TEAMSTERS
Linde Gas Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 745 Teamster.org ...On November 4, 2015, workers at Linde Gas in Farmers Branch, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas. The drivers and warehouse workers voted 11 to 6 to become Teamsters. There are 17 workers in the bargaining unit. Linde manufactures and supplies industrial, specialty and medical gases and related equipment...
Protecting truckers’ rest breaks makes highways safer: James P. Hoffa LA Daily News ...Driving a truck can be an arduous job. The hours are long and road congestion and bad weather can make travel grueling. Thankfully, the state of California recognized this long ago and enacted meal and rest break rules that help keep truckers alert behind the wheel. The provisions are not burdensome. In fact, they apply to most of the state’s workforce...
Chicago TV Series Keep Teamsters Working Year-Round Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 members are having their busiest television season ever with four network shows filming concurrently in Chicago. More than 100 Teamsters are hard at work on Fox’s ratings juggernaut “Empire” and the NBC franchise of “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Med” — both on set at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and on location throughout the city...
EVSC/Teamsters Contracts Ratified TriState Homepage ...Contracts between the EVSC an a local union that have been in the works since June are one step closer to approval. Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey says all five employee contracts have been ratified. EVSC School Board President Mike Duckworth tells Eyewitness News the board will choose to accept or decline the approved proposals at their next meeting...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Greece paralyzed by austerity strikes DW.com ...A massive general strike brought Greece to a standstill on Thursday, as tens of thousands of people protested spending cuts pushed through by the country's leftist government in exchange for European bailout money. Feeling betrayed by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was elected on an anti-austerity ticket, Greek unions launched a 24-hour strike...
Obama Faces a Tough Road with TPP Trade Deal Fortune ...In an election year, the knives are out for Obama’s signature trade pact. The mammoth Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is by far the biggest thing left on President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda. But Obama has Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, labor unions, and even the tobacco industry standing in his way...
White House to work with Congress on TPP vote timing Reuters ...The Obama administration will work with Congress on the best time to bring a 12-nation Pacific trade pact before lawmakers for a vote, the top U.S. trade official said on Thursday. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the administration, which gave 90 days notice last week of its intent to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was doing everything within its power to move the deal along...
Obama Enlists Former Diplomats Albright, Baker in TPP Push Bloomberg ...President Barack Obama, hoping to kick off a new phase of selling the Trans-Pacific Partnership at home while enhancing its prospects overseas, has enlisted some of the nation’s top current and former diplomatic and national security officials to give testimonials. Obama is meeting Friday at the White House with a group that includes Madeleine Albright...
WHO chief raises ‘serious concerns’ over TPP impact on vital drug prices RT ...The head of the World Health Organization has voiced concern over the impact the newly formed 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership will have on vital drug prices, as it could limit the availability of cheaper generic medicines in favour of patent holders...
"A Very Big Mistake": Joseph Stiglitz Slams Obama for Pushing the TPP Democracy Now ...As Congress debates the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz about the trade deal. "The irony is that the president came out and said, 'This is about who makes the trade rules—China or the United States?'" Stiglitz said. "But I think the big issue is, this is about who makes the rules of trade—the American people, our democratic process, or the corporations?"...
Germany Protests to United States Over Secrecy in Huge TTIP Trade Deal Sputnik News ...The German Government has filed an official note of protest to the US over the lack of access that its country's lawmakers have to documents associated with the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. The controversial TTIP agreement, under negotiation between the European Union (EU) and the United States could lead to the world's largest free-trade area...
United Steel Workers in Liberia to Support Firestone Workers Ahead of New CBA Bush Chicken ...A two-man delegation from the United Steel Workers, a North American workers union, is in the country to visit the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia, FAWUL. USW International Vice President Fred Raymond and Director for Strategic Campaigns Mark Zalinski told The Bush Chicken that they were here to strengthen the partnership with FAWUL and assist in negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with Firestone...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New California Law Gives Farmworkers Right To Back Pay KCPR ...The law says workers who weren’t paid accurately from July 2012 to December 2015 have the right to back pay for rest periods and unproductive time. This includes time for training, traveling, and moving from and to fields. The United Farm Workers union is currently reaching out to farm laborers to let them know about the law before it goes into effect January 1st...
Scott Walker's Legacy of Double-Dealing for Friends and Donors Revealed in New John Doe Emails PR Watch ...In 2011, prosecutors in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office suspected that Scott Walker committed felony misconduct while serving as Milwaukee County Executive due to his direct involvement in a multi-million dollar lease renewal for county offices at a privately held building called the Reuss Federal Plaza. Newly-released emails, made public as part of a federal lawsuit, reveal crucial details about these bid-rigging allegations...
Walmart Workers Escalate Thanksgiving Wage Protests With Weeks Of Fasting Think Progress ...Tired of being left to rely on the charity of others to feed their families, Walmart workers around the country are launching two weeks of fasting in the run-up to Thanksgiving to demand livable wages and full-time schedules. “I’ve had to forgo meals so my boys would have enough to eat,” Walmart associate Jasmine Dixon said Thursday...
L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl backs statewide minimum wage measure LA Times ...The elected official who led Los Angeles County's adoption of a $15 minimum wage has endorsed one of two proposed 2016 ballot initiatives that would extend the same base pay rate statewide. L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl on Thursday threw her support behind the so-called Fair Wage Act...
In classic battle, minimum wage movement pits labor against business Open Secrets ..Fast food and other low-wage workers took to the streets of cities across the country this week to demand a minimum wage of $15, earning the support of liberal mayors, governors and even presidential candidates. In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo stood with the “Fight for $15” crusade, announcing he would take executive action to establish a $15-per-hour floor for state employees...
Donald Trump wants the U.S. to 'compete with other countries' on minimum wage. But which countries? Daily Kos ...Donald Trump is not backing down from his assertion that "our wages are too high" during the most recent Republican presidential debate. Exactly which other countries does Trump think we need to compete with by keeping the minimum wage low? Because if you’re looking at other advanced countries, the United States lags behind Australia, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Austria...
U.S. LABOR
Kaiser mental health workers to go on strike Monday Press Democrat ...The union representing Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers in Sonoma County said its members will go on strike Monday, walking off the job for the second time in 10 months. Unlike a January strike that lasted five days, next week’s National Union of Health Care Workers strike has no ending date...
UAW members voting on Ford contract that would bring $1.1B to Chicago area Chicago Tribune ...Union workers at Ford's Chicago Heights body panel plant began voting Thursday on a national labor deal that would see $1.1 billion invested in Ford's two Chicago-area plants. The deal — tentatively agreed to by national negotiators last week — would see $900 million invested and about 200 more workers hired at the Torrence Avenue assembly plant, where 4,100 United Auto Workers members are currently employed...
Access-a-Ride-workers threaten strike over labor conditions AM New York ...The transit union that represents many MTA workers threatened a strike Thursday at the Access-a-Ride call center. The company Global Contact Services has about 500 workers at the call center who set up Access-a-Ride trips, a service used by passengers who need wheelchair-accessible cars. Workers have made complaints to the MTA's board and Inspector General about their labor conditions...
How Apple And eBay Have Been Benefiting From Wage Theft Think Progress ...The Department of Labor (DOL) banned two Silicon Valley contracting firms used by Apple, eBay, and Cisco from hiring immigrant workers with high-skilled visas for underpaying employees nearly $1,000 a month. Sunnyvale, California-based contractors Orian Engineers and Scopus Consulting Group improperly classified immigrant employees with H-1B visas as entry level despite them having significant work experience or graduate-level degrees...
Postal Workers Endorse Austerity-Foe Bernie Sanders The Nation ... The APWU endorsement recalls the historic “reward our friends” calculus, as Sanders has for years been an ardent congressional advocate for postal workers and the United States Postal Service. Long before he considered presidential politics, the senator from Vermont was arguing against the austerity economics that seeks to balance the books by cutting public services...
US weekly jobless claims total 276,000 vs 270,000 estimate CNBC ...New U.S. applications for unemployment benefits last week held steady at levels consistent with sustained labor market strength that could encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 276,000 for the week ended Nov. 7, the Labor Department said on Thursday...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Report: Neglected Railways Increase Risk of Exploding Oil "Bomb Trains" Truthout ...According to a new report out this week from Waterkeeper Alliance, ForestEthics and Riverkeeper, since 2008, oil train traffic has increased more than 5,000 percent along routes "leading from oil fields in central Canada, the Great Plains and the Rockies to refineries and crude oil hubs along our nation's coasts." The report describes the significant threat posed by explosive crude oil "bomb trains" traveling across aging and neglected US rail infrastructure...
Leading Powers to Double Renewable Energy Supply by 2030 Common Dreams ...Eight of the world’s leading economies will double their renewable energy supply by 2030 if they live up to their pledges to contribute to curbing global warming, which will be included in the new climate treaty. A study published this month by the World Resources Institute (WRI) analysed the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) of the 10 largest greenhouse gas emitters...
Students across U.S. march over debt, free public college Reuters ...Students held demonstrations on university campuses across the United States on Thursday to protest ballooning student loan debt for higher education and rally for tuition-free public colleges. The demonstrations, dubbed the Million Student March, were planned just two days after thousands of fast-food workers took to the streets in a nationwide day of action pushing for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights for the industry...
In Nationwide Student Revolt over Campus Racism, NY's Ithaca College is Latest School to Erupt Democracy Now ...In a week that began with a victorious revolt by African-American students at the University of Missouri and brought solidarity rallies to campuses around the country, a similar protest has erupted at Ithaca College in upstate New York. On Wednesday, thousands of faculty, students and staff staged a walkout to call for the resignation of President Tom Rochon...
Yet Another Report Excuses Police in Tamir Rice's Death The Atlantic ...A report commissioned by the Cuyahoga County prosecutor has found that officers acted reasonably in the shooting of Tamir Rice, an unarmed 12-year-old boy whose death was captured on surveillance camera. The report is the third independent report Prosecutor Timothy McGinty has released. Activists and Rice’s relatives have charged that the reports are being released in an attempt to justify a decision not to charge Loehmann for Rice’s death...
Showing posts with label farmworkers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmworkers. Show all posts
Friday, November 13, 2015
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.16.15
Teamsters
Labor Department Awards Teamsters $4.6 Million Training Grant Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Safety and Health Department has been awarded a $4.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to establish apprenticeship programs for workers in the trucking industry. The grant will be awarded over a five-year funding cycle. The DOL published a Notice of Funding Opportunity in the fall of 2014 in an effort to develop a trained workforce in industries that are deemed critical to the U.S. economy...
Bus operator to dissolve ‘sham’ union, in agreement with Teamsters SF Examiner ...Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation will dissolve its “sham” company union and allow local Teamsters to proceed with organizing employees of the bus company. That’s according to an agreement revealed by a formal settlement stipulation issued Monday by the National Labor Relations Board’s Local Region 20...
Tucson Teamster bus strikers standing strong FightBack News ...Nearly 500 members of the Teamsters Local 104 entered day 40 of their strike against Sun Tran Management. Bus drivers, mechanics and service island operators cite unaddressed safety concerns and undelivered pay increases as the reasons for the strike. Sun Tran Management is operated by Transdev, a corporation with a track record of union busting and using scab labor. Transdev is also a subsidiary of Veolia, one of the world’s largest water privatizers...
LA port truckers strike grows, drivers demanding employee classification status CCJ ...Truckers picketing Pacific 9 Transportation have been joined by drivers from two other Southern California drayage companies as Pac 9 enters its 10th week of strike. Carrying “We Are All Employees” signs, the recently unionized Shippers Transport Express and Eco Flo Transportation joined the protest at Pac 9’s Carson headquarters...
Global Labor & Trade
What's Going On With the TPP? Truthout ...At this late stage of negotiations, the US Trade Representative (USTR) has pretty much abandoned all remaining pretense of transparency in its consideration of these remaining policy issues. Since the failure to conclude the deal at the meeting in Hawaii over the summer, the USTR has held several closed-door meetings between high-level officials to finalize the agreement and it is under intensifying pressure to finish it off as soon as possible...
Senators: Address China Currency Manipulation in TPP Roll Call ...With Chinese President Xi Jinping due at the White House next week, seven senators are making a new push against currency manipulation. The lawmakers, led by Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio, want to see currency devaluation addressed as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks, citing recent moves by both Vietnam and South Korea in response to China’s adjusting the value of its currency, the yuan...
Conservatives rush to resolve TPP auto-parts impasse before election Globe and Mail ...Stephen Harper finds himself in the toughest spot so far in negotiations to clinch a Pacific Rim trade deal, with Japan seemingly unwilling to bend on provisions that could sideswipe Canadian auto-sector jobs and with time running out for a deal before the Oct. 19 election. Efforts to create a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc stretching from Chile to Japan hit a wall in Hawaii this summer after Canada and Mexico balked at import rules for vehicle imports...
EU proposes special dispute court for US trade deal Yahoo ...The European Union on Wednesday proposed a special court to resolve any disputes arising from a planned huge trade deal with the United States, instead of the widely criticized private tribunals that Washington wants. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said there was huge public skepticism about the previous dispute resolution plans, the most controversial element of the massive TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) deal with the United States...
New U.K. Opposition Leader Vows to Fight Austerity, Antiunion Legislation Wall Street Journal ...Jeremy Corbyn, the new far-left leader of the U.K.’s main opposition Labour Party, pledged to fight public-spending cuts and government efforts to curb trade-union powers as he sought to rally his deeply divided party. In his first policy speech as leader, Mr. Corbyn labeled the governing center-right Conservatives as “poverty deniers” and said a more equal Britain wasn’t a far-fetched dream...
Petrobras Oil Output May Face Interruptions If Workers Strike Bloomberg ...Oil production in Brazil may be interrupted if Petroleo Brasileiro SA workers decide to strike for an extended period, said Deyvid Bacelar, the company’s board member representing workers. Workers may decide whether to go on strike as soon as Friday, Bacelar, who is also an oil union coordinator in the state of Bahia, said in an interview Tuesday...
A Migration Juggernaut Is Headed for Europe New York Times ...European leaders probably don’t want to hear this now, as they frantically try to close their borders to stop hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants and asylum seekers escaping hunger and violence in Africa and the Middle East. But they are dealing with the unstoppable force of demography...
State & Living Wage Battles
Missouri right to work issue continues Wednesday KMBZ ...The Missouri General Assembly starts it's veto session Wednesday. The main issue is Right to Work. Legislators passed a bill to eliminate workplace contracts with mandatory union fees. Governor Jay Nixon vetoed it, and has been campaigning to keep the veto "off the critical list.There is more talk about Missouri's need for skilled workers, than about Right to Work, said Nixon...
