Teamsters
St. Vincent technicians to vote on union April 29 Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital who have indicated they want to join a local branch of the Teamsters will vote April 29 on whether to join the union. The vote, which has been agreed upon by the 225 technicians and management at St. Vincent Hospital, will occur during working hours...
NLRB to issue complaint against Sysco, bring justice for fired Teamsters Teamster Nation ...The Federal Government is weighing in on the side of workers at Sysco in Atlanta who were wrongly terminated after their successful campaign to join Teamsters Local 528...
Democrats, Labor Will Work To Block Youth Minimum Wage Law Rapid City Journal ...The South Dakota Democratic Party and at least one union group that successfully pushed for a voter-approved minimum wage hike last year are preparing to join opponents of a lawmaker-approved $7.50 youth minimum wage law who are working to block it from going into effect. The state Democratic Party and the Teamsters are hoping to stop the youth minimum wage measure...
Dire state of U.S. bridges shows need for infrastructure investment Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters have been a persistent advocate for infrastructure investment, saying it is the best way to create good-paying jobs that will sustain families across the nation. And a new report explains why such work is important. In short, it's too dangerous not to act...
Global Labor & Trade
Fact-Checking the Fact-Checker: Washington Post Gets It Wrong on Bogus Trade-Pact Jobs Claims Public Citizen ...As the Obama administration seeks to Fast Track the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress over public and congressional opposition, it has resorted to a familiar tactic – promising job gains from the deal on the basis of unfounded assumptions.
Activists in Blimp, RV Target Sen. Ron Wyden Over Trade Deal Wall Street Journal ...When Sen. Ron Wyden goes home to Oregon, he faces an unusual entourage: activists manning a blimp and a recreational vehicle who are set on pressuring the senator to say no to a trade deal...
Push for Controversial Trade Deal Continues With Pitch From Defense Secretary Common Dreams ...U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Monday trumpeted the administration's so-called Pacific pivot and urged passage of legislative power that critics say will allow a massive corporate-friendly trade deal to be rammed through Congress...
How America Became an Oligarchy Counterpunch ...The most glaring example today is the secret twelve-country trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If it goes through, the TPP will dramatically expand the power of multinational corporations to use closed-door tribunals to challenge and supersede domestic laws, including environmental, labor, health and other protections...
French strikes cancel flights across Europe Deutsche Welle ...Authorities in France said air traffic could be reduced by as much as 40 percent on Wednesday, with the strike expected to continue into Thursday. The union has called for talks regarding working practices and the workers' retirement age...
State & Living Wage Battles
With State Control, North Carolina Republicans Pursue Smaller Prizes New York Times ...This session, bills introduced by Republican lawmakers would reconfigure a number of local government bodies around the state, prompting allegations that Republicans are gerrymandering and changing election rules at the city council and county commission levels...
Senator Rand Paul Has No Idea Why The USPS Appears To Be Failing, But He Blames Unions NH Labor News ...Paul never strays from being a front man for the wealthy with his extreme anti-union beliefs. For Postal workers his message is clear as he advocates an end to collective bargaining rights for postal workers when their current contracts expire. He says he is not “opposed to all unions”–he just believes unions are inappropriate for public service workers...
Democratic reformers increasingly irked over SEC's delay in implementing CEO-worker pay-gap rule Daily Kos ...One of the mandates of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act was for the Security and Exchange Commission to require all publicly held companies to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to the median pay of all other employees. Thanks to heavy corporate opposition, it took more than three years from when Dodd-Franks became law for the SEC to propose such a rule...
House Democrats Push Minimum Wage Hike Texas Tribune ...The minimum wage would go up to $10.10 an hour under proposals by state Reps. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, and Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. A separate measure by Martinez Fischer would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment setting the minimum wage at $10.10...
Fast-food workers rally across the country for higher wages AOL.com ...Fast-food workers are joining forces with home health care aids and Wal-Mart workers on April 15 to rally for higher wages. Rallies will be taking place across the country as protesters strive to increase wages up to a 15 dollar per hour rate...
In Illinois, A Pre-Emptive Strike Against Unions (opinion) St. Louis Post Dispatch ...In Illinois, the right-to-work zones are part of Mr. Rauner’s anti-union efforts. He’s also called for banning political donations by unions (even though the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision says unions and corporations are “citizens”). Mr. Rauner wants taxpayers to have a say in negotiations with public employee unions. He wants to end “prevailing wage” laws that require union wages to be paid on state and local construction projects...
U.S. Labor
Signs Of Hope For American Workers (opinion) Washington Post ...Last week’s jobs report was mostly disappointing, as it revealed that the nation’s employers broke their year-long streak of adding at least 200,000 jobs per month. Buried in the report, though, was some encouraging news about earnings. In March, average hourly earnings for private employees rose 7 cents, or about 0.3 percent, to $24.86. Sure, it’s not much, but it’s more than analysts forecast. Other recent Labor Department releases have also shown compensation quietly rising...
Victor Gotbaum, Influential New York Labor Leader, Dies At 93 Washington Post ...As leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ District Council 37 in New York, Mr. Gotbaum was the voice of the nation’s biggest municipal union when the city faced the threat of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s...
Kris Bryant, The Baseball Players’ Union And A Lesson For Labor New York Times ...The Cubs sent Bryant down to the minor leagues last week, setting off a 21st-century-style labor dispute. To the Major League Baseball Players Association, the move looked to be less about baseball aptitude than money and control...
Miscellaneous
Republic Finishes Sewer Line From Bridgeton Landfill St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Republic Services announced Friday it has completed a new sewer line connecting the Bridgeton Landfill to two Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District treatment plants, cutting down on truck traffic hauling liquid waste from the smoldering landfill...
