Today's Teamster News 12.08.15

TEAMSTERS
More Facebook Drivers Join Teamsters, Ratify Strong Agreement  Teamster.org  ...Shuttle drivers who transport Facebook employees to and from work have joined Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., and ratified a strong agreement providing for significant wages, benefit improvements and gains mirroring or exceeding the Facebook/Loop Transportation contract already in place. These drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., will supplement the drivers who work for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation...
More Facebook shuttle drivers join Teamsters, get new contract  USA Today  ...The seven drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., a corporate transportation provider based in Burlingame, Calif., shuttle Facebook employees to and from work. They will supplement the 90 or so drivers working for Loop Transportation, which has a contract with Facebook. Back in February, those drivers approved a contract negotiated between Loop and Teamsters Local 853 of San Leandro, Calif...
It's Time to Take a Stand for Workers on TPP  Huffington Post  ...We serve as representatives of American organized workers on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN) and together have stated that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a bum deal we cannot support. By registering our dissent to the ACTPN report that endorses the agreement, the Teamsters, the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers are letting Congress and the public know this deal fails everyday Americans...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Industry Discord Threatens Quick Approval Of TPP Trade Agreement   IBTimes  ...Six years of negotiations on a massive free-trade agreement among Asia-Pacific nations have produced an accord that’s generating lukewarm support from corporate America. Skepticism from industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals and financial services is now dimming the prospects for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office...
WTO Orders Sanctions Unless US Cuts Consumer Labels, Disproving Obama TPP Claims  Huffington Post  ...Yesterday's World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the country-of-origin meat labels (COOL) that Americans rely on to make informed choices about their food provides a glaring example of how trade agreements can undermine U.S. public interest policies. The ruling is a nightmare for the Obama administration's uphill battle to build support for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is Part of Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”  Global Research  ...The TPPA aims to enforce a common regulatory framework structured around the norms of American trade policies that govern rules for tariffs and trade disputes, patents and intellectual property, foreign investment, and other areas. Despite a level of secrecy that barred even elected public representatives of participating countries from access to the deal’s draft, advisors from major multinational corporations played a consistent, key role in forming the deal’s proposed measures...
Scottish Cabinet to Be Handed Petition to Block TTIP Trade Deal With US  Sputnik News ...A petition calling on the SNP-controlled Scottish government to oppose a controversial EU-US trade deal is due to go before the Cabinet on Tuesday, according to the anti-TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) grassroots movement. The TTIP trade deal has faced sharp criticism from activists and policymakers...
There is no EU solution to climate change as long as TTIP exists  (opinion) Independent  ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) now being negotiated between the EU and the USA exemplifies the contradiction between Europe’s rhetoric on free trade and climate change. The European Commission has admitted that TTIP represents a danger to biodiversity, natural resources and the environment...
IBEW and Ontario Northland reach deal  Canadian Press  ... A five-year agreement has been reached between the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Ontario Northland president Corina Moore says the company is pleased that an agreement has been reached with the union, which "has shown tremendous leadership and commitment to the company"...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
3 minimum wages in Oregon? Lawmaker's proposal would do just that  Oregon Live  ...Hoping to avoid a ballot fight in 2016, a Democratic state senator is crafting a proposal for three minimum wages in Oregon. A draft bill by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, would divide the state into three regions — Portland, the Willamette Valley and everywhere else — with different minimums for each. The Portland metro area, including Washington and Clackamas counties, would have the highest...
Lincolnshire considers going 'right to work' in village limits  Chicago Tribune  ...The Lincolnshire Village Board might soon give unionized employees who work at private companies inside village boundaries the choice of whether or not to pay union dues. And a variety of interests from outside their boundaries might gather in Village Hall, either to support or protest the move...
Right-to-Work vote could cause lingering tension in Missouri Senate in 2016  Missourinet  ...The 2016 legislative session could be tense at times in the Senate from the aftermath of Republicans forcing a vote on a right to work bill. The proposal would have prevented workers from having to pay union dues as a requirement for employment.  Democrat Leader Joe Keaveny said some Democrats are still upset with Republicans. "I’ve got some that are still pretty energized and I’ve got some that would like to move on. I would like to see us work our way through this,” said Keaveny...
Civil Rights Commission Committee To Hold Hearing On Kansas Voter ID Law  KCUR  ...The Kansas voter ID law will be the subject of  a U.S. Civil Rights Commission committee hearing next month. The Kansas voter ID law is one of most restrictive in the country. Pushed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, it demands voters not only have photo ID but they prove they are American citizens...
Koch-Funded Special Interest Groups and Utilities Bankrolling ALEC Meeting  Truthout  ...Koch-funded groups and utilities are bankrolling ALEC's closed-door winter meeting and parties for state legislators that are underway in Scottsdale, Arizona, at a luxury resort and spa. The three-day gathering is bringing together lobbyists and legislators to plan their 2016 bill agenda for the upcoming legislative session....

U.S. LABOR
UAW workers picketing outside Nexteer Automotive as strike begins  MLive  ...Workers represented by the UAW at Nexteer Automotive walked off their jobs at midnight Tuesday, Dec. 8, after the union failed to reach a new contract agreement with the company. Some of those workers appeared minutes later outside the gates of the sprawling manufacturing complex...
Unions For Workers At Detroit Casinos Reach Tentative Deal  CBS  ...Unions representing workers at Detroit’s three casinos have reached a tentative contract agreement that would cover about 7,000 workers. The Detroit Free Press reports the Detroit Casino Council, a consortium of four unions, reached the deal Sunday with Greektown Casino, MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity Casino...
Trump Las Vegas Workers Vote For UNITE HERE Union  NH Labor News  ...After two days of voting in a National Labor Relations Board election, a majority of workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas have voted “YES” to be represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 of UNITE HERE. Over 500 employees of the hotel are in the union’s bargaining units and were eligible to vote. Trump Las Vegas workers voted in the NLRB election on December 4 and 5 at their hotel...
UFCW Local 7 Grocery Workers Overwhelmingly Approve New Contracts  UFCW  ...Following three months of intense and challenging negotiations, members of UFCW Local 7 who work at King Soopers, Safeway and Albertsons stores in Denver, Colo., voted overwhelmingly to approve their new collective bargaining agreements. The new 40 month contracts are some of the best in the country...
Teacher contract dispute deepens, tests state law before union strike vote  Chicago Tribune  ...The school board has rejected the Chicago Teachers Union's demand to move contract talks to a final stage, setting up a new fight as teachers prepare to vote later this week on whether to authorize their leaders to call a strike. The union filed an unfair labor practice on Monday with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, demanding talks proceed to a fact-finding phase...
Day-Care Costs Can Drive a Family Into Poverty Before a Child Reaches Kindergarten  The Nation  ...The cost of daycare can drive a family into poverty before a child reaches kindergarten, but it’s also likely to impoverish her teacher first. While preschool programs are expanding nationwide, somehow, they cost parents everything while paying teachers nothing simultaneously. And childcare providers are so underfunded overall that the system leaves both teachers and families impoverished...
New report finds Americans lack economic mobility, opportunity  PBS  ...A report on poverty published on Thursday found a striking lack of economic mobility in America, that 43 percent of Americans born into families in the bottom fifth of the economic ladder are stuck there as adults, while 40 percent born in the top fifth stay there. The data was part of Opportunity, Responsibility and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Railroads Beat Back New Safety Rules After Derailments  ABC  ...A pair of train derailments in 2012 that killed two people in Maryland and triggered a fiery explosion in Ohio exposed a little-known and unsettling truth about railroads in the U.S. and Canada: No rules govern when rail becomes too worn down to be used for hauling hazardous chemicals, thousands of tons of freight or myriad other products on almost 170,000 miles of track...
Climate Inaction Risks Warming Far Beyond 2°C Threshold: Exxon (Yes, Exxon)  Common Dreams  ..Blink and you'll miss it, but one line in a recent Washington Post interview on climate change with experts from fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil offhandedly suggests a nightmarish, desperate future if global leaders don't act fast—one that centers around a possible average temperature rise of up to 7 or more degrees Celsius. "With no government action, Exxon experts told us during a visit to The Post last week, average temperatures are likely to rise by a catastrophic 5 degrees Celsius...
Trump New Low: Ban All Muslim Immigration to U.S.  Daily Beast  ...After weeks of ramping up rhetoric against worshippers of Islam, the Republican presidential frontrunner says they have a ‘great hatred towards Americans.’ Donald Trump said Monday as president he would halt all Muslim immigration to the United States. His xenophobic rhetoric has intensified in the last week...
'No human being is illegal': linguists argue against mislabeling of immigrants  The Guardian  ...Santa Ana is among many linguists who argue that the phrase “illegal immigrants” is neither “accurate nor neutral”. Other law-breakers are not referred to as illegal, making immigrants an outlier in the naming system, he said...
Trump and the “Low-Skilled” Labor Myth  (opinion) New Republic  ...In an otherwise sensible column about the limitations and possible consequences of dubbing Donald Trump a fascist, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat suggests that one of “the legitimate reasons” Trump’s campaign has endured so long is that conservative voters share a “reasonable skepticism about the bipartisan consensus favoring ever more mass low-skilled immigration”...
Chicago on the Brink After Release of New Police Killing Video  Common Dreams  ...Outraged citizens of Chicago say they are taking to the streets Monday night after the Cook County State's Attorney on Monday announced there will be no charges filed against the police officer who fatally shot Ronald Johnson III, a black man, last year—a decision that was prompted by what Johnson's family attorney described as "a whitewash, a cover-up"...  

Today's Teamster News 11.24.15

TEAMSTERS
Shuttle Bus Drivers For Apple, Ebay, Yahoo, Silicon Valley Giants Approve Labor Contract, Winning Pay Raises And Benefits  IBTimes  ...Shuttle bus drivers for some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley have scored a boost in working standards. Nearly 100 workers at Compass Transportation, a firm that provides bus service for companies like Apple, eBay and Yahoo, approved a labor agreement Sunday that includes significant pay raises and new benefits. It comes months after the drivers voted to join the Teamsters union...
Silicon Valley’s Bus Drivers Are Fighting Their Way Into The Region’s Uneven Economic Boom Think Progress  ...Private bus routes that inspired rowdy protests around Silicon Valley in recent years will now deliver some shared prosperity in that booming but divided region. Drivers on the routes are seeing their wages and benefits increase dramatically thanks to unionization and contract negotiations. Drivers joined the Teamsters as protests and media scrutiny put pressure on tech firms and bus vendors alike over the past few years...
Coca-Cola Offers Insulting Economics Package, Ignores Vast Majority of Teamster Proposals  Local 727  ...With only one more day of contract negotiations on the calendar, management for Coca-Cola returned to the bargaining table with Local 727 on Monday admitting they “didn’t know where to begin.” Cola-Cola management offered no explanation for what they’ve been doing with their time throughout the previous eight bargaining sessions. Instead, when negotiations came to a close on Nov. 23, the company ignored nearly all of the union’s outstanding proposals...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
New police raids, more arrests in attacks on Korean trade union rights  IUF.org  ...The increasingly authoritarian government of Korean President Park Geun-hye is stepping up its attacks on trade unions and their rights. Two-hundred police raided the office of the KCTU Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union (KPTU) on November 6, seizing documents of the union's Cargo Truckers Solidarity Division (KPTU-TruckSol), whose members transporting products for the food company Pulmone are fighting for union recognition and safe working conditions...
Indonesian workers strike against new pay regulations  Bangkok Post  ...Thousands of Indonesian workers rallied in several cities on Tuesday to demand the government repeal a new rule that they say limits pay increases. Labour unions say the rule only allows a maximum 10% increase per year in monthly salaries and puts them in a weak position in negotiations with employers...
Obama Talks TPP Abroad While Concerns Persist for Voters At Home, New Polling Shows  American Manufacturing  ...President Obama is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this week where 19 world leaders gather annually to discuss growth and trade. The hot topic at this year’s meeting: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The president will be selling its benefits to his counterparts, but Americans back home are far from convinced...
China and U.S. Say They’ve Made Strides in Trade Talks  New York Times  ...In their first top-level trade talks since President Obama hosted China’s leader in September, the United States and China said on Monday that they had made progress on sticking points, including preventing the theft of trade secrets and opening the Chinese market more broadly to American multinationals...
TPP allows Internet censorship to favour big corporations, say Pakatan MPs   Malaysian Insider ...The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will protect the interests of big corporations more than the rights of Internet users, opening the door to wider censorship, Pakatan Harapan lawmakers said today. Internet service providers (ISP) would be given the role of "internet police" in the new trade pact when it comes to copyrighted content...
TPP: Massive giveaway to corporate interests  (opinion) The Hill  ...What does it take to bring Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump together? One terrible trade deal - the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The reasoning behind this diverse opposition is simple – the TPP is a massive giveaway to corporate special interests that will give hardworking Americans two things they can’t afford – lost jobs and lower wages...
Pacific Trade and Worker Rights  (editorial) New York Times  ...Obama administration officials say the T.P.P. goes further on labor standards than those earlier pacts. For example, the T.P.P.’s labor chapter requires all 12 countries to adopt minimum wage, working hour and occupational safety regulations. That is an improvement, but it could turn out to be mostly symbolic because the agreement does not specify how countries should set minimum wages. Nor does it establish any minimum standard for safety regulations...
Five years into austerity, Britain prepares for more cuts  Reuters  ...After laying off nearly half its staff over the last five years, scaling back street cleaning and relying on volunteers to work at some of its libraries, the London borough of Lewisham is getting ready for what could be much more painful spending cuts. Officials in Lewisham's town hall, like those across the country, know they will have to shoulder much of Chancellor George Osborne's renewed push to fix Britain's budget...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Constitutional amendment for higher minimum wage sought  Review Journal  ...Backers of raising Nevada's minimum wage filed a proposed constitutional amendment Monday that would abolish the state's existing two-tiered system and gradually increase the rate to $13 an hour. The initiative filed with the secretary of state's office by the Committee to Raise the Minimum Wage in Nevada would set a rate of $9.25 an hour beginning in late 2018...
Thanksgiving Is Almost Here, and Over a Million New Yorkers Might Go Hungry  The Nation  ...This Thanksgiving, New Yorkers will be asked to “Remember the Needy.” But for millions of households, that starts with thinking about themselves. The latest statistics on hunger in the city tells the proverbial Tale of Two Cities as a Tale of Two Pantries.  New York’s abysmal wealth gap is evident in many indicators: unemployment rates, rent hikes, surveys showing heavy economic anxiety...
Right-to-Work Whack-a-Mole  American Prospect  ...Right-to-work legislation continues to bubble up in states that have been successful in staving off such laws. Call it a never-ending game of right-to-work whack-a-mole. Last week, West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole called for lawmakers to pass right-to-work legislation in what he—and conservatives invariably—characterize as an attempt to attract businesses to the economically downtrodden region...
Who Turned My Blue State Red?  (opinion) New York Times  ...In eastern Kentucky and other former Democratic bastions that have swung Republican in the past several decades, the people who most rely on the safety-net programs secured by Democrats are, by and large, not voting against their own interests by electing Republicans. Rather, they are not voting, period. They have, as voting data, surveys and my own reporting suggest, become profoundly disconnected from the political process...
Pittsburgh paid sick leave law effective date delayed  Lexology  ...While the City of Pittsburgh previously announced that its Paid Sick Days Act (“PSDA”) would become effective on January 11, 2016, a Court order, as part of a lawsuit against the City challenging the validity of the PSDA, has extended this date by 60 days, to March 11, 2016.  The one-page order from the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas broadly covers “implementation, application and enforcement” of the PSDA...

U.S. LABOR
SEIU-UHW Revives Ballot Measure To Cap Hospital Executives' Pay  California Healthline  ...On Friday, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West revived a ballot measure that would cap hospital executives' pay after dropping a similar initiative 18 months ago, the Sacramento Business Journal reports. In November 2013, SEIU-UHW filed two proposed ballot initiatives with the state Attorney General's Office...
A holiday boost for UAW workers  The Detroit News  ...An estimated 142,000 American autoworkers, including 60,000 in Michigan, will receive retroactive pay and $3,000-$10,000 signing bonuses before Christmas, following contract ratifications between Detroit’s Big Three and the United Auto Workers. Collectively, contract bonuses from General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are estimated to put more than $400 million, before taxes, into the pockets of hourly union members...
Disney workers mount H-1B challenge  Politico  ...Disney caught some bad press in June after the New York Times and other outlets reported that the company planned to lay off about 250 workers and replace them with guest workers. Now those workers are filing complaints against Disney. At least 23 of them petitioned the EEOC to hear their case...
Wage Gap Between Men and Women Closing For Wrong Reason: Male Wages Are Falling  Alternet  ...The wage gap between men and women is finally starting to close—but only because male wages are falling, according to a new briefing paper released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute. “No one in this country should work full-time and live in poverty,” said Massachsetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren at a Capitol Hill press conference to release the report...
The faces of the new food revolution  Al Jazeera  ...The “food movement” is complex and often misunderstood. Read snarky Slate articles and you might be led to believe the movement is a white, elitist phenomenon whose poster child is a Lululemon-wearing, latte-sipping Whole Foods shopper and whose de facto guru is Michael Pollan. In other words: out of touch with working Americans. But the people on the frontlines of the struggle to make healthy, sustainable, local food accessible to all Americans defy this stereotype...
How Delusional Nostalgia Is Killing the White Working Class  Alternet  ...A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute finds there are a few things you can count on about those who believe America’s best days are behind us. They are overwhelmingly white, and if you dig a bit deeper and examine the socioeconomics, often working class. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they stubbornly believe white people are subject to the same levels of racism as black and other people of color. They think the U.S. was a better place in the 1950s, when Jim Crow was law, immigrants were overwhelmingly European, women knew their place, and gay people were essentially invisible...

SOCIAL JUSTICE &OTHER NEWS
In Biggest Tax Evasion Scheme of Its Kind, Big Pharma Becomes Behemoth  Common Dreams  ...Big Pharma just became Huge Pharma. Creating the world's largest drugmaker—and paving the way for higher pharmaceutical prices—Viagra-maker Pfizer Inc. and Allergan PLC, which manufactures Botox, said Monday that they would merge in a so-called inversion deal worth up to about $155 billion...
Texas wants immigration case delay that could push Supreme Court decision beyond Obama's term  US News & World Report  ...Texas asked the Supreme Court Monday for more time to answer the Obama administration's immigration appeal, a delay that probably would prevent the plan to shield millions of immigrants from deportation from taking effect during Barack Obama's presidency. The plan that Obama unveiled a year ago mainly affects people who are living in the country illegally, but who have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents...
'Now More Than Ever': In Paris and Beyond, Climate Movement Will Be Heard  Common Dreams  ...The march may be cancelled, security may be strengthened, but the global climate movement is vowing that its voice will still be heard as world leaders convene in Paris for international negotiations over the future of the planet. Citing security concerns in the wake of the attacks in Paris, the city's Prefecture of Police on Wednesday cancelled a massive climate justice march planned for November 29...
Black Lives Matter Protesters Shot in Minneapolis  Slate  ...Police in Minneapolis were looking for three white male suspects Tuesday morning after gunmen opened fire and injured five people at a Black Lives Matter protest around 10:45 p.m. on Monday night, reported the Star Tribune. The protests where the shooting took place have been going on for more than a week, with demonstrators calling for answers in the death of 24-year-old Jamar Clark, a black man who was shot in the head by a police officer. Witnesses said Clark was in handcuffs when he was shot...
Chicago officer who shot black teen 