TEAMSTERS
Parsippany School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Union Teamster.org ...School bus drivers and aides at Student Transportation of America (STA) in Parsippany, N.J., overcame tough opposition from management Wednesday, voting decisively in favor of union representation by Teamsters Local 102 in Springfield Township, N.J. The 78 bus workers are calling for improved working conditions, respect on the job and assurances that they will be paid for all hours worked...
Orange County Employees Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...A majority of the more than 400 operations and service maintenance workers employed by Orange County, Calif., voted to join Local 952 yesterday. After years of being part of an association, the new members of the local, which include custodians, laborers, mechanics, public works maintenance, equipment operators and pest control workers, overwhelmingly chose Teamster representation...
Local 528 Welcomes Pepsi Workers Teamster.org ...Drivers, merchandisers and warehouse workers at the Pepsi facility in Macon, Ga., recently voted to become members of Local 528. A majority of the 45-person unit cast ballots in the Teamsters’ favor. “We are pretty excited that we won,” said Erick Barber, a warehouse worker at the Macon facility. “This is my first time being a union member and I encourage anyone considering joining the Teamsters to keep pushing forward”...
Talks Progress in Effort to Save Safeway Warehouse Jobs DC Labor ...Union leaders and political allies trying to save nearly 1,000 jobs at the Safeway warehouse in Upper Marlboroon Tuesday had their “most productive meeting yet” with top officials from Albertson’s, Safeway’s parent company. “We have a much clearer picture of what needs to happen, and it was a very productive meeting on all sides,” said Ritchie Brooks, president of Teamsters Local 730, which represents most of the workers...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers let go after strike for 6-peso raise Mexico News Daily ...Over 100 workers were laid off at a Lexmark plant in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, after going on strike for two days to press for a daily wage increase of 6 pesos, or US $0.35. They sought the increase, from 114 to 120 pesos, for more experienced workers, but the company rejected the demand in October. Discontent among workers had been brewing for months...
Cambodia garment factory owners ask government to help quash strike by workers Star Tribune ...Garment factory owners in Cambodia asked the government on Thursday to help stop a strike by workers for higher wages, saying the labor action is damaging the investment climate for the industry, the country's main source of exports. Wages are a volatile issue in Cambodia. Unions sought an increase in the minimum monthly wage to $160 in 2016, but most settled for $140...
EU Aims for Free Trade Deal With US by End of Obama's Presidency - Merkel Sputnik News ...The European Union aims to reach a free trade agreement with the United States by the end of current US President Barack Obama's term, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday. "We reiterated that we need a fast conclusion of talks on the Transatlantic Free Trade Area, and that it remains our goal to achieve such a political decision during Obama's presidency," Merkel told reporters...
TPP Ratification Process Grinding To A Halt As Canada Launches 'Widespread Consultations' On The Deal Tech Dirt ...The arrival of a new government in Canada has meant that the corporate sovereignty provisions in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU might be re-examined. The other major trade deal involving Canada, TPP, is much more complex. Although that limits the Canadian government's scope for changing course, it appears that it is nonetheless taking a radically different approach compared to its predecessor...
Spanish Coalition Speaks Out Against Proposed EU-US Free Trade Deals Sputnik News ...The Spanish United Left-Popular Unity coalition does not support the free trade deals the Euorpean Union is negotiating with the United States, the party candidate for the country’s parliament said. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a proposed free-trade deal between the European Union and the United States. The agreement which has been criticized for its unusual secrecy, is opposed by many Europeans...
County Board voices its opposition to TPP Mesabi Daily News ...St. Louis County commissioners on Tuesday solidified their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. Commissioner Tom Rukavina of Pike Township brought the resolution forward after State Rep. Jason Metsa addressed the board earlier in the year on the TPP’s affect on local business and industry, which was unanimously approved...
Portugal's Anti-Austerity Govt Reverses Public Pay Cuts ABC ...Portugal's new Socialist government is restoring full pay to civil servants after four years of cuts, ticking off another item on its anti-austerity to-do list. Under legislation approved Friday, pay increases will be phased in over next year until previous pay levels are reached in October. Cuts of up to 10 percent for staff earning more than 1,500 euros ($1,620) a month came into force in 2011...
Albanians protest over government’s austerity measures Euro News ...Thousands of Albanians took to the streets to protest over the governments handling of the economy with rising levels of poverty and unemployment. The government has angered many by cracking down on non-payment of household electricity bills, increasing social security contributions and raising income tax...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
2016 Ballot Effort to Privatize California Public Employee Pensions Faces Rocky Start, New Poll Finds Alternet ...The conservative obsession to cut public employee pensions is facing an uphill climb in California, according to a newly released poll that found ambivalent support for a pair of 2016 ballot measures pushed by former San Jose and San Diego officials. According to a Capital & Main-David Binder statewide poll of 500 likely voters, there’s roughly a 40-40 split, with the rest undecided, for both measures...
Missouri lawmaker proposes $15 minimum wage statewide Business Journal ...A Democratic state representative from St. Louis has pre-filed legislation that would raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.65 per hour to $15 per hour. State Rep. Michael Butler said in a statement that Missourians who work full-time jobs should not live in poverty...
Florida Senate redistricting trial ends as judge weighs options Miami Herald ...After eight rulings by the Florida Supreme Court and an admission of guilt by legislators, the Senate redistricting trial ended Thursday with a Tallahassee judge asking the parties to tell him their top choices for a new Senate map. Leon County Circuit Court Judge George Reynolds now must decide whether to accept one of four proposals offered by the challengers...
Federal judge dismisses voter ID challenge Post Crescent ...Wisconsin's requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls has survived another legal challenge after a federal judge Thursday dismissed portions of a wide-ranging lawsuit alleging the mandate burdens the right to vote. One Wisconsin Institute Inc., a liberal group; Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund, a voting rights organization; and a half-dozen individual voters filed the lawsuit...
Will all N.J. workers get paid sick leave? NJ.com ...The state Senate on Thursday passed a bill entitling all employees to paid sick leave in New Jersey. The bill, which requires employers of all sizes to offer their workers paid sick time off, was opposed by business groups that called it a one-size-fits-all approach would hurt small businesses and drive up costs. Proponents say the measure is a pro-worker and pro-public health policy that will spare people from having to choose between their health and their jobs...
Labor advocates concerned about Tacoma minimum wage rules News Tribune ...Tacoma is wrapping up its rule-writing for the city’s new minimum wage law, and some labor advocates are concerned that the regulations water down what voters approved. Those advocates say several issues concern them, including what they describe as lax record-keeping requirements for employers and a fuzzy enforcement process...
City Wraps Up The Year By Giving Workers The Ability To Take A Paid Day Off When They Get Sick Think Progress ...New Brunswick, New Jersey passed a paid sick leave ordinance. That makes it the 27th place in the country to do so, as well as the eleventh city in the state. The news was received with mixed support by advocates. It marks another step forward in the wave of legislation that has swept the country and helps address the fact that 40 percent of workers in the city previously lacked paid leave for their own or a family member’s illness...
U.S. LABOR
23,000 NYC Janitors Could Walk Off Job NY AFLCIO ...With the contract deadline fast-approaching, commercial cleaners—members of 32BJ SEIU— voted to strike if no agreement is reached by the December 31st contract expiration. “We are not going to accept anything less than a fair deal that protects health care and retirement benefits and includes a raise that enables our members to continue to raise their families in New York City,” said 32BJ President Hector Figueroa...
SEIU 775 chalks up another victory as caregivers join union Business Journal ...SEIU 775 has scored another big victory. About 275 residential caregivers at ResCare Washington Inc. have joined the union, which represents 44,000 long-term care workers in Washington state and Montana. The caregivers join 953 home care workers from First Choice, a private home care agency, who joined the union in July...
This Is Why Chicago Teachers Are Fed Up With The Mayor Think Progress ...An overwhelming majority of the Chicago Teachers Union, 88 percent, voted on Monday to allow union leaders to call for a strike. It will be several months before the union decides whether to actually begin a strike. First, they’re going on a “fact-finding mission” in one last effort to resolve the negotiations. But if they do decide to walk out of their classrooms, it will be the second time the union has gone on strike...
The Nation Is Giving Workers 4 Months Of Paid Parental Leave Huffington Post ...The progressive magazine The Nation announced Wednesday that it would be offering workers four months of paid parental leave and 25 percent raises over the next six years. These kinds of benefits may be par for the course at tech companies like Google and Facebook and Netflix, but are pretty much unheard of in the media world -- or any other industry in the U.S., for that matter...
Dems call on Labor Dept. to investigate grocery chain The Hill ...House Democrats from Arizona, California and Nevada are calling on the Obama administration to investigate alleged labor law violations by one of North America’s largest retailers. A coalition of U.S. and Mexican labor and civil society groups have accused the company of prohibiting employees from joining labor unions, inquiring about pregnancies during job interviews to screen out pregnant women and hiring volunteer grocery packers who are paid only tips...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Life-Saving Train Technology That Congress Isn’t Fully Funding The Atlantic ...The derailment of Amtrak train 188 in Philadelphia earlier this year, which killed eight people, introduced many Americans to a safety technology that could have prevented the crash in the first place: positive train control. Now, Congress has allocated $25 million in funding in the omnibus bill to help railroads implement the technology—but some of Washington’s most ardent supporters of PTC are still let down...
Not Just Oceans and Atmosphere, Rapid Warming Killing World's Lakes Common Dreams ...The world's lakes are warming at a faster rate than oceans and atmosphere, a trend that may already have triggered major changes in aquatic ecosystems, according to a new report published in Geophysical Research Letters on Wednesday. Globally, lakes have been heating up an average of 0.34°C (.61°F) per decade between 1985 and 2009, researchers found...
Hate Crimes Against Muslims Have Spiked in U.S. Since Paris Attack Slate ...A California State University research group that monitors suspected hate crimes against American Muslims says it's aware of 38 such incidents since the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris, triple the usual average of 12.6 per month. The New York Times spoke to Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism: The frequency of the recent attacks has not reached the levels seen in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001...
Sanders is Right. The Childcare System in the US is a Disaster Common Dreams ...One presidential hopeful's assessment is that the child care system in the U.S. is disastrous. And based on the findings of a new survey, many working parents in the U.S. have reason to agree. The Pew Research Center report, which surveyed over 1,800 parents of kids under 18, showed that nearly half (48 percent) of working parents with at least one child under school age say their children attend day care or preschool...
New Orleans Votes to Remove Confederate Monuments to Robert E. Lee and Others Slate ...The New Orleans City Council voted Thursday to remove a handful of monuments to the Confederacy from prominent locations around the city. The 6-to-1 vote to remove the three Civil War-era inspired statues and one obelisk was the culmination of a contentious campaign that began over the summer when New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu called for their removal...
Showing posts with label school bus workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school bus workers. Show all posts
Friday, December 18, 2015
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Today's Teamster News 10.27.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Local 1205 Members at Baumann Buses Overwhelmingly Approve Contract Teamster.org ...In a secret ballot vote that was completed this afternoon, by a margin of 84 percent to 16 percent, Teamsters Local 1205 members working for Baumann/Acme Buses approved a new three-year union contract. This new contract, with its complex details, was recommended by the elected rank-and-file negotiating committee...
Baltimore Sun Drivers, Mailers, Pressmen Ratify New Teamster Contract Teamster.org ...After two years of difficult negotiations, tentative agreements for three departments at the Baltimore Sun represented by Local 355 and Local 888 were ratified at a jointly-held membership meeting Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015. The company had sought to shift the full burden of healthcare premium costs to workers, among other regressive demands, but bargaining committee members representing drivers and printers (Local 355) and mailers (Local 888) endorsed agreements that preserve current healthcare contributions and enhances job security...
Trucker strike begins at ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles Press-Telegram ...A group of truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike Monday, but port officials said the labor action had minimal impact on cargo operations. The “unfair labor practice” strike includes drivers “misclassified as independent contractors” rather than employees by Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistic, said Barb Maynard of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
President says Indonesia intends to join TPP trade deal Reuters ...Indonesian President Joko Widodo, speaking after a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, said his Southeast Asian country intends to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the United States has forged with 11 other nations. "We are the largest economy in Southeast Asia," Widodo said through a translator. "And Indonesia intends to join the TPP"...
Chamber holds off on endorsing trade deal Washington Examiner ...Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue held off on endorsing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal the White House recently concluded negotiations on, stating that even he was not certain what was in the fine print of the deal. The Chamber is one of the leading advocates for free-trade policies, and its support will be crucial to getting the deal approved by Congress...
The TPP: An Attack on the Internet Counterpunch ...Wikileaks, the on-line bible of revealed secrets, published several leaked sections of what its editors believe is the final edition and the collective groan morphed into an outcry. It was, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it, “all that we feared.” The TPP internationalizes some of the worst inequities and abuses specific signing governments are currently committing and nowhere is that more true than with surveillance and communications repression...