Could Heinz-Kraft merger face opposition from the Federal Trade Commission? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...The Federal Trade Commission is actively trying to block the merger of food service distributors Sysco and US Foods, citing antitrust concerns, but the deal that would combine Pittsburgh’s H.J. Heinz Co. and Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Group is unlikely to face similar opposition...
Showing posts with label rand paul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rand paul. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Friday, April 3, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.03.15
Global Labor & Trade
Unions, Progressives Pressure Democrats To Oppose Trade Deals Business Journals ...Labor unions and progressive organizations are sending a message to Democrats: If you support fast-tracking trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, don’t be surprised if we oppose you in your next Democratic primary...
U.S., Japan Seek Trade Deal in Advance of Abe Washington Visit Bloomberg Business ...U.S. and Japanese negotiators are rushing to complete a trade agreement they can unveil during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington later this month, something they hope will pave the way for a broader Asia-Pacific pact involving 10 other countries...
Trade bill timeline could push Senate to act Politico ...Senate aides have circulated a tentative date of mid-April for advancing “fast-track” trade legislation in the recognition that Sens. Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden have to move quickly to finalize a deal on the bill or risk losing their chance to get it passed by the end of the spring session...
Astroturf Warning: TPP Critics Call Out Fake 'Progressive' Group Pushing Corporate Trade Agenda Common Dreams ...Critics of the corporate-friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership are lining up against what they call an "astroturf" operation claiming to represent progressives in favor of Fast Tracking the sweeping and secretive trade deal. No such progressives exist, they say...
A Turning Point For Chinese Workers In These Times ...As unions have struggled and strikes have declined in the United States in recent years, labor militancy has surged in other parts of the world—and nowhere more so than China. Now the movement appears to be starting to achieve significant institutional reform...
State & Living Wage Battles
Rand Paul’s Favorite Union-Buster Bloomberg ...Yessin, who’s represented companies in more than 200 conflicts with unions, says the NLRA doesn’t block states from letting local officials regulate some union activities. Yessin’s ideas offer conservatives a path forward on anti-union legislation known as “right-to-work” laws...
Packed House As Oswego Discusses Rauner 'Right-To-Work' Proposal Chicago Tribune ...Rauner's office has asked cities and villages across the state to support his initiatives aimed to "get the house in order" by changing how Illinois does business. One of the changes Rauner wants involves letting local communities enact "right-to-work" zones, which would allow voters to decide whether or not employees should be forced to join a union as a condition of employment...
Indiana’s Highway To Hell: Welcome To The Sick New Corporate Order Salon.com ...It’s the “circle of life,” neoliberal style: Enter into “free trade” deals which benefit global investors, then watch as wages stagnate and jobs disappear. Cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, depriving the nation of funds for infrastructure. Make under- and unemployed residents of cities like Gary, Indiana, pay tolls to make up the shortfall, and jeopardize the retirement security of middle-class Americans in sketchy privatization deals to replace lost infrastructure funding...
McDonald's Is Raising Wages For Some Workers Huffington Post ...McDonald's is finally giving some of its workers a raise. The fast-food giant on Wednesday announced plans to give employees a 10 percent pay bump and some extra benefits. The raise will affect about 90,000 workers at a small fraction of McDonald’s stores. Employees at franchises, which make up the majority of the burger chain's locations, won't be affected...
Seattle begins to phase in $15 minimum wage Union Bulletin ...Most workers in Seattle will see the minimum wage increase to $11 an hour this week. Some small businesses will get a $1 credit for employees who earn tips or get health insurance and will pay $10 an hour. It will take until 2017 for Seattle workers at large companies and chains to earn $15 an hour...
Fight “Right to Work” in Oregon Counterpunch ...There is justifiable dread that anti-union “Right to Work” laws will be purchased into existence by out-of-state billionaires championing the laws around the country. Fortunately, an antidote to Right to Work is also being publicly debated in Oregon, where there is pending legislation to push the state’s minimum wage to $15...
Candidates Who Mock The Law (opinion) Washington Post ...Mr. Bush seems to have adopted every dark-money trick in the book. Will others now follow? As it is, the presidential campaign will begin under a dark-money cloud. Americans want a president with the right stuff, and that does not mean bags of secret cash...
U.S. Labor
Philadelphia airport workers strike over wages and benefits Boston Globe ...A few dozen baggage handlers, airplane cleaners and other non-union workers went on strike at Philadelphia’s airport Thursday, demanding higher wages, benefits, and an end to what they say are unfair labor practices...
CSX Worker Struck, Killed By Train At Rail Yard WTRV ...An investigation is underway after a CSX worker was struck and killed by a train early Wednesday morning. Henrico police said the industrial accident happened around just before 3 a.m. at the ACCA train yard in the 2100 block of Westwood Avenue...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Factories Slow For Fifth Month In Row, But Economists See Rebound Wall Street Journal ...The Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday said its purchasing managers index fell for the fifth consecutive month in March, to 51.5 from 52.9 in February. The index is at its lowest reading since May 2013, though it’s still above the 50 level that reflects expansion...
When Will The NSA Stop Spying On Innocent Americans? The Atlantic ...Unless Congress acts, Americans will soon benefit from one of the Patriot Act's most important safeguards against abuse: Language in Section 215 of the law is scheduled to expire in June, depriving the FBI and NSA of a provision they've used to justify monitoring the phone calls of tens of millions of innocents...
Unions, Progressives Pressure Democrats To Oppose Trade Deals Business Journals ...Labor unions and progressive organizations are sending a message to Democrats: If you support fast-tracking trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, don’t be surprised if we oppose you in your next Democratic primary...
U.S., Japan Seek Trade Deal in Advance of Abe Washington Visit Bloomberg Business ...U.S. and Japanese negotiators are rushing to complete a trade agreement they can unveil during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington later this month, something they hope will pave the way for a broader Asia-Pacific pact involving 10 other countries...
