TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Ratify National Agreement With First Student Teamster.org ...After several months of negotiations and a month-long balloting process, the Teamsters have ratified the second national agreement with the largest private provider of school bus transportation in North America, First Student, Inc. The agreement, ratified by 89 percent of the votes cast, improves working conditions and on-the-job protections for more than 20,000 Teamsters who work at First Student nationwide...
BLET members ratify new contract with CP Rail-U.S. (Soo Line) BLET ...Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the Canadian Pacific-U.S. Railway (Soo Line) on October 9, 2015. The 5-year deal governs rates of pay, work rules and health and welfare benefits for nearly 400 locomotive engineers...
Teamsters OK to proceed with action to force arbitration with Rush Medical Center for newly unionized patient care techs Cook County Record ...On Oct. 19, U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall denied Rush’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Local 743 International Brotherhood of Teamsters in its dispute with the hospital over whether wages, hours and other employment conditions for Rush’s patient care technicians (PCTs) should be decided in arbitration under a longstanding collective bargaining agreement between the hospital and its other unionized workers...
20 salad workers hospitalized in chemical spill The Californian ...A toxic stew of chemicals spilled at a Taylor Farms processing plant last week, sending 20 workers to the hospital with symptoms ranging from nosebleeds to vomiting and fainting. Doug Bloch of Teamsters Council 7 says all of the workers returned to work the following day, except for one pregnant woman, who took unpaid leave. “It’s déjà vu,” said Bloch of the latest incident...
Still No Contract for EVSC, Teamsters TriState Homepage ...EVSC and Teamsters haven't met to negotiate a new contract in more than a month. Both sides say they're willing to resolve their issues, but can't say when it will happen. EVSC superintendent Dr. David Smith says the board is prepared to sign contracts. Officials with Teamsters Local 215 say they want the same, but they're not going away until they get a fair deal...
Coca-Cola Forklift Operator Receives $5,000 in Back Pay Local 727 ...A Teamsters Local 727-represented member at Coca-Cola Niles received more than $5,000 in back pay after he was wrongfully denied workers’ compensation. Arel Cervantes, a third-shift forklift operator, requested light duty following an injury, but the company unjustly refused his request and he was forced to continue doing his normal duties. The union filed a grievance and worked swiftly to resolve the issue...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers Covered By Union Contracts Dropped Worldwide After Financial Crisis: International Labor Organization IBTimes ...The share of workers covered by union contracts has fallen worldwide since the Great Recession. Across a sample of 48 nations -- including the United States and countries in Europe, South America and Asia -- collective bargaining coverage dropped 4.6 percent from 2008 to 2013, according to research from the International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency that sets and monitors global labor standards...
Pharma flap imperils president’s trade deal The Hill ...The most important trade deal of Barack Obama’s presidency could hinge on a single provision that’s reigniting a years-old debate on monopoly rights for drugmakers. The exact details of the pharmaceutical provision, which involves a class of drugs called biologics, won’t be made public until later this month. Still, it’s already threatening to drag out — and possibly derail — the approval process for a deal reached by a dozen nations...
Commerce Secretary Pritzker touts Trans-Pacific Partnership for Oregon OregonLive ...The Obama administration brought its argument for the Trans-Pacific Partnership to Oregon on Tuesday, and not for the first time. In May, it was President Obama's visit to Nike to deliver a forceful argument for TPP, which was approved last month by the United States and 11 other countries. On Tuesday, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker participated in a conference call with reporters to stump for the pact...
EU to offer new TTIP proposals in Miami Politico ...In a sign that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership talks will make progress in Miami this week, the European Union will propose a labor and environment chapter and product-specific rules of origin for most industrial sectors, EU trade officials said ahead of the round. But don’t expect the focus of the negotiations to shift very far from discussions over goods market access...
EU Trade Deals with US and Canada Blasted as 'Attacking Public Services' Common Dreams ...As EU and U.S. negotiators start the 11th round of TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks in Miami on Monday, a European watchdog group is sounding the alarm over the negative impacts such "trade" deals could have on citizens' rights to basic services like water, energy, education, and healthcare...
Spain eases spending constraints as 'reward' following years of austerity The Local ...Spain's lower house has approved a 2016 budget designed to ease some spending restrictions after years of austerity, ahead of legislative elections due on December 20th. The budget passed on Tuesday provides for increases of 9.3 percent for education, 3.6 percent for health and 7.6 percent for culture, as well as a rise of 0.25 percent in state pensions and a one-percent boost in pay for civil servants...
Madrid metro workers call strikes during rush hours on Thursday The Local ...Madrid’s metro could grind to a halt on Thursday as workers have called several hours of strikes during the busiest hours of the day. Three workers unions called the strikes in protest at the "lack of personnel" and the "pitiful" service offered by the capital’s transport service with complaints including long waiting times and overcrowded carriages...
‘I Was a Garment Worker and I Know Exploitation’ Solidarity Center ...The “Made in Jordan” label is familiar to U.S. consumers shopping for shirts, jeans and other clothes. Mervat Jumhawi, a Jordanian union organizer, is actively ensuring the largely migrant workforce that cuts and sews these garments does so in safe conditions, receives fair wages and is treated with respect on the job. “I was a garment worker and I know what exploitation is, I knows what that means,” says Jumhawi...
Mexican Farmers Accuse Mining Companies of Shady Tactics in Chiapas Truthout ...Mexico's government gave the green light for titanium mining to occur below 500 of the 530 hectares that make up the Los Cacaos community. Villatoro and his neighbors in Los Cacaos express acute fears about the potential environmental effects. He believes that local leaders "were tricked into signing off on the exploration process" by the mining company...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Scott Walker Is Ready To Turn Back The Clock On Ethics And Campaign Finance In Wisconsin Think Progress ...“This is the week from hell.” “It’s a complete nightmare.” “It’s ugly. It’s not a pretty picture.” That’s how government watchdogs described to ThinkProgress the series of votes the Wisconsin state legislature has lined up this week on bills designed to deregulate state campaign finance law, dissolve the state ethics and elections board, and take away a key tool prosecutors use to investigate political crimes...
Pa. Bill Would Limit Prevailing Wage Rule For Some Roadwork Law360 ...A Pennsylvania state lawmaker introduced a bill on Monday that would exempt workers on road maintenance projects from prevailing wage requirements. While certain maintenance projects are already exempt from the state’s prevailing wage requirements, the measure introduced by Rep. Cris Dush, R-Indiana, would expand the exemptions to include work performed on dirt, gravel, and low-volume road maintenance projects...
Half of food workers go to work sick because they have to, survey finds KPCC ...Fifty-one percent of food workers — who do everything from grow and process food to cook and serve it — said they "always" or "frequently" go to work when they're sick, according to the results of a survey released Monday. An additional 38 percent said they go to work sick "sometimes." Four states — California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Oregon — have passed legislation to provide paid sick leave, in addition to a number of cities across the country...
Congratulations Tennessee: You’ve Got the Most Regressive Tax System in America The Atlantic ...According to a study by economists at the Federal Reserve, Tennessee, Mississippi, and West Virginia have structured their tax codes so that middle and lower-income families pay a bigger share of their incomes than wealthy families do. Many economists, including Thomas Piketty, believe that such systems can make inequality worse. Tennessee has taken this strategy the furthest: The state has the most regressive tax system in the country, according to the study...
Will Colorado Become the First State to Implement Single-Payer Health Care? Truthout ...The fight for a statewide single-payer health-care system has shifted from the Green Mountains to the Rocky Mountains: Colorado citizens are about to put single-payer up for a statewide ballot referendum in the 2016 election. If voters approve, the state constitution will be amended to create a statewide, publicly financed, universal system for the first time in US history...
Minneapolis leaders rally support for Seattle's minimum wage champion Star Tribune ...Two Minneapolis City Council members and a long list of local labor organizers are throwing their support behind a candidate running for city office -- in Seattle. Council Members Alondra Cano and Cam Gordon are among the co-hosts of a fundraiser supporting Kshama Sawant, a current member of the Seattle City Council who led the successful effort to raise that city's minimum wage...
U.S. LABOR
Signs of support for UAW-FCA contract voting Detroit Free Press ...Substantial dissatisfactoin among UAW remains to the proposed agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles but workers and other sources say the intensity of opposition is subsiding. The yes votes by the two workers are in line with what others have been telling the Free Press in recent days — while there are still vocal opponents, many who rejected the first contract are prepared to accept this one...
CSU faculty to vote on major strike over contract KCRA ...Faculty members at the California State University's 23 campuses started voting Monday on whether to permit their labor union to call a strike over stalled salary negotiations. The strike authorization vote being held online and in person is at least the fourth that the California Faculty Association has held in eight years. Balloting is scheduled to run through Oct. 28...
NLRB delivers response to FedEx challenge of 'micro union' test Reuters ...The National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday defended its standard for approving the formation of so-called micro unions made up of distinct groups of employees from a challenge by FedEx Freight Inc, which says the board violated federal law in unilaterally creating new policy. In a brief submitted to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the NLRB said its 2011 decision in Specialty Healthcare, merely clarified existing law...
Verizon Makes Over $1 Billion In Profits Per Month And Demands Concessions From Workers NH Labor News ...In response to today’s Verizon earnings report, the Communications Workers of America, which along with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, represents 39,000 Verizon workers, issued the following statement: "Yet again, Verizon’s quarterly report shows the strength of the company’s bottom line. But despite another almost $1.5 billion dollars a month in profits, the company turns its back on its workers"...
Is Nevada’s Labor Movement Ready to Forgive Democrats? National Journal ...Last year, as the Republican wave crested across the country, labor organizers seeking to rally union members in Nevada foresaw a rout. The evidence was in their door-to-door efforts to excite the faithful: Some workers slammed their doors. Others tore up campaign literature and threw it in the organizers’ faces. Still others simply asked, “Why?” It was a stark display of a dispirited movement that has been the backbone of the Democratic Party in this swing state for decades...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
San Francisco Votes to Keep Shielding Immigrants From Deportation Officials New York Times ...The Board of Supervisors upheld San Francisco’s status as a sanctuary for immigrants on Tuesday, unanimously passing a resolution that called on local law enforcement not to notify the federal authorities when unauthorized immigrants are released from custody. The city had been under pressure from critics of its policies on immigrants...
Google Tests Drone Delivery As Feds Move For More Regulation Think Progress ...Google was spotted conducting more delivery drone tests Monday in an effort to beat competitor Amazon. But regulators are close behind, moving to require drone operators to register unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) with the Department of Transportation much like drivers do with their cars. The Federal Aviation Administration has been working on guidelines for commercial use...
Rural Alabama Judge Gives Penniless Defendants the Option to Give Blood or Go to Jail Slate ...A rural Alabama judge is facing criticism, and an ethics complaint, for telling a courtroom full of defendants, many indigent, that if they could not pay their fines or court fees, they could donate blood. Otherwise they would be sent to jail. The Southern Poverty Law Center released a recording of Perry County Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins spelling out his policy to his courtroom last month...
Showing posts with label hospital workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hospital workers. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Today's Teamster News 05.05.15
Teamsters
LA Mayor Announces Eco-Flow, A New Port Drayage Trucking Company Teamster.org ...Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, port truck drivers, business leaders, labor leaders, and environmental groups today announced the formation of Eco Flow Transportation, a new, innovative company that will transform the drayage trucking industry by hiring all drivers as employees thereby creating a stable workforce...
Teamsters has allies on board for battle over school buses The Times ...National Express has come under renewed pressure from one of America’s most powerful unions to reform working practices at a subsidiary that carries more than a million children a day to and from school. The Teamsters union, which represents more than 1.4 million blue-collar workers in North America, has tabled a proposal for a vote at the transport group’s annual meeting tomorrow...
Teamsters: Workers reinstated after public pressure Capital New York ...Two workers who said they were fired from a New York City private trash hauling firm after testifying to the City Council about poor working conditions were reinstated, according to an announcement from the Teamsters who intervened on the workers' behalf. “New Yorkers have learned two things this week: Five Star Carting does not respect its workers or their free speech rights, but also that when workers, community members, and elected officials stand together, we win"...
Teamsters launch effort to stem growth of nonunion commercial movers Crain's New York ...Teamsters Local 814, along with their employers in the commercial-moving industry and other local labor organizations, began an advertising blitz Monday and released a letter from elected officials to discourage businesses from hiring nonunion or pseudo-union commercial movers...
These Food Distributors Are Trying To Convince A Judge To Let Them Form A Monopoly Think Progress ...After years of acquiring smaller competitors, US Foods and Sysco, Inc. are the last two large companies in the food distribution industry. The government, AAI, Food and Water Watch, and the Teamsters union all argue that the companies already control the market, and would represent a monopoly if merged...
St. Vincent technicians organize as Teamsters Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital voted 130-40 last week to be represented by Teamsters Local 170, the union reported. The local will represent more than 200 technicians who work in radiology, operating rooms and other departments...
Global Labor & Trade
Harry Reid Plans To Block Trade Deal Until The Senate Deals With Surveillance Reform, Highway Funding Huff Post ...Reid said he has spoken with his leadership team and is confident Democratic senators will stick together to demand the two bills be dealt with before moving to approval for trade promotion authority or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "I'm not willing to lay over and play dead on trade until we have some commitment from them on surface transportation," he said...
Economists Say White House Argument on Outsourcing Falls Flat Wall Street Journal ...Economists on both sides of the trade debate say the White House seems to be barking up the wrong tree, muddling arguments about two distinct things–foreign investment and outsourcing–on a hot-button issue that is dividing the public and Congress. Labor unions and skeptical economists are warning the Pacific pact could lead to the kind of outsourcing many workers blame on the North American Free Trade Agreement...
Chuck Schumer Warns Obama His Trade Agenda Is Dead Without A China Currency-Manipulation Crackdown Huff Post ...With Obama pushing Congress to give him so-called fast-track authority to pass massive new trade agreements with Pacific nations and Europe, Schumer and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are using the opportunity to try and force the White House to get tough on China's monetary policy...
GOP scrambling to limit defections on trade The Hill ...House Republican opposition to sweeping trade legislation isn’t breaking down along traditional Tea Party-GOP establishment fault lines. But the pockets of GOP defections will give President Obama and Republican leaders little wiggle room to muscle a bill through the lower chamber...
Robert Reich: The Trans Pacific Partnership is a corporate hijacking (opinion) Salon ...What we should have learned by now about trickle-down economics is that nothing trickles down. If the Trans Pacific Partnership is enacted, big corporations, Wall Street, and their top executives and shareholders will make out like bandits. Who will the bandits be stealing from? The rest of us...
Humanitarians split on Obama’s trade agenda: Trans Pacific Partnership Humanosphere ...Leading humanitarian organizations like the ONE Campaign and Oxfam appear to strongly disagree on whether to support the Obama Administration’s push to ‘fast-track’ an international trade agreement – and if its impact on the global fight against poverty and inequity will do more harm than good...
State & Living Wage Battles
As McDonald's Announces Corporate Shake-Up, Workers Vow to Rise Up Common Dreams ...On the same day that McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook announced sweeping changes aimed at "returning excitement" to the behemoth—and struggling—fast-food chain, thousands of McDonald's cooks and cashiers vowed to descend on the the company's annual shareholder meeting in Illinois later this month to demand higher wages, fairer treatment, and the right to organize...
Dems bet on $12 minimum wage The Hill ..Democrats are doubling down on their push for a national minimum wage hike ahead of the 2016 presidential election, as they look to make a campaign issue of an effort that met a stinging legislative defeat last year. Party leaders are rallying behind new legislation that would raise the wage to $12 an hour, well beyond the $10.10 effort that failed to pass when Democrats controlled the Senate...
LA Mayor Announces Eco-Flow, A New Port Drayage Trucking Company Teamster.org ...Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, port truck drivers, business leaders, labor leaders, and environmental groups today announced the formation of Eco Flow Transportation, a new, innovative company that will transform the drayage trucking industry by hiring all drivers as employees thereby creating a stable workforce...
Teamsters has allies on board for battle over school buses The Times ...National Express has come under renewed pressure from one of America’s most powerful unions to reform working practices at a subsidiary that carries more than a million children a day to and from school. The Teamsters union, which represents more than 1.4 million blue-collar workers in North America, has tabled a proposal for a vote at the transport group’s annual meeting tomorrow...
Teamsters: Workers reinstated after public pressure Capital New York ...Two workers who said they were fired from a New York City private trash hauling firm after testifying to the City Council about poor working conditions were reinstated, according to an announcement from the Teamsters who intervened on the workers' behalf. “New Yorkers have learned two things this week: Five Star Carting does not respect its workers or their free speech rights, but also that when workers, community members, and elected officials stand together, we win"...
Teamsters launch effort to stem growth of nonunion commercial movers Crain's New York ...Teamsters Local 814, along with their employers in the commercial-moving industry and other local labor organizations, began an advertising blitz Monday and released a letter from elected officials to discourage businesses from hiring nonunion or pseudo-union commercial movers...
These Food Distributors Are Trying To Convince A Judge To Let Them Form A Monopoly Think Progress ...After years of acquiring smaller competitors, US Foods and Sysco, Inc. are the last two large companies in the food distribution industry. The government, AAI, Food and Water Watch, and the Teamsters union all argue that the companies already control the market, and would represent a monopoly if merged...
St. Vincent technicians organize as Teamsters Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital voted 130-40 last week to be represented by Teamsters Local 170, the union reported. The local will represent more than 200 technicians who work in radiology, operating rooms and other departments...
Global Labor & Trade
Harry Reid Plans To Block Trade Deal Until The Senate Deals With Surveillance Reform, Highway Funding Huff Post ...Reid said he has spoken with his leadership team and is confident Democratic senators will stick together to demand the two bills be dealt with before moving to approval for trade promotion authority or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "I'm not willing to lay over and play dead on trade until we have some commitment from them on surface transportation," he said...
Economists Say White House Argument on Outsourcing Falls Flat Wall Street Journal ...Economists on both sides of the trade debate say the White House seems to be barking up the wrong tree, muddling arguments about two distinct things–foreign investment and outsourcing–on a hot-button issue that is dividing the public and Congress. Labor unions and skeptical economists are warning the Pacific pact could lead to the kind of outsourcing many workers blame on the North American Free Trade Agreement...
Chuck Schumer Warns Obama His Trade Agenda Is Dead Without A China Currency-Manipulation Crackdown Huff Post ...With Obama pushing Congress to give him so-called fast-track authority to pass massive new trade agreements with Pacific nations and Europe, Schumer and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are using the opportunity to try and force the White House to get tough on China's monetary policy...