Sponsor may drop 'right to work' union measure in Oregon after adverse legal ruling Oregon Live ...The sponsor of a proposed ballot measure aimed at making union dues voluntary for public employees may well drop the initiative after receiving a politically unpalatable ballot title. Portland attorney Jill Gibson said she is leaning toward abandoning the proposal after the Oregon Supreme Court upheld a ballot description that will make the measure harder to sell to voters...
Group seeking repeal of prevailing wage law submits signatures Michigan Radio ...A group called Protecting Michigan Taxpayers wants to repeal Michigan's 50-year-old prevailing wage law. It recently turned in to the Secretary of State about 391,000 signatures collected in a petition drive to repeal Michigan's law which requires workers on state-financed construction projects to be paid prevailing union-scale wages...
Wage Theft Penalties Would Be Increased Under New Bill Wisconsin Public Radio ...The Senate's labor committee is considering a bill that would increase penalties for employers who illegally withhold wages from their workers and make it easier for workers to win wage claims filed with the state. The bill makes changes to current law that protects employees from what is commonly called "wage theft," comprising everything from forcing people to work off the clock to paying workers less than minimum wage...
Dozens gather in Mountain Brook to protest bill blocking Birmingham minimum wage hike AL.com ...Supporters of a higher minimum wage gathered in Mountain Brook Village Tuesday to protest a bill by one state lawmaker to block Birmingham's wage hike. Dozens chanted and marched in suburban Mountain Brook because it's the home of Republican state Rep. David Faulkner, who proposed a bill to prevent cities from setting a minimum wage for private employers...
Taxpayer tab for changes to voting laws tops $8 million Express News ...Republicans used their majority in 2011 to muscle through the Legislature a controversial voter ID law and new redistricting maps — and Texas taxpayers haven’t stopped picking up the bill for the state to defend those measures in courts ever since. Texas’ total legal tab to date: more than $8 million, data obtained under the state’s Public Information Act show...
U.S. Labor
Striking Seattle Teachers to Return to Classroom ABC ...Seattle teachers ended a weeklong strike and headed to their classrooms Wednesday after winning a 9.5 percent pay raise over three years, mandatory 30-minute recesses for elementary students, a longer school day and more say over standardized tests. The union's board of directors and representative assembly voted Tuesday evening to suspend the strike and urged the 5,000 members to approve the three-year deal...
UAW, Fiat Chrysler strike tentative labor pact Market Watch ...The United Auto Workers union has struck a tentative deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV that will eventually remove a controversial two-tier wage system that saw newer hires paid less than their mo re-experienced co-workers, according to people familiar with the agreement. Under the current arrangement, newer employees earn about $9 an hour less than more senior factory employees...
Elizabeth Warren Wants To Stop Companies From Checking Your Credit Before They Hire You Think Progress ...They’re riddled with errors. They’re difficult to correct. And they may be keeping you from getting a job. But a spotty credit report could cease being a reason for employers to reject applicants, if legislation introduced Tuesday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) becomes law...
Scott Walker Is Down in the Polls. His Strategy To Climb Back Up: More Union-Busting. In These Times ...Having plummeted in the presidential primary polls, Walker needs to figure out a way to stand out in the pack, and he has apparently decided that running hard against labor unions and their “bosses” can endear him to many blue-collar voters as well as such billionaire backers as the Koch brothers...
CA farm workers allege wage theft, bad working conditions WDAM ...Wage theft and dangerous working conditions are abuses that often happen to farm workers in Santa Barbara County, according to a survey from an advocacy group. It released a report filled with analysis from a survey it conducted over the past couple of months. The group CAUSE, or Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, said all of the data comes from farm workers in Santa Barbara County...
50 years ago, Cesar Chavez led a crusade to unite and empower farmworkers LA Times ...On a Thursday night 50 years ago, at the height of the table grape harvest in California's Central Valley, hundreds of Mexican American farmworkers crowded expectantly into a Delano church hall. They were tired of being treated like disposable farm tools. Tired of being cheated out of even their meager wages. Tired of watching their mothers and sisters humiliated and harassed. Tired of being stripped of dignity. Tired of being invisible...
Social Justice & Other News
Mass Incarceration Has Become the New Welfare The Atlantic ...Mass incarceration is not just (or even mainly) a response to crime, but rather a perverse form of social spending that uses state power to address a host of social problems at the back end, from poverty to drug addiction to misbehavior in school. These are problems that voters, taxpayers, and politicians—especially white voters, taxpayers, and politicians—seem unwilling to address in any other way...
A Man Who’s Probably Innocent Will Die Today, And Lawyers Can’t Save Him Think Progress ...Eighteen years after the murder of motel owner Barry Van Treese, there is no concrete evidence to suggest Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip was involved in the crime. According to witnesses, the actual killer, Justin Sneed, has repeatedly bragged about setting his former boss up by pinning him as the mastermind behind Treese’s murder. Still, after a long battle to prove his innocence and have his sentence overturned, Glossip will be executed by lethal injection Wednesday afternoon...
The Ugly Message of Trump-Mania Slate ...Trump is a sideshow, and in the presence of his personality, it’s easy to overlook the ugliness behind his campaign. But it’s there, a debased successor to the nationalist white resentment of Pat Buchanan and George Wallace. And although spectators may miss it, it’s more than clear for the targets of his xenophobia, and the people who hate them...
Labor Department Awards Teamsters $4.6 Million Training Grant Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Safety and Health Department has been awarded a $4.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to establish apprenticeship programs for workers in the trucking industry. The grant will be awarded over a five-year funding cycle. The DOL published a Notice of Funding Opportunity in the fall of 2014 in an effort to develop a trained workforce in industries that are deemed critical to the U.S. economy...
Bus operator to dissolve ‘sham’ union, in agreement with Teamsters SF Examiner ...Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation will dissolve its “sham” company union and allow local Teamsters to proceed with organizing employees of the bus company. That’s according to an agreement revealed by a formal settlement stipulation issued Monday by the National Labor Relations Board’s Local Region 20...
Tucson Teamster bus strikers standing strong FightBack News ...Nearly 500 members of the Teamsters Local 104 entered day 40 of their strike against Sun Tran Management. Bus drivers, mechanics and service island operators cite unaddressed safety concerns and undelivered pay increases as the reasons for the strike. Sun Tran Management is operated by Transdev, a corporation with a track record of union busting and using scab labor. Transdev is also a subsidiary of Veolia, one of the world’s largest water privatizers...
LA port truckers strike grows, drivers demanding employee classification status CCJ ...Truckers picketing Pacific 9 Transportation have been joined by drivers from two other Southern California drayage companies as Pac 9 enters its 10th week of strike. Carrying “We Are All Employees” signs, the recently unionized Shippers Transport Express and Eco Flo Transportation joined the protest at Pac 9’s Carson headquarters...
Global Labor & Trade
What's Going On With the TPP? Truthout ...At this late stage of negotiations, the US Trade Representative (USTR) has pretty much abandoned all remaining pretense of transparency in its consideration of these remaining policy issues. Since the failure to conclude the deal at the meeting in Hawaii over the summer, the USTR has held several closed-door meetings between high-level officials to finalize the agreement and it is under intensifying pressure to finish it off as soon as possible...
Senators: Address China Currency Manipulation in TPP Roll Call ...With Chinese President Xi Jinping due at the White House next week, seven senators are making a new push against currency manipulation. The lawmakers, led by Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio, want to see currency devaluation addressed as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks, citing recent moves by both Vietnam and South Korea in response to China’s adjusting the value of its currency, the yuan...
Conservatives rush to resolve TPP auto-parts impasse before election Globe and Mail ...Stephen Harper finds himself in the toughest spot so far in negotiations to clinch a Pacific Rim trade deal, with Japan seemingly unwilling to bend on provisions that could sideswipe Canadian auto-sector jobs and with time running out for a deal before the Oct. 19 election. Efforts to create a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc stretching from Chile to Japan hit a wall in Hawaii this summer after Canada and Mexico balked at import rules for vehicle imports...
EU proposes special dispute court for US trade deal Yahoo ...The European Union on Wednesday proposed a special court to resolve any disputes arising from a planned huge trade deal with the United States, instead of the widely criticized private tribunals that Washington wants. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said there was huge public skepticism about the previous dispute resolution plans, the most controversial element of the massive TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) deal with the United States...
New U.K. Opposition Leader Vows to Fight Austerity, Antiunion Legislation Wall Street Journal ...Jeremy Corbyn, the new far-left leader of the U.K.’s main opposition Labour Party, pledged to fight public-spending cuts and government efforts to curb trade-union powers as he sought to rally his deeply divided party. In his first policy speech as leader, Mr. Corbyn labeled the governing center-right Conservatives as “poverty deniers” and said a more equal Britain wasn’t a far-fetched dream...
Petrobras Oil Output May Face Interruptions If Workers Strike Bloomberg ...Oil production in Brazil may be interrupted if Petroleo Brasileiro SA workers decide to strike for an extended period, said Deyvid Bacelar, the company’s board member representing workers. Workers may decide whether to go on strike as soon as Friday, Bacelar, who is also an oil union coordinator in the state of Bahia, said in an interview Tuesday...
A Migration Juggernaut Is Headed for Europe New York Times ...European leaders probably don’t want to hear this now, as they frantically try to close their borders to stop hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants and asylum seekers escaping hunger and violence in Africa and the Middle East. But they are dealing with the unstoppable force of demography...
State & Living Wage Battles
Missouri right to work issue continues Wednesday KMBZ ...The Missouri General Assembly starts it's veto session Wednesday. The main issue is Right to Work. Legislators passed a bill to eliminate workplace contracts with mandatory union fees. Governor Jay Nixon vetoed it, and has been campaigning to keep the veto "off the critical list.There is more talk about Missouri's need for skilled workers, than about Right to Work, said Nixon...
Sponsor may drop 'right to work' union measure in Oregon after adverse legal ruling Oregon Live ...The sponsor of a proposed ballot measure aimed at making union dues voluntary for public employees may well drop the initiative after receiving a politically unpalatable ballot title. Portland attorney Jill Gibson said she is leaning toward abandoning the proposal after the Oregon Supreme Court upheld a ballot description that will make the measure harder to sell to voters...
Group seeking repeal of prevailing wage law submits signatures Michigan Radio ...A group called Protecting Michigan Taxpayers wants to repeal Michigan's 50-year-old prevailing wage law. It recently turned in to the Secretary of State about 391,000 signatures collected in a petition drive to repeal Michigan's law which requires workers on state-financed construction projects to be paid prevailing union-scale wages...
Wage Theft Penalties Would Be Increased Under New Bill Wisconsin Public Radio ...The Senate's labor committee is considering a bill that would increase penalties for employers who illegally withhold wages from their workers and make it easier for workers to win wage claims filed with the state. The bill makes changes to current law that protects employees from what is commonly called "wage theft," comprising everything from forcing people to work off the clock to paying workers less than minimum wage...
Dozens gather in Mountain Brook to protest bill blocking Birmingham minimum wage hike AL.com ...Supporters of a higher minimum wage gathered in Mountain Brook Village Tuesday to protest a bill by one state lawmaker to block Birmingham's wage hike. Dozens chanted and marched in suburban Mountain Brook because it's the home of Republican state Rep. David Faulkner, who proposed a bill to prevent cities from setting a minimum wage for private employers...
Taxpayer tab for changes to voting laws tops $8 million Express News ...Republicans used their majority in 2011 to muscle through the Legislature a controversial voter ID law and new redistricting maps — and Texas taxpayers haven’t stopped picking up the bill for the state to defend those measures in courts ever since. Texas’ total legal tab to date: more than $8 million, data obtained under the state’s Public Information Act show...
U.S. Labor
Striking Seattle Teachers to Return to Classroom ABC ...Seattle teachers ended a weeklong strike and headed to their classrooms Wednesday after winning a 9.5 percent pay raise over three years, mandatory 30-minute recesses for elementary students, a longer school day and more say over standardized tests. The union's board of directors and representative assembly voted Tuesday evening to suspend the strike and urged the 5,000 members to approve the three-year deal...
UAW, Fiat Chrysler strike tentative labor pact Market Watch ...The United Auto Workers union has struck a tentative deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV that will eventually remove a controversial two-tier wage system that saw newer hires paid less than their mo re-experienced co-workers, according to people familiar with the agreement. Under the current arrangement, newer employees earn about $9 an hour less than more senior factory employees...
Elizabeth Warren Wants To Stop Companies From Checking Your Credit Before They Hire You Think Progress ...They’re riddled with errors. They’re difficult to correct. And they may be keeping you from getting a job. But a spotty credit report could cease being a reason for employers to reject applicants, if legislation introduced Tuesday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) becomes law...
Scott Walker Is Down in the Polls. His Strategy To Climb Back Up: More Union-Busting. In These Times ...Having plummeted in the presidential primary polls, Walker needs to figure out a way to stand out in the pack, and he has apparently decided that running hard against labor unions and their “bosses” can endear him to many blue-collar voters as well as such billionaire backers as the Koch brothers...
CA farm workers allege wage theft, bad working conditions WDAM ...Wage theft and dangerous working conditions are abuses that often happen to farm workers in Santa Barbara County, according to a survey from an advocacy group. It released a report filled with analysis from a survey it conducted over the past couple of months. The group CAUSE, or Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, said all of the data comes from farm workers in Santa Barbara County...
50 years ago, Cesar Chavez led a crusade to unite and empower farmworkers LA Times ...On a Thursday night 50 years ago, at the height of the table grape harvest in California's Central Valley, hundreds of Mexican American farmworkers crowded expectantly into a Delano church hall. They were tired of being treated like disposable farm tools. Tired of being cheated out of even their meager wages. Tired of watching their mothers and sisters humiliated and harassed. Tired of being stripped of dignity. Tired of being invisible...
Social Justice & Other News
Mass Incarceration Has Become the New Welfare The Atlantic ...Mass incarceration is not just (or even mainly) a response to crime, but rather a perverse form of social spending that uses state power to address a host of social problems at the back end, from poverty to drug addiction to misbehavior in school. These are problems that voters, taxpayers, and politicians—especially white voters, taxpayers, and politicians—seem unwilling to address in any other way...
A Man Who’s Probably Innocent Will Die Today, And Lawyers Can’t Save Him Think Progress ...Eighteen years after the murder of motel owner Barry Van Treese, there is no concrete evidence to suggest Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip was involved in the crime. According to witnesses, the actual killer, Justin Sneed, has repeatedly bragged about setting his former boss up by pinning him as the mastermind behind Treese’s murder. Still, after a long battle to prove his innocence and have his sentence overturned, Glossip will be executed by lethal injection Wednesday afternoon...
The Ugly Message of Trump-Mania Slate ...Trump is a sideshow, and in the presence of his personality, it’s easy to overlook the ugliness behind his campaign. But it’s there, a debased successor to the nationalist white resentment of Pat Buchanan and George Wallace. And although spectators may miss it, it’s more than clear for the targets of his xenophobia, and the people who hate them...
