Increasing Teamster Power!

Joint Council 7's Doug Bloch was one of the attendees.

Scores of Teamsters came together yesterday and today to listen to speakers and share ideas about how to pursue a political agenda that will benefit members both at the ballot box and in the legislative halls of power.

Representatives from locals and joint councils from around the country heard from both Teamsters' officials and experts from outside the union on a host of policy issues, as well as on how to best reach and communicate with membership. It was all part of a effort to improve the union's push of an agenda that will benefit all workers.

Doug Bloch, political director of Joint Council 7 for Northern California and Northern Nevada, said membership outreach is essential to political success:

We know when we talk to our members, it works. The numbers don't lie.

Attendees heard about how the Teamsters are moving full force to defeat fast track trade authority in Congress as well as push back on efforts in state capitals around the country to get right-to-work approved. They were also briefed on the continuing Sysco/US Foods and School Bus campaigns.

It's all part of the effort to grow Teamster Power!

Worker Wins, brought to you by your local labor union

Workers everywhere are standing up, speaking out and fighting for better wages and working conditions. In the past month alone, workers scored a number of community and organizing victories.

Our brothers and sisters at the AFL-CIO are now spreading the good news with 'Worker Wins' updates. They shared some good Teamster news. For example,

Facebook Bus Drivers Organize in San Francisco: Over eighty bus drivers employed by Facebook voted to organize as part of a growing effort in Silicon Valley’s tech sector to win better wages and benefits for low wage workers.

And this:

Boston Parking Attendants Look to Expand Organizing Efforts: Parking attendants in Boston are working to organize approximately 1,600 workers in the Boston area in an attempt to improve working conditions and substandard pay. Parking workers have won contracts with five parking companies in the Boston area over the last two years, and aim to organize at least three additional companies in the area.

Here are a few other recent Teamster wins:

Teamsters Win 3rd FedEx Freight Election “Like the drivers in Philadelphia and in South Brunswick, N.J., who voted to join the Teamsters, the workers in Charlotte want to be treated fairly and they want to have consistent, fair work rules,” said Steve Bess, President of Teamsters Local 71 in Charlotte.   

Teamsters At Las Vegas Hotel Ratify First Contract  The workers ratified their five-year contract by a vote of 23 to 3 on December 8, 2014. The group includes warehouse workers, groundskeepers and valets. The Cromwell, the only boutique hotel on the Strip, was built as the Barbary Coast Hotel & Casino and was later know as Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon.

Franklin Park Public Works Employees Ratify First Teamsters Contract  Public works employees in the Village of Franklin Park, Ill., ratified their first Teamsters contract after unanimously voting to join the Teamsters. 

First Student School Bus Workers Vote To Join Teamsters Local 653 School bus workers at the Abington, Mass., First Student yard have voted overwhelmingly, 38-8, in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 653 in South Easton, Mass. The group of 60 drivers and monitors transport children in the Rockland, Holbrook and Weymouth school districts.

Then of course these:

Walmart Workers Stage Nationwide Black Friday Protests: Walmart workers were joined by unions and community allies in staging approximately 1,600 protests against the corporation’s low wages and hostile work environments on Black Friday. This is the third year in a row that workers have staged Black Friday protests, with this year’s being the biggest yet.
Workers Fight for $15: Workers in a diverse set of sectors, from airline workers to retail employees, joined fast food workers in a nationwide strike across 190 cities. Workers spoke out for a $15 minimum wage and the right to organize for better working conditions and workplace fairness.
Boston Bike Share Workers Vote to Unionize: Employees of Hubway, a Boston-based bike share company, voted overwhelmingly to join Transport Workers Union Local 100. The workers, including mechanics, technicians, and dispatchers, are part of a national campaign to organize bike share workers.

UAW certified to represent VW workers in Tennessee An accounting firm has certified that the UAW represents more than 45% of Volkswagen workers, giving the union the ability to meet with the automaker's management on a regular basis. 

Pretty good looking list, eh?

Today's Teamster News 10.19.14

Teamsters
Teamsters’ employees will not get raises  Hernando Today   ...Hernando County, which was poised to give salary increases to hundreds of employees — union members and others — instead will give them only to some non-union workers. The nonunion employees who will receive raises are those whose paychecks were deemed too low by consultants who looked at pay of government employees elsewhere…
First Student drivers vote to authorize strike  Savannah Now   ...First Student school bus drivers and mechanics voted to authorize a strike during a meeting of the Teamsters Union Local 728 on Saturday...
Trade
TPP Agreement Will 'Definitely' Raise Medicine Costs  telesurtv.com   ...The U.S. government has insisted you shouldn't read the leaked draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Expect the cost of life saving drugs like cancer medicine to rise under the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), a Malaysian legislator warned on Friday...
TPPA would criminalise journalism  No Right Turn   ...it also criminalises leaks which are detrimental to a party's international relations or international security. So, the US is trying to US the TPPA as a backdoor to silence WikiLeaks, the Snowden files, and the entire enterprise of journalistic criticism of power...
A Trade Storm Is Brewing  Public Citizen   ...Because Fast Track is so unpopular in the House, Speaker John Boehner has a devious plan to force the bill through Congress in the “lame duck” session after the November elections...
State Battles
The Court won’t interrupt Texas voter ID law  Scotus Blog   ...In a stinging defeat for the Obama administration and a number of civil rights groups in a major test case on voters’ rights, a divided Supreme Court told the state of Texas early Saturday morning that it may enforce its strict voter ID law for this year’s general election, with early voting starting next Monday...
About Those 8400 Jobs (opinion)  Milwaukee Sentinel   ...what really matters, is that Governor Walker promised us, that his 250,000 jobs pledge was his "floor not his ceiling".    He came as close to reaching his jobs promise as the Bucks did in landing Lebron James!...
War on Workers
Two-Thirds Of America's Biggest Retailers Are Worried About Flat Wages  Huffington Post   ...Sixty-eight percent of the top 100 retail companies in the U.S. -- a group that includes, Walmart, Apple, McDonald's and J.C. Penney -- say the country's stagnant wages pose a major threat to their bottom lines, according to a new report by the Center For American Progress...
Ebola! Prevention and Responsibility  In The Public Interest   ...Why didn’t the National Institutes of Health (NIH) properly anticipate Ebola? It did, according to NIH director Dr. Francis Collins. “NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001,” he asserted, pointing to stagnant congressional funding for developing a vaccine and therapeutics. Dr. Collins said that with funding, “we probably would have had a vaccine in time…”
Unprecedented amount of 'dark money' fuels midterm races  Los Angeles Times   ..."Is that going to become the new normal, this kind of money focused on one candidate, and we don't know where it's coming from?"...
405 Reopened After Construction Workers Killed in DUI Crash  KTLA   ...Two construction workers were hit and killed by drunk drivers on the northbound 405 Freeway early Sunday morning.