GOP scrambling to limit defections on trade The Hill ...House Republican opposition to sweeping trade legislation isn’t breaking down along traditional Tea Party-GOP establishment fault lines. But the pockets of GOP defections will give President Obama and Republican leaders little wiggle room to muscle a bill through the lower chamber...
Robert Reich: The Trans Pacific Partnership is a corporate hijacking (opinion) Salon ...What we should have learned by now about trickle-down economics is that nothing trickles down. If the Trans Pacific Partnership is enacted, big corporations, Wall Street, and their top executives and shareholders will make out like bandits. Who will the bandits be stealing from? The rest of us...
Humanitarians split on Obama’s trade agenda: Trans Pacific Partnership Humanosphere ...Leading humanitarian organizations like the ONE Campaign and Oxfam appear to strongly disagree on whether to support the Obama Administration’s push to ‘fast-track’ an international trade agreement – and if its impact on the global fight against poverty and inequity will do more harm than good...
State & Living Wage Battles
As McDonald's Announces Corporate Shake-Up, Workers Vow to Rise Up Common Dreams ...On the same day that McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook announced sweeping changes aimed at "returning excitement" to the behemoth—and struggling—fast-food chain, thousands of McDonald's cooks and cashiers vowed to descend on the the company's annual shareholder meeting in Illinois later this month to demand higher wages, fairer treatment, and the right to organize...
Dems bet on $12 minimum wage The Hill ..Democrats are doubling down on their push for a national minimum wage hike ahead of the 2016 presidential election, as they look to make a campaign issue of an effort that met a stinging legislative defeat last year. Party leaders are rallying behind new legislation that would raise the wage to $12 an hour, well beyond the $10.10 effort that failed to pass when Democrats controlled the Senate...
Right to work bills launch hours of debate in Maine Legislature Central Maine ...abor union members faced off against the LePage administration and Republican lawmakers on Monday over the latest push to make Maine a so-called “right to work” state. The hours of debate and rhetoric over several bills largely echoed previous “right to work” attempts in Maine with supporters claiming the measures are needed to improve the state’s business competitiveness and opponents dismissing them as blatant efforts to undermine organized labor...
State Assembly passes bill allowing higher state minimum wage Daily News ...The state Assembly passed a bill Monday allowing a higher state minimum wage in New York City and nearby counties. The legislation, which faces opposition in the Senate, seeks to phase in a minimum wage that would reach $15 an hour by the end of 2018 in the city and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties...
Kanawha County will continue paying prevailing wage WV Gazette ...Members of the Kanawha County Commission are expected to vote Tuesday to keep paying prevailing wage rates for all county construction projects. In March, the WV Legislature passed a bill eliminating prevailing wage rates for public construction projects of less than $500,000. But Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said that doesn’t mean the county has to go along with the change...
U.S. Labor
Tufts Students Stage ‘Indefinite’ Hunger Strike Against Janitor Layoffs In These Times ...Tufts University students launched a hunger strike and took over a quad next to the Medford/Somerville campus’s main administrative building Sunday to protest planned layoffs of 35 janitors. Five undergraduates joined the “indefinite” hunger strike as a show of solidarity with the janitors, 17 percent of whom are slated to lose their jobs...
Clark County, SEIU heading to binding arbitration Review Journal ...Clark County and its largest union, which represents about 5,000 county employees, agreed Monday to go to binding arbitration to reach a contract agreement. The county and the Service Employees International Local 1107 started negotiations in June 2013. They’ve also spent months trying to get the matter to a third-party arbitrator, or fact-finder, for a final decision on the terms of a contract...
Union plans to fight MUA dissolution, job cuts Press of Atlantic City ...At a union meeting Monday, about two dozen local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees members were urged to fight the potential dissolution of the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority, along with cuts to city staffing. “It’s about survival and supporting each other,” said Rafael Valentin, a staff representative for AFSCME District Council 71...
The conservative answer on Baltimore: Blame the teachers Daily Kos ...What's responsible for Baltimore's problems? Republicans need answers other than "massive economic inequality, racism, and police violence," and when Republicans need answers but can't admit what the real problems are, they turn to a familiar set of scapegoats. "...you still have a failing education system dominated by public sector unions, teachers unions"...
Miscellaneous
Relatives of 43 Missing Students: U.S.-Backed Drug War Fights Organized People, Not Organized Crime Democracy Now ...he relatives have criticized U.S. support for the drug war, saying Mexico is using the aid to kill innocent people. "If they were really fighting organized crime, as the United States government says, then the crime rates would have gone down," Bautista Salbador says. "Apparently they are not fighting organized crime; they are fighting organized people"...
America's Growing Inequality Worsens In One's Senior Years Alternet ...As traditional pension coverage has declined, those who still have adequate retirement packages are likely to be professionals, business executives, and the wealthy. To the extent that middle-class and poorer Americans have access to retirement plans at all, they are typically 401(k) or similar plans that depend on optional contributions from workers and employers...
State Assembly passes bill allowing higher state minimum wage Daily News ...The state Assembly passed a bill Monday allowing a higher state minimum wage in New York City and nearby counties. The legislation, which faces opposition in the Senate, seeks to phase in a minimum wage that would reach $15 an hour by the end of 2018 in the city and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties...
Kanawha County will continue paying prevailing wage WV Gazette ...Members of the Kanawha County Commission are expected to vote Tuesday to keep paying prevailing wage rates for all county construction projects. In March, the WV Legislature passed a bill eliminating prevailing wage rates for public construction projects of less than $500,000. But Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said that doesn’t mean the county has to go along with the change...
U.S. Labor
Tufts Students Stage ‘Indefinite’ Hunger Strike Against Janitor Layoffs In These Times ...Tufts University students launched a hunger strike and took over a quad next to the Medford/Somerville campus’s main administrative building Sunday to protest planned layoffs of 35 janitors. Five undergraduates joined the “indefinite” hunger strike as a show of solidarity with the janitors, 17 percent of whom are slated to lose their jobs...
Clark County, SEIU heading to binding arbitration Review Journal ...Clark County and its largest union, which represents about 5,000 county employees, agreed Monday to go to binding arbitration to reach a contract agreement. The county and the Service Employees International Local 1107 started negotiations in June 2013. They’ve also spent months trying to get the matter to a third-party arbitrator, or fact-finder, for a final decision on the terms of a contract...
Union plans to fight MUA dissolution, job cuts Press of Atlantic City ...At a union meeting Monday, about two dozen local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees members were urged to fight the potential dissolution of the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority, along with cuts to city staffing. “It’s about survival and supporting each other,” said Rafael Valentin, a staff representative for AFSCME District Council 71...
The conservative answer on Baltimore: Blame the teachers Daily Kos ...What's responsible for Baltimore's problems? Republicans need answers other than "massive economic inequality, racism, and police violence," and when Republicans need answers but can't admit what the real problems are, they turn to a familiar set of scapegoats. "...you still have a failing education system dominated by public sector unions, teachers unions"...
Miscellaneous
Relatives of 43 Missing Students: U.S.-Backed Drug War Fights Organized People, Not Organized Crime Democracy Now ...he relatives have criticized U.S. support for the drug war, saying Mexico is using the aid to kill innocent people. "If they were really fighting organized crime, as the United States government says, then the crime rates would have gone down," Bautista Salbador says. "Apparently they are not fighting organized crime; they are fighting organized people"...
America's Growing Inequality Worsens In One's Senior Years Alternet ...As traditional pension coverage has declined, those who still have adequate retirement packages are likely to be professionals, business executives, and the wealthy. To the extent that middle-class and poorer Americans have access to retirement plans at all, they are typically 401(k) or similar plans that depend on optional contributions from workers and employers...
Friday, May 1, 2015
Today's Teamster News 05.01.15
Teamsters
Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital Vote Overwhelmingly to Join Teamsters Local 170 Teamster.org ...Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital have become members of Teamsters Local 170 following an election yesterday in which more than 75 percent of voting workers cast ballots in favor of union representation. The vote count was 130-40 and there are more than 200 technicians in the bargaining unit...
Hoffa Statement on Minimum Wage Legislation Teamster.org ...Hoffa in response to the introduction today of the “Raise the Wage Act” by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), which would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020: “This legislation will offer a hand up to millions of U.S. families who are struggling to make ends meet"...
Osco Drug Pharmacists Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Pharmacists at Osco Drug have voted to become members of Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland, Maine. The newly organized group consists of 20 pharmacists who work for Osco pharmacies located within 16 Shaw’s supermarkets throughout Maine...
Michigan truck drivers, warehouse workers rally for union at Sysco Fight Back News ...Around 50 workers and drivers joined a Teamsters Union Local 406 rally outside the food distribution giant Sysco Corporation on April 29. A huge black and gold Teamster truck was parked just outside the Sysco warehouse, bordering the Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids. Over 160 drivers and warehouse workers are demanding Sysco recognize their union affiliation with Teamsters 406...
Allegiant, Teamsters fighting over executive pay Vegas Inc ...The Teamsters union, already grappling with Allegiant Air in court over a possible pilots strike, is fighting with the carrier in the boardroom, too. The union, which owns a miniscule portion of Allegiant’s stock, is pushing back against the Las Vegas-based discount airline’s $8.5 million payout to former president and chief operating officer Andrew Levy...
