Teamsters
Hoffa Calls for Bipartisan Approach to Infrastructure Investment Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa stressed the need for a commitment by Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisan agendas and move forward to find a long-term solution to surface transportation funding. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour joined Hoffa at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference today to discuss infrastructure investment...
The Teamsters Want Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Unity To “Get America Working” WIN ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has launched their “Get America Working Campaign” calling for massive new investments in infrastructure, transportation and clean energy. The American Society Of Civil Engineers estimates that America needs to spend $3.6 trillion to modernize and repair roads, bridges, ports, airports, railroads and water systems. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says making these investments would create jobs...
Hoffa: Teamsters Urging Bipartisan Effort to Fix Roads, Bridges Newsmax ...The Teamsters union is pushing a bipartisan effort to repair America's crumbling infrastructure and get the country back on top, the group's president James P. Hoffa, tells Newsmax TV. "There's no Republican bridge, there's no Democratic bridge, there's an American bridge," Hoffa said Wednesday on "The Hard Line"...
Baumann and Sons Buses Inc., Acme Buses, Teamsters Local 1205 to resume school bus labor talks Thursday, union chief says Newsday ...Federal mediation was put on hold early Thursday morning between a major Long Island school bus contractor and its drivers -- a situation closely watched by school districts and parents whose children ride the company's vehicles to get to and from school. Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, Acme Buses, plan to reconvene at 4 p.m. Thursday to continue negotiations, union president Timothy Lynch said...
Council sends message to Sun Tran: resolve strike Arizona Daily News ...The Tucson City Council made a political statement Wednesday in the ongoing Sun Tran strike, telling the management to “make every effort to resolve the labor dispute immediately.” Thursday marks the 36th day of the strike. They told Professional Transit Management to meet its obligation to negotiate in good faith with the Teamsters...
Global Labor & Trade
Auto parts makers make plea to save sector as TPP talks resume CBC ...Auto parts makers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have urged their governments not to give in to demands from Japan for less NAFTA-made content in vehicles at new talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canadian and Mexican negotiators are in Washington today trying to work out terms for automotive issues in the trade deal which would open up freer trade among 12 Pacific nations...
US Aims for Next TPP Meeting in Late September MarketPulse ...The United States has sounded out some of the other countries involved in Pacific Rim free trade negotiations about holding the next ministerial gathering in late September on the margins of a session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, negotiation sources said Tuesday. Separately, Japan and the United States will resume bilateral talks on auto trade issues under the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative in Washington from Wednesday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said...
USTR offers update on TPP following Maui meeting Farm Futures ...Following a meeting of the 12 countries represented in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative this week briefed members of the House Ag Committee on TPP movement and released an updated progress report on the anticipated deal. According to the report, USTR says "substantial progress" was specifically made on market access for goods and services as well as environmental issues...
TPP up by year’s end, says US envoy John Berry The Australian ...The US ambassador to Australia says the President and Secretary of State are confident they will be able to sign the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership by the end of the year, facilitating trade through the Asia-Pacific. In Adelaide to attend an innovation roundtable yesterday, John Berry talked up the benefits of the $200 billion TPP, along with international trade partnerships, at an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia forum...
South Africa FAWU Workers Strike Turns Violent Eyewitness News ...Police are keeping a watchful eye on hundreds of Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) members on strike in Ceres. The demonstrators are demanding a 12% increase from Ceres Fruit Growers which has been offering six percent. The striking employees have braved the chilly and wet weather to demonstrate outside the company’s gates...
Hyundai Motor S.Korea union authorises strike; talks continue Reuters ...Hyundai Motor's union workers in South Korea have voted to authorise a strike after failing to reach a deal in annual wage talks and on reforms to its pay structure. Workers could go on strike as early as Sept. 14, although the union and company management agreed to resume negotiations later on Thursday, union spokesman Hwang Ki-tae said...
Peru: 20,000 Public Health Care Workers Strike TeleSUR ...The strike of public health care workers is the latest sign that Peru’s underfunded system is in trouble. Public health care workers have launched a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to pressure Peru’s government into implementing agreements reached in 2014. Last year, after workers held an 18-day strike, the government signed an agreement, which addressed various issues...
State & Living Wage Battles
New York Could Be The First State With A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will become the first governor to call for a $15 minimum wage across his entire state. A wage hike would need to be passed by the state legislature, where the state senate is Republican-controlled. But if his proposal were to become reality, that would give New York the country’s highest state minimum wage...
Tennessee Higher Education Talks Big, Acts Cheap The Nation ... Under a plan recently issued by the administration of Governor Bill Haslam—who won national accolades for making Tennessee the first state to offer comprehensive “free community college for all”—workers at public facilities across the state, including higher-education institutions, will see their jobs outsourced, potentially at the expense of wages and benefits...
California Governor signs two-person crew law BLET ...California Governor Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown signed a two-person crew bill into law on September 8, signifying a significant boost to railroad safety. The bill reads in part: “This bill would prohibit, on and after February 1, 2016, a train or light engine used in connection with the movement of freight, as specified, from being operated unless it has a crew consisting of at least 2 individuals”...
Paid sick leave movement is alive and kicking CBS ...And about 39 percent of U.S. private sector workers lack access to any sick paid leave, according to a joint study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research and the National Partnership for Women & Families. hat has led several local municipalities and at least four states -- California, Connecticut, Oregon and Massachusetts -- to establish their own paid sick leave laws to ensure that workers don't have to chose between working sick, losing part of their pay or, in some cases, losing their jobs altogether...
Puerto Rico Proposes Harsh Austerity To Solve The Debt Crisis Think Progress ...The government of Puerto Rico put forward an official plan on Wednesday to tackle its looming $72 billion debt crisis. In exchange for demanding some concessions from the island’s hedge fund creditors, the government is promising to pay workers less than the minimum wage, slash retirement benefits, limit collective bargaining, cut funding to universities, and shut down more K-12 schools...
Sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of Missouri anti-union bill (editorial) Kansas City Star ...A controversial “right to work” bill, which is expected to take center stage in the Missouri General Assembly’s veto session next week, is part of a long-term effort by right-wing interests to cripple union strength around the nation. It bodes poorly for Missouri workers and the state’s economy and must not be passed over Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto...
U.S. Labor
UPS pilots' union to vote on potential strike The Hill ...The union that represents UPS pilots is calling a vote on a potential strike against one of the nation's largest parcel delivery companies. The Louisville, Ky.-based Independent Pilots Association (IPA), which has more than 2,600 members, said Wednesday that it would hold a vote on a potential strike against UPS beginning on Oct. 1. Union leaders said the vote is an effort to win concessions from UPS after multiple years of protracted labor talks...
'Fighting for Incredible List of Educational Reforms,' Seattle Teachers Go on Historic Strike Common Dreams ...For the first time in 30 years, Seattle teachers are hitting the picket lines on Wednesday after the teachers union and the school board failed to negotiate a tentative agreement. The Tuesday decision to strike—made with what the union describes as "an unprecedented, thunderous unanimous vote," closes schools on what would have been the first day of school for roughly 50,000 students...
Analysts: GM likely UAW target, small strike probable The Detroit News ...General Motors Co. likely will be selected as the lead for UAW negotiations as contracts expire with the Detroit’s Big Three next week, according to Buckingham Research Group auto analysts, who also believe there is a high probability of a small strike. “We view GM as a probable target, given new CEO Mary Barra is likely more labor friendly vs. Mark Fields and Sergio Marchionne,” analysts from the research firm said...
US Unemployment Benefit Applications Dropped to 275,000 AP ...Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, keeping this key indicator of labor market health near historic lows. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 275,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 500 to 275,750...
Republicans take aim at NLRB's 'joint employer' ruling The Hill ...The GOP is girding for another fight with the Obama administration over a controversial labor policy. The Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, introduced Wednesday by Republicans, would roll back a policy that holds companies liable for labor violations committed by their business partners...
Unions 30 Years Ago Are Somehow Making People Richer Today The Atlantic ...According to the study, people between the ages of 26 and 37 who are working full time and whose parents did not go to college and were not in a union earn an average of $39,000 today. But a very similar group of people—everything the same except that they had one parent who was in a union—those people are earning $46,000...
Labor vs. Silicon Valley, David vs. Goliath? (video) MSNBC ...Unions are spreading like wildfire through tech’s low-wage workforce and Derecka Mehrens, Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA says, ‘we’re winning’. Temple Law Professor Brishen Rogers and MSNBC’s Zack Roth discuss what’s next for innovative labor campaigns...
Social Justice & Other News
Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan Is Mostly A Giveaway To The Rich Think Progress ...In a speech on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush will unveil his tax plan. He also previewed the plan in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Tuesday evening. While the plan is still just an outline of what Bush would do and therefore doesn’t include many details, many of the changes he wants to make would benefit the wealthiest Americans...
Why Europe’s Trains Are So Much Better Than America's The Atlantic ...California is the only place in the U.S. where high-speed rail (HSR) plans are really moving forward, albeit not that quickly or smoothly. The state is currently building a 520-mile high-speed line from San Francisco to L.A., which will eventually extend to Sacramento to the north and San Diego to the south. The German Marshall Fund put out a report in June on the lessons California could draw from the well-developed HSR systems in Germany and France...
Zero Tolerance for Childhood Slate ...“Kids for cash” is emblematic of a larger problem: the tendency to criminalize so much of what young people do, the tendency to hit them with draconian punishments that are out of proportion to the crime itself, and the ways the system itself profits financially from those impulses...
German Lawmaker: At the Root of Refugee Crisis are Wars Led by the U.S. in the Middle East Democracy Now ...The United Nations is now estimating at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and next, seeking refuge in Europe to escape violence and unrest in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Already 366,000 people have arrived in Europe this year. Annette Groth, member of the German Parliament and spokeswoman for human rights for the Left Party, asks "What is the root for this massive migration?It is war, it is terror, and it is the former U.S. government who is accountable for it"...
Showing posts with label rail safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rail safety. Show all posts
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.26.15
Teamsters
San Francisco Board Of Supervisors Back Labor Harmony For Commuter Shuttles teamster.org ...The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today adopted a resolution that would require the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to consider the labor practices of commuter shuttle operators as part of their permitting process...
Why Teamsters Present Walmart With A New Challenge Forbes ...When the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a request by Walmart Stores to prevent shareholders from voting on a proposal to elect an independent board chairman at their annual shareholder meeting they were whistling up the wrong tree. The matter will now become part of the proxy for fiscal 2016 to be voted on in early June. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund submitted the proposal in an effort to unseat Walton family member, S. Robson (Rob) Walton from a position that he has held for many years...
BLET Urges Senators To Oppose PTC Extension BLET ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that it strongly opposes S. 650, the Railroad Safety and Positive Train Control Extension Act, which is expected to be voted on in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation within hours...
Senator: Union's reversal makes Sunday growler sales likely in Minnesota Associated Press ...The Teamsters Joint Council 32 helped derail the measure near the end of the legislative session last year, citing concerns about its impact on the union's labor contracts. But union lobbyist Ed Reynoso told a Senate Committee on Monday that, "at this point" the union won't oppose the effort this year...
Railroads Need To Do More To Improve Track, Union Official Says Progressive Railroading ...The president of a national railroad labor union this week called on freight railroads to step up their maintenance of track carrying oil trains in order to help prevent future derailments. Track conditions are a leading cause of train derailments in the United States, accounting for a third of all train accidents, noted Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division President Freddie Simpson, who cited Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data....
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S. New York Times ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a cornerstone of Mr. obama's remaining economic agenda -- would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and curt rulings -- federal state or local -- before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations...
Oregon MoveOn Members: If Sen. Wyden Supports Fast Track for TPP, We’ll Back a Progressive Challenger in 2016 Primary MoveOn.org ...Oregon members of MoveOn.org Political Action said overwhelmingly that they would back a progressive challenger to Sen. Ron Wyden (D) if the state’s senior senator supports Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a dangerous trade agreement that’s been called “NAFTA on steroids.”...
Ron Wyden avoids anti-trade pact protesters while continuing his fundraising The Oregonian ...A liberal Internet freedom group says it mounted an anti-free-trade protest Tuesday night that scared away Sen. Ron Wyden from holding a fundraiser at an upscale French restaurant near the Capitol...
State Battles
Work On Weekends: GOP Bill Takes Away Right To Weekend Day Off In Wisconsin Inquisitr ...Should you be forced to work on weekends? Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin think so, and they have introduced legislation to strip workers in that state of their right to a single, 24-hour “rest period,” once every seven days...
Public unions will lose power if new bill passes Associated Press ...The measure would prevent local government employers [in Nevada] from giving their employees paid time off for union tasks. It would bar supervisors and administrators from unionizing at all, and would expand local governments' ability to implement layoffs...
Bill Limiting Public Workers’ Payroll Deductions Stalls Without Charity Exemption Wichita Eagle ...A bill that would significantly scale back the collective bargaining power of public-sector unions hit a major snag Tuesday. One part of HB 2096 would prohibit automatic deductions from public workers’ paychecks for union dues or charitable contributions. The United Way of the Plains has said it would lose $300,000 if that happens. An amendment Tuesday sought to exempt charities from the bill, but it was rejected by conservative Republicans and Democrats...
Madigan: Rauner's right-to-work plans illegal Dispatch-Argus ... she also said Gov. Rauner's proposal to prevent unions from getting "fair share" dues from nonmembers working for the state would break the law as it stands...
Health Dept. To Study Landfill Effects KSDK ...The St. Louis County Health Department wants to study hundreds of north county residents. It's part of an effort to determine whether the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill is making people sick. The south quarry of the landfill has experienced an underground smoldering event since 2010. The reaction is releasing gas and odors into the air. Now St. Louis County's new Health Director wants to know what effect those emissions are having on people...
NLRB schedules union election for Boeing SC Charleston Business Journal ...More than 3,000 production and maintenance employees at Boeing South Carolina are eligible to vote on April 22 to decide whether they want union representation, following a National Labor Relations Board’s decision today to allow an election at the local plant...
War on Workers
The growing distance between people and jobs in metropolitan America Brookings ...Between 2000 and 2012, the number of jobs within the typical commute distance for residents in a major metro area fell by 7 percent...
America Needs Labor Unions (opinion) Huffington Post ...The reality is that unions are the greatest tool at most workers' disposal for rebuilding the middle class. Advocating for the elimination of this tool is the epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face...
Senate Dems Seek Stronger Oil Train Safety Rules The Hill ...Senate Democrats have proposed a bill to set stronger safety rules for trains carrying oil, including regulating the content of the oil itself. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said the most critical problem with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) ongoing regulatory effort on oil trains is that it does not confront the problem of the volatility of oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region...
Labor Board Still Grappling With Supreme Court Defeat The Hill ... In a case known as NLRB v. Noel Canning, the high court last June overturned a set of President Obama’s recess appointments to the labor board, concluding he overstepped in exerting his authority to fill vacancies while the Senate was technically in session. As a result, the board has had to revisit more than 100 labor cases that were decided while the NLRB was unconstitutionally constructed...
Miscellaneous
Inflation, New-Home Sales Firm Up Wall Street Journal ...The consumer-price index—covering everything from Americans’ rent to the cost of their dental care—rose in February for the first time in four months, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Overall prices were up 0.2% from January, though they were flat from a year ago. The move suggested inflation pressures are slowly building back up after succumbing to a six-month slide in oil prices...
San Francisco Board Of Supervisors Back Labor Harmony For Commuter Shuttles teamster.org ...The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today adopted a resolution that would require the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to consider the labor practices of commuter shuttle operators as part of their permitting process...
Why Teamsters Present Walmart With A New Challenge Forbes ...When the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a request by Walmart Stores to prevent shareholders from voting on a proposal to elect an independent board chairman at their annual shareholder meeting they were whistling up the wrong tree. The matter will now become part of the proxy for fiscal 2016 to be voted on in early June. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund submitted the proposal in an effort to unseat Walton family member, S. Robson (Rob) Walton from a position that he has held for many years...
BLET Urges Senators To Oppose PTC Extension BLET ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that it strongly opposes S. 650, the Railroad Safety and Positive Train Control Extension Act, which is expected to be voted on in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation within hours...
Senator: Union's reversal makes Sunday growler sales likely in Minnesota Associated Press ...The Teamsters Joint Council 32 helped derail the measure near the end of the legislative session last year, citing concerns about its impact on the union's labor contracts. But union lobbyist Ed Reynoso told a Senate Committee on Monday that, "at this point" the union won't oppose the effort this year...
Railroads Need To Do More To Improve Track, Union Official Says Progressive Railroading ...The president of a national railroad labor union this week called on freight railroads to step up their maintenance of track carrying oil trains in order to help prevent future derailments. Track conditions are a leading cause of train derailments in the United States, accounting for a third of all train accidents, noted Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division President Freddie Simpson, who cited Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data....
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S. New York Times ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a cornerstone of Mr. obama's remaining economic agenda -- would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and curt rulings -- federal state or local -- before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations...
Oregon MoveOn Members: If Sen. Wyden Supports Fast Track for TPP, We’ll Back a Progressive Challenger in 2016 Primary MoveOn.org ...Oregon members of MoveOn.org Political Action said overwhelmingly that they would back a progressive challenger to Sen. Ron Wyden (D) if the state’s senior senator supports Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a dangerous trade agreement that’s been called “NAFTA on steroids.”...
Ron Wyden avoids anti-trade pact protesters while continuing his fundraising The Oregonian ...A liberal Internet freedom group says it mounted an anti-free-trade protest Tuesday night that scared away Sen. Ron Wyden from holding a fundraiser at an upscale French restaurant near the Capitol...
State Battles
Work On Weekends: GOP Bill Takes Away Right To Weekend Day Off In Wisconsin Inquisitr ...Should you be forced to work on weekends? Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin think so, and they have introduced legislation to strip workers in that state of their right to a single, 24-hour “rest period,” once every seven days...
Public unions will lose power if new bill passes Associated Press ...The measure would prevent local government employers [in Nevada] from giving their employees paid time off for union tasks. It would bar supervisors and administrators from unionizing at all, and would expand local governments' ability to implement layoffs...
Bill Limiting Public Workers’ Payroll Deductions Stalls Without Charity Exemption Wichita Eagle ...A bill that would significantly scale back the collective bargaining power of public-sector unions hit a major snag Tuesday. One part of HB 2096 would prohibit automatic deductions from public workers’ paychecks for union dues or charitable contributions. The United Way of the Plains has said it would lose $300,000 if that happens. An amendment Tuesday sought to exempt charities from the bill, but it was rejected by conservative Republicans and Democrats...
Madigan: Rauner's right-to-work plans illegal Dispatch-Argus ... she also said Gov. Rauner's proposal to prevent unions from getting "fair share" dues from nonmembers working for the state would break the law as it stands...