Trade bill timeline could push Senate to act Politico ...Senate aides have circulated a tentative date of mid-April for advancing “fast-track” trade legislation in the recognition that Sens. Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden have to move quickly to finalize a deal on the bill or risk losing their chance to get it passed by the end of the spring session...
Astroturf Warning: TPP Critics Call Out Fake 'Progressive' Group Pushing Corporate Trade Agenda Common Dreams ...Critics of the corporate-friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership are lining up against what they call an "astroturf" operation claiming to represent progressives in favor of Fast Tracking the sweeping and secretive trade deal. No such progressives exist, they say...
A Turning Point For Chinese Workers In These Times ...As unions have struggled and strikes have declined in the United States in recent years, labor militancy has surged in other parts of the world—and nowhere more so than China. Now the movement appears to be starting to achieve significant institutional reform...
State & Living Wage Battles
Rand Paul’s Favorite Union-Buster Bloomberg ...Yessin, who’s represented companies in more than 200 conflicts with unions, says the NLRA doesn’t block states from letting local officials regulate some union activities. Yessin’s ideas offer conservatives a path forward on anti-union legislation known as “right-to-work” laws...
Packed House As Oswego Discusses Rauner 'Right-To-Work' Proposal Chicago Tribune ...Rauner's office has asked cities and villages across the state to support his initiatives aimed to "get the house in order" by changing how Illinois does business. One of the changes Rauner wants involves letting local communities enact "right-to-work" zones, which would allow voters to decide whether or not employees should be forced to join a union as a condition of employment...
Indiana’s Highway To Hell: Welcome To The Sick New Corporate Order Salon.com ...It’s the “circle of life,” neoliberal style: Enter into “free trade” deals which benefit global investors, then watch as wages stagnate and jobs disappear. Cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, depriving the nation of funds for infrastructure. Make under- and unemployed residents of cities like Gary, Indiana, pay tolls to make up the shortfall, and jeopardize the retirement security of middle-class Americans in sketchy privatization deals to replace lost infrastructure funding...
McDonald's Is Raising Wages For Some Workers Huffington Post ...McDonald's is finally giving some of its workers a raise. The fast-food giant on Wednesday announced plans to give employees a 10 percent pay bump and some extra benefits. The raise will affect about 90,000 workers at a small fraction of McDonald’s stores. Employees at franchises, which make up the majority of the burger chain's locations, won't be affected...
Seattle begins to phase in $15 minimum wage Union Bulletin ...Most workers in Seattle will see the minimum wage increase to $11 an hour this week. Some small businesses will get a $1 credit for employees who earn tips or get health insurance and will pay $10 an hour. It will take until 2017 for Seattle workers at large companies and chains to earn $15 an hour...
Fight “Right to Work” in Oregon Counterpunch ...There is justifiable dread that anti-union “Right to Work” laws will be purchased into existence by out-of-state billionaires championing the laws around the country. Fortunately, an antidote to Right to Work is also being publicly debated in Oregon, where there is pending legislation to push the state’s minimum wage to $15...
Candidates Who Mock The Law (opinion) Washington Post ...Mr. Bush seems to have adopted every dark-money trick in the book. Will others now follow? As it is, the presidential campaign will begin under a dark-money cloud. Americans want a president with the right stuff, and that does not mean bags of secret cash...
U.S. Labor
Philadelphia airport workers strike over wages and benefits Boston Globe ...A few dozen baggage handlers, airplane cleaners and other non-union workers went on strike at Philadelphia’s airport Thursday, demanding higher wages, benefits, and an end to what they say are unfair labor practices...
CSX Worker Struck, Killed By Train At Rail Yard WTRV ...An investigation is underway after a CSX worker was struck and killed by a train early Wednesday morning. Henrico police said the industrial accident happened around just before 3 a.m. at the ACCA train yard in the 2100 block of Westwood Avenue...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Factories Slow For Fifth Month In Row, But Economists See Rebound Wall Street Journal ...The Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday said its purchasing managers index fell for the fifth consecutive month in March, to 51.5 from 52.9 in February. The index is at its lowest reading since May 2013, though it’s still above the 50 level that reflects expansion...
When Will The NSA Stop Spying On Innocent Americans? The Atlantic ...Unless Congress acts, Americans will soon benefit from one of the Patriot Act's most important safeguards against abuse: Language in Section 215 of the law is scheduled to expire in June, depriving the FBI and NSA of a provision they've used to justify monitoring the phone calls of tens of millions of innocents...
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Today's Teamster News 03.11.14
Teamster News
Teamster bus strike off for now as drivers must vote on new CCTA offer Burlington Free Press ...The proposed Monday strike by members of Teamsters Local 597 has been averted — at least temporarily — while the bus drivers consider the latest offer from management...
Teamsters Union starts negotiations with Cedar Falls schools Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier ...Teamsters Local 238, which represents 45 Cedar Falls (Iowa) school district custodial and maintenance staff members, has begun negotiations with the school district...
Driving Horses Remains Passion for Teamster School Bus Worker teamstersjc25.com ...Local 777's 'Real Teamster' moonlights with high-end carriage company...
Trade
Lives at stake in TPP trade deal Asia Times ...If you or some family members or friends suffer from cancer, hepatitis, AIDS, asthma or other serious ailments, it's worth your while to follow the negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement and other similar bilateral trade agreements. It's really a matter of life and death. For the TPPA can cut off the potential supply of cheaper generic medicines that can save lives...
State Battles
Missouri Democrats Solidly Against 'Right To Work,' Less So Regarding 'Right To Farm' St. Louis Public Radio ...The banners, the stickers and the rhetoric at this weekend’s Democrat Days made one thing clear: When it comes to “right to work,’’ Missouri Democratic activists and politicians are solidly against it...