Teamsters on a roll with organizing, government victories

When the Teamsters and CWA organized 14,500 American Airlines customer service representatives a few weeks back, the world took notice. Over and over again we heard it was "the largest organizing victory in the South in decades." "Unions trumpet historic win in American Airlines vote," blared the Politico headlines.

But that's only part of the story. Just this week, 29 First Student school bus drivers and monitors in Adrian, Mich., voted to join Teamsters Local 1038 in Detroit. It was the second group of First Student workers that organized with Local 1038 in less than a year.

And today the Teamsters announced 30 customer service representatives with Archway Marketing Services in Romulus, Mich., voted to join Teamsters Local 1038 in Detroit.

The Teamsters rail conference is also growing, with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen adding 6 percent more members since January 2011. In the words of President Dennis R. Pierce during the recent opening session of the BLET's Third National Convention.

We are a much stronger brotherhood today than we were four years ago...we have added over 1,800 dues paying members — which represents a 6 percent increase — and the number of dues paying members has increased in 32 of the past 45 months.

In another big Teamster victory this week, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that will help end the abuse of temporary workers -- like those at Taylor Farms who want to become Teamsters.

On Sunday night, Brown signed AB1897, which will hold employers responsible when their subcontracted temp agencies endanger or underpay workers. 

California Teamsters, along with Taylor Farms workers, pushed hard for the bill.

Teamsters also supported the Good Jobs Nation campaign, which sought to raise wages and gain union representation for federal contract workers. After a series of well-publicized one-day strikes by contractor employees in the nation's capital, President Obama ordered the minimum wage raised for them to $10.10. Yesterday the U.S. Department of Labor announced a regulation that will give 200,000 federal contract employees a raise to $10.10 from $7.25. 

Look for more Teamster victories in the coming weeks! 

'That kind of spirit, that kind of fight'

Post by Wahlburgers on A&E.

When Donnie Wahlberg was growing up, his father lost his Teamster job and went to work as a school bus driver. When the drivers went on strike for three months, his father refused to cross the picket line.

Though the strike caused great hardship, Donald Wahlberg stood strong. Take a few minutes and watch the video.

Today's Teamster News 05.15.14

Teamster News
Teamsters and California Hauling Company Reach Settlement through NLRB – Back Wages and New Bargaining Agreement Result  Beeson, Tayer & Bodine   ...Dispatch Transportation, the operating name for Commodity Trucking Acquisition, LLC, is paying $262,000 in back pay to the former employees of the predecessor to Dispatch, Valley Aggregate Transport, Inc.  Even better, perhaps, is that Dispatch has entered into a three-year collective bargaining agreement with Local 137 that includes a generous wage and benefit package in line with what other Union contractors provide in the industry...
Teamsters Take On National Express Group At Annual General Meeting  teamster.org   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa led a powerful delegation of Teamsters, including North American school bus workers, in calling on the National Express Group PLC (NEX: LN) Board of Directors to address the company's poor worker rights record at its North American subsidiaries...
Road Bills Could Lead To Taxpayer Rage  Detroit News   ...Michigan's roads are in dire need of repair. But a House-passed package of bills in Lansing that would allocate upwards of $500 million a year to fix streets and bridges is a far cry from a permanent solution...
Adams County Board Approves Union Contracts  Quincy Journal   ...The Adams County Board unanimously passed three year contracts with most of its bargaining units....
Savannah-Chatham school bus drivers demand year-round pay  Savannah Now   ...Local school bus drivers are demanding new contracts and year-round pay in response to new legislation that bars them from claiming unemployment during the summer break. They protested at the First Student school bus transportation offices Wednesday and last week at the Savannah-Chatham public school board meeting...
Swift Transportation Shareholders Give Mandate: Eliminate Dual Class Structure  teamster.org   ... A Teamster shareholder proposal to address Swift Transportation’s dual class stock structure received 79.2 percent support by shareholders of the company’s Class A, publicly traded shares, based on results disclosed by the company in its 8-K dated May 13, 2014 and filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)...
IBEW, BLET joint statement regarding SEPTA negotiations  teamster.org   ...SEPTA’s decision on May 9 to decline the proffer of binding arbitration from the National Mediation Board (NMB) is regrettable. We continue to maintain that binding arbitration is a reasonable and expeditious method of resolving the dispute between the labor unions and SEPTA...
Teamsters Announce UPS Will Add Thousands Of New Union Package Jobs  teamster.org   ...Hiring has already started, and the new jobs will be in addition to the regular filling of jobs through attrition...
Trade
Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership An Environmental Disaster Waiting To Happen?  TreeHugger   ...President Obama's environmental legacy is in deep trouble and in large part will hinge on a trade deal that his administration is discussing in Vietnam the week of May 12...
State Battles
Governor Brown Signs SB 27 – Sheds Light on Dark Money  Common Cause   ...Today Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 27, reforming the Political Reform Act of 1974 to further regulate campaign financing, adding the requirement that committees disclose donors of $100 or more where those donations were solicited for the purpose of making contributions or expenditures in California. This essential campaign disclosure bill will go a long way toward improving California’s campaign disclosure laws by closing the nonprofit reporting loophole...
War On Workers
Walmart Warehouse Contractor To Pay $21 Million To Settle Wage Theft Allegations  Huffington Post   ...A Walmart contractor that operates many of the retailer's distribution centers has agreed to pay $21 million in back pay to warehouse workers in California who claim they were systematically shorted on pay for years...
Walmart US CEO Gets A $1.5 Million Bonus For Missing Expectations While A Worker Gets $0  Think Progress   ...Walmart US CEO William Simon's contract gave him the opportunity to earn a $1.5 million bonus on top of $10 million in salary and stock awards if the company's American net sales grew by 2 percent...
Nurses Launch New Campaign to Alert Public to Dangers of Medical Technology and Erosion of Care Standards  National Nurses United   ...An unchecked proliferation of unproven medical technology and sharp erosion of care standards are rapidly spreading through the health care system, far outside the media spotlight but frighteningly apparent to nurses and patients, says National Nurses United...
How Student Debt Keeps Young People From Buying Houses  Slate   ...It seems obvious that owing a lot of student debt should make it difficult to buy a house. After all, if you're stuck paying interest on college loans, it's hard to save up for a 20 percent down payment...
Big Tobacco's Secret Workforce: Child Farm Workers  Think Progress   ...Hundreds of children too young to buy cigarettes are working 60 hours a week on tobacco farms across the South, a new report from Human Rights Watch finds...
Spying Is Meant to Crush Citizens’ Dissent, Not Catch Terrorists  Washington's Blog   ...The record is suffused with examples of groups and individuals being placed under government surveillance by virtue of their dissenting views and activism – Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, anti-war activists, environmentalists...

