturing held a rally to stanch the bleeding of steelworker jobs on June 2, 2014 at the U. S. Steel Corp. in Lone Star, Texas. The AAM explains:

...a preliminary ruling by the Commerce Department had determined that eight countries are dumping OCTG pipe in the U.S. at below fair-market value.  Notably absent, however, in the Commerce Department analysis was any finding of wrongdoing by South Korea, the primary source of imported OCTG products. With no market of its own, South Korea exports nearly all of its OCTG production – often at well-below market prices – to the United States.

The AAM is urging Commerce Department Secretary Penny Pritzker to investigate the accuracy of the South Korean used to conclude the country's steel plants aren't dumping.

The Teamsters have joined the U.S. Steelworkers in lobbying the Commerce Department to stop South Korea's dumping.

U.S. Steel laid off 108 workers at Lorain Tubular Operations in February, according to the Chronicle-Telegram. Pennsylvania steelworkers are losing their jobs in McKeesport, and Texas steelworkers are losing their jobs with the idling of plants in Bellville.

Another rally will be held today at a steel plant in Fairfield, Ala. Follow the action on Twitter on the #sosjobs hashtag.

Teamsters join steelworkers' fight against illegally dumped steel

Illegal steel from South Korea has already killed American jobs and is threatening to kill more. The Teamsters want the U.S. Commerce Department to stop South Korea's dumping.

U.S. Steel laid off 108 workers at Lorain Tubular Operations in February, according to the Chronicle-Telegram. Pennsylvania steelworkers are losing their jobs in McKeesport, and Texas steelworkers are losing their jobs with the idling of plants in Bellville.

The Pittsburgh Business Times reported on June 2,

After repeated warnings that thousands of domestic steel jobs could be at risk, the first local hit came Monday, as United States Steel Corp. announced it will idle its McKeesport Tubular operations. 

More layoffs are imminent, the steelworkers fear, if something isn't done about South Korea's illegal dumping of steel goods used in oilfield drilling, known as Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG).

It isn't just illegal dumping by Korea that's hurting American workers. The U.S.-South Korea trade deal that took effect two years ago in March has cost an estimated 46,000 U.S. jobs. On the two year anniversary of the trade deal, U.S. exports fell 11 percent and the U.S. trade deficit with that country ballooned 47 percent.

Recently in Pittsburgh, USW Vice President Tom Conway told a rally that South Korea is deliberately making OCTG products just to undercut U.S. steelmakers. Conway said,

...the Commerce Department has failed miserably to impose duties on illegal dumping by South Korea, that if not corrected immediately will result in the loss of thousands of jobs in the steel industry. 

...Conway pointed out that most of the steel pipe produced overseas is made specifically to undercut U.S. manufacturers. “South Korea is not using one inch of this product,” he said. 

President Bloomingdale told the crowd the “entire labor movement is behind the steelworkers and all manufacturing workers in their fight to protect good jobs that build strong communities and grow our middle class.”

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, BLET President Dennis Pierce and BMWED President Fred Simpson wrote a letter supporting the steelworkers to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, according to a Teamsters press release today:

“American steel producers employ 8,000 workers across the country making OCTG and each of those jobs supports seven more in the supply chain,” Hoffa, Pierce and Simpson wrote. “The steel produced for the U.S. energy market accounts for ten percent of domestic production. It is imperative that American OCTG producers have a level playing field on which to compete.” 

Noting that the agency is set to make a final ruling next month, the Teamsters urged Pritzker to devote “all available resources” to make sure the information sought from the countries being investigated is accurate. Hoffa, Pierce and Simpson also suggested that Commerce officials review and revise its preliminary decision so that it incorporates “the true costs of production and profit margins among the Korean producers of high-end OCTG pipes.”

Read the Teamsters' press statement here.