Monday, August 31, 2015
Today's Teamster News 08.31.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Women’s Conference Inspires Teamster.org ...The 2015 Teamsters Women’s Conference took place in Boston Friday, the second day of the annual event. Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall addressed more than one thousand Teamster women who have gathered for three days of education, inspiration and sisterhood. View photos from Day 2 of the event here. “Teamster women are dedicated members and leaders. You’re motivated and you know how to get things done. You play such an incredibly important role,” Hall said...
Vistar Drivers and Warehouse Workers Join Teamsters Local 630 Teamster.org ...California warehouse workers and drivers at Vistar, a Performance Food Group (PFG) company, have voted 70 percent in favor of joining Teamsters Local 630 in Los Angeles, Calif. There are 71 workers in the bargaining unit and all but one participated in the Aug. 27 election. The workers at Vistar decided to organize to address the lack of respect, low wages and inadequate health benefits at the company...
Waste Workers in California Join Teamsters Local 137 Teamster.org ...Today, drivers at Waste Management, Inc. in Redding, California voted by a 2-1 margin to join Teamsters Local 137. The workers approached the local union in mid-July about joining the union, and Local 137 filed for an election on August 3, 2015. The vote today was 16-8. There are 36 drivers in the bargaining unit...
Local 727 Wins Fight for Osco Pharmacist’s Reinstatement Local 727 ...An arbitrator ruled that the company wrongfully terminated Teamsters Local 727 Osco pharmacist member Wanda Froehlich last year and that the company must reinstate her with over a year’s worth of full back pay and benefits. Froehlich, a 20-year Osco employee, was unjustly terminated June 6, 2014. Management fired her without notice of the charges...
Labor sees organizing boon from U.S. ruling St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Rome Aloise, president of the Teamsters in Northern California, said the Browning-Ferris ruling means Google will now have to be part of the discussions about working conditions with the union and the contractor. It was a local branch of the Teamsters that originally brought the complaint about a union election at the Browning-Ferris recycling plant...
Global Labor & Trade
Big Sugar’s Fight to Keep U.S. Import Limits Delaying Trade Deal Washington Post ...A sweet deal for American sugar farmers is compounding delays in a proposed trade agreement affecting 40 percent of the world’s economy. The commodity has become a sticky subject in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership. TPP, as it’s known, would link a dozen countries and, its proponents say, make it easier for U.S. companies to sell goods around the world. But the trade deal may also weaken protections for the sugar industry...
Amari says TPP may be halted if no deal is reached before Canada election in October Japan Times ...Negotiations for a multilateral Pacific Rim free trade agreement may be halted if the 12 participating countries cannot strike a broad deal before a general election in Canada in October, Japanese Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari said Friday. “After election campaigning starts in Canada, it will be difficult” to continue negotiations, Amari said in an interview...
Mixed Views on Finalizing the Trans Pacific Partnership WNAX ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman expressed optimism recently that negotiators are close to wrapping up a final Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. Iowa Farm Bureau President Craig Hill says he’s glad the trade leader is positive about progress, but thinks it may be tough to achieve yet this year. Hill says if the Trans Pacific Partnership runs into 2016, it could get muddled up in Presidential politics...
Disposable People: Obama, the TPP, and the Betrayal of Human Rights (opinion) San Diego Free Press ...By ignoring modern day slavery to advance the TPP, Obama has given the lie to the rhetoric of TPP advocates with all their bluster about how this trade deal was somehow about a more progressive world order with regard to labor and human rights. "The administration’s alleged willingness to turn a blind eye to trafficking abuses in Malaysia in order to get the TPP done also does not bode well for the hope of any enforcement of labor and environmental provisions were the TPP actually enacted"...
80,000 in Ireland Protest 'Austerity' Water Bills TeleSUR ...More than 80,000 Irish protested in Dublin Saturday against the planned introduction of municipal water charges. The massive crowd flooded the Irish capital, with some protesters carrying placards reading, “Scrap fraud water charges or collapse next election.” The march was the fifth major protest against water charges in the past 12 months, organized by the umbrella group of social movements and unions...
Unraveling Why So Many Firefighters Perished in the Tianjin Blast Slate ...That so many firefighters would die in the line of duty struck a painful chord in Tianjin and spurred a heart-wrenching search for answers. Government officials and the public are now pushing to find out exactly what happened that night and why. Within days of the blaze, the search for answers started shedding light on a murky business world tied to the trading, transporting, and storing of hazardous chemicals in China...
State & Living Wage Battles
Veto session may feature right to work News-Press Now ...Local lawmakers are preparing for a September veto session at the Missouri Capitol, where the contentious right-to-work issue may resurface on their desks. The Missouri General Assembly’s annual session, to consider bills vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, is set to commence Sept. 16 in Jefferson City...
N.J. Senate prez pushing for paid sick leave law, taxing hospitals NJ.com ...State Senate President Stephen Sweeney says he remains committed to passing legislation that would require businesses to provide paid sick days and for nonprofit hospitals to pay property taxes. But he doesn't see either issue gaining momentum until after the Assembly elections in November...
Texas Asks Full Appeals Court to Hear Voter ID Case Texas Tribune ...Continuing to protect a voter identification law that courts say discriminates against Hispanics and African Americans, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked a full federal appeals court to hear his arguments about why the state’s requirements at the polls do not violate the Voting Rights Act. In a series of filings Friday, the Republican asked the full U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case...
Is It Game Over for One of America's Most Fanatic Tea Party Governors? Alternet ...Maine’s angriest white guy, Tea Party Republican Gov. Paul LePage, may have finally crossed a legal line when he told a charter school to withdraw a job offer to a top Democratic political opponent or else lose a $530,000 state subsidy. That led the legislature’s Government Oversight Committee this summer to unanimously call for an investigation into whether LePage illegally abused his office’s authority...
Emergency rule filed related to prevailing wage changes Metro News ...WorkForce West Virginia filed an emergency rule Friday related to changes made in the prevailing wage statute. The rule filed defines the regions of the state to be used in the calculation of prevailing wage, as well as a procedure for those wishing to object to the calculation formula...
Walmart Cuts Workers’ Hours After Raising Its Minimum Wage Earlier This Year Think Progress ...After raising the minimum wage for its lowest compensated workers, Walmart is now cutting some workers’ hours to try to trim costs. Store managers were recently told to cut back on hours to reduce costs, which has led to them eliminating hours from the schedule, telling workers to leave their shifts before they end, or having employees take longer lunches, Bloomberg News reports...
U.S. Labor
NLRB Decision Could Mean Excellent News for Fast Food and Other Low-Wage Workers In These Times ...In a decision that could greatly improve prospects for workers to form unions in a fast-growing and largely low-wage swath of the U.S. workforce, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) redefined yesterday the standards for determining when more than one firm will be considered “joint employers” of a group of workers. The new standard is largely a return to a broader, more inclusive definition used before the Reagan-era NLRB tightened the rules...
The Pacific Coast Farm-Worker Rebellion The Nation ....While the most dramatic protest this year has taken place in Baja California, the same anger is building among indigenous farm workers all along the Pacific Coast, from San Quintín in Mexico to Burlington, an hour south of the US border with Canada. Two years ago Triqui and Mixtec workers struck strawberry fields in Skagit County in Washington State. Two years before that, Triqui workers picking peas in the Salinas Valley rebelled against an inhuman work quota, and immigration raids...
Autoworkers Union Passes Strike Authorization Measure 24/7 Wall St ...In a procedural vote completed last week, workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. voted heavily in favor of going on strike against the company if the United Autoworkers Union (UAW) determines that Chrysler has not bargained in good faith. Chrysler and the UAW kicked off new contract negotiations in July, and the union has also started negotiations with Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co...
Pittsburgh Company Looks for Scabs to Work 84 Hours a Week During Steelworker Lockout Alternet ...In Pittsburgh, the firm Allegheny Technologies has been involved in a labor dispute with United Steelworkers that has let to 2,000 members being locked out over the course of this month. As Sean Kitchen discovered, the company Storm Engineering, which finds scab workers to break strikes, has placed an ad on Craigslist looking for workers to work 84-hour-week during the lockout...
Social Justice & Other News
Outrage Follows Death of Young Black Man, Jailed for Stealing $5 of Snacks Common Dreams ...Heartbreak swelled on Friday afternoon after the news broke that a mentally ill black man from Virginia died in a jail cell on August 19 after spending four months behind bars for allegedly stealing a bottle of Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar, and a Zebra Cake worth a total of $5 from a 7-Eleven. Response on social media reflected growing public awareness—and outrage—about the overlapping scourges of institutionalized racism, a dysfunctional criminal justice system, and a troubling gap in mental health care...
Chris Christie Proposes Tracking Immigrants the Way FedEx Tracks Packages New York Times ...Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Saturday that if he were elected president he would combat illegal immigration by creating a system to track foreign visitors the way FedEx tracks packages. Mr. Christie, who is far back in the pack of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, said at a campaign event in New Hampshire that he would ask the chief executive of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith, to devise the tracking system...
Teamsters Women’s Conference Inspires Teamster.org ...The 2015 Teamsters Women’s Conference took place in Boston Friday, the second day of the annual event. Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall addressed more than one thousand Teamster women who have gathered for three days of education, inspiration and sisterhood. View photos from Day 2 of the event here. “Teamster women are dedicated members and leaders. You’re motivated and you know how to get things done. You play such an incredibly important role,” Hall said...
Vistar Drivers and Warehouse Workers Join Teamsters Local 630 Teamster.org ...California warehouse workers and drivers at Vistar, a Performance Food Group (PFG) company, have voted 70 percent in favor of joining Teamsters Local 630 in Los Angeles, Calif. There are 71 workers in the bargaining unit and all but one participated in the Aug. 27 election. The workers at Vistar decided to organize to address the lack of respect, low wages and inadequate health benefits at the company...
Waste Workers in California Join Teamsters Local 137 Teamster.org ...Today, drivers at Waste Management, Inc. in Redding, California voted by a 2-1 margin to join Teamsters Local 137. The workers approached the local union in mid-July about joining the union, and Local 137 filed for an election on August 3, 2015. The vote today was 16-8. There are 36 drivers in the bargaining unit...
Local 727 Wins Fight for Osco Pharmacist’s Reinstatement Local 727 ...An arbitrator ruled that the company wrongfully terminated Teamsters Local 727 Osco pharmacist member Wanda Froehlich last year and that the company must reinstate her with over a year’s worth of full back pay and benefits. Froehlich, a 20-year Osco employee, was unjustly terminated June 6, 2014. Management fired her without notice of the charges...
Labor sees organizing boon from U.S. ruling St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Rome Aloise, president of the Teamsters in Northern California, said the Browning-Ferris ruling means Google will now have to be part of the discussions about working conditions with the union and the contractor. It was a local branch of the Teamsters that originally brought the complaint about a union election at the Browning-Ferris recycling plant...
Global Labor & Trade
Big Sugar’s Fight to Keep U.S. Import Limits Delaying Trade Deal Washington Post ...A sweet deal for American sugar farmers is compounding delays in a proposed trade agreement affecting 40 percent of the world’s economy. The commodity has become a sticky subject in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership. TPP, as it’s known, would link a dozen countries and, its proponents say, make it easier for U.S. companies to sell goods around the world. But the trade deal may also weaken protections for the sugar industry...
Amari says TPP may be halted if no deal is reached before Canada election in October Japan Times ...Negotiations for a multilateral Pacific Rim free trade agreement may be halted if the 12 participating countries cannot strike a broad deal before a general election in Canada in October, Japanese Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari said Friday. “After election campaigning starts in Canada, it will be difficult” to continue negotiations, Amari said in an interview...
Mixed Views on Finalizing the Trans Pacific Partnership WNAX ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman expressed optimism recently that negotiators are close to wrapping up a final Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. Iowa Farm Bureau President Craig Hill says he’s glad the trade leader is positive about progress, but thinks it may be tough to achieve yet this year. Hill says if the Trans Pacific Partnership runs into 2016, it could get muddled up in Presidential politics...
Disposable People: Obama, the TPP, and the Betrayal of Human Rights (opinion) San Diego Free Press ...By ignoring modern day slavery to advance the TPP, Obama has given the lie to the rhetoric of TPP advocates with all their bluster about how this trade deal was somehow about a more progressive world order with regard to labor and human rights. "The administration’s alleged willingness to turn a blind eye to trafficking abuses in Malaysia in order to get the TPP done also does not bode well for the hope of any enforcement of labor and environmental provisions were the TPP actually enacted"...
80,000 in Ireland Protest 'Austerity' Water Bills TeleSUR ...More than 80,000 Irish protested in Dublin Saturday against the planned introduction of municipal water charges. The massive crowd flooded the Irish capital, with some protesters carrying placards reading, “Scrap fraud water charges or collapse next election.” The march was the fifth major protest against water charges in the past 12 months, organized by the umbrella group of social movements and unions...
Unraveling Why So Many Firefighters Perished in the Tianjin Blast Slate ...That so many firefighters would die in the line of duty struck a painful chord in Tianjin and spurred a heart-wrenching search for answers. Government officials and the public are now pushing to find out exactly what happened that night and why. Within days of the blaze, the search for answers started shedding light on a murky business world tied to the trading, transporting, and storing of hazardous chemicals in China...
State & Living Wage Battles
Veto session may feature right to work News-Press Now ...Local lawmakers are preparing for a September veto session at the Missouri Capitol, where the contentious right-to-work issue may resurface on their desks. The Missouri General Assembly’s annual session, to consider bills vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, is set to commence Sept. 16 in Jefferson City...
N.J. Senate prez pushing for paid sick leave law, taxing hospitals NJ.com ...State Senate President Stephen Sweeney says he remains committed to passing legislation that would require businesses to provide paid sick days and for nonprofit hospitals to pay property taxes. But he doesn't see either issue gaining momentum until after the Assembly elections in November...
Texas Asks Full Appeals Court to Hear Voter ID Case Texas Tribune ...Continuing to protect a voter identification law that courts say discriminates against Hispanics and African Americans, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked a full federal appeals court to hear his arguments about why the state’s requirements at the polls do not violate the Voting Rights Act. In a series of filings Friday, the Republican asked the full U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case...
Is It Game Over for One of America's Most Fanatic Tea Party Governors? Alternet ...Maine’s angriest white guy, Tea Party Republican Gov. Paul LePage, may have finally crossed a legal line when he told a charter school to withdraw a job offer to a top Democratic political opponent or else lose a $530,000 state subsidy. That led the legislature’s Government Oversight Committee this summer to unanimously call for an investigation into whether LePage illegally abused his office’s authority...