Health Dept. To Study Landfill Effects KSDK ...The St. Louis County Health Department wants to study hundreds of north county residents. It's part of an effort to determine whether the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill is making people sick. The south quarry of the landfill has experienced an underground smoldering event since 2010. The reaction is releasing gas and odors into the air. Now St. Louis County's new Health Director wants to know what effect those emissions are having on people...
NLRB schedules union election for Boeing SC Charleston Business Journal ...More than 3,000 production and maintenance employees at Boeing South Carolina are eligible to vote on April 22 to decide whether they want union representation, following a National Labor Relations Board’s decision today to allow an election at the local plant...
War on Workers
The growing distance between people and jobs in metropolitan America Brookings ...Between 2000 and 2012, the number of jobs within the typical commute distance for residents in a major metro area fell by 7 percent...
America Needs Labor Unions (opinion) Huffington Post ...The reality is that unions are the greatest tool at most workers' disposal for rebuilding the middle class. Advocating for the elimination of this tool is the epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face...
Senate Dems Seek Stronger Oil Train Safety Rules The Hill ...Senate Democrats have proposed a bill to set stronger safety rules for trains carrying oil, including regulating the content of the oil itself. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said the most critical problem with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) ongoing regulatory effort on oil trains is that it does not confront the problem of the volatility of oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region...
Labor Board Still Grappling With Supreme Court Defeat The Hill ... In a case known as NLRB v. Noel Canning, the high court last June overturned a set of President Obama’s recess appointments to the labor board, concluding he overstepped in exerting his authority to fill vacancies while the Senate was technically in session. As a result, the board has had to revisit more than 100 labor cases that were decided while the NLRB was unconstitutionally constructed...
Miscellaneous
Inflation, New-Home Sales Firm Up Wall Street Journal ...The consumer-price index—covering everything from Americans’ rent to the cost of their dental care—rose in February for the first time in four months, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Overall prices were up 0.2% from January, though they were flat from a year ago. The move suggested inflation pressures are slowly building back up after succumbing to a six-month slide in oil prices...
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Today's Teamster News 02.11.15
Teamsters
Teamsters give CP Rail 72-hour strike notice CBC News …3,330 locomotive engineers and conductors could walk off the job this weekend…
Farmers, Gov’t Brace For Possible Railway Labour Problems Regina Leader Post ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents unionized locomotive engineers, conductors, trainmen and yardmen throughout Canada, says its members have voted by 93 per cent in favour of a strike if they can’t reach an agreement with the Canadian Pacific Railway...
Sysco-US Foods Merger Faces Skepticism, Doubts About Remedies teamster.org ...As Sysco attempts to overcome antitrust issues plaguing its proposed acquisition of US Foods, the transaction faces skepticism from elected officials, consumer advocates, food service establishments, workers and others. They warn there may be no adequate remedies to protect consumers in an industry that, in the words of lawmakers on the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, “touches every single American consumer who eats meals away from home.”...
Golan's Workers Win First Union Contract, End 6-Month Strike Progress Illinois ...Following a strike that lasted six months, unionized workers at Golan's Moving and Storage in Skokie are back on the job after winning their first labor contract with their employer. Prior to the strike, workers at the Skokie moving company, located at 3600 Jarvis Ave., were waiting for their first labor contract for months after having won union representation by Teamsters Local 705 back in December 2013...
Trade
U.S. Lawmakers Put Currency Cheating On Trade Agenda Reuters ...U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled bipartisan legislation to stop trading partners from manipulating exchange rates, and a senior Democrat vowed to keep pushing for rules against currency cheating in trade deals...
Corrected Trade Data Confirm Ballooning Trade Deficit Under Korea FTA and More Than Twice the Trade Deficit With NAFTA Partners Public Citizen Global Trade Watch ...The corrected data, which remove foreign-produced goods from the tally of U.S. exports, reveal that the U.S. goods trade deficit with NAFTA partners is actually more than twice as large as indicated in the raw data, topping 182 billion. And three years after passage of the U.S pact with Korea that served as the template for the TPP, the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has ballooned 72 percent, spelling the loss of more than 70,000 U.S. jobs...
Left and Right Align in Fighting Obama’s Trade Agenda New York Times ...About 150 of the House’s 188 Democrats have already signed on to letters opposing fast track, an ominous figure for the president, since Mr. Boehner said last Congress he would need as many as 50 Democratic votes...
Trade Must Not Trump Women's Human Rights (opinion) Huffington Post ...Women's rights groups, including the Feminist Majority Foundation, sent President Obama a letter last summer, requesting that the administration remove Brunei from TPP negotiations or suspend TPP talks until Brunei revokes its penal code...
State Battles
Missouri Republicans target public employee unions Washington Post ...A measure that would severely limit the power of some public employee unions is advancing through the Missouri state House, opening the latest front in the GOP’s nationwide fight to curb one of the Democratic Party’s wealthiest constituencies. A House committee approved so-called “paycheck protection” legislation Monday...
Nurses Condemn Illinois Governor’s Anti-Worker Executive Order National Nurses United ...“Nurses, emergency responders, child welfare advocates, and public servants who enforce public oversight and regulatory protections are among the many groups of workers threatened by the order,” said Martese Chism, a Chicago registered nurse and board member for National Nurses Organizing Committee-Illinois, an NNU affiliate...
Davis Introduces Bill Which Would Require At Least Two Man Train Crews KCSR ...District 43 State Senator Al Davis of Hyannis wants to keep the thought of one man crews in the past. Davis has introduced Legislative Bill Number 192 (Nebraska), which would require all train crews in the state to have at least two individuals...
War on Workers
IRS Issues John Doe Summons To FedEx, DHL, UPS, HSBC In Massive Offshore Account Hunt Forbes …A federal judge approved the IRS issuing summonses requiring FedEx, DHL, UPS, and a bevy of other handlers to produce information about U.S. taxpayers who used Sovereign Management & Legal Ltd. for offshore accounts and assets...
Investors Should Know Pay Gap Between C.E.O.s and Workers (opinion) New York Times ...It has been well documented that large pay gaps between chief executives and their workers severely weaken companies and put investments in those companies at risk. These gaps inhibit teamwork and lead to lower job satisfaction and morale, higher employee turnover, reduced productivity and inferior product quality...
Should you join a union? The research says yes. Washington Post ...unions serve as a bulwark against wage inequality — which now can be illustrated mostly in the negative. A 2011 study attributed a fifth to a third of increased income inequality among men to the decline in union representation between 1973 and 2007...
Investor: Peasants Will Be Out With Pitchforks if We Don't Start Sharing the Wealth Bloomberg News ...Society at large has to enjoy some of the largesse, or else the pitchforks come out...
Uber Drivers Are Scrambling To Make Ends Meet After Latest Fare Cuts New York Observer ...Uber slashed fares in Washington D.C. two weeks ago in another attempt to get their app onto every phone they can and edge out “Big Taxi.” ... A number of drivers we spoke to—some who we reached out to, some who got in touch with us after seeing our previous reporting—say that the fare cuts are scorched-earth warfare tactics that sacrifice great drivers on the altar of competition...
The Koch Brothers Raised $249 Million At Their Latest Donor Summit Mother Jones ...Donors at the Palm Springs confab pledged $249 million toward funding the Koch brothers' grand plan, according to two sources with knowledge of the fundraising haul. ...If the Koch network raises comparable sums at its remaining donor retreats between now and November 2016—it tends to hold two to three such gatherings a year—it will easily meet, if not surpass, its $889 million target...
Comcast worker killed in Glen Ridge accident recalled as accomplished fighter, dedicated father NJ.com ...A Comcast employee who was killed while working on a utility pole last week was an accomplished martial arts fighter and dedicated father to three sons....
Miscellaneous
Virginia Tech Undertakes Restart Study, Looking For 250 Driver Participants The Trucker ...The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute is looking for some 250 truck drivers to participate in the Congressionally-mandated study that could ultimately determine whether drivers have unlimited use of the 34-hour restart provision or whether they will only be allowed a restart only once every 168 hours and then must include two consecutive 1 a. m.-5 a.m. time periods. VTTI was awarded a $4 million contract by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to conduct the study...
Teamsters give CP Rail 72-hour strike notice CBC News …3,330 locomotive engineers and conductors could walk off the job this weekend…
Farmers, Gov’t Brace For Possible Railway Labour Problems Regina Leader Post ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents unionized locomotive engineers, conductors, trainmen and yardmen throughout Canada, says its members have voted by 93 per cent in favour of a strike if they can’t reach an agreement with the Canadian Pacific Railway...
Sysco-US Foods Merger Faces Skepticism, Doubts About Remedies teamster.org ...As Sysco attempts to overcome antitrust issues plaguing its proposed acquisition of US Foods, the transaction faces skepticism from elected officials, consumer advocates, food service establishments, workers and others. They warn there may be no adequate remedies to protect consumers in an industry that, in the words of lawmakers on the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, “touches every single American consumer who eats meals away from home.”...
Golan's Workers Win First Union Contract, End 6-Month Strike Progress Illinois ...Following a strike that lasted six months, unionized workers at Golan's Moving and Storage in Skokie are back on the job after winning their first labor contract with their employer. Prior to the strike, workers at the Skokie moving company, located at 3600 Jarvis Ave., were waiting for their first labor contract for months after having won union representation by Teamsters Local 705 back in December 2013...
Trade
U.S. Lawmakers Put Currency Cheating On Trade Agenda Reuters ...U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled bipartisan legislation to stop trading partners from manipulating exchange rates, and a senior Democrat vowed to keep pushing for rules against currency cheating in trade deals...
