Today's Teamster News 05.02.14

Teamster News
Anheuser-Busch, Teamsters Reach Deal  Wall Street Journal   ...Anheuser-Busch InBev NV's union workers Wednesday ratified a five-year contract that called for wage increases and no plant closings, officials from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement posted on the union's website...
Abbotsford Teamsters And School District Reach Tentative Agreement  BC Local News   ...A tentative agreement has been reached between the Abbotsford school district and its support staff represented by Teamsters Local 31. Negotiators from both sides met today in Abbotsford and worked out the agreement...
Port Truck Drivers Alleging Wage Theft End Two-Day Picket  Los Angeles Times   ...A two-day protest by truck drivers who haul freight in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach ended Wednesday, organizers said...
AGY Plant Members On Strike  WJBY   ...Members of a local Teamsters union are on strike after a failure in contract negotiations. The workers are picketing in front of the AGY Plant in Aiken. AGY makes fiberglass, and is located at 2556 Wagener Road...
Teamsters propose shareholder moves to limit Moyes' power at Swift  Land Line   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has set its sights on trucking giant Swift Transportation and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Moyes...
Trade
Froman Takes Heat from Senators for a TPP that Does Not Promote "Our Values"  Public Citizen   ...If the TPP promotes our values, what does that say about our values?  Do we value the ability of pharmaceutical corporations to reap monopoly profits during extended patent periods over the ability of cancer and HIV patients to access affordable medicines?  Do we value the ability of banks to engage in high-risk trading over the financial stability of a nation?...
Open Letter To Obama Against The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement  MrZine (Monthly Review Foundation)   ...Dear President Obama, a part of me wants to say "Welcome to Malaysia" as we Malaysians are generally a hospitable people, and many of us were thrilled when you became the 44th President of the United States...
State Battles
Joan Banks, guest columnist: Right-to-work isn’t what’s right for Missouri  The Joplin Globe   ...“Right-to-work” is a deliberately misleading phrase intended to appeal to two basic American values: rights and work. Here’s what it’s actually about: The law would make it optional for workers to pay dues to a union in a company in which the workers are protected by a union contract while allowing those who don’t belong to the union to reap the benefits of the contract...
Seattle Mayor Details Plan for $15 Minimum Wage  New York Times   ...Mayor Ed Murray presented on Thursday what he described as an imperfect but workable plan to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than twice the federal minimum wage and one of the highest anywhere in the nation, through a series of complex and phased-in stages...
Wisconsin Growth Forecasted to Decline; Kansas Flat  Econbrowser   ...Wisconsin growth is forecasted to decelerate from March growth rates, while Kansas forecasted growth is near zero since the beginning of the year...
War On Workers
Economy nearly stalls out  Associated Press   ...The U.S. economy slowed to a crawl in the first three months of the year as a harsh winter exacted a toll on business activity. The slowdown, while worse than expected, is likely to be temporary as growth rebounds with warmer weather...
My Experiment Opting Out of Big Data Made Me Look Like a Criminal  Time   ...Once those companies have that personal data, users don’t have any control over where it goes or who might have access to it in the future. And unlike the early days of the Internet, in which digital interactions were ephemeral, today’s Internet services have considerable economic incentives to track and remember—indefinitely...
Astonishing video of a street collapsing in Baltimore  Washington Post   ...May 1, 2014 6:31 PM EDT — Dramatic footage shows a landslide swallowing part of a street and at least 10 cars in Baltimore on Wednesday...
SEC Chair Says Markets Are Not Rigged Versus SEC Diagram Showing How the Market Is Rigged  Wall Street on Parade   ...A few years ago Supreme Court made a ruling that corporations are people and they can spend money any where they want…many of us asked the SEC to address that issue — to simply require corporations who make political donations to simply publicize them — and the SEC has now taken a walk on that request after several years of being asked...
Miscellaneous
This Island Is The First In The World To Be Fully Powered By Wind And Water  Think Progress   ...The smallest and southernmost of Spain's Canary Islands is about to make an outsized mark on the path towards a more renewable energy powered future...