Emergency rule filed related to prevailing wage changes Metro News ...WorkForce West Virginia filed an emergency rule Friday related to changes made in the prevailing wage statute. The rule filed defines the regions of the state to be used in the calculation of prevailing wage, as well as a procedure for those wishing to object to the calculation formula...
Walmart Cuts Workers’ Hours After Raising Its Minimum Wage Earlier This Year Think Progress ...After raising the minimum wage for its lowest compensated workers, Walmart is now cutting some workers’ hours to try to trim costs. Store managers were recently told to cut back on hours to reduce costs, which has led to them eliminating hours from the schedule, telling workers to leave their shifts before they end, or having employees take longer lunches, Bloomberg News reports...
U.S. Labor
NLRB Decision Could Mean Excellent News for Fast Food and Other Low-Wage Workers In These Times ...In a decision that could greatly improve prospects for workers to form unions in a fast-growing and largely low-wage swath of the U.S. workforce, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) redefined yesterday the standards for determining when more than one firm will be considered “joint employers” of a group of workers. The new standard is largely a return to a broader, more inclusive definition used before the Reagan-era NLRB tightened the rules...
The Pacific Coast Farm-Worker Rebellion The Nation ....While the most dramatic protest this year has taken place in Baja California, the same anger is building among indigenous farm workers all along the Pacific Coast, from San Quintín in Mexico to Burlington, an hour south of the US border with Canada. Two years ago Triqui and Mixtec workers struck strawberry fields in Skagit County in Washington State. Two years before that, Triqui workers picking peas in the Salinas Valley rebelled against an inhuman work quota, and immigration raids...
Autoworkers Union Passes Strike Authorization Measure 24/7 Wall St ...In a procedural vote completed last week, workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. voted heavily in favor of going on strike against the company if the United Autoworkers Union (UAW) determines that Chrysler has not bargained in good faith. Chrysler and the UAW kicked off new contract negotiations in July, and the union has also started negotiations with Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co...
Pittsburgh Company Looks for Scabs to Work 84 Hours a Week During Steelworker Lockout Alternet ...In Pittsburgh, the firm Allegheny Technologies has been involved in a labor dispute with United Steelworkers that has let to 2,000 members being locked out over the course of this month. As Sean Kitchen discovered, the company Storm Engineering, which finds scab workers to break strikes, has placed an ad on Craigslist looking for workers to work 84-hour-week during the lockout...
Social Justice & Other News
Outrage Follows Death of Young Black Man, Jailed for Stealing $5 of Snacks Common Dreams ...Heartbreak swelled on Friday afternoon after the news broke that a mentally ill black man from Virginia died in a jail cell on August 19 after spending four months behind bars for allegedly stealing a bottle of Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar, and a Zebra Cake worth a total of $5 from a 7-Eleven. Response on social media reflected growing public awareness—and outrage—about the overlapping scourges of institutionalized racism, a dysfunctional criminal justice system, and a troubling gap in mental health care...
Chris Christie Proposes Tracking Immigrants the Way FedEx Tracks Packages New York Times ...Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Saturday that if he were elected president he would combat illegal immigration by creating a system to track foreign visitors the way FedEx tracks packages. Mr. Christie, who is far back in the pack of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, said at a campaign event in New Hampshire that he would ask the chief executive of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith, to devise the tracking system...
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.23.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Union Fights Toyota’s Greedy Carhaul Job-Killing Practices Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union is fighting Toyota’s greed in which the manufacturer is shifting business from dependable and experienced Teamster-represented carhaul companies to lower-bidding nonunion companies, a shift that is costing numerous Teamster carhaulers’ jobs and lowering work standards while the company is raking in record profits. For the period ending March 31, 2015, Toyota had record net income, operating profit and global revenue...
EVSC, Teamsters still at odds in talks; some board members call for return to negotiations Courier & Press ...It’s time to get back to the bargaining table. That is a sentiment some Evansville Vanderburgh School Board members voiced at Monday night’s meeting after five people spoke on behalf of collective bargaining negotiations with Teamsters Local 215. Since April, three collective bargaining sessions for the five EVSC employee groups represented by Teamsters have occurred...
Global Labor & Trade
Pacific trade pact returns to Senate for second test Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama's signature Pacific trade pact faces another test in the Senate on Tuesday as legislation needed to close the deal returns for a second run through the chamber. The legislation has already endured six weeks of congressional wrangling and two close brushes with failure after revolts by Obama's own Democrats, many of whom believe trade deals will threaten U.S. jobs...
Obama’s fast-track gamble: Counting on John Boehner to keep his word Salon ...Trade promotion authority for the president to negotiate trade deals is far from dead, despite a humiliating defeat for the Obama administration on the floor of the House last week. Multinational corporations spanning the globe desperately want this, because without TPA, also known as fast-track, there’s not likely to be any Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Have liberals been backed into a corner on trade? Washington Post ...It’s looking increasingly like those House Dems and liberals — who had previously opposed TAA as a way to kill Fast Track — may have been backed into a corner and may have no choice but to support TAA in the end. And, thanks to the convoluted process that has evolved within Congress on trade, that seeming reality as to what will happen later may be what enables pro-TPP Senate Dems to pass Fast Track first, reviving Obama’s trade agenda...
Wallach: Slow down on Fast Track trade pacts (opinion) Hampton Roads ...We know from past experience that when trade deals aren't done right, Americans suffer the consequences. Virginia has lost more than 141,000 manufacturing jobs since the 1994 NAFTA. More than 72,000 specific Virginia workers have gotten help from TAA after losing their jobs to offshoring or imports since NAFTA. There is good reason why Congress has only agreed to grant Fast Track for five of the past 21 years. And a clarion call for why the Senate should not trade away assistance for those we know will lose jobs if TPP were to go into effect...
The anachronistic trade agreement (opinion) Washington Post ...In the mid-20th century, the United States traded with other nations from a position of almost unparalleled strength. In the current century job security has been undermined and earnings have either stagnated or declined. The German labor movement is an enthusiastic trade supporter because the domestic institutions that protect German workers and win them a decent share of corporate revenues are robust. Those who complain that U.S. unions reflexively oppose trade should realize that when trade deals genuinely help workers, labor will cheer them on...
Wrong direction on climate, trade and development (opinion) The Hill ...The Obama administration argues that the agreements it is negotiating are true 21st century agreements that correct the failings of past agreements and will promote trade and investment that can both re-launch America as the key economic player and promote broad-based sustainable development at home and abroad. While that may be the ambition, an amendment House Republications surreptitiously tacked on to Trade Promotion Authority via language in the separate Customs Bill will do just the opposite...
Chilean Port Workers Strike over Labor Reform Bill TeleSUR ...Chilean port workers have completed a 24 hour strike in industrial ports across the country. Workers belonging to the Ports Union (UP) are challenging a labor reform bill that is currently awaiting approval by the Chilean senate. Chilean port workers are demanding modifications to the newly proposed labor legislation including clarification on a clause that would allow the termination of striking workers whom pose an alleged threat to damaging infrastructure, the environment, or health services.
Al Jazeera Documentary Shows Mexican Farmworkers’ Struggles in Historic Strike In These Times ...A historic farmworker uprising ignited this March in Baja California, Mexico. Thousands of crop pickers stopped work at peak harvest in the valley of San Quintin, a major source of the U.S.’s tomatoes, cucumbers and berries, demanding better pay, legally mandated benefits and an end to sexual harassment in the fields, among other improvements. The months-long movement received surprisingly little media attention on this side of the border...
Bangladesh Workers Get Justice Via Workers’ Associations Solidarity Center ...Despite obstacles, workers’ welfare associations are gaining ground in factories throughout Bangladesh’s export processing zones. Bangladesh derives 20 percent of its income from exports created in the EPZs, which are industrial areas that offer special incentives to foreign investors like low taxes, lax environmental regulations and low labor costs. Some 377,600 workers, the vast majority women, work in 497 factories in Bangladesh’s eight EPZs...
State & Living Wage Battles
Maine House blocks bill that would prevent minimum wage increases Business Sun Journal ...Gov. Paul LePage’s effort to keep Bangor and Portland from raising the minimum wage for workers inside their city limits suffered a blow Monday when the House of Representatives rejected the bill. The Democrat-controlled House voted 83-60, without debate, to block LD 1361. The bill would prevent any municipality in the state from raising the minimum wage past the $7.50 per hour established by the state...
Trial in NC Voter ID Case Pending After Legislative Moves Associated Press ...A North Carolina judge is deciding whether a state lawsuit challenging voter ID requirements should keep going after changes to the law last week by the General Assembly. The lawsuit challenges North Carolina's 2013 law, which required all voters to show a government-issued ID to cast a ballot. The General Assembly loosened those requirements last week to allow driver's licenses or state-issued ID cards expired for less than four years to be accepted...
Workers Rally In Denver As New York Considers Boosting Minimum Wage CBS ... Workers around the nation and in Denver rallied Monday as New York considers boosting that state’s minimum wage. The workers want the minimum wage raised to $15 an hour. About 50 fast food workers gathered at a Denver McDonald’s located at Alameda Avenue and Broadway on Monday to show their support...
Scott Walker’s Unprecedented Voucher Expansion PR Watch ...At a time when other states are reinvesting in public education, Wisconsin continues to slash and burn. The Wisconsin Budget Project says that the state is now spending $1,014 less per public school student than it did in 2008 and more funds are slated to be siphoned off as Governor Scott Walker's budget proposes an unprecedented voucher expansion, draining funds from public education and directing them to for-profit and religious schools...
Bill Under Way In New Jersey Would Give Paid Sick Leave To Workers CBS ...A bill is underway in New Jersey that would give mandatory paid sick leave to workers. Under the bill sponsored by Bergen County State Senator Loretta Weinberg, workers would accumulate an hour of sick time for every 30 worked. New Jersey would be the fourth state to have such a law...
Minimum wage debate shifts to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors LA Times ... Angeles County supervisors could vote Tuesday to increase the minimum wage by two-thirds in unincorporated areas of the county over the next five or six years, following the lead of the city of Los Angeles. The proposal by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl would follow the same timeline recently approved by the city, raising the wage to $15 by 2020 for companies with more than 25 employees...
U.S. Labor
GM’s Clegg Says Wage Gap Just One Item of UAW Talks Wards Auto ...General Motors Vice President Cathy Clegg calls the UAW’s desire to close the 2-tier wage gap at U.S. manufacturing sites one of several issues on the table as talks on a new 4-year labor contract approach. UAW President Dennis Williams has signaled closing the wage gap, which sees entry-level workers earning $19 an hour compared with $28 for traditional ones, a top item of the talks...
One Week to Contract Deadline: Negotiations Continue with State Workers Public News Service ..With a contract deadline just one week away, state workers in Illinois are continuing to push for a fair labor agreement. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) say they are not pleased with Governor Bruce Rauner's proposed cuts in pay and benefits, and his willingness to allow a government shutdown. Anders Lindall with AFSCME Council 31 says a strike is not in the public's best interest...
Inside Cablevision’s War With Big Labor Daily Beast ...In recent months, regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that supervises union elections and investigates unfair labor practices, has accused Dolan and Cablevision of violating federal labor law by allegedly threatening employees, bargaining in bad faith, unfairly firing employees, and raising the salaries only of non-union workers...
Is Walmart Hiding $76 Billion in Overseas Tax Havens? The Nation ...Walmart executives appear to have way more money than they know what to do with, but know exactly where to hide it. Its big box is roomy enough to hide billions in un- and undertaxed profits, according to a new report by a watchdog group. While the retail giant is known for capitalizing on corporate tax breaks and driving the offshoring of jobs to the Global South, little is known about how much of its assets are hidden from Uncle Sam and offshored to far-flung tax havens...
Miscellaneous
Top CEOs make more than 300 times what their workers are paid Daily Kos ...Pay for the last people to need a raise—CEOs of large companies—rose again in 2014. Total compensation for CEOs of the 350 largest companies is now 303 times what workers take in, which is down from the peak of 376-to-1 in 2000 but still ridiculously high, sccording to the Economic Policy Institute's Lawrence Mishel and Alyssa Davis...
15 Ways Bill Clinton’s White House Failed America and the World Alternet ...For more than a year before Hillary Clinton launched her latest presidential campaign, Bill Clinton has been selectively telling media outlets that he made some mistakes as president and might have acted otherwise. He's even tried to recast actual events and been taken to task by fact-checkers who recall his leading role in what became major crises, such as the 2008 global financial implosion...
South Carolina Governor Calls for Confederate Flag to be Removed from State House Common Dreams ...South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the Statehouse grounds in the wake of last week's racist murders of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston. The flag, a divisive symbol of South Carolina's racist history, "does not represent the future of our great state," Haley, a Republican, said during a press conference on Monday...
Teamsters Union Fights Toyota’s Greedy Carhaul Job-Killing Practices Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union is fighting Toyota’s greed in which the manufacturer is shifting business from dependable and experienced Teamster-represented carhaul companies to lower-bidding nonunion companies, a shift that is costing numerous Teamster carhaulers’ jobs and lowering work standards while the company is raking in record profits. For the period ending March 31, 2015, Toyota had record net income, operating profit and global revenue...
EVSC, Teamsters still at odds in talks; some board members call for return to negotiations Courier & Press ...It’s time to get back to the bargaining table. That is a sentiment some Evansville Vanderburgh School Board members voiced at Monday night’s meeting after five people spoke on behalf of collective bargaining negotiations with Teamsters Local 215. Since April, three collective bargaining sessions for the five EVSC employee groups represented by Teamsters have occurred...
Global Labor & Trade
Pacific trade pact returns to Senate for second test Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama's signature Pacific trade pact faces another test in the Senate on Tuesday as legislation needed to close the deal returns for a second run through the chamber. The legislation has already endured six weeks of congressional wrangling and two close brushes with failure after revolts by Obama's own Democrats, many of whom believe trade deals will threaten U.S. jobs...
Obama’s fast-track gamble: Counting on John Boehner to keep his word Salon ...Trade promotion authority for the president to negotiate trade deals is far from dead, despite a humiliating defeat for the Obama administration on the floor of the House last week. Multinational corporations spanning the globe desperately want this, because without TPA, also known as fast-track, there’s not likely to be any Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Have liberals been backed into a corner on trade? Washington Post ...It’s looking increasingly like those House Dems and liberals — who had previously opposed TAA as a way to kill Fast Track — may have been backed into a corner and may have no choice but to support TAA in the end. And, thanks to the convoluted process that has evolved within Congress on trade, that seeming reality as to what will happen later may be what enables pro-TPP Senate Dems to pass Fast Track first, reviving Obama’s trade agenda...