Corrected Trade Data Confirm Ballooning Trade Deficit Under Korea FTA and More Than Twice the Trade Deficit With NAFTA Partners Public Citizen Global Trade Watch ...The corrected data, which remove foreign-produced goods from the tally of U.S. exports, reveal that the U.S. goods trade deficit with NAFTA partners is actually more than twice as large as indicated in the raw data, topping 182 billion. And three years after passage of the U.S pact with Korea that served as the template for the TPP, the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has ballooned 72 percent, spelling the loss of more than 70,000 U.S. jobs...
Left and Right Align in Fighting Obama’s Trade Agenda New York Times ...About 150 of the House’s 188 Democrats have already signed on to letters opposing fast track, an ominous figure for the president, since Mr. Boehner said last Congress he would need as many as 50 Democratic votes...
Trade Must Not Trump Women's Human Rights (opinion) Huffington Post ...Women's rights groups, including the Feminist Majority Foundation, sent President Obama a letter last summer, requesting that the administration remove Brunei from TPP negotiations or suspend TPP talks until Brunei revokes its penal code...
State Battles
Missouri Republicans target public employee unions Washington Post ...A measure that would severely limit the power of some public employee unions is advancing through the Missouri state House, opening the latest front in the GOP’s nationwide fight to curb one of the Democratic Party’s wealthiest constituencies. A House committee approved so-called “paycheck protection” legislation Monday...
Nurses Condemn Illinois Governor’s Anti-Worker Executive Order National Nurses United ...“Nurses, emergency responders, child welfare advocates, and public servants who enforce public oversight and regulatory protections are among the many groups of workers threatened by the order,” said Martese Chism, a Chicago registered nurse and board member for National Nurses Organizing Committee-Illinois, an NNU affiliate...
Davis Introduces Bill Which Would Require At Least Two Man Train Crews KCSR ...District 43 State Senator Al Davis of Hyannis wants to keep the thought of one man crews in the past. Davis has introduced Legislative Bill Number 192 (Nebraska), which would require all train crews in the state to have at least two individuals...
War on Workers
IRS Issues John Doe Summons To FedEx, DHL, UPS, HSBC In Massive Offshore Account Hunt Forbes …A federal judge approved the IRS issuing summonses requiring FedEx, DHL, UPS, and a bevy of other handlers to produce information about U.S. taxpayers who used Sovereign Management & Legal Ltd. for offshore accounts and assets...
Investors Should Know Pay Gap Between C.E.O.s and Workers (opinion) New York Times ...It has been well documented that large pay gaps between chief executives and their workers severely weaken companies and put investments in those companies at risk. These gaps inhibit teamwork and lead to lower job satisfaction and morale, higher employee turnover, reduced productivity and inferior product quality...
Should you join a union? The research says yes. Washington Post ...unions serve as a bulwark against wage inequality — which now can be illustrated mostly in the negative. A 2011 study attributed a fifth to a third of increased income inequality among men to the decline in union representation between 1973 and 2007...
Investor: Peasants Will Be Out With Pitchforks if We Don't Start Sharing the Wealth Bloomberg News ...Society at large has to enjoy some of the largesse, or else the pitchforks come out...
Uber Drivers Are Scrambling To Make Ends Meet After Latest Fare Cuts New York Observer ...Uber slashed fares in Washington D.C. two weeks ago in another attempt to get their app onto every phone they can and edge out “Big Taxi.” ... A number of drivers we spoke to—some who we reached out to, some who got in touch with us after seeing our previous reporting—say that the fare cuts are scorched-earth warfare tactics that sacrifice great drivers on the altar of competition...
The Koch Brothers Raised $249 Million At Their Latest Donor Summit Mother Jones ...Donors at the Palm Springs confab pledged $249 million toward funding the Koch brothers' grand plan, according to two sources with knowledge of the fundraising haul. ...If the Koch network raises comparable sums at its remaining donor retreats between now and November 2016—it tends to hold two to three such gatherings a year—it will easily meet, if not surpass, its $889 million target...
Comcast worker killed in Glen Ridge accident recalled as accomplished fighter, dedicated father NJ.com ...A Comcast employee who was killed while working on a utility pole last week was an accomplished martial arts fighter and dedicated father to three sons....
Miscellaneous
Virginia Tech Undertakes Restart Study, Looking For 250 Driver Participants The Trucker ...The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute is looking for some 250 truck drivers to participate in the Congressionally-mandated study that could ultimately determine whether drivers have unlimited use of the 34-hour restart provision or whether they will only be allowed a restart only once every 168 hours and then must include two consecutive 1 a. m.-5 a.m. time periods. VTTI was awarded a $4 million contract by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to conduct the study...
Friday, January 23, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.23.15
Teamsters
Teamsters' Hoffa urges Congress to back Keystone bill Fox News …Teamsters boss James Hoffa, in an interview with Fox News, urged Congress to pass a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline and claimed the push is "gaining momentum."...
Michigan Steelworkers Vote to Join Teamsters teamster.org …Workers at TCT Stainless Steel in Sterling Heights, Mich. recently voted to join Teamsters Local 283 in Wyandotte, Mich. There are 17 workers in the new bargaining unit and the vote count was 12-5 for Teamster representation…
Key West, Workers Union To Ratify Contract Keynoter ...The Key West City Commission will consider a new collective bargaining agreement with Teamsters Local 769 at the commission's meeting at Old City Hall Wednesday evening. The union, which represents about 200 city employees, includes administrative assistants, bus drivers and maintenance workers...
Trade
U.S. senator says wants to introduce fast-track trade bill by end January Reuters ...He said the aim was to move the bill out of the committee stage by the end of February, which could suggest a vote in March...
Trans Pacific Partnership: Obama Ready To Defy Democrats To Push Secretive Trade Deal The Guardian ...The TPP is one of the largest international trade agreements the US will sign, yet most of it is mired in secrecy. Congress won’t have access to the TPP before it is signed, and the terms won’t be publicly disclosed – ironic since the negotiations include 600 corporate advisers, including representatives of Halliburton and Caterpillar...
Will Democrats Spoil Obama's Trade Initiatives? The Atlantic …"We will do what we can in the Senate to defeat this unfortunate proposal," declared Bernie Sanders, the Vermont liberal who is considering a long-shot bid for the presidency. American workers, he said, should not "have to compete against people in Vietnam who have a minimum wage of 56 cents an hour."…
State Battles
Right To Work Pro, Con Marshal Forces Albuquerque Journal ...Union leaders Jon Hendry of the New Mexico Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and Carter Bundy of the AFSCME say passing right-to-work legislation would bring low-wage jobs. They say it’s a political argument and that supporters are trying to undermine the ability of unions to represent workers at all levels...
Minimum wage hike for NM now has bipartisan support Albuquerque Business First …Nate Gentry (R-Albuquerque), who is the Majority Floor Leader of the New Mexico House of Representatives, said Republicans support raising the statewide minimum wage — just not to the same level as Democrats...
Bill Would Raise Montana's Minimum Wage To $10.10 Helena Independent Record ...Minimum wage workers in Montana would receive about a 25 percent increase in hourly pay under legislation proposed in the Senate. Democratic Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy of Box Elder called Senate Bill 2 an economic development measure as he introduced it in the Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs Committee on Wednesday...
Newly-inaugurated Governor Tom Wolf pushes for increased minimum wage in PA The Daily Pennsylvanian …Wolf advocated for Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to increase from $7.25 an hour to $10 an hour. In addition, the minimum wage would be indexed to inflation...
Roads, Pensions, Oh My: Sam Brownback’s Kansas Endures Another Day Of Woeful Budget News (opinion) Kansas City Star ...Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget plan is just a few days old, but Kansas legislators on Tuesday already were hearing just how bad things could get in the next few years. In other words, it was just another normal day of money woes in the financially strapped Sunflower State...
Some N.D. Dairy Farmers Want To Follow S.D.'s Lead And Allow Corporate Operators Into State Grand Forks Herald ...Some producers say they would like to follow South Dakota’s lead to allow corporate farming in an effort to lure more dairy operators into the state...
S.C. Gov. Haley Lambastes Unions, Organizing Efforts At Boeing In State Address Seattle Times ...Gov. Nikki Haley used part of her State of the State address Wednesday to promote South Carolina’s anti-union reputation and try to kill efforts to unionize Boeing’s North Charleston plant...
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder: Repealing prevailing wage could hurt skilled trades Michigan Live …As for Republican legislative proposals to repeal prevailing wage, Snyder said repealing prevailing wage could have an adverse impact on the skilled trades...
War on Workers
Tracking Inequality in America Wall Street Journal …People in every age group under 65 have a net worth that’s significantly lower now than it was in 1989…. Households led by people age 35-44 saw the biggest drop, down 54%, with rising mortgage debt largely to blame. In 1989, these families had a median mortgage of $72,000 against a median home value of $145,000. By 2013, the home value for this age group was somewhat higher at $170,000, but the size of mortgages had nearly doubled to $140,000...
Unions Warn About One Man Per Train North Platte Bulletin ...Thanks to the joint opposition of the United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (a labor negotiating committee) has dropped its insistence on single person crews in current bargaining...
Senate Democrats Stand Up For Speedier Union Elections Huffington Post …Democratic support in the upper chamber could be critical in avoiding a future budget bill rider that would block the reforms, should Republicans try to go that route...
Worker killed in accident at White Meadows Farms Niagara This Week …Niagara Regional Police media officer Const. Rich Gadreau said the investigation revealed a 36-year-old man was fatally injured when he was struck by a moving concrete block...
