Teamsters
Teamsters and Coalition of Unions Reach Tentative Agreement with American Red Cross Teamster.org ...After several months of serious negotiations, the Teamsters, as part of a union coalition, have come to a tentative agreement for members working at American Red Cross. The agreement, once voted on by the membership, will impact more than 1,100 Teamsters at 18 different local unions...
Sun Tran riders warned to prepare for driver strike Arizona Daily Star ...While union contract negotiations are underway, Sun Tran officials and union leaders warned bus riders to prepare for the possibility of a strike. Professional Transit Management of Tucson and Teamsters Local 104 have been in talks since June 17, and last week agreed to a five-day contract extension that expires at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday...
Plaque marks site where Minneapolis cops fired on striking workers People's World ...One day shy of the 81st anniversary, 200-plus people gathered in the warehouse district in downtown Minneapolis on July 19 to unveil a plaque marking the spot where city police opened fire July 20, 1934, on unarmed striking members and supporters of Teamsters Local 574...
Global Labor & Trade
Canada, Mexico drawn into deal-breaking auto talks in Trans-Pacific negotiations Globe and Mail ...Canada and Mexico are joining forces to try to break a major logjam over Japanese autos at the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, working to come up with a solution that preserves their respective vehicle assemblers and parts makers should a deal open North America to greater Asian imports. Ottawa and Mexico City have been drawn deeply into a contentious issue at the Pacific Rim talks that held up a deal in Hawaii last week...
Kerry Hails Progress Toward Trans-Pacific Trade Pact, Despite Delays New York Times ...Days after negotiators failed to wrap up an Asia trade agreement, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed confidence on Tuesday that the pact would be completed, calling it vital for the economic well-being of the region. “We made progress, good progress, in our negotiations toward one of the most significant trade agreements in history, the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Mr. Kerry said...
Trans-Pacific Partnership talks stall NW Labor Press ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)— a proposed 12-nation NAFTA-style deal — is on ice. The corporate-led agreement is a top priority for the Obama Administration, and it was supposed to be finalized at a July 28-31 summit of trade ministers in Maui. Instead, the summit ended July 31 without a deal, and without any further dates set for negotiation. The talks have been conducted entirely in secret, and even the U.S. proposals are classified...
Australia wants exposure to future U.S. sugar demand in trade pact Reuters ...Australia is seeking a guaranteed slice of any growth in demand in the U.S. sugar market in talks with Washington on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, a source with knowledge of the Australian position said. Australia, the world's third-largest exporter of raw sugar, has rejected a U.S. offer to permit 152,000 tonnes of imports per year, or 62,000 tonnes more than typical annual sales, according to data from Australia's commodity forecaster...
TTIP: what does the transatlantic trade deal mean for renewable energy? The Guardian ...In July the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) came a step closer to reality. Formal talks have been ongoing for two years, but trying to create the world’s biggest free trade zone is no mean feat. Essentially, if passed, the EU and US will be able to trade without each other’s pesky tariffs or regulations getting in the way. Currently, the only energy sources traded in significant amounts between the EU and the US are refined petroleum products and solid fuels – but TTIP could allow Europe to gain access to US crude oil and natural gas resources...
Greece needs wide debt relief to avoid permanent depression, thinktank warns The Guardian ...Greece’s economy will suffer fresh damage from the austerity measures demanded by its creditors and will remain stuck in permanent depression unless it receives substantial debt relief, one of the UK’s leading thinktanks has warned. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the increases in VAT reluctantly accepted by the Syriza-led coalition in Athens in exchange for a new bail out will result in a 1% fall in national output in 2016...
London Underground workers strike over 24 hour tube, ‘gaping holes in staffing’ RT ...stations expected to close, as workers reject Transport for London’s (TFL) pay offer for the proposed 24 hour tube service. Attacking the night tube project, Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Cash said: “Londoners need to be aware that the night tube was rushed and botched from the off”...
State & Living Wage Battles
Kansas Moves to Implement $25 ATM Withdrawal Limit for Welfare Recipients McClatchy ...Kansas plans to keep a controversial $25 limit on ATM withdrawals by welfare recipients, despite the possibility that the restriction might violate federal law. Despite legislation passed earlier this year to raise the limit, or do away with it entirely, a newly revised version of Kansas' welfare plan does not permit withdrawals of more than $25 per transaction per day...
The Bank Employees Who Make Less Than $15 An Hour Think Progress ...Tthe majority of people who work for banks in fact make far less. The most common occupation is bank teller, and nearly three-quarters of them make less than $15 an hour, according to an analysis from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) provided exclusively to ThinkProgress. Nearly a half million people work as bank tellers. Their median hourly wage is just $12.44, and 74.1 percent make less than $15...
Puerto Rico Crisis Goes From Bad to Worse Mother Jones ...Puerto Rico's economic crisis has only gotten worse in the month since Gov. Alejandro García Padilla told the New York Times the island's $72 billion in debts was "not payable." Earlier this week, the island missed a key bond payment, making history and setting the stage for a bruising and protracted battle with creditors. There are many reasons Puerto Rico finds itself in this quandary, including its murky political status, and the situation seems to be deteriorating as time goes on...
Local right-to-work laws challenged in federal court WKYT ...The national battle over compulsory labor union dues landed in a Kentucky federal courthouse on Tuesday as a handful of unions tried to convince a judge to throw out a series of local laws designed to end closed shops. States have had the ability to outlaw mandatory union dues as a condition of employment for decades. But the question of whether local governments can do the same has not been fully decided...
The 7 most dangerous myths about a $15 minimum wage Salon ...What was once a fringe movement led largely by far left liberals has become a major media story and trending topic on Twitter: Workers, politicians, and even business owners are fighting for a higher minimum wage. And despite these successes, myths about what increased wages mean for America’s economy and workers continue to prevail, making the rounds in Facebook memes and even real news reports...
O’Malley Endorses a Constitutional Amendment Protecting the Right to Vote The Nation ...Five decades after the great advances of 1964 and 1965, the Voting Rights Act has been assaulted by Republican governor and legislators and the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, forcing activists to launch new campaigns to renew its core provisions. On Tuesday, the right-to-vote amendment proposal gained the enthusiastic support of a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley...
What’s The Matter With Kansas? They’re Losing All Their Teachers Think Progress ...Kansas embarked on an experiment with radical right-wing policies since Governor Sam Brownback (R) was elected in 2010, and it failed miserably. The centerpiece of the project, led by Governor Sam Brownback, was huge tax cuts, largely for wealthy individuals and businesses, based on the Republican orthodoxy that tax cuts create jobs. Now, a teacher shortage appears to be the latest consequence of Kansas’ abject failure to manage its economy...
Challenges expected to paid sick leave law Post-Gazette ...Brushing aside concerns about the speed of the legislation and the limits of its own authority, Pittsburgh City Council overwhelmingly approved a law Monday that will require all employers within the city borders to provide paid sick leave, part of a nationwide push to extend the benefit to millions who lack it. Council members and supporters, including Pittsburgh United, a coalition of unions, community organizations and advocacy groups, heralded the law as a just, common-sense measure...
U.S. Labor
NLRB Finds Retaliation After Capitol Food Worker Strike Roll Call ...The National Labor Relations Board has found that the Capitol’s food-service vendor likely violated labor laws when supervisors retaliated against workers who went on strike. In two separate cases, the NLRB found merit in allegations of retaliation, which included charges of interrogation and coercive statements. Workers in the Capitol Visitor Center and the Dirksen Senate Office Building filed unfair labor practice charges against Restaurant Associates in April and May, respectively, following an April 22 strike for higher wages and union representation...
Nurses protest at St. Petersburg General Hospital, claiming staffing shortages Tampa Bay ...Dozens of nurses formed a picket line outside St. Petersburg General Hospital late Monday to protest insufficient staffing levels and "dismal" wages. The nurses, affiliated with the labor union National Nurses United, allege hospital administrators have routinely ignored the staffing plan meant to ensure high-quality patient care...
Strike Over! IATSE Wins ‘Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge’ Contract Deadline ...A week and a half after the picket lines went up at the offices of 51 Minds Entertainment, the union and the production company for Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge have reached a deal. Agreed to late last night, the IATSE contract sees the post-crew back at work today with enshrined health and pension benefits...
Board rules Teach for America members in Detroit can be in teachers unions MLive ...The National Labor Relations Board ruled Friday that Teach for America teachers in a Detroit charter school have the right to be a part of a union. According to a statement from the Michigan Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, the NLRB said Friday 14 Teach for America corps members should have been able to vote in an election last spring...
Clark County, SEIU trade final jabs Review Journal ...At one point, Clark County's attorney asked the union president if his organization's bargaining position was "greedy." In another instance, the union's attorney accused the county of "arrogance." Those jabs and others are laid bare in a lengthy transcript of the arbitration proceedings between the county and its largest union, the Service Employees International Union Local 1107. The two-day July hearing was the culmination of a two-year stretch of stalled contract negotiations between the two that started in 2013...
Netflix Now Giving Employees 'Unlimited' Maternity, Paternity Leave Huffington Post ...Netflix on Tuesday announced that it would offer something completely unheard of in the corporate world: unlimited parental leave for the first year of a child's life. "We want employees to have the flexibility and confidence to balance the needs of their growing families without worrying about work or finances. Parents can return part-time, full-time, or return and then go back out as needed," said Tawni Cranz, Netflix’s Chief Talent Officer in a statement...
Janus Youth Programs employees vote to join AFSCME NW Labor Press ...esidential treatment employees at Janus Youth Programs in Portland voted 26-12 to join Oregon AFSCME. There are 49 employees in the bargaining unit. They will join Local 1790, newly established for Basic Rights Oregon employees. Janus Youth is a private non-profit that operates around Portland. The clients range from age 13 to 21, with those 18 and older housed separately from the younger kids...
A remarkable look at the gap between black and white unemployment Washington Post ...Valerie Wilson at the Economic Policy Institute breaks out data on unemployment by race and state and quarter, allowing for a more refined look at this racial split on jobs. "Nationally" in the second quarter, she writes, "African Americans had the highest unemployment rate, at 9.5 percent, followed by Latinos (6.6 percent), whites (4.6 percent), and Asians (3.8 percent)." What's more, she notes, the state with the lowest black unemployment, Tennessee, had the same unemployment rate for blacks as the white unemployment rate in the state with the highest white unemployment...
The Persistent Stereotype About Latino Workers That Won’t Die Think Progress ...During a live taping of The View on Tuesday, guest co-host Kelly Osbourne sparked some outrage among viewers when she stereotyped Latinos as toilet cleaners as a way to rebuke 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The stereotype is rooted in some reality: Latinos do disproportionately work in the agriculture and service industry. The issue with fixating on the stereotype of Latinos who hold low-wage jobs isn’t that it’s demeaning work, but that it’s demeaning pay for the amount of physical labor involved...
Social Justice & Other News
Despite Epic Crash of World Economy, White Collar Prosecutions at 20-Year Low Common Dreams ...Despite lofty rhetoric from politicians who vowed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to hold Wall Street accountable, U.S. Justice Department statistics show a "long-term collapse" of federal white collar crime prosecutions, which are down to their lowest level in 20 years, according to a new report from Syracuse University. The analysis of thousands of records by the university's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) shows a more than 36 percent decline...
A Judge’s Rebuke of Immigration Detention (opinion) New York Times ...Children do not belong in prison. The mass detention of families offends American values, a lesson this country learned long ago at Manzanar, Tule Lake, Heart Mountain and the other Japanese-American internment camps of World War II. Learned, but apparently forgotten by the Obama administration, which has just been ordered by a federal judge to release several hundred women and children locked up in its immigration detention centers in southern Texas...
Black and White: Survey Reveals Huge Disparities in Assessing Police Violence Common Dreams ...Just days ahead of the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's killing by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri—a death which propelled the national Black Lives Matter movement and a national conversation about racialized police violence to the forefront—a new poll released Wednesday reveals just how different the perceptions and experiences regarding law enforcement in the United States remain for black community members compared to their white counterparts...
Showing posts with label nurses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nurses. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.21.15
Teamsters
Port truck drivers to wage 6th strike beginning Tuesday Press-Telegram ...Port truck drivers at a Carson-based company announced Monday they will again walk off the job to protest what they describe as wage theft and unfair working conditions. Drivers with Pacific 9 Transportation will begin pickets at 6 a.m. Tuesday at the company’s yard in Carson, then spread to marine terminals at the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is trying to win unionization for the drivers...