Wallach: Slow down on Fast Track trade pacts (opinion) Hampton Roads ...We know from past experience that when trade deals aren't done right, Americans suffer the consequences. Virginia has lost more than 141,000 manufacturing jobs since the 1994 NAFTA. More than 72,000 specific Virginia workers have gotten help from TAA after losing their jobs to offshoring or imports since NAFTA. There is good reason why Congress has only agreed to grant Fast Track for five of the past 21 years. And a clarion call for why the Senate should not trade away assistance for those we know will lose jobs if TPP were to go into effect...
The anachronistic trade agreement (opinion) Washington Post ...In the mid-20th century, the United States traded with other nations from a position of almost unparalleled strength. In the current century job security has been undermined and earnings have either stagnated or declined. The German labor movement is an enthusiastic trade supporter because the domestic institutions that protect German workers and win them a decent share of corporate revenues are robust. Those who complain that U.S. unions reflexively oppose trade should realize that when trade deals genuinely help workers, labor will cheer them on...
Wrong direction on climate, trade and development (opinion) The Hill ...The Obama administration argues that the agreements it is negotiating are true 21st century agreements that correct the failings of past agreements and will promote trade and investment that can both re-launch America as the key economic player and promote broad-based sustainable development at home and abroad. While that may be the ambition, an amendment House Republications surreptitiously tacked on to Trade Promotion Authority via language in the separate Customs Bill will do just the opposite...
Chilean Port Workers Strike over Labor Reform Bill TeleSUR ...Chilean port workers have completed a 24 hour strike in industrial ports across the country. Workers belonging to the Ports Union (UP) are challenging a labor reform bill that is currently awaiting approval by the Chilean senate. Chilean port workers are demanding modifications to the newly proposed labor legislation including clarification on a clause that would allow the termination of striking workers whom pose an alleged threat to damaging infrastructure, the environment, or health services.
Al Jazeera Documentary Shows Mexican Farmworkers’ Struggles in Historic Strike In These Times ...A historic farmworker uprising ignited this March in Baja California, Mexico. Thousands of crop pickers stopped work at peak harvest in the valley of San Quintin, a major source of the U.S.’s tomatoes, cucumbers and berries, demanding better pay, legally mandated benefits and an end to sexual harassment in the fields, among other improvements. The months-long movement received surprisingly little media attention on this side of the border...
Bangladesh Workers Get Justice Via Workers’ Associations Solidarity Center ...Despite obstacles, workers’ welfare associations are gaining ground in factories throughout Bangladesh’s export processing zones. Bangladesh derives 20 percent of its income from exports created in the EPZs, which are industrial areas that offer special incentives to foreign investors like low taxes, lax environmental regulations and low labor costs. Some 377,600 workers, the vast majority women, work in 497 factories in Bangladesh’s eight EPZs...
State & Living Wage Battles
Maine House blocks bill that would prevent minimum wage increases Business Sun Journal ...Gov. Paul LePage’s effort to keep Bangor and Portland from raising the minimum wage for workers inside their city limits suffered a blow Monday when the House of Representatives rejected the bill. The Democrat-controlled House voted 83-60, without debate, to block LD 1361. The bill would prevent any municipality in the state from raising the minimum wage past the $7.50 per hour established by the state...
Trial in NC Voter ID Case Pending After Legislative Moves Associated Press ...A North Carolina judge is deciding whether a state lawsuit challenging voter ID requirements should keep going after changes to the law last week by the General Assembly. The lawsuit challenges North Carolina's 2013 law, which required all voters to show a government-issued ID to cast a ballot. The General Assembly loosened those requirements last week to allow driver's licenses or state-issued ID cards expired for less than four years to be accepted...
Workers Rally In Denver As New York Considers Boosting Minimum Wage CBS ... Workers around the nation and in Denver rallied Monday as New York considers boosting that state’s minimum wage. The workers want the minimum wage raised to $15 an hour. About 50 fast food workers gathered at a Denver McDonald’s located at Alameda Avenue and Broadway on Monday to show their support...
Scott Walker’s Unprecedented Voucher Expansion PR Watch ...At a time when other states are reinvesting in public education, Wisconsin continues to slash and burn. The Wisconsin Budget Project says that the state is now spending $1,014 less per public school student than it did in 2008 and more funds are slated to be siphoned off as Governor Scott Walker's budget proposes an unprecedented voucher expansion, draining funds from public education and directing them to for-profit and religious schools...
Bill Under Way In New Jersey Would Give Paid Sick Leave To Workers CBS ...A bill is underway in New Jersey that would give mandatory paid sick leave to workers. Under the bill sponsored by Bergen County State Senator Loretta Weinberg, workers would accumulate an hour of sick time for every 30 worked. New Jersey would be the fourth state to have such a law...
Minimum wage debate shifts to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors LA Times ... Angeles County supervisors could vote Tuesday to increase the minimum wage by two-thirds in unincorporated areas of the county over the next five or six years, following the lead of the city of Los Angeles. The proposal by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl would follow the same timeline recently approved by the city, raising the wage to $15 by 2020 for companies with more than 25 employees...
U.S. Labor
GM’s Clegg Says Wage Gap Just One Item of UAW Talks Wards Auto ...General Motors Vice President Cathy Clegg calls the UAW’s desire to close the 2-tier wage gap at U.S. manufacturing sites one of several issues on the table as talks on a new 4-year labor contract approach. UAW President Dennis Williams has signaled closing the wage gap, which sees entry-level workers earning $19 an hour compared with $28 for traditional ones, a top item of the talks...
One Week to Contract Deadline: Negotiations Continue with State Workers Public News Service ..With a contract deadline just one week away, state workers in Illinois are continuing to push for a fair labor agreement. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) say they are not pleased with Governor Bruce Rauner's proposed cuts in pay and benefits, and his willingness to allow a government shutdown. Anders Lindall with AFSCME Council 31 says a strike is not in the public's best interest...
Inside Cablevision’s War With Big Labor Daily Beast ...In recent months, regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that supervises union elections and investigates unfair labor practices, has accused Dolan and Cablevision of violating federal labor law by allegedly threatening employees, bargaining in bad faith, unfairly firing employees, and raising the salaries only of non-union workers...
Is Walmart Hiding $76 Billion in Overseas Tax Havens? The Nation ...Walmart executives appear to have way more money than they know what to do with, but know exactly where to hide it. Its big box is roomy enough to hide billions in un- and undertaxed profits, according to a new report by a watchdog group. While the retail giant is known for capitalizing on corporate tax breaks and driving the offshoring of jobs to the Global South, little is known about how much of its assets are hidden from Uncle Sam and offshored to far-flung tax havens...
Miscellaneous
Top CEOs make more than 300 times what their workers are paid Daily Kos ...Pay for the last people to need a raise—CEOs of large companies—rose again in 2014. Total compensation for CEOs of the 350 largest companies is now 303 times what workers take in, which is down from the peak of 376-to-1 in 2000 but still ridiculously high, sccording to the Economic Policy Institute's Lawrence Mishel and Alyssa Davis...
15 Ways Bill Clinton’s White House Failed America and the World Alternet ...For more than a year before Hillary Clinton launched her latest presidential campaign, Bill Clinton has been selectively telling media outlets that he made some mistakes as president and might have acted otherwise. He's even tried to recast actual events and been taken to task by fact-checkers who recall his leading role in what became major crises, such as the 2008 global financial implosion...
South Carolina Governor Calls for Confederate Flag to be Removed from State House Common Dreams ...South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the Statehouse grounds in the wake of last week's racist murders of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston. The flag, a divisive symbol of South Carolina's racist history, "does not represent the future of our great state," Haley, a Republican, said during a press conference on Monday...
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.17.15
Teamsters
ONTC and Teamsters reach five-year agreement Nugget ...Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (Ontario Northland) and Teamsters Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees Division (TCRC MWED) announced today that they have reached a tentative five year collective agreement. TCRC MWED represents 161 unionized employees who are responsible for maintaining Ontario Northland’s rail infrastructure, including track, buildings and bridges along the rail line...
Dozens of FXI employees on strike Wane.com ...The employees, represented by Teamsters Local 414, have been negotiating their contract with FXI for the last three years. According to George Gurdis, the officer of Teamsters Local 414, the group of FXI workers was organized about three years ago and have never been on a contract. Now, FXI wants to slice their wages and lower their benefits. FXI produces foam for homes, healthcare, electronics, industrial, personal care and transportation markets...
Mogul may have hired PIs to tail horse-carriage drivers NY Post ...A deep-pocketed animal-rights activist paid a team of private eyes to spy on Central Park horse carriage drivers for three months in the hope of catching them breaking the law. Up to six gumshoes would camp outside Manhattan horse stables at 5:30 a.m. and follow drivers all day, sometimes until after midnight, confirmed Mike Ciravolo, an exec at celebrity investigative firm Beau Dietl & Associates...
Rollex Ordered to Make Changes for Member Safety Teamsters Local 727 ...The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered Rollex Corporation to fix 31 machines by July 31 after Teamsters Local 727 representatives insisted the changes be made immediately. Local 727 represents about 100 workers at the aluminum soffit and steel siding manufacturer located in Elk Grove Village, Ill...
Global Labor & Trade
GOP leaders hatch trade workaround Politico ...Under the emerging plan, the House would vote on a bill that would give Obama fast-track authority to negotiate a sweeping trade deal with Pacific Rim countries, sending it to the Senate for final approval. To alleviate Democratic concerns, the Senate then would amend a separate bill on trade preferences to include Trade Adjustment Assistance...
GOP Leaders Putting Together Trade Rescue Plan Associated Press ...After talks with President Barack Obama, top Republican leaders in Congress put together a quick rescue plan Tuesday for highly controversial, White House-backed trade legislation that Democrats derailed in the House last week. Officials said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were likely to split the stalled bill into two parts in hopes of sending them to the president separately...
House Moves to Delay Action on Trade Bill for 6 Weeks New York Times ...Mr. Obama has now turned his focus to House Speaker John A. Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to find a legislative strategy that would preserve trade promotion authority, which would give the president accelerated power to negotiate the broader Trans-Pacific Partnership accord with 11 other nations from Japan to Chile...
As NAFTA Memories Linger, Unions Hold Fast Against New Trade Deal NPR ..."Labor has enough of a institutional memory to know what happened with NAFTA," [Roland Zullo] says. "There was a theory behind NAFTA; there was a theory that by integrating Canada, U.S. and Mexico, there would be a sort of overall net economic benefit." But that didn't happen for U.S. workers in sectors like manufacturing. Michigan auto workers, for example, lost more than 100,000 jobs in the years that followed NAFTA's passage.
House GOP poised to pursue fast-track without aid for workers Politico ...The House is on the brink of scheduling a standalone vote on giving President Barack Obama fast-track trade authority without accompanying worker assistance legislation, according to multiple sources familiar with the plan. The House could vote on Trade Promotion Authority as early as this week, the sources said...
Domestic Workers: ‘Bought and Paid for in the Gulf States’ Solidarity Center ...In the Gulf, “employers feel they have bought domestic workers because they paid the recruitment fee,” Varia said. The situation is exacerbated in Gulf countries by the kefala system, which ties employment of foreign workers to their employers, and makes it illegal for workers to get another job in the country. Employers also typically take the passports of domestic workers, who toil unseen from the public and are especially vulnerable to abuse...
Qatar’s World Cup Preparations Could Kill as Many as 4,000 Migrant Workers The Nation ...While FIFA continues to sink deeper into a mire of scandal, the deepest hell in the world football body’s dominion is reserved for the workers toiling at the sweltering construction zones of Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host. As the legal turmoil swells in Geneva, however, human rights groups see a potential opening to revisit the controversy over whether Qatar deserves to be hosting the games at all...
State & Living Wage Battles
A Farmworkers Bill of Rights in New York May Finally End “Abhorrent and Unacceptable” Treatment In These Times ...Farmworkers in New York are not currently guaranteed a full 24-hour day off each week. They also lack the right to overtime pay, to unemployment and workers compensation insurance and are without collective bargaining rights—in an industry that’s worth some $5.7 billion annually. Legislation now being considered by the New York State Senate and Assembly aims to change this status quo...
Michigan House passes bill designed to bar cities from setting minimum wages News Maine ...Michigan House on Tuesday approved a bill designed to prohibit local governments from passing ordinances regarding minimum wages, benefits or work rules for companies operating within the premises of their towns. The Republican-led House voted 59 to 51 to approve a bill similar to one approved by the state Senate previous week...
Kotek minimum wage plan falls short of $15 an hour Portland Tribune ...House Speaker Tina Kotek has proposed increasing Oregon’s minimum wage in stages to $13 per hour by 2018 and allowing cities and counties to raise it even more. Kotek, a Democrat from Portland, disclosed details of her plan to reporters Monday, ahead of a hearing Wednesday by the House Rules Committee...
Clergy March on Billionaires as Moral Mondays Come to Chicago In These Times ...The activists, including Chicago’s Lutheran Bishop Wayne Miller, rallied before marching on the corporate headquarters of billionaire Sam Zell, a supporter of Gov. Rauner, awarded $4 million to Turnaround Illinois, a Rauner-allied super political action committee that supports banning political donations by government worker unions...
With Oregon's Bill, Paid Sick Leave Gains Momentum The American Prospect ...Building on a strong and growing level of momentum nationwide, on Friday, the Oregon legislature passed a bill that mandates paid sick leave. Governor Kate Brown, a progressive Democrat, is sure to sign the bill, making Oregon the fourth state to pass mandated paid sick leave. The vote is a significant win for a nationwide movement that’s been quietly gaining steam among cities, states, and presidential candidates in recent years...
Failing the Poor and the Economy, Kansas Gov Signs 'Regressive' Tax Deal Common Dreams ...Following the end of the longest legislative session in state history, which dragged on an extra 23 days, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on Tuesday signed a massive budget deal into law that includes a $384 million tax hike—mostly on the poor. It's the largest tax increase ever introduced in the state, and more than half of it will come from sales tax and cigarette tax, which financial experts have long warned are regressive...
101-year-old woman can't vote due to voter ID laws, newspaper reports NOLA.com ...A 101-year-old Texas woman has shed a new perspective on the debate over voter ID laws. In a commentary essay for the San Antonio Express-News, 101-year-old Mary Lou Miller wrote that she was denied the right to vote because she does not have a government-issued ID, and has not had one since she stopped driving in her 80s...
How A Pay Rise For NY Fast-Food Workers Could Spread Across America Buzzfeed ...Success in obtaining a pay rise in New York — which would be the first of its kind in the country — will form part of a precedent the labor movement plans to export to cities across America. Leaders of the Fight for 15 movement to raise fast-food wages say they plan to treat a $15 sector-wide minimum wage in New York as a springboard to a well of strategic next steps for their campaign...
U.S. Labor
Labor Movement Hopes to Get a Bump From Pope Francis Visit Time ...Cardinal Donald Wuerl spoke in front of a sparkling mosaic on Monday morning, and he was not in a church. The backdrop was not even Biblical, at least not technically. Instead the mosaic was a wall-sized portrait honoring workers at the AFL-CIO headquarters, where Wuerl, Catholic archbishop of Washington, was speaking alongside the labor organization’s president, Richard Trumka. Together, the two men championed care for workers...
