Today's Teamster News 08.14.14

Teamster News
BLET organizes Illinois Railway short line workers  teamster.org   ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) scored a short line organizing victory last week as a majority of workers at Illinois Railway voted to make the BLET their designated collective bargaining representative...
Teamster at US Foods Seeks Information About Merger  teamster.org   ...Frank Rinetti, a Teamster member and employee of US Foods, recently sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking information about the proposed Sysco-US Foods merger and he also outlines his concerns about the merger's impact on jobs...
Union teamsters met Wednesday, will vote Thursday  KERO Bakersfield   ...GET union employees met Wednesday to discuss the proposal from GET...
Trade
Five Tests Walmart Must Pass to Show its 'Made In America' Street Cred  manufacture this   ...If Walmart is truly serious about its pledge to help American manufacturers, the corporation will slash its imports into the U.S...
Country-Of-Origin-Labeling Dispute Threatens U.S. Exports, Jobs  The Hill   ...A long list of U.S.-manufactured goods and agricultural products are being threatened by a trade dispute about whether U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements discriminate against our bordering countries’ meat products. Absent quick action to settle the dispute, the governments of Canada and Mexico—currently the two largest markets for U.S. exports—could impose $2 billion in retaliatory tariffs that would endanger thousands of American jobs...
State Battles
Corporate front groups pushing laughable “National Employee Freedom Week” and other anti-union effort  eclectablog   ... “National Employee Freedom Week”... encourages union members to become freeloaders by leaving their unions while the unions continue to bargain for on their behalf for better wages, better working conditions, and better benefits...
Floridians tried to stop gerrymandering, and Republicans gerrymandered anyways. We’re about to see who wins.  Washington Post   ...If it passes muster with the courts in anything like its present form, it will have been a pretty major victory for the GOP in overcoming the so-called Fair Districts amendments -- and an equally large setback for redistricting reformers seeking to rein in partisan gerrymandering...
Christie: GOP governors to spend millions in Maine  Associated Press   ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie returned to Maine on Tuesday to help raise money for Gov. Paul LePage and predicted that the Republican Governors Association would spend millions of dollars in the state this fall to help LePage win a second term...
Record number of labor candidates prep to run for public office at New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School  Politicker NJ   ...A record-sized class of rank-and-file union members representing 23 local unions from across all sectors of the labor movement took part in the New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School August 9-10, 2014, at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center in New Brunswick...
The Big Money Behind Walker’s Campaign  Express Milwaukee   ...Walker returned to the deep pockets of his recall mega-contributors, including Las Vegas gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. Adelson donated $250,000 to Walker in 2012...
Labor and small businesses team up on California franchising law  MSNBC   ...the theory appears to be that protecting franchisors against the threat of closure will make it easier for them to do things like raise workers’ wages...
War On Workers
Electric Worker Hit By Train, Killed In Edmond  KWTV   ...The train was traveling southbound when it hit and killed Edmond Electric Worker, Bob Waterson Tuesday evening. Edmond city officials say Waterson was with the company for more than 34 years...
Rail CEOs to Investors: "Bomb Trains" Safe At Almost Any Speed  DeSmog Blog   ...Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) recently said it would proceed with plans to increase speeds for oil-by-rail unit trains in Devil’s Lake, N.D. to 60 MPH from 30 MPH, despite opposition from local officials...
What’s Lost in the Market Basket Stories  Economic Policy Institute   ...they have succeeded by taking a distinctly high-road approach: the company takes care of its workers, paying decent wages, offering benefits to full- and part-time staff, and providing employees with a profit-sharing plan. At the same time, Market Basket still offers prices lower than its competitors, Walmart included...
Union Workers In Maine Join Protest Of FairPoint Outsourcing Plans  Portland Press Herald   ...Hundreds of unionized FairPoint Communications Inc. workers in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire staged “informational protests” Tuesday to educate customers about the negative impact of company plans to boost outsourcing, union representatives said...
For Largest U.S. Companies, Jobs Growth Has Lagged Profits, Revenues  Reuters   ...From 2001 to 2013, inflation-adjusted revenue at 100 of the largest publicly traded companies grew 71 percent and inflation-adjusted operating profit rose 150 percent. Global headcount reported in company financial filings rose 31 percent...
Los Angeles To Vote On Killing Major Wall Street Deal As City Drowns In Financial Fees  International Business Times   ...Los Angeles lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on a proposal to renegotiate or terminate an interest rate swap deal from the mid-2000s that critics say now costs the city millions of dollars a year in fees. If successful, the initiative could make the city the nation's largest to challenge ballooning Wall Street levies that accompany similar interest rate swap deals throughout the nation...
Front and center: Amendment 3 pushes teacher tenure into the spotlight  Southeast Missourian   ...if teachers have been teaching in the same district for five years, they're granted due process rights by statute. "Before that, they're at-will," Meyer said. Five years, she said, is probably the longest probationary period used around the country...
Miscellaneous
Does Your Boss Know You’re Reading This? Surveillance Technology Boosts Efficiency But Creates Workplace Issues  Atlanta Journal-Constitution   ...There are few laws and court cases to help companies or workers understand the limits, leaving some gray areas for protection of employees’ privacy...