Teamsters Deliver Results for Annual Food Drive Teamster.org ...This year’s sixth annual “Feed the County” campaign in Aroostook County, Maine, once again garnered a successful result thanks to efforts by Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland, Maine. At Saturday’s “Potato Blossom Parade” in Fort Fairfield, Maine, the Teamsters collected 10,000 pounds of food. They also raised $6,000 in monetary donations. This allows Catholic Charities to obtain 54,000 pounds of food...
Minneapolis Teamsters Commemorate '34 Teamsters Strikes (video) Teamster.org ...Former General Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel joined Local 120 staffer (and granddaughter) Haylee Hilton to discuss the significance of the first marker to commemorate the historic 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strikes. The marker was unveiled during a June 18 ceremony in the city's Warehouse District...
Negotiations remain at standstill between EVSC Board and Teamsters Courier & Press ...Two weeks after the July 6 Evansville Vanderburgh School Board meeting, which was overflowing into the administration building’s lobby with Teamsters Local 215 members, collective bargaining sessions between the two groups remain at a standstill. Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey said nothing new has happened since the last school board meeting...
Global Labor & Trade
House Democrats, Advocates Blast Trade Deal Protections For Drug Companies Huffington Post ...House Democrats and health care advocates blasted drug patent provisions in a current draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement on Friday, criticizing the Obama administration for advancing policies that could drive up drug global drug costs. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), together with health advocates and a representative of the generic drug maker Mylan, called on the Obama administration to change aspects of the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact...
EU TTIP chief negotiator: ISDS proposal being finalized Politico ...The European Union will soon give the United States a formal proposal for revamping an investment dispute settlement mechanism that has raised concerns in Europe over the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership pact. “We would be aiming to put forward a proposal to the United States that is different from the existing ISDS [investor-state dispute settlement] regime,” Ignacio Garcia Bercero, the EU chief TTIP negotiator, told reporters...
House Dems: Financial safeguards needed in trade deal The Hill ...Four House Democrats on Monday urged the Obama administration to ensure that a pending Asia-Pacific trade deal includes strong capital controls that would help minimize the damaging effects of financial crises. The lawmakers want the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to give governments more flexibility to protect the stability of their financial systems by stemming the flow of speculative capital...
Pacific Partnership needs reform before it will help workers: Richard Trumka (opinion) USA Today ...The debate over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has just begun and workers in dozens of industries from every sector are going to have plenty to say about it. The last six months mark a fundamental shift in how our nation approaches and evaluates international trade proposals. Since before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), international trade has been treated as a "no-brainer," the sole purview of corporate and neo-liberal elites...
Greek banks reopen as citizens brace for new austerity measures Christian Science Monitor ...Orderly lines formed outside banks in Athens Monday morning as Greek banks reopened for the first time in three weeks. With the government contemplating withdrawing from the euro, faced with about €200 billion in debt, and the prospect of harsh austerity measures attached to any bailout from Europe – Greek banks had been shuttered for weeks to prevent the financial system from collapsing under a flood of withdrawals...
How Can Greece Break Out of the Austerity Trap? The Nation ...Greek banks have reopened this week, but Greece’s economy remains trapped in a tragic financial standoff—ironically, an economic war orchestrated by the monetary system originally designed to promote peaceful cooperation. So as the protests, financial panic, and political brinksmanship run their course, can anyone envision Greece actually rebuilding from this mess? ...
Bitterness remains as Crown Metal workers end 2-year strike The Star ...After a strike that spanned two bitter winters, the taste of victory is far from sweet for the workers of Crown Metal packaging. Employees narrowly voted Sunday night to ratify a new collective agreement with the Toronto-based beer can manufacturer, after one of province’s longest pickets in recent history...
State & Living Wage Battles
Bills seek more stable hours for low-paid workers Boston Globe ...Unpredictable scheduling is on the rise across the country as the part-time and around-the-clock labor force expands, and there is a growing movement to give employees, most of them low-wage, more control over when they work. A federal bill reintroduced last week and cosponsored by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, as well as bills in 10 states, including Massachusetts, would require employers to stabilize schedules...
Members Of Congress Introduce Largest Minimum Wage Hike Yet Think Progress ...On Wednesday, members of Congress will introduce a national increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) along with Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison (MN), Raúl Grijalva (AZ), and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will release details of the legislation after a morning event that day. A $15 minimum wage hike marks a significant increase from past Democratic bills to raise it...
Sanders to push $15 minimum wage bill The Hill ...Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing new legislation to raise the minimum wage for all workers to $15 an hour. The Democratic presidential candidate, who has made addressing income inequality a centerpiece of his campaign, will introduce the minimum wage bill Wednesday. Sanders has long called for a $15 minimum wage, but this is the first bill he is introducing to do so...
Wisconsin dairy farmers push for immigration reform Journal Sentinel ...Wisconsin dairy farmers are pushing for immigration reform, saying they need a federal labor policy that guarantees they will have enough employees to maintain and expand their businesses. By some estimates, nearly half or more of the hired help on U.S. dairy farms is immigrant labor — with a large percentage of those workers being undocumented. Without the foreign help, some farmers say, they would be forced to quit milking cows...
Florida Legislature to redraw congressional lines in August Associated Press ...Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature, dealing with the fallout of a sharply critical decision by the state's highest court, will hold a nearly two-week special session in August to draw up new congressional districts. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner finally announced Monday that they were summoning legislators back to town to respond to the court. In an extraordinary ruling earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court gave lawmakers just 100 days to draw up the new map...
How Hedge and Vulture Funds Have Exploited Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis The Nation ...over the past few years there’s been a growing presence of hedge funds, which avoid regulatory oversight and are solely interested in profit, regardless of how a national—or in the case of Puerto Rico, territorial—economy performs. Vulture funds, their more extreme counterparts, specifically target debt that is distressed or in danger of default in troubled economies, hoping to cash in on settlements after buying the debt for pennies on the dollar...
L.A. County supervisors set to vote on minimum wage increase LA Times ...Los Angeles County supervisors are expected to vote Tuesday to boost the minimum wage in county-controlled unincorporated areas from $9 to $15 over the next few years, following the lead of the city of Los Angeles. The anticipated vote could put the greater Los Angeles area on track to a $15-an-hour regional wage -- or could result in a patchwork system in which some of the 87 smaller independent cities in the county move to a higher wage and others hold out...
U.S. Labor
N.M. Field and Dairy Laborers Win Right To Workers’ Comp—Court Calls Exemption ‘Absurd’ In These Times ...The New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled in June that excluding field and ranch workers from workers’ comp protection is unconstitutional. It was the second victory for New Mexico’s farmworkers in less than a year—and that’s big news in a low-wage sector made up primarily of immigrant workers, where victories tend to be few and far between. The first victory came last August when farmworkers finally started getting paid the correct minimum wage...
NLRB: Wilkes-Barre General Hospital violated federal law by withholding nurses’ longevity pay Times Leader ...The National Labor Relations Board has upheld a ruling that Wilkes-Barre General Hospital violated federal labor law when it withheld longevity-based pay from nurses last year. In an order dated July 14, the NLRB upheld the decision of Administrative Law Judge Susan A. Flynn, who ruled in September that the hospital violated the National Labor Relations Act when it failed to pay longevity-based wage increases to nurses after their union contract expired...
Unions’ New Target For Improving T-Mobile: The German Government Buzzfeed ...Telecommunications workers in America and Europe are petitioning the German Bundestag, or parliament, to take responsibility for labor conditions at U.S.-based T-Mobile. The German government owns a 31.7% share in Deutsche Telekom, the primary parent company of T-Mobile. This is enough, workers at Germany’s ver.di union and the U.S. Communications Workers of America argue, to mean the government should use its shareholder power to pressure Deutsche Telekom into enforcing international labor standards at its subsidiary...
The UAW and two tier employment Michigan Radio ...The UAW thinks their membership has sacrificed enough. Most of their higher-paid longtime, or “legacy,” workers make $28.50 an hour. But they haven’t had a raise in eight years, which, in reality, means they’ve had a pay cut. And the newer, Tier II workers can make a maximum of $19.28 an hour, which means that some workers are making more than $300 dollars a week less than another guy next to them who is doing the same job...
Miscellaneous
Smashing All Previous Records, 2015 on Track to Be Hottest Year Yet Common Dreams ...The planet Earth, with mankind's help, is leap-frogging into sweltering new territory. With the monthly update from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) out Monday, three of the world's official climate reporting agencies agree that June 2015 was the hottest on record, and that this year is shaping up to be the hottest year yet. Scientists attribute this heat to human-induced global warming coupled with a particularly potent El Niño event...
Hillary Clinton—'Black lives matter. Everyone in this country should stand firmly behind that.' Daily Kos ...Although there is a tremendous amount of debate happening in the world of progressive activists about the #BlackLivesMatter protests at the conference over the weekend, there can be no denying they have elevated this debate to an unprecedented level. Their tenacious, relentless protesting means that real criminal justice reform will be a topic that no presidential candidate will be able to skirt if he or she wants to have any serious chance for the nomination or the White House...
Sandra Bland and the Long History of Racism in Waller County, Texas The Atlantic ...Waller County, Texas, has had a complicated racial history since the days when it was a part of Mexico. The messy, confusing double legacy of that history has persisted to the present, most recently embodied in the death of Sandra Bland in a Waller County jail cell. Bland, a 28-year-old from Chicago, was on a road trip to start a new job at her alma mater, historically black Prairie View A&M University, when she was pulled over by a state trooper for failing to signal a turn...
Red States 'Feel The Bern' as Populist Message Resonates Common Dreams ...On his latest round of campaign rallies this weekend, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drew three more huge crowds in support of his populist message. And while this has become a common occurrence these days for the senator, who is running for president in the 2016 election as a Democrat, the most recent turnouts are particularly significant because he is on a red-state swing...
Port truck drivers to wage 6th strike beginning Tuesday Press-Telegram ...Port truck drivers at a Carson-based company announced Monday they will again walk off the job to protest what they describe as wage theft and unfair working conditions. Drivers with Pacific 9 Transportation will begin pickets at 6 a.m. Tuesday at the company’s yard in Carson, then spread to marine terminals at the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is trying to win unionization for the drivers...
Teamsters Deliver Results for Annual Food Drive Teamster.org ...This year’s sixth annual “Feed the County” campaign in Aroostook County, Maine, once again garnered a successful result thanks to efforts by Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland, Maine. At Saturday’s “Potato Blossom Parade” in Fort Fairfield, Maine, the Teamsters collected 10,000 pounds of food. They also raised $6,000 in monetary donations. This allows Catholic Charities to obtain 54,000 pounds of food...
Minneapolis Teamsters Commemorate '34 Teamsters Strikes (video) Teamster.org ...Former General Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel joined Local 120 staffer (and granddaughter) Haylee Hilton to discuss the significance of the first marker to commemorate the historic 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strikes. The marker was unveiled during a June 18 ceremony in the city's Warehouse District...
Negotiations remain at standstill between EVSC Board and Teamsters Courier & Press ...Two weeks after the July 6 Evansville Vanderburgh School Board meeting, which was overflowing into the administration building’s lobby with Teamsters Local 215 members, collective bargaining sessions between the two groups remain at a standstill. Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey said nothing new has happened since the last school board meeting...
Global Labor & Trade
House Democrats, Advocates Blast Trade Deal Protections For Drug Companies Huffington Post ...House Democrats and health care advocates blasted drug patent provisions in a current draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement on Friday, criticizing the Obama administration for advancing policies that could drive up drug global drug costs. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), together with health advocates and a representative of the generic drug maker Mylan, called on the Obama administration to change aspects of the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact...
EU TTIP chief negotiator: ISDS proposal being finalized Politico ...The European Union will soon give the United States a formal proposal for revamping an investment dispute settlement mechanism that has raised concerns in Europe over the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership pact. “We would be aiming to put forward a proposal to the United States that is different from the existing ISDS [investor-state dispute settlement] regime,” Ignacio Garcia Bercero, the EU chief TTIP negotiator, told reporters...
House Dems: Financial safeguards needed in trade deal The Hill ...Four House Democrats on Monday urged the Obama administration to ensure that a pending Asia-Pacific trade deal includes strong capital controls that would help minimize the damaging effects of financial crises. The lawmakers want the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to give governments more flexibility to protect the stability of their financial systems by stemming the flow of speculative capital...
Pacific Partnership needs reform before it will help workers: Richard Trumka (opinion) USA Today ...The debate over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has just begun and workers in dozens of industries from every sector are going to have plenty to say about it. The last six months mark a fundamental shift in how our nation approaches and evaluates international trade proposals. Since before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), international trade has been treated as a "no-brainer," the sole purview of corporate and neo-liberal elites...
Greek banks reopen as citizens brace for new austerity measures Christian Science Monitor ...Orderly lines formed outside banks in Athens Monday morning as Greek banks reopened for the first time in three weeks. With the government contemplating withdrawing from the euro, faced with about €200 billion in debt, and the prospect of harsh austerity measures attached to any bailout from Europe – Greek banks had been shuttered for weeks to prevent the financial system from collapsing under a flood of withdrawals...
How Can Greece Break Out of the Austerity Trap? The Nation ...Greek banks have reopened this week, but Greece’s economy remains trapped in a tragic financial standoff—ironically, an economic war orchestrated by the monetary system originally designed to promote peaceful cooperation. So as the protests, financial panic, and political brinksmanship run their course, can anyone envision Greece actually rebuilding from this mess? ...
Bitterness remains as Crown Metal workers end 2-year strike The Star ...After a strike that spanned two bitter winters, the taste of victory is far from sweet for the workers of Crown Metal packaging. Employees narrowly voted Sunday night to ratify a new collective agreement with the Toronto-based beer can manufacturer, after one of province’s longest pickets in recent history...
State & Living Wage Battles
Bills seek more stable hours for low-paid workers Boston Globe ...Unpredictable scheduling is on the rise across the country as the part-time and around-the-clock labor force expands, and there is a growing movement to give employees, most of them low-wage, more control over when they work. A federal bill reintroduced last week and cosponsored by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, as well as bills in 10 states, including Massachusetts, would require employers to stabilize schedules...
Members Of Congress Introduce Largest Minimum Wage Hike Yet Think Progress ...On Wednesday, members of Congress will introduce a national increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) along with Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison (MN), Raúl Grijalva (AZ), and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will release details of the legislation after a morning event that day. A $15 minimum wage hike marks a significant increase from past Democratic bills to raise it...
Sanders to push $15 minimum wage bill The Hill ...Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing new legislation to raise the minimum wage for all workers to $15 an hour. The Democratic presidential candidate, who has made addressing income inequality a centerpiece of his campaign, will introduce the minimum wage bill Wednesday. Sanders has long called for a $15 minimum wage, but this is the first bill he is introducing to do so...
Wisconsin dairy farmers push for immigration reform Journal Sentinel ...Wisconsin dairy farmers are pushing for immigration reform, saying they need a federal labor policy that guarantees they will have enough employees to maintain and expand their businesses. By some estimates, nearly half or more of the hired help on U.S. dairy farms is immigrant labor — with a large percentage of those workers being undocumented. Without the foreign help, some farmers say, they would be forced to quit milking cows...
Florida Legislature to redraw congressional lines in August Associated Press ...Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature, dealing with the fallout of a sharply critical decision by the state's highest court, will hold a nearly two-week special session in August to draw up new congressional districts. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner finally announced Monday that they were summoning legislators back to town to respond to the court. In an extraordinary ruling earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court gave lawmakers just 100 days to draw up the new map...
How Hedge and Vulture Funds Have Exploited Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis The Nation ...over the past few years there’s been a growing presence of hedge funds, which avoid regulatory oversight and are solely interested in profit, regardless of how a national—or in the case of Puerto Rico, territorial—economy performs. Vulture funds, their more extreme counterparts, specifically target debt that is distressed or in danger of default in troubled economies, hoping to cash in on settlements after buying the debt for pennies on the dollar...
L.A. County supervisors set to vote on minimum wage increase LA Times ...Los Angeles County supervisors are expected to vote Tuesday to boost the minimum wage in county-controlled unincorporated areas from $9 to $15 over the next few years, following the lead of the city of Los Angeles. The anticipated vote could put the greater Los Angeles area on track to a $15-an-hour regional wage -- or could result in a patchwork system in which some of the 87 smaller independent cities in the county move to a higher wage and others hold out...
U.S. Labor
N.M. Field and Dairy Laborers Win Right To Workers’ Comp—Court Calls Exemption ‘Absurd’ In These Times ...The New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled in June that excluding field and ranch workers from workers’ comp protection is unconstitutional. It was the second victory for New Mexico’s farmworkers in less than a year—and that’s big news in a low-wage sector made up primarily of immigrant workers, where victories tend to be few and far between. The first victory came last August when farmworkers finally started getting paid the correct minimum wage...
NLRB: Wilkes-Barre General Hospital violated federal law by withholding nurses’ longevity pay Times Leader ...The National Labor Relations Board has upheld a ruling that Wilkes-Barre General Hospital violated federal labor law when it withheld longevity-based pay from nurses last year. In an order dated July 14, the NLRB upheld the decision of Administrative Law Judge Susan A. Flynn, who ruled in September that the hospital violated the National Labor Relations Act when it failed to pay longevity-based wage increases to nurses after their union contract expired...
Unions’ New Target For Improving T-Mobile: The German Government Buzzfeed ...Telecommunications workers in America and Europe are petitioning the German Bundestag, or parliament, to take responsibility for labor conditions at U.S.-based T-Mobile. The German government owns a 31.7% share in Deutsche Telekom, the primary parent company of T-Mobile. This is enough, workers at Germany’s ver.di union and the U.S. Communications Workers of America argue, to mean the government should use its shareholder power to pressure Deutsche Telekom into enforcing international labor standards at its subsidiary...
The UAW and two tier employment Michigan Radio ...The UAW thinks their membership has sacrificed enough. Most of their higher-paid longtime, or “legacy,” workers make $28.50 an hour. But they haven’t had a raise in eight years, which, in reality, means they’ve had a pay cut. And the newer, Tier II workers can make a maximum of $19.28 an hour, which means that some workers are making more than $300 dollars a week less than another guy next to them who is doing the same job...
Miscellaneous
Smashing All Previous Records, 2015 on Track to Be Hottest Year Yet Common Dreams ...The planet Earth, with mankind's help, is leap-frogging into sweltering new territory. With the monthly update from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) out Monday, three of the world's official climate reporting agencies agree that June 2015 was the hottest on record, and that this year is shaping up to be the hottest year yet. Scientists attribute this heat to human-induced global warming coupled with a particularly potent El Niño event...
Hillary Clinton—'Black lives matter. Everyone in this country should stand firmly behind that.' Daily Kos ...Although there is a tremendous amount of debate happening in the world of progressive activists about the #BlackLivesMatter protests at the conference over the weekend, there can be no denying they have elevated this debate to an unprecedented level. Their tenacious, relentless protesting means that real criminal justice reform will be a topic that no presidential candidate will be able to skirt if he or she wants to have any serious chance for the nomination or the White House...
Sandra Bland and the Long History of Racism in Waller County, Texas The Atlantic ...Waller County, Texas, has had a complicated racial history since the days when it was a part of Mexico. The messy, confusing double legacy of that history has persisted to the present, most recently embodied in the death of Sandra Bland in a Waller County jail cell. Bland, a 28-year-old from Chicago, was on a road trip to start a new job at her alma mater, historically black Prairie View A&M University, when she was pulled over by a state trooper for failing to signal a turn...
Red States 'Feel The Bern' as Populist Message Resonates Common Dreams ...On his latest round of campaign rallies this weekend, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drew three more huge crowds in support of his populist message. And while this has become a common occurrence these days for the senator, who is running for president in the 2016 election as a Democrat, the most recent turnouts are particularly significant because he is on a red-state swing...
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.08.15
Teamsters
Teamsters warn Frontier Airlines over stalled contract talks The Denver Post ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division has asked the National Mediation Board to arbitrate its ongoing contract dispute with Denver-based Frontier Airlines. And, if that doesn't work, Frontier's union-represented aircraft technicians, ground service technicians and tool-room attendants could exercise their right to strike — a move that essentially could cripple Frontier's operations...
Labor union brings back food drive to feed the hungry in Maine Bangor Daily News ...For several years before 2014, the Teamsters Local 340 labor union used the annual Maine Potato Blossom Festival as a vehicle to feed the hungry throughout Aroostook County. But the organization lost major donors in the last couple of years and wasn’t able to sponsor the drive last year. The organization is back this year with the food drive and a float in the Maine Potato Blossom parade...
Biddeford City Council meeting ends abruptly WMTV ...Disputes over contracts between Biddeford officials and three employee unions shut down the City Council meeting after just a few minutes Tuesday night. Tensions were already high when union members poured into council chambers. Members of Biddeford’s police, public works and firefighters’ unions said councilors were trying to avoid talking about the contracts. City officials said they plan to meet with the Teamsters Local 340 in mediation...
1934 Teamsters’ strike turned Minneapolis from ‘scab’ town to union supporter MinnPost ...“No trucks shall be moved! By nobody!” was the rallying cry of Minneapolis Teamsters Local 574 as they struck in the summer of 1934. Their demands were clear: a fair wage, union recognition, and the trucking firms’ recognition of inside workers as part of the union. Despite the violent reaction of the authorities, the 574 won on all these points...
Global Labor & Trade
TPP ministers to gather in Hawaii July 28-29 Japan Times ...Pacific Rim countries pursuing a free trade initiative are set to hold ministerial talks on July 28 and 29 in Hawaii to wind up their marathon negotiations, a source said Monday. The United States, Japan and 10 other countries came up with the plan as hopes for an early signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Pacific Trade Deal Negotiators See a Wrap in Late July New York Times ...With a final accord in sight, the 12 nations negotiating a trans-Pacific trade agreement linking 40 percent of the global economy have set a last round of talks for late July on the remaining issues on the most ambitious trade deal in a generation...
TPP Still Has A Long Way To Go Forbes ...Congress’s having given President Obama fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t assure that the agreement will enjoy smooth sailing the rest of the way. There are still any number of rocks in the water that could sink it. There are enough unresolved issues in the text to keep the negotiators at the table for a long time...
Obama working to make Vietnam an ally in dealing with China’s rise Washington Post ...Administration officials said Hanoi has been signaling interest in forging deeper economic and military ties with the United States, and Obama has extended a hand to Vietnam, which is among the 12 nations involved in an expansive Pacific Rim trade pact...
U.S. reports progress on human rights after Obama meeting with Vietnamese leader NOLA ...The United States and Vietnam Tuesday (July 7) committed in a joint statement to "support for the promotion and protection of human rights." On Monday, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., organized a letter from seven Republican senators [which] said that human rights should be a priority as the United States moves forward with negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement with Vietnam and other Pacific nations...
Canada Pledges Support for ‘Powerhouse’ Pacific Trade Pact Bloomberg ...The Canadian government is reiterating its support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, with Finance Minister Joe Oliver saying increased trade and investment will benefit the economy. Canada is under pressure to open up its dairy and poultry sectors, where production is controlled through quotas and imports are restricted with high tariffs. Dismantling that system, known as supply management, may become an issue in rural districts...
9 Ways the TPP Is Bad for Developing Countries Foreign Policy ...If enacted, the TPP could block these countries from successfully industrializing and joining the developed world. What would this mean in practice? Blocking industrialization would mean locking these countries into low-end agricultural and extractive industries, preventing tens of millions from accessing higher-paying jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors...
Britain slashes spending in new austerity drive Business Insider ...Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne unveiled fresh austerity measures Wednesday to slash the country's debt, evoking the plight of crisis-hit Greece in presenting the first purely Conservative budget for nearly 20 years. Osborne slashed welfare spending to honour campaign promises...
Greece Submits New Loan Request, as Tsipras Takes Defiant Stance New York Times ... Greece, running out of money and under a tight deadline from European leaders, on Wednesday requested a three-year loan from the eurozone’s bailout fund. But other than alluding to plans to begin overhauling its tax and pension systems next week, Greece did not detail what economic changes it would make in exchange for the loan...
State & Living Wage Battles
Prevailing Wage Repeal, Reform Stripped from WI Budget; Extraordinary Session Called to Address We Party Patriots ...Wisconsin Republicans have reached an agreement which will allow them to pass a budget for 2015-2017 after a week of contentious infighting over prevailing wage reforms and funding for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena. As part of the deal, Republicans agreed to eliminate these issues from the budget itself and instead take up an extraordinary session to tackle the outstanding questions...
Wisconsin's budget bill a Pandora's Box of attacks against workers Daily Kos ...Wisconsin's GOP lawmakers have packed a lot of punch into a provision in the state's budget bill, with most of it undercutting labor unions and workers along with reducing oversight of law enforcement. The measure, known as Motion 999, gained notoriety when one initiative that would have quashed the state's open record laws came to light. It was so deeply unpopular that lawmakers led by Gov. Scott Walker shelved it...
Wisconsin Is Trying to Take Away the Right to a Weekend Gawker ...In Wisconsin, Republicans led by Scott Walker has done an amazing job of destroying public unions and handing all power over the workplace back to business interests. Now, with little fanfare, they want to take away the right for workers to have a single day off. Wisconsin state legislators are preparing to vote on a budget. One additional measure is worth gaping at, perhaps above all others: section 56, which would take away workers’ right to a weekend—even a one day weekend...
Scott Walker's Office Was Part of a Sneaky Effort to Keep His Records Private Mother Jones ...Gov. Scott Walker's office has confirmed in a statement that it was involved with the measure to change Wisconsin's open-records law to block access to many currently available government documents. The statement was released after Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) acknowledged that Walker's office took part in discussions to slip the changes into a last-minute budget bill...
Wisconsin Senate passes budget, votes to scale back prevailing wage law Chicago Sun-Times ...The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate passed the $73 billion state budget just before midnight Tuesday, sending it to the Assembly after voting to repeal a prevailing wage law for local government projects, a move Democrats called an affront to the middle class...
Sherrod Brown pushes for charter school accountability and transparency Daily Kos ...A lack of accountability and transparency are a key problem of charter schools in many states across the country, allowing them to made into centers of corporate profit above their mission as centers of education. That lack, and that profit drive, is what leads to abuses like charter schools that pay above-market rents to real estate companies connected to school executives. Sen. Sherrod Brown has a bill that would change that and other abuses...
Missouri voter ID measure from GOP candidate OK to circulate Springfield News-Leader ...A Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state now can gather signatures for an initiative petition to allow lawmakers to require voter identification. Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander on Tuesday announced the proposed constitutional amendment can begin circulating...
Martin O’Malley Has the Right Solution for Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis The Nation ...Puerto Rico is not Greece. But the United States commonwealth is confronted with a debt crisis. It faces the threat of a brutal round of austerity cuts, which could make a bad circumstance dramatically worse. If ever there was a moment that called for enlightened leadership that recognizes both the economic and social challenges facing the Puerto Rico, this is it...
U.S. Labor
Hospital, nurses union reach tentative contract deal News OK ...Negotiators for Eastern Maine Medical Center and a union representing nurses at the hospital have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract. The deal announced early Wednesday could avert a threatened two-day strike by the nurses next week. It must be ratified by the union membership and the hospital's board...
US: a look back at the UAW-Detroit three talks of 2011 InAutoNews ...The United Automotive Workers union is set to renegotiate the labor agreements for the represented workers at the three largest US automakers – General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. The summer negotiations for the contracts for the upcoming four years are going to kick off next week...
Nurse ratio bill advances to D.C. Council's health committee Washington Business Journal ...A bill that would require minimum staffing for nurses in D.C. hospitals was approved by the D.C. Council's business committee Tuesday and will now advance to the health committee for consideration. National Nurses United, the nursing union representing many of the local nurses pushing for ratios, called the vote an "important step"...
Union Is the New Black: Labor Organizing in Orange Is the New Black, And What It Means For You Union Plus ...In its third season with Netflix, Orange Is the New Black has had a significant effect on America's consciousness regarding: race, women and incarceration, and transgender issues. This season highlighted many character backstories, but personally, the most interesting plot-line was that of the security guards and their efforts to organize a potential union...
Company Raises Its Minimum Wage To $15 So Employees Won’t ‘Worry About Making Ends Meet’ Think Progress ...Internet Truckstop Group, an Idaho-based company that owns a number of internet trucking logistic websites, is raising base pay for its employees to $15 an hour. The company has 250 full- and part-time employees, about 110 of whom will get a raise because of the increase. Most average $11 to $12 hours currently. CEO Scott Moscrip said the company, whose revenues have grown between 10 and 30 percent a year, was due for a pay increase...
Miscellaneous
After 6-Year Tenure Not Prosecuting Banks, Eric Holder Returns 'Home' to Defend Them Common Dreams ...Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's return this week to a high-level position at Covington & Burling, a corporate law firm that represents big banks, has some calling it a dramatic and troubling example of the Washington-to-Wall-Street revolving door. That's because Holder's six years of service under the administration of President Barack Obama were defined by his refusal to criminally prosecute any of the financial institutions...
Donald Trump’s Empire Was (Probably) Built On Immigrant Labor Think Progress ...As a real estate tycoon, Donald Trump built up and has given his name to clothing lines, hotels, resorts, golf courses, a winery, and apartment buildings. And for a man who has unapologetically characterized Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, and has said that infectious diseases are spilling across the border, Trump has decided to work in industries where it’s impossible to avoid the Latino immigrants he is maligning...
The End of Encryption? NSA & FBI Seek New Backdoors Against Advice from Leading Security Experts Democracy Now ...Encryption refers to the scrambling of communications so they cannot be read without the correct key or password. The FBI and GCHQ have said they need access to encrypted communications to track criminals and terrorists. Fourteen of the world’s pre-eminent cryptographers, computer scientists and security specialists have issued a paper arguing there is no way to allow the government such access without endangering all confidential data...
Waiting to Die in Prison—for Selling a Couple of Bags of Pot Mother Jones ...How many prisoners are serving life sentences for pot? At least 69, based on data collected by the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations. But that figure probably is low, particularly if you count older inmates serving lengthy sentences who will likely die in prison. Federal judges have sentenced 54 people to life without parole for marijuana crimes since 1996...
Popular Protests Are Spreading Across Central America, and Washington Is Getting Nervous The Nation ...In both Guatemala and Honduras, credible accusations of corruption are spurring mass mobilization truly popular in their class composition. In response, Washington is reacting in its usual manner to such threats: more militarization...
Teamsters warn Frontier Airlines over stalled contract talks The Denver Post ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division has asked the National Mediation Board to arbitrate its ongoing contract dispute with Denver-based Frontier Airlines. And, if that doesn't work, Frontier's union-represented aircraft technicians, ground service technicians and tool-room attendants could exercise their right to strike — a move that essentially could cripple Frontier's operations...
Labor union brings back food drive to feed the hungry in Maine Bangor Daily News ...For several years before 2014, the Teamsters Local 340 labor union used the annual Maine Potato Blossom Festival as a vehicle to feed the hungry throughout Aroostook County. But the organization lost major donors in the last couple of years and wasn’t able to sponsor the drive last year. The organization is back this year with the food drive and a float in the Maine Potato Blossom parade...
Biddeford City Council meeting ends abruptly WMTV ...Disputes over contracts between Biddeford officials and three employee unions shut down the City Council meeting after just a few minutes Tuesday night. Tensions were already high when union members poured into council chambers. Members of Biddeford’s police, public works and firefighters’ unions said councilors were trying to avoid talking about the contracts. City officials said they plan to meet with the Teamsters Local 340 in mediation...
1934 Teamsters’ strike turned Minneapolis from ‘scab’ town to union supporter MinnPost ...“No trucks shall be moved! By nobody!” was the rallying cry of Minneapolis Teamsters Local 574 as they struck in the summer of 1934. Their demands were clear: a fair wage, union recognition, and the trucking firms’ recognition of inside workers as part of the union. Despite the violent reaction of the authorities, the 574 won on all these points...
Global Labor & Trade
TPP ministers to gather in Hawaii July 28-29 Japan Times ...Pacific Rim countries pursuing a free trade initiative are set to hold ministerial talks on July 28 and 29 in Hawaii to wind up their marathon negotiations, a source said Monday. The United States, Japan and 10 other countries came up with the plan as hopes for an early signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Pacific Trade Deal Negotiators See a Wrap in Late July New York Times ...With a final accord in sight, the 12 nations negotiating a trans-Pacific trade agreement linking 40 percent of the global economy have set a last round of talks for late July on the remaining issues on the most ambitious trade deal in a generation...
TPP Still Has A Long Way To Go Forbes ...Congress’s having given President Obama fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t assure that the agreement will enjoy smooth sailing the rest of the way. There are still any number of rocks in the water that could sink it. There are enough unresolved issues in the text to keep the negotiators at the table for a long time...
Obama working to make Vietnam an ally in dealing with China’s rise Washington Post ...Administration officials said Hanoi has been signaling interest in forging deeper economic and military ties with the United States, and Obama has extended a hand to Vietnam, which is among the 12 nations involved in an expansive Pacific Rim trade pact...
U.S. reports progress on human rights after Obama meeting with Vietnamese leader NOLA ...The United States and Vietnam Tuesday (July 7) committed in a joint statement to "support for the promotion and protection of human rights." On Monday, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., organized a letter from seven Republican senators [which] said that human rights should be a priority as the United States moves forward with negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement with Vietnam and other Pacific nations...
Canada Pledges Support for ‘Powerhouse’ Pacific Trade Pact Bloomberg ...The Canadian government is reiterating its support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, with Finance Minister Joe Oliver saying increased trade and investment will benefit the economy. Canada is under pressure to open up its dairy and poultry sectors, where production is controlled through quotas and imports are restricted with high tariffs. Dismantling that system, known as supply management, may become an issue in rural districts...
9 Ways the TPP Is Bad for Developing Countries Foreign Policy ...If enacted, the TPP could block these countries from successfully industrializing and joining the developed world. What would this mean in practice? Blocking industrialization would mean locking these countries into low-end agricultural and extractive industries, preventing tens of millions from accessing higher-paying jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors...
Britain slashes spending in new austerity drive Business Insider ...Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne unveiled fresh austerity measures Wednesday to slash the country's debt, evoking the plight of crisis-hit Greece in presenting the first purely Conservative budget for nearly 20 years. Osborne slashed welfare spending to honour campaign promises...
Greece Submits New Loan Request, as Tsipras Takes Defiant Stance New York Times ... Greece, running out of money and under a tight deadline from European leaders, on Wednesday requested a three-year loan from the eurozone’s bailout fund. But other than alluding to plans to begin overhauling its tax and pension systems next week, Greece did not detail what economic changes it would make in exchange for the loan...
State & Living Wage Battles
Prevailing Wage Repeal, Reform Stripped from WI Budget; Extraordinary Session Called to Address We Party Patriots ...Wisconsin Republicans have reached an agreement which will allow them to pass a budget for 2015-2017 after a week of contentious infighting over prevailing wage reforms and funding for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena. As part of the deal, Republicans agreed to eliminate these issues from the budget itself and instead take up an extraordinary session to tackle the outstanding questions...
Wisconsin's budget bill a Pandora's Box of attacks against workers Daily Kos ...Wisconsin's GOP lawmakers have packed a lot of punch into a provision in the state's budget bill, with most of it undercutting labor unions and workers along with reducing oversight of law enforcement. The measure, known as Motion 999, gained notoriety when one initiative that would have quashed the state's open record laws came to light. It was so deeply unpopular that lawmakers led by Gov. Scott Walker shelved it...
Wisconsin Is Trying to Take Away the Right to a Weekend Gawker ...In Wisconsin, Republicans led by Scott Walker has done an amazing job of destroying public unions and handing all power over the workplace back to business interests. Now, with little fanfare, they want to take away the right for workers to have a single day off. Wisconsin state legislators are preparing to vote on a budget. One additional measure is worth gaping at, perhaps above all others: section 56, which would take away workers’ right to a weekend—even a one day weekend...
Scott Walker's Office Was Part of a Sneaky Effort to Keep His Records Private Mother Jones ...Gov. Scott Walker's office has confirmed in a statement that it was involved with the measure to change Wisconsin's open-records law to block access to many currently available government documents. The statement was released after Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) acknowledged that Walker's office took part in discussions to slip the changes into a last-minute budget bill...
Wisconsin Senate passes budget, votes to scale back prevailing wage law Chicago Sun-Times ...The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate passed the $73 billion state budget just before midnight Tuesday, sending it to the Assembly after voting to repeal a prevailing wage law for local government projects, a move Democrats called an affront to the middle class...
Sherrod Brown pushes for charter school accountability and transparency Daily Kos ...A lack of accountability and transparency are a key problem of charter schools in many states across the country, allowing them to made into centers of corporate profit above their mission as centers of education. That lack, and that profit drive, is what leads to abuses like charter schools that pay above-market rents to real estate companies connected to school executives. Sen. Sherrod Brown has a bill that would change that and other abuses...
Missouri voter ID measure from GOP candidate OK to circulate Springfield News-Leader ...A Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state now can gather signatures for an initiative petition to allow lawmakers to require voter identification. Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander on Tuesday announced the proposed constitutional amendment can begin circulating...
Martin O’Malley Has the Right Solution for Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis The Nation ...Puerto Rico is not Greece. But the United States commonwealth is confronted with a debt crisis. It faces the threat of a brutal round of austerity cuts, which could make a bad circumstance dramatically worse. If ever there was a moment that called for enlightened leadership that recognizes both the economic and social challenges facing the Puerto Rico, this is it...
U.S. Labor
Hospital, nurses union reach tentative contract deal News OK ...Negotiators for Eastern Maine Medical Center and a union representing nurses at the hospital have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract. The deal announced early Wednesday could avert a threatened two-day strike by the nurses next week. It must be ratified by the union membership and the hospital's board...
US: a look back at the UAW-Detroit three talks of 2011 InAutoNews ...The United Automotive Workers union is set to renegotiate the labor agreements for the represented workers at the three largest US automakers – General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. The summer negotiations for the contracts for the upcoming four years are going to kick off next week...
Nurse ratio bill advances to D.C. Council's health committee Washington Business Journal ...A bill that would require minimum staffing for nurses in D.C. hospitals was approved by the D.C. Council's business committee Tuesday and will now advance to the health committee for consideration. National Nurses United, the nursing union representing many of the local nurses pushing for ratios, called the vote an "important step"...
Union Is the New Black: Labor Organizing in Orange Is the New Black, And What It Means For You Union Plus ...In its third season with Netflix, Orange Is the New Black has had a significant effect on America's consciousness regarding: race, women and incarceration, and transgender issues. This season highlighted many character backstories, but personally, the most interesting plot-line was that of the security guards and their efforts to organize a potential union...
Company Raises Its Minimum Wage To $15 So Employees Won’t ‘Worry About Making Ends Meet’ Think Progress ...Internet Truckstop Group, an Idaho-based company that owns a number of internet trucking logistic websites, is raising base pay for its employees to $15 an hour. The company has 250 full- and part-time employees, about 110 of whom will get a raise because of the increase. Most average $11 to $12 hours currently. CEO Scott Moscrip said the company, whose revenues have grown between 10 and 30 percent a year, was due for a pay increase...
Miscellaneous
After 6-Year Tenure Not Prosecuting Banks, Eric Holder Returns 'Home' to Defend Them Common Dreams ...Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's return this week to a high-level position at Covington & Burling, a corporate law firm that represents big banks, has some calling it a dramatic and troubling example of the Washington-to-Wall-Street revolving door. That's because Holder's six years of service under the administration of President Barack Obama were defined by his refusal to criminally prosecute any of the financial institutions...
Donald Trump’s Empire Was (Probably) Built On Immigrant Labor Think Progress ...As a real estate tycoon, Donald Trump built up and has given his name to clothing lines, hotels, resorts, golf courses, a winery, and apartment buildings. And for a man who has unapologetically characterized Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, and has said that infectious diseases are spilling across the border, Trump has decided to work in industries where it’s impossible to avoid the Latino immigrants he is maligning...
The End of Encryption? NSA & FBI Seek New Backdoors Against Advice from Leading Security Experts Democracy Now ...Encryption refers to the scrambling of communications so they cannot be read without the correct key or password. The FBI and GCHQ have said they need access to encrypted communications to track criminals and terrorists. Fourteen of the world’s pre-eminent cryptographers, computer scientists and security specialists have issued a paper arguing there is no way to allow the government such access without endangering all confidential data...
Waiting to Die in Prison—for Selling a Couple of Bags of Pot Mother Jones ...How many prisoners are serving life sentences for pot? At least 69, based on data collected by the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations. But that figure probably is low, particularly if you count older inmates serving lengthy sentences who will likely die in prison. Federal judges have sentenced 54 people to life without parole for marijuana crimes since 1996...
Popular Protests Are Spreading Across Central America, and Washington Is Getting Nervous The Nation ...In both Guatemala and Honduras, credible accusations of corruption are spurring mass mobilization truly popular in their class composition. In response, Washington is reacting in its usual manner to such threats: more militarization...
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Today's Teamster News 05.12.15
Teamsters
Teamsters, Employees, Allies Protest SLS Hotel's Violations Against Workers Teamster.org ...Today, Teamsters, employees and community allies protested SLS Casino and Hotel management’s ongoing violations of its workers’ right to form a union. Hundreds took part to support the valet parking attendants’ ongoing struggle for fairness. Management has committed several Unfair Labor Practices, including interrogation of workers that support the union. Management has fired three workers...
One Hundred Teamster Construction Drivers In Three Days: Fast Organizing Through PLA Teamster.org ...Organizing is tough, and it's not getting easier. But many Teamster locals are finding creative ways to bring in new members and strengthen the union. The use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) help level the playing field for construction workers through the protection of a union contract. International Vice President Rome Aloise has spent nearly a decade envisioning a day when the Teamsters organize thousands of new construction workers under the promise of PLAs nationwide. In Aloise's home state of California, it appears that day has already arrived...
Teamsters Local 215 Scholarship fund awards $195,000 Courier & Press ...Officials with the Teamsters Local 215 Scholarship Fund recently announced the 109 sons and daughters of union members who are receiving between $500 and $3,200 in merit-based scholarships. The fund is giving a total of $195,000 in scholarships this year...
Valet union protests SLS Las Vegas casino-hotel on Strip Associated Press ...The union representing Las Vegas valet workers are protesting what they say is unfair treatment at the SLS Las Vegas hotel and casino on the Strip. Teamsters Local 986 said the group and supporters protested outside SLS Monday. The union wants to organize the casino-hotel's 50 valet employees...
Unions make strides among Silicon Valley workforce Aljazeera America ...Facebook shuttle drivers gained final approval for their union contract with Loop Transportation, the shuttle company that carries employees to and from Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters. The Loop drivers are now members of Teamsters Local 853 — which just the previous month had also successfully organized drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay, and Evernote, among others...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama's trade pact faces cliffhanger vote Politico ...The centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s economic agenda faces a cliffhanger vote in the Senate on Tuesday, as Democratic leaders move to block his trade bill — leaving one powerful Oregon Democrat who may hold the key to the outcome squeezed between his party leaders and the White House...
Fight Over China Currency Policies Threatens Vote on Trade Bill New York Times ...A heated dispute over how to challenge China on currency policy has imperiled a trade bill that has become President Obama’s top legislative priority, uniting even the president’s top Democratic supporters against taking up the bill in the Senate...
Senate Democrats Are Revolting Against Obama's Trade Plan National Journal ... The majority of Democrats will not vote for any fast-track bill, also known as Trade Promotion Authority or TPA, no matter what. They discount the administration's claim that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major potential trade agreement affecting 40 percent of the world's economy, would be the "most progressive trade agreement in history" because of labor and environmental concerns...
AIPAC-backed amendments add to trade bill turmoil Politico ...The trade legislation being debated on Capitol Hill is already highly contentious. Amendments added about Israel are raising the rancor even more. The trade bill amendments aim to discourage foreign governments — in particular European ones — from boycotting, divesting from or putting sanctions on commercial activity linked to Israel and “Israeli-controlled territories”...
Nike-backed group pushes Trans-Pacific Partnership in Oregon Sunlight Foundation ...While Obama tries to convince Congress and working Americans of the merits of a new free trade agreement, Nike, along with other Oregon exporters, is focusing some of its substantial financial firepower on touting the TPP in its home state...
Network Rail workers vote to strike over pay BBC ...Network Rail workers have voted in favour of a UK-wide strike in a row over pay, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union has said.
Its members voted 4-1 for action after rejecting pay offers from Network Rail, which owns and maintains most of Britain's railway infrastructure...
Tories to bring in tough anti-strike laws The Telegraph ...The Conservatives will push ahead with plans to ban strikes unless 40 per cent of people vote in favour of industrial action in government's first Queen's Speech, the new business secretary has said. Sajid Javid said that the Tories will not "hide away from the changes we want to make" as the party prepares to introduce a raft of new anti-strike laws...
Who is writing the TPP? (opinion) Boston Globe ...The president argues that the TPP is about who will “write the rules” for 40 percent of the world’s economy — the United States or China. But who is writing the TPP? The text has been classified and the public isn’t permitted to see it...
TPP Is Not Yet 'The Most Progressive Trade Agreement in History' (opinion) Huff Post ...I have deep concern -- and some dismay -- when the president says that "we are just wrong," or we are "satisfied with the status quo," or worse, we are "making this stuff up" when we express concerns about the status of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations...
State & Living Wage Battles
Hundreds of union workers come to Missouri Capitol for ‘Right to Work’ debate Missourinet ...Hundreds of union workers showed up at the capitol Monday to oppose a so-called “Right to Work” bill that is expected to move quickly in this final week of the legislative session. Testimony was emotional for some, including for Terry Nelson with the Carpenters District Council in the St. Louis region. He said government is trying to turn their contractors into adversaries...
Right to Work in Missouri Moves to Senate Floor CBS St. Louis ...A Senate committee approved legislation moving Missouri closer to becoming a Right to Work state. In a hearing of the Senate Small Business Committee, senators heard heavy opposition to make Missouri a Right to Work state.
Sen. Mike Parson (R-Bolivar) is the chairman of the committee. Many of his calls for testimony in support of the bill went answered...
States Where Minimum Wages Are Supposed To Be Living Wages Think Progress ...Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced that he is taking advantage of a state law to raise minimum wages without the involvement of the legislature. He’s not the only governor with that power; others could also follow suit...
Senators answer court question on voter ID law Houston Chronicle ...The Texas Senate, with scant attention during an early morning vote, gave its unanimous answer to a lingering question the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals posed about the state’s embattled voter ID law. The bill won approval, 31-0. ore than 600,000 Texans lack the proper identification to vote under the state’s relatively new voting laws, among the most stringent in the nation...
How The Conservative Obsession With Policing Poor People’s Shopping Carts Got Started Think Progress ...In 2015, the poor are still smart shoppers. The USDA published research in early May comparing the food consumption patterns of SNAP recipients to both wealthier people and low-income families not receiving SNAP. The findings undermine the common conservative notion that the poor splurge on luxuries and empty calories...
U.S. Labor
New York City Nurses May Vote to Strike This Month In These Times ...Thousands of nurses at 12 hospitals poured into the streets of New York City April 16 to protest staffing shortages they say put patients at risk. The informational pickets were the latest salvo in negotiations with the city’s largest private hospitals. Next the New York State Nurses Association entered a month of intense federal mediation with three hospital systems. Voting for strike authorization could begin as soon as mid-May...
BP Whiting Refinery workers vote to end strike NWI Times ...United Steelworkers Local 7-1 members voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract they say will make the BP Whiting Refinery a safer place to work and preserve bargaining rights the union has had for nearly 80 years. An estimated 92 percent of refinery workers and 100 percent of plant guards voted to ratify a new four-year agreement...
How Can You Get an Ethical Manicure? Support Worker Organizing The Nation ... Sarah Maslin Nir’s recent New York Times investigation reveals epidemic wage theft and abuse of workers across the roughly 2,000 under-regulated manicure shops dotting the city, where cheap mani-pedis are provided by Asian and Latina women workers who scrub and pamper fingers and toes amid noxious fumes. Following the Times’s extensive report, both state and city authorities are now weighing policies to tighten oversight...
Ricky Maclin, Leader of Historic 2008 Republic Windows and Doors Factory Occupation, Dies at 61 In These Times ...Melvin “Ricky” Maurice Maclin, Vice President of United Electrical Workers Local 1110, leader of the historic six-day factory occupation of Republic Windows and Doors in December 2008 and founding member of New Era Windows Cooperative, died on May 5. “This is a huge loss for me and for our movement,” said his good friend, Local 1110 President Armando Robles, who was also a leader in the Republic occupation...
Miscellaneous
The delicate flowers of Wall Street: Financial titans warn Hillary to be mindful of their feelings Salon ...The titans of the financial industry have faced zero criminal liability for nearly destroying the economy in 2008, they still enjoy unrivaled influence over the policy platforms of both major political parties, and no one except Bernie Sanders even considers making a run for the president without hitting up the hedge fund managers for donations...
Teamsters, Employees, Allies Protest SLS Hotel's Violations Against Workers Teamster.org ...Today, Teamsters, employees and community allies protested SLS Casino and Hotel management’s ongoing violations of its workers’ right to form a union. Hundreds took part to support the valet parking attendants’ ongoing struggle for fairness. Management has committed several Unfair Labor Practices, including interrogation of workers that support the union. Management has fired three workers...
One Hundred Teamster Construction Drivers In Three Days: Fast Organizing Through PLA Teamster.org ...Organizing is tough, and it's not getting easier. But many Teamster locals are finding creative ways to bring in new members and strengthen the union. The use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) help level the playing field for construction workers through the protection of a union contract. International Vice President Rome Aloise has spent nearly a decade envisioning a day when the Teamsters organize thousands of new construction workers under the promise of PLAs nationwide. In Aloise's home state of California, it appears that day has already arrived...
Teamsters Local 215 Scholarship fund awards $195,000 Courier & Press ...Officials with the Teamsters Local 215 Scholarship Fund recently announced the 109 sons and daughters of union members who are receiving between $500 and $3,200 in merit-based scholarships. The fund is giving a total of $195,000 in scholarships this year...
Valet union protests SLS Las Vegas casino-hotel on Strip Associated Press ...The union representing Las Vegas valet workers are protesting what they say is unfair treatment at the SLS Las Vegas hotel and casino on the Strip. Teamsters Local 986 said the group and supporters protested outside SLS Monday. The union wants to organize the casino-hotel's 50 valet employees...
Unions make strides among Silicon Valley workforce Aljazeera America ...Facebook shuttle drivers gained final approval for their union contract with Loop Transportation, the shuttle company that carries employees to and from Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters. The Loop drivers are now members of Teamsters Local 853 — which just the previous month had also successfully organized drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay, and Evernote, among others...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama's trade pact faces cliffhanger vote Politico ...The centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s economic agenda faces a cliffhanger vote in the Senate on Tuesday, as Democratic leaders move to block his trade bill — leaving one powerful Oregon Democrat who may hold the key to the outcome squeezed between his party leaders and the White House...
Fight Over China Currency Policies Threatens Vote on Trade Bill New York Times ...A heated dispute over how to challenge China on currency policy has imperiled a trade bill that has become President Obama’s top legislative priority, uniting even the president’s top Democratic supporters against taking up the bill in the Senate...
Senate Democrats Are Revolting Against Obama's Trade Plan National Journal ... The majority of Democrats will not vote for any fast-track bill, also known as Trade Promotion Authority or TPA, no matter what. They discount the administration's claim that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major potential trade agreement affecting 40 percent of the world's economy, would be the "most progressive trade agreement in history" because of labor and environmental concerns...
AIPAC-backed amendments add to trade bill turmoil Politico ...The trade legislation being debated on Capitol Hill is already highly contentious. Amendments added about Israel are raising the rancor even more. The trade bill amendments aim to discourage foreign governments — in particular European ones — from boycotting, divesting from or putting sanctions on commercial activity linked to Israel and “Israeli-controlled territories”...
Nike-backed group pushes Trans-Pacific Partnership in Oregon Sunlight Foundation ...While Obama tries to convince Congress and working Americans of the merits of a new free trade agreement, Nike, along with other Oregon exporters, is focusing some of its substantial financial firepower on touting the TPP in its home state...
Network Rail workers vote to strike over pay BBC ...Network Rail workers have voted in favour of a UK-wide strike in a row over pay, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union has said.
Its members voted 4-1 for action after rejecting pay offers from Network Rail, which owns and maintains most of Britain's railway infrastructure...
Tories to bring in tough anti-strike laws The Telegraph ...The Conservatives will push ahead with plans to ban strikes unless 40 per cent of people vote in favour of industrial action in government's first Queen's Speech, the new business secretary has said. Sajid Javid said that the Tories will not "hide away from the changes we want to make" as the party prepares to introduce a raft of new anti-strike laws...
Who is writing the TPP? (opinion) Boston Globe ...The president argues that the TPP is about who will “write the rules” for 40 percent of the world’s economy — the United States or China. But who is writing the TPP? The text has been classified and the public isn’t permitted to see it...
TPP Is Not Yet 'The Most Progressive Trade Agreement in History' (opinion) Huff Post ...I have deep concern -- and some dismay -- when the president says that "we are just wrong," or we are "satisfied with the status quo," or worse, we are "making this stuff up" when we express concerns about the status of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations...
State & Living Wage Battles
Hundreds of union workers come to Missouri Capitol for ‘Right to Work’ debate Missourinet ...Hundreds of union workers showed up at the capitol Monday to oppose a so-called “Right to Work” bill that is expected to move quickly in this final week of the legislative session. Testimony was emotional for some, including for Terry Nelson with the Carpenters District Council in the St. Louis region. He said government is trying to turn their contractors into adversaries...
Right to Work in Missouri Moves to Senate Floor CBS St. Louis ...A Senate committee approved legislation moving Missouri closer to becoming a Right to Work state. In a hearing of the Senate Small Business Committee, senators heard heavy opposition to make Missouri a Right to Work state.
Sen. Mike Parson (R-Bolivar) is the chairman of the committee. Many of his calls for testimony in support of the bill went answered...
States Where Minimum Wages Are Supposed To Be Living Wages Think Progress ...Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced that he is taking advantage of a state law to raise minimum wages without the involvement of the legislature. He’s not the only governor with that power; others could also follow suit...
Senators answer court question on voter ID law Houston Chronicle ...The Texas Senate, with scant attention during an early morning vote, gave its unanimous answer to a lingering question the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals posed about the state’s embattled voter ID law. The bill won approval, 31-0. ore than 600,000 Texans lack the proper identification to vote under the state’s relatively new voting laws, among the most stringent in the nation...
How The Conservative Obsession With Policing Poor People’s Shopping Carts Got Started Think Progress ...In 2015, the poor are still smart shoppers. The USDA published research in early May comparing the food consumption patterns of SNAP recipients to both wealthier people and low-income families not receiving SNAP. The findings undermine the common conservative notion that the poor splurge on luxuries and empty calories...
U.S. Labor
New York City Nurses May Vote to Strike This Month In These Times ...Thousands of nurses at 12 hospitals poured into the streets of New York City April 16 to protest staffing shortages they say put patients at risk. The informational pickets were the latest salvo in negotiations with the city’s largest private hospitals. Next the New York State Nurses Association entered a month of intense federal mediation with three hospital systems. Voting for strike authorization could begin as soon as mid-May...
BP Whiting Refinery workers vote to end strike NWI Times ...United Steelworkers Local 7-1 members voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract they say will make the BP Whiting Refinery a safer place to work and preserve bargaining rights the union has had for nearly 80 years. An estimated 92 percent of refinery workers and 100 percent of plant guards voted to ratify a new four-year agreement...
How Can You Get an Ethical Manicure? Support Worker Organizing The Nation ... Sarah Maslin Nir’s recent New York Times investigation reveals epidemic wage theft and abuse of workers across the roughly 2,000 under-regulated manicure shops dotting the city, where cheap mani-pedis are provided by Asian and Latina women workers who scrub and pamper fingers and toes amid noxious fumes. Following the Times’s extensive report, both state and city authorities are now weighing policies to tighten oversight...
Ricky Maclin, Leader of Historic 2008 Republic Windows and Doors Factory Occupation, Dies at 61 In These Times ...Melvin “Ricky” Maurice Maclin, Vice President of United Electrical Workers Local 1110, leader of the historic six-day factory occupation of Republic Windows and Doors in December 2008 and founding member of New Era Windows Cooperative, died on May 5. “This is a huge loss for me and for our movement,” said his good friend, Local 1110 President Armando Robles, who was also a leader in the Republic occupation...
Miscellaneous
The delicate flowers of Wall Street: Financial titans warn Hillary to be mindful of their feelings Salon ...The titans of the financial industry have faced zero criminal liability for nearly destroying the economy in 2008, they still enjoy unrivaled influence over the policy platforms of both major political parties, and no one except Bernie Sanders even considers making a run for the president without hitting up the hedge fund managers for donations...
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.15.14
Teamster News
Teamsters and California Hauling Company Reach Settlement through NLRB – Back Wages and New Bargaining Agreement Result Beeson, Tayer & Bodine ...Dispatch Transportation, the operating name for Commodity Trucking Acquisition, LLC, is paying $262,000 in back pay to the former employees of the predecessor to Dispatch, Valley Aggregate Transport, Inc. Even better, perhaps, is that Dispatch has entered into a three-year collective bargaining agreement with Local 137 that includes a generous wage and benefit package in line with what other Union contractors provide in the industry...
Teamsters Take On National Express Group At Annual General Meeting teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa led a powerful delegation of Teamsters, including North American school bus workers, in calling on the National Express Group PLC (NEX: LN) Board of Directors to address the company's poor worker rights record at its North American subsidiaries...
Road Bills Could Lead To Taxpayer Rage Detroit News ...Michigan's roads are in dire need of repair. But a House-passed package of bills in Lansing that would allocate upwards of $500 million a year to fix streets and bridges is a far cry from a permanent solution...
Adams County Board Approves Union Contracts Quincy Journal ...The Adams County Board unanimously passed three year contracts with most of its bargaining units....
Savannah-Chatham school bus drivers demand year-round pay Savannah Now ...Local school bus drivers are demanding new contracts and year-round pay in response to new legislation that bars them from claiming unemployment during the summer break. They protested at the First Student school bus transportation offices Wednesday and last week at the Savannah-Chatham public school board meeting...
Swift Transportation Shareholders Give Mandate: Eliminate Dual Class Structure teamster.org ... A Teamster shareholder proposal to address Swift Transportation’s dual class stock structure received 79.2 percent support by shareholders of the company’s Class A, publicly traded shares, based on results disclosed by the company in its 8-K dated May 13, 2014 and filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)...
IBEW, BLET joint statement regarding SEPTA negotiations teamster.org ...SEPTA’s decision on May 9 to decline the proffer of binding arbitration from the National Mediation Board (NMB) is regrettable. We continue to maintain that binding arbitration is a reasonable and expeditious method of resolving the dispute between the labor unions and SEPTA...
Teamsters Announce UPS Will Add Thousands Of New Union Package Jobs teamster.org ...Hiring has already started, and the new jobs will be in addition to the regular filling of jobs through attrition...
Trade
Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership An Environmental Disaster Waiting To Happen? TreeHugger ...President Obama's environmental legacy is in deep trouble and in large part will hinge on a trade deal that his administration is discussing in Vietnam the week of May 12...
State Battles
Governor Brown Signs SB 27 – Sheds Light on Dark Money Common Cause ...Today Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 27, reforming the Political Reform Act of 1974 to further regulate campaign financing, adding the requirement that committees disclose donors of $100 or more where those donations were solicited for the purpose of making contributions or expenditures in California. This essential campaign disclosure bill will go a long way toward improving California’s campaign disclosure laws by closing the nonprofit reporting loophole...
War On Workers
Walmart Warehouse Contractor To Pay $21 Million To Settle Wage Theft Allegations Huffington Post ...A Walmart contractor that operates many of the retailer's distribution centers has agreed to pay $21 million in back pay to warehouse workers in California who claim they were systematically shorted on pay for years...
Walmart US CEO Gets A $1.5 Million Bonus For Missing Expectations While A Worker Gets $0 Think Progress ...Walmart US CEO William Simon's contract gave him the opportunity to earn a $1.5 million bonus on top of $10 million in salary and stock awards if the company's American net sales grew by 2 percent...
Nurses Launch New Campaign to Alert Public to Dangers of Medical Technology and Erosion of Care Standards National Nurses United ...An unchecked proliferation of unproven medical technology and sharp erosion of care standards are rapidly spreading through the health care system, far outside the media spotlight but frighteningly apparent to nurses and patients, says National Nurses United...
How Student Debt Keeps Young People From Buying Houses Slate ...It seems obvious that owing a lot of student debt should make it difficult to buy a house. After all, if you're stuck paying interest on college loans, it's hard to save up for a 20 percent down payment...
Big Tobacco's Secret Workforce: Child Farm Workers Think Progress ...Hundreds of children too young to buy cigarettes are working 60 hours a week on tobacco farms across the South, a new report from Human Rights Watch finds...
Spying Is Meant to Crush Citizens’ Dissent, Not Catch Terrorists Washington's Blog ...The record is suffused with examples of groups and individuals being placed under government surveillance by virtue of their dissenting views and activism – Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, anti-war activists, environmentalists...
Teamsters and California Hauling Company Reach Settlement through NLRB – Back Wages and New Bargaining Agreement Result Beeson, Tayer & Bodine ...Dispatch Transportation, the operating name for Commodity Trucking Acquisition, LLC, is paying $262,000 in back pay to the former employees of the predecessor to Dispatch, Valley Aggregate Transport, Inc. Even better, perhaps, is that Dispatch has entered into a three-year collective bargaining agreement with Local 137 that includes a generous wage and benefit package in line with what other Union contractors provide in the industry...
Teamsters Take On National Express Group At Annual General Meeting teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa led a powerful delegation of Teamsters, including North American school bus workers, in calling on the National Express Group PLC (NEX: LN) Board of Directors to address the company's poor worker rights record at its North American subsidiaries...