WI GOP Marches in Lockstep with ALEC Agenda, Voting Records Show Center for Media and Democracy ...Sixty-one legislators, all Republicans, voted with the ALEC agenda 100 percent of the time, according to Stampen's analysis. This amounts to 46 percent of Wisconsin's 132 lawmakers...
Vermont Votes for Public Banking The Nation ...The bill would create a “10 Percent for Vermont” program that would “deposit 10 percent of Vermont’s unrestricted revenues in the VEDA bank and allow VEDA to leverage this money, in the same way that private banks do now, to fund…unfunded capital needs”...
Oregon labor supporters savor win as governor drops Right to Work ballot initiative Beverly Hills Courier ...Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has struck a blow to the controversial Right to Work movement by reaching a deal that drops an upcoming ballot initiative...
Union calls on Illinois to pay back wages The Southern Illinoisan ...AFSCME is calling on Illinois lawmakers to make room in next year’s budget for back pay owed to more than 24,000 state employees who didn’t receive pay wage increases due them from July 2011 to July 2013 because no money was appropriated...
SC wants to require food stamp recipients to work or be looking WCBD TV 2 ...South Carolina will ask for permission from the federal government to require food stamp recipients to work or be looking for work. The state is scrapping a proposal to ban food stamps from being used to buy junk food...
Volkswagen sides with UAW on appeal Times Free Press ...The United Auto Workers and Volkswagen Group of America have filed their opposition to two groups supporting some Chattanooga VW workers who want to intervene in the union's appeal for a new election at the plant...
War on Workers
A Modern Day ‘Harvest of Shame’ Pro Publica ...temp work has grown nine times faster than private-sector employment as a whole. Overall, nearly one-sixth of the total job growth since the recession ended has been in the temp sector...
U.S. network to scan workers with secret clearances Associated Press ...U.S. intelligence officials are planning a sweeping system of electronic monitoring that would tap into government, financial and other databases to scan the behavior of many of the 5 million federal employees with secret clearances, current and former officials told The Associated Press...
Chicagoans Want the Koch Brothers to Stop Polluting The City VICE News ...“The piles of petcoke that have been growing along the Calumet River are getting wafted into our homes and onto our children,” nearby resident Olga Bautista told VICE News when we visited the area...
Wal-Mart’s newest big lie: Another misleading ad campaign from a job-killing behemoth Salon ...The majority shareholders of the company are members of the Walton family who inherited the stock and have a combined wealth of nearly $145 billion – more than the combined wealth of 42 percent of American families...
MORGAN STANLEY: The Economy's Slow Growth Is Now Permanent Business Insider ...drops in productivity and Labor Force Participation mean a new, slower growth track than what we're used to...
McDonald's Worker Claims Manager Told Her to "Put a Bullet" in Her Head 5 NBC Chicago ...Workers rallied at Chicago’s Rock N’ Roll McDonald’s Saturday afternoon to "call to an end to verbal abuse in McDonald's"...
California Farmworkers Often Forced To Live in Squalor, Says Report In These Times ...For California’s farmworkers, toiling all day in the brutal, sun-scorched fields is hard enough; the homes they return to each night are often in even worse conditions...
1,500 Bangladesh factories to be inspected Associated Press ...About 1,500 factories in Bangladesh are on track to be inspected by the end of August as part of a safety pact signed by more than 150 clothing brands and 20 countries, according to organizers of the pact...
Miscellaneous
No consensus on how to notify data breach victims Associated Press ...The data breach at Target Corp. that exposed millions of credit card numbers has focused attention on the patchwork of state consumer notification laws and renewed a push for a single national standard...
US Plans to Speed Poultry Slaughtering, Cut Inspections Inter Press Service ...The U.S. government is in the final stages of weighing approval for an overhaul of regulations governing the country’s poultry industry that would see processing speeds increase substantially even while responsibility for oversight would be largely given over to plant employees...
CPAC Presidential Straw Poll Picks Guy Who Thinks Whites-Only Lunch Counters Should Be Legal Think Progress ...With 31 percent of the vote, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) won the closely watched Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll this weekend, dwarfing second place finisher Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) 11 percent of the vote...
Teamster bus strike off for now as drivers must vote on new CCTA offer Burlington Free Press ...The proposed Monday strike by members of Teamsters Local 597 has been averted — at least temporarily — while the bus drivers consider the latest offer from management...
Teamsters Union starts negotiations with Cedar Falls schools Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier ...Teamsters Local 238, which represents 45 Cedar Falls (Iowa) school district custodial and maintenance staff members, has begun negotiations with the school district...
Driving Horses Remains Passion for Teamster School Bus Worker teamstersjc25.com ...Local 777's 'Real Teamster' moonlights with high-end carriage company...
Trade
Lives at stake in TPP trade deal Asia Times ...If you or some family members or friends suffer from cancer, hepatitis, AIDS, asthma or other serious ailments, it's worth your while to follow the negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement and other similar bilateral trade agreements. It's really a matter of life and death. For the TPPA can cut off the potential supply of cheaper generic medicines that can save lives...
State Battles
Missouri Democrats Solidly Against 'Right To Work,' Less So Regarding 'Right To Farm' St. Louis Public Radio ...The banners, the stickers and the rhetoric at this weekend’s Democrat Days made one thing clear: When it comes to “right to work,’’ Missouri Democratic activists and politicians are solidly against it...
WI GOP Marches in Lockstep with ALEC Agenda, Voting Records Show Center for Media and Democracy ...Sixty-one legislators, all Republicans, voted with the ALEC agenda 100 percent of the time, according to Stampen's analysis. This amounts to 46 percent of Wisconsin's 132 lawmakers...