SEIU says Clark County overreaching on new labor rules Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Leaders of the Service Employees International Union Local 1107 urged Clark County commissioners Tuesday to reconsider county actions tied to a new state law. The county recently ordered SEIU Local 1107 President Martin Bassick to return from paid union leave to his county job, saying the new law doesn’t allow the leave to continue. The county also notified the union last week that wage and benefit increases will stop for SEIU-affiliated employees...
ATI braces for failure of labor talks, USW says Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...United Steelworkers union officials say Allegheny Technologies is making contingency staffing and security plans in case they fail to negotiate a new labor agreement to replace one that expires June 30. USW headquarters officials last week told members that the Pittsburgh specialty metals producer has hired Strom Engineering, a Minnetonka, Minn., firm that helps companies with labor disputes...
Communications workers union passes Black Lives Matter resolution St. Louis American ...Union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) national convention on June 10 passed a “Black Lives Matter” resolution to address the issues of “systematic racism” in the United States. “Part of our goal in passing the resolution is to start active members of CWA talking about these issues,” said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA Local 6355. “That has already started. I think it deepened our commitment towards working for racial justice”...
When I Lost My Hands Making Flatscreens I Can't Afford, Nobody Would Help Me The Guardian ...I’ve worked in factories most of my life. I know I am not the first person to be injured. But more needs to be done to help the workers who are making the products that so many Americans buy. We don’t ask for even a tiny share of the billions these companies make. We are just asking for enough to take care of our families and, when we are hurt, to take care of ourselves, too...
Is Gawker’s Unionization a Sign That Creative Workers Are Finally Realizing Their Worth? The Nation ...Last week, the staff of Gawker, one of the most iconic web media companies, voted by a 75-25 margin to form a union with Writers Guild of America East. Representing more than 100 online editorial staffers, the bargaining unit covers a network of Gawker Media’s outlets. The exact form of the unit and contract demands will be hammered out later, but the bottom line appears to be that staff wanted to unionize to protect their current wages and benefits...
Miscellaneous
Clinton v Bush: America is getting the dynastic matchup it said it didn't want The Guardian ...Neither family would be a stranger to the upper echelons of US government. Clinton’s eight years as first lady to husband Bill and four years as President Obama’s secretary of state is matched not only by eight years as president by Jeb’s brother, George W Bush, but four years as president by their father George HW Bush and another eight years as vice-president under Ronald Reagan...
Here's the Latest Evidence of How Private Prisons Are Exploiting Inmates for Profit Mother Jones ...The for-profit prison industry sells itself as a cost-effective option for cash-strapped states, but according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin, privatized prisons are keeping inmates locked up longer in order to boost profits. Researcher Anita Mukherjee studied a decade of data from Mississippi and found that private prisons there doled out twice the amount of infractions against inmates, lengthening their sentences by an average of 2-3 months...
RNC Official Awkwardly Refuses To Denounce Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Screed Think Progress ...Hours after Donald Trump launched into an anti-immigrant tirade during his presidential campaign announcement and claimed that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers, a top Republican party official has done nothing to denounce those comments...
ONTC and Teamsters reach five-year agreement Nugget ...Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (Ontario Northland) and Teamsters Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees Division (TCRC MWED) announced today that they have reached a tentative five year collective agreement. TCRC MWED represents 161 unionized employees who are responsible for maintaining Ontario Northland’s rail infrastructure, including track, buildings and bridges along the rail line...
Dozens of FXI employees on strike Wane.com ...The employees, represented by Teamsters Local 414, have been negotiating their contract with FXI for the last three years. According to George Gurdis, the officer of Teamsters Local 414, the group of FXI workers was organized about three years ago and have never been on a contract. Now, FXI wants to slice their wages and lower their benefits. FXI produces foam for homes, healthcare, electronics, industrial, personal care and transportation markets...
Mogul may have hired PIs to tail horse-carriage drivers NY Post ...A deep-pocketed animal-rights activist paid a team of private eyes to spy on Central Park horse carriage drivers for three months in the hope of catching them breaking the law. Up to six gumshoes would camp outside Manhattan horse stables at 5:30 a.m. and follow drivers all day, sometimes until after midnight, confirmed Mike Ciravolo, an exec at celebrity investigative firm Beau Dietl & Associates...
Rollex Ordered to Make Changes for Member Safety Teamsters Local 727 ...The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered Rollex Corporation to fix 31 machines by July 31 after Teamsters Local 727 representatives insisted the changes be made immediately. Local 727 represents about 100 workers at the aluminum soffit and steel siding manufacturer located in Elk Grove Village, Ill...
Global Labor & Trade
GOP leaders hatch trade workaround Politico ...Under the emerging plan, the House would vote on a bill that would give Obama fast-track authority to negotiate a sweeping trade deal with Pacific Rim countries, sending it to the Senate for final approval. To alleviate Democratic concerns, the Senate then would amend a separate bill on trade preferences to include Trade Adjustment Assistance...
GOP Leaders Putting Together Trade Rescue Plan Associated Press ...After talks with President Barack Obama, top Republican leaders in Congress put together a quick rescue plan Tuesday for highly controversial, White House-backed trade legislation that Democrats derailed in the House last week. Officials said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were likely to split the stalled bill into two parts in hopes of sending them to the president separately...
House Moves to Delay Action on Trade Bill for 6 Weeks New York Times ...Mr. Obama has now turned his focus to House Speaker John A. Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to find a legislative strategy that would preserve trade promotion authority, which would give the president accelerated power to negotiate the broader Trans-Pacific Partnership accord with 11 other nations from Japan to Chile...
As NAFTA Memories Linger, Unions Hold Fast Against New Trade Deal NPR ..."Labor has enough of a institutional memory to know what happened with NAFTA," [Roland Zullo] says. "There was a theory behind NAFTA; there was a theory that by integrating Canada, U.S. and Mexico, there would be a sort of overall net economic benefit." But that didn't happen for U.S. workers in sectors like manufacturing. Michigan auto workers, for example, lost more than 100,000 jobs in the years that followed NAFTA's passage.
House GOP poised to pursue fast-track without aid for workers Politico ...The House is on the brink of scheduling a standalone vote on giving President Barack Obama fast-track trade authority without accompanying worker assistance legislation, according to multiple sources familiar with the plan. The House could vote on Trade Promotion Authority as early as this week, the sources said...
Domestic Workers: ‘Bought and Paid for in the Gulf States’ Solidarity Center ...In the Gulf, “employers feel they have bought domestic workers because they paid the recruitment fee,” Varia said. The situation is exacerbated in Gulf countries by the kefala system, which ties employment of foreign workers to their employers, and makes it illegal for workers to get another job in the country. Employers also typically take the passports of domestic workers, who toil unseen from the public and are especially vulnerable to abuse...
Qatar’s World Cup Preparations Could Kill as Many as 4,000 Migrant Workers The Nation ...While FIFA continues to sink deeper into a mire of scandal, the deepest hell in the world football body’s dominion is reserved for the workers toiling at the sweltering construction zones of Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host. As the legal turmoil swells in Geneva, however, human rights groups see a potential opening to revisit the controversy over whether Qatar deserves to be hosting the games at all...
State & Living Wage Battles
A Farmworkers Bill of Rights in New York May Finally End “Abhorrent and Unacceptable” Treatment In These Times ...Farmworkers in New York are not currently guaranteed a full 24-hour day off each week. They also lack the right to overtime pay, to unemployment and workers compensation insurance and are without collective bargaining rights—in an industry that’s worth some $5.7 billion annually. Legislation now being considered by the New York State Senate and Assembly aims to change this status quo...
Michigan House passes bill designed to bar cities from setting minimum wages News Maine ...Michigan House on Tuesday approved a bill designed to prohibit local governments from passing ordinances regarding minimum wages, benefits or work rules for companies operating within the premises of their towns. The Republican-led House voted 59 to 51 to approve a bill similar to one approved by the state Senate previous week...
Kotek minimum wage plan falls short of $15 an hour Portland Tribune ...House Speaker Tina Kotek has proposed increasing Oregon’s minimum wage in stages to $13 per hour by 2018 and allowing cities and counties to raise it even more. Kotek, a Democrat from Portland, disclosed details of her plan to reporters Monday, ahead of a hearing Wednesday by the House Rules Committee...
Clergy March on Billionaires as Moral Mondays Come to Chicago In These Times ...The activists, including Chicago’s Lutheran Bishop Wayne Miller, rallied before marching on the corporate headquarters of billionaire Sam Zell, a supporter of Gov. Rauner, awarded $4 million to Turnaround Illinois, a Rauner-allied super political action committee that supports banning political donations by government worker unions...
With Oregon's Bill, Paid Sick Leave Gains Momentum The American Prospect ...Building on a strong and growing level of momentum nationwide, on Friday, the Oregon legislature passed a bill that mandates paid sick leave. Governor Kate Brown, a progressive Democrat, is sure to sign the bill, making Oregon the fourth state to pass mandated paid sick leave. The vote is a significant win for a nationwide movement that’s been quietly gaining steam among cities, states, and presidential candidates in recent years...
Failing the Poor and the Economy, Kansas Gov Signs 'Regressive' Tax Deal Common Dreams ...Following the end of the longest legislative session in state history, which dragged on an extra 23 days, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on Tuesday signed a massive budget deal into law that includes a $384 million tax hike—mostly on the poor. It's the largest tax increase ever introduced in the state, and more than half of it will come from sales tax and cigarette tax, which financial experts have long warned are regressive...
101-year-old woman can't vote due to voter ID laws, newspaper reports NOLA.com ...A 101-year-old Texas woman has shed a new perspective on the debate over voter ID laws. In a commentary essay for the San Antonio Express-News, 101-year-old Mary Lou Miller wrote that she was denied the right to vote because she does not have a government-issued ID, and has not had one since she stopped driving in her 80s...
How A Pay Rise For NY Fast-Food Workers Could Spread Across America Buzzfeed ...Success in obtaining a pay rise in New York — which would be the first of its kind in the country — will form part of a precedent the labor movement plans to export to cities across America. Leaders of the Fight for 15 movement to raise fast-food wages say they plan to treat a $15 sector-wide minimum wage in New York as a springboard to a well of strategic next steps for their campaign...
U.S. Labor
Labor Movement Hopes to Get a Bump From Pope Francis Visit Time ...Cardinal Donald Wuerl spoke in front of a sparkling mosaic on Monday morning, and he was not in a church. The backdrop was not even Biblical, at least not technically. Instead the mosaic was a wall-sized portrait honoring workers at the AFL-CIO headquarters, where Wuerl, Catholic archbishop of Washington, was speaking alongside the labor organization’s president, Richard Trumka. Together, the two men championed care for workers...
SEIU says Clark County overreaching on new labor rules Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Leaders of the Service Employees International Union Local 1107 urged Clark County commissioners Tuesday to reconsider county actions tied to a new state law. The county recently ordered SEIU Local 1107 President Martin Bassick to return from paid union leave to his county job, saying the new law doesn’t allow the leave to continue. The county also notified the union last week that wage and benefit increases will stop for SEIU-affiliated employees...
ATI braces for failure of labor talks, USW says Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...United Steelworkers union officials say Allegheny Technologies is making contingency staffing and security plans in case they fail to negotiate a new labor agreement to replace one that expires June 30. USW headquarters officials last week told members that the Pittsburgh specialty metals producer has hired Strom Engineering, a Minnetonka, Minn., firm that helps companies with labor disputes...
Communications workers union passes Black Lives Matter resolution St. Louis American ...Union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) national convention on June 10 passed a “Black Lives Matter” resolution to address the issues of “systematic racism” in the United States. “Part of our goal in passing the resolution is to start active members of CWA talking about these issues,” said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA Local 6355. “That has already started. I think it deepened our commitment towards working for racial justice”...
When I Lost My Hands Making Flatscreens I Can't Afford, Nobody Would Help Me The Guardian ...I’ve worked in factories most of my life. I know I am not the first person to be injured. But more needs to be done to help the workers who are making the products that so many Americans buy. We don’t ask for even a tiny share of the billions these companies make. We are just asking for enough to take care of our families and, when we are hurt, to take care of ourselves, too...
Is Gawker’s Unionization a Sign That Creative Workers Are Finally Realizing Their Worth? The Nation ...Last week, the staff of Gawker, one of the most iconic web media companies, voted by a 75-25 margin to form a union with Writers Guild of America East. Representing more than 100 online editorial staffers, the bargaining unit covers a network of Gawker Media’s outlets. The exact form of the unit and contract demands will be hammered out later, but the bottom line appears to be that staff wanted to unionize to protect their current wages and benefits...
Miscellaneous
Clinton v Bush: America is getting the dynastic matchup it said it didn't want The Guardian ...Neither family would be a stranger to the upper echelons of US government. Clinton’s eight years as first lady to husband Bill and four years as President Obama’s secretary of state is matched not only by eight years as president by Jeb’s brother, George W Bush, but four years as president by their father George HW Bush and another eight years as vice-president under Ronald Reagan...
Here's the Latest Evidence of How Private Prisons Are Exploiting Inmates for Profit Mother Jones ...The for-profit prison industry sells itself as a cost-effective option for cash-strapped states, but according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin, privatized prisons are keeping inmates locked up longer in order to boost profits. Researcher Anita Mukherjee studied a decade of data from Mississippi and found that private prisons there doled out twice the amount of infractions against inmates, lengthening their sentences by an average of 2-3 months...
RNC Official Awkwardly Refuses To Denounce Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Screed Think Progress ...Hours after Donald Trump launched into an anti-immigrant tirade during his presidential campaign announcement and claimed that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers, a top Republican party official has done nothing to denounce those comments...
Monday, June 1, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.01.15
Teamsters
Strike at Del. soft drink distributor slows soda flow Delaware Online ...A nearly two-week strike by workers at a soft drink distribution center in New Castle shows no signs of ending soon, leaving some stores running low on certain brands of soda and bottled water. "The last offer the company put forward didn't have any of the changes the workers were looking for," said Joe Smith, president of Teamsters Local 326, which represents the striking workers...
Tracy Morgan Settles In Fatal Tractor-Trailer Crash As House Works To Make Highways More Dangerous Think Progress ...Whether its pay-per-mile, sleep rules, or the physical arrangement of a truck, the FMCSA’s job is to create a system that addresses those lowest common denominators — but the regulator won’t be free to do so if the current House transportation funding bill becomes law...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama's Trade Agenda Faces Tougher Odds Heading Into House Associated Press ...After several near death experiences in the Senate, the trade agenda that President Barack Obama is pushing as a second term capstone faces its biggest hurdle yet in the more polarized House. Anti-trade forces have struggled to ignite public outrage over Obama's bid to enact new free-trade agreements, but Democratic opposition in Congress remains widespread...