Members of Congress Call on the Administration to Address Unfair Middle East Airline Subsidies Teamster.org ...Today 262 Members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urging them to request consultations with the governments of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because those governments have been providing massive, market-distorting subsidies to their state-owned airlines...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Accused Democrats Of Lying About Trade Deal, And They Aren't Having It Huffington Post ...Democrats are not happy about President Barack Obama's accusation that they are being "dishonest" about his trade agenda. Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) responded by pointing out that the pact remains classified, making it a crime for lawmakers to share its details with the public...
New Democrats expect growing support for fast-track Politico ...A small group of House Democrats who back President Barack Obama’s effort to win “fast-track” trade legislation said Thursday they expect more party members to step forward in favor of the bill, but indicated Republicans would still have to provide the bulk of the votes to win its approval...
Obama to push case for trade deal at Nike headquarters in Oregon Reuters ...President Barack Obama will travel to Nike Inc headquarters in Oregon next Friday to argue that a 12-nation Pacific trade deal and the fast-track legislation needed to finalize the pact are good for workers. Obama faces tough opposition from his fellow Democrats in Congress over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which they fear could hurt American jobs and the environment...
Battle rages over key Obama trade policy Washington Post ...For many liberal critics, the problem with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal isn’t simply the worry that it could lead to more job loss by exposing American manufacturing to more import competition. Rather, they assert that the TPP is in many ways not even a trade agreement: Its real offense is in the areas of intellectual property and global dispute settlement, where the deal, they say, could further tilt the playing field towards major corporations...
Chile upbeat on Pacific trade deal, urges Canada to give ground Reuters ...The 12 countries working toward a historic Pacific trade pact could reach a deal at the end of May, though Canada must still show greater willingness to open up its markets, a senior Chilean official said on Thursday. Chile is among the nations in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact that would cover 40 percent of the world economy and includes the United States and Japan...
Fast Track and TPP Bad for Development (opinion) Oxfam America ...“Trade can indeed spur economic growth and poverty reduction, but only if the rules actually benefit those at the lower end of the development ladder,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “Although it is being negotiated in secret, what we currently know about the TPP lines up the trade deal to do exactly the opposite”...
Nepal Quake Galvanizes Local Unions; Felt in Bangladesh Solidarity Center ...The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), which represents mostly blue-collar workers, the Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC), which includes teachers and other white-collar workers and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Center (JTUCC), the umbrella organization of GEFONT and the NTUC, say their employees are safe and now working to provide disaster relief...
Portugal: TAP pilots to begin 10-day strike as talks fail Euronews ...Portugal’s flagship air carrier TAP looks set to be grounded for ten days from now because of a strike by pilots. Last-minute talks between the pilots and management yesterday afternoon failed to produce results...
State & Living Wage Battles
Democrats make minimum wage pitch: $12 by ’20 Washington Post ...Top Democrats laid down their minimum-wage marker on Capitol Hill on Thursday, setting up their party's middle-class-focused economic message heading into the 2016 elections campaigns. Their pitch: "$12 by '20" — a $12 per hour federal minimum wage by 2020, which they say will give a pay raise to nearly 38 million Americans...
Senate committee to hold hearing on ending prevailing wage Channel3000 ...The state Senate's labor committee has scheduled a hearing on a GOP bill that would repeal Wisconsin's prevailing wage law. The committee set the hearing for Tuesday and plans to vote on the bill the following Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. Stephen Nass, is one of the bill's sponsors...
State Sen. Daylin Leach proposes raising state minimum wage to $15 per hour The Mercury News ...A legislative proposal to raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage to $15 per hour has been circulated to the 49 state senators by state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist., who is seeking co-sponsors. The proposal, if it eventually becomes law, would also index the $15 minimum wage amount to inflation in future years and eliminate the current, $2.83-per-hour minimum wage for service workers who work for tips...
San Francisco set to introduce nation’s highest minimum wage Daily Journal ...San Francisco is getting ready to raise its minimum wage to $12.25 an hour, a rate that will have the city joining Oakland as the locales with the nation’s highest legally mandated pay for non-salaried workers. San Francisco’s new minimum is set to go into effect on Friday. It was approved by voters as part of an initiative that will increase the minimum wage to $15 in 2018...
U.S. Labor
On May Day, Longshore Workers Stop Work to Protest Racist Police Brutality In These Times ...This May 1 will see some serious protests against racism and police violence -- be they in Baltimore or Oakland. In fact, because ILWU Local 10 has announced it will stop work, the union may have created the space for thousands of protesters from around the Bay Area to join the marches. Using a provision in its contract, ILWU locals can “stop work” to discuss important matters on and off the waterfront...
Teachers at Four NY Archdiocese Schools on Strike NY1.com ...About 90 teachers are set to take part in today's strike at St. Jean Baptiste High School in Manhattan, Notre Dame Academy High School and Our Lady Queen of Peace School on Staten Island, and St. Thomas Aquinas School in the Bronx. The Federation of Catholic Teachers says it has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Archdiocese's Association of Catholic Schools...
SEIU, Franchisees Form Alliance In Support Of Industry Reforms Progress Illinois ...SEIU and franchisees are joining forces in a push to reform the nation's franchise industry as part of a new alliance announced Thursday being called "We Are Main Street." Those with the campaign "will support efforts to strengthen franchisee rights, share franchisee voices and provide research to fuel efforts for reform," according to the We Are Main Street website launched today by SEIU...
Microsoft’s Unionized Contract Workers Get Aggressive Bloomberg ...For more than two decades, the industry has outsourced an expanding range of jobs to contractors, including coders, chip designers, customer service reps, custodial staff, security guards, and cafeteria workers. “A lot of temps are really used as a permanent tier of second-class workers,” says Erin Hatton, author of The Temp Economy, a history of U.S. contingent labor. In September, 38 bug testers who review Microsoft apps voted to create a union, the Temporary Workers of America...
Wall Street owns our cities: The secret pension travesty threatening American workers Salon ...Currently, about 9 percent — or $270 billion — of America’s $3 trillion public pension fund assets are invested in private equity firms. Public officials are overseeing this massive payout to Wall Street at the very moment many of those same officials are demanding big cuts to retirees’ promised pension benefits...
Miscellaneous
Baltimore’s Economic Devastation Goes Back To Racist Housing Policy Think Progress ...There are many causes of a city’s economic decline, and much of Baltimore’s job loss is tied to the falling fortunes of the manufacturing sector. But the fate of the city’s black population has much to do with deliberate policy choices related to housing...
The Rise of the Machines: It's Happening (opinion) Truthout ...I argued that computers would take over many of the cognitive tasks that we find difficult, but that human beings would continue to be wanted for jobs that require common sense, including many forms of manual labor. Or as one friend described it at the time, my thesis was that we'll always need maids and gardeners. And it's happening...
Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital Vote Overwhelmingly to Join Teamsters Local 170 Teamster.org ...Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital have become members of Teamsters Local 170 following an election yesterday in which more than 75 percent of voting workers cast ballots in favor of union representation. The vote count was 130-40 and there are more than 200 technicians in the bargaining unit...
Hoffa Statement on Minimum Wage Legislation Teamster.org ...Hoffa in response to the introduction today of the “Raise the Wage Act” by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), which would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020: “This legislation will offer a hand up to millions of U.S. families who are struggling to make ends meet"...
Osco Drug Pharmacists Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Pharmacists at Osco Drug have voted to become members of Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland, Maine. The newly organized group consists of 20 pharmacists who work for Osco pharmacies located within 16 Shaw’s supermarkets throughout Maine...
Michigan truck drivers, warehouse workers rally for union at Sysco Fight Back News ...Around 50 workers and drivers joined a Teamsters Union Local 406 rally outside the food distribution giant Sysco Corporation on April 29. A huge black and gold Teamster truck was parked just outside the Sysco warehouse, bordering the Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids. Over 160 drivers and warehouse workers are demanding Sysco recognize their union affiliation with Teamsters 406...
Allegiant, Teamsters fighting over executive pay Vegas Inc ...The Teamsters union, already grappling with Allegiant Air in court over a possible pilots strike, is fighting with the carrier in the boardroom, too. The union, which owns a miniscule portion of Allegiant’s stock, is pushing back against the Las Vegas-based discount airline’s $8.5 million payout to former president and chief operating officer Andrew Levy...
Members of Congress Call on the Administration to Address Unfair Middle East Airline Subsidies Teamster.org ...Today 262 Members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urging them to request consultations with the governments of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because those governments have been providing massive, market-distorting subsidies to their state-owned airlines...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Accused Democrats Of Lying About Trade Deal, And They Aren't Having It Huffington Post ...Democrats are not happy about President Barack Obama's accusation that they are being "dishonest" about his trade agenda. Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) responded by pointing out that the pact remains classified, making it a crime for lawmakers to share its details with the public...
New Democrats expect growing support for fast-track Politico ...A small group of House Democrats who back President Barack Obama’s effort to win “fast-track” trade legislation said Thursday they expect more party members to step forward in favor of the bill, but indicated Republicans would still have to provide the bulk of the votes to win its approval...
Obama to push case for trade deal at Nike headquarters in Oregon Reuters ...President Barack Obama will travel to Nike Inc headquarters in Oregon next Friday to argue that a 12-nation Pacific trade deal and the fast-track legislation needed to finalize the pact are good for workers. Obama faces tough opposition from his fellow Democrats in Congress over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which they fear could hurt American jobs and the environment...