Mine worker killed in Missouri accident KTVI …The worker was reportedly removing loose rock when some loose material fell and struck the cab of his equipment...
Power Worker Killed By Tree On GA 400 WSB ...Authorities tell Channel 2 Action News the tree fell on a Sawnee EMC employee along Georgia 400 on the south side of the county...
Miscellaneous
Keystone XL Pipeline Files For Eminent Domain In Nebraska KNOP ...This action was required within two years of TransCanada receiving its January 2013 approval in Nebraska. That time period expires on January 22, 2015. An agreement without Eminent Domain can still be reached if TransCanada and land owners can negotiate voluntary easement agreements...
The Only Problem With the Greatest Hoodie Ever Made Slate …American Giant designs and manufactures its clothes in the United States, yet the firm has found a way to keep its quality high and its prices comparable to those of other high-end retailers...
Teamsters' Hoffa urges Congress to back Keystone bill Fox News …Teamsters boss James Hoffa, in an interview with Fox News, urged Congress to pass a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline and claimed the push is "gaining momentum."...
Michigan Steelworkers Vote to Join Teamsters teamster.org …Workers at TCT Stainless Steel in Sterling Heights, Mich. recently voted to join Teamsters Local 283 in Wyandotte, Mich. There are 17 workers in the new bargaining unit and the vote count was 12-5 for Teamster representation…
Key West, Workers Union To Ratify Contract Keynoter ...The Key West City Commission will consider a new collective bargaining agreement with Teamsters Local 769 at the commission's meeting at Old City Hall Wednesday evening. The union, which represents about 200 city employees, includes administrative assistants, bus drivers and maintenance workers...
Trade
U.S. senator says wants to introduce fast-track trade bill by end January Reuters ...He said the aim was to move the bill out of the committee stage by the end of February, which could suggest a vote in March...
Trans Pacific Partnership: Obama Ready To Defy Democrats To Push Secretive Trade Deal The Guardian ...The TPP is one of the largest international trade agreements the US will sign, yet most of it is mired in secrecy. Congress won’t have access to the TPP before it is signed, and the terms won’t be publicly disclosed – ironic since the negotiations include 600 corporate advisers, including representatives of Halliburton and Caterpillar...
Will Democrats Spoil Obama's Trade Initiatives? The Atlantic …"We will do what we can in the Senate to defeat this unfortunate proposal," declared Bernie Sanders, the Vermont liberal who is considering a long-shot bid for the presidency. American workers, he said, should not "have to compete against people in Vietnam who have a minimum wage of 56 cents an hour."…
State Battles
Right To Work Pro, Con Marshal Forces Albuquerque Journal ...Union leaders Jon Hendry of the New Mexico Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and Carter Bundy of the AFSCME say passing right-to-work legislation would bring low-wage jobs. They say it’s a political argument and that supporters are trying to undermine the ability of unions to represent workers at all levels...
Minimum wage hike for NM now has bipartisan support Albuquerque Business First …Nate Gentry (R-Albuquerque), who is the Majority Floor Leader of the New Mexico House of Representatives, said Republicans support raising the statewide minimum wage — just not to the same level as Democrats...
Bill Would Raise Montana's Minimum Wage To $10.10 Helena Independent Record ...Minimum wage workers in Montana would receive about a 25 percent increase in hourly pay under legislation proposed in the Senate. Democratic Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy of Box Elder called Senate Bill 2 an economic development measure as he introduced it in the Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs Committee on Wednesday...
Newly-inaugurated Governor Tom Wolf pushes for increased minimum wage in PA The Daily Pennsylvanian …Wolf advocated for Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to increase from $7.25 an hour to $10 an hour. In addition, the minimum wage would be indexed to inflation...
Roads, Pensions, Oh My: Sam Brownback’s Kansas Endures Another Day Of Woeful Budget News (opinion) Kansas City Star ...Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget plan is just a few days old, but Kansas legislators on Tuesday already were hearing just how bad things could get in the next few years. In other words, it was just another normal day of money woes in the financially strapped Sunflower State...
Some N.D. Dairy Farmers Want To Follow S.D.'s Lead And Allow Corporate Operators Into State Grand Forks Herald ...Some producers say they would like to follow South Dakota’s lead to allow corporate farming in an effort to lure more dairy operators into the state...
S.C. Gov. Haley Lambastes Unions, Organizing Efforts At Boeing In State Address Seattle Times ...Gov. Nikki Haley used part of her State of the State address Wednesday to promote South Carolina’s anti-union reputation and try to kill efforts to unionize Boeing’s North Charleston plant...
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder: Repealing prevailing wage could hurt skilled trades Michigan Live …As for Republican legislative proposals to repeal prevailing wage, Snyder said repealing prevailing wage could have an adverse impact on the skilled trades...
War on Workers
Tracking Inequality in America Wall Street Journal …People in every age group under 65 have a net worth that’s significantly lower now than it was in 1989…. Households led by people age 35-44 saw the biggest drop, down 54%, with rising mortgage debt largely to blame. In 1989, these families had a median mortgage of $72,000 against a median home value of $145,000. By 2013, the home value for this age group was somewhat higher at $170,000, but the size of mortgages had nearly doubled to $140,000...
Unions Warn About One Man Per Train North Platte Bulletin ...Thanks to the joint opposition of the United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (a labor negotiating committee) has dropped its insistence on single person crews in current bargaining...
Senate Democrats Stand Up For Speedier Union Elections Huffington Post …Democratic support in the upper chamber could be critical in avoiding a future budget bill rider that would block the reforms, should Republicans try to go that route...
Worker killed in accident at White Meadows Farms Niagara This Week …Niagara Regional Police media officer Const. Rich Gadreau said the investigation revealed a 36-year-old man was fatally injured when he was struck by a moving concrete block...
Mine worker killed in Missouri accident KTVI …The worker was reportedly removing loose rock when some loose material fell and struck the cab of his equipment...
Power Worker Killed By Tree On GA 400 WSB ...Authorities tell Channel 2 Action News the tree fell on a Sawnee EMC employee along Georgia 400 on the south side of the county...
Miscellaneous
Keystone XL Pipeline Files For Eminent Domain In Nebraska KNOP ...This action was required within two years of TransCanada receiving its January 2013 approval in Nebraska. That time period expires on January 22, 2015. An agreement without Eminent Domain can still be reached if TransCanada and land owners can negotiate voluntary easement agreements...
The Only Problem With the Greatest Hoodie Ever Made Slate …American Giant designs and manufactures its clothes in the United States, yet the firm has found a way to keep its quality high and its prices comparable to those of other high-end retailers...
Friday, January 2, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.02.15
Teamster News
First Student School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Local 570 Representation teamster.org ...First Student school bus drivers and monitors who transport children attending Baltimore City Public Schools have voted to join Teamsters Local 570 in Baltimore. The 113 school bus workers work out of First Student yards in Baltimore and Severn, Md., and joined the union seeking respect, fair pay and dignity at work...
Travel Management Company Pilots Vote To Join Teamsters teamster.org ...Pilots with Travel Management Company (TMC) voted overwhelmingly, 120-57, today in favor of Teamster representation. After the National Mediation Board (NMB) certifies the election, about 200 TMC pilots will become members of Teamsters Local 1108 in Richmond Heights, Ohio, and join the more than 75,000 airline industry workers currently represented by the Teamsters Airline Division...
Teamsters help Catholic Charities haul huge donation of furniture from Ogunquit inn to sell for food Bangor Daily News ...“Teamsters Local 340 is again sending their Joint Council 10 truck up for three truckload trips to Aroostook County to help out Catholic Charities’ food bank and their ‘Feed the County’ efforts this holiday season,” said Traci Place, a business agent for the union...
Teamsters rail conference calls for limited access to locomotive recordings Progressive Railroading ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) is not opposed to the installation of locomotive voice and video recorders (LVVRs), but all recordings should be used pursuant to the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, union officials announced last week...
Union decries decrease in railroad maintenance crews Bismarck Tribune ...Reductions in maintenance workers on Canadian Pacific tracks could cause more delays, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Snyder County owes $90G to two guards Daily Item ...Snyder County still owes several thousand dollars to two Snyder County Jail guards who won their jobs back in April after being terminated two years earlier for sexual harassment...
Teamsters, Medina Council approve contract Medina Gazette ... Medina City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement Tuesday with Teamsters Local 436, which represents city service department employees...
Trade
Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance UK Progressive ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
Obama executive actions put Asia free trade deal at risk Washington Times ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...The United States failed to achieve a doubling of exports between 2009 and 2014, as promised in President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI). It wasn’t even close. Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Say Goodbye to 'Made in China' Bloomberg ...In November, Hebei Iron & Steel Co Ltd, a provincial-owned company and China’s largest steelmaker by production, announced that it was moving 5 million tons of its annual production -- roughly 11 percent of the 45 million tons of steel it makes every year -- to South Africa. According to press reports, it won’t be going abroad alone...
War on Workers
Map: Where Workers' Pay Has Risen the Most in Past Decade Wall Street Journal ...while the one-third of all counties have seen a decline in annual average pay, those counties hold about 46% of U.S. population. That shows you how densely populated some of those counties are...
Wage stagnation puts the squeeze on ordinary workers (Opinion) Los Angeles Times ...The median net worth of upper-income families reached $639,400 last year. That's nearly seven times as much as for those in the middle and almost 70 times what people at the lower end of the economic spectrum are making...