Road Bills Could Lead To Taxpayer Rage Detroit News ...Michigan's roads are in dire need of repair. But a House-passed package of bills in Lansing that would allocate upwards of $500 million a year to fix streets and bridges is a far cry from a permanent solution...
Adams County Board Approves Union Contracts Quincy Journal ...The Adams County Board unanimously passed three year contracts with most of its bargaining units....
Savannah-Chatham school bus drivers demand year-round pay Savannah Now ...Local school bus drivers are demanding new contracts and year-round pay in response to new legislation that bars them from claiming unemployment during the summer break. They protested at the First Student school bus transportation offices Wednesday and last week at the Savannah-Chatham public school board meeting...
Swift Transportation Shareholders Give Mandate: Eliminate Dual Class Structure teamster.org ... A Teamster shareholder proposal to address Swift Transportation’s dual class stock structure received 79.2 percent support by shareholders of the company’s Class A, publicly traded shares, based on results disclosed by the company in its 8-K dated May 13, 2014 and filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)...
IBEW, BLET joint statement regarding SEPTA negotiations teamster.org ...SEPTA’s decision on May 9 to decline the proffer of binding arbitration from the National Mediation Board (NMB) is regrettable. We continue to maintain that binding arbitration is a reasonable and expeditious method of resolving the dispute between the labor unions and SEPTA...
Teamsters Announce UPS Will Add Thousands Of New Union Package Jobs teamster.org ...Hiring has already started, and the new jobs will be in addition to the regular filling of jobs through attrition...
Trade
Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership An Environmental Disaster Waiting To Happen? TreeHugger ...President Obama's environmental legacy is in deep trouble and in large part will hinge on a trade deal that his administration is discussing in Vietnam the week of May 12...
State Battles
Governor Brown Signs SB 27 – Sheds Light on Dark Money Common Cause ...Today Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 27, reforming the Political Reform Act of 1974 to further regulate campaign financing, adding the requirement that committees disclose donors of $100 or more where those donations were solicited for the purpose of making contributions or expenditures in California. This essential campaign disclosure bill will go a long way toward improving California’s campaign disclosure laws by closing the nonprofit reporting loophole...
War On Workers
Walmart Warehouse Contractor To Pay $21 Million To Settle Wage Theft Allegations Huffington Post ...A Walmart contractor that operates many of the retailer's distribution centers has agreed to pay $21 million in back pay to warehouse workers in California who claim they were systematically shorted on pay for years...
Walmart US CEO Gets A $1.5 Million Bonus For Missing Expectations While A Worker Gets $0 Think Progress ...Walmart US CEO William Simon's contract gave him the opportunity to earn a $1.5 million bonus on top of $10 million in salary and stock awards if the company's American net sales grew by 2 percent...
Nurses Launch New Campaign to Alert Public to Dangers of Medical Technology and Erosion of Care Standards National Nurses United ...An unchecked proliferation of unproven medical technology and sharp erosion of care standards are rapidly spreading through the health care system, far outside the media spotlight but frighteningly apparent to nurses and patients, says National Nurses United...
How Student Debt Keeps Young People From Buying Houses Slate ...It seems obvious that owing a lot of student debt should make it difficult to buy a house. After all, if you're stuck paying interest on college loans, it's hard to save up for a 20 percent down payment...
Big Tobacco's Secret Workforce: Child Farm Workers Think Progress ...Hundreds of children too young to buy cigarettes are working 60 hours a week on tobacco farms across the South, a new report from Human Rights Watch finds...
Spying Is Meant to Crush Citizens’ Dissent, Not Catch Terrorists Washington's Blog ...The record is suffused with examples of groups and individuals being placed under government surveillance by virtue of their dissenting views and activism – Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, anti-war activists, environmentalists...
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Today's Teamster News 08.07.13
Keolis Paratransit Workers Choose Teamsters Union IBT ...Paratransit drivers and mechanics with Keolis, a global transportation group in Long Beach, Calif., have voted overwhelmingly, 74-2, in favor of Teamster representation...
SCI Regressively Bargains With Striking Funeral Directors As Negotiations Continue IBT ...More than a month after Chicagoland funeral directors and drivers were forced to strike over unfair labor practices, Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) resumed negotiations with Teamsters Local 727 only to regressively bargain...
Teamster Nurses Voting on New Contract WKBN News ...Nurses at Northside Hospital, who are members of Teamsters Local 377 in Youngstown, Ohio, began voting on a new contract Tuesday...
Hernando commissioners, Teamsters set to meet on CBA Bay News 9 ...A collective bargaining session will be held later this month between Hernando Commissioners (Florida) and Teamsters Local 79...
L.A. Story The American Prospect ...The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy: a new model for American liberalism?..
FBI Pressuring Internet Providers To Allow Government Surveillance Software Fire Dog Lake ...The FBI is pressuring Internet service providers to install software inside their networks to allow real-time government spying on users. The FBI claims real-time collection of information is suddenly necessary for the agency to do its job...
TEN THOUSAND turn out to protest GOP in Asheville, NC DailyKos ...There are plans for future protests in other cities (Charlotte is tentatively August 19) and it appears some smaller satellite protests are happening around the country...
Walmart retaliates against striking workers (opinion) Digital Journal ...In June, Walmart workers around the country walked off the job in a coordinated strike to protest working conditions at the nation's number one private employer. In a fit of revenge wreaking of a Hollywood sequel, Walmart has begun terminating employees...
SEIU backs $15 an hour minimum wage MSNBC ...“We support the workers demand for $15 an hour and want to hear from the most profitable multinational companies in the world, why not?” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry...
The Magical World Where McDonald's Pays $15 an Hour? It's Australia The Atlantic ...Even in countries with a high minimum wage, the golden arches manage to turn a profit. Here's how...
What it costs to replace a twenty-something Washington Post ...Oh, those pesky millennials. They’re been called entitled, lazy and over-confident. They seem to put social media right up there with food, water and shelter. They have–gasp–tattoos and piercings and sleep with their cell phones. Oh my! And now, it turns out, they’re also quite costly to replace on the job...
How cheap 'Made in China' products hurt the US economy in multiple ways New York Times ...Here is a symbol of China's assault on the US economy: the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island. This landmark, which opened in 1964, is North America's longest suspension bridge. It's also in urgent need of renovation. Unfortunately, $34 million in steel production and fabrication work has been outsourced to China...
How predatory payday lenders pop back up even after states crack down Pro Publica ...In 2008, payday lenders suffered a major defeat when the Ohio legislature banned high-cost loans. That same year, they lost again when they dumped more than $20 million into an effort to roll back the law: But five years later, hundreds of payday loan stores still operate in Ohio, charging annual rates that can approach 700 percent...
US gov’t accuses Bank of America of civil fraud in sale of $850M of mortgage bonds in 2008 Associated Press ...The U.S. government has accused Bank of America Corp. of civil fraud, saying the company failed to disclose risks and misled investors in its sale of $850 million of mortgage bonds during 2008...
Stat of the Day: US Has Enough Empty Houses to Hold All of Britain treehugger ...According to the latest data, the number of vacant U.S. homes touched 18.7-million in the second quarter...
Chevron to pay $2 million for refinery violations Contra Costa Times ...Chevron Corp. will pay $2 million in fines and restitution after pleading no contest Monday to six misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from a fire at its Richmond refinery last year...
Groups Charge ALEC with Tax Fraud over Secretive "Scholarship" Fund PRWatch ...The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is running a secretive, multi-million dollar slush fund that finances lavish trips for state legislators and has misled the Internal Revenue Service about the fund’s activity, two government watchdog groups charged...
State employees get some protections in bill, but grievance procedures shortened News & Observer ...North Carolina’s Gov. Pat McCrory is expected to sign a bill that speeds up the employee grievance process for state workers but backs away from earlier efforts to sharply curtail their civil service protections...
Judge Strikes Down City Council's Prevailing Wage Bill NY1 ...The mayor had vetoed the legislation that requires businesses which receive at least $1 million from the city to pay workers at a rate higher than the state's minimum wage...
SCI Regressively Bargains With Striking Funeral Directors As Negotiations Continue IBT ...More than a month after Chicagoland funeral directors and drivers were forced to strike over unfair labor practices, Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) resumed negotiations with Teamsters Local 727 only to regressively bargain...
Teamster Nurses Voting on New Contract WKBN News ...Nurses at Northside Hospital, who are members of Teamsters Local 377 in Youngstown, Ohio, began voting on a new contract Tuesday...
Hernando commissioners, Teamsters set to meet on CBA Bay News 9 ...A collective bargaining session will be held later this month between Hernando Commissioners (Florida) and Teamsters Local 79...
L.A. Story The American Prospect ...The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy: a new model for American liberalism?..
FBI Pressuring Internet Providers To Allow Government Surveillance Software Fire Dog Lake ...The FBI is pressuring Internet service providers to install software inside their networks to allow real-time government spying on users. The FBI claims real-time collection of information is suddenly necessary for the agency to do its job...
TEN THOUSAND turn out to protest GOP in Asheville, NC DailyKos ...There are plans for future protests in other cities (Charlotte is tentatively August 19) and it appears some smaller satellite protests are happening around the country...
Walmart retaliates against striking workers (opinion) Digital Journal ...In June, Walmart workers around the country walked off the job in a coordinated strike to protest working conditions at the nation's number one private employer. In a fit of revenge wreaking of a Hollywood sequel, Walmart has begun terminating employees...
SEIU backs $15 an hour minimum wage MSNBC ...“We support the workers demand for $15 an hour and want to hear from the most profitable multinational companies in the world, why not?” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry...
The Magical World Where McDonald's Pays $15 an Hour? It's Australia The Atlantic ...Even in countries with a high minimum wage, the golden arches manage to turn a profit. Here's how...
What it costs to replace a twenty-something Washington Post ...Oh, those pesky millennials. They’re been called entitled, lazy and over-confident. They seem to put social media right up there with food, water and shelter. They have–gasp–tattoos and piercings and sleep with their cell phones. Oh my! And now, it turns out, they’re also quite costly to replace on the job...
How cheap 'Made in China' products hurt the US economy in multiple ways New York Times ...Here is a symbol of China's assault on the US economy: the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island. This landmark, which opened in 1964, is North America's longest suspension bridge. It's also in urgent need of renovation. Unfortunately, $34 million in steel production and fabrication work has been outsourced to China...
How predatory payday lenders pop back up even after states crack down Pro Publica ...In 2008, payday lenders suffered a major defeat when the Ohio legislature banned high-cost loans. That same year, they lost again when they dumped more than $20 million into an effort to roll back the law: But five years later, hundreds of payday loan stores still operate in Ohio, charging annual rates that can approach 700 percent...
US gov’t accuses Bank of America of civil fraud in sale of $850M of mortgage bonds in 2008 Associated Press ...The U.S. government has accused Bank of America Corp. of civil fraud, saying the company failed to disclose risks and misled investors in its sale of $850 million of mortgage bonds during 2008...
Stat of the Day: US Has Enough Empty Houses to Hold All of Britain treehugger ...According to the latest data, the number of vacant U.S. homes touched 18.7-million in the second quarter...
Chevron to pay $2 million for refinery violations Contra Costa Times ...Chevron Corp. will pay $2 million in fines and restitution after pleading no contest Monday to six misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from a fire at its Richmond refinery last year...
Groups Charge ALEC with Tax Fraud over Secretive "Scholarship" Fund PRWatch ...The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is running a secretive, multi-million dollar slush fund that finances lavish trips for state legislators and has misled the Internal Revenue Service about the fund’s activity, two government watchdog groups charged...
State employees get some protections in bill, but grievance procedures shortened News & Observer ...North Carolina’s Gov. Pat McCrory is expected to sign a bill that speeds up the employee grievance process for state workers but backs away from earlier efforts to sharply curtail their civil service protections...
Judge Strikes Down City Council's Prevailing Wage Bill NY1 ...The mayor had vetoed the legislation that requires businesses which receive at least $1 million from the city to pay workers at a rate higher than the state's minimum wage...
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Today's Teamster News 07.25.13
Labor and Human Rights Coalition, including Teamsters, Call for Suspension of Trade Discussion with Vietnam IBT ...Yesterday, a coalition of labor and human rights leaders called on negotiations with Vietnam around the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to be suspended until the country can prove it has met basic labor, environmental and human right standards...
SCI is a Bad Neighbor, Forcing Teamsters Out on Strike IBT ...SCI, a $3.5 billion corporation which operates 16 funeral homes in the Chicagoland area, forced its Local 727 Teamsters out on an unfair labor practices strike on July 2. Visit http://www.integrityinillinois.com/ for updates on their fight for fairness. View the video here...