Battle rages over key Obama trade policy Washington Post ...For many liberal critics, the problem with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal isn’t simply the worry that it could lead to more job loss by exposing American manufacturing to more import competition. Rather, they assert that the TPP is in many ways not even a trade agreement: Its real offense is in the areas of intellectual property and global dispute settlement, where the deal, they say, could further tilt the playing field towards major corporations...
Chile upbeat on Pacific trade deal, urges Canada to give ground Reuters ...The 12 countries working toward a historic Pacific trade pact could reach a deal at the end of May, though Canada must still show greater willingness to open up its markets, a senior Chilean official said on Thursday. Chile is among the nations in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact that would cover 40 percent of the world economy and includes the United States and Japan...
Fast Track and TPP Bad for Development (opinion) Oxfam America ...“Trade can indeed spur economic growth and poverty reduction, but only if the rules actually benefit those at the lower end of the development ladder,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “Although it is being negotiated in secret, what we currently know about the TPP lines up the trade deal to do exactly the opposite”...
Nepal Quake Galvanizes Local Unions; Felt in Bangladesh Solidarity Center ...The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), which represents mostly blue-collar workers, the Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC), which includes teachers and other white-collar workers and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Center (JTUCC), the umbrella organization of GEFONT and the NTUC, say their employees are safe and now working to provide disaster relief...
Portugal: TAP pilots to begin 10-day strike as talks fail Euronews ...Portugal’s flagship air carrier TAP looks set to be grounded for ten days from now because of a strike by pilots. Last-minute talks between the pilots and management yesterday afternoon failed to produce results...
State & Living Wage Battles
Democrats make minimum wage pitch: $12 by ’20 Washington Post ...Top Democrats laid down their minimum-wage marker on Capitol Hill on Thursday, setting up their party's middle-class-focused economic message heading into the 2016 elections campaigns. Their pitch: "$12 by '20" — a $12 per hour federal minimum wage by 2020, which they say will give a pay raise to nearly 38 million Americans...
Senate committee to hold hearing on ending prevailing wage Channel3000 ...The state Senate's labor committee has scheduled a hearing on a GOP bill that would repeal Wisconsin's prevailing wage law. The committee set the hearing for Tuesday and plans to vote on the bill the following Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. Stephen Nass, is one of the bill's sponsors...
State Sen. Daylin Leach proposes raising state minimum wage to $15 per hour The Mercury News ...A legislative proposal to raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage to $15 per hour has been circulated to the 49 state senators by state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist., who is seeking co-sponsors. The proposal, if it eventually becomes law, would also index the $15 minimum wage amount to inflation in future years and eliminate the current, $2.83-per-hour minimum wage for service workers who work for tips...
San Francisco set to introduce nation’s highest minimum wage Daily Journal ...San Francisco is getting ready to raise its minimum wage to $12.25 an hour, a rate that will have the city joining Oakland as the locales with the nation’s highest legally mandated pay for non-salaried workers. San Francisco’s new minimum is set to go into effect on Friday. It was approved by voters as part of an initiative that will increase the minimum wage to $15 in 2018...
U.S. Labor
On May Day, Longshore Workers Stop Work to Protest Racist Police Brutality In These Times ...This May 1 will see some serious protests against racism and police violence -- be they in Baltimore or Oakland. In fact, because ILWU Local 10 has announced it will stop work, the union may have created the space for thousands of protesters from around the Bay Area to join the marches. Using a provision in its contract, ILWU locals can “stop work” to discuss important matters on and off the waterfront...
Teachers at Four NY Archdiocese Schools on Strike NY1.com ...About 90 teachers are set to take part in today's strike at St. Jean Baptiste High School in Manhattan, Notre Dame Academy High School and Our Lady Queen of Peace School on Staten Island, and St. Thomas Aquinas School in the Bronx. The Federation of Catholic Teachers says it has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Archdiocese's Association of Catholic Schools...
SEIU, Franchisees Form Alliance In Support Of Industry Reforms Progress Illinois ...SEIU and franchisees are joining forces in a push to reform the nation's franchise industry as part of a new alliance announced Thursday being called "We Are Main Street." Those with the campaign "will support efforts to strengthen franchisee rights, share franchisee voices and provide research to fuel efforts for reform," according to the We Are Main Street website launched today by SEIU...
Microsoft’s Unionized Contract Workers Get Aggressive Bloomberg ...For more than two decades, the industry has outsourced an expanding range of jobs to contractors, including coders, chip designers, customer service reps, custodial staff, security guards, and cafeteria workers. “A lot of temps are really used as a permanent tier of second-class workers,” says Erin Hatton, author of The Temp Economy, a history of U.S. contingent labor. In September, 38 bug testers who review Microsoft apps voted to create a union, the Temporary Workers of America...
Wall Street owns our cities: The secret pension travesty threatening American workers Salon ...Currently, about 9 percent — or $270 billion — of America’s $3 trillion public pension fund assets are invested in private equity firms. Public officials are overseeing this massive payout to Wall Street at the very moment many of those same officials are demanding big cuts to retirees’ promised pension benefits...
Miscellaneous
Baltimore’s Economic Devastation Goes Back To Racist Housing Policy Think Progress ...There are many causes of a city’s economic decline, and much of Baltimore’s job loss is tied to the falling fortunes of the manufacturing sector. But the fate of the city’s black population has much to do with deliberate policy choices related to housing...
The Rise of the Machines: It's Happening (opinion) Truthout ...I argued that computers would take over many of the cognitive tasks that we find difficult, but that human beings would continue to be wanted for jobs that require common sense, including many forms of manual labor. Or as one friend described it at the time, my thesis was that we'll always need maids and gardeners. And it's happening...
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.08.15
Teamsters
St. Vincent technicians to vote on union April 29 Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital who have indicated they want to join a local branch of the Teamsters will vote April 29 on whether to join the union. The vote, which has been agreed upon by the 225 technicians and management at St. Vincent Hospital, will occur during working hours...
NLRB to issue complaint against Sysco, bring justice for fired Teamsters Teamster Nation ...The Federal Government is weighing in on the side of workers at Sysco in Atlanta who were wrongly terminated after their successful campaign to join Teamsters Local 528...
Democrats, Labor Will Work To Block Youth Minimum Wage Law Rapid City Journal ...The South Dakota Democratic Party and at least one union group that successfully pushed for a voter-approved minimum wage hike last year are preparing to join opponents of a lawmaker-approved $7.50 youth minimum wage law who are working to block it from going into effect. The state Democratic Party and the Teamsters are hoping to stop the youth minimum wage measure...
Dire state of U.S. bridges shows need for infrastructure investment Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters have been a persistent advocate for infrastructure investment, saying it is the best way to create good-paying jobs that will sustain families across the nation. And a new report explains why such work is important. In short, it's too dangerous not to act...
Global Labor & Trade
Fact-Checking the Fact-Checker: Washington Post Gets It Wrong on Bogus Trade-Pact Jobs Claims Public Citizen ...As the Obama administration seeks to Fast Track the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress over public and congressional opposition, it has resorted to a familiar tactic – promising job gains from the deal on the basis of unfounded assumptions.
Activists in Blimp, RV Target Sen. Ron Wyden Over Trade Deal Wall Street Journal ...When Sen. Ron Wyden goes home to Oregon, he faces an unusual entourage: activists manning a blimp and a recreational vehicle who are set on pressuring the senator to say no to a trade deal...
Push for Controversial Trade Deal Continues With Pitch From Defense Secretary Common Dreams ...U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Monday trumpeted the administration's so-called Pacific pivot and urged passage of legislative power that critics say will allow a massive corporate-friendly trade deal to be rammed through Congress...
How America Became an Oligarchy Counterpunch ...The most glaring example today is the secret twelve-country trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If it goes through, the TPP will dramatically expand the power of multinational corporations to use closed-door tribunals to challenge and supersede domestic laws, including environmental, labor, health and other protections...
French strikes cancel flights across Europe Deutsche Welle ...Authorities in France said air traffic could be reduced by as much as 40 percent on Wednesday, with the strike expected to continue into Thursday. The union has called for talks regarding working practices and the workers' retirement age...
State & Living Wage Battles
With State Control, North Carolina Republicans Pursue Smaller Prizes New York Times ...This session, bills introduced by Republican lawmakers would reconfigure a number of local government bodies around the state, prompting allegations that Republicans are gerrymandering and changing election rules at the city council and county commission levels...
Senator Rand Paul Has No Idea Why The USPS Appears To Be Failing, But He Blames Unions NH Labor News ...Paul never strays from being a front man for the wealthy with his extreme anti-union beliefs. For Postal workers his message is clear as he advocates an end to collective bargaining rights for postal workers when their current contracts expire. He says he is not “opposed to all unions”–he just believes unions are inappropriate for public service workers...
Democratic reformers increasingly irked over SEC's delay in implementing CEO-worker pay-gap rule Daily Kos ...One of the mandates of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act was for the Security and Exchange Commission to require all publicly held companies to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to the median pay of all other employees. Thanks to heavy corporate opposition, it took more than three years from when Dodd-Franks became law for the SEC to propose such a rule...
House Democrats Push Minimum Wage Hike Texas Tribune ...The minimum wage would go up to $10.10 an hour under proposals by state Reps. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, and Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. A separate measure by Martinez Fischer would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment setting the minimum wage at $10.10...