The Story Behind Wage Fixing in Hollywood Real News ...Wage theft stories aren't only happening at fast food companies like McDonald's, but the computer animation industry is also being accused of fixing employee wages. Major players like Disney, Sony, and many more have been entangled in a conspiracy called Techtopus...
Labor's big comeback Politico ...In a chain of end-of-the-year rulemakings, filings and decisions, the NLRB is exercising more muscle on labor’s behalf than Obama achieved during his previous six years in office...
Epidemic of Violence against Health-Care Workers Plagues Hospitals Scientific American ...Health-care workers are hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spat on, threatened and harassed by patients with surprising regularity. In a 2014 survey, almost 80 percent of nurses reported being attacked on the job within the past year...
Worker killed in accident at Ford Claycomo Assembly Plant KMBC ...A contract worker died on the job at Ford's Claycomo plant early Tuesday. Investigators said a beam fell on the man as he worked to help build a new assembly line...
Highway 68 construction worker killed by drunk driver Better Roads ...Jesus Fernandez, 51, was just doing his job on Highway 68 in California when a suspected drunk driver took his life...
Racers Mourn for Track Worker Killed in Raceway Accident New Times ...The racing world suffered a loss this past Sunday when an experienced track worker at the Palm Beach International Raceway died during a race when an unmanned, out-of-control motorcycle crashed into him...
Rest stop worker hit and killed on I-40 Fox8 ...A rest stop worker was hit by a car and killed along Interstate 40 near Benson Monday morning...
Miscellaneous
Low Oil Prices Drive US Rig Count Down Oil Prices ...Onshore US drilling rigs fell by 37 to 1,499 in the week ending Dec. 26. Ten rigs were dropped in the previous week and 29 went out of service the week before that...
Q3 2014 GDP Revised Up to a Whopping 5.0% Economic Populist ...This is the highest quarterly GDP since Q3 2003, a full eleven years ago. The reason for the revision blow out was consumer spending and investment...
First Student School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Local 570 Representation teamster.org ...First Student school bus drivers and monitors who transport children attending Baltimore City Public Schools have voted to join Teamsters Local 570 in Baltimore. The 113 school bus workers work out of First Student yards in Baltimore and Severn, Md., and joined the union seeking respect, fair pay and dignity at work...
Travel Management Company Pilots Vote To Join Teamsters teamster.org ...Pilots with Travel Management Company (TMC) voted overwhelmingly, 120-57, today in favor of Teamster representation. After the National Mediation Board (NMB) certifies the election, about 200 TMC pilots will become members of Teamsters Local 1108 in Richmond Heights, Ohio, and join the more than 75,000 airline industry workers currently represented by the Teamsters Airline Division...
Teamsters help Catholic Charities haul huge donation of furniture from Ogunquit inn to sell for food Bangor Daily News ...“Teamsters Local 340 is again sending their Joint Council 10 truck up for three truckload trips to Aroostook County to help out Catholic Charities’ food bank and their ‘Feed the County’ efforts this holiday season,” said Traci Place, a business agent for the union...
Teamsters rail conference calls for limited access to locomotive recordings Progressive Railroading ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) is not opposed to the installation of locomotive voice and video recorders (LVVRs), but all recordings should be used pursuant to the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, union officials announced last week...
Union decries decrease in railroad maintenance crews Bismarck Tribune ...Reductions in maintenance workers on Canadian Pacific tracks could cause more delays, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Snyder County owes $90G to two guards Daily Item ...Snyder County still owes several thousand dollars to two Snyder County Jail guards who won their jobs back in April after being terminated two years earlier for sexual harassment...
Teamsters, Medina Council approve contract Medina Gazette ... Medina City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement Tuesday with Teamsters Local 436, which represents city service department employees...
Trade
Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance UK Progressive ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
Obama executive actions put Asia free trade deal at risk Washington Times ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...The United States failed to achieve a doubling of exports between 2009 and 2014, as promised in President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI). It wasn’t even close. Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Say Goodbye to 'Made in China' Bloomberg ...In November, Hebei Iron & Steel Co Ltd, a provincial-owned company and China’s largest steelmaker by production, announced that it was moving 5 million tons of its annual production -- roughly 11 percent of the 45 million tons of steel it makes every year -- to South Africa. According to press reports, it won’t be going abroad alone...
War on Workers
Map: Where Workers' Pay Has Risen the Most in Past Decade Wall Street Journal ...while the one-third of all counties have seen a decline in annual average pay, those counties hold about 46% of U.S. population. That shows you how densely populated some of those counties are...
Wage stagnation puts the squeeze on ordinary workers (Opinion) Los Angeles Times ...The median net worth of upper-income families reached $639,400 last year. That's nearly seven times as much as for those in the middle and almost 70 times what people at the lower end of the economic spectrum are making...
The Story Behind Wage Fixing in Hollywood Real News ...Wage theft stories aren't only happening at fast food companies like McDonald's, but the computer animation industry is also being accused of fixing employee wages. Major players like Disney, Sony, and many more have been entangled in a conspiracy called Techtopus...
Labor's big comeback Politico ...In a chain of end-of-the-year rulemakings, filings and decisions, the NLRB is exercising more muscle on labor’s behalf than Obama achieved during his previous six years in office...
Epidemic of Violence against Health-Care Workers Plagues Hospitals Scientific American ...Health-care workers are hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spat on, threatened and harassed by patients with surprising regularity. In a 2014 survey, almost 80 percent of nurses reported being attacked on the job within the past year...
Worker killed in accident at Ford Claycomo Assembly Plant KMBC ...A contract worker died on the job at Ford's Claycomo plant early Tuesday. Investigators said a beam fell on the man as he worked to help build a new assembly line...
Highway 68 construction worker killed by drunk driver Better Roads ...Jesus Fernandez, 51, was just doing his job on Highway 68 in California when a suspected drunk driver took his life...
Racers Mourn for Track Worker Killed in Raceway Accident New Times ...The racing world suffered a loss this past Sunday when an experienced track worker at the Palm Beach International Raceway died during a race when an unmanned, out-of-control motorcycle crashed into him...
Rest stop worker hit and killed on I-40 Fox8 ...A rest stop worker was hit by a car and killed along Interstate 40 near Benson Monday morning...
Miscellaneous
Low Oil Prices Drive US Rig Count Down Oil Prices ...Onshore US drilling rigs fell by 37 to 1,499 in the week ending Dec. 26. Ten rigs were dropped in the previous week and 29 went out of service the week before that...
Q3 2014 GDP Revised Up to a Whopping 5.0% Economic Populist ...This is the highest quarterly GDP since Q3 2003, a full eleven years ago. The reason for the revision blow out was consumer spending and investment...
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.06.14
Teamsters
Southern California port truck drivers loading up on wage-theft cases Los Angeles Times ...the state Department of Industrial Relations has ruled in recent months that nearly 40 drivers were improperly designated as contractors, which denied them significant workplace protections. So far, $4.3 million in back pay and penalties has been awarded to drivers...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership talks going on in Ottawa CBC News ...Trade officials from Canada and other Asia-Pacific nations are meeting behind closed doors in Ottawa to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive free-trade proposal that could create one of the world's largest trading blocks...
War on Workers
Rupture-Prone Oil Trains Keep Rolling After Quebec Crash Bloomberg ...two-thirds of the tank cars in use today are still older models that safety experts say are vulnerable to puncture. The July 6 derailment last year in Quebec and seven other major ones in the U.S. and Canada since then have spilled more than 3 million gallons of oil, with some cars catching fire or exploding...
The Missing Part of the Unemployment Story Economic Policy Institute ...Unemployment rate if missing workers were looking for work: 9.6%...
Trends in Part-Time Employment Center for Economic and Policy Research ...The number of people working part-time involuntarily is down by 640,000 from its year ago level and by more than 1.6 million from its peak in 2010...
Wal-Mart’s big July 4 lie: This is how it really treats veterans Salon ...on my way to work, I tried to save the lives of several people from a gunman who was behaving erratically and waving a gun at a busy intersection. I still went to work my shift at Wal-Mart. The very next day, I was abruptly fired for making an 18 cent mistake on a workers’ discount card. My manager knew what happened the day before, but it didn’t matter...
On This Fourth of July, Meet Your Unpatriotic Corporations The Nation ...Walgreens, The New York Times reported, is looking to relocate from Illinois to Switzerland, in the process merging with a Swiss corporation and reincorporating itself as a foreign entity. It is, bluntly, an old-fashioned tax dodge, aimed at trimming eleven percentage points off the company’s corporate tax rate. Americans for Tax Fairness estimates that the move will cost US taxpayers more than $4 billion over the next five years...
On the Characteristics of Those Covered under Some Government Programs Econbrowser ...more than half of SNAP recipients are children or the elderly. For the remaining working-age individuals, many of them are currently employed. At least forty percent of all SNAP beneficiaries live in a household with earnings...
Hospitals Are Mining Patients' Credit Card Data to Predict Who Will Get Sick Bloomberg ...Imagine getting a call from your doctor if you let your gym membership lapse, make a habit of buying candy bars at the checkout counter, or begin shopping at plus-size clothing stores. For patients of Carolinas HealthCare System, which operates the largest group of medical centers in North and South Carolina, such a day could be sooner than they think...
Going Without Water in Detroit New York Times ...The average monthly water bill in Detroit is $75 for a family of four — nearly twice the United States average — and the department is increasing rates this month by 8.7 percent...
In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are Washington Post ...Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post...