The Teamsters donate $40,000 to the victims of Lac-Mégantic Canada Newswire ...Teamsters Canada has collected $40,000 from its locals throughout the country and it will be donated to help out the victims of the Lac-Mégantic rail tragedy...
Teamster nursing staff at ECRMC in contract negotiations with hospital Imperial Valley Press ...El Centro Regional Medical Center’s nursing staff has presented the hospital with a financial proposal as part of its first contract with the hospital as an organized labor group, a representative from Teamsters Local 542 confirmed...
BLET wants feds to mandate 2-member train crews Associated Press ...Most railroads in the U.S. use at least two crew members to operate freight trains. But there's no federal rule to prevent them from using one employee as did a Maine-based railroad whose train, while unattended, careened into a Canadian town, causing an explosion and fire that killed 47 people…
Some CPD officers seek to join Teamsters Local 142 Chesterton Tribune ...Within the next 30 to 60 days, full-time employees of the Chesterton (Indiana) Police Department -- both sworn officers and civilians -- could put unionization to the vote...
Teamsters Support Vance-Cooks for U.S. Public Printer IBT ...George Tedeschi, on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has written Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in support of the nomination of Davita Vance-Cooks as U.S. Public Printer...
Fired Walmart Workers Arrested in Protest at Yahoo Headquarters The Nation ...Five activists were arrested at Yahoo! headquarters Monday afternoon in a protest over the firing of eleven Walmart employees who this month went on strike...
Wal-Mart Workers Launch Surprise Strike Over Safety Issues Mint Press News ...At least 30 non-union Wal-Mart warehouse workers in California launched a surprise two-day strike this morning to protest alleged retaliation for exposing safety risks...
Wisconsin Capitol Protest Leads To Two Dozen Arrests As Police Crack Down On Anti-GOP Demonstration Huffington Post ...Police made numerous arrests inside the Wisconsin's Capitol building on Wednesday, more than two years after tens of thousands of Wisconsinites filled the rotunda in Madison to protest Gov. Scott Walker's (R) budget...
Chicago Teachers Protest Layoffs, Chanting ‘Emanuel Has Got To Go!’ In These Times ...Bravo and Johnson were among several hundred teachers, parents and community members marching outside the Chicago Board of Education Wednesday morning, protesting the layoffs of more than 2,100 teachers and staff in the past week and other public school cuts...
Detroit firefighters protest outside of bankruptcy hearing Detroit News ...A group of about 40 Detroit firefighters joined protesters gathered outside the downtown federal courthouse Wednesday, to fight against expected cuts to pensions and the potential loss of public safety positions, as lawyers gathered inside for the first hearing in the historic bankruptcy case...
Congress Tells Detroit to Forget Financial Bailout Bloomberg ...Lawmakers in Congress are dismissing the possibility of a federal bailout for Detroit, the largest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy....
Hundreds protest Pittsburgh’s most notorious low-wage employers WPXI-TV ...Hundreds of protestors joined together Wednesday to call on Pittsburgh’s most notorious low wage employers...
North Carolina Senate Passes the Most Draconian Voter Suppression Bill Ever Politicususa ...This bill makes registering hard and voting harder – with the added bonus of longer voting lines. To add insult to the pretense that this is about preserving election integrity, they are making it easier for thugs like True the Vote and the Voter Integrity Project to intimidate voters and for outside groups to help Art Pope buy the government...
OSHA To Require Flight Department Hazmat Training Aviation International News ...New regulations from the OSHA mandate the training of thousands of airline workers by December 1 to educate them on how to identify and protect themselves from hazardous chemicals used in the workplace...
Are Shrinking Unions Making Workers Poorer? The Atlantic ...Here's what we know: Union membership has been nearly cut in half over the past thirty years. During that time, income inequality grew, with the top one percent of wealthiest Americans seeing especially big gains in their pre- and post-tax income. And although the economy has grown, wages have not…
Worker Centers Offer a Backdoor Approach to Union Organizing Wall Street Journal ...Juan Campis was sweating in the 90-plus degree heat as he whipped a white towel across a gleaming black Chevy TrailBlazer at a carwash here in Bronx, N.Y.—one of six in the city that was unionized in recent months with help from two nonprofit community groups…
3 Months After Texas Fertilizer Explosion, Workplace Safety Still Ignored Mint Press News ...Long after the explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, killed 15 people, workplace safety violations continue to plague workers across the U.S...
New Illinois law to fight misclassification of workers WREX13 ...A bill addressing the misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors has been signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn., meant to fight employers who missclassify their workers in an attempt to avoid paying state employment taxes, unemployment insurance, worker's compensation, and overtime...
Senate passes student loan interest rate compromise Politico ...A hard fought deal to keep student loan interest rates down cleared the Senate Wednesday on a 81-18 vote, despite strong opposition from liberal Democrats who believe it would make skyrocketing student debt even worse in the long run...
SCI is a Bad Neighbor, Forcing Teamsters Out on Strike IBT ...SCI, a $3.5 billion corporation which operates 16 funeral homes in the Chicagoland area, forced its Local 727 Teamsters out on an unfair labor practices strike on July 2. Visit http://www.integrityinillinois.com/ for updates on their fight for fairness. View the video here...
The Teamsters donate $40,000 to the victims of Lac-Mégantic Canada Newswire ...Teamsters Canada has collected $40,000 from its locals throughout the country and it will be donated to help out the victims of the Lac-Mégantic rail tragedy...
Teamster nursing staff at ECRMC in contract negotiations with hospital Imperial Valley Press ...El Centro Regional Medical Center’s nursing staff has presented the hospital with a financial proposal as part of its first contract with the hospital as an organized labor group, a representative from Teamsters Local 542 confirmed...
BLET wants feds to mandate 2-member train crews Associated Press ...Most railroads in the U.S. use at least two crew members to operate freight trains. But there's no federal rule to prevent them from using one employee as did a Maine-based railroad whose train, while unattended, careened into a Canadian town, causing an explosion and fire that killed 47 people…
Some CPD officers seek to join Teamsters Local 142 Chesterton Tribune ...Within the next 30 to 60 days, full-time employees of the Chesterton (Indiana) Police Department -- both sworn officers and civilians -- could put unionization to the vote...
Teamsters Support Vance-Cooks for U.S. Public Printer IBT ...George Tedeschi, on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has written Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in support of the nomination of Davita Vance-Cooks as U.S. Public Printer...
Fired Walmart Workers Arrested in Protest at Yahoo Headquarters The Nation ...Five activists were arrested at Yahoo! headquarters Monday afternoon in a protest over the firing of eleven Walmart employees who this month went on strike...
Wal-Mart Workers Launch Surprise Strike Over Safety Issues Mint Press News ...At least 30 non-union Wal-Mart warehouse workers in California launched a surprise two-day strike this morning to protest alleged retaliation for exposing safety risks...
Wisconsin Capitol Protest Leads To Two Dozen Arrests As Police Crack Down On Anti-GOP Demonstration Huffington Post ...Police made numerous arrests inside the Wisconsin's Capitol building on Wednesday, more than two years after tens of thousands of Wisconsinites filled the rotunda in Madison to protest Gov. Scott Walker's (R) budget...
Chicago Teachers Protest Layoffs, Chanting ‘Emanuel Has Got To Go!’ In These Times ...Bravo and Johnson were among several hundred teachers, parents and community members marching outside the Chicago Board of Education Wednesday morning, protesting the layoffs of more than 2,100 teachers and staff in the past week and other public school cuts...
Detroit firefighters protest outside of bankruptcy hearing Detroit News ...A group of about 40 Detroit firefighters joined protesters gathered outside the downtown federal courthouse Wednesday, to fight against expected cuts to pensions and the potential loss of public safety positions, as lawyers gathered inside for the first hearing in the historic bankruptcy case...
Congress Tells Detroit to Forget Financial Bailout Bloomberg ...Lawmakers in Congress are dismissing the possibility of a federal bailout for Detroit, the largest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy....
Hundreds protest Pittsburgh’s most notorious low-wage employers WPXI-TV ...Hundreds of protestors joined together Wednesday to call on Pittsburgh’s most notorious low wage employers...
North Carolina Senate Passes the Most Draconian Voter Suppression Bill Ever Politicususa ...This bill makes registering hard and voting harder – with the added bonus of longer voting lines. To add insult to the pretense that this is about preserving election integrity, they are making it easier for thugs like True the Vote and the Voter Integrity Project to intimidate voters and for outside groups to help Art Pope buy the government...
OSHA To Require Flight Department Hazmat Training Aviation International News ...New regulations from the OSHA mandate the training of thousands of airline workers by December 1 to educate them on how to identify and protect themselves from hazardous chemicals used in the workplace...
Are Shrinking Unions Making Workers Poorer? The Atlantic ...Here's what we know: Union membership has been nearly cut in half over the past thirty years. During that time, income inequality grew, with the top one percent of wealthiest Americans seeing especially big gains in their pre- and post-tax income. And although the economy has grown, wages have not…
Worker Centers Offer a Backdoor Approach to Union Organizing Wall Street Journal ...Juan Campis was sweating in the 90-plus degree heat as he whipped a white towel across a gleaming black Chevy TrailBlazer at a carwash here in Bronx, N.Y.—one of six in the city that was unionized in recent months with help from two nonprofit community groups…
3 Months After Texas Fertilizer Explosion, Workplace Safety Still Ignored Mint Press News ...Long after the explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, killed 15 people, workplace safety violations continue to plague workers across the U.S...
New Illinois law to fight misclassification of workers WREX13 ...A bill addressing the misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors has been signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn., meant to fight employers who missclassify their workers in an attempt to avoid paying state employment taxes, unemployment insurance, worker's compensation, and overtime...
Senate passes student loan interest rate compromise Politico ...A hard fought deal to keep student loan interest rates down cleared the Senate Wednesday on a 81-18 vote, despite strong opposition from liberal Democrats who believe it would make skyrocketing student debt even worse in the long run...
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
3K nurses don't mess around on Wall Street
Alternet reports on the rock 'em, sock 'em protest the 3,000 nurses from National Nurses United held on Wall Street yesterday, along with their allies.
The nurses figure they're healers, so their prescription for what ails the economy will work. They propose a small financial transaction tax to discourage speculation and to raise money to rebuild the American middle class.
According to Alternet,
...a feisty group of 3,000 nurses, and their supporters from other unions and community groups, rallied at Federal Hall on Wall St. in New York City to confront the greedy banking industry and demand they pay tiny taxes on financial transactions to stop devastating budget cuts and finance health care for all...
"America's nurses see and feel broad declines in health and living standards for their patients and their own families that are directly tied to the collapse in jobs, housing , health care, and other basics of what used to be called the American dream," said NNU co-president Deborah Burger, RN....
And the nurses are seeing a lot that can be directly linked to the prolonged economic decline. Their message: because the economic crisis is linked to a rise in health problems, the Wall Street bankers must also pay for the ailments they have provoked. Health conditions caused by the poor economy include stress-induced heart problems in younger patients, diabetes in children due to unhealthy diets, and anxiety and depression across all age groups as parents and children alike wonder if they will be able to afford a roof over their head or food on the table...
Rep. Peter DeFazio and Sen. Tom Harkin proposed such a tax. In 2009, DeFazio announced the proposal he and 22 colleagues sponsored in a press release:
...new legislation ...assess(es) a miniscule tax on Wall Street securities transactions. The money it generates will be used to rebuild Main Street. The legislation, Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act, has powerful support from the economists, Wall Street investors, labor organizations, and consumer groups.
“Our nation continues to be crippled by a struggling economy which has resulted in an astronomical unemployment rate of 10.2%. The American taxpayers bailed out Wall Street during a crisis brought on by reckless speculation in the financial markets. This legislation will force Wall Street to do their part and put people displaced by that crisis back to work,” DeFazio said.The UK has such a tax and it hasn't inhibited financial activity. Economists support it as well. Two years ago, the Center for Economic and Policy Research put out a statement saying
Over 200 economists, including James K. Galbraith and Dean Baker, have signed a letter in support of a modest set of financial transaction taxes, which could raise a substantial amount of needed revenue while having little impact on trades that have a positive economic impact.
The cost of trading financial assets has plummeted over the last three decades as a result of computerization. This has led to an enormous explosion in trading volume, with most trades having little economic or social value and redistributing disproportionate resources to the financial sector. A set of modest financial transactions taxes, which would just raise trading costs back to the level of two or three decades ago, would have very limited impact on trades that have real economic value.Maybe it's time for another letter...
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