Super-sized fast food worker strike to start tomorrow as movement goes global

Fast food workers will strike tomorrow in 150 U.S. cities and 30 cities overseas, escalating the movement for fair wages and the right to organize that now encompasses port truck drivers, warehouse workers, food processing workers, Walmart associates and government contractors.

Short, sudden strikes began in late 2012 against fast-food employers, but they have since grown to include a spectrum of low-wage workers joining together in job actions. Walmart workers, longshoremen and Teamsters held picket lines for striking port drivers recently, and a McDonald's worker and UFCW member recently joined Teamsters and Taylor Farms workers in California's state capital to push for a bill protecting temporary workers.

Decades of union-busting in this country lowered wages to the point where half the workers in America earn wages at or near the poverty level. Now tens of thousands of workers at a time are taking to the street to demand a fair day's wage for a day's work.

The movement is spreading across the world as fast food workers plan to protest tomorrow from Karachi to Casablanca. A flash mob is planned for the Philippines, a strike for Italy. And it goes beyond fast food workers overseas: Even today, British bus drivers are joining U.S. Teamsters who work for National Express at the company's annual meeting to demand better treatment for its workers in America.

Digital Journal covered the announcement of tomorrow's strike:

This latest showdown between the embattled fast food workers labor movement and the fast food industry is an escalation of a movement that started after the Great Recession of 2007-2009. The prevalence of low-paying jobs in the fast food industry became the main factor in the dissension shown by employees in many companies, especially those with international connections. 

At a press conference in New York last week, the actions of the movement were made known after a gathering of union leaders and fast food workers from dozens of countries, called by the global union federation IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations) met to discuss the May 15 protest.

Though they dismiss the walkouts publicly, fast food employers are very, very concerned about the unrest among their workers. According to leaked documents, Josh Eidelson at Salon reports,

...(National Restaurant Association) President and CEO,Dawn Sweeney pledging “active engagement in responding to reputational attacks on our industry and the organized wage protests that have gained such traction in the last few months.”

Eidelson told Bill Moyers the fast food industry views the strikes as an unprecedented challenge:

These documents certainly have a different tone than the positions the industry has taken in public, where they have not only dismissed the merits of demands that include paying people $15 per hour and allowing workers to organize without intimidation, but they have also dismissed the relevance and the significance of these protests. 

In private — in messaging to their members — we see them talking about the protests’ growing traction, we see them talking about the campaign becoming more coordinated, and we see them talking about how they’re going to push back. So it becomes very clear that the industry is aware that this is an unprecedented challenge.

Let's hope.