Southern California port truck drivers loading up on wage-theft cases Los Angeles Times ...the state Department of Industrial Relations has ruled in recent months that nearly 40 drivers were improperly designated as contractors, which denied them significant workplace protections. So far, $4.3 million in back pay and penalties has been awarded to drivers...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership talks going on in Ottawa CBC News ...Trade officials from Canada and other Asia-Pacific nations are meeting behind closed doors in Ottawa to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive free-trade proposal that could create one of the world's largest trading blocks...
War on Workers
Rupture-Prone Oil Trains Keep Rolling After Quebec Crash Bloomberg ...two-thirds of the tank cars in use today are still older models that safety experts say are vulnerable to puncture. The July 6 derailment last year in Quebec and seven other major ones in the U.S. and Canada since then have spilled more than 3 million gallons of oil, with some cars catching fire or exploding...
The Missing Part of the Unemployment Story Economic Policy Institute ...Unemployment rate if missing workers were looking for work: 9.6%...
Trends in Part-Time Employment Center for Economic and Policy Research ...The number of people working part-time involuntarily is down by 640,000 from its year ago level and by more than 1.6 million from its peak in 2010...
Wal-Mart’s big July 4 lie: This is how it really treats veterans Salon ...on my way to work, I tried to save the lives of several people from a gunman who was behaving erratically and waving a gun at a busy intersection. I still went to work my shift at Wal-Mart. The very next day, I was abruptly fired for making an 18 cent mistake on a workers’ discount card. My manager knew what happened the day before, but it didn’t matter...
On This Fourth of July, Meet Your Unpatriotic Corporations The Nation ...Walgreens, The New York Times reported, is looking to relocate from Illinois to Switzerland, in the process merging with a Swiss corporation and reincorporating itself as a foreign entity. It is, bluntly, an old-fashioned tax dodge, aimed at trimming eleven percentage points off the company’s corporate tax rate. Americans for Tax Fairness estimates that the move will cost US taxpayers more than $4 billion over the next five years...
On the Characteristics of Those Covered under Some Government Programs Econbrowser ...more than half of SNAP recipients are children or the elderly. For the remaining working-age individuals, many of them are currently employed. At least forty percent of all SNAP beneficiaries live in a household with earnings...
Hospitals Are Mining Patients' Credit Card Data to Predict Who Will Get Sick Bloomberg ...Imagine getting a call from your doctor if you let your gym membership lapse, make a habit of buying candy bars at the checkout counter, or begin shopping at plus-size clothing stores. For patients of Carolinas HealthCare System, which operates the largest group of medical centers in North and South Carolina, such a day could be sooner than they think...
Going Without Water in Detroit New York Times ...The average monthly water bill in Detroit is $75 for a family of four — nearly twice the United States average — and the department is increasing rates this month by 8.7 percent...
In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are Washington Post ...Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post...
Friday, April 25, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.25.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Union Calls On Bill Gates For Westlake Landfill Cleanup CBS News ...The Teamsters union is lobbying billionaire Bill Gates to support the total cleanup of radioactive waste from the West Lake Landfill. Chuck Stiles, the Assistant Director of the Teamsters Solid Waste Division...
Teamsters, Taylor Farm Workers Help Push Bill To Protect Temp Workers TeamsterNation ...The Teamster organizing struggle at Taylor Farms in California moved to the state capitol yesterday where workers helped push forward a bill to make companies responsible for workers hired through temp agencies...
UPS Contract Facts Memo To Locals teamster.org ...The documents ... include a UPS contract facts memo from the National Negotiating Committee to Local Unions and supporting documents...
Trade
Japan, U.S. fail to reach agreement on TPP The Asahi Shimbun ...Last-minute negotiations between Japan and the United States failed to produce substantive agreement on a Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal...
Why Corporations Are Freaking Out About Obama's Big Trade Deal Huffington Post ...as the current head of Ford Motor Co.'s international lobbying operations, Biegun now finds himself allied with environmental activists, labor unions, and some of the most progressive Democrats in Congress -- all raising strong objections to President Barack Obama's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, or TPP...
State Battles
Right-To-Work Bill Divides Missourians As It Moves Through Legislature The Missourian ...Dave Anderson, a shop steward for United Food and Commercial Workers in Columbia, is convinced that organized labor helps far more people than simply its members...
War On Workers
Exclusive: Apple, Google agree to pay over $300 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit Reuters ...Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, sources familiar with the deal said, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin...
Danger on the rails: outdated tankers carrying crude oil Axis Philly ...Virtually all of the petroleum crude being transported around the United States by rail is being shipped in DOT-111s.
And many of those tank cars have been deemed unsafe for the transportation of flammable liquids, like petroleum crude oil, by government agencies...
Port Authority Board Approves Raises For All 12K Airport Workers New York Daily News ...All 12,000 of the New York area's poorly paid airport workers are now officially set for financial takeoff. Three months after the Daily News launched a campaign to improve conditions for the struggling airport workers, Port Authority board members...
Many Low-Wage Workers Not Protected By Minimum Wage CNN Money ...President Obama's push to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, coupled with recent state-level increases, is welcome news for many people getting by on small paychecks...
Pressure Builds As Northwestern Football Team Union Vote Nears CNN ...No matter what the ballots say, Friday will be historic for college sports. By noon, members of Northwestern University's will have cast their ballots that will decide whether they will form a workers union and start demanding more rights...
Breaking the Law? Northwestern Football Coach Pressures Players Not to Unionize The Nation ...it takes an enormous amount of chutzpah for Fitzgerald to so strenuously oppose the efforts of his players to have a seat at the table when he is making $2.2 million per year and received a $2.5 million loan from the school upon signing his most recent contract. Yet Fitzgerald’s stance is not only distasteful. It may be illegal...
Meet The Real Amazon Drones Huffington Post ...At least five days a week, Myron Ballard races around Washington, DC with a cargo van full of Amazon Prime packages. A career delivery driver with 20 years behind the wheel, Ballard typically gets paid $1.50 for each address he visits...
Miscellaneous
Families Of Aurora Shooting Victims Call Out Koch Backed Group For Insensitive Ad Huffington Post ...A group backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch has agreed to adjust an ad featuring President Obama and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) after facing complaints about an insensitive photo. Families of the Aurora movie theater shooting victims called on the conservative nonprofit Americans for Prosperity...
Everything You Need To Know About The End Of Net Neutrality Huffington Post ...It may be the end of the internet as we know it. That was the reaction from consumer advocates and some websites after the Federal Communications Commission announced new rules governing internet service on Thursday...
Teamsters Union Calls On Bill Gates For Westlake Landfill Cleanup CBS News ...The Teamsters union is lobbying billionaire Bill Gates to support the total cleanup of radioactive waste from the West Lake Landfill. Chuck Stiles, the Assistant Director of the Teamsters Solid Waste Division...
Teamsters, Taylor Farm Workers Help Push Bill To Protect Temp Workers TeamsterNation ...The Teamster organizing struggle at Taylor Farms in California moved to the state capitol yesterday where workers helped push forward a bill to make companies responsible for workers hired through temp agencies...
UPS Contract Facts Memo To Locals teamster.org ...The documents ... include a UPS contract facts memo from the National Negotiating Committee to Local Unions and supporting documents...
Trade
Japan, U.S. fail to reach agreement on TPP The Asahi Shimbun ...Last-minute negotiations between Japan and the United States failed to produce substantive agreement on a Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal...
Why Corporations Are Freaking Out About Obama's Big Trade Deal Huffington Post ...as the current head of Ford Motor Co.'s international lobbying operations, Biegun now finds himself allied with environmental activists, labor unions, and some of the most progressive Democrats in Congress -- all raising strong objections to President Barack Obama's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, or TPP...
State Battles
Right-To-Work Bill Divides Missourians As It Moves Through Legislature The Missourian ...Dave Anderson, a shop steward for United Food and Commercial Workers in Columbia, is convinced that organized labor helps far more people than simply its members...
War On Workers
Exclusive: Apple, Google agree to pay over $300 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit Reuters ...Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, sources familiar with the deal said, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin...
Danger on the rails: outdated tankers carrying crude oil Axis Philly ...Virtually all of the petroleum crude being transported around the United States by rail is being shipped in DOT-111s.
And many of those tank cars have been deemed unsafe for the transportation of flammable liquids, like petroleum crude oil, by government agencies...
Port Authority Board Approves Raises For All 12K Airport Workers New York Daily News ...All 12,000 of the New York area's poorly paid airport workers are now officially set for financial takeoff. Three months after the Daily News launched a campaign to improve conditions for the struggling airport workers, Port Authority board members...
Many Low-Wage Workers Not Protected By Minimum Wage CNN Money ...President Obama's push to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, coupled with recent state-level increases, is welcome news for many people getting by on small paychecks...
Pressure Builds As Northwestern Football Team Union Vote Nears CNN ...No matter what the ballots say, Friday will be historic for college sports. By noon, members of Northwestern University's will have cast their ballots that will decide whether they will form a workers union and start demanding more rights...
Breaking the Law? Northwestern Football Coach Pressures Players Not to Unionize The Nation ...it takes an enormous amount of chutzpah for Fitzgerald to so strenuously oppose the efforts of his players to have a seat at the table when he is making $2.2 million per year and received a $2.5 million loan from the school upon signing his most recent contract. Yet Fitzgerald’s stance is not only distasteful. It may be illegal...
Meet The Real Amazon Drones Huffington Post ...At least five days a week, Myron Ballard races around Washington, DC with a cargo van full of Amazon Prime packages. A career delivery driver with 20 years behind the wheel, Ballard typically gets paid $1.50 for each address he visits...