Fast-food workers rally across the country for higher wages AOL.com ...Fast-food workers are joining forces with home health care aids and Wal-Mart workers on April 15 to rally for higher wages. Rallies will be taking place across the country as protesters strive to increase wages up to a 15 dollar per hour rate...
In Illinois, A Pre-Emptive Strike Against Unions (opinion) St. Louis Post Dispatch ...In Illinois, the right-to-work zones are part of Mr. Rauner’s anti-union efforts. He’s also called for banning political donations by unions (even though the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision says unions and corporations are “citizens”). Mr. Rauner wants taxpayers to have a say in negotiations with public employee unions. He wants to end “prevailing wage” laws that require union wages to be paid on state and local construction projects...
U.S. Labor
Signs Of Hope For American Workers (opinion) Washington Post ...Last week’s jobs report was mostly disappointing, as it revealed that the nation’s employers broke their year-long streak of adding at least 200,000 jobs per month. Buried in the report, though, was some encouraging news about earnings. In March, average hourly earnings for private employees rose 7 cents, or about 0.3 percent, to $24.86. Sure, it’s not much, but it’s more than analysts forecast. Other recent Labor Department releases have also shown compensation quietly rising...
Victor Gotbaum, Influential New York Labor Leader, Dies At 93 Washington Post ...As leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ District Council 37 in New York, Mr. Gotbaum was the voice of the nation’s biggest municipal union when the city faced the threat of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s...
Kris Bryant, The Baseball Players’ Union And A Lesson For Labor New York Times ...The Cubs sent Bryant down to the minor leagues last week, setting off a 21st-century-style labor dispute. To the Major League Baseball Players Association, the move looked to be less about baseball aptitude than money and control...
Miscellaneous
Republic Finishes Sewer Line From Bridgeton Landfill St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Republic Services announced Friday it has completed a new sewer line connecting the Bridgeton Landfill to two Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District treatment plants, cutting down on truck traffic hauling liquid waste from the smoldering landfill...
Could Heinz-Kraft merger face opposition from the Federal Trade Commission? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...The Federal Trade Commission is actively trying to block the merger of food service distributors Sysco and US Foods, citing antitrust concerns, but the deal that would combine Pittsburgh’s H.J. Heinz Co. and Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Group is unlikely to face similar opposition...
St. Vincent technicians to vote on union April 29 Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital who have indicated they want to join a local branch of the Teamsters will vote April 29 on whether to join the union. The vote, which has been agreed upon by the 225 technicians and management at St. Vincent Hospital, will occur during working hours...
NLRB to issue complaint against Sysco, bring justice for fired Teamsters Teamster Nation ...The Federal Government is weighing in on the side of workers at Sysco in Atlanta who were wrongly terminated after their successful campaign to join Teamsters Local 528...
Democrats, Labor Will Work To Block Youth Minimum Wage Law Rapid City Journal ...The South Dakota Democratic Party and at least one union group that successfully pushed for a voter-approved minimum wage hike last year are preparing to join opponents of a lawmaker-approved $7.50 youth minimum wage law who are working to block it from going into effect. The state Democratic Party and the Teamsters are hoping to stop the youth minimum wage measure...
Dire state of U.S. bridges shows need for infrastructure investment Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters have been a persistent advocate for infrastructure investment, saying it is the best way to create good-paying jobs that will sustain families across the nation. And a new report explains why such work is important. In short, it's too dangerous not to act...
Global Labor & Trade
Fact-Checking the Fact-Checker: Washington Post Gets It Wrong on Bogus Trade-Pact Jobs Claims Public Citizen ...As the Obama administration seeks to Fast Track the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress over public and congressional opposition, it has resorted to a familiar tactic – promising job gains from the deal on the basis of unfounded assumptions.
Activists in Blimp, RV Target Sen. Ron Wyden Over Trade Deal Wall Street Journal ...When Sen. Ron Wyden goes home to Oregon, he faces an unusual entourage: activists manning a blimp and a recreational vehicle who are set on pressuring the senator to say no to a trade deal...
Push for Controversial Trade Deal Continues With Pitch From Defense Secretary Common Dreams ...U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Monday trumpeted the administration's so-called Pacific pivot and urged passage of legislative power that critics say will allow a massive corporate-friendly trade deal to be rammed through Congress...
How America Became an Oligarchy Counterpunch ...The most glaring example today is the secret twelve-country trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If it goes through, the TPP will dramatically expand the power of multinational corporations to use closed-door tribunals to challenge and supersede domestic laws, including environmental, labor, health and other protections...
French strikes cancel flights across Europe Deutsche Welle ...Authorities in France said air traffic could be reduced by as much as 40 percent on Wednesday, with the strike expected to continue into Thursday. The union has called for talks regarding working practices and the workers' retirement age...
State & Living Wage Battles
With State Control, North Carolina Republicans Pursue Smaller Prizes New York Times ...This session, bills introduced by Republican lawmakers would reconfigure a number of local government bodies around the state, prompting allegations that Republicans are gerrymandering and changing election rules at the city council and county commission levels...
Senator Rand Paul Has No Idea Why The USPS Appears To Be Failing, But He Blames Unions NH Labor News ...Paul never strays from being a front man for the wealthy with his extreme anti-union beliefs. For Postal workers his message is clear as he advocates an end to collective bargaining rights for postal workers when their current contracts expire. He says he is not “opposed to all unions”–he just believes unions are inappropriate for public service workers...
Democratic reformers increasingly irked over SEC's delay in implementing CEO-worker pay-gap rule Daily Kos ...One of the mandates of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act was for the Security and Exchange Commission to require all publicly held companies to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to the median pay of all other employees. Thanks to heavy corporate opposition, it took more than three years from when Dodd-Franks became law for the SEC to propose such a rule...
House Democrats Push Minimum Wage Hike Texas Tribune ...The minimum wage would go up to $10.10 an hour under proposals by state Reps. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, and Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. A separate measure by Martinez Fischer would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment setting the minimum wage at $10.10...
Fast-food workers rally across the country for higher wages AOL.com ...Fast-food workers are joining forces with home health care aids and Wal-Mart workers on April 15 to rally for higher wages. Rallies will be taking place across the country as protesters strive to increase wages up to a 15 dollar per hour rate...
In Illinois, A Pre-Emptive Strike Against Unions (opinion) St. Louis Post Dispatch ...In Illinois, the right-to-work zones are part of Mr. Rauner’s anti-union efforts. He’s also called for banning political donations by unions (even though the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision says unions and corporations are “citizens”). Mr. Rauner wants taxpayers to have a say in negotiations with public employee unions. He wants to end “prevailing wage” laws that require union wages to be paid on state and local construction projects...
U.S. Labor
Signs Of Hope For American Workers (opinion) Washington Post ...Last week’s jobs report was mostly disappointing, as it revealed that the nation’s employers broke their year-long streak of adding at least 200,000 jobs per month. Buried in the report, though, was some encouraging news about earnings. In March, average hourly earnings for private employees rose 7 cents, or about 0.3 percent, to $24.86. Sure, it’s not much, but it’s more than analysts forecast. Other recent Labor Department releases have also shown compensation quietly rising...
Victor Gotbaum, Influential New York Labor Leader, Dies At 93 Washington Post ...As leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ District Council 37 in New York, Mr. Gotbaum was the voice of the nation’s biggest municipal union when the city faced the threat of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s...
Kris Bryant, The Baseball Players’ Union And A Lesson For Labor New York Times ...The Cubs sent Bryant down to the minor leagues last week, setting off a 21st-century-style labor dispute. To the Major League Baseball Players Association, the move looked to be less about baseball aptitude than money and control...
Miscellaneous
Republic Finishes Sewer Line From Bridgeton Landfill St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Republic Services announced Friday it has completed a new sewer line connecting the Bridgeton Landfill to two Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District treatment plants, cutting down on truck traffic hauling liquid waste from the smoldering landfill...
Could Heinz-Kraft merger face opposition from the Federal Trade Commission? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...The Federal Trade Commission is actively trying to block the merger of food service distributors Sysco and US Foods, citing antitrust concerns, but the deal that would combine Pittsburgh’s H.J. Heinz Co. and Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Group is unlikely to face similar opposition...
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Saint Vincent Hospital workers march on boss, request recognition as Teamsters
A majority of the more than 200 workers in the unit signed Local 170 authorization cards. But instead of respecting the wishes of its employees, hospital management refused to recognize the union. Local 170 immediately filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board.
Jennifer Fontaine, who has helped lead her coworkers in the organizing drive, explained on Facebook:
We marched to the CEO'S office with a large group. We had support from our nurses and friends. The secretaries in his office had their jaws on the floor. Our committee member Heather Daniels who made the appointment was ushered into Mr. McLaughlin’s office before he slammed the door in our face. We opened the door and Kim proudly read the demand letter. He stopped her 3/4 of the way in and said he refused to recognize us. Our union head Mike Hogan told the CEO we will see him in 42 days. The CEO said no he wouldn't and Mike stuck HIS hand out and introduced himself. Mike told him to take a good look at us and the CEO said I know some of them. Mike said to the CEO he was going to know us better and we deserve better health care.The tech workers at Saint Vincent Hospital, who are mostly women, are vital to the hospital’s operations. They perform professional technical work in radiology, surgery, respiratory, pharmacy, sterile processing and other departments.
