Today's Teamster News 03.21.13

CVS presses workers for medical information  Boston Herald   ...A national data privacy group is seeing red over a new CVS policy that requires workers who use company health insurance to report their weight, and body fat and glucose levels to the insurer — or pay a $600-a-year penalty...
Big Majority Supports Public Spending for Jobs  Political Wire   ...Key findings: 72% support federal spending "to put people to work on urgent infrastructure repairs" and 72% support a "federal jobs creation law that would spend government money for a program designed to create more than 1 million new jobs..."
Workers Lose Jobs As Pink Slips Go Out Due To Sequestration  Huffington Post   ...some in the private sector ... are losing their jobs altogether, underscoring just how much daily life for many people is tied to a functioning government...
Solar Power Soars in United States; Top 10 Solar Projects Under Construction  Forbes   ...The United States added a staggering 3.3 gigawatts of solar power capacity in 2012 ... the solar power capacity added in 2012 was greater than all of the solar power capacity added for the three previous years combined...
Pennsylvania House Votes On Liquor Privatization Today  CBS News   ...The stage is set for a historic vote today in the Pennsylvania House on a bill that would phase out the state store system of selling wine and liquor. But even if the bill passes the House, it would still have to get through the Senate, where support is less certain...
Changes to Ohio's election laws head to governor  Fox News   ...Two bills that make election law changes in the presidential battleground state are headed to the Ohio governor's desk. One measure … would restrict the time groups have to collect extra signatures needed to ensure their ballot issues get before voters…
House approves ban on union pay deductions  Lawrence Journal-World   ...A bill barring public employee unions in Kansas from deducting money from members’ paychecks to help finance political activities cleared the Republican-dominated Legislature on Tuesday...
Court filing: Attorney General Bill Schuette says right-to-work laws apply to state government workers  Michigan Live   ...The filing Tuesday is a response for defendants in a lawsuit filed last month by a coalition of labor unions. The unions argue that Michigan’s right-to-work law should not apply to roughly 35,000 unionized state employees...
Bill that would repeal right-to-work law shelved until December  Detroit Free Press   ...A bill that would have repealed the controversial right-to-work law passed by the Legislature during the last week of lame duck session last year has been shelved until Dec. 28...
Unemployment rises in all 72 Wisconsin counties  Associated Press   ...The state's unemployment rate increased from 6.7 percent to 7 percent...
Ohio Chamber of Commerce Calls Kasich Tax Plan “Unhealthy Shift”  Plunderbund   ...Add the Chamber and NFIB to the list of nearly 20 other business groups opposing the Governor’s tax plan, and we seem to have a consensus here: John Kasich’s sales tax expansion is bad for business in Ohio...
Union workers block Las Vegas Strip travel lanes  Fox News   ...Culinary 226 and Bartenders 165 union members blocked traffic lanes on the Las Vegas Strip during a protest on Wednesday. …  104 protestors received citations for obstructing a roadway….Since opening in December 2010, union members said they haven't been able to form a union contract. They blame (Cosmopolitan Las Vegas) casino owner Deutsche Bank for not allowing fair wages and benefits....
Teamsters' Gala for Autism Tickets Available  Back Bay Patch   ... The Teamsters Local 25 will hold the sixth annual “Light Up the Night” Gala for Autism on Saturday, March 30...

Tesco, Target treat workers like prisoners

Warehouse workers at the British grocery chain Tesco are forced to wear electronic armbands that monitor how hard they work.

The Irish Independent reports,

Tesco workers are being made to wear electronic armbands that managers can use to grade how hard they are working. 

A former staff member has claimed employees are given marks based on how efficiently they work in a bid to improve productivity and can be called in front of management if they take unscheduled toilet breaks. 

The armbands are worn by warehouse staff and forklift drivers, who use them to scan the stock they collect from supermarket distribution points and send it out for delivery. Tesco said the armbands are used to improve efficiency and save its staff from having to carry around pens and paper to keep track of deliveries. But the device is also being used to keep an eye on employees’ work rates, the ex-staff member said. 

The former employee said the device provided an order to collect from the warehouse and a set amount of time to complete it. If workers met that target, they were awarded a 100 per cent score, but that would rise to 200 per cent if they worked twice as quickly. The score would fall if they did not meet the target. 

If, however, workers did not log a break when they went to the toilet, the score would be “surprisingly lower”, according to the former staff member...

Target turned its stores into prisons through a more low-tech method. It locked its workers inside buildings overnight. The workers complained to OSHA. Josh Eidelson at The Nation reports,

...twenty-five workers allege that they were regularly locked indoors while cleaning Target stores in the Twin Cities. 

“At 11 at night, I would ring the doorbell to get let in, and then from there, we would be locked in the store all night, until 7 am when they opened the store,” said Honorio Hernandez, who cleaned Target stores for three years before leaving a year ago for other work. “I was scared that something would happen, and I wouldn’t be able to get out of the store…. But I never complained about it because I was scared that I would lose my job.” (Hernandez was interviewed in Spanish.) 

Hernandez has worked for all three of the janitorial contractors named in the OSHA complaints: Carlson Building Maintenance, Prestige Maintenance USA and Diversified Maintenance Systems. Currently unemployed, Hernandez is an activist with the Minnesota labor group that organized the complaints, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha.

(Wal-Mart has also been accused of locking workers inside overnight.)

But about those electronic armbands: You can bet they'll show up in U.S. and Canadian warehouses, if they haven't already. Sign a petition to tell Tesco to stop using electronic armbands to monitor employees here.