Today's Teamster News 05.14.13

Teamster News
USF Reddaway Teamsters in Las Vegas Approve First Contract  teamster.org   ...USF Reddaway workers, represented by Teamsters Local 631 in Las Vegas, have unanimously ratified their first contract which provides excellent benefits and a grievance procedure, among other improvements. There are 45 workers in the bargaining unit...
Teamster Taxi Association Representatives, Drivers Blast D.C. Council Committee Bill  teamster.org   ...The representatives and drivers said the Council bill, titled the Transportation Network Services Innovation Act of 2014, favors the private sedan service companies and continues to give them an unfair competitive advantage over D.C. taxi drivers...
First Teamsters Contract For Warehouse Workers At IKEA  teamster.org   ...Congratulations to 64 warehouse workers at the IKEA distribution center in Frederickson, WA who voted overwhelmingly last night to ratify their first union contract.  Welcome to Teamsters Local 117!..
National Express Faces Joint Attack From Unite And Teamsters  The Guardian   ...National Express will face combined union pressure from Jim Hoffa Jr. president of the American Teamsters, and Len McClusky from Unite at its annual meeting on Wednesday...
Trade
No final deal on Pacific trade pact expected next week -US official  Reuters   ...Pacific trading partners are not expecting to reach a final agreement on an ambitious free trade pact at a ministerial meeting in Singapore next week, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday...
Surging Steel Imports Put Up To Half a Million U.S. Jobs at Risk  Economic Policy Institute   ...The U.S. steel industry is facing its worst import crisis in more than a decade...
State Battles
Filling in the blanks on ALEC  Burlington Free Press   ...The American Association for Justice characterizes ALEC as “ghostwriting the law for corporate America,” because it develops legislation funded and designed by those corporations...
War On Workers
Sadness, Shock as Hundreds Perish in Turkish Coal Mine Tragedy  ABC News   ...Women wailed uncontrollably, men knelt sobbing and others just stared in disbelief outside a coal mine in western Turkey as rescue workers removed a steady stream of bodies Wednesday from an underground explosion and fire that killed at least 238 workers...
Sallie Mae, Navient To Pay $139 Million Settling Probes Into Cheating Troops On Student Loans  Huffington Post   ...The Department of Justice and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. accused Sallie Mae and its loan unit, now called Navient, of intentionally violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by overcharging active-duty troops beginning in 2005, a period in which service members were fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The FDIC said Sallie Mae and Navient processed borrowers’ monthly student loan payments in a way designed to maximize late fees...
Banks At Walmart Are 'Exploiting The Poor': Investor  Huffington Post   ...Christopher Grisanti, co-founder of Grisanti Capital Management, said many of the independently-operated banks located in the retailer’s stores take advantage of cash-strapped consumers with nowhere else to turn. They allow poor Americans to overdraw their checking accounts and then subsequently charge overdraft fees...
The National Restaurant Association Spends Big to Keep Wages Low  Center for Media and Democracy   ...A majority of the Senate voted to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour recently, yet the bill failed to clear the 60 vote hurdle necessary for passage -- thanks in no small part to the political power of the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry's trade association...
Miscellaneous
When Driverless Cars Break the Law  New York Times   ...There is little doubt that the technology behind driverless cars is nearly advanced enough for mainstream use. Google plans to make its biggest public display yet of its cars on Tuesday...
Germany Sets New Record, Generating 74 Percent Of Energy Needs From Renewable Energy  Think Progress   ...On Sunday, Germany's impressive streak of renewable energy milestones continued, with renewable energy generation surging to a record portion --nearly 75 percent-- of the country's overall energy demand by midday...

Today's Teamster News 05.13.14

Teamster News
Teamsters End Strike At PepsiCo Plant  Indianapolis Star   ...A 10-day strike involving about 350 Teamsters who work at a PepsiCo bottling plant on the Northwest side ended after they approved a new five-year contract...
National Labor Relations Board Rules In Favor Of Teamsters Against Durham  teamster.org   ...School bus drivers and monitors in Santa Rosa County, Fla., who are members of Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala., have won a major victory in a decision handed down by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, D.C...
AGY, Union Leaders Remain Mum As 'Lock Out' Continues  Aiken Standard   ...Employees aren't the only ones being "locked out" after Aiken's AGY plant reportedly deactivated the access badges of all it's workers more than a week ago...
Trade
The Free-Trade Regime: Oligarchy In Action  Asia Times   ...The United States is not really a democracy. That's the (simplified) conclusion of a recent study from Princeton University. Instead, economic elites and special interest groups enjoy tremendous sway in Washington, while "the preferences of the average American...
Trade accord carries health warning  Stuff   ...a trade deal is interfering with New Zealand doing the right thing to control cigarettes...
State Battles
Missouri Senate Republicans send two priorities back to House after late-night deal is struck  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Democrats agreed to stand down on a constitutional amendment to allow some early voting in Missouri and a measure to extend the waiting period before an abortion. In exchange, Senate Republicans agreed not to push for voter photo identification or the paycheck deduction bill...
Florida Couple Fined $746 For Crime Of Feeding Homeless People  Think Progress   ...After feeding the hungry in a Daytona Beach park every weekend for more than a year, it's just as easy to imagine Chico and Debbie Jiminez given a ticker-tape parade as what they actually got: a slew of citations and a permanent ban from the park...
GOP Vote Scheme Finally Imploding: Why The End May Be Here  Salon.com   ...it seems that the recent landmark court ruling in WI, followed by last week’s towel toss in Pennsylvania and embarrassing revelations in Iowa, may be seen in the not-too-distant future as the moment that the GOP “voter fraud” fraud finally began to permanently unravel...
For State Workers, a Thaw in Frozen Wages  Stateline   ...Government workers across the U.S. are expected to get raises this year, many of them for the first time since the Great Recession spurred states to freeze wages, furlough employees and slash workforces...
War On Workers
Looting The Pension Funds  Rolling Stone Magazine   ...In the final months of 2011, almost two years before the city of Detroit would shock America by declaring bankruptcy in the face of what it claimed were insurmountable pension costs, the state of Rhode Island took action to avert what it called its own looming pension crisis...
A Deal to Dodge the Tax Man in America  New York Times   ...Pfizer’s pursuit of AstraZeneca raises a huge public policy red flag. It plans to move its holding company to Britain from the United States so it can achieve a much lower tax rate and use cash that it has held abroad to avoid paying United States taxes...
ALEC Fires Back, But Proves Its 'Pro-Business' State Index Is Bogus  Los Angeles Times   ...Plainly stung by the chorus of ridicule that has greeted their latest attempt to paint anti-union policies and tax cuts for the rich as pathways to economic nirvana, the folks at the American Legislative Exchange Council have struck back with a "response to the critics"...
Despite Falling Revenues, Walmart Increases Pay for Top Execs  firedoglake   ...despite falling revenues, and despite only reluctantly paying minimum wage to its workers, Walmart increased the pay for its top executives...
Making Ends Meet At Walmart  New York Times   ...This has not been a good year for Walmart shareholders. Amid a torrid market over the last 12 months, this giant retailer's stock has flat lined, reflecting a slowdown in sales growth...
The Minimum Wage Loophole That's Screwing Over Waiters And Waitresses  Mother Jones   ...As Republicans stonewall President Obama's initiative to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour by 2016, some state lawmakers have taken the matter into their own hands...
Players Union Has Been Beneficial For Baseball  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...A prominent plaque at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum contains this familiar quotation from French-born historian Jacques Barzun: "Whoever wants to learn the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball"...