Check out the video from the workers' action:
Saint Vincent is owned by Tenet Healthcare, which makes more than $15 billion in annual revenue. The hospital’s unionized nurses recently settled a contract with management, retaining their strong health insurance. But the techs like Jennifer and her coworkers are stuck with substandard health insurance which has left many of them buried in medical bills, facing debt and heavy workloads.
The irony of poor health care in a hospital is lost on no one, as the workers said in a statement:
How can health care workers like us be subjected to such terrible health care?Donna Franciosa, a 40-year employee at Saint Vincent, said:
We need to be reinstated with the health care coverage afforded to other union members. We deserve a fair wage and benefits package – and fair staffing levels. We have made this hospital the "premier" success for Tenet – now it’s time for our success.As Teamsters, we know coming together and standing up to the boss isn’t easy. And it’s especially scary when you don’t have a union contract protecting you. That's why the courage of Saint Vincent workers is so powerful and inspiring.
While workers around the country are under attack, some workers – like the brave hospital workers in Massachusetts – are fighting back. We can’t wait to welcome these future Teamsters to our union!
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.12.15
Teamsters
Teamsters hit FMCSA with lawsuit over move to open border for Mexican carriers Overdrive ...The Teamsters Union announced this week it has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s recent move to expand its cross-border trucking program with Mexico...
Teamsters Win Landslide Shareholder Vote At Hologic teamster.org ... A shareholder proposal sponsored by the Teamsters-affiliated GCC Benevolent Trust Fund secured an overwhelming majority vote of shareholders at last week’s Hologic Incorporated annual meeting. The proposal called on the Board of Directors to submit the adoption, maintenance or extension of any poison pill plan to a vote of the shareholders...
Hoffa: Film Tax Credits Are Worth Saving Detroit News ...Lawmakers on the campaign trail in Michigan have rightfully stressed the need for jobs in recent years. They say it is a top priority. But once within the cozy confines of the Statehouse in Lansing, too many seem to lose sight of the issue or its importance to their constituents. Case in point — a House committee’s decision last week to back legislation that ends some $50 million in annual tax credits to encourage films and television shows to shoot in the Great Lakes State...
Teamsters, RI Hospital Negotiations Stall Rhode Island Public Radio ...The Teamsters represent about 2500 nursing assistants, food service, and other workers at Rhode Island Hospital. They’ve threatened to strike if negotiators can’t agree on job protections and wage hikes, as well as improvements to their retirement plan...
Debate Over Fawn's Police Coverage Intensifies Pittsburgh Tribune Review ...Smith had a copy of a letter dated March 2, from Tom Huck, business agent for Teamsters Local 249 which represents the police, to supervisors chairman David Montanari. The supervisors and Teamsters negotiators were unable to come to a contract agreement for the police and the contract is headed to arbitration. In the letter, also sent to the Valley News Dispatch, Huck criticized the supervisors for allowing the shifts to go unmanned...
County Employees Receive Pay Hike Ottumwa Courier ...Employees in two different bargaining units were given identical pay increases by Wapello County Board of Supervisors Tuesday night. Teamsters Local 238 for the courthouse bargaining unit and Teamsters Local 238 for the sheriff's bargaining unit will receive a two percent increase on July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016 and a two and half percent increase on July 1, 2017...
Trade
Push against investment rules in U.S. trade deals picks up Reuters ...Law professors from across the United States urged lawmakers to keep rules to protect foreign investors out of trade pacts on Wednesday, warning they would give big companies too much power...
Huckabee slams 'globalists,' free trade agreements Politico ...Expressing deep skepticism of proposed free trade agreements, Mike Huckabee warned in Iowa Saturday that the United States is becoming like communist China...
Unions To Fight Trade Pact By Freezing Political Donations Wall Street Journal ...The move is part of the unions’ campaign against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which the Obama administration is negotiating with 11 nations around the Pacific Ocean. The unions worry the trade agreement could send more jobs to low-wage countries, including Vietnam and Malaysia...
Paul Krugman: TPP At The NABE New York Times ...Why, exactly, should the Obama administration spend any political capital – alienating labor, disillusioning progressive activists – over such a deal?...
Health Impact Assessment: TPP Poses Risks To Affordable Medicines, Tobacco Control And Nutrition Labeling Techdirt ...The negotiations are still being conducted with a total lack of transparency -- especially compared to TAFTA/TTIP, where public pressure has led to the release of a large number of documents from the EU, though not from the US...
State Battles
Unions Challenge Wisconsin's New 'Right-To-Work' Law In Court Reuters ...The Wisconsin state AFL-CIO and two other unions filed suit on Tuesday challenging a new statute that lets private-sector employees avoid joining unions or paying dues even when covered by union-negotiated contracts...
Right-To-Work: NM Senate Panel Tables Bill KOTA ...A New Mexico Senate panel has voted along party lines to stop the advance of a bill that prohibits requiring workers to join a union and pay dues as a condition of employment...
War on Workers
Not a Puzzle—Wages Growth is Sluggish Because Employers Hold All the Cards Economic Policy Institute ...We’ve finally seen 12 consecutive months of job growth above 200,000, but wage growth shows little sign of accelerating. The question that everyone seems to be asking now is, when will wage growth pick up?...
Business Pushes for Delay, Litigation, and One-Sided Access in Union Elections Economic Policy Institute ... The NLRB is updating obsolete election rules that fail to recognize modern developments like e-mail, and which encourage excessive litigation and delay. Yet a panel stacked with anti-union lawyers attacked the rules as if they were ending American democracy...
How income fraud made the housing bubble worse Science Daily ... The researchers place the blame for falsified earnings listed on mortgage applications -- which the researchers call "buyer income overstatement" -- on brokers producing mortgages intended to be sold as securities...
Worker Electrocuted, Killed On South Tropical Trail Space Coast Daily ...A worker was killed Tuesday at about 2:45 p.m. while replacing power poles...
Teamsters hit FMCSA with lawsuit over move to open border for Mexican carriers Overdrive ...The Teamsters Union announced this week it has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s recent move to expand its cross-border trucking program with Mexico...
Teamsters Win Landslide Shareholder Vote At Hologic teamster.org ... A shareholder proposal sponsored by the Teamsters-affiliated GCC Benevolent Trust Fund secured an overwhelming majority vote of shareholders at last week’s Hologic Incorporated annual meeting. The proposal called on the Board of Directors to submit the adoption, maintenance or extension of any poison pill plan to a vote of the shareholders...
Hoffa: Film Tax Credits Are Worth Saving Detroit News ...Lawmakers on the campaign trail in Michigan have rightfully stressed the need for jobs in recent years. They say it is a top priority. But once within the cozy confines of the Statehouse in Lansing, too many seem to lose sight of the issue or its importance to their constituents. Case in point — a House committee’s decision last week to back legislation that ends some $50 million in annual tax credits to encourage films and television shows to shoot in the Great Lakes State...
Teamsters, RI Hospital Negotiations Stall Rhode Island Public Radio ...The Teamsters represent about 2500 nursing assistants, food service, and other workers at Rhode Island Hospital. They’ve threatened to strike if negotiators can’t agree on job protections and wage hikes, as well as improvements to their retirement plan...
Debate Over Fawn's Police Coverage Intensifies Pittsburgh Tribune Review ...Smith had a copy of a letter dated March 2, from Tom Huck, business agent for Teamsters Local 249 which represents the police, to supervisors chairman David Montanari. The supervisors and Teamsters negotiators were unable to come to a contract agreement for the police and the contract is headed to arbitration. In the letter, also sent to the Valley News Dispatch, Huck criticized the supervisors for allowing the shifts to go unmanned...
County Employees Receive Pay Hike Ottumwa Courier ...Employees in two different bargaining units were given identical pay increases by Wapello County Board of Supervisors Tuesday night. Teamsters Local 238 for the courthouse bargaining unit and Teamsters Local 238 for the sheriff's bargaining unit will receive a two percent increase on July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016 and a two and half percent increase on July 1, 2017...
Trade
Push against investment rules in U.S. trade deals picks up Reuters ...Law professors from across the United States urged lawmakers to keep rules to protect foreign investors out of trade pacts on Wednesday, warning they would give big companies too much power...
Huckabee slams 'globalists,' free trade agreements Politico ...Expressing deep skepticism of proposed free trade agreements, Mike Huckabee warned in Iowa Saturday that the United States is becoming like communist China...
Unions To Fight Trade Pact By Freezing Political Donations Wall Street Journal ...The move is part of the unions’ campaign against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which the Obama administration is negotiating with 11 nations around the Pacific Ocean. The unions worry the trade agreement could send more jobs to low-wage countries, including Vietnam and Malaysia...
Paul Krugman: TPP At The NABE New York Times ...Why, exactly, should the Obama administration spend any political capital – alienating labor, disillusioning progressive activists – over such a deal?...
Health Impact Assessment: TPP Poses Risks To Affordable Medicines, Tobacco Control And Nutrition Labeling Techdirt ...The negotiations are still being conducted with a total lack of transparency -- especially compared to TAFTA/TTIP, where public pressure has led to the release of a large number of documents from the EU, though not from the US...
State Battles
Unions Challenge Wisconsin's New 'Right-To-Work' Law In Court Reuters ...The Wisconsin state AFL-CIO and two other unions filed suit on Tuesday challenging a new statute that lets private-sector employees avoid joining unions or paying dues even when covered by union-negotiated contracts...