House trade vote will be tight, like in 2001 Politico ...House Republicans hoped to avoid a replay of the gut-wrenchingly close vote on fast track trade legislation that took place in 2001, but stiff Democratic opposition makes it likely history will repeat itself. The bill is expected to hit the floor in coming weeks, but with a number of Democratic and Republican votes still up in the air, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was non-committal on Friday about the exact timing...
Obama Seeks Rare Business Support Wall Street Journal ...President Barack Obama, who frequently has tussled with corporate America, now is relying heavily on an array of large U.S. companies to help enact a major Pacific trade deal. From Hollywood studios to drug makers and manufacturers, such as Caterpillar Inc., some major American companies are lending key support in the complicated push to negotiate the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Strike at Del. soft drink distributor slows soda flow Delaware Online ...A nearly two-week strike by workers at a soft drink distribution center in New Castle shows no signs of ending soon, leaving some stores running low on certain brands of soda and bottled water. "The last offer the company put forward didn't have any of the changes the workers were looking for," said Joe Smith, president of Teamsters Local 326, which represents the striking workers...
Tracy Morgan Settles In Fatal Tractor-Trailer Crash As House Works To Make Highways More Dangerous Think Progress ...Whether its pay-per-mile, sleep rules, or the physical arrangement of a truck, the FMCSA’s job is to create a system that addresses those lowest common denominators — but the regulator won’t be free to do so if the current House transportation funding bill becomes law...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama's Trade Agenda Faces Tougher Odds Heading Into House Associated Press ...After several near death experiences in the Senate, the trade agenda that President Barack Obama is pushing as a second term capstone faces its biggest hurdle yet in the more polarized House. Anti-trade forces have struggled to ignite public outrage over Obama's bid to enact new free-trade agreements, but Democratic opposition in Congress remains widespread...
House trade vote will be tight, like in 2001 Politico ...House Republicans hoped to avoid a replay of the gut-wrenchingly close vote on fast track trade legislation that took place in 2001, but stiff Democratic opposition makes it likely history will repeat itself. The bill is expected to hit the floor in coming weeks, but with a number of Democratic and Republican votes still up in the air, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was non-committal on Friday about the exact timing...
Obama Seeks Rare Business Support Wall Street Journal ...President Barack Obama, who frequently has tussled with corporate America, now is relying heavily on an array of large U.S. companies to help enact a major Pacific trade deal. From Hollywood studios to drug makers and manufacturers, such as Caterpillar Inc., some major American companies are lending key support in the complicated push to negotiate the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Obama’s Trade Deal Faces Bipartisan Peril in the House New York Times ...The bruising battle over President Obama’s push for the power to negotiate two potentially far-reaching trade pacts will shift this week to the House, where the White House faces entrenched opposition from Democrats and the stirring of rebellion from the Republicans’ right flank...
Arguments for TPP don’t make sense (opinion) Boston Globe ...It is absurd to imagine that TPP could wrest China — soon to be the world’s largest economy — from a preeminent role in Asia. The United States is far more likely to buttress its influence in Asia by leveraging rising Chinese prosperity and working with China than by ignoring it or attempting to bypass it...
Obama is no progressive: Why Teddy Roosevelt is grousing in his grave (opinion) Salon ...Given that reality, insisting that “TPP will end up being the most progressive trade agreement in our history” – in the most benevolent interpretation — is at best an attempt to engage in focus-grouped wordsmithing. Ultimately, Mr. Obama leaves no other conclusion than that at heart he is an unabashed corporatist, protecting the interests of large corporations...
The Limited ''Victory'' Won by Mexican Farm Workers Truthout ...The farm workers of the San Quintin Valley have gotten the federal government to commit to facilitating negotiations for a wage hike, the central demand of the more than 80,000 agricultural laborers in this region of Baja California. But Lucila Hermandez, a spokesperson for the movement, warns that the agreement is still not a clear victory...
Network Rail strike talks to go into fourth day BBC ...Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members are set to hold a 24-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 4 June and a 48-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 9 June. On Thursday the union rejected a fresh pay offer by Network Rail. Both sides have been talking with conciliation service Acas since Friday...
State & Living Wage Battles
Will Connecticut Go Robin Hood on Low-Wage Bosses? The Nation ...Call it a Robin Hood Tax for big-box stores: take from the rich to give to the poor, by forcing companies that pay unlivable wages to support the public benefits that impoverished workers need to survive. According to one economic assessment, the “true cost” of low-wage jobs in Connecticut amounts to some $486 million per year paid through various public welfare programs. So the logic goes, the most heavily state-subsidized companies should pay their fair share...
Texas Lawmakers Are Busy Making It Harder to Vote Truthout ...One measure (HB 1096) that would make it more difficult for voters to confirm their residency recently cleared the House. Another bill approved by the Senate (SB 1934) would eliminate nonexpiring photo identification cards for the state’s senior citizens. Because unexpired photo IDs or IDs that have been expired no more than 60 days are required to vote, this change would make it even harder for Texas seniors to get their ballots counted...
An American workplace war that's reached a tipping point CNBC ...With Wisconsin's adoption of so-called right-to-work legislation earlier this year, 25 states now prohibit mandatory union dues, and with legislation being pushed in several more states, the right-to-work movement is talking about a national "tipping point"...
Kansas Republicans Finally Consider Changing Course On Their ‘Tea Party Experiment’ Think Progress ...Republicans in Kansas, facing a $400 million budget hole due to tax cuts pushed by Gov. Sam Brownback, are now finally considering raising taxes to compensate for the shortfall. Legislators are considering rolling back an exemption on nonwage income for small businesses they passed a few years ago and replacing it with a 1 percent tax credit...
U.S. Labor
If You’re In A Nail Salon In New York, You’ll Now See A Workers’ Bill Of Rights On The Wall Think Progress ...All nail salons in New York City will now be required to display a “manicurists’ bill of rights” that’s easily visible to both employees and customers — the latest attempt from city officials to crack down on the rampant labor abuses in the industry detailed in a recent New York Times investigation...
California Walmart Workers Go on Hunger Strike After Stores Closed in ‘Retaliation’ for Organizing In These Times ...With tents and sleeping bags in tow, workers set up camp outside a Los Angeles Walmart this week and held a one-day fast to protest the corporation’s retaliation against their organizing. Walmart recently closed five stores, including one in Pico Rivera, California, where workers were especially active in OUR Walmart, the Food and Commercial Workers-backed effort to boost standards at the retail giant...
NLRB Certifies USW Representation for Workers at Golden Dragon Copper PR Newswire ...The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has certified the union as the exclusive bargaining representative for production, maintenance and warehouse workers at Golden Dragon Copper. In a very close, secret ballot election conducted on Nov. 7, 2014, workers at Golden Dragon voted in favor of USW representation, even after outsiders, including Gov. Robert Bentley, campaigned against the union...
Elizabeth Warren Gets Job Security and the Uber-ization of the Economy Completely Wrong Alternet ...Her remarks in response to moderators talking about the rise of Uber-style contract-based part-time work were less inspiring. She dismissed these concerns as primarily about technology, not the nature of work, and then later failed to answer a question asking if Uber-style contract workers should be classified as full-time employees, which would give them greater rights...
Miscellaneous
Foreclosed nation: Wall Street, the dispossessed & the quality of American democracy Salon ...Why has the continued crisis of dispossession not been treated as a national emergency? Given the scale of the foreclosure crisis, the policy response has been muted. Congress and the Obama administration have repeatedly rejected demands for a national moratorium on mortgage foreclosures. Legislators in several states introduced foreclosure moratorium bills, but few states enacted them...
Emergency bridge repairs to snarl Virginia-to-D.C. traffic Daily Kos ...There are 61,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States, but transportation is on the long list of things congressional Republicans refuse to invest in. A two-month bill extending the Highway Trust Fund recently passed, but two months of funding makes it more than a little difficult to do long-term planning and investment...
Arguments for TPP don’t make sense (opinion) Boston Globe ...It is absurd to imagine that TPP could wrest China — soon to be the world’s largest economy — from a preeminent role in Asia. The United States is far more likely to buttress its influence in Asia by leveraging rising Chinese prosperity and working with China than by ignoring it or attempting to bypass it...
Obama is no progressive: Why Teddy Roosevelt is grousing in his grave (opinion) Salon ...Given that reality, insisting that “TPP will end up being the most progressive trade agreement in our history” – in the most benevolent interpretation — is at best an attempt to engage in focus-grouped wordsmithing. Ultimately, Mr. Obama leaves no other conclusion than that at heart he is an unabashed corporatist, protecting the interests of large corporations...
The Limited ''Victory'' Won by Mexican Farm Workers Truthout ...The farm workers of the San Quintin Valley have gotten the federal government to commit to facilitating negotiations for a wage hike, the central demand of the more than 80,000 agricultural laborers in this region of Baja California. But Lucila Hermandez, a spokesperson for the movement, warns that the agreement is still not a clear victory...
Network Rail strike talks to go into fourth day BBC ...Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members are set to hold a 24-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 4 June and a 48-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 9 June. On Thursday the union rejected a fresh pay offer by Network Rail. Both sides have been talking with conciliation service Acas since Friday...
State & Living Wage Battles
Will Connecticut Go Robin Hood on Low-Wage Bosses? The Nation ...Call it a Robin Hood Tax for big-box stores: take from the rich to give to the poor, by forcing companies that pay unlivable wages to support the public benefits that impoverished workers need to survive. According to one economic assessment, the “true cost” of low-wage jobs in Connecticut amounts to some $486 million per year paid through various public welfare programs. So the logic goes, the most heavily state-subsidized companies should pay their fair share...
Texas Lawmakers Are Busy Making It Harder to Vote Truthout ...One measure (HB 1096) that would make it more difficult for voters to confirm their residency recently cleared the House. Another bill approved by the Senate (SB 1934) would eliminate nonexpiring photo identification cards for the state’s senior citizens. Because unexpired photo IDs or IDs that have been expired no more than 60 days are required to vote, this change would make it even harder for Texas seniors to get their ballots counted...
An American workplace war that's reached a tipping point CNBC ...With Wisconsin's adoption of so-called right-to-work legislation earlier this year, 25 states now prohibit mandatory union dues, and with legislation being pushed in several more states, the right-to-work movement is talking about a national "tipping point"...
Kansas Republicans Finally Consider Changing Course On Their ‘Tea Party Experiment’ Think Progress ...Republicans in Kansas, facing a $400 million budget hole due to tax cuts pushed by Gov. Sam Brownback, are now finally considering raising taxes to compensate for the shortfall. Legislators are considering rolling back an exemption on nonwage income for small businesses they passed a few years ago and replacing it with a 1 percent tax credit...
U.S. Labor
If You’re In A Nail Salon In New York, You’ll Now See A Workers’ Bill Of Rights On The Wall Think Progress ...All nail salons in New York City will now be required to display a “manicurists’ bill of rights” that’s easily visible to both employees and customers — the latest attempt from city officials to crack down on the rampant labor abuses in the industry detailed in a recent New York Times investigation...
California Walmart Workers Go on Hunger Strike After Stores Closed in ‘Retaliation’ for Organizing In These Times ...With tents and sleeping bags in tow, workers set up camp outside a Los Angeles Walmart this week and held a one-day fast to protest the corporation’s retaliation against their organizing. Walmart recently closed five stores, including one in Pico Rivera, California, where workers were especially active in OUR Walmart, the Food and Commercial Workers-backed effort to boost standards at the retail giant...
NLRB Certifies USW Representation for Workers at Golden Dragon Copper PR Newswire ...The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has certified the union as the exclusive bargaining representative for production, maintenance and warehouse workers at Golden Dragon Copper. In a very close, secret ballot election conducted on Nov. 7, 2014, workers at Golden Dragon voted in favor of USW representation, even after outsiders, including Gov. Robert Bentley, campaigned against the union...
Elizabeth Warren Gets Job Security and the Uber-ization of the Economy Completely Wrong Alternet ...Her remarks in response to moderators talking about the rise of Uber-style contract-based part-time work were less inspiring. She dismissed these concerns as primarily about technology, not the nature of work, and then later failed to answer a question asking if Uber-style contract workers should be classified as full-time employees, which would give them greater rights...
Miscellaneous
Foreclosed nation: Wall Street, the dispossessed & the quality of American democracy Salon ...Why has the continued crisis of dispossession not been treated as a national emergency? Given the scale of the foreclosure crisis, the policy response has been muted. Congress and the Obama administration have repeatedly rejected demands for a national moratorium on mortgage foreclosures. Legislators in several states introduced foreclosure moratorium bills, but few states enacted them...
Emergency bridge repairs to snarl Virginia-to-D.C. traffic Daily Kos ...There are 61,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States, but transportation is on the long list of things congressional Republicans refuse to invest in. A two-month bill extending the Highway Trust Fund recently passed, but two months of funding makes it more than a little difficult to do long-term planning and investment...
Monday, April 20, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.20.15
Teamsters
First Transit Workers At Auburn University Choose Teamsters Local 612 Teamster.org ...Drivers and mechanics with First Transit in Auburn, Ala., have voted by an overwhelming 3-1 margin in favor of Teamsters representation. The 116 workers, who provide transportation services for students at Auburn University, chose to join Teamsters Local 612 in Birmingham, Ala., seeking respect, fair pay and improved working conditions...
New Contract For MBS International Airport Unionized Workers OK’d Midland Daily News ...The MBS Airport Commission recently approved a collective bargaining agreement that covers 20 unionized employees. Ratified by Teamsters Local 214, the two-year contract calls for a 1 percent pay increase for each year and a $600 lump sum payment.
Teamsters: Railroad Unions Advancing Two-Person Crew Legislation To Protect Safety Teamster.org ...Continuing a cooperative effort to promote safety in the railroad industry, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers International Association (SMART) have jointly announced that legislation requiring at least two crew members on all freight trains in the U.S. has been introduced in the 114th Congress...
1,800 CN Locomotive Engineers Represented By Teamsters Ratify 3-Year Contract Montreal Gazette ...Canadian National Railway says the 1,800 locomotive engineers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have ratified a new collective agreement with the company. The railway says the three-year agreement, retroactive to Jan. 1, provides both wage increases and benefit improvements...
Global Labor & Trade
Key Democrat says he’ll try to kill Obama-backed trade bill Market Watch ...A key House Democrat said Friday he’ll try to kill a bill that would give President Barack Obama “fast track” trade treaty authority, a measure strongly supported by the White House. “I’m out to defeat the Hatch-Wyden bill,” Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters...