Miscellaneous
Families Of Aurora Shooting Victims Call Out Koch Backed Group For Insensitive Ad Huffington Post ...A group backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch has agreed to adjust an ad featuring President Obama and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) after facing complaints about an insensitive photo. Families of the Aurora movie theater shooting victims called on the conservative nonprofit Americans for Prosperity...
Everything You Need To Know About The End Of Net Neutrality Huffington Post ...It may be the end of the internet as we know it. That was the reaction from consumer advocates and some websites after the Federal Communications Commission announced new rules governing internet service on Thursday...
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.20.14
Teamster News
SeaTac airport workers fight exclusion from $15 minimum wage PBS News Hour ...Tracey Thompson, Teamsters Local 117: It’s not just the represented workers that matter. It’s the non-represented workers, and women and persons of color are the ones who are suffering most by having such low minimum wage and poverty level wages here...
Animal rights protesters march outside Liam Neeson's home in support of horse ban New York Daily News ...About 60 activists gathered in front of Neeson’s building on Saturday, criticizing the actor for his support of the carriage horse industry...
Mayor Bill de Blasio's horse sense (opinion) Crain's New York Business ...when the mayor changed his mind last week, saying he'd postpone the industry ban until the end of the year, we welcomed the reprieve. Still, Mr. de Blasio's capricious approach to one industry continues to leave us concerned for every law-abiding business in this town. Apparently, following the rules and paying taxes is no longer sufficient for the privilege to try to earn a living in New York...
Trade
U.S.-Japan Talks Said Unable to Overcome Deal Obstacles Bloomberg ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Japanese Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Akira Amari yesterday concluded talks in Washington on the Trans-Pacific Partnership without striking a deal on some of the most contentious issues...
State Battles
Local Media Fooled By Discredited Economic Competitiveness Report Media Matters ...Despite the uncritical, often glowing, pick-up by local media outlets, ALEC's competitiveness report has received scrutiny in the past, mostly due to evidence showing that economic data does not comport with the results of their study...
Column: Some fear Charles Koch's influence damages FSU's integrity Tampa Bay Tribune ...Koch's foundation has been funneling money to the economics department at FSU since 2008. This would be the same Koch who funds ultraconservative think tanks and preaches less government regulation...
Christina Bullins: Are our prisons safe in Florida? Florida Public Employees Partnership ...the inmate population had no significant changes. Despite the addition of 245 positions last year, the number of officers reported in DOC’s budget request is 727 officers less than the year before...
War on Workers
Jon Stewart Demolishes the NCAA's Case Against Student-Athlete Unions The Wire ...players are forbidden from accepting nearly any gifts, including food – just ask the Oklahoma players punished for being served "pasta in excess."...
Student debt holds back many would-be home buyers Los Angeles Times ...Of the many factors holding back young home buyers — rising prices, tougher lending standards, a still-shaky job market — none looms larger than the recent explosion of college debt...
UConn’s 2,135 graduate assistants unionize CT Mirror ...The governing board of the state's flagship university unanimously voted in a "special meeting" last week to approve an agreement between the newly formed union -- UConn GEU-UAW -- and the university...
Miscellaneous
Senator Holds Commuter Safety Presser, Almost Gets Hit By Train Gawker ...Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal received an unexpected lesson in practicing what you preach at a press conference yesterday. Standing on the platform at the Milford Metro-North station, Blumenthal and his easel narrowly dodged an oncoming train as Milford Mayor Ben Blake spoke about commuter safety...
SeaTac airport workers fight exclusion from $15 minimum wage PBS News Hour ...Tracey Thompson, Teamsters Local 117: It’s not just the represented workers that matter. It’s the non-represented workers, and women and persons of color are the ones who are suffering most by having such low minimum wage and poverty level wages here...
Animal rights protesters march outside Liam Neeson's home in support of horse ban New York Daily News ...About 60 activists gathered in front of Neeson’s building on Saturday, criticizing the actor for his support of the carriage horse industry...
Mayor Bill de Blasio's horse sense (opinion) Crain's New York Business ...when the mayor changed his mind last week, saying he'd postpone the industry ban until the end of the year, we welcomed the reprieve. Still, Mr. de Blasio's capricious approach to one industry continues to leave us concerned for every law-abiding business in this town. Apparently, following the rules and paying taxes is no longer sufficient for the privilege to try to earn a living in New York...
Trade
U.S.-Japan Talks Said Unable to Overcome Deal Obstacles Bloomberg ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Japanese Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Akira Amari yesterday concluded talks in Washington on the Trans-Pacific Partnership without striking a deal on some of the most contentious issues...
State Battles
Local Media Fooled By Discredited Economic Competitiveness Report Media Matters ...Despite the uncritical, often glowing, pick-up by local media outlets, ALEC's competitiveness report has received scrutiny in the past, mostly due to evidence showing that economic data does not comport with the results of their study...
Column: Some fear Charles Koch's influence damages FSU's integrity Tampa Bay Tribune ...Koch's foundation has been funneling money to the economics department at FSU since 2008. This would be the same Koch who funds ultraconservative think tanks and preaches less government regulation...
Christina Bullins: Are our prisons safe in Florida? Florida Public Employees Partnership ...the inmate population had no significant changes. Despite the addition of 245 positions last year, the number of officers reported in DOC’s budget request is 727 officers less than the year before...
War on Workers
Jon Stewart Demolishes the NCAA's Case Against Student-Athlete Unions The Wire ...players are forbidden from accepting nearly any gifts, including food – just ask the Oklahoma players punished for being served "pasta in excess."...
Student debt holds back many would-be home buyers Los Angeles Times ...Of the many factors holding back young home buyers — rising prices, tougher lending standards, a still-shaky job market — none looms larger than the recent explosion of college debt...
UConn’s 2,135 graduate assistants unionize CT Mirror ...The governing board of the state's flagship university unanimously voted in a "special meeting" last week to approve an agreement between the newly formed union -- UConn GEU-UAW -- and the university...
Miscellaneous
Senator Holds Commuter Safety Presser, Almost Gets Hit By Train Gawker ...Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal received an unexpected lesson in practicing what you preach at a press conference yesterday. Standing on the platform at the Milford Metro-North station, Blumenthal and his easel narrowly dodged an oncoming train as Milford Mayor Ben Blake spoke about commuter safety...
Friday, January 24, 2014
Today's Teamster News 01.24.14
Teamsters Legislative Rep Discusses TPP, Dangers of Fast Track teamster.org ...Mike Dolan was interviewed on RT News about the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and how Americans are being silenced by fast-track authority. Watch the interview here...
Ariz. Lawmaker Sounds Off on Fast Track, TPP Arizona Daily Star ...Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) took aim at fast-track legislation and the Trans-Pacific Partnership in an op-ed appearing in the Arizona Daily Star, saying it would hurt working Americans and is "Congress' version of saying 'My way or the highway.'"...
Lawmakers Need to Match ‘Moral’ Movement teamster.org ...Residents of North Carolina in 2013 saw the actions of an oppressive state government come to life when lawmakers approved and Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed legislation that curbed long-term unemployment benefits, education spending, health care eligibility and voting rights...
The Workers' Scorecard on NAFTA Truthout ...Twenty years later, workers have a scorecard. The promises of profits from increased investment and freer markets were kept. But the promises of jobs and benefits for working people were not...
How Amazon Continues to Get Away With Abusing Its Workers The Salon ...The inside story of how the retail giant has managed to remain union-free across the United States...
Where The American Dream Is Dead And Buried The Huffington Post ...If you dream of one day pulling yourself up by your bootstraps to become the next Bill Gates, there are some places in America where it's somewhat easier to do that than others, a new study reveals...
Apprenticeships Could Help Reduce Youth Unemployment, Business Leaders Say New York Times ...Leaders of manufacturing companies, facing an aging population of skilled employees, say apprenticeships and internships can help society avoid a “lost generation” of workers...
U.S. and Canada Urge New Safety Rules for Crude Oil Rail Shipments New York Times ...In a joint move that highlighted growing concerns about the safety of crude oil transportation by rail, officials from the United States and Canada issued a series of recommendations on Thursday, including that the trains avoid populated and sensitive areas...
U.S. investigates Arizona pension investment trust Associated Press ...Federal authorities are investigating a state retirement investment trust which has been accused of inflating the values of poor-performing real-estate holdings...
U.S. says 665,000 background checks performed by firm were flawed Washington Post ...Justice Dept. joins the suit against the firm that cleared Snowden and the Navy Yard shooter...
United offers jobs to furloughed flight attendants Associated Press ...United Airlines said it has found a way to keep 688 flight attendants who are set to be furloughed on April 1...
Rich Man Calls Rising Income Inequality 'Fantastic' Huffington Post ...Canadian millionaire Kevin O’Leary couldn't have been more excited to learn that the 85 richest people on Earth are now worth as much half the world's population."It’s fantastic," Leary said...
U.S. Offshore Wind Farm, Made in Europe New York Times ...The promise of new jobs and work for American companies failed to come true, revealing shortcomings in the American offshore wind industry...
Neiman Marcus: 1.1M cards may be compromised Associated Press ...Neiman Marcus says that a security breach last year may have affected about 1.1 million cards...
U.S. attorney’s office subpoenas Chris Christie campaign Politco ...The U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey has subpoenaed Gov. Chris Christie’s reelection campaign and the state Republican party for documents related to the George Washington Bridge lane closure controversy, an attorney for the two groups confirmed Thursday...
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