Years after the Rana Plaza tragedy, too many of Bangladesh’s factories are still “death traps” Quartz ...The 2013 garment factory collapse at Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza, which killed at least 1,133 people, was seen around the world as a wake-up call. There had already been several deadly tragedies in the country’s massive and growing garment industry, such as the 2012 Tazreen Fashions fire, but the deaths at Rana Plaza were on a new scale. Nobody could ignore the dire conditions that workers toiled in any longer...
17,000 workers strike at Egypt’s largest public textile factory Al Bawaba ...A strike by 17,000 workers at Egypt’s largest public sector textile company entered its sixth day Monday, making it the largest and longest-lasting Mahallah workers action since ex-army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office over a year ago. Labor Minister Gamal Sorour said after meetings on Monday with officials in Gharbiya province, home to the beleaguered Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, that workers must resume production immediately...
Portugal's Democracy Cracks Under Weight Of Austerity Huffington Post ...Elections in Portugal this week offered the latest sign that when an individual European nation’s voters challenge eurozone austerity policies, the monetary union -- and the international creditors it represents -- takes precedence. Portugal’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, fueled an ongoing debate about the future of European democracy on Thursday when he reappointed an outgoing center-right prime minister despite election results...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Group challenges $1M drive to repeal prevailing wage Detroit Free Press ...The ballot committee Protect Michigan Jobs filed a challenge Monday to a $1-million business-backed petition drive to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law, saying more than 40% of the signatures submitted are duplicates or otherwise invalid. The group pushing to repeal the law, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, disputes the finding, and now it will be up to the state Board of Canvassers -- and possibly the courts -- to decide the issue...
Voter ID lawsuit hearing tentatively set for January Daily Tarheel ...A federal judge refused to dismiss challenges to North Carolina’s Voter ID law during a court hearing on Friday, and set a new tentative hearing for Jan. 16. The N.C. General Assembly passed the law two years ago, requiring voters to have photo ID when voting in-person. It would go into effect in 2016, possibly influencing the upcoming presidential primaries...
Why Are So Many Food Charities Shutting Down In Ohio? Think Progress ...As the Thanksgiving season starts, Ohio’s food charities are in rocky shape. About 40 food pantries in the state have been forced to close down or merge with another outfit in the past 16 months. Despite the closures, Ohioans can still turn to more than 1,700 individual food pantries around the state. But the contraction in food charities’ presence is a reminder of how precarious the nation’s volunteer-driven anti-hunger efforts are these days...
Supporters of higher minimum wage in capital seek compromise as vote looms Sacramento Bee ...Proponents of an embattled plan to raise Sacramento’s minimum wage are rushing to craft a new compromise in advance of Tuesday’s scheduled City Council vote, but it is far from certain that a deal can be reached. The plan would gradually hike the minimum wage in the city to $12.50 an hour by 2020...
U.S. LABOR
A Significant Deal for Automakers and Unions The Atlantic ...For nearly a decade, new workers hired at unionized auto plants across the country have started their jobs knowing a troubling fact: They made less than their colleagues, sometimes half as much. And no matter how hard they worked, they could never earn the wages of the people standing next to them on the assembly line. But, in a deal reached Sunday night, the UAW and GM announced that they had hammered out an agreement that would get rid of the two-tier wage system...
UAW members anxiously await details of GM contract Detroit Free Press ...One down, another close to the finish line and one more to go. That's pretty much where things stand in the UAW's contract talks with the Detroit Three. The UAW reached a new tentative agreement with General Motors shortly before midnight on Sunday but that agreement still has a long way to go before it becomes official...
UFCW 8-Golden State Members Ratify Agreements with Rite Aid Business Wire ...Concluding two years of collective bargaining, members of UFCW 8-Golden State have voted overwhelmingly to ratify new agreements with the Rite Aid drug store in the northern and southern regions of the state. UFCW 8-Golden State President Jacques Loveall praised the agreements, which cover approximately 2,500 Rite Aid Clerks and Pharmacists between the Oregon border and Kern County...
Union elections are rigged against workers The Hill ...Over the past couple of years, low-wage McDonalds, Wal-Mart and federal contract workers have been striking to win a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Some people ask us, “Why don’t you stop striking and just hold a union election?” The truth is America’s low-wage workers are striking because union election rules are rigged against us...
The Hellish Conditions Facing Workers At Chicken Processing Plants Think Progress ...In a report released on Tuesday, Oxfam America is launching a new campaign to address what it says are rampant health and safety issues, as well as low pay and few benefits, that face the people who process chicken in the country’s plants. Consumer demand has been growing. That demand has come with increased pressure on processing line speeds, which are twice as fast today as they were in 1979...
Latest GOP Buzzword for Turning Social Security Into A Welfare Program: Means-Testing Salon ...Means-testing Social Security is a popular position among Republican presidential candidates this election cycle—if not among prospective voters. That means, essentially, turning the nation’s retirement system into a welfare program, targeted at those with real hardships. If they get their way, not only will Social Security benefits be slashed for millions, but something fundamental will have changed: our national retirement system will be transformed from a social insurance program to a welfare program...
Top-Secret Pentagon Program Exploited Aid Workers as Covert Spies Common Dreams ... A new investigation published Monday reveals that the U.S. Pentagon for years funneled millions to a charity organization employing it to serve as the front group for global espionage—very real revelations that experts warn could have dangerous implications for aid workers worldwide...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
In Student Victory, U. of Mississippi Removes State Flag with Confederate Emblem Democracy Now ...Early Monday morning, three campus police officers at the University of Mississippi removed the state flag with its Confederate emblem from the grounds of the school’s campus in Oxford. The move comes after the student government voted to remove the flag. Mississippi’s flag is the latest Confederate symbol to be targeted for removal from a public space since a white supremacist killed nine African-American worshipers in Charleston, South Carolina, four months ago...
Disturbing Video Shows School Cop Body Slam and Drag a Black Female Student Mother Jones ...Authorities in Richland County, South Carolina, are investigating a video that surfaced Monday showing a uniformed officer aggressively confronting a high school student. The video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellphone by a classmate, shows a white male officer standing over a black female student...
Teamsters Local 1205 Members at Baumann Buses Overwhelmingly Approve Contract Teamster.org ...In a secret ballot vote that was completed this afternoon, by a margin of 84 percent to 16 percent, Teamsters Local 1205 members working for Baumann/Acme Buses approved a new three-year union contract. This new contract, with its complex details, was recommended by the elected rank-and-file negotiating committee...
Baltimore Sun Drivers, Mailers, Pressmen Ratify New Teamster Contract Teamster.org ...After two years of difficult negotiations, tentative agreements for three departments at the Baltimore Sun represented by Local 355 and Local 888 were ratified at a jointly-held membership meeting Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015. The company had sought to shift the full burden of healthcare premium costs to workers, among other regressive demands, but bargaining committee members representing drivers and printers (Local 355) and mailers (Local 888) endorsed agreements that preserve current healthcare contributions and enhances job security...
Trucker strike begins at ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles Press-Telegram ...A group of truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike Monday, but port officials said the labor action had minimal impact on cargo operations. The “unfair labor practice” strike includes drivers “misclassified as independent contractors” rather than employees by Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistic, said Barb Maynard of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
President says Indonesia intends to join TPP trade deal Reuters ...Indonesian President Joko Widodo, speaking after a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, said his Southeast Asian country intends to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the United States has forged with 11 other nations. "We are the largest economy in Southeast Asia," Widodo said through a translator. "And Indonesia intends to join the TPP"...
Chamber holds off on endorsing trade deal Washington Examiner ...Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue held off on endorsing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal the White House recently concluded negotiations on, stating that even he was not certain what was in the fine print of the deal. The Chamber is one of the leading advocates for free-trade policies, and its support will be crucial to getting the deal approved by Congress...
The TPP: An Attack on the Internet Counterpunch ...Wikileaks, the on-line bible of revealed secrets, published several leaked sections of what its editors believe is the final edition and the collective groan morphed into an outcry. It was, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it, “all that we feared.” The TPP internationalizes some of the worst inequities and abuses specific signing governments are currently committing and nowhere is that more true than with surveillance and communications repression...
Years after the Rana Plaza tragedy, too many of Bangladesh’s factories are still “death traps” Quartz ...The 2013 garment factory collapse at Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza, which killed at least 1,133 people, was seen around the world as a wake-up call. There had already been several deadly tragedies in the country’s massive and growing garment industry, such as the 2012 Tazreen Fashions fire, but the deaths at Rana Plaza were on a new scale. Nobody could ignore the dire conditions that workers toiled in any longer...
17,000 workers strike at Egypt’s largest public textile factory Al Bawaba ...A strike by 17,000 workers at Egypt’s largest public sector textile company entered its sixth day Monday, making it the largest and longest-lasting Mahallah workers action since ex-army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office over a year ago. Labor Minister Gamal Sorour said after meetings on Monday with officials in Gharbiya province, home to the beleaguered Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, that workers must resume production immediately...
Portugal's Democracy Cracks Under Weight Of Austerity Huffington Post ...Elections in Portugal this week offered the latest sign that when an individual European nation’s voters challenge eurozone austerity policies, the monetary union -- and the international creditors it represents -- takes precedence. Portugal’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, fueled an ongoing debate about the future of European democracy on Thursday when he reappointed an outgoing center-right prime minister despite election results...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Group challenges $1M drive to repeal prevailing wage Detroit Free Press ...The ballot committee Protect Michigan Jobs filed a challenge Monday to a $1-million business-backed petition drive to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law, saying more than 40% of the signatures submitted are duplicates or otherwise invalid. The group pushing to repeal the law, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, disputes the finding, and now it will be up to the state Board of Canvassers -- and possibly the courts -- to decide the issue...
Voter ID lawsuit hearing tentatively set for January Daily Tarheel ...A federal judge refused to dismiss challenges to North Carolina’s Voter ID law during a court hearing on Friday, and set a new tentative hearing for Jan. 16. The N.C. General Assembly passed the law two years ago, requiring voters to have photo ID when voting in-person. It would go into effect in 2016, possibly influencing the upcoming presidential primaries...
Why Are So Many Food Charities Shutting Down In Ohio? Think Progress ...As the Thanksgiving season starts, Ohio’s food charities are in rocky shape. About 40 food pantries in the state have been forced to close down or merge with another outfit in the past 16 months. Despite the closures, Ohioans can still turn to more than 1,700 individual food pantries around the state. But the contraction in food charities’ presence is a reminder of how precarious the nation’s volunteer-driven anti-hunger efforts are these days...
Supporters of higher minimum wage in capital seek compromise as vote looms Sacramento Bee ...Proponents of an embattled plan to raise Sacramento’s minimum wage are rushing to craft a new compromise in advance of Tuesday’s scheduled City Council vote, but it is far from certain that a deal can be reached. The plan would gradually hike the minimum wage in the city to $12.50 an hour by 2020...
U.S. LABOR
A Significant Deal for Automakers and Unions The Atlantic ...For nearly a decade, new workers hired at unionized auto plants across the country have started their jobs knowing a troubling fact: They made less than their colleagues, sometimes half as much. And no matter how hard they worked, they could never earn the wages of the people standing next to them on the assembly line. But, in a deal reached Sunday night, the UAW and GM announced that they had hammered out an agreement that would get rid of the two-tier wage system...
UAW members anxiously await details of GM contract Detroit Free Press ...One down, another close to the finish line and one more to go. That's pretty much where things stand in the UAW's contract talks with the Detroit Three. The UAW reached a new tentative agreement with General Motors shortly before midnight on Sunday but that agreement still has a long way to go before it becomes official...
UFCW 8-Golden State Members Ratify Agreements with Rite Aid Business Wire ...Concluding two years of collective bargaining, members of UFCW 8-Golden State have voted overwhelmingly to ratify new agreements with the Rite Aid drug store in the northern and southern regions of the state. UFCW 8-Golden State President Jacques Loveall praised the agreements, which cover approximately 2,500 Rite Aid Clerks and Pharmacists between the Oregon border and Kern County...
Union elections are rigged against workers The Hill ...Over the past couple of years, low-wage McDonalds, Wal-Mart and federal contract workers have been striking to win a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Some people ask us, “Why don’t you stop striking and just hold a union election?” The truth is America’s low-wage workers are striking because union election rules are rigged against us...
The Hellish Conditions Facing Workers At Chicken Processing Plants Think Progress ...In a report released on Tuesday, Oxfam America is launching a new campaign to address what it says are rampant health and safety issues, as well as low pay and few benefits, that face the people who process chicken in the country’s plants. Consumer demand has been growing. That demand has come with increased pressure on processing line speeds, which are twice as fast today as they were in 1979...
Latest GOP Buzzword for Turning Social Security Into A Welfare Program: Means-Testing Salon ...Means-testing Social Security is a popular position among Republican presidential candidates this election cycle—if not among prospective voters. That means, essentially, turning the nation’s retirement system into a welfare program, targeted at those with real hardships. If they get their way, not only will Social Security benefits be slashed for millions, but something fundamental will have changed: our national retirement system will be transformed from a social insurance program to a welfare program...