Stopping Short of Rejection, Clinton Sets Conditions for a Trade Deal New York Times ...“Hillary Clinton believes that any new trade measure has to pass two tests,” her spokesman, Nick Merrill, said in a statement. “First, it should put us in a position to protect American workers, raise wages and create more good jobs at home. Second, it must also strengthen our national security. We should be willing to walk away from any outcome that falls short of these tests...
'Stop TTIP': Global Day of Action Draws Tens of Thousands Common Dreams ...Demonstrators marched around the globe Saturday to protest the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a 'free trade' agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the United States. Opponents fear that TTIP will erode food, labor and environmental standards particularly with regard to the EU's strict regulations on food additives, genetically modified crops and the use of pesticides...
The Trans Pacific Partnership won’t fix our China problem (opinion) The Hill ...The TPP will not effectively deal with the core reason China enjoyed a $342.6 billion goods trade surplus with the U.S. last year, or an accumulated goods trade surplus with our country of $3.1 trillion since it joined the WTO: China operates based on a state-capitalist, mercantilist model, under which international trade law doesn’t mean much...
Trade Talks in Tokyo Get Push From 'Fast-Track' Deal in US New York Times ...Top Japan and U.S. trade officials plan to meet this weekend, seeking to close gaps over autos and farm trade before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Washington later this month. The U.S. and Japan must agree on market-opening measures before the 12 countries involved can reach a long-delayed final accord on the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, a Pacific Rim trade pact...
Bernie Sanders urges Hillary to fight trade deal The Hill ...Sanders said Clinton and every other 2016 presidential candidate should oppose the 12-nation Asia-Pacific pact that the Obama administration is negotiating. "My strong hope is that Secretary Clinton and all candidates — Republicans and Democrats — will make it clear that the Trans-Pacific Partnership should be rejected and that we must develop trade policies that benefit working families, not just Wall Street and multi-national corporations," Sanders said in a statement...
Durham teachers' strike seen as start of wave of labour unrest Toronto Star ...Durham public high school teachers hit the picket lines on Monday in a protest widely seen as the start of a wave of teacher unrest across the province, with six more boards targeted in the coming weeks and other unions growing increasingly frustrated at the bargaining table...
State & Living Wage Battles
Alabama Auto Parts Plant Slapped With Federal Restraining Order NBC News ...A federal judge in Alabama issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against auto parts manufacturer Lear Corp. after the Labor Department accused the company of illegally harassing its workers and obstructing a federal safety investigation...
Walker's Dark Money Allies Orchestrate Coup of the Courts PR Watch ...Two court cases next week--one being heard in open court, another being considered in silence behind closed doors--will decide the future of Wisconsin campaign finance law, the independence of the Wisconsin judiciary and will impact the future of presidential candidate Scott Walker...
The 'Inexcusable' Assault On Workers In Wisconsin (opinion) Huffington Post ...The right-to-work scam is not what we should aspire to in Wisconsin, or anywhere else. The labor movement has played a key role in helping working families enter the middle class and stay in the middle class. That's why the President encouraged Walker to offer workers "the tools they need to get ahead" rather than strip them of their hard-won rights...
Colorado Minimum-Wage Bill Dies Amid Protests Across Denver, Nation Denver Business Journal ...Minimum wage got a maximum amount of attention Wednesday in Denver, both inside and outside the Capitol. As protesters gathered on the Auraria Campus calling for a national hike in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a state Senate committee killed a bill that would have allowed cities and counties to raise the floor wage level within their boundaries above the state’s minimum of $8.23 per hour...
L.A. restaurants push for tips to count toward minimum wage LA Times ...Labor activists warn that counting tips toward the citywide minimum wage would violate California law and leave those waiting tables, scrubbing cars or turning down hotel beds more vulnerable to being illegally underpaid. Most tipped workers have low incomes, they say, both inside and outside the restaurant world...
Getting Better Organized: San Francisco's Fight for $15 and a Union Truthout.org ...The demand for $15 an hour minimum wage is a good example of this progress. It is simple, clear, specific, easily understood and, very important, achievable. Though quite bold and in stark contrast to the cowardly timid proposals coming out of Washington politicians from both major parties, the slogan is still quite reasonable...
U.S. Labor
Alleging Labor Abuses, U.S. and Mexican Workers Call for Boycott of Driscoll’s Berries In These Times ...Driscoll’s may be the U.S.’s most recognizable brand name on strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and blackberry cartons. To keep its berries stocked far and wide, the company uses a vast supplier network stretching from Canada to Argentina. But some of those suppliers are coming under fire for allegedly abusing workers, in the U.S. and Mexico. One of Driscoll’s grower has spent weeks embroiled in a major farmworker protest, while a nearly two-year boycott against another grower recently intensified...
AFSCME union president urges members to stay strong The Day ...The U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing arguments soon in Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, "a case that will determine, essentially, whether we continue to exist," Saunders said. The suit, brought on behalf of a group of 10 California teachers, claims a law that requires public employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment violates their employee rights. Should the teachers win, the country's public sector could become a "right to work" sector, undermining the power of the labor unions...
Two Years After West, Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion, Are Workers Any Safer? New Report Says No In These Times ...In a report released this week, the Center for Effective Government, a non-partisan government watchdog, examined emergency response planning and reporting on chemicals required of plants like West Fertilizer under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA)—enacted in response to the 1984 release of deadly methylisocyanate gas from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India that killed thousands and injured many more—and the Clean Air Act...
Miscellaneous
California drought spurs protest over 'unconscionable' bottled water business The Guardian ...Californians facing the prospect of endless drought, mandated cuts in water use and the browning of their summer lawns are mounting a revolt against the bottled water industry, following revelations that Nestlé and other big companies are taking advantage of poor government oversight to deplete mountain streams and watersheds at vast profit...
Fed Shies Away From June Rate Hike Wall Street Journal ...A patch of soft economic data has created uncertainty inside the Federal Reserve about when to start raising short-term interest rates, dimming the chances of a move as early as June...
Meaningful Financial Reform (opinion) Washington Post ...The objective can’t be questioned. The need for institutional reform is evident. Let’s break the pattern of resisting the need for administrative reform, consider the risks of repeating avoidable crises and demonstrate that this great democracy still has the capacity to act in the common interest...
Millions Spent Lobbying By Private Prison Corporations To Keep A Quota Of Arrested Immigrants, Report Says Think Progress ...Private prison corporations spent $11 million over six years to lobby Congress to keep immigrants in detention centers, a new report released Wednesday found. The Grassroots Leadership report, Payoff: How Congress Ensures Private Prison Profit with an Immigrant Detention Quota, found that lobbying efforts of the two largest private prison corporations have made them the main beneficiaries of aggressive immigration detention policies...
First Transit Workers At Auburn University Choose Teamsters Local 612 Teamster.org ...Drivers and mechanics with First Transit in Auburn, Ala., have voted by an overwhelming 3-1 margin in favor of Teamsters representation. The 116 workers, who provide transportation services for students at Auburn University, chose to join Teamsters Local 612 in Birmingham, Ala., seeking respect, fair pay and improved working conditions...
New Contract For MBS International Airport Unionized Workers OK’d Midland Daily News ...The MBS Airport Commission recently approved a collective bargaining agreement that covers 20 unionized employees. Ratified by Teamsters Local 214, the two-year contract calls for a 1 percent pay increase for each year and a $600 lump sum payment.
Teamsters: Railroad Unions Advancing Two-Person Crew Legislation To Protect Safety Teamster.org ...Continuing a cooperative effort to promote safety in the railroad industry, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers International Association (SMART) have jointly announced that legislation requiring at least two crew members on all freight trains in the U.S. has been introduced in the 114th Congress...
1,800 CN Locomotive Engineers Represented By Teamsters Ratify 3-Year Contract Montreal Gazette ...Canadian National Railway says the 1,800 locomotive engineers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have ratified a new collective agreement with the company. The railway says the three-year agreement, retroactive to Jan. 1, provides both wage increases and benefit improvements...
Global Labor & Trade
Key Democrat says he’ll try to kill Obama-backed trade bill Market Watch ...A key House Democrat said Friday he’ll try to kill a bill that would give President Barack Obama “fast track” trade treaty authority, a measure strongly supported by the White House. “I’m out to defeat the Hatch-Wyden bill,” Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters...
Stopping Short of Rejection, Clinton Sets Conditions for a Trade Deal New York Times ...“Hillary Clinton believes that any new trade measure has to pass two tests,” her spokesman, Nick Merrill, said in a statement. “First, it should put us in a position to protect American workers, raise wages and create more good jobs at home. Second, it must also strengthen our national security. We should be willing to walk away from any outcome that falls short of these tests...
'Stop TTIP': Global Day of Action Draws Tens of Thousands Common Dreams ...Demonstrators marched around the globe Saturday to protest the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a 'free trade' agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the United States. Opponents fear that TTIP will erode food, labor and environmental standards particularly with regard to the EU's strict regulations on food additives, genetically modified crops and the use of pesticides...
The Trans Pacific Partnership won’t fix our China problem (opinion) The Hill ...The TPP will not effectively deal with the core reason China enjoyed a $342.6 billion goods trade surplus with the U.S. last year, or an accumulated goods trade surplus with our country of $3.1 trillion since it joined the WTO: China operates based on a state-capitalist, mercantilist model, under which international trade law doesn’t mean much...
Trade Talks in Tokyo Get Push From 'Fast-Track' Deal in US New York Times ...Top Japan and U.S. trade officials plan to meet this weekend, seeking to close gaps over autos and farm trade before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Washington later this month. The U.S. and Japan must agree on market-opening measures before the 12 countries involved can reach a long-delayed final accord on the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, a Pacific Rim trade pact...
Bernie Sanders urges Hillary to fight trade deal The Hill ...Sanders said Clinton and every other 2016 presidential candidate should oppose the 12-nation Asia-Pacific pact that the Obama administration is negotiating. "My strong hope is that Secretary Clinton and all candidates — Republicans and Democrats — will make it clear that the Trans-Pacific Partnership should be rejected and that we must develop trade policies that benefit working families, not just Wall Street and multi-national corporations," Sanders said in a statement...
Durham teachers' strike seen as start of wave of labour unrest Toronto Star ...Durham public high school teachers hit the picket lines on Monday in a protest widely seen as the start of a wave of teacher unrest across the province, with six more boards targeted in the coming weeks and other unions growing increasingly frustrated at the bargaining table...
State & Living Wage Battles
Alabama Auto Parts Plant Slapped With Federal Restraining Order NBC News ...A federal judge in Alabama issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against auto parts manufacturer Lear Corp. after the Labor Department accused the company of illegally harassing its workers and obstructing a federal safety investigation...
Walker's Dark Money Allies Orchestrate Coup of the Courts PR Watch ...Two court cases next week--one being heard in open court, another being considered in silence behind closed doors--will decide the future of Wisconsin campaign finance law, the independence of the Wisconsin judiciary and will impact the future of presidential candidate Scott Walker...
The 'Inexcusable' Assault On Workers In Wisconsin (opinion) Huffington Post ...The right-to-work scam is not what we should aspire to in Wisconsin, or anywhere else. The labor movement has played a key role in helping working families enter the middle class and stay in the middle class. That's why the President encouraged Walker to offer workers "the tools they need to get ahead" rather than strip them of their hard-won rights...
Colorado Minimum-Wage Bill Dies Amid Protests Across Denver, Nation Denver Business Journal ...Minimum wage got a maximum amount of attention Wednesday in Denver, both inside and outside the Capitol. As protesters gathered on the Auraria Campus calling for a national hike in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a state Senate committee killed a bill that would have allowed cities and counties to raise the floor wage level within their boundaries above the state’s minimum of $8.23 per hour...
L.A. restaurants push for tips to count toward minimum wage LA Times ...Labor activists warn that counting tips toward the citywide minimum wage would violate California law and leave those waiting tables, scrubbing cars or turning down hotel beds more vulnerable to being illegally underpaid. Most tipped workers have low incomes, they say, both inside and outside the restaurant world...
Getting Better Organized: San Francisco's Fight for $15 and a Union Truthout.org ...The demand for $15 an hour minimum wage is a good example of this progress. It is simple, clear, specific, easily understood and, very important, achievable. Though quite bold and in stark contrast to the cowardly timid proposals coming out of Washington politicians from both major parties, the slogan is still quite reasonable...
U.S. Labor
Alleging Labor Abuses, U.S. and Mexican Workers Call for Boycott of Driscoll’s Berries In These Times ...Driscoll’s may be the U.S.’s most recognizable brand name on strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and blackberry cartons. To keep its berries stocked far and wide, the company uses a vast supplier network stretching from Canada to Argentina. But some of those suppliers are coming under fire for allegedly abusing workers, in the U.S. and Mexico. One of Driscoll’s grower has spent weeks embroiled in a major farmworker protest, while a nearly two-year boycott against another grower recently intensified...
AFSCME union president urges members to stay strong The Day ...The U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing arguments soon in Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, "a case that will determine, essentially, whether we continue to exist," Saunders said. The suit, brought on behalf of a group of 10 California teachers, claims a law that requires public employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment violates their employee rights. Should the teachers win, the country's public sector could become a "right to work" sector, undermining the power of the labor unions...
Two Years After West, Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion, Are Workers Any Safer? New Report Says No In These Times ...In a report released this week, the Center for Effective Government, a non-partisan government watchdog, examined emergency response planning and reporting on chemicals required of plants like West Fertilizer under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA)—enacted in response to the 1984 release of deadly methylisocyanate gas from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India that killed thousands and injured many more—and the Clean Air Act...
Miscellaneous
California drought spurs protest over 'unconscionable' bottled water business The Guardian ...Californians facing the prospect of endless drought, mandated cuts in water use and the browning of their summer lawns are mounting a revolt against the bottled water industry, following revelations that Nestlé and other big companies are taking advantage of poor government oversight to deplete mountain streams and watersheds at vast profit...
Fed Shies Away From June Rate Hike Wall Street Journal ...A patch of soft economic data has created uncertainty inside the Federal Reserve about when to start raising short-term interest rates, dimming the chances of a move as early as June...
Meaningful Financial Reform (opinion) Washington Post ...The objective can’t be questioned. The need for institutional reform is evident. Let’s break the pattern of resisting the need for administrative reform, consider the risks of repeating avoidable crises and demonstrate that this great democracy still has the capacity to act in the common interest...
Millions Spent Lobbying By Private Prison Corporations To Keep A Quota Of Arrested Immigrants, Report Says Think Progress ...Private prison corporations spent $11 million over six years to lobby Congress to keep immigrants in detention centers, a new report released Wednesday found. The Grassroots Leadership report, Payoff: How Congress Ensures Private Prison Profit with an Immigrant Detention Quota, found that lobbying efforts of the two largest private prison corporations have made them the main beneficiaries of aggressive immigration detention policies...
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