Today's Teamster News 05.12.14

Teamster News
Like father like son: Jimmy Hoffa Jr's union takes on UK bus giant National Express  The Independent   ...The president of America's Teamsters union, Jimmy Hoffa junior, last night urged National Express to open talks over labour practices at its Durham School Services business that runs some of the yellow US-style school buses...
Teamsters end strike at PepsiCo plant  Indianapolis Star   ...The agreement gives raises of $1.95 an hour over five years, boosting the average hourly wage to $21.50, said Jeff Combs, a representative for Teamsters Local 135. The contract covers drivers, mechanics and warehouse workers...
Trade
TPP negotiators begin talks in Vietnam in bid to conclude a deal  Global Post   ...Countries involved in negotiations for an ambitious Pacific free trade agreement began talks in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, aiming to strike a deal in time for a ministerial meeting set to be held in Singapore on May 19-20...
State Battles
Mich. unions cite safety as lawmakers consider more privatization  Corrections One   ...Unions are asking lawmakers to consider safety as more privatization is being considered…contracts acknowledged early problems with food privatization and nursing aides at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans…
War on Workers
Massive International Worker Strike Has the Food Industry Terrified  Jezebel   ...Fast food workers are planning the largest international worker strike to date, and a bevy of news stories from this week show just how scared the food industry actually is of the rising tide of worker organization...
‘Robin Hood’ wins: EU to levy Financial Transactions Tax from 2016  RT   ...Eleven EU member states will be imposing a ‘Robin Hood’ tax on financial transactions, after it was proposed in 2011 to counter financial crises...
Report: The Big Money in Tax Breaks Continues  truthout   ...over a trillion dollars a year in lost revenue – more than 1.6 times the 2013 budget deficit – goes largely unnoticed...
UberX Drivers Protest Outside Uber Headquarters  Time   ...Nearly 100 disgruntled UberX drivers gathered outside Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco on Thursday to demand better pay and treatment from one of the sharing economy’s most visible companies...
How Finance Gutted Manufacturing  Boston Review   ...Since the 1980s, financial market pressures have driven companies to hive off activities that sustained manufacturing...
US failed to inspect thousands of at-risk oil and gas wells, report finds  The Guardian   ...The government has failed to inspect thousands of oil and gas wells it considers potentially high risks for water contamination and other environmental damage, congressional investigators say...
Making Ends Meet at Walmart  New York Times   ...While the company’s malaise is clearly laid out in financial tables — numbers don’t lie, after all — when it comes to figuring the performance pay of top executives, let’s just say the numbers can be made to fib...

Demand National Express directors stand with workers

Teamsters are heading to Birmingham, England, next week to call on the parent company of an abusive employer to improve its oversight and reporting of human capital policies and practices. 

The Teamster employer, Durham School Services, has school bus contracts with school districts in the United States. Durham's parent company, National Express, will hold its annual meeting in Birmingham May 14.

John's Labour blog explains:

While in the UK National Express has on the whole a positive relationship with British trade unions, in the US it has allowed local managers to be trade union busters and blacklisters. This has a reputational risk to the brand and value of National Express. Especially when trade union members have been victimised for exposing health and safety concerns.

In the UK there has been a campaign to "Blacklist the Blacklisters" and to boycott companies in the UK who blacklisted workers for their trade union activism.

I note in the US that National Express has been accused of "disparate treatment, discipline and discharge of employees engaged in union organizing; alleged illegal surveillance of workers engaged in union activity; and allegedly threatening workers with reduction in benefits, working conditions and the loss of employment for supporting unionization." 

I think this is also Blacklisting and National Express runs the risk that they will be added to British list to be boycotted by responsible public and local authorities.

In addition, conditions on school buses have been found to be dangerous for drivers and children.

You can help your brothers and sisters at Durham School Services by signing a petition here demanding that shareholders vote to improve oversight of working standards. 

This is what we union THUGGS do for each other in times of need...

Nance Prendota (L) and shop steward Darlene Gonzalez.

...we help them.

When Nance Prendota and her family were burned out of their home, her Teamster brothers and sisters came to the rescue.

Nance is a Teamsters Local 777 school bus driver for Illinois Central School Bus in Aurora, Ill. In mid-January, she woke up to a glow in the hallway. It was a fire that quickly destroyed her family's mobile home..

Nance, her husband and their two sons were all inside when the fire broke out. Nance’s husband, Brian, tried fighting the fire himself, and ended up with severe burns on two-thirds of his body. He is currently at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, where he is being treated for burns and smoke inhalation.

Teamsters Local 777 reached out to Teamsters international union organizers in the Aurora area for their help. In just days, staff organizers (and former school bus drivers) Shelley Goodman and Dean Phinney collected 14 nights worth of points at the Hampton Inn from their colleagues so that Nance and her family would have a place to stay. Money has also been donated to Nance and her family for travel to and from the hospital to visit Brian.

Courtney Bell, business agent for Local 777 in Lyons, Ill., writes:

The Teamsters are a family; we support one another. We are resilient, strong and overcome the challenges we face in life. A BIG thanks to all the International Brotherhood of Teamsters organizers for reaching out a helping hand during this Teamster’s time of need.