Today's Teamster News 03.02.14

Teamster News
Liam Neeson  The Daily Show   ..."Non-Stop" star Liam Neeson questions the American appreciation for tea, and defends New York City's horse and carriage industry...
Trade
Popular sentiment is hardening against free trade  Financial Times   ...Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement 20 years ago, voters have come to understand them better and like them less...
Trade deals a closely held secret, shared by more than 500 advisers  Washington Post   ...The details of the Obama administration’s proposals for a massive 12-nation trade zone in the Asia-Pacific region are off limits to most Americans, held close by negotiators who worry that too much openness would make it impossible to reach a deal...
State Battles
Ash Spill Shows How Watchdog Was Defanged  New York Times   ...The spill, which coated the river bottom 70 miles downstream and threatened drinking water and aquatic life, drew attention to a deal that the (North Carolina) environmental department’s new leadership reached with Duke last year over pollution from coal ash ponds. It included a minimal fine but no order that Duke remove the ash — the waste from burning coal to generate electricity — from its leaky, unlined ponds...
Trampling on our First Amendment Rights  Michigan AFL-CIO   ...The State House is contemplating the passage of HB 4643, a bill sponsored by Representative Tom McMillin (R). HB 4643 will result in civil fines of up to $10,000 per day for picketing that is deemed illegal; creating a huge chilling effect on your First Amendment rights...
No Attacks on Mississippi Workers  Mississippi AFL-CIO   ...(three) bills would limit the free speech rights of Mississippians and would restrict local governments from being able to hire local, skilled workers for construction projects and let shady contractors take these projects and bring in out-of-state workers to do the job...
Stand up for Missouri's Middle Class: Rally at Missouri State Capitol 3/26/14  Facebook   ...All union members are invited to join The Missouri State Building & Construction Trades for lobby day & rally at Noon...
Casey urges Pa. legislature to sidestep union bill  Associated Press   ...Stepping into a heated political battle, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is urging Republican leaders of Pennsylvania's legislature not to move forward on a bill that would make it harder for labor unions to collect dues and political action contributions through payroll deductions...
Assembly pares back 'living wage' ordinance  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ...Working into the night as they near the end of the legislative session, Assembly Republicans on Thursday passed bills to sell vacant Milwaukee Public Schools buildings, to pare back a "living wage" ordinance for contractors in Milwaukee County and to redraw the shoreline of Lake Michigan in an attempt to boost a development in Milwaukee...
Walker Violated Public Records Law: So say former AG and Milwaukee supervisor  The Progressive   ...A former Wisconsin attorney general and a Milwaukee county supervisor who was subpoenaed by the John Doe prosecutor are both wondering why Scott Walker wasn’t charged with violating the state’s public records law while he was Milwaukee county executive...
Scott Walker campaign is paying for attorney working to fight John Doe investigation  blue cheddar   ...The attorney for Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign is named in a court order as a lawyer in a case challenging the ongoing secret investigation into possible illegal campaigning...
Wisconsin income gap widening faster than nation as a whole  The Cap Times   ...The top 1 percent in Wisconsin — households with incomes over $283,000 — captured 15.7 percent of all the income generated in the state in 2011. That compares to a 7 percent slice for the top 1 percent four decades ago...
The War on Workers

The Political Underbelly of the Pensions Crisis: What Broke the System, and How Do We Fix It?  Next New Deal   ...Beyond the economic crisis, which put enormous pressure on state and municipal budgets, a range of factors including poor decision-making and the influence of big money interests has led to the underfunding of some state and city public pensions...

Big-Money Donors Demand Larger Say in Party Strategy  New York Times   ...some of the biggest contributors to Republican outside groups in 2012 are now gravitating toward the more donor-centric political and philanthropic network overseen by Charles and David Koch, who have wooed them in part by promising more accountability over how money is spent...

NYC Teamsters begin campaign to create good commercial waste jobs

Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda with Sean Campbell,
president of Teamsters Local 813.

(Updates to add photo)

New York City Teamsters and their allies have high hopes for a campaign launched today to increase good jobs, recycling and justice in the commercial waste industry. New Yorkers are paying attention.

This morning the New York Daily News reported the Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN)  is recommending the city adopt a franchise system involving competitive bidding, a reduced number of companies and higher environmental and labor standards.

What the newspaper missed was the creation of a strong new alliance -- Transform Don't Trash NYC -- to make that happen. The campaign to tackle the problems of New York City's commercial waste industry involves the Teamsters, ALIGN, environmental justice and community advocacy groups.

A month away from Election Day, mayoral and city council candidates would do well to listen to their message.

Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda said at a City Hall news conference today:

Today is the day we make New York City a better place to live and work.

Miranda told the press wages are falling in New York's commercial waste industry, with new hires in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island earning just below $20,000 a year:

This industry has become a "Wild West." Unsafe and sometimes illegal operators are driving a race to the bottom in wages and health and safety.

The news conference followed the release of a study showing the city could recycle and compost more than 90 percent of commercial waste, but the current rate is much lower than that.

"This stinks," wrote Daily News reporters Daniel Beekman and Stephen Rex Brown:

...of the 3.2 million tons of commercial waste generated each year, 2 million tons are buried in landfills or burned in incinerators. 

The Alliance for a Greater New York, which wrote the report released Wednesday, blames a dysfunctional commercial waste industry that reeks of inefficiency.

Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, said  it's time to stop burying low-income communities of color under mountains of commercial waste.

The time has come for New York City to stop burying communities -- as well as burying potential recycling jobs. ... the next mayor can really jumpstart a commercial recycling program that both increases long-neglected recycling work opportunities, while continuing to decrease our carbon footprint.

Teamsters Joint Council 16 includes Teamsters Local 831, which represents New York City sanitation workers.