Vermont Votes for Public Banking The Nation ...The bill would create a “10 Percent for Vermont” program that would “deposit 10 percent of Vermont’s unrestricted revenues in the VEDA bank and allow VEDA to leverage this money, in the same way that private banks do now, to fund…unfunded capital needs”...
Oregon labor supporters savor win as governor drops Right to Work ballot initiative Beverly Hills Courier ...Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has struck a blow to the controversial Right to Work movement by reaching a deal that drops an upcoming ballot initiative...
Union calls on Illinois to pay back wages The Southern Illinoisan ...AFSCME is calling on Illinois lawmakers to make room in next year’s budget for back pay owed to more than 24,000 state employees who didn’t receive pay wage increases due them from July 2011 to July 2013 because no money was appropriated...
SC wants to require food stamp recipients to work or be looking WCBD TV 2 ...South Carolina will ask for permission from the federal government to require food stamp recipients to work or be looking for work. The state is scrapping a proposal to ban food stamps from being used to buy junk food...
Volkswagen sides with UAW on appeal Times Free Press ...The United Auto Workers and Volkswagen Group of America have filed their opposition to two groups supporting some Chattanooga VW workers who want to intervene in the union's appeal for a new election at the plant...
War on Workers
A Modern Day ‘Harvest of Shame’ Pro Publica ...temp work has grown nine times faster than private-sector employment as a whole. Overall, nearly one-sixth of the total job growth since the recession ended has been in the temp sector...
U.S. network to scan workers with secret clearances Associated Press ...U.S. intelligence officials are planning a sweeping system of electronic monitoring that would tap into government, financial and other databases to scan the behavior of many of the 5 million federal employees with secret clearances, current and former officials told The Associated Press...
Chicagoans Want the Koch Brothers to Stop Polluting The City VICE News ...“The piles of petcoke that have been growing along the Calumet River are getting wafted into our homes and onto our children,” nearby resident Olga Bautista told VICE News when we visited the area...
Wal-Mart’s newest big lie: Another misleading ad campaign from a job-killing behemoth Salon ...The majority shareholders of the company are members of the Walton family who inherited the stock and have a combined wealth of nearly $145 billion – more than the combined wealth of 42 percent of American families...
MORGAN STANLEY: The Economy's Slow Growth Is Now Permanent Business Insider ...drops in productivity and Labor Force Participation mean a new, slower growth track than what we're used to...
McDonald's Worker Claims Manager Told Her to "Put a Bullet" in Her Head 5 NBC Chicago ...Workers rallied at Chicago’s Rock N’ Roll McDonald’s Saturday afternoon to "call to an end to verbal abuse in McDonald's"...
California Farmworkers Often Forced To Live in Squalor, Says Report In These Times ...For California’s farmworkers, toiling all day in the brutal, sun-scorched fields is hard enough; the homes they return to each night are often in even worse conditions...
1,500 Bangladesh factories to be inspected Associated Press ...About 1,500 factories in Bangladesh are on track to be inspected by the end of August as part of a safety pact signed by more than 150 clothing brands and 20 countries, according to organizers of the pact...
Miscellaneous
No consensus on how to notify data breach victims Associated Press ...The data breach at Target Corp. that exposed millions of credit card numbers has focused attention on the patchwork of state consumer notification laws and renewed a push for a single national standard...
US Plans to Speed Poultry Slaughtering, Cut Inspections Inter Press Service ...The U.S. government is in the final stages of weighing approval for an overhaul of regulations governing the country’s poultry industry that would see processing speeds increase substantially even while responsibility for oversight would be largely given over to plant employees...
CPAC Presidential Straw Poll Picks Guy Who Thinks Whites-Only Lunch Counters Should Be Legal Think Progress ...With 31 percent of the vote, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) won the closely watched Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll this weekend, dwarfing second place finisher Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) 11 percent of the vote...
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.25.14
Teamster News
Here's 30 Billion Reasons Why Mexican Trucks Are No Joke Huffington Post ...The Mexican trucking industry has repeatedly failed to get its own carriers to participate in a cross-border pilot program created in 2011 to study whether Mexican truckers are meeting basic safety standards set up in the wake of NAFTA...
CCTA says it's open to continued contract negotiations with Teamsters Burlington Free Press ...The general manager of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority says CCTA is open to continued contract negotiations with the Teamsters Local 597, a bus drivers’ union that has suggested a work action could begin March 10 without a deal...
Academy Awards 2014: Workers Who Make Oscar Statuettes In Labor Dispute Reuters ...A labor dispute is playing out between Teamsters Local 743 and R.S. Owens in Chicago, where Academy Awards are manufactured...
Crews stage large rally in Burbank to support film tax credit Los Angeles Times ...More than 1,000 entertainment industry workers, including members of Teamsters Local 399, gathered in Burbank on Saturday, launching a campaign to support an expansion of California's film and TV tax credit program...
The War on Workers
Union: Detroit Restructuring Plan ‘A Gut Punch To City Workers And Retirees CBS News ... Now that Detroit’s emergency manager has laid out a plan for bankruptcy, city retirees are getting a look of what their future might include: big cuts to both their pensions and health insurance funds...
Bye Bye Chained CPI and Other Budget Surprises Economic Populist ... Only time will tell if chained CPI is really gone and the threat to reduce retirement benefits along with it...
The Grand Bargain’s dead. What now? msnbc ...Hopes for a Grand Bargain between the White House and Congress to overhaul entitlements and taxes disappeared many months ago. But President Obama is making the end of that era official in his 2015 budget...
This Is Your Brain on Poverty: What Science Tells Us About Poverty Truthout ...People in poverty suffer from many different psychological and physical problems and once they escape it, they become healthier...
Long-term unemployed describe lack of mobility, depression in personal stories PBS Newshour ...Amid a difficult economic landscape for out-of-work Americans, more than 1.7 million have lost their emergency unemployment benefits since Dec. 28...
Wal-Mart and Other Retailers Consider Higher Wages (Opinion) Wall Street Journal ...Note to the National Retail Federation: You can't keep fighting increases in the minimum wage and then wonder why consumers aren't spending more money in your members' stores...
Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers Salon ...You might find your Prime membership morally indefensible after reading these stories about worker mistreatment...
Truckers: if Hampton Roads port traffic isn't fixed, work will stop Daily Press ...Though the independent truck drivers avoided talk of unionizing, a number of the drivers said collective action is needed to ensure executives at Hampton Roads' container ports take seriously the congestion at their facilities causing drivers to spend more of their days in lines and less time making money...
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations The Intercept ...western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction...
State Battles
Missouri lawmakers considering payday loan changes Associated Press ...A proposed overhaul of Missouri's loan industry would give borrowers more time to pay but could allow lenders to charge higher fees and interest...
Union asks Supreme Court to affirm right-to-work law is unconstitutional NWI Times ...The International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, is urging the Indiana Supreme Court to uphold Lake Superior Judge John Sedia's ruling that portions of the state's 2012 right-to-work law are unconstitutional...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership: No deal at Singapore meeting BBC News ...An ambitious 12-nation free trade plan, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has hit a new roadblock after four days of negotiations in Singapore. Sticking points over market access and differences over tariffs on imported goods were the main reasons cited…
'Trade' Deals on the Ropes Huffington Post ...The globalization agenda of American financial elites that has dominated both parties' trade policy for three decades is on the verge of crashing and burning. There is escalating, perhaps fatal, opposition to the proposed Pacific and Atlantic deals in both the U.S. Congress and among partner nations...
Japan, U.S. must play last card to successfully conclude TPP talks Japan News ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks appear to be reaching a make-or-break point over whether a broad agreement can be reached...
Miscellaneous
In Missouri, Rand Paul says the GOP needs more people with tattoos Kansas City Star ...“We need a more diverse party. People with tattoos, and without tattoos. With earrings, and without earrings,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, at a recent event...
Woes of Megacity Driving Signal Dawn of ‘Peak Car’ Era Bloomberg ...The world will reach “Peak Car” -- a point at which annual global sales growth will top out -- in the next decade, several auto-industry analysts predict...
Here's 30 Billion Reasons Why Mexican Trucks Are No Joke Huffington Post ...The Mexican trucking industry has repeatedly failed to get its own carriers to participate in a cross-border pilot program created in 2011 to study whether Mexican truckers are meeting basic safety standards set up in the wake of NAFTA...
CCTA says it's open to continued contract negotiations with Teamsters Burlington Free Press ...The general manager of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority says CCTA is open to continued contract negotiations with the Teamsters Local 597, a bus drivers’ union that has suggested a work action could begin March 10 without a deal...
Academy Awards 2014: Workers Who Make Oscar Statuettes In Labor Dispute Reuters ...A labor dispute is playing out between Teamsters Local 743 and R.S. Owens in Chicago, where Academy Awards are manufactured...
Crews stage large rally in Burbank to support film tax credit Los Angeles Times ...More than 1,000 entertainment industry workers, including members of Teamsters Local 399, gathered in Burbank on Saturday, launching a campaign to support an expansion of California's film and TV tax credit program...
The War on Workers
Union: Detroit Restructuring Plan ‘A Gut Punch To City Workers And Retirees CBS News ... Now that Detroit’s emergency manager has laid out a plan for bankruptcy, city retirees are getting a look of what their future might include: big cuts to both their pensions and health insurance funds...
Bye Bye Chained CPI and Other Budget Surprises Economic Populist ... Only time will tell if chained CPI is really gone and the threat to reduce retirement benefits along with it...
The Grand Bargain’s dead. What now? msnbc ...Hopes for a Grand Bargain between the White House and Congress to overhaul entitlements and taxes disappeared many months ago. But President Obama is making the end of that era official in his 2015 budget...
This Is Your Brain on Poverty: What Science Tells Us About Poverty Truthout ...People in poverty suffer from many different psychological and physical problems and once they escape it, they become healthier...
Long-term unemployed describe lack of mobility, depression in personal stories PBS Newshour ...Amid a difficult economic landscape for out-of-work Americans, more than 1.7 million have lost their emergency unemployment benefits since Dec. 28...
Wal-Mart and Other Retailers Consider Higher Wages (Opinion) Wall Street Journal ...Note to the National Retail Federation: You can't keep fighting increases in the minimum wage and then wonder why consumers aren't spending more money in your members' stores...
Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers Salon ...You might find your Prime membership morally indefensible after reading these stories about worker mistreatment...
Truckers: if Hampton Roads port traffic isn't fixed, work will stop Daily Press ...Though the independent truck drivers avoided talk of unionizing, a number of the drivers said collective action is needed to ensure executives at Hampton Roads' container ports take seriously the congestion at their facilities causing drivers to spend more of their days in lines and less time making money...
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations The Intercept ...western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction...
State Battles
Missouri lawmakers considering payday loan changes Associated Press ...A proposed overhaul of Missouri's loan industry would give borrowers more time to pay but could allow lenders to charge higher fees and interest...
Union asks Supreme Court to affirm right-to-work law is unconstitutional NWI Times ...The International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, is urging the Indiana Supreme Court to uphold Lake Superior Judge John Sedia's ruling that portions of the state's 2012 right-to-work law are unconstitutional...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership: No deal at Singapore meeting BBC News ...An ambitious 12-nation free trade plan, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has hit a new roadblock after four days of negotiations in Singapore. Sticking points over market access and differences over tariffs on imported goods were the main reasons cited…
'Trade' Deals on the Ropes Huffington Post ...The globalization agenda of American financial elites that has dominated both parties' trade policy for three decades is on the verge of crashing and burning. There is escalating, perhaps fatal, opposition to the proposed Pacific and Atlantic deals in both the U.S. Congress and among partner nations...