To read more about the Teamsters' work to raise the safety standards of school buses and the living standards of their drivers, check out http://driveupstandards.org/.

And remember, THUGGS stands for 'Those Helpful Union Guys and Gals.'

Today's Teamster News 02.28.14

Teamster News
Teamsters not happy with inmates filling potholes  WFMJ.com   ...The Teamsters union, representing employees with the Mahoning County engineer's office, is considering filing a grievance after seeing inmates filling potholes...

Teamster School Bus News  teamster.org   ...Baltimore school bus workers win $1.25 million wage settlement; Teamsters Local 445 drivers and monitors in New York win fight for fair contract at Durham; what to do when your bus equipment is defective – all these stories and more are in the latest issue of the Drive Up Standards newsletter...
Nashville Chapter of TNBC Honors Leaders  teamster.org   ...The Nashville Middle TN Valley Chapter of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) held its second annual awards banquet titled “Education and Accountability” on February 22, 2014 in Nashville...
Liam Neeson: NYC Mayor Is a Horse Nazi  TMZ   ...Liam Neeson is PISSED OFF at New York City's new mayor for trying to kill the Central Park horse industry...
Will Academy Award nominees speak up for the workers who make the Oscars?  Pando Daily   ...The Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago has been unable to reach an agreement with R.S. Owens & Company, the local awards shop that has exclusively manufactured the familiar gold statuettes for the last three decades...
D.C. Taxi Drivers' Voices Are Being Heard  teamster.org   ...Over the past few months, Washington, D.C. taxi drivers have joined together with the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, affiliated with Teamsters Local 922, for one strong voice...
Teamster Tells Lawmakers How TPP Will Damage Workers  teamster.org   ..."this is about American families and these trade deals have brutalized the American economy,” he said. “A trade agreement is not an agreement. It is a gun to the head of the American worker...”
BLET tells House: Don’t extend deadline for Positive Train Control  BLET News   ...BLET Vice President & National Legislative Representative John P. Tolman made a strong case for the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and other measures to boost rail safety and improve the quality of life for BLET members during testimony delivered at a House subcommittee hearing on February 26...
Trade
NPPC: Japan's Offer On TPP Unacceptable to U.S. Agriculture  National Hog Farmer   ...The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says U.S. acceptance of the recent Japanese offer, made as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks,  would be a radical departure from previous U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and could potentially set an unacceptable precedent for future trade deals...
Japanese activist: TPP will affect food security  FMT News   ...The TPP will not only widen the economic disparity between the rich and the poor, but also deny poor nations the power to secure food import, says a Japanese activist...
Ending currency manipulation would create jobs  ABC, Sioux Falls   ...Policy change could bring 20,000 jobs to South Dakota...
State Battles
Protestors gather as Republicans unveil Right to Work legislation  WAVE News   ...Protesters gathered in Frankfort on Thursday as Kentucky Republicans introduced right to work legislation, even though the legislation has dim chances of success this year...
Vermont Citizens Push to Form a State Bank, But Will Ratings Agencies Kill the Idea?  naked capitalism   ...The objective is not to set up a retail bank (say along the lines of a Post Office bank) but to save the fees that are now paid to large financial institutions and to fund public projects...
The War on Workers
Household wealth still down 14 percent since recession  EurekAlert   ...the mean net worth of American households in mid-2013 was still about 14 percent below the pre-recession peak in 2006. Their analysis suggested that middle-aged people took the biggest hit...
Wal-Mart Ad Celebrates American Workers With A Canadian Band's Song About A Guy Who Hates His Job  Business Insider   ...Wal-Mart has been running a high-profile advertising campaign to promote its recent pledge to purchase $250 billion of American-made products over the next 10 years...Rush was strange choice of soundtrack for an ad celebrating American manufacturing given that the band is not just Canadian, but famously Canadian...
Underemployment Piles On Problems For Low-Wage Workers  CBS   ...The state Labor Department says there are about 276,000 Pennsylvanians in the category “working part time for economic reasons.” They include 47,900 people who usually work full-time but are working part-time, and 228,000 people who usually work part-time but are working less than they normally would...
GOP blocks veterans bill  The Hill   ...Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans...
Miscellaneous
Federal Budget Deficit Falls to Smallest Level Since 2008  New York Times   ...Closing the books on a fiscal year in which the federal budget deficit fell more sharply than in any year since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday that the deficit for 2013 dropped to $680 billion, from about $1.1 trillion the previous year...

Teamster tips on safe driving for the holiday

Who better to listen to for safe driving tips than a Teamster? With severe weather coming for much of the country, it’s especially critical to drive safely over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Courtney Goodman-Bell, a business agent with Teamsters Local 777 in Lyons, Ill., representing school bus workers, offers the following safe driving tips. They apply whether you're driving a car, a truck or a school bus.

Winter driving can be dangerous for bus drivers. Stay informed and be prepared for weather conditions so you know what to expect. Do your research and be familiar with alternate routes.
In fog, reduce speed and use low beams. In snow, keep moving in order to maintain traction and never take unnecessary risks.  

DO’s
• Dress properly. Winter clothing, hats and boots will keep you warm.
• Slow down. In bad weather conditions, it is more important to keep the passengers safe than it is to stay on schedule.
• Use extra caution in school zones, at bus stops and at bus loading and unloading areas where high snow banks may exist.
• Anticipate poor or dangerous road conditions. Keep greater distances between you and other objects, which will give you more time to react to things you may encounter on your route.
• Drive defensively. Be careful of other motorists when entering intersections and always be aware of the traffic around you.
• Keep your windshield free of ice and snow.
• Know and follow the laws of your state regarding school buses.
• Drive safely - winter climate may cause extreme weather conditions, short daylight and dangerous roads which requires extra effort by every driver.

DON'TS
• Don't be in a hurry. Student safety is important.
• Don’t take chances. If there is a concern that something might not be safe, it probably isn’t.
• Don’t proceed until all the children have reached a place of safety.
• Don't follow too closely behind vehicles.

This article was published in the Winter 2013 issue of the Drive Up Standards newsletter. To see this story and others, check out the newsletter here.

Another Teamster organizing victory in Massachusetts!

Please welcome our new Teamster brothers and sisters who voted by a nearly 2-to-1 margin to join Teamsters Local 653 in Easton, Mass. They are school bus drivers with H&L Bloom in Attleboro, Mass.

The drivers are seeking job security and workplace protections. They join the 14 school bus drivers for children with special needs who are employed directly by the Attleboro School District. They became Teamsters Local 653 members in June.

Michael Clark, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 653, said the local represents seven other school districts under contract, including at First Student and Lucini Bus Lines. Said Clark,

These workers are looking for job security and the protection that our other members have under Teamsters bus contracts.

For more information about the Teamsters work to drive up standards in the school bus industry, check out the Drive Up Standards website.

And welcome to our great union!

Tornado throws 80 Teamsters out of work in Illinois

Damaged buses in Coal City today. 

About 80 of our Teamster brothers and sisters who drive and monitor school buses in Illinois are out of work after a fierce tornado touched down in their yard and caused massive damage.

The Illinos Central bus yard in Coal City was devastated by the EF2 tornado that touched down today. The tornado had winds clocked between 111 mph and 135 mph.

Approximately 60 school buses were damaged. So was the Illinois Central office building. The storm blew trailers from a nearby trucking company into the bus yard. Fortunately, there have been no reported injuries.

Teamsters Local 179 President Tom Flynn has reached out to Illinois Central to offer support and has contacted First Student bus company to ask for assistance so that students will have continued transportation to and from school. The school district has announced that there will be no school on Monday for Coal City students.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Coal City residents and the surrounding communities," said Flynn.

The Coal City Methodist Church is looking for volunteers to serve food and drinks to the workers helping with the clean-up from the tornado. They are looking to fill four hour shifts: 9:30pm-1:30am; 1:30am-5:30am; and 5:30am-9:30am.

They will re-evaluate to see if they need help throughout the day on Monday.

If interested, please go to the Methodist Church located on McArdle Road. Pass this infomation on to anyone who would like to help out.

This school bus shop steward helps make his yard better

Willie Barnes

Here's yet another story about a Teamster shop steward who made life better for school bus drivers on the job. We've told you about our Teamster brother Clay Morrison, who brought justice for a driver who'd lost his son at the Baumann Bus Co. on Long Island, and Kim Hafford, who fought for fairness at Durham in Jacksonville, Fla., and won. Today we bring you Willie Barnes, a shop steward at First Student. His story appeared in the Fall 2013 issue of the Drive Up Standards newsletter. To see his story and others, check out the newsletter here.

My name is Willie Barnes and I’ve been driving a school bus for 18 years. I’ve been a shop steward for approximately eight years.

I want to share a story about our yard, First Student’s St. Andrews terminal in Los Angeles.

I was on the negotiation committee for our five-year union contract with First Student and we have a strong contract.

First Student has a contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest district in the country. St. Andrews terminal is the central contractor yard for LAUSD because of its location, which is surrounded by L.A. schools.

First Student has purchased a new fleet of buses. Now the students and parents we transport daily feel safe. Our drivers appear motivated and happy to serve the customer, LAUSD, which is the major customer in school-busing in California. Ninety percent of our yard has gone green, meaning our buses are gas, propane and compressed natural gas (CNG) fueled, which helps the environment.

Our yard has received more routes than we can handle. We have drivers from other yards helping cover these routes. Some of these drivers are from other unions, but we have come together as a team to ensure our students’ safety. Our training department wasn’t able to train enough drivers before school started on August 13, 2013, so First Student temporarily moved drivers from its other facilities. St. Andrews is known as the central contractor yard for LAUSD and our drivers are very proud to work at this terminal.

I really enjoy my job as a driver. To all my fellow school bus drivers, let’s always remember that the cargo we transport is our future. As I tell my students, one day they may be a doctor, lawyer, judge, senator or president. When that child steps aboard your bus, the parents trust us to get them to and from school safely!

Today's Teamster News 09.28.13

Regulator Said to Look Other Way on Unsafe Mexican Trucks  Bloomberg   ...“They need these companies, they need the numbers,” said Fred McLuckie, director of federal legislation and regulation for the Teamsters, which unsuccessfully sued to stop regulators from allowing Mexican trucks. “They’re looking the other way...”
Chicago Teamsters reject Rahm Emanuel’s bid for contract concessions on 461-11 vote  Chicago Sun-Times   ...Already feuding with police, firefighters, teachers and other public employees, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration sought but failed to win concessions this week from the only major labor group that had supported Emanuel’s election...
Funeral Industry Giant SCI Committed Unfair Labor Practices, Labor Board Says  teamster.org   ...Region 13 of the National Labor Relations Board has found merit in several unfair labor practice charges filed against funeral industry giant Service Corporation International (SCI), which has locked out 59 funeral directors and drivers at 16 Chicago-area funeral homes...
Teamsters To Vote Wegmans' Offer  teamster.org   ...Workers will cast ballots on the company’s proposal that would eliminate the pensions of more than 900 of its Rochester employees and dramatically reduce their compensation package...
Beware of Outlandish Claims About Economic Benefits of U.S.-EU ‘Free Trade’ Deal  Public Citizen   ...The study ignored the predictable social and economic costs that would result from such extreme regulatory rollback, such as an increase in the incidence of foodborne illness and a rise in financial instability...
4 Reasons Why the White House's Domestic-Worker Protections Matter  Mother Jones   ...Starting in January 2015, the federal labor laws that currently ensure minimum wage and overtime protections will be extended to the nation's direct-care workers—some 2 million people who perform jobs like caring for the elderly and the disabled. And yesterday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights into law, expanding the legal protections for its estimated 360,000 (PDF) domestic workers...
How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers  The Atlantic   ...Taxpayers fund the stadiums, antitrust law doesn't apply to broadcast deals, the league enjoys nonprofit status, and Commissioner Roger Goodell makes $30 million a year. It's time to stop the public giveaways to America's richest sports league—and to the feudal lords who own its teams...
Sen. Ron Wyden: NSA 'repeatedly deceived the American people'  The Guardian   ..."the leadership of NSA built an intelligence collection system that repeatedly deceived the American people..."
NSA employees used surveillance system to spy on spouses, lovers  Raw Story   ... a woman told the NSA that she’d recorded a conversation between her husband and a foreign telephone number because she suspected he’d been unfaithful...
School Bus Companies Ordered to Restore Lost Wages to ATU 1181 Workers  LaaborPress   ...Judge Matsumoto ordered the companies to return to the bargaining table they abandoned in March; bargain in good faith with the union; rescind the wage and benefit cuts and all other terms and working conditions previously imposed by the companies; and restore the wages, benefits and working conditions in effect at the time the companies imposed their cuts...
I worked all week for free?!: The horrifying, true story of $0 paychecks  Salon   ...Photos provided to Salon by the National Guestworker Alliance, the group behind the work stoppage, show checks reading “No Dollars and No Cents,” and a page dated June 25 warning guest workers on H-2B visas that, “Any worker who does not show up for your assignment will be immediately removed from Mister Clean Housing and will be reported as AWOL (Absent Without Leave) to ICE (Immigration Custom Enforcement)...”
American Workers: Hanging on by the Skin of Their Teeth  Counterpunch   ...Americans are losing faith in the nation’s economic recovery.” Because they don’t see any recovery...

Teamster school bus workers rally to end wage theft in MD

The school bus workers' movement to improve safety and to stop wage theft came to Baltimore earlier this week. They rallied School bus drivers and attendants with Durham School Services who transport students attending Baltimore City Public Schools joined with Teamsters, political and other community leaders at a rally today to demand respect and safe working conditions.

Sister Stephanie Urosa, a six-year attendant on a bus for children with special needs, said she has reported mold problems on our bus for years and the problem is not fixed. 

I’m scared for the kids on the bus. Some of the children we transport have weakened immune systems and allergies and they don’t need to be exposed to this. Mold is just one of a number of safety concerns we have.

The Baltimore Sun reported,

Bus drivers and aides employed by a Baltimore schools contractor say that unsafe conditions such as fires and mold spores are endangering lives and unfair wages are threatening their livelihoods. 

The grievances were aired Thursday at a rally of employees of Durham School Services, a national company that transports children in more than 350 school districts. Since 2002, the city has contracted with Durham, which earned an estimated $15.5 million over the last three school years. The company's buses transport about 928 students. 

The company is facing a collective-action lawsuit, representing 85 drivers and aides who work for the Rosedale-based affiliate of the company. 

The federal suit, filed in U.S. District Court on March 12, says the company has not paid workers for the hours they earned carrying out responsibilities required for transporting students, such as pre- and post-trip inspections, fueling and cleaning buses. The suit also says the company didn't pay the workers overtime they earned or pay it on a timely basis. 

"We believe that the workers are performing a variety of tasks that are integral to bus driving that they're not being paid for," said Brooke Lierman, who is representing the workers in the federal suit. "They're performing work for free."

Keep fighting, brothers and sisters!

London Calling

Teamsters are in London today standing up for the rights of school bus drivers. The members are at the company’s annual meeting  calling on National Express Group, a large multinational corporation, to honor and respect the rights of their North American workers. From the release:

The Teamster delegation traveled to the United Kingdom over serious concerns about the negative workers’ rights and labor relations record at the company’s North American subsidiaries, Durham School Services in the U.S. (“Durham”) and Stock Transportation in Canada. They were joined by colleagues from Unite the Union, the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association.

 The Teamsters have been fighting on behalf of school bus drivers for several years now. In fact, the union’s Drive Up Standards campaign has organized more than 35,000 North American school bus and transit workers. Here’s what a couple of the Teamster drivers said about why they’re in London calling for fair treatment:

“I believe Durham shows disrespect and disregard for the drivers and monitors. Our job is to safely transport children to school, but we face poor conditions with some of the school buses we operate. I feel like my concerns are not listened to at all, which is why I came here today, to be heard,” said Latrisha Pringle, a 25-year school bus driver who works for Durham in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A., and is a member of Teamsters Local 509 in West Columbia, S.C.

“It’s important that people realize that the problems we face in my bus yard in Navarre, Florida, are not just isolated incidences. I believe there is a pattern to the way Durham is treating people. We are here today because National Express’s subsidiaries cannot continue to behave this way in North America,” said Diane Bence, a Durham driver and member of Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Alabama, U.S.A. “In Florida, we voted overwhelmingly to form our union in February, and even though Durham said it would honor the election result, it has not done so and has appealed the results from the National Labor Relations Board secret ballot election.”

So what, exactly, are the Teamsters doing there?

A number of key stakeholders are calling on the National Express Board of Directors to improve the global oversight of the company’s human resource policies and practices.

Unite the Union’s OSSF and UASPS funds; the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund; and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) are recommending National Express shareholders vote NO to Resolution 1 on the Director’s Annual Reports and Accounts. PIRC, a leading U.K.-based proxy voting advisor is also recommending to its clients a vote against Resolution 1.

The action is being taken to send a strong signal for the need for improved Board oversight and reporting to shareholders of the company’s global human resource policies and practices.

For more information, visit the campaign’s page here.