Top-Secret Pentagon Program Exploited Aid Workers as Covert Spies Common Dreams ... A new investigation published Monday reveals that the U.S. Pentagon for years funneled millions to a charity organization employing it to serve as the front group for global espionage—very real revelations that experts warn could have dangerous implications for aid workers worldwide...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
In Student Victory, U. of Mississippi Removes State Flag with Confederate Emblem Democracy Now ...Early Monday morning, three campus police officers at the University of Mississippi removed the state flag with its Confederate emblem from the grounds of the school’s campus in Oxford. The move comes after the student government voted to remove the flag. Mississippi’s flag is the latest Confederate symbol to be targeted for removal from a public space since a white supremacist killed nine African-American worshipers in Charleston, South Carolina, four months ago...
Disturbing Video Shows School Cop Body Slam and Drag a Black Female Student Mother Jones ...Authorities in Richland County, South Carolina, are investigating a video that surfaced Monday showing a uniformed officer aggressively confronting a high school student. The video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellphone by a classmate, shows a white male officer standing over a black female student...
Friday, September 18, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.18.15
Teamsters
Hoffa Statement of Support of Bipartisan Effort to Repeal Excise Tax on High-Quality Health Plans Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the announcement of the introduction of a bipartisan companion bill in the Senate to HR 2050 which would repeal an excise tax set to be charged on those enrolled in high-quality health care plans: “The Teamsters support this bipartisan effort to repeal the destructive excise tax that is set to take effect in 2018"...
No deal after latest talks between Baumann & Sons Buses, Acme Buses and Teamsters Local 1205 Newsday ...Talks continued early Friday morning between a Long Island school bus contractor and its workers to end a labor dispute and head off a strike that could leave 15,000 students scrambling for other forms of transportation. As of 2:30 a.m. Friday, negotiators for Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. still remained locked in discussions at the union's Farmingdale headquarters...
Teamsters Protest as Treasury Debates Allowing Pension Cuts for 1.5 Million Retirees In These Times ...About 300 angry Teamsters descended on Washington, D.C., September 10, demanding federal action to protect the pensions of union members threatened with benefit cuts. The retired Teamsters are among a group of as many as 1.5 million retirees from a long list of different labor unions nationwide that could see their pensions slashed under a new law quietly approved late last year...
Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund takes on Wall Street bank traders Cleveland Business ...The Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund is among plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging that banks that deal in government securities rigged trading to boost their own profits. “The same analytical technique that uncovered cheating in currency markets and the Libor rates benchmark — resulting in about $20 billion of fines — suggests the dealers who control the U.S. Treasury market rigged bond auctions for years,” Bloomberg reports in describing a lawsuit...
EVSC Board and Teamsters disagree over form, will meet Friday Courier & Press ...After about a three-week hiatus, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiation teams will meet again Friday to continue working toward a collective bargaining agreement, as well as a new wage authorization form. Earlier this month, the EVSC ceased deducting union dues and representation fees for Local 215 employees...
Global Labor & Trade
Finland Anti-Austerity Strike Shuts Down Public Transport, Flights As Recession Pits Labor Unions Against Government International Business Times ...One of the biggest strikes in Finland's history closed down ports, canceled or delayed flights and disrupted other transportation Friday, amid protests against the government's latest proposed austerity measures. With the Nordic country in a recession for the past three years and on track for a fourth, the leading center-right coalition there has tried to implement cutbacks that include limiting overtime and benefits...
Canada must be part of Pacific pact, automakers might suffer: PM Reuters ...Canada must sign up to a proposed 12-nation Pacific trade pact, even though the country's auto makers might not be happy with some of the conditions, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday. Trade ministers failed to clinch the Trans-Pacific Partnership at a meeting in late July amid disagreements over sectors such as autos and dairy...
Harper Says Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Will End ‘Successfully’ Bloomberg ...Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he’s confident a Pacific trade deal that would stretch from Chile to Japan will be reached. Clinching a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership will form the “basis of the global trade network in the Asia Pacific for the generation to come,” Harper said Thursday in a leadership debate for the Oct. 19 Canadian federal election...
Japan has little room left to compromise on TPP deal: Amari Fiscal Times ...Trade ministers from the 12 nations negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are expected to hold another meeting soon to clinch a deal, after failing to do so in Hawaii last month. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the global economy. "This is our last chance," Amari told a regular news conference. "If we don't have an agreement, a deal may be delayed for years given various uncertainties...
Obama sure of deal as ministers plan end-Sept talks on TPP Today ...Twelve Pacific Rim countries will hold a ministerial meeting later this month in Atlanta in the United States as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free trade zones, negotiation sources said yesterday. US President Barack Obama on Wednesday raised hopes that the 12 countries could conclude the sweeping free trade agreement “in the next several weeks”...
Will TTIP be an ‘economic NATO’? Politico ...Back in 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed a proposed transatlantic free trade pact as a job-creating, growth-boosting “economic NATO” that would forge new ties between old allies. Three years later, hopeful presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears less enthusiastic. “Can you make it go away?” was the only-half-joking response of her campaign chairman, John Podesta, to a recent question on the trade deal now being negotiated between the United States and European Union....
Europe starts putting up walls The Economist ...Hungary declared an emergency, sealed its border with Serbia with barbed-wire fences and began arresting those trying to cross. Police fired tear gas at them; 20 officers and many refugees were hurt. Growing numbers of refugees are now trapped on the Serbian side and have started evading the barrier by marching into Romania and Croatia. Hungary responded by saying it will extend the fence to its Romanian border. The cascade of events is likely to continue...
Migrant Domestic Workers Network a First in Jordan Solidarity Center ...Domestic workers in Jordan are set to celebrate the official formation of a worker rights network that includes migrant workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The September 19 launch is a first in Jordan and a rare move in the Arab region, where more than 2.4 million migrant domestic workers often toil 12–20 hour days, six or seven days a week cleaning homes, preparing meals and caring for children and the elderly...
State & Living Wage Battles
Poll: Wide support among N.Y. voters for $15 minimum wage CBS ...A new poll finds that New York voters support raising the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour. The poll released Friday by Quinnipiac University found 62 percent of voters supporting a phased-in increase. Thirty-five percent of the respondents opposed the idea. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling on the state Legislature to approve a $15 minimum wage...
9th Circuit rejects state's appeal, says anti-union law passed in 2011 was invalid Spokesman-Review ...The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today upheld a federal district court ruling that an anti-union law passed by the Idaho Legislature in 2011 was invalid, as it was pre-empted by the federal National Labor Relations Act. The law, which was immediately enjoined and never took effect, banned “job targeting” or “market recovery” programs, in which unions use funds they collect from workers to subsidize bids by union contractors on jobs...
Archbishop Takes Aim At ‘Right-To-Work’ Laws CBS ...Without mentioning Gov. Bruce Rauner by name, Chicago’s Roman Catholic Archbishop is raising concerns about moves to restrict labor unions. Blase Cupich made his remarks Thursday at the plumbers union hall on the West Side, before a union-heavy audience. He declared a society with a healthy labor movement is a better place than one where powerful economic interests have their way and the voices of workers are diminished...
California Activists Call for Fracking Ban Truthout ...The California Legislature approved an amended version of Senate Bill 350, a measure that legislative leaders and Governor Jerry Brown touted as "landmark climate legislation." In response, anti-fracking activists pointed out the contradiction between Brown's strong support of extreme oil extraction methods and his constant grandstanding about "clean energy" - and called on Brown to use his executive power to ban the environmentally destructive practice of fracking in California...
OUR Walmart Relaunches Its Campaign To Beat the World Retail Giant In These Times ...After four years as a growing, thriving voice of workers at Walmart, the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) re-launched itself on Thursday. Originally a legally independent, non-union worker organization that the United Food and Commercial Workers founded and funded, OUR Walmart will now have a different, still to-be-defined tie to the UFCW...
Paid Sick Leave, More Overtime Proposed For Mpls. Workers CBS ...Workers in Minneapolis could soon have more flexible schedules and more paid leave. One of the councilmembers behind a proposed ordinance says if it goes through, big changes could start early next year. The proposal would allow workers to know their schedules ahead of time and earn overtime if they work more than eight hours a day...
U.S. Labor
UFCW sees 'difficulty' with Key Food over A&P stores Supermarket News ...New York locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union were scheduled to meet today with officials of Key Food Stores for “the first time in a while” to talk about the A&P units the retailer intends to buy, a union spokesman told SN. He said the union has had “a bunch of difficulty” with Key Food in the past because of the retailer’s desire to cut back the number of full-time jobs in favor of more part-timers at the 17 stores it said it intends to buy...
UAW-FCA agreement reportedly includes $5.3 billion U.S. production investment MLive ...As part of a tentative agreement with the UAW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is shifting some of its production from Mexico to the U.S. - and vice versa. That's according to multiple reports, such as one in the Detroit Free Press that says FCA plans to commit $5.3 billion to U.S. auto plants over the next four years. That will also reportedly help retain thousands of American jobs...
Target pharmacy workers form union, first in company's history Reuters ...A group of pharmacy workers within Target Corp's store in Brooklyn, New York, have won a vote to form a microunion, making it the first unionized store at the retailer since its inception in 1902. Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters was first to report that a group of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians won an initial ballot, 7-2, to form the union, according to a filing on the National Labor Relations Board website and union officials...
Another Shot Fired in the Great Immigration vs. Wages War Mother Jones ...Does illegal immigration suppress the wages of native-born workers? The evidence suggests that it doesn't—or not much, anyway. One of the data points supporting this is a study done by David Card of the effect of the 1980 Mariel boatlift on workers in Miami. Even though Miami experienced a huge spike in immigrants during the boatlift, Card found no significant impact on wages...
The Fed Keeps Interest Rates Near Zero The Atlantic ...The U.S. Federal Reserve has decided not to raise interest rates at its September Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The committee’s two-day meeting concluded with Fed officials voting to keep interest rates near zero. The U.S. job market has been putting in solid numbers in recent months, data that Fed watchers believed might convince the Fed to hike rates...
Social Justice & Other News
Trump: 'We're Gonna Be Looking Into' How We Can Get Rid of All the Muslims Common Dreams ...In a week that has already seen collective outrage in response to the treatment of a Muslim teenager in Texas who was handcuffed and arrested simply for bringing a homemade clock to school, the pervasiveness of Islamaphobic sentiment was on display once again overnight after Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump fielded a question in New Hampshire about what he planned to do "about getting rid of" all the nation's Muslims...
The Beginning of Trump’s End? Slate ...This debate might mark the beginning of the end for Trump, who struggled to tackle substantive questions on foreign policy, his advisers, and what he’d actually do as president of the United States. More importantly, he faced a confident Carly Fiorina, who slammed and tweaked Trump on his obvious ignorance of key issues. “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” Fiorina said about his remarks on her appearance...
Bernie Sanders Unveils Ambitious Plan To End Private Prisons Think Progress ...Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is officially taking on the country’s private prison industry. By introducing a bill that would ban government contracts with private prisons, the presidential contender is quickly becoming the loudest advocate for criminal justice reform among his competitors. The Justice is Not For Sale Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Bobby L. Rush (D-IL), would prohibit the federal government from entering contracts with private prison corporations within two years of the bill’s enactment...
America's Need for a Third Reconstruction The Atlantic ...Ta-Nehisi Coates mournfully excavates how the carceral state is deeply entangled in the racial DNA of the United States, and convincingly demonstrates that, for all the talk of a Kumbaya moment in penal reform between the left and the right, the carceral state remains largely intact with barely a nick. Four decades ago, the U.S. had many similar structural problems found today, but it did not have such an expansive penal system...
Climate Expert James Hansen: The Planet May Become Ungovernable Alternet ...The repercussions of climate disruption are still not being acknowledged fully, warned climatologist Dr. James Hansen. Hansen — formerly NASA’s head climate scientist, now adjunct professor at Columbia University — is probably best known for bringing definitive evidence of global warming to Congress in testimony in 1988...
The recession hasn’t changed a damn thing: Wall Street is still making off like bandits Salon.com ...Just a few years after the financial crisis, a new report tells an important story: Federal prosecution of white-collar crime has hit a 20-year low. The analysis by Syracuse University shows a more than 36 percent decline in such prosecutions since the middle of the Clinton administration, when the decline began...
Hoffa Statement of Support of Bipartisan Effort to Repeal Excise Tax on High-Quality Health Plans Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the announcement of the introduction of a bipartisan companion bill in the Senate to HR 2050 which would repeal an excise tax set to be charged on those enrolled in high-quality health care plans: “The Teamsters support this bipartisan effort to repeal the destructive excise tax that is set to take effect in 2018"...