Today's Teamster News 07.24.13

Teamsters Announce UPS Freight Contract Extension  IBT   ...The Teamsters Union and UPS Freight have agreed to an extension of the current UPS Freight National Agreement in order to give the parties time to continue negotiations...
Mr. President, why are there so many bad jobs at McDonalds and Walmart?  Raw Story   ...“Hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts, grants, loans, concession agreements and property leases go to private companies that pay low wages, provide few benefits, and offer employees little opportunity to work their way into the middle class. At the same time, many of these companies are providing their executives with exorbitant compensation...”
Not Just Goldman Sachs: Koch Industries Hoards Commodities as a Trading Strategy  The Nation   ...Goldman Sachs has made a tidy profit by buying up vast amounts of aluminum and slowing the delivery through the ownership of vast warehouses...
Koch Industries PAC spending record cash  Center for Public Integrity   ...The political action committee of Koch Industries — the energy and chemicals company led by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch — gave more money in June to federal political candidates and committees than it ever has in any other month during a non-election year...
'I Have To Choose Between Food And Rent': Meet The McDonald's Workers Fighting For Fair Wages  Forbes   ...The burger chain’s PR nightmare could also serve to increase political pressure to boost the federal minimum wage, which currently sits at $7.25/hour, or $15,000 in annual pay for a full-time gig. It has also provided momentum for campaigns like July 24th’s National Day of Action, backed by the National Employment Law Project, when workers from McDonald’s, Walmart and other low-wage companies will take to the streets in 22 cities and towns nationwide to protest what they see as poverty-level pay...
Labor board picks pledge fairness at hearing that comes days after filibuster deal  Associated Press   ...President Barack Obama’s newest picks for the National Labor Relations Board sought to assure Senate lawmakers that they can be fair and impartial in resolving business-labor disputes, despite backgrounds that include advocating for unions...
GOP accused of using deception to trick voters on Right to Work  PR News Channel   ...As Ohio labor groups prepare for the next round of legislative fighting on Right to Work, they accused Right to Work supporters of using misleading names and engaging in a campaign that deliberately tricks the public into supporting a controversial, anti-labor agenda...
Just How Low Can Your Salary Go? 117 ALEC Bills in 2013 Fuel Race to the Bottom in Wages and Worker Rights  PRWatch   ...At least 117 bills introduced in 2013 fuel a "race to the bottom" in wages, benefits, and worker rights and resemble "model" bills from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), according to a new analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), publishers of ALECexposed.org...
Unions rally federal employees to appeal furlough  Washington Post   ...Unions are mounting a new attack on the Obama administration’s decision to furlough nearly one in two federal workers, rallying thousands of their members to appeal the unpaid days off to a little-known review board...
Getting Detroit Back on Its Feet  New York Times  ...After suffering through decades of economic decline and official mismanagement, the city of Detroit sought bankruptcy protection last week, becoming the largest American municipality to take that extreme step. The city’s debts total a staggering $18 billion, far more than it could ever afford to pay back given its shrinking population and tax base...
Currency Rules Sought in Pacific-Trade Deal by Automakers  Bloomberg News   ...A trade pact among Pacific-region nations should include provisions to prevent currency manipulation, Representative Sander Levin said, siding with U.S. automakers in expressing concern about Japan’s economic policies as the nation formally joins the talks...
City and unions argue Anchorage labor law in court  Associated Press   ...A new law, which limits annual raises for city employees, restricts incentive pay and bonuses in future contracts and takes away the right to strike, is making its way through court to determine if voters should get an opportunity to repeal the law through a referendum...
Mayor McGinn goes all out on Whole Foods over worker pay  Seattle Times   ...The Washington, D.C., city council made national news earlier this month with its effort to force Walmart to pay higher wages at the new stores the company has hoped to build in the city. A similar fight is afoot in Seattle — but over Whole Foods...
Voting rights target of 12th Moral Monday protest  Winston-Salem Journal  ...Speakers at the 12th weekly protest in Raleigh took demonstrators back almost 50 years Monday, claiming current proposals to change voting policies in the state would restrict voting access in ways that haven’t been seen in decades...

Has Montana passed the labor reform we need?

John Steinbeck decided Montana was his favorite state during his travels across the country with his poodle Charley:

I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love.

Here are two reasons we're inclined to love Montana. First, Montana banned corporate money from political campaigns. Sadly, the U.S. Supreme Court last month told Montana it couldn't do that anymore because of its heinous Citizens United decision. Now Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer supports a constitutional amendment to ban corporate money in politics. Here's why:

The effects of the court’s stay are already being felt here. The ink wasn’t even dry when corporate front groups started funneling lots of corporate cash into our legislative races. Many of the backers have remained anonymous by taking advantage of other loopholes in federal law. 

But it’s easy to figure out who they are: every industry that wants to change the laws so that more profit can be made and more citizens can be shortchanged. 

I know this because I’ve started receiving bills on my desk that have been ghostwritten by a host of industries looking to weaken state laws, including gold mining companies that want to overturn a state ban on the use of cyanide to mine gold, and developers who want to build condos right on the edge of our legendary trout streams.

Here's the second reason we might fall in love with Montana: The state passed a law requiring employers to show just cause before firing a worker.

Alternet explains:

Big sky, not blue sky.

...one of the top reasons workers are afraid of organizing is the knowledge they are likely to be terminated.

Our existing laws have not diminished workers’ fears because the procedures are too uncertain and lengthy (two to three years at the Labor Board and another two years in the courts) to provide any assurance. Winning state “just cause” laws that allow cases to be decided quickly by arbitrators might give workers more confidence. 

...the United States is alone among industrialized countries in allowing at-will employees to be terminated for arbitrary reasons. Because of union protests and aggressive legal action, Germany, France, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and South Africa require employers to have a just cause to dismiss non-probationary employees. 

One state has also passed such a law. The Montana Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act was passed in 1987. Applicable to non-union non-probationary employees, it prohibits discharges without good cause, allows workers to sue for up to four years of back pay, and provides a way for workers to recover attorneys’ fees. 

Despite fear-mongering by opponents, the Big Sky state’s robust economic growth has not been affected. Statutes in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands also prohibit termination without “good cause.”

We think they may have something there.

Here's why we need labor law reform

The owner of a company in Connecticut threatened to kill one of the union workers he'd fired (replacing them with non-union workers, of course).

Unfortunately the National Labor Relations Board can't do much about it, reports Michael Whitney at firedoglake. The NLRB is charged with enforcing labor law, but

...this responsibility comes almost no enforcement power for the NLRB to effectively hold accountable corporations that break the law.

All the NLRB could do was require the owner to post a notice that said:

“We will not threaten to kill you or to cause you bodily harm because you engage in activities in support of SEIU, Local 32BJ."

Here's the whole story from Newsday.

Ruh-roh: Supreme Court Rules on NLRB

Michael Whitney over at firedoglake has the story: