Teamster News
Judge Rules Against Sequim Labor Lawsuit Peninsula Daily News ...A Clallam County Superior Court judge has spiked — again — an attempt to change the city of Sequim’s process for labor negotiations with its employees. Judge Erik Rohrer on Thursday granted the city’s and Teamsters Local 589’s motions for summary judgment and denied an opposing motion by Susan Brautigam...
Bankruptcy Court Ruling Helps Anti-Union Grocer Slash Benefits And Pensions For 1,100 Workers In These Times ...Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey are angry over the loss and apprehensive about their futures, union leaders say. Their new employer, C&S Wholesale Grocers, has a reputation of buying up unionized companies, shifting the work of handling retail food products to non-union distribution centers and then getting rid of the union members altogether...
Council To Introduce Horse Ban Next Week Capital New York ...Council members Danny Dromm and Ydanis Rodriguez will officially introduce legislation on Monday to ban horse carriages in the city. According to a copy of the Council’s stated meeting agenda for December 8, the bill will be introduced “by the request of the mayor” through the Council’s transportation committee...
Trade
US Government Study Predicts TPP Trade Agreement Will Produce Practically No Extra Growth For Anyone TechDirt ...nearly a half of the increased trade that TTIP might bring according to this forecast would consist of swapping cars across the Atlantic...
It's Not a Free Trade Deal and Michael Froman Wants to Take Food Choices Away from Individuals Center for Economic and Policy Research ...the TTIP is not a "free trade" agreement as asserted in the article. The increased protections in the pact, in the form of stronger patent and copyright protections, are likely to do more to raise prices and block trade than any tariff reductions that are included...
Report: More Evidence Samsung Supplier Using Child Labor In China Tech In Asia ...American nonprofit group China Labor Watch announced yesterday that it has collected additional evidence that child and student workers were employed “under exploitative working conditions” at the factory of Samsung supplier HEG Technology. That evidence includes interviews with children below China’s legal working age who say they worked ten-hour days with a single day of rest each week for the Samsung supplier...
State Battles
Metro Council Panel Delays Minimum Wage Vote Louisville Courier Journal ...A vote on raising the minimum wage in Louisville was delayed Thursday by a Metro Council committee after a Republican request for a study of the possible effects, angering supporters...
War on Workers
Senate considering lowering truck safety standards for special interests TeamsterNation …Sen. Susan Collins of Maine wants the government to allow bigger, heavier trucks and to eliminate the mandatory two days rest for drivers. The Teamsters and allies are doing all they can to prevent that from happening...
DOT secretary against longer hours for truck drivers The Hill ...Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is urging Senate and House Appropriations committee members to reject an amendment that would allow semi-truck drivers to drive for longer hours...
Workers hit the streets across US in growing minimum wage fight AlJazeera America …Fast-food workers and other low-wage employees in nearly 200 cities across the country took part in a strike and protests Thursday, demanding a base wage of $15 per hour and the right to form unions in the latest in a series of day-long labor actions coordinated through a nationwide coalition of workers’ groups...
Hypereducated and on Welfare Elle ...a good education may not keep you from hovering near the poverty line. The number of people with graduate degrees receiving food assistance or other forms of federal aid nearly tripled between 2007 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census…
Temporary Work is Bad for Your Cognitive Health naked capitalism ...The findings of this study on the effects of temporary work on individuals’ skills has important ramifications for the US ... The first is that workers are harmed by this practice, and not just via stress or having uncertain income. But second is that employers over time also suffer by degrading the capabilities of the labor pool...
Does The Media Care About Labor Anymore? Politico ...With the middle class still down in the dumps, the beat’s more important than ever...
Uber launches in Portland, Oregon despite being completely illegal there The Verge ...Uber has a remarkably rich history of upsetting local city transportation officials by setting up shop before laws and regulations have been ironed out...
Michigan Road Worker, 21, Killed When Struck By Pickup, Flying 75 Feet MLive ...A 21-year-old road construction worker was killed when a pickup struck him and sent him flying more than 75 feet through the air, the Huron County Sheriff's Department reports...
Worker in Vehicle Collision at CNRL Site Canada Journal …A worker has been killed in a collision at the Horizon Oil Sands mine north of Fort McMurray early Friday morning, the third workplace fatality in northern Alberta this week...
Miscellaneous
China Just Passed U.S. as World's Largest Economy Economic Populist ..."For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet ...
How the NSA Hacks Cellphone Networks Worldwide The Intercept …the NSA plans to secretly introduce new flaws into communication systems so that they can be tapped into—a controversial tactic that security experts say could be exposing the general population to criminal hackers...
U.S. Adds 321,000 Jobs In November; Unemployment Rate Remains At 5.8% Huffington Post ...U.S. employers added a whopping 321,000 jobs in November, the biggest burst of hiring in nearly three years and the latest sign that the United States is outperforming other economies throughout the developed world...
Showing posts with label labor movement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label labor movement. Show all posts
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.30.14
Teamster News
Fired McKesson Worker Fights CEO Hammergren's Potential Exit Pay Bloomberg ...McKesson, which distributes pharmaceuticals and medical products, has agreed to pay Hammergren $292 million in severance if the San Francisco-based company were sold and he lost his job in the process. About $114 million of that is pension pay while $140.6 million is unvested restricted stock and options that would become immediately payable in the event of a change in control and Hammergren’s termination...
Port Of Poulsbo Employees Unionize, Begin Contract Negotiation North Kitsap Herald ...Port of Poulsbo employees have unionized and are in labor-contract negotiations with the port district. Port employees voted to unionize and join Teamsters Local 589 on June 2...
Massachusetts Charter School Teachers Join Teamsters Local 170 teamster.org ...Teachers in Massachusetts made history recently when they became the first group of charter school teachers to join the Teamsters Union...
Wheels On Sun Tran To Keep Going Around, At Least For Another Week Tucson Sentinel ...Tucson's municipal bus system will continue normal operations until at least Aug. 6, as officials with Sun Tran and Teamsters Local 104 agreed to extend the current labor contract for a week. The agreement was set to expire on Thursday, but drivers will avoid a strike — at least for the moment...
Trade
The TTIP Threat To Locally-Sourced Food The London Economic ...when deliberations are completed, the controversial TTIP is expected to bypass national judiciaries, encourage deregulation, liberalise almost every public service and get rid of supposed ‘barriers to investment’, which the World Development Movement (WDM) describes as “environmental protection, workers’ rights legislation and food safety standards”...
USTR Tells Press that TPP Negotiators Are Down to “A Dozen Issues,” While House Republicans Threaten to Withhold Support infojustice.org ...Inside US Trade reports that U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators are “down to a dozen issues” in the intellectual property chapter. However, these are among the most difficult issues remaining...
State Battles
Florida Republicans Are Taking Secret Trips On Big Sugar And No One Will Talk About It Huffington Post ...(Florida Gov. Rick) Scott, along with several other prominent Florida Republicans over the past three years, have traveled to a hunting lodge in Texas owned by industry giant U.S. Sugar. The lodge is located at King Ranch, one of the largest ranches in Texas and itself a stakeholder in several sugar-related businesses...
Pence stands by right-to-work law NWI Times ...Gov. Mike Pence is not giving up on the state's right-to-work law, even though two Lake County judges have ruled it incompatible with the Indiana Constitution...
August Primary Will Be First Wisconsin Election With Limited Early Voting Wisconsin Public Radio ...Early in-person absentee voting begins on Monday for Wisconsin's Aug. 12 partisan primary, but for the first time it won't be available on the weekend. This will be the state's first election since Gov. Scott Walker signed a law that ended weekend voting and restricted early voting to weekdays between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m...
Judge: Mercedes-Benz violated organizing rights in Alabama Detroit News ...An administrative judge said Mercedes-Benz USA violated the rights of workers at its Vance, Ala., plant who were seeking to convince other employees to form a union during off-time, but ruled in the company’s favor in other points of contention and imposed no fines...
NC Budget Hole Grows Based On New Tax Cut Analysis WPTF ...North Carolina income tax collections for 2014 are expected to fall $205 million short of earlier projections following Republican-backed tax cuts approved last year...
S.F. Supervisor Wants 'Bill Of Rights' For Chain Store Retail Workers San Francisco Business Times ...San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar will introduce legislation tomorrow to mandate more predictable work schedules for retail workers and require chain stores to offer additional work hours to part-time employees before hiring new or temporary workers...
San Diego Approves $11.50 Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...The San Diego City Council gave formal approval on Monday to an ordinance that would incrementally raise the minimum wage in California's second-largest city to $11.50 an hour by January 2017, mostly for workers in the restaurant and retail sectors...
War On Workers
McDonald's Could Be Liable for Labor Practices Associated Press ...The National Labor Relations Board said Tuesday that the world's biggest hamburger chain could be named as a joint employer in several complaints regarding worker rights at franchise-owned restaurants. The decision is pivotal because it could expose McDonald's Corp. to liability for management practices in those locations...
Delinquent Debt in America Urban Institute ...Roughly 77 million Americans, or 35 percent of adults with a credit file, have a report of debt in collections. These adults owe an average of $5,178 (median $1,349)...
Miscellaneous
Reshad Chakari, Uber Driver, Arrested For D.C. Sexual Assault Charge WJLA ...District of Columbia police say detectives have arrested a man after a woman reported an Uber car service driver had sexually assaulted her...
Fired McKesson Worker Fights CEO Hammergren's Potential Exit Pay Bloomberg ...McKesson, which distributes pharmaceuticals and medical products, has agreed to pay Hammergren $292 million in severance if the San Francisco-based company were sold and he lost his job in the process. About $114 million of that is pension pay while $140.6 million is unvested restricted stock and options that would become immediately payable in the event of a change in control and Hammergren’s termination...
Port Of Poulsbo Employees Unionize, Begin Contract Negotiation North Kitsap Herald ...Port of Poulsbo employees have unionized and are in labor-contract negotiations with the port district. Port employees voted to unionize and join Teamsters Local 589 on June 2...
Massachusetts Charter School Teachers Join Teamsters Local 170 teamster.org ...Teachers in Massachusetts made history recently when they became the first group of charter school teachers to join the Teamsters Union...
Wheels On Sun Tran To Keep Going Around, At Least For Another Week Tucson Sentinel ...Tucson's municipal bus system will continue normal operations until at least Aug. 6, as officials with Sun Tran and Teamsters Local 104 agreed to extend the current labor contract for a week. The agreement was set to expire on Thursday, but drivers will avoid a strike — at least for the moment...
Trade
The TTIP Threat To Locally-Sourced Food The London Economic ...when deliberations are completed, the controversial TTIP is expected to bypass national judiciaries, encourage deregulation, liberalise almost every public service and get rid of supposed ‘barriers to investment’, which the World Development Movement (WDM) describes as “environmental protection, workers’ rights legislation and food safety standards”...
USTR Tells Press that TPP Negotiators Are Down to “A Dozen Issues,” While House Republicans Threaten to Withhold Support infojustice.org ...Inside US Trade reports that U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators are “down to a dozen issues” in the intellectual property chapter. However, these are among the most difficult issues remaining...
State Battles
Florida Republicans Are Taking Secret Trips On Big Sugar And No One Will Talk About It Huffington Post ...(Florida Gov. Rick) Scott, along with several other prominent Florida Republicans over the past three years, have traveled to a hunting lodge in Texas owned by industry giant U.S. Sugar. The lodge is located at King Ranch, one of the largest ranches in Texas and itself a stakeholder in several sugar-related businesses...
Pence stands by right-to-work law NWI Times ...Gov. Mike Pence is not giving up on the state's right-to-work law, even though two Lake County judges have ruled it incompatible with the Indiana Constitution...
August Primary Will Be First Wisconsin Election With Limited Early Voting Wisconsin Public Radio ...Early in-person absentee voting begins on Monday for Wisconsin's Aug. 12 partisan primary, but for the first time it won't be available on the weekend. This will be the state's first election since Gov. Scott Walker signed a law that ended weekend voting and restricted early voting to weekdays between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m...
Judge: Mercedes-Benz violated organizing rights in Alabama Detroit News ...An administrative judge said Mercedes-Benz USA violated the rights of workers at its Vance, Ala., plant who were seeking to convince other employees to form a union during off-time, but ruled in the company’s favor in other points of contention and imposed no fines...
NC Budget Hole Grows Based On New Tax Cut Analysis WPTF ...North Carolina income tax collections for 2014 are expected to fall $205 million short of earlier projections following Republican-backed tax cuts approved last year...
S.F. Supervisor Wants 'Bill Of Rights' For Chain Store Retail Workers San Francisco Business Times ...San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar will introduce legislation tomorrow to mandate more predictable work schedules for retail workers and require chain stores to offer additional work hours to part-time employees before hiring new or temporary workers...
San Diego Approves $11.50 Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...The San Diego City Council gave formal approval on Monday to an ordinance that would incrementally raise the minimum wage in California's second-largest city to $11.50 an hour by January 2017, mostly for workers in the restaurant and retail sectors...
War On Workers
McDonald's Could Be Liable for Labor Practices Associated Press ...The National Labor Relations Board said Tuesday that the world's biggest hamburger chain could be named as a joint employer in several complaints regarding worker rights at franchise-owned restaurants. The decision is pivotal because it could expose McDonald's Corp. to liability for management practices in those locations...
Delinquent Debt in America Urban Institute ...Roughly 77 million Americans, or 35 percent of adults with a credit file, have a report of debt in collections. These adults owe an average of $5,178 (median $1,349)...
Miscellaneous
Reshad Chakari, Uber Driver, Arrested For D.C. Sexual Assault Charge WJLA ...District of Columbia police say detectives have arrested a man after a woman reported an Uber car service driver had sexually assaulted her...
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.24.14
Teamster News
New Teamsters Report Details Mounting Liabilities For One of Republic Services' Nuclear Waste Landfills Teamster.org ...Today the Teamsters released a report that details the escalating costs to the public and investors for Republic Service Inc's management of its Bridgeton/West Lake Superfund landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri...
Teamsters, Other Unions Pledge Support to Regional Pilots Teamster.org ...The head of one of the largest Teamster pilot unions joined other union leaders across the industry in spearheading an agreement to set new standards for regional pilot contracts and to stand together during negotiations...
UPS Employees Union votes to override local bargaining units Atlanta Business Chronicle ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in the memo that the UPS national negotiating committee "voted overwhelmingly" to declare the new contract in effect...
Workers Memorial Day to highlight jobs that kill People's World ..."Forty-three years ago, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job," Teamsters President James Hoffa adds. "Decades of struggle by workers and their unions resulted in significant improvements in working conditions...
Trade
Obama trade push gets thumbs down from Democrats Politico ...In an atmosphere in which populism is driving both parties’ bases and more represented in the Senate than ever, convincing members to sign on to multinational trade deals is next to impossible...
Obama fails to secure breakthrough in Japan trade talks CNN Money ...Trade talks between the United States and Japan failed to produce a breakthrough Thursday, in yet another blow to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement...
State Battles
Paycheck Protection heard in Senate Missouri Times ...So-called “paycheck protection” legislation that would be placed on the 2014 ballot if approved was heard in a senate committee today, marking another step in the fight between labor leaders and conservative Republicans...
Karl Rove And Americans For Prosperity Join Forces To Aid ALEC Stalwart in North Carolina Race PR Watch ...Some powerful players are coming to the aid of ALEC board member Thom Tillis, the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, who seeks to challenge Democrat Kay Hagen for her U.S. Senate seat...
War On Workers
Massive new fraud coverup: How banks are pillaging homes — while the government watches
Salon ...Joseph and Mary Romero of Chimayo, N.M., found that their mortgage note was assigned to the Bank of New York three months after the same bank filed a foreclosure complaint against them; in other words, Bank of New York didn’t own the loan when they tried to foreclose on it... Housing Rebound in U.S. Losing Steam as Prices Rise Bloomberg ...Sales dropped a surprising 14.5 percent to a 384,000 annualized pace, lower than any forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and the weakest since July, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. Three of the four regions saw setbacks, with demand in the West slumping to the lowest level in more than two years...
The Koch Brothers Extra Baggage Washington Post ...The Republican Party's biggest sugar daddies, the Koch brothers are a mixed bag for the GOP: They bring money, but lots of baggage. Their downside isn't only that they're a convenient foil for Democratic turnout, but they could exacerbate existing tensions within the Republican Party...
Fast Food CEOs Earn Super Sized Salaries; Workers Earn Small Potatoes NPR ...At a time when fast-food workers earn an average of about $9 an hour, what are the chief executives bringing home? According to a new report, YUM! (Owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut) compensated its CEO $22 million in 2013...
Kellogg Locked Out Kevin to Cut Costs, Paid CEO $8 Million AFL-CIO Now ...For 13 years Kevin worked at the Kellogg Co.’s Memphis, Tenn., cereal plant, until the company locked out him and 225 of his co-workers in October. While they missed the rest of the year’s paychecks—and continue to do so—Kellogg CEO John Bryant pocketed nearly $8 million in 2013 compensation...
Northwestern Football Players To Vote On Union Friday Chicago Tribune ...Northwestern University football players are scheduled to vote Friday morning on whether they want to be represented by a union. Northwestern, which is a private university, is not allowing reporters on campus at Welsh-Ryan arena, citing the players' wishes to avoid media attention...
US Workers Were Once Massacred Fighting For The Protections Being Rolled Back Today Moyers & Company ...On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard and a private militia employed by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company opened fire on a tent camp of striking coal miners at Ludlow, Colorado. At least 19 people died in the camp that day, mostly women and children...
Miscellaneous
Students Seek Loan Forgiveness In Overwhelming Numbers MSNBC ...Enrollment in federal student loan debt forgiveness programs skyrocketed nearly 40 percent in the last 6 months, the U.S. Education Department told the Wall Street Journal as education costs rise...
New Records: IRS Targeted Progressive Groups More Extensively Than Tea Party ThinkProgress ...A series of IRS documents, provided to ThinkProgress under the Freedom of Information Act, appears to contradict the claims by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that only Tea Party organizations applying for tax-exempt status “received systematic scrutiny because of their political beliefs.”...
New Teamsters Report Details Mounting Liabilities For One of Republic Services' Nuclear Waste Landfills Teamster.org ...Today the Teamsters released a report that details the escalating costs to the public and investors for Republic Service Inc's management of its Bridgeton/West Lake Superfund landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri...
Teamsters, Other Unions Pledge Support to Regional Pilots Teamster.org ...The head of one of the largest Teamster pilot unions joined other union leaders across the industry in spearheading an agreement to set new standards for regional pilot contracts and to stand together during negotiations...
UPS Employees Union votes to override local bargaining units Atlanta Business Chronicle ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in the memo that the UPS national negotiating committee "voted overwhelmingly" to declare the new contract in effect...
Workers Memorial Day to highlight jobs that kill People's World ..."Forty-three years ago, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job," Teamsters President James Hoffa adds. "Decades of struggle by workers and their unions resulted in significant improvements in working conditions...
Trade
Obama trade push gets thumbs down from Democrats Politico ...In an atmosphere in which populism is driving both parties’ bases and more represented in the Senate than ever, convincing members to sign on to multinational trade deals is next to impossible...
Obama fails to secure breakthrough in Japan trade talks CNN Money ...Trade talks between the United States and Japan failed to produce a breakthrough Thursday, in yet another blow to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement...
State Battles
Paycheck Protection heard in Senate Missouri Times ...So-called “paycheck protection” legislation that would be placed on the 2014 ballot if approved was heard in a senate committee today, marking another step in the fight between labor leaders and conservative Republicans...
Karl Rove And Americans For Prosperity Join Forces To Aid ALEC Stalwart in North Carolina Race PR Watch ...Some powerful players are coming to the aid of ALEC board member Thom Tillis, the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, who seeks to challenge Democrat Kay Hagen for her U.S. Senate seat...
War On Workers
Massive new fraud coverup: How banks are pillaging homes — while the government watches
Salon ...Joseph and Mary Romero of Chimayo, N.M., found that their mortgage note was assigned to the Bank of New York three months after the same bank filed a foreclosure complaint against them; in other words, Bank of New York didn’t own the loan when they tried to foreclose on it... Housing Rebound in U.S. Losing Steam as Prices Rise Bloomberg ...Sales dropped a surprising 14.5 percent to a 384,000 annualized pace, lower than any forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and the weakest since July, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. Three of the four regions saw setbacks, with demand in the West slumping to the lowest level in more than two years...
The Koch Brothers Extra Baggage Washington Post ...The Republican Party's biggest sugar daddies, the Koch brothers are a mixed bag for the GOP: They bring money, but lots of baggage. Their downside isn't only that they're a convenient foil for Democratic turnout, but they could exacerbate existing tensions within the Republican Party...
Fast Food CEOs Earn Super Sized Salaries; Workers Earn Small Potatoes NPR ...At a time when fast-food workers earn an average of about $9 an hour, what are the chief executives bringing home? According to a new report, YUM! (Owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut) compensated its CEO $22 million in 2013...
Kellogg Locked Out Kevin to Cut Costs, Paid CEO $8 Million AFL-CIO Now ...For 13 years Kevin worked at the Kellogg Co.’s Memphis, Tenn., cereal plant, until the company locked out him and 225 of his co-workers in October. While they missed the rest of the year’s paychecks—and continue to do so—Kellogg CEO John Bryant pocketed nearly $8 million in 2013 compensation...
Northwestern Football Players To Vote On Union Friday Chicago Tribune ...Northwestern University football players are scheduled to vote Friday morning on whether they want to be represented by a union. Northwestern, which is a private university, is not allowing reporters on campus at Welsh-Ryan arena, citing the players' wishes to avoid media attention...
US Workers Were Once Massacred Fighting For The Protections Being Rolled Back Today Moyers & Company ...On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard and a private militia employed by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company opened fire on a tent camp of striking coal miners at Ludlow, Colorado. At least 19 people died in the camp that day, mostly women and children...
Miscellaneous
Students Seek Loan Forgiveness In Overwhelming Numbers MSNBC ...Enrollment in federal student loan debt forgiveness programs skyrocketed nearly 40 percent in the last 6 months, the U.S. Education Department told the Wall Street Journal as education costs rise...
New Records: IRS Targeted Progressive Groups More Extensively Than Tea Party ThinkProgress ...A series of IRS documents, provided to ThinkProgress under the Freedom of Information Act, appears to contradict the claims by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that only Tea Party organizations applying for tax-exempt status “received systematic scrutiny because of their political beliefs.”...
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.23.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Urge Buffalo Common Council To Keep Rural Metro Contract The Buffalo News ...The unionized workforce of Buffalo's exclusive ambulance provider came to city hall today to urge the common council not to change providers...
Trade
Obama Faces Headwinds On Trans-Pacific Partnership In East Asia Trip South China Morning Post ...As US President Barack Obama embarks on a four-nation Asian tour, his effort to push the economic side of the US "rebalancing" towards the Asia-Pacific faces hurdles...
Abe-Obama Deal On TPP Unlikely The Japan Times ...Japan and the United States are not expected to announce a broad bilateral agreement for a Pacific trade pact when their leaders meet Thursday in Tokyo, as they remain considerably apart over the issue of market access for agricultural products and automobiles...
State Battles
Missouri Considers Right-To-Work Law The Patriot Post ...Following on the heels of some of its Midwest regional neighbors, Missouri's legislature is considering right-to-work legislation. With a heavily Republican legislature it seemed like passage would be a slam dunk. But that hasn't turned out to be the case...
Ohio Labor Supporters Gain Valuable Lesson From Missouri Right To Work Fight PR News Channel ...In Ohio, union supporters have so far kept the legislature off the ballot and are working tirelessly to ensure Right to Work doesn’t gain a foothold in their state....
War on Workers
The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest New York Times ...After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans...
Moving in with parents becomes more common for the middle-aged Los Angeles Times ...For seven years through 2012, the number of Californians aged 50 to 64 who live in their parents' homes swelled 67.6% to about 194,000, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. The jump is almost exclusively the result of financial hardship caused by the recession...
Cabdrivers Seek To Unionize To Push Case For Fair Hike Chicago Sun Times ...Tired of waiting nine years for a fair increase and being pushed around as independent contractors, Chicago cab drivers are trying a different tack to press their case for a "living wage"...
White House approves stricter coal dust rule The Hill ...The rule was proposed in 2010 by the Mine Health and Safety Administration in an attempt to reduce black lung disease, a deadly condition that kills hundreds of miners each year and is caused by coal dust...
Sherpas Move to Shut Everest in Labor Fight New York Times ...The avalanche that killed at least 13 Sherpas last Friday has prompted an extraordinary labor dispute, as Mount Everest’s quiet workhorses took steps on Tuesday to shut down the mountain for the season, demanding that the government share proceeds from what has become a multimillion-dollar business...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Michigan Affirmative Action Ban Think Progress ...The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Michigan's ban on affirmative action in higher education Tuesday morning, in the latest ruling to effectively weaken affirmative action without killing it...
Teamsters Urge Buffalo Common Council To Keep Rural Metro Contract The Buffalo News ...The unionized workforce of Buffalo's exclusive ambulance provider came to city hall today to urge the common council not to change providers...
Trade
Obama Faces Headwinds On Trans-Pacific Partnership In East Asia Trip South China Morning Post ...As US President Barack Obama embarks on a four-nation Asian tour, his effort to push the economic side of the US "rebalancing" towards the Asia-Pacific faces hurdles...
Abe-Obama Deal On TPP Unlikely The Japan Times ...Japan and the United States are not expected to announce a broad bilateral agreement for a Pacific trade pact when their leaders meet Thursday in Tokyo, as they remain considerably apart over the issue of market access for agricultural products and automobiles...
State Battles
Missouri Considers Right-To-Work Law The Patriot Post ...Following on the heels of some of its Midwest regional neighbors, Missouri's legislature is considering right-to-work legislation. With a heavily Republican legislature it seemed like passage would be a slam dunk. But that hasn't turned out to be the case...
Ohio Labor Supporters Gain Valuable Lesson From Missouri Right To Work Fight PR News Channel ...In Ohio, union supporters have so far kept the legislature off the ballot and are working tirelessly to ensure Right to Work doesn’t gain a foothold in their state....
War on Workers
The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest New York Times ...After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans...
Moving in with parents becomes more common for the middle-aged Los Angeles Times ...For seven years through 2012, the number of Californians aged 50 to 64 who live in their parents' homes swelled 67.6% to about 194,000, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. The jump is almost exclusively the result of financial hardship caused by the recession...
Cabdrivers Seek To Unionize To Push Case For Fair Hike Chicago Sun Times ...Tired of waiting nine years for a fair increase and being pushed around as independent contractors, Chicago cab drivers are trying a different tack to press their case for a "living wage"...
White House approves stricter coal dust rule The Hill ...The rule was proposed in 2010 by the Mine Health and Safety Administration in an attempt to reduce black lung disease, a deadly condition that kills hundreds of miners each year and is caused by coal dust...
Sherpas Move to Shut Everest in Labor Fight New York Times ...The avalanche that killed at least 13 Sherpas last Friday has prompted an extraordinary labor dispute, as Mount Everest’s quiet workhorses took steps on Tuesday to shut down the mountain for the season, demanding that the government share proceeds from what has become a multimillion-dollar business...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Michigan Affirmative Action Ban Think Progress ...The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Michigan's ban on affirmative action in higher education Tuesday morning, in the latest ruling to effectively weaken affirmative action without killing it...
Monday, July 29, 2013
Unions cautioned about surveillance
In These Times cautioned last week about the potential dangers posed by government
surveillance to labor unions.
Efforts to monitor labor activists go back to the 19th
century, when the Pinkerton Detective Agency surveilled, infiltrated and ultimately brought down Pennsylvania miner activists known as the Molly Maguires in the 1870s.
Will it?
Sam Adler-Bell and David Segal detail the long and troubled
history of the federal government spying on unions and their leaders in an
effort to quash their activities. But most distressingly, it explains how such efforts
continue today. There’s
plenty of evidence that the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other
U.S. intelligence agency are working on behalf of Wall Street and multinational
corporations:
All this points to the fact that today’s ever-expanding surveillance state should strike fear into the heart of organized labor not only because there is opportunity for abuse, but because there is motive. Thanks to Citizens United, the funding of most major political campaigns by the richest fraction of society, and the increasing coziness of Washington and Wall Street, we’re living in a moment in which the interests of the U.S. government and its representatives are increasingly synonymous with the interests of the wealthy, the banks, and major corporations.
There has been no shortage of incidents in this century as
well, ranging from the New York Police Department wiretapping the phones of labor organizations in
1916 to Sen. Joseph McCarthy calling union supporters Communists and blacklisting them for employment during the 1950s.
Now with the technology available, surveillance is even
easier. The article notes that employers increasingly monitor strikers and
other workers deemed “trouble makers” using cameras and videotaping
capabilities available on most cell phones:It’s this reality—that the NSA’s new spying powers represent an extension of the kind of repression regularly engaged in by union-busting employers across the country—that we hope the rest of the labor movement will come to appreciate.
Will it?
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Today's Teamster News 02.21.12
America’s last hope: A strong labor movement Salon ...Americans give up their individual freedom and democratic voice every single day they walk into work. The workplace is an authoritarian dictatorship, and we accept this as legitimate...
U.S. oil gusher blows out projections Houston Chronicle ...many say the booming shale oil fields in Texas and North Dakota and the growth of deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico will allow the nation to cut its reliance on oil imports significantly over the next couple of decades...
Some Doubt a Settlement Will End Mortgage Ills New York Times ...Even as government officials prepare to unveil new standards this week for how banks treat millions of Americans facing foreclosure, housing advocates and homeowners are skeptical the rules will be able to do something past efforts have not: provide a beleaguered borrower with one individual to help them navigate the mortgage maze...
Massachusetts Home Seizures Threatened in Loan Case: Mortgages Bloomberg Business Week ...The highest court in Massachusetts is poised to rule as soon as this month on a foreclosure case that could lead to a surge in claims from home owners seeking to overturn seizures...
Cooper Tire, drivers of fleet trucks reach deal Toledo Blade ...Cooper said the drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 20, gave final approval Saturday. The new contract is a three-year agreement, though terms weren't revealed...
Teamsters union may soon represent employees at Production Engineering MLive.com ...Alan Sprague, president of the Teamsters Local 164, confirmed Monday the union has put out a petition to hold an election March 16 at Production Engineering...
U.S. oil gusher blows out projections Houston Chronicle ...many say the booming shale oil fields in Texas and North Dakota and the growth of deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico will allow the nation to cut its reliance on oil imports significantly over the next couple of decades...
Some Doubt a Settlement Will End Mortgage Ills New York Times ...Even as government officials prepare to unveil new standards this week for how banks treat millions of Americans facing foreclosure, housing advocates and homeowners are skeptical the rules will be able to do something past efforts have not: provide a beleaguered borrower with one individual to help them navigate the mortgage maze...
Massachusetts Home Seizures Threatened in Loan Case: Mortgages Bloomberg Business Week ...The highest court in Massachusetts is poised to rule as soon as this month on a foreclosure case that could lead to a surge in claims from home owners seeking to overturn seizures...
Cooper Tire, drivers of fleet trucks reach deal Toledo Blade ...Cooper said the drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 20, gave final approval Saturday. The new contract is a three-year agreement, though terms weren't revealed...
Teamsters union may soon represent employees at Production Engineering MLive.com ...Alan Sprague, president of the Teamsters Local 164, confirmed Monday the union has put out a petition to hold an election March 16 at Production Engineering...
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