Right-To-Work: NM Senate Panel Tables Bill KOTA ...A New Mexico Senate panel has voted along party lines to stop the advance of a bill that prohibits requiring workers to join a union and pay dues as a condition of employment...
War on Workers
Not a Puzzle—Wages Growth is Sluggish Because Employers Hold All the Cards Economic Policy Institute ...We’ve finally seen 12 consecutive months of job growth above 200,000, but wage growth shows little sign of accelerating. The question that everyone seems to be asking now is, when will wage growth pick up?...
Business Pushes for Delay, Litigation, and One-Sided Access in Union Elections Economic Policy Institute ... The NLRB is updating obsolete election rules that fail to recognize modern developments like e-mail, and which encourage excessive litigation and delay. Yet a panel stacked with anti-union lawyers attacked the rules as if they were ending American democracy...
How income fraud made the housing bubble worse Science Daily ... The researchers place the blame for falsified earnings listed on mortgage applications -- which the researchers call "buyer income overstatement" -- on brokers producing mortgages intended to be sold as securities...
Worker Electrocuted, Killed On South Tropical Trail Space Coast Daily ...A worker was killed Tuesday at about 2:45 p.m. while replacing power poles...
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Today's Teamster News 07.23.13
Teamsters labour dispute with IKEA drags on; mediation to resume Tuesday Vancouver Sun ...At the Richmond Ikea store in British Columbia, Canada, the indoor showroom was tidied for the Sunday morning crowds and cashiers were hustling shoppers through as usual. But every car driving into the half-filled parking lot was made aware of an ongoing labour dispute between the company and its union, Teamsters Local 213...
Union History Displayed At Teamsters Headquarters IBT ...Historical items from the printing industry that were donated by the Graphic Communications Conference, including an 1872 Washington Press, are on display at the Teamster Headquarters, 25 Louisiana Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. View the slideshow of the items here...
Teamster Essay Contest Announced IBT ...Children and grandchildren of Teamster members have until Sept. 30 to enter the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund Essay Contest, which gives higher-education students the opportunity to win one of 50 $1,000 awards awarded by the union annually. Click here for more information...
Cries of Betrayal as Detroit Plans to Cut Pensions New York Times ...Kevyn D. Orr, the city’s emergency manager, has called for “significant cuts” to the pensions of current retirees. His plan is being fought vigorously by unions that point out that pensions are protected by Michigan’s Constitution, which calls them a contractual obligation that “shall not be diminished or impaired...”
The changing face of American union workers MSNBC ...When people think of unions, the image of a white construction worker is still one of the first to come to mind for many people, but it’s not what labor looks like anymore. Tom Perez, the new secretary of Labor, is more representative of the current makeup of unions in the United States...
6 Ways A $12 Minimum Wage Would Help The Economy Huffington Post ...After the D.C. Council approved a bill that requires large retailers to pay their workers a "living wage" of $12.50 -- and Walmart retreated from the capital in protest -- we thought it'd be worth considering what that requirement could do for the economy...
The tax break that corporate America wants kept secret CNNMoney ...Oracle, Google, and Amazon are just a few of the hundreds of large companies that have cut confidential deals with the IRS to help lower their tax bills, and critics want the agency to disclose the details of these complex pacts...
Hanging by a thread? Proposed trade pact could doom last of local textile industry Salisbury Post ...Free Trade Agreements with North and Central American countries — known as NAFTA and CAFTA-DR — also could keep those international workforces from competing with duty-free exporters like Vietnam, opponents say, costing more than 1.4 million jobs...
U.S., Urging Worker Safety, Outlines Steps for Bangladesh to Regain Its Trade Privileges New York Times ...The Obama administration publicly recommended a series of steps that the Bangladesh government should take to have its trade privileges with the United States restored...
Americans Say They Are Willing To Spend To End Child Labor Holmes Report ...Most Americans say they are willing to spend a little extra when it comes to making sure the products they buy are made without the use of child labor, according to a new survey…
Things don’t go better with the Kochs (opinion) Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ...Billionaire Charles Koch is causing some consternation by launching a $200,000 media campaign in the Wichita, Kan., area calling for the U.S. to embrace greater “economic freedom” — which translates to fewer safety and environmental protections and fewer services for people who haven't made it to the top of the economic ladder...
Can Pennsylvania safeguard against another West, Texas explosion? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...On April 17, when 30 tons of fertilizer detonated in West, Texas, 15 people died and 200 were injured. A plant in Donora, Pennsylvania stores more than 400 times more ammonia that what was there at the West, Texas facility at the time of the explosion. What can be done to avoid another disaster?...
OSHA Wants Ergonomic Conditions for Hospital Workers Business 2 Community ...A new campaign that focuses on using ergonomics to prevent injuries in the workplace is being directed at healthcare workers, according to a July 18 release by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). The agency said that healthcare workers, especially those responsible for patient care, are more prone hazards that can lead to musculoskeletal disorders than those in any other field...
In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters New York Times ...A study finds the odds of rising to another income level are notably low in certain cities, like Atlanta and Charlotte, and much higher in New York and Boston...
MacKenzie and Andrews: Sturm, Ruger chose N.C. to maximize profits at workers’ expense (opinion) New Hampshire Union Leader ...As the top labor leaders of two states with very different experiences with right-to-work, we maintain that right-to-work is not a viable strategy for economic growth. In North Carolina, the right-to-work for less law has encouraged the development of a low-wage economy, institutionalized poverty and an environment that puts corporate profits ahead of the well-being of North Carolina families...
Union History Displayed At Teamsters Headquarters IBT ...Historical items from the printing industry that were donated by the Graphic Communications Conference, including an 1872 Washington Press, are on display at the Teamster Headquarters, 25 Louisiana Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. View the slideshow of the items here...
Teamster Essay Contest Announced IBT ...Children and grandchildren of Teamster members have until Sept. 30 to enter the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund Essay Contest, which gives higher-education students the opportunity to win one of 50 $1,000 awards awarded by the union annually. Click here for more information...
Cries of Betrayal as Detroit Plans to Cut Pensions New York Times ...Kevyn D. Orr, the city’s emergency manager, has called for “significant cuts” to the pensions of current retirees. His plan is being fought vigorously by unions that point out that pensions are protected by Michigan’s Constitution, which calls them a contractual obligation that “shall not be diminished or impaired...”
The changing face of American union workers MSNBC ...When people think of unions, the image of a white construction worker is still one of the first to come to mind for many people, but it’s not what labor looks like anymore. Tom Perez, the new secretary of Labor, is more representative of the current makeup of unions in the United States...
6 Ways A $12 Minimum Wage Would Help The Economy Huffington Post ...After the D.C. Council approved a bill that requires large retailers to pay their workers a "living wage" of $12.50 -- and Walmart retreated from the capital in protest -- we thought it'd be worth considering what that requirement could do for the economy...
The tax break that corporate America wants kept secret CNNMoney ...Oracle, Google, and Amazon are just a few of the hundreds of large companies that have cut confidential deals with the IRS to help lower their tax bills, and critics want the agency to disclose the details of these complex pacts...
Hanging by a thread? Proposed trade pact could doom last of local textile industry Salisbury Post ...Free Trade Agreements with North and Central American countries — known as NAFTA and CAFTA-DR — also could keep those international workforces from competing with duty-free exporters like Vietnam, opponents say, costing more than 1.4 million jobs...
U.S., Urging Worker Safety, Outlines Steps for Bangladesh to Regain Its Trade Privileges New York Times ...The Obama administration publicly recommended a series of steps that the Bangladesh government should take to have its trade privileges with the United States restored...
Americans Say They Are Willing To Spend To End Child Labor Holmes Report ...Most Americans say they are willing to spend a little extra when it comes to making sure the products they buy are made without the use of child labor, according to a new survey…
Things don’t go better with the Kochs (opinion) Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ...Billionaire Charles Koch is causing some consternation by launching a $200,000 media campaign in the Wichita, Kan., area calling for the U.S. to embrace greater “economic freedom” — which translates to fewer safety and environmental protections and fewer services for people who haven't made it to the top of the economic ladder...
Can Pennsylvania safeguard against another West, Texas explosion? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...On April 17, when 30 tons of fertilizer detonated in West, Texas, 15 people died and 200 were injured. A plant in Donora, Pennsylvania stores more than 400 times more ammonia that what was there at the West, Texas facility at the time of the explosion. What can be done to avoid another disaster?...
OSHA Wants Ergonomic Conditions for Hospital Workers Business 2 Community ...A new campaign that focuses on using ergonomics to prevent injuries in the workplace is being directed at healthcare workers, according to a July 18 release by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). The agency said that healthcare workers, especially those responsible for patient care, are more prone hazards that can lead to musculoskeletal disorders than those in any other field...
In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters New York Times ...A study finds the odds of rising to another income level are notably low in certain cities, like Atlanta and Charlotte, and much higher in New York and Boston...
MacKenzie and Andrews: Sturm, Ruger chose N.C. to maximize profits at workers’ expense (opinion) New Hampshire Union Leader ...As the top labor leaders of two states with very different experiences with right-to-work, we maintain that right-to-work is not a viable strategy for economic growth. In North Carolina, the right-to-work for less law has encouraged the development of a low-wage economy, institutionalized poverty and an environment that puts corporate profits ahead of the well-being of North Carolina families...
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