Japan, U.S. must play last card to successfully conclude TPP talks Japan News ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks appear to be reaching a make-or-break point over whether a broad agreement can be reached...
Miscellaneous
In Missouri, Rand Paul says the GOP needs more people with tattoos Kansas City Star ...“We need a more diverse party. People with tattoos, and without tattoos. With earrings, and without earrings,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, at a recent event...
Woes of Megacity Driving Signal Dawn of ‘Peak Car’ Era Bloomberg ...The world will reach “Peak Car” -- a point at which annual global sales growth will top out -- in the next decade, several auto-industry analysts predict...
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Right-to-work-for-less amendment fails in Senate
Two of Congress’s most reliably anti-worker senators have a simple message for American workers: Love whoever you want, just don’t love unions.
Kentucky Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul proposed to make an anti-discrimination bill more discriminatory by attaching a national right-to-work-for-less law to the legislation.
If enacted, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity. For McConnell and Paul, that’s a small price to pay in exchange for a national right-to-work-for-less law, which would effectively kill freedom in the workplace by crippling unions across the country.
Fortunately, the Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act Thursday afternoon without the McConnell-Paul attack on workers. But let's take a moment to dissect exactly what they were trying to do.
The Huffington Post reports:
If enacted, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity. For McConnell and Paul, that’s a small price to pay in exchange for a national right-to-work-for-less law, which would effectively kill freedom in the workplace by crippling unions across the country.
Fortunately, the Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act Thursday afternoon without the McConnell-Paul attack on workers. But let's take a moment to dissect exactly what they were trying to do.
The Huffington Post reports:
The measure would forbid contracts between companies and labor unions that require workers to pay the union for bargaining on their behalf. Prized by Republicans and business groups and loathed by unions, such laws have made it onto the books in 24 states, most recently in Michigan.
Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, McConnell praised Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), who signed the state law in December after it was fast-tracked through the Republican-controlled legislature. McConnell said he and Paul were following Snyder's lead.
Funny how two guys – Rand Paul especially – who think government is bad suddenly think government is a good tool for interfering with unions' ability to function and shrinking the middle class.
That’s exactly what right-to-work-for-less laws aim to accomplish. When McConnell says he wants to diminish the power of “Big Labor,” he wants us to forget that that he’s doing the bidding of billionaires and corporate CEOs determined to expand profits by exploiting workers.
The only kind of freedom that “right to work” laws promote is the freedom of corporations to ship more jobs overseas and treat workers as disposable objects with no rights worthy of the boss’s respect. Unions are the only force standing in the way of Wall Street and its dream of a world where workers are voiceless and impoverished.
Hence McConnell and Paul’s cynical ploy to tack a national “right to work” amendment on to a bill that’s supposed to eliminate discrimination in the workplace.
The bill now heads to the House of Representatives. Earlier this week, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa urged the members of Congress to look in their hearts and move ENDA legislation forward, as the Senate has:
That’s exactly what right-to-work-for-less laws aim to accomplish. When McConnell says he wants to diminish the power of “Big Labor,” he wants us to forget that that he’s doing the bidding of billionaires and corporate CEOs determined to expand profits by exploiting workers.
The only kind of freedom that “right to work” laws promote is the freedom of corporations to ship more jobs overseas and treat workers as disposable objects with no rights worthy of the boss’s respect. Unions are the only force standing in the way of Wall Street and its dream of a world where workers are voiceless and impoverished.
Hence McConnell and Paul’s cynical ploy to tack a national “right to work” amendment on to a bill that’s supposed to eliminate discrimination in the workplace.
The bill now heads to the House of Representatives. Earlier this week, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa urged the members of Congress to look in their hearts and move ENDA legislation forward, as the Senate has:
Workers for more than a century have joined forces to protect each other from intolerance and favoritism. We support ENDA because we stand for fair treatment of all workers, as we always have. Workers cannot be divided for any reason, whether it be race, religion, ethnicity, gender or any other basis.
Dividing workers is exactly what McConnell and Paul were trying to do. And it shows how serious these corporate flunkies are about quashing freedom and America’s middle class.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Today's Teamster News 05.14.13
The 182 Percent Loan: How Installment Lenders Put Borrowers in a World of Hurt ProPublica ...Katrina Sutton stood at a gas pump and swiped her debit card. Insufficient funds. But that couldn't be. She'd been careful to wait until her $270 paycheck from Walmart had hit her account. The money wasn't there? It was all she had. And without gas, she couldn't get to work. She tried not to panic, but after she called her card company, she couldn't help it. Her funds had been frozen, she was told, by World Finance. Here’s how and why...
Bangladesh Garment Factories Shut Down Amid Worker Unrest, Minimum Wage Change Huffington Post ...Following worker protests and a decision by the Bangladeshi government to reevaluate the minimum wage, the lone national association of garment manufacturers on Monday shut down all factories in Ashulia, one of the country's major garment industry hubs...
Moms Working At Walmart Earn Less Than They Need To Feed Their Kids Huffington Post ...As Mother's Day approached, Charlene Fletcher, mother of two, found herself occupied with the needs of other families, attending to the crush of shoppers last week at the Walmart in Pasadena, Calif., where she works. But like many employees at Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, she earns so little that she has to rely on government assistance to feed her kids...
IRS Set To Close Next Week Forbes ...A number of taxpayers will be taking next Friday off by choice. It is, after all, the day before the Memorial Day weekend begins – the perfect time to grab an extra day. But what if you were forced to take the day off as an unpaid furlough day?...
White House orders look at pay equity inside government Washington Post ...President Obama has called for creation of a government-wide strategy “to address any gender pay gap in the Federal workforce,” focusing on how salaries are set when employees are first hired and when they are promoted...
Early campaigns for Virginia governor toil on both the national and local stage Washington Post
If Virginians weren’t foggy-headed enough from last year’s barrage of political ads and robo-calls, now comes a race that’s producing double vision — the two men running for governor this year are each running two campaigns featuring different issues, calendars and strategies...
Landmark $240M EEOC verdict to be slashed to $1.6M Associated Press ...A landmark $240 million verdict awarded to 32 mentally disabled Iowa plant workers who were subjected to years of abuse by their handlers will be reduced to just $1.6 million because of a federal cap, attorneys in the case agree...
Florida lawmakers pay peanuts for health insurance Miami Herald ...Florida House Republicans last month loudly and proudly rejected billions of dollars in federal money that would have provided health insurance to 1 million poor Floridians. Quietly, they kept their own health insurance premiums staggeringly low...
Rand Paul's Iowa visit triggers talk of 2016 White House bid Mankato Free Press ...Sen. Rand Paul brought his national ambitions to Iowa on Friday, ripping potential Democratic rival Hillary Clinton while urging his own Republican Party to broaden its appeal as he campaigned like it was already 2016...
N.J.'s plan to seize $142M in unspent COAH money from towns is 'a real slap in the face to property taxpayers' Times of Trenton ...Municipal officials are angrily criticizing the state’s plan to seize money from their unused affordable housing trust funds, saying the Christie administration is trying to balance the state budget by grabbing resources meant for those who need it the most...
Minnesota budget deal: Tax hikes on high earners, tobacco Star Tribune ...New revenue would boost school spending and fund a property tax relief plan. GOP responded with scorn...
Inspiring Stories Captivate Unity Conference Attendees IBT …The war on workers and what the Teamsters Union is doing to fight back took center stage today at the 2013 Unity Conference, and the attendees were uplifted by powerful speeches by leaders, members and soon-to-be members...
Bangladesh Garment Factories Shut Down Amid Worker Unrest, Minimum Wage Change Huffington Post ...Following worker protests and a decision by the Bangladeshi government to reevaluate the minimum wage, the lone national association of garment manufacturers on Monday shut down all factories in Ashulia, one of the country's major garment industry hubs...
Moms Working At Walmart Earn Less Than They Need To Feed Their Kids Huffington Post ...As Mother's Day approached, Charlene Fletcher, mother of two, found herself occupied with the needs of other families, attending to the crush of shoppers last week at the Walmart in Pasadena, Calif., where she works. But like many employees at Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, she earns so little that she has to rely on government assistance to feed her kids...
IRS Set To Close Next Week Forbes ...A number of taxpayers will be taking next Friday off by choice. It is, after all, the day before the Memorial Day weekend begins – the perfect time to grab an extra day. But what if you were forced to take the day off as an unpaid furlough day?...
White House orders look at pay equity inside government Washington Post ...President Obama has called for creation of a government-wide strategy “to address any gender pay gap in the Federal workforce,” focusing on how salaries are set when employees are first hired and when they are promoted...
Early campaigns for Virginia governor toil on both the national and local stage Washington Post
If Virginians weren’t foggy-headed enough from last year’s barrage of political ads and robo-calls, now comes a race that’s producing double vision — the two men running for governor this year are each running two campaigns featuring different issues, calendars and strategies...
Landmark $240M EEOC verdict to be slashed to $1.6M Associated Press ...A landmark $240 million verdict awarded to 32 mentally disabled Iowa plant workers who were subjected to years of abuse by their handlers will be reduced to just $1.6 million because of a federal cap, attorneys in the case agree...
Florida lawmakers pay peanuts for health insurance Miami Herald ...Florida House Republicans last month loudly and proudly rejected billions of dollars in federal money that would have provided health insurance to 1 million poor Floridians. Quietly, they kept their own health insurance premiums staggeringly low...
Rand Paul's Iowa visit triggers talk of 2016 White House bid Mankato Free Press ...Sen. Rand Paul brought his national ambitions to Iowa on Friday, ripping potential Democratic rival Hillary Clinton while urging his own Republican Party to broaden its appeal as he campaigned like it was already 2016...
N.J.'s plan to seize $142M in unspent COAH money from towns is 'a real slap in the face to property taxpayers' Times of Trenton ...Municipal officials are angrily criticizing the state’s plan to seize money from their unused affordable housing trust funds, saying the Christie administration is trying to balance the state budget by grabbing resources meant for those who need it the most...
Minnesota budget deal: Tax hikes on high earners, tobacco Star Tribune ...New revenue would boost school spending and fund a property tax relief plan. GOP responded with scorn...
Inspiring Stories Captivate Unity Conference Attendees IBT …The war on workers and what the Teamsters Union is doing to fight back took center stage today at the 2013 Unity Conference, and the attendees were uplifted by powerful speeches by leaders, members and soon-to-be members...
Friday, November 5, 2010
What happened in Kentucky (it wasn't good)
The Teamsters are pretty bummed that Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway lost his race for Senate to Rand Paul.
Here's what Paul thinks of unions: he just named a vice president of the National Right to Work for Less Committee as his chief of staff.
Conway was one of the state attorneys general who sued FedEx for misclassifying workers. He paid a heavy price for prosecuting a nursing home chain that allegedly covered up the sexual abuse of an elderly resident. The owner of the nursing home chain, Terry Forcht, poured money into Paul's campaign for attack ads on Conway.
It will be interesting to see if Rand Paul stands up for working people and elderly victims of sexual assault when he arrives in the U.S. Senate.
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