No deal after latest talks between Baumann & Sons Buses, Acme Buses and Teamsters Local 1205 Newsday ...Talks continued early Friday morning between a Long Island school bus contractor and its workers to end a labor dispute and head off a strike that could leave 15,000 students scrambling for other forms of transportation. As of 2:30 a.m. Friday, negotiators for Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. still remained locked in discussions at the union's Farmingdale headquarters...
Teamsters Protest as Treasury Debates Allowing Pension Cuts for 1.5 Million Retirees In These Times ...About 300 angry Teamsters descended on Washington, D.C., September 10, demanding federal action to protect the pensions of union members threatened with benefit cuts. The retired Teamsters are among a group of as many as 1.5 million retirees from a long list of different labor unions nationwide that could see their pensions slashed under a new law quietly approved late last year...
Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund takes on Wall Street bank traders Cleveland Business ...The Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund is among plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging that banks that deal in government securities rigged trading to boost their own profits. “The same analytical technique that uncovered cheating in currency markets and the Libor rates benchmark — resulting in about $20 billion of fines — suggests the dealers who control the U.S. Treasury market rigged bond auctions for years,” Bloomberg reports in describing a lawsuit...
EVSC Board and Teamsters disagree over form, will meet Friday Courier & Press ...After about a three-week hiatus, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiation teams will meet again Friday to continue working toward a collective bargaining agreement, as well as a new wage authorization form. Earlier this month, the EVSC ceased deducting union dues and representation fees for Local 215 employees...
Global Labor & Trade
Finland Anti-Austerity Strike Shuts Down Public Transport, Flights As Recession Pits Labor Unions Against Government International Business Times ...One of the biggest strikes in Finland's history closed down ports, canceled or delayed flights and disrupted other transportation Friday, amid protests against the government's latest proposed austerity measures. With the Nordic country in a recession for the past three years and on track for a fourth, the leading center-right coalition there has tried to implement cutbacks that include limiting overtime and benefits...
Canada must be part of Pacific pact, automakers might suffer: PM Reuters ...Canada must sign up to a proposed 12-nation Pacific trade pact, even though the country's auto makers might not be happy with some of the conditions, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday. Trade ministers failed to clinch the Trans-Pacific Partnership at a meeting in late July amid disagreements over sectors such as autos and dairy...
Harper Says Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Will End ‘Successfully’ Bloomberg ...Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he’s confident a Pacific trade deal that would stretch from Chile to Japan will be reached. Clinching a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership will form the “basis of the global trade network in the Asia Pacific for the generation to come,” Harper said Thursday in a leadership debate for the Oct. 19 Canadian federal election...
Japan has little room left to compromise on TPP deal: Amari Fiscal Times ...Trade ministers from the 12 nations negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are expected to hold another meeting soon to clinch a deal, after failing to do so in Hawaii last month. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the global economy. "This is our last chance," Amari told a regular news conference. "If we don't have an agreement, a deal may be delayed for years given various uncertainties...
Obama sure of deal as ministers plan end-Sept talks on TPP Today ...Twelve Pacific Rim countries will hold a ministerial meeting later this month in Atlanta in the United States as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free trade zones, negotiation sources said yesterday. US President Barack Obama on Wednesday raised hopes that the 12 countries could conclude the sweeping free trade agreement “in the next several weeks”...
Will TTIP be an ‘economic NATO’? Politico ...Back in 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed a proposed transatlantic free trade pact as a job-creating, growth-boosting “economic NATO” that would forge new ties between old allies. Three years later, hopeful presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears less enthusiastic. “Can you make it go away?” was the only-half-joking response of her campaign chairman, John Podesta, to a recent question on the trade deal now being negotiated between the United States and European Union....
Europe starts putting up walls The Economist ...Hungary declared an emergency, sealed its border with Serbia with barbed-wire fences and began arresting those trying to cross. Police fired tear gas at them; 20 officers and many refugees were hurt. Growing numbers of refugees are now trapped on the Serbian side and have started evading the barrier by marching into Romania and Croatia. Hungary responded by saying it will extend the fence to its Romanian border. The cascade of events is likely to continue...
Migrant Domestic Workers Network a First in Jordan Solidarity Center ...Domestic workers in Jordan are set to celebrate the official formation of a worker rights network that includes migrant workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The September 19 launch is a first in Jordan and a rare move in the Arab region, where more than 2.4 million migrant domestic workers often toil 12–20 hour days, six or seven days a week cleaning homes, preparing meals and caring for children and the elderly...
State & Living Wage Battles
Poll: Wide support among N.Y. voters for $15 minimum wage CBS ...A new poll finds that New York voters support raising the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour. The poll released Friday by Quinnipiac University found 62 percent of voters supporting a phased-in increase. Thirty-five percent of the respondents opposed the idea. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling on the state Legislature to approve a $15 minimum wage...
9th Circuit rejects state's appeal, says anti-union law passed in 2011 was invalid Spokesman-Review ...The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today upheld a federal district court ruling that an anti-union law passed by the Idaho Legislature in 2011 was invalid, as it was pre-empted by the federal National Labor Relations Act. The law, which was immediately enjoined and never took effect, banned “job targeting” or “market recovery” programs, in which unions use funds they collect from workers to subsidize bids by union contractors on jobs...
Archbishop Takes Aim At ‘Right-To-Work’ Laws CBS ...Without mentioning Gov. Bruce Rauner by name, Chicago’s Roman Catholic Archbishop is raising concerns about moves to restrict labor unions. Blase Cupich made his remarks Thursday at the plumbers union hall on the West Side, before a union-heavy audience. He declared a society with a healthy labor movement is a better place than one where powerful economic interests have their way and the voices of workers are diminished...
California Activists Call for Fracking Ban Truthout ...The California Legislature approved an amended version of Senate Bill 350, a measure that legislative leaders and Governor Jerry Brown touted as "landmark climate legislation." In response, anti-fracking activists pointed out the contradiction between Brown's strong support of extreme oil extraction methods and his constant grandstanding about "clean energy" - and called on Brown to use his executive power to ban the environmentally destructive practice of fracking in California...
OUR Walmart Relaunches Its Campaign To Beat the World Retail Giant In These Times ...After four years as a growing, thriving voice of workers at Walmart, the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) re-launched itself on Thursday. Originally a legally independent, non-union worker organization that the United Food and Commercial Workers founded and funded, OUR Walmart will now have a different, still to-be-defined tie to the UFCW...
Paid Sick Leave, More Overtime Proposed For Mpls. Workers CBS ...Workers in Minneapolis could soon have more flexible schedules and more paid leave. One of the councilmembers behind a proposed ordinance says if it goes through, big changes could start early next year. The proposal would allow workers to know their schedules ahead of time and earn overtime if they work more than eight hours a day...
U.S. Labor
UFCW sees 'difficulty' with Key Food over A&P stores Supermarket News ...New York locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union were scheduled to meet today with officials of Key Food Stores for “the first time in a while” to talk about the A&P units the retailer intends to buy, a union spokesman told SN. He said the union has had “a bunch of difficulty” with Key Food in the past because of the retailer’s desire to cut back the number of full-time jobs in favor of more part-timers at the 17 stores it said it intends to buy...
UAW-FCA agreement reportedly includes $5.3 billion U.S. production investment MLive ...As part of a tentative agreement with the UAW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is shifting some of its production from Mexico to the U.S. - and vice versa. That's according to multiple reports, such as one in the Detroit Free Press that says FCA plans to commit $5.3 billion to U.S. auto plants over the next four years. That will also reportedly help retain thousands of American jobs...
Target pharmacy workers form union, first in company's history Reuters ...A group of pharmacy workers within Target Corp's store in Brooklyn, New York, have won a vote to form a microunion, making it the first unionized store at the retailer since its inception in 1902. Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters was first to report that a group of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians won an initial ballot, 7-2, to form the union, according to a filing on the National Labor Relations Board website and union officials...
Another Shot Fired in the Great Immigration vs. Wages War Mother Jones ...Does illegal immigration suppress the wages of native-born workers? The evidence suggests that it doesn't—or not much, anyway. One of the data points supporting this is a study done by David Card of the effect of the 1980 Mariel boatlift on workers in Miami. Even though Miami experienced a huge spike in immigrants during the boatlift, Card found no significant impact on wages...
The Fed Keeps Interest Rates Near Zero The Atlantic ...The U.S. Federal Reserve has decided not to raise interest rates at its September Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The committee’s two-day meeting concluded with Fed officials voting to keep interest rates near zero. The U.S. job market has been putting in solid numbers in recent months, data that Fed watchers believed might convince the Fed to hike rates...
Social Justice & Other News
Trump: 'We're Gonna Be Looking Into' How We Can Get Rid of All the Muslims Common Dreams ...In a week that has already seen collective outrage in response to the treatment of a Muslim teenager in Texas who was handcuffed and arrested simply for bringing a homemade clock to school, the pervasiveness of Islamaphobic sentiment was on display once again overnight after Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump fielded a question in New Hampshire about what he planned to do "about getting rid of" all the nation's Muslims...
The Beginning of Trump’s End? Slate ...This debate might mark the beginning of the end for Trump, who struggled to tackle substantive questions on foreign policy, his advisers, and what he’d actually do as president of the United States. More importantly, he faced a confident Carly Fiorina, who slammed and tweaked Trump on his obvious ignorance of key issues. “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” Fiorina said about his remarks on her appearance...
Bernie Sanders Unveils Ambitious Plan To End Private Prisons Think Progress ...Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is officially taking on the country’s private prison industry. By introducing a bill that would ban government contracts with private prisons, the presidential contender is quickly becoming the loudest advocate for criminal justice reform among his competitors. The Justice is Not For Sale Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Bobby L. Rush (D-IL), would prohibit the federal government from entering contracts with private prison corporations within two years of the bill’s enactment...
America's Need for a Third Reconstruction The Atlantic ...Ta-Nehisi Coates mournfully excavates how the carceral state is deeply entangled in the racial DNA of the United States, and convincingly demonstrates that, for all the talk of a Kumbaya moment in penal reform between the left and the right, the carceral state remains largely intact with barely a nick. Four decades ago, the U.S. had many similar structural problems found today, but it did not have such an expansive penal system...
Climate Expert James Hansen: The Planet May Become Ungovernable Alternet ...The repercussions of climate disruption are still not being acknowledged fully, warned climatologist Dr. James Hansen. Hansen — formerly NASA’s head climate scientist, now adjunct professor at Columbia University — is probably best known for bringing definitive evidence of global warming to Congress in testimony in 1988...
The recession hasn’t changed a damn thing: Wall Street is still making off like bandits Salon.com ...Just a few years after the financial crisis, a new report tells an important story: Federal prosecution of white-collar crime has hit a 20-year low. The analysis by Syracuse University shows a more than 36 percent decline in such prosecutions since the middle of the Clinton administration, when the decline began...
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.16.15
Teamsters
Michigan School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Union Teamster.org ...School bus workers with First Student in Carleton, Mich., have voted overwhelmingly, 25-2, in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 283 in Wyandotte, Mich. The group of 35 drivers and monitors reached out to the Teamsters Union seeking a strong voice to address their workplace concerns...
Former De Blasio Staffer Wins Labor Backing in Queens Council Race Observer ...A former de Blasio administration staffer running for an open Queens City Council seat has won the first labor endorsement of the race. Rebecca Lynch, a member of Mr. de Blasio’s Community Affairs Unit until this month and a former Democratic district leader, won the backing of Teamsters Joint Council 16 today...
House needs to continue stand against fast track Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters would like to thank all lawmakers who stood with the people in that important vote. Pro-fast track lawmakers, however, are likely to pull out every procedural trick in the book to overturn it. That could mean taking another vote on Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) as early as tomorrow...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama, Boehner abandon plans for Tuesday trade vote Washington Post ...President Obama and his momentary Republican allies in Congress mulled several difficult choices Monday for rescuing trade legislation into which the president has invested a massive amount of political capital in the hope of completing a 12-nation trade deal across the Pacific Rim. Their first call was to abandon plans for a second vote Tuesday on a piece of legislation that must also pass for the entire package to advance to Obama’s desk...
Obama’s environmental allies not buying his trade pitch on climate Washington Post ...President Obama has made environmental safeguards one of the selling points of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But environmental groups aren’t buying. The influential environmental groups — a key part of the effort to rally the Democratic base against the fast-track bill for trade talks — believe that a new trade pact could set back important gains achieved over the past two decades...
US fast-track vote leaves Pacific trade pact talks in limbo Associated Press ...How slow can you go? The effort to get U.S. trade legislation through Congress, clearing the way for progress on an Asia-Pacific trade accord, is in limbo once again. The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday shot down a proposal to give President Barack Obama authority to negotiate global trade deals for congressional approval or rejection, without amendments...
U.S. trade deal’s setback causes mixed reaction in Asia Washington Post ...The failure of a package of trade-related measures Friday in the House was a blow to President Obama, but it was also a blow to his ally, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, half a world away. Abe has made reviving Japan’s stubbornly anemic economy one of his top priorities, and forging a wide-ranging trade pact with the United States, through the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Nancy Pelosi: Trade promotion authority on its last legs (opinion) USA Today ...In order to succeed in the global economy, it is necessary to move beyond stale arguments of protectionism vs. free trade. To do so, we must recognize that workers' rights, consumer and intellectual protections, and environmental safeguards must be just as enforceable as the protection of the economic interests of investors...
Honduran Workers Win Unions at 3 Plants, Get Pact at 4th Solidarity Center ...Apparel workers in Honduras formed unions at three factories in recent days with the Central General de Trabajadores Honduras (CGT) and its apparel federation FESITRATEMASH, in a huge victory for workers seeking to improve their basic livelihoods. Some 9,000 workers at the Canadian-owned Gildan apparel factories in Choloma, San Pedro Sula and Villanueva make T-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants...
In the Global Apparel Industry, Abusive and Deadly Working Conditions Are Still the Norm In These Times ...We know about extreme incidents such as the Rana Plaza collapse that capture the world’s attention, however briefly, or when workers get so fed up with the conditions that they strike long enough and loud enough to get the Western world’s attention. But the day-to-day disasters that maim or kill a single worker or the accumulation of lead in workers’ bodies—those go almost completely unreported...
Threats of Default and 'Grexit' Loom as Greece Refuses to Surrender Common Dreams ...As threats of a debt default, potential 'Greek exit,' and stock market crash loom, both sides appear to be digging in their heels after negotiations between Greece and European lenders collapsed on Sunday. Greece's leftist leader, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, slammed his creditors for their "insistence" on austerity, which he described as a "pillaging" of Greece's imperiled economy...
State & Living Wage Battles
After Cutting Taxes On The Rich, Kansas Will Raise Taxes On The Poor To Pay For It Think Progress ...Kansas lawmakers concluded the longest legislative session in state history Friday night by approving a slate of regressive tax hikes that will balance the state’s budget by targeting low-income workers and their families. More than half of the $384 million in new revenue expected from the tax hike will come from cigarette taxes and sales taxes, two policies described as “regressive” because they fall more heavily on lower-income taxpayers than on the wealthy...
Poll: Voters want to keep prevailing wage law Detroit News ...A group seeking to repeal Michigan's 50-year-old prevailing wage law might find its biggest support among Republican state lawmakers: A new poll suggests likely voters want to keep union-level wages for government construction projects. More than 59 percent of likely voters support maintaining Michigan's prevailing wage...
Senate support for Scott Walker's budget is razor thin Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker's budget hangs by a gossamer thread in the GOP-controlled state Senate, where "no" votes from just three lawmakers within his own party would be enough to derail his spending plan. Already, two conservative Republican senators have made clear they will be extremely difficult — perhaps impossible — for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) to win over without knocking moderate senators from their party out of the yes column...
Scott Walker's Wisconsin: A Laboratory for Oligarchs Truthout ...Scott Walker's attacks on unions and family paying jobs in Wisconsin helped elevate his national profile and ingratiated him with deep-pocketed political donors like the Kochs. Can he take this agenda nationwide? This weekend's New York Times Magazine has a cover story by Wisconsin native Dan Kaufman called "Scott Walker and the Fate of the Union" that digs deep into Walker's anti-worker crusade...
What’s the Matter With Indiana? Counterpunch ...Amid all that’s clearly wrong with Indiana’s current direction under right wing Republican rule, Quigley finds cause for optimism. “Despite a state political climate that proved inhospitable to labor in the right-to-work debate, private sector workers are launching union organizing campaigns across the state’s capital,” and in smaller towns as well. If We Can Win Here includes detailed case studies of membership recruitment...
Board Hears Support for Raising Food Workers’ Minimum Wage New York Times ...The mayor who faced a multitude of excited New York City workers in Manhattan on Monday morning was not Bill de Blasio. Instead, it was the mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown, who listened patiently as a contingent of fast-food restaurant employees pleaded for an increase in their minimum wage to $15 an hour, cheered on by an auditorium filled with their colleagues and sympathizers...
U.S. Labor
Amid dispute with SEIU union, county makes contract offer Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Clark County managers have made a contract offer to their largest employee union amid a dispute over interpretation of a new state law that revamps collective bargaining for government workers. The offer would end concerns over the county’s moves to end paid union leave for employees and stop all increases to wages and benefits...
Saint Louis University Hospital nurses vote against de-authorization of union St. Louis Public Radio ...Members of a nurse’s union at St. Louis University Hospital voted against de-authorizing their union late Monday, a measure that would have effectively created a “right-to-work” policy within the hospital. The National Nurses United affiliate has about 650 members at SLU Hospital; only 140 voted in favor of de-authorization...
Ford wants to lead UAW talks to address wage disparity Detroit Free Press ...Detroit Three-UAW bargaining will begin in earnest the week of July 13 and Ford wants to be first to ink an agreement that creates a more even playing field when it comes to wages in the auto industry. In the normally secretive world of UAW talks, key dates and details were released Monday about the next stages of bargaining...
Woman Alleges Waffle House Manager Asked, ‘You’re Pregnant Again?’ Then Fired Her For Pregnancy Think Progress ...Tabitha Handy says she assured her employer at Waffle House that she could continue doing her job after she found out she was pregnant in September, but then she was allegedly fired over concerns about whether she could keep doing it. Now, she’s suing them.
When she first told her direct manager, according to the lawsuit, he replied that he didn’t know of any other pregnant workers at Waffle House and told her to tell upper management about it...
Milwaukee County Transit union workers holding strike vote Fox 6 Now ..Milwaukee County Transit union workers will vote Tuesday, June 16th on whether to go on strike. They’ve been working without a contract for more than two months. The local union is in the midst of contract negotiations with Milwaukee County. But if they don’t come to a deal, they could strike. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 has more than one thousand members...
Surviving the Drought in California: Farm Workers Struggle to Put Food on the Table Truthout ...Undocumented farm workers are the backbone of America’s farm industry. Already living on the margins, the California drought is hitting them the hardest. People Power Media went to the heart of California’s Central Valley, in towns like Mendota, to find how the drought is impacting workers and their families...
Miscellaneous
Border Agent Allegedly Claimed That 3-Year-Old Child Crossed Border To ‘Look For Work’ Think Progress ...Since last summer, the Obama administration has adopted an aggressive deterrence strategy to lock up women and their children in detention under a “no release” policy as a way to deter future migrants from making the trek. Some people were released, but many were denied bond. Though many women and children currently in detention have favorable “credible fear” findings, many are still locked up in the three family detention centers...
U.S. industrial output hurt by weakness in manufacturing, mining Reuters ...U.S. industrial production unexpectedly fell in May as manufacturing and mining activity remained weak, a sign that a strong dollar and spending cuts in the energy sector continued to constrain economic growth. The softness in the production side of the economy contrasts starkly with recent upbeat data on retail sales, employment, consumer and small business confidence...
Michigan School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Union Teamster.org ...School bus workers with First Student in Carleton, Mich., have voted overwhelmingly, 25-2, in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 283 in Wyandotte, Mich. The group of 35 drivers and monitors reached out to the Teamsters Union seeking a strong voice to address their workplace concerns...
Former De Blasio Staffer Wins Labor Backing in Queens Council Race Observer ...A former de Blasio administration staffer running for an open Queens City Council seat has won the first labor endorsement of the race. Rebecca Lynch, a member of Mr. de Blasio’s Community Affairs Unit until this month and a former Democratic district leader, won the backing of Teamsters Joint Council 16 today...
House needs to continue stand against fast track Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters would like to thank all lawmakers who stood with the people in that important vote. Pro-fast track lawmakers, however, are likely to pull out every procedural trick in the book to overturn it. That could mean taking another vote on Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) as early as tomorrow...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama, Boehner abandon plans for Tuesday trade vote Washington Post ...President Obama and his momentary Republican allies in Congress mulled several difficult choices Monday for rescuing trade legislation into which the president has invested a massive amount of political capital in the hope of completing a 12-nation trade deal across the Pacific Rim. Their first call was to abandon plans for a second vote Tuesday on a piece of legislation that must also pass for the entire package to advance to Obama’s desk...
Obama’s environmental allies not buying his trade pitch on climate Washington Post ...President Obama has made environmental safeguards one of the selling points of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But environmental groups aren’t buying. The influential environmental groups — a key part of the effort to rally the Democratic base against the fast-track bill for trade talks — believe that a new trade pact could set back important gains achieved over the past two decades...
US fast-track vote leaves Pacific trade pact talks in limbo Associated Press ...How slow can you go? The effort to get U.S. trade legislation through Congress, clearing the way for progress on an Asia-Pacific trade accord, is in limbo once again. The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday shot down a proposal to give President Barack Obama authority to negotiate global trade deals for congressional approval or rejection, without amendments...
U.S. trade deal’s setback causes mixed reaction in Asia Washington Post ...The failure of a package of trade-related measures Friday in the House was a blow to President Obama, but it was also a blow to his ally, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, half a world away. Abe has made reviving Japan’s stubbornly anemic economy one of his top priorities, and forging a wide-ranging trade pact with the United States, through the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Nancy Pelosi: Trade promotion authority on its last legs (opinion) USA Today ...In order to succeed in the global economy, it is necessary to move beyond stale arguments of protectionism vs. free trade. To do so, we must recognize that workers' rights, consumer and intellectual protections, and environmental safeguards must be just as enforceable as the protection of the economic interests of investors...
Honduran Workers Win Unions at 3 Plants, Get Pact at 4th Solidarity Center ...Apparel workers in Honduras formed unions at three factories in recent days with the Central General de Trabajadores Honduras (CGT) and its apparel federation FESITRATEMASH, in a huge victory for workers seeking to improve their basic livelihoods. Some 9,000 workers at the Canadian-owned Gildan apparel factories in Choloma, San Pedro Sula and Villanueva make T-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants...
In the Global Apparel Industry, Abusive and Deadly Working Conditions Are Still the Norm In These Times ...We know about extreme incidents such as the Rana Plaza collapse that capture the world’s attention, however briefly, or when workers get so fed up with the conditions that they strike long enough and loud enough to get the Western world’s attention. But the day-to-day disasters that maim or kill a single worker or the accumulation of lead in workers’ bodies—those go almost completely unreported...
Threats of Default and 'Grexit' Loom as Greece Refuses to Surrender Common Dreams ...As threats of a debt default, potential 'Greek exit,' and stock market crash loom, both sides appear to be digging in their heels after negotiations between Greece and European lenders collapsed on Sunday. Greece's leftist leader, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, slammed his creditors for their "insistence" on austerity, which he described as a "pillaging" of Greece's imperiled economy...
State & Living Wage Battles
After Cutting Taxes On The Rich, Kansas Will Raise Taxes On The Poor To Pay For It Think Progress ...Kansas lawmakers concluded the longest legislative session in state history Friday night by approving a slate of regressive tax hikes that will balance the state’s budget by targeting low-income workers and their families. More than half of the $384 million in new revenue expected from the tax hike will come from cigarette taxes and sales taxes, two policies described as “regressive” because they fall more heavily on lower-income taxpayers than on the wealthy...
Poll: Voters want to keep prevailing wage law Detroit News ...A group seeking to repeal Michigan's 50-year-old prevailing wage law might find its biggest support among Republican state lawmakers: A new poll suggests likely voters want to keep union-level wages for government construction projects. More than 59 percent of likely voters support maintaining Michigan's prevailing wage...
Senate support for Scott Walker's budget is razor thin Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker's budget hangs by a gossamer thread in the GOP-controlled state Senate, where "no" votes from just three lawmakers within his own party would be enough to derail his spending plan. Already, two conservative Republican senators have made clear they will be extremely difficult — perhaps impossible — for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) to win over without knocking moderate senators from their party out of the yes column...
Scott Walker's Wisconsin: A Laboratory for Oligarchs Truthout ...Scott Walker's attacks on unions and family paying jobs in Wisconsin helped elevate his national profile and ingratiated him with deep-pocketed political donors like the Kochs. Can he take this agenda nationwide? This weekend's New York Times Magazine has a cover story by Wisconsin native Dan Kaufman called "Scott Walker and the Fate of the Union" that digs deep into Walker's anti-worker crusade...
What’s the Matter With Indiana? Counterpunch ...Amid all that’s clearly wrong with Indiana’s current direction under right wing Republican rule, Quigley finds cause for optimism. “Despite a state political climate that proved inhospitable to labor in the right-to-work debate, private sector workers are launching union organizing campaigns across the state’s capital,” and in smaller towns as well. If We Can Win Here includes detailed case studies of membership recruitment...
Board Hears Support for Raising Food Workers’ Minimum Wage New York Times ...The mayor who faced a multitude of excited New York City workers in Manhattan on Monday morning was not Bill de Blasio. Instead, it was the mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown, who listened patiently as a contingent of fast-food restaurant employees pleaded for an increase in their minimum wage to $15 an hour, cheered on by an auditorium filled with their colleagues and sympathizers...
U.S. Labor
Amid dispute with SEIU union, county makes contract offer Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Clark County managers have made a contract offer to their largest employee union amid a dispute over interpretation of a new state law that revamps collective bargaining for government workers. The offer would end concerns over the county’s moves to end paid union leave for employees and stop all increases to wages and benefits...
Saint Louis University Hospital nurses vote against de-authorization of union St. Louis Public Radio ...Members of a nurse’s union at St. Louis University Hospital voted against de-authorizing their union late Monday, a measure that would have effectively created a “right-to-work” policy within the hospital. The National Nurses United affiliate has about 650 members at SLU Hospital; only 140 voted in favor of de-authorization...
Ford wants to lead UAW talks to address wage disparity Detroit Free Press ...Detroit Three-UAW bargaining will begin in earnest the week of July 13 and Ford wants to be first to ink an agreement that creates a more even playing field when it comes to wages in the auto industry. In the normally secretive world of UAW talks, key dates and details were released Monday about the next stages of bargaining...
Woman Alleges Waffle House Manager Asked, ‘You’re Pregnant Again?’ Then Fired Her For Pregnancy Think Progress ...Tabitha Handy says she assured her employer at Waffle House that she could continue doing her job after she found out she was pregnant in September, but then she was allegedly fired over concerns about whether she could keep doing it. Now, she’s suing them.
When she first told her direct manager, according to the lawsuit, he replied that he didn’t know of any other pregnant workers at Waffle House and told her to tell upper management about it...
Milwaukee County Transit union workers holding strike vote Fox 6 Now ..Milwaukee County Transit union workers will vote Tuesday, June 16th on whether to go on strike. They’ve been working without a contract for more than two months. The local union is in the midst of contract negotiations with Milwaukee County. But if they don’t come to a deal, they could strike. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 has more than one thousand members...
Surviving the Drought in California: Farm Workers Struggle to Put Food on the Table Truthout ...Undocumented farm workers are the backbone of America’s farm industry. Already living on the margins, the California drought is hitting them the hardest. People Power Media went to the heart of California’s Central Valley, in towns like Mendota, to find how the drought is impacting workers and their families...
Miscellaneous
Border Agent Allegedly Claimed That 3-Year-Old Child Crossed Border To ‘Look For Work’ Think Progress ...Since last summer, the Obama administration has adopted an aggressive deterrence strategy to lock up women and their children in detention under a “no release” policy as a way to deter future migrants from making the trek. Some people were released, but many were denied bond. Though many women and children currently in detention have favorable “credible fear” findings, many are still locked up in the three family detention centers...
U.S. industrial output hurt by weakness in manufacturing, mining Reuters ...U.S. industrial production unexpectedly fell in May as manufacturing and mining activity remained weak, a sign that a strong dollar and spending cuts in the energy sector continued to constrain economic growth. The softness in the production side of the economy contrasts starkly with recent upbeat data on retail sales, employment, consumer and small business confidence...
Monday, February 16, 2015
Today's Teamster News 02.16.15
Teamsters
Striking Teamsters picket CP Rail offices in Thunder Bay CBC News …Striking Canadian Pacific Railway employees braved the bitter cold in Thunder Bay Sunday to picket the CP offices on Syndicate Avenue in what is expected to be a short-lived labour action. The federal government is expected to introduce legislation on Monday to end the strike by more than 3,000 unionized CP workers…
Canadian Pacific Railway blasted for intimidating employees Spyghana …Dennis Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and President of the Teamsters Rail Conference (U.S.), blasted Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) today for its growing culture of threats and intimidation toward its employees in the U.S. and Canada...
Teamsters: State Reps. To Host Community Forum On School Bus Transportation istockanalyst …On Monday, Feb. 16, at 3:30 p.m., State Reps. Wendell Gilliard, David Mack and Seth Whipper will be joined by Charleston NAACP President Dot Scott, Members of the British Parliament, Charleston school bus drivers, parents and concerned community members at a press conference and public forum on school bus transportation. The forum will cover the ongoing serious safety, service and working condition concerns with Durham School Services, the transportation contractor for Charleston City Schools...
Trade
Trading US Democracy for Corporate Profits with TPP Counterpunch …The key point to notice about TPP, as with earlier trade deals, is that it is being negotiated in secret. The reason for this is that there are so many outrages in it which undermine US sovereignty and democratic control, and so many things in the deal that benefit multinational corporations at the expense of the American worker and the broader American public that there would be almost universal outrage if they were known…
Opinion: Progressives and Tea Party find common ground as they oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership NJ.com ...So, you think the idea of progressives and the Tea Party working together or achieving a common purpose is some woolly-headed, academic fantasy without the proverbial snowball's chance -- that it cannot happen because the gulf separating these two factions is unbridgeable? Well, think again...
War on Workers
Tax Cuts Didn’t Lead to Faster Growth Economic Policy Institute …The figure below shows average top tax rates and average productivity growth (how much output is produced in the average hour of work in the economy) for two periods: 1948-1979 and 1979-2007. The earlier period saw significantly higher average top tax rates and significantly faster productivity growth...
Striking Teamsters picket CP Rail offices in Thunder Bay CBC News …Striking Canadian Pacific Railway employees braved the bitter cold in Thunder Bay Sunday to picket the CP offices on Syndicate Avenue in what is expected to be a short-lived labour action. The federal government is expected to introduce legislation on Monday to end the strike by more than 3,000 unionized CP workers…
Canadian Pacific Railway blasted for intimidating employees Spyghana …Dennis Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and President of the Teamsters Rail Conference (U.S.), blasted Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) today for its growing culture of threats and intimidation toward its employees in the U.S. and Canada...
Teamsters: State Reps. To Host Community Forum On School Bus Transportation istockanalyst …On Monday, Feb. 16, at 3:30 p.m., State Reps. Wendell Gilliard, David Mack and Seth Whipper will be joined by Charleston NAACP President Dot Scott, Members of the British Parliament, Charleston school bus drivers, parents and concerned community members at a press conference and public forum on school bus transportation. The forum will cover the ongoing serious safety, service and working condition concerns with Durham School Services, the transportation contractor for Charleston City Schools...
Trade
Trading US Democracy for Corporate Profits with TPP Counterpunch …The key point to notice about TPP, as with earlier trade deals, is that it is being negotiated in secret. The reason for this is that there are so many outrages in it which undermine US sovereignty and democratic control, and so many things in the deal that benefit multinational corporations at the expense of the American worker and the broader American public that there would be almost universal outrage if they were known…
Opinion: Progressives and Tea Party find common ground as they oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership NJ.com ...So, you think the idea of progressives and the Tea Party working together or achieving a common purpose is some woolly-headed, academic fantasy without the proverbial snowball's chance -- that it cannot happen because the gulf separating these two factions is unbridgeable? Well, think again...
War on Workers
Tax Cuts Didn’t Lead to Faster Growth Economic Policy Institute …The figure below shows average top tax rates and average productivity growth (how much output is produced in the average hour of work in the economy) for two periods: 1948-1979 and 1979-2007. The earlier period saw significantly higher average top tax rates and significantly faster productivity growth...
Latino workers dying at higher rates in job accidents, report shows Reflejos …of the 4,405 U.S. workers killed on the job in 2013, 797 were Latinos. That equates to 3.8 of every 100,000 full-time Latino employees in the U.S. dying in workplace accidents during the year...
Miscellaneous
Feds unveil commercial drone rules The Hill …The Federal Aviation Administration is moving to allow commercial drones that weigh less than 55 pounds to be flown in the U.S. under new regulations that were released on Sunday morning...
The Richest Cities for Young People: 1980 vs. Today The Atlantic …Five of the ten richest cities for young Boomers have since seen median wages for young people fall by at least 15 percent...
Miscellaneous
Feds unveil commercial drone rules The Hill …The Federal Aviation Administration is moving to allow commercial drones that weigh less than 55 pounds to be flown in the U.S. under new regulations that were released on Sunday morning...
The Richest Cities for Young People: 1980 vs. Today The Atlantic …Five of the ten richest cities for young Boomers have since seen median wages for young people fall by at least 15 percent...
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Today's Teamster News 06.15.13
America's private prison system is a national disgrace The Guardian ... in a recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF)...the ACLU contends, the facility, which is operated by private contractors, is rife with horrific abuses...
New Report: How the U.S.-EU Trade Deal would Grant Sweeping Corporate Privileges Public Citizen ...Report after report has indicated that the massive U.S.-EU deal is on shaky ground now that the NSA spying scandal has fueled European privacy concerns and botched the hopes of U.S. telecommunications firms to use the deal to downsize data privacy protections...
Senator Warren Presses White House to Release Pacific Trade Text Bloomberg Business Week ...President Barack Obama’s administration should release documents the U.S. and 10 other Pacific-region nations are using as they negotiate a new trade agreement, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said...
Another reason to love Costco: better prices for generic prescription drugs Deseret News ...Not only does Costco pay its workers decent wages, Los Angeles Times reporter David Lazarus recently reported that Costco's drug prices consistently came in well below those of other leading pharmacies…
Google lambasted over tax avoidance in the U.K MarketWatch ...Google Inc. has aggressively avoided paying corporation tax in Britain and its reputation won’t be restored until it begins to pay what is due, a U.K. parliamentary committee said Thursday, in the latest sign that governments around the world are stepping up scrutiny of the tax affairs of multinational firms...
NSA snooping: Facebook reveals details of data requests BBC News ...Facebook received 9,000-10,000 requests for user data from US government entities in the second half of 2012...
BofA Gave Bonuses to Foreclose on Clients, Lawsuit Claims Bloomberg News ...Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the second-biggest U.S. lender, rewarded staff with cash bonuses and gift cards for meeting quotas tied to sending distressed homeowners into foreclosure, former employees said in court documents...
IT FINALLY COMES OUT: Elite Traders Are Getting Access To Data Before Everyone Else Business Insider ...Time after time ahead of major news, there seems to be someone who knows something before it happens — there seem to be trades that hit too hard and fast before the news is actually made...
Banks Slow to Clean Up the Mortgage Mess CNBC ...After multiple enforcement actions, lawsuits and multibillion-dollar settlements, state and federal regulators are making sluggish progress in their efforts to prod banks to help mortgage borrowers...
More unpaid interns file lawsuits against employers for pay Los Angeles Times ...There are tens of thousands of interns during the summer time, asked to make coffee and shuffle mail for little to no pay, all for a line to add to their resume. But the unpaid internship is under assault, at least in New York, where employment lawyers are filing lawsuit after lawsuit against media companies over unpaid internships – and winning...
MT task force will address wage gap for men and women state workers KXLH News ...On Thursday, Governor Steve Bullock signed an executive order establishing a task force to address the issue of the wage gap between men in women in Montana's work force, and they'll be starting internally first...
Connecticut attorney general taking layoff ruling to Supreme Court Middletown Press ...Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen vowed Thursday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that said former Gov. John G. Rowland's administration violated unionized state employees' constitutional rights when he laid off 2,800 of them in 2003...
School district approves raises News-Leader ...The Springfield (Missouri) school board approved four 2013-14 collective bargaining contracts during its study session on Tuesday that includes across-the-board pay hikes for employees, including workers represented by Teamsters Local 245...
Stagehands End Protest, Deal Struck with Brookhaven Amphitheater Port Jefferson Patch ...Theatrical Teamsters Local 817 and Long Island Stagehands Local 340 IATSE have reached an agreement for their members after protesting outside Brookhaven, New York's Pennysaver Amphitheater...
Peace Wapiti bus drivers to fight mandatory retirement Peace Country Sun ...Senior bus drivers with the Peace Wapiti School Division (PWSD) who are represented by Teamsters Local 362 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, are taking a stand against the division’s controversial retirement policy...
L.A. City Council and film industry again clash over green bike lanes Los Angeles Times ...The L.A. City Council and the film industry are once again on a collision course over a green-colored bike lane downtown, which has been a bone of contention with location scouts and filmmakers, who complain that bright green color makes it harder to film movies set in a different era along the street and to continue L.A.'s long tradition of playing other cities....
New Report: How the U.S.-EU Trade Deal would Grant Sweeping Corporate Privileges Public Citizen ...Report after report has indicated that the massive U.S.-EU deal is on shaky ground now that the NSA spying scandal has fueled European privacy concerns and botched the hopes of U.S. telecommunications firms to use the deal to downsize data privacy protections...
Senator Warren Presses White House to Release Pacific Trade Text Bloomberg Business Week ...President Barack Obama’s administration should release documents the U.S. and 10 other Pacific-region nations are using as they negotiate a new trade agreement, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said...
Another reason to love Costco: better prices for generic prescription drugs Deseret News ...Not only does Costco pay its workers decent wages, Los Angeles Times reporter David Lazarus recently reported that Costco's drug prices consistently came in well below those of other leading pharmacies…
Google lambasted over tax avoidance in the U.K MarketWatch ...Google Inc. has aggressively avoided paying corporation tax in Britain and its reputation won’t be restored until it begins to pay what is due, a U.K. parliamentary committee said Thursday, in the latest sign that governments around the world are stepping up scrutiny of the tax affairs of multinational firms...
NSA snooping: Facebook reveals details of data requests BBC News ...Facebook received 9,000-10,000 requests for user data from US government entities in the second half of 2012...
BofA Gave Bonuses to Foreclose on Clients, Lawsuit Claims Bloomberg News ...Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the second-biggest U.S. lender, rewarded staff with cash bonuses and gift cards for meeting quotas tied to sending distressed homeowners into foreclosure, former employees said in court documents...
IT FINALLY COMES OUT: Elite Traders Are Getting Access To Data Before Everyone Else Business Insider ...Time after time ahead of major news, there seems to be someone who knows something before it happens — there seem to be trades that hit too hard and fast before the news is actually made...
Banks Slow to Clean Up the Mortgage Mess CNBC ...After multiple enforcement actions, lawsuits and multibillion-dollar settlements, state and federal regulators are making sluggish progress in their efforts to prod banks to help mortgage borrowers...
More unpaid interns file lawsuits against employers for pay Los Angeles Times ...There are tens of thousands of interns during the summer time, asked to make coffee and shuffle mail for little to no pay, all for a line to add to their resume. But the unpaid internship is under assault, at least in New York, where employment lawyers are filing lawsuit after lawsuit against media companies over unpaid internships – and winning...
MT task force will address wage gap for men and women state workers KXLH News ...On Thursday, Governor Steve Bullock signed an executive order establishing a task force to address the issue of the wage gap between men in women in Montana's work force, and they'll be starting internally first...
Connecticut attorney general taking layoff ruling to Supreme Court Middletown Press ...Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen vowed Thursday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that said former Gov. John G. Rowland's administration violated unionized state employees' constitutional rights when he laid off 2,800 of them in 2003...
School district approves raises News-Leader ...The Springfield (Missouri) school board approved four 2013-14 collective bargaining contracts during its study session on Tuesday that includes across-the-board pay hikes for employees, including workers represented by Teamsters Local 245...
Stagehands End Protest, Deal Struck with Brookhaven Amphitheater Port Jefferson Patch ...Theatrical Teamsters Local 817 and Long Island Stagehands Local 340 IATSE have reached an agreement for their members after protesting outside Brookhaven, New York's Pennysaver Amphitheater...
Peace Wapiti bus drivers to fight mandatory retirement Peace Country Sun ...Senior bus drivers with the Peace Wapiti School Division (PWSD) who are represented by Teamsters Local 362 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, are taking a stand against the division’s controversial retirement policy...
L.A. City Council and film industry again clash over green bike lanes Los Angeles Times ...The L.A. City Council and the film industry are once again on a collision course over a green-colored bike lane downtown, which has been a bone of contention with location scouts and filmmakers, who complain that bright green color makes it harder to film movies set in a different era along the street and to continue L.A.'s long tradition of playing other cities....
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Teamsters tell European union leaders about National Express's abuses
 |
| Sheryl Drake, a Durham school bus driver for Dorchester District 2 |
Drake is speaking tonight at a North Charleston, S.C., forum about National Express, Durham's U.K. parent company. Attending are local political and labor leaders and trade unionists from Unite the Union in the UK, the International Transport Workers Federation and German unions ver.di and EVG.
Durham contracts with three South Carolina school districts and is the second-largest school bus company in the United States. The Teamsters represent 4,700 National Express workers in North America. The company reports that 94 percent of the U.K. work force is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, compared to only 32 percent of its North American work force.
Here's what Sister Drake told the panel:
The seats on many of the buses are torn and ratty and children shouldn't be forced to sit on them. Durham used to repair the seats but they quit doing this because they didn't want to pay for it. The buses also leak badly when it rains and the seats get wet and the kids are forced to just endure it. These kids shouldn't be put into this position of having to ride a bus in this condition.
At our March safety meeting last month we took a bus from Hilton Head to the meeting because the tires were bald and we wanted to show Sara Johnson, Durham's safety manager in Beaufort. When we showed Ms. Johnson the tires she told us that the tires were fine and we should continue to drive the bus. I have been a trainer for many years and would tell any trainee that these tires shouldn't be driven on...
Buses are never repaired when safety issues are reported. When mechanics are asked about the reports that Zonar (the system were drivers report repair issues) should be giving them they say they never received them. We even went back to writing paper reports on repairs because the mechanics weren't getting the information from Zonar. Even with the written reports repairs aren't done in a timely manner.
...I was shorted 5 hours one week and went to talk to Sara Johnson who also does the payroll. She told me that Gary Bradley, area manager, shortened the hours. When I asked Gary Bradley about it directly he said he knew nothing about this issue. We double up on routes regularly with no extra pay even though Durham is getting aid for both routes.U.S. panel members included South Carolina state Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D-111), former National Labor Relations Board general counsel Fred Feinstein, South Carolina AFL-CIO president Ken Riley, and senior policy analyst with America Rights at Work Michael Wasser, who served as the delegation chair.
Drivers also can't call in sick because management belittles them and doesn't understand why they can't come to work. I had the flu and knew I shouldn't drive. When I called in and they couldn't understand why I couldn't work. I came in and worked part of the morning but was so sick I called and told dispatch that I couldn't safely do my job. We had a driver that was at her doctor's office and called in from there because she was so sick and wanted her doctor to talk to the management. She was berated over the phone for not coming into work. The doctor was amazed that her boss was acting like this when she was doing the right thing by not being responsible for driving kids home when she was too ill to do so.
Sebrina Isom, a former Durham driver and member of Teamsters Local 509 in West Columbia, spoke to the panel about the importance of holding the company accountable for its actions in the U.S.:
These drivers are speaking out to raise awareness of what we deal with every day on the job. We transport children, we work hard and it’s not too much to ask that National Express take more responsibility and treat us with fairness and respect.The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued 57 formal complaints since 2001 against Durham. These complaints resulted in settlements. The complaints came as a result of charges by Durham workers that include disparate treatment; discipline and discharge of employees engaged in union organizing; surveillance of workers engaged in union activity; and threatening workers with reduction in benefits, working conditions and the loss of employment for supporting unionization.
The delegation will travel to Santa Rosa, Fla., to hear from additional Durham workers on Thursday.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Today's Teamster News 02.26.13
Eric Cantor will propose Federal Law that Ends Overtime Pay for hourly workers Democratic Underground ...Eric Cantor wants to end the Federal law that mandates certain workers get paid overtime for the extra hours they labor. ..
Italian Voters Stage 'Rebellion', Markets Plunge Business Insider ...The markets were hoping for the liberal leader Pier Luigi Bersani to win easily, allowing him to form a coalition government with technocrat leader Mario Monti. This would have paved the way for more unpopular austerity and reforms...But the voters had a different idea...
Nary a positive word heard on liquor privatization during PA budget talks PhillyBurbs.com ...The Senate Appropriations Committee met with Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board officials to talk about its 2013-14 line item, but they only talked about keeping the PLCB around...The sight of some two dozen members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 dressed in bright yellow T-shirts may have kept Republicans from publicly pushing Corbett’s plan...
How Much Support Does "Smart Justice" Bill Really Have? WFSU ...A Republican-backed proposal to reduce the number of former inmates going back into Florida’s prisons is now taking shape in the form of a bill. But, some unions and even some Republicans may not be on board with the “Smart Justice” idea...
Snyder defends right-to-work, urges GOP to stay unified in surprise appearance Detroit Free Press ...In 2014, all state and legislative offices will be on the ballot. Snyder hasn’t publicly declared his intention to seek a second term as governor, but political observers say it’s all but certain he will, especially given public remarks like his 7-minute address before the GOP faithful on Saturday...
Unions shouldn't have to protect 'squatters' who don't want to pay for services (Letter) Michigan Live ...A person shouldn’t have to join a union to be employed, but they also shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy benefits they’re not willing to pay for them, from a union they don’t believe in...
Republicans in Missouri Legislature are out to destroy unions (Letter) St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...the Republicans are not interested in jobs or workers rights. Their initiative is a scam. They are interested in destroying unions in order to cut off funding to the Democratic Party so Republicans can gain complete control with little opposition...
Montana Bill Would Give Corporations The Right To Vote ThinkProgress ...Provision for vote by corporate property owner.... if a firm, partnership, company, or corporation owns real property within the municipality, the president, vice president, secretary, or other designee of the entity is eligible to vote in a municipal election...
Christie Fails to Pull Off New Jersey 'Comeback' Newsmax ...New Jersey, the 11th most populous state, is still in need of a comeback. It has the fourth highest unemployment rate of any U.S. state, at 9.6 percent, nearly 2 percentage points above the national rate. It was one of three states to report late in 2012 that revenues were lagging expectations...
Scott Walker’s job-free austerity The Cap Times ...When Walker assumed the governorship two years ago, Wisconsin was holding its own economically. Job growth was competitive with neighboring states and the nation. No more. Since Walker began implementing his austerity agenda, growth has stalled...
American, US Airways unions still have lots to settle Fort Worth Star-Telegram ..."American Airlines mechanics came to us and said, 'We want new representation,' and they have been working very hard since June of last year to make that a reality," Teamsters spokesman Chris Moore said...
Drivers and Monitors Unite for Better Safety, Working Conditions IBT ...School bus drivers and monitors with Durham School Services in Jay, Pace, Navarre and Milton, Fla., have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala. The 204 workers are seeking improved safety and working conditions...
Italian Voters Stage 'Rebellion', Markets Plunge Business Insider ...The markets were hoping for the liberal leader Pier Luigi Bersani to win easily, allowing him to form a coalition government with technocrat leader Mario Monti. This would have paved the way for more unpopular austerity and reforms...But the voters had a different idea...
Nary a positive word heard on liquor privatization during PA budget talks PhillyBurbs.com ...The Senate Appropriations Committee met with Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board officials to talk about its 2013-14 line item, but they only talked about keeping the PLCB around...The sight of some two dozen members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 dressed in bright yellow T-shirts may have kept Republicans from publicly pushing Corbett’s plan...
How Much Support Does "Smart Justice" Bill Really Have? WFSU ...A Republican-backed proposal to reduce the number of former inmates going back into Florida’s prisons is now taking shape in the form of a bill. But, some unions and even some Republicans may not be on board with the “Smart Justice” idea...
Snyder defends right-to-work, urges GOP to stay unified in surprise appearance Detroit Free Press ...In 2014, all state and legislative offices will be on the ballot. Snyder hasn’t publicly declared his intention to seek a second term as governor, but political observers say it’s all but certain he will, especially given public remarks like his 7-minute address before the GOP faithful on Saturday...
Unions shouldn't have to protect 'squatters' who don't want to pay for services (Letter) Michigan Live ...A person shouldn’t have to join a union to be employed, but they also shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy benefits they’re not willing to pay for them, from a union they don’t believe in...
Republicans in Missouri Legislature are out to destroy unions (Letter) St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...the Republicans are not interested in jobs or workers rights. Their initiative is a scam. They are interested in destroying unions in order to cut off funding to the Democratic Party so Republicans can gain complete control with little opposition...
Montana Bill Would Give Corporations The Right To Vote ThinkProgress ...Provision for vote by corporate property owner.... if a firm, partnership, company, or corporation owns real property within the municipality, the president, vice president, secretary, or other designee of the entity is eligible to vote in a municipal election...
Christie Fails to Pull Off New Jersey 'Comeback' Newsmax ...New Jersey, the 11th most populous state, is still in need of a comeback. It has the fourth highest unemployment rate of any U.S. state, at 9.6 percent, nearly 2 percentage points above the national rate. It was one of three states to report late in 2012 that revenues were lagging expectations...
Scott Walker’s job-free austerity The Cap Times ...When Walker assumed the governorship two years ago, Wisconsin was holding its own economically. Job growth was competitive with neighboring states and the nation. No more. Since Walker began implementing his austerity agenda, growth has stalled...
American, US Airways unions still have lots to settle Fort Worth Star-Telegram ..."American Airlines mechanics came to us and said, 'We want new representation,' and they have been working very hard since June of last year to make that a reality," Teamsters spokesman Chris Moore said...
Drivers and Monitors Unite for Better Safety, Working Conditions IBT ...School bus drivers and monitors with Durham School Services in Jay, Pace, Navarre and Milton, Fla., have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala. The 204 workers are seeking improved safety and working conditions...
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Today's Teamster News 02.02.13
As U.S. Growth Lags, Some Press the Fed to Do Still More New York Times ...In the five months since the Federal Reserve started a campaign to increase growth and reduce unemployment, the economy has slowed and unemployment has increased...
BP tried to manipulate gas market, alleges trader The Guardian ...BP faces new embarrassment in America with a court case brought by one of its former traders, who claims the company was trying to manipulate the natural gas liquids market...
Jobs report: why the recovery has stalled Christian Science Monitor ...employers added only 157,000 jobs in January...More jobs and faster growth should be the most important objectives now. Yet we’re moving in the opposite direction — following Europe’s sorry example of failed austerity economics...
Groundhog Day in the labor market Economic Policy Institute ...The labor market started out 2013 in a lackluster fashion, adding 157,000 jobs...It’s like we’re in Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day” – each month we wake up to the same report...
Foreclosures decline nationally in December Los Angeles Times ...Foreclosures declined nationally in December...The sizable 19.5% decline in foreclosure inventory, accompanied by a similar drop in completed foreclosures, should help lay a path for a faster recovery in 2013...
Florida Governor Pushes Prison Work Release Privatization Plan Forbes ...Though Florida Governor Rick Scott has recently said he won’t privatize state prison operations...he recently recommended that 14 of the state’s publicly operated work release centers should also go to private contractors...
Eight plead guilty in Michigan right-to-work protest Associated Press ...Eight people have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors after being arrested inside the state Capitol building during a December protest against passage of Michigan’s right-to-work law...
Gov. Scott Walker transfers $40,000 to legal defense fund Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker transferred $40,000 in campaign funds late last year to his legal fund set up to pay two high-priced criminal defense lawyers to represent him in the lengthy John Doe investigation...
Justice Department sues to block Anheuser-Busch InBev merger with Grupo Modelo Washington Post ...The Justice Department moved Thursday to block beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev from merging with Mexico’s largest maker, Grupo Modelo, arguing the deal would threaten competition and raise prices for consumers. The $20.1 billion deal would have...added Grupo Modelo’s fast-growing Corona brand to AB InBev’s sizable portfolio...
Wal-Mart’s Union Complaint Shelved by U.S. Labor Board Bloomberg ...Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) won a 60-day hiatus from picketing at its U.S. stores in a settlement between a labor union and the world’s largest retailer...
Labor Board Refuses to Halt Strike by School Bus Drivers New York Times ...New York’s City’s two-week-old school bus strike will continue. On Friday, officials of the National Labor Relations Board...(rejected) a complaint brought by a coalition of 20 private bus companies, which argued that the strike was illegal...
Teamsters’ complaint accuses city of retaliation, harassment Quad-City Times ...The Teamsters union has filed a complaint against the city of Davenport, claiming its union steward in the Public Works Department was fired in retaliation for his union activities...It also claims the city and Public Works director Mike Clarke have harassed and retaliated against city employees for their union activity by refusing to accept grievances...
BP tried to manipulate gas market, alleges trader The Guardian ...BP faces new embarrassment in America with a court case brought by one of its former traders, who claims the company was trying to manipulate the natural gas liquids market...
Jobs report: why the recovery has stalled Christian Science Monitor ...employers added only 157,000 jobs in January...More jobs and faster growth should be the most important objectives now. Yet we’re moving in the opposite direction — following Europe’s sorry example of failed austerity economics...
Groundhog Day in the labor market Economic Policy Institute ...The labor market started out 2013 in a lackluster fashion, adding 157,000 jobs...It’s like we’re in Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day” – each month we wake up to the same report...
Foreclosures decline nationally in December Los Angeles Times ...Foreclosures declined nationally in December...The sizable 19.5% decline in foreclosure inventory, accompanied by a similar drop in completed foreclosures, should help lay a path for a faster recovery in 2013...
Florida Governor Pushes Prison Work Release Privatization Plan Forbes ...Though Florida Governor Rick Scott has recently said he won’t privatize state prison operations...he recently recommended that 14 of the state’s publicly operated work release centers should also go to private contractors...
Eight plead guilty in Michigan right-to-work protest Associated Press ...Eight people have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors after being arrested inside the state Capitol building during a December protest against passage of Michigan’s right-to-work law...
Gov. Scott Walker transfers $40,000 to legal defense fund Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker transferred $40,000 in campaign funds late last year to his legal fund set up to pay two high-priced criminal defense lawyers to represent him in the lengthy John Doe investigation...
Justice Department sues to block Anheuser-Busch InBev merger with Grupo Modelo Washington Post ...The Justice Department moved Thursday to block beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev from merging with Mexico’s largest maker, Grupo Modelo, arguing the deal would threaten competition and raise prices for consumers. The $20.1 billion deal would have...added Grupo Modelo’s fast-growing Corona brand to AB InBev’s sizable portfolio...
Wal-Mart’s Union Complaint Shelved by U.S. Labor Board Bloomberg ...Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) won a 60-day hiatus from picketing at its U.S. stores in a settlement between a labor union and the world’s largest retailer...
Labor Board Refuses to Halt Strike by School Bus Drivers New York Times ...New York’s City’s two-week-old school bus strike will continue. On Friday, officials of the National Labor Relations Board...(rejected) a complaint brought by a coalition of 20 private bus companies, which argued that the strike was illegal...
Teamsters’ complaint accuses city of retaliation, harassment Quad-City Times ...The Teamsters union has filed a complaint against the city of Davenport, claiming its union steward in the Public Works Department was fired in retaliation for his union activities...It also claims the city and Public Works director Mike Clarke have harassed and retaliated against city employees for their union activity by refusing to accept grievances...
Friday, February 1, 2013
Today's Teamster News 02.01.13
Unemployment claims rise as fragile US jobs market takes hit The Guardian ...Initial jobless claims increased by 38,000...the largest since early November, when claims spiked in the wake of Hurricane Sandy...
Greek doctors, public transport workers on strike Associated Press ...Greek doctors, port workers and public transport staff in the country's capital walked off the job Thursday in strikes against deeply unpopular austerity measures that have seen incomes slashed as the country struggles to emerge from a deep financial crisis...
Student-Loan Delinquency Skyrocketing, Reportedly Hitting 'Danger Zone' Alternet ...the overall delinquency rate is now more than 15 percent...
Senate passes debt ceiling, no-budget no-pay bill Politico ...the Senate agreed to suspend the nation’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling until May 19, postponing the specter of default that threatened the nation as early as February...
UPS reports record fourth quarter 2012 earnings performance Logistics Management ...UPS said that while quarterly performance was paced by its U.S. Domestic segment, it estimated that EPS was reduced by about five cents due to Hurricane Sandy...
Democratic lawmakers challenge Burlison on 'Paycheck Protection' Springfield News-Leader ...Lawmakers during a contentious hearing this morning attempted to goad Rep. Eric Burlison into saying his so-called paycheck protection bill is meant to harm unions...
Scott’s Budget: Education, health care and prisons Orlando Sentinel ...After a two-year prison privatization fight, Scott has backed down from the idea of privatizing more than two dozen South Florida correctional facilities. He does, however, recommend privatizing 14 publicly operated work release centers...
Ohio treasurer says he supports right-to-work law Associated Press ...A group called Ohioans for Workplace Freedom has been circulating petitions for a ballot measure that would keep workers covered by labor contracts from having to join a union or pay dues...
Unions, ACLU sue to block right-to-work law Associated Press ...Labor unions and the ACLU of Michigan say the state's right-to-work law should be struck down because people were locked out of the Capitol when the bills were initially passed. An amended lawsuit filed Thursday asks an Ingham County judge to invalidate the law...
ALEC-Inspired "Right to Work" Bill Back Again in Pennsylvania Center for Media and Democracy ...Will the Keystone State follow Michigan and attempt to bust the state's unions with help from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its allies?...
Chris Christie Vetoes Help For Homeowners In State Plagued By Foreclosures Think Progress ...New Jersey is facing a twin crisis of foreclosures and lack of affordable housing, but Gov. Chris Christie (R) recently vetoed two bills that would have brightened the outlook for New Jersey residents struggling to afford homes...
Corbett proposes selling liquor stores to raise education funds Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Gov. Tom Corbett announced plans today to privatize alcohol sales in the state -- allowing supermarkets and other outlets to sell beer and wine -- which he said would generate $1 billion to fund public education...
Wal-Mart Warehouse Cheated Its Workers Out of $1.1 Million In These Times ...the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement issued a citation to Quetico for cheating 865 workers of $1.1 million over a period of three years by violating state laws governing overtime pay and lunch breaks...
Miranda Statement on President Obama's Immigration Reform Proposal IBT ...The President's plan would bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, crack down on companies that hire undocumented workers, overhaul the legal immigration system and strengthen our borders...
School Bus Drivers Return to Bargaining Table Monday North Charleston Patch ...A strike seems like less of a possibility as negotiations wrap up Thursday...
Republic Services Teamsters End Strike Over Company's Unfair Labor Practices Local 984 ...This short strike was a wake-up call to Republic that it must stop breaking the law and start treating its workers and our communities fairly....
Teamsters Warn Nuveen Clients: Don't Get Left Holding the Bag IBT ...Nuveen Investments is asking to refinance nearly $2.6 billion of its massive debt with bond investors, marking the third time in just over three years that the firm seeks relief..."We remain concerned that Nuveen is trapped in a debt service cycle that the company cannot escape," said Ken Hall, General Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters...
Teamsters Canada MOW division members ratify Canadian Pacific contract Progressive Railroading ...Teamsters Canada Rail Conference-Maintenance of Way Division members recently ratified a five-year agreement with Canadian Pacific...The contract calls for 3 percent wage increases in each of the next five years...
Greek doctors, public transport workers on strike Associated Press ...Greek doctors, port workers and public transport staff in the country's capital walked off the job Thursday in strikes against deeply unpopular austerity measures that have seen incomes slashed as the country struggles to emerge from a deep financial crisis...
Student-Loan Delinquency Skyrocketing, Reportedly Hitting 'Danger Zone' Alternet ...the overall delinquency rate is now more than 15 percent...
Senate passes debt ceiling, no-budget no-pay bill Politico ...the Senate agreed to suspend the nation’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling until May 19, postponing the specter of default that threatened the nation as early as February...
UPS reports record fourth quarter 2012 earnings performance Logistics Management ...UPS said that while quarterly performance was paced by its U.S. Domestic segment, it estimated that EPS was reduced by about five cents due to Hurricane Sandy...
Democratic lawmakers challenge Burlison on 'Paycheck Protection' Springfield News-Leader ...Lawmakers during a contentious hearing this morning attempted to goad Rep. Eric Burlison into saying his so-called paycheck protection bill is meant to harm unions...
Scott’s Budget: Education, health care and prisons Orlando Sentinel ...After a two-year prison privatization fight, Scott has backed down from the idea of privatizing more than two dozen South Florida correctional facilities. He does, however, recommend privatizing 14 publicly operated work release centers...
Ohio treasurer says he supports right-to-work law Associated Press ...A group called Ohioans for Workplace Freedom has been circulating petitions for a ballot measure that would keep workers covered by labor contracts from having to join a union or pay dues...
Unions, ACLU sue to block right-to-work law Associated Press ...Labor unions and the ACLU of Michigan say the state's right-to-work law should be struck down because people were locked out of the Capitol when the bills were initially passed. An amended lawsuit filed Thursday asks an Ingham County judge to invalidate the law...
ALEC-Inspired "Right to Work" Bill Back Again in Pennsylvania Center for Media and Democracy ...Will the Keystone State follow Michigan and attempt to bust the state's unions with help from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its allies?...
Chris Christie Vetoes Help For Homeowners In State Plagued By Foreclosures Think Progress ...New Jersey is facing a twin crisis of foreclosures and lack of affordable housing, but Gov. Chris Christie (R) recently vetoed two bills that would have brightened the outlook for New Jersey residents struggling to afford homes...
Corbett proposes selling liquor stores to raise education funds Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Gov. Tom Corbett announced plans today to privatize alcohol sales in the state -- allowing supermarkets and other outlets to sell beer and wine -- which he said would generate $1 billion to fund public education...
Wal-Mart Warehouse Cheated Its Workers Out of $1.1 Million In These Times ...the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement issued a citation to Quetico for cheating 865 workers of $1.1 million over a period of three years by violating state laws governing overtime pay and lunch breaks...
Miranda Statement on President Obama's Immigration Reform Proposal IBT ...The President's plan would bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, crack down on companies that hire undocumented workers, overhaul the legal immigration system and strengthen our borders...
School Bus Drivers Return to Bargaining Table Monday North Charleston Patch ...A strike seems like less of a possibility as negotiations wrap up Thursday...
Republic Services Teamsters End Strike Over Company's Unfair Labor Practices Local 984 ...This short strike was a wake-up call to Republic that it must stop breaking the law and start treating its workers and our communities fairly....
Teamsters Warn Nuveen Clients: Don't Get Left Holding the Bag IBT ...Nuveen Investments is asking to refinance nearly $2.6 billion of its massive debt with bond investors, marking the third time in just over three years that the firm seeks relief..."We remain concerned that Nuveen is trapped in a debt service cycle that the company cannot escape," said Ken Hall, General Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters...
Teamsters Canada MOW division members ratify Canadian Pacific contract Progressive Railroading ...Teamsters Canada Rail Conference-Maintenance of Way Division members recently ratified a five-year agreement with Canadian Pacific...The contract calls for 3 percent wage increases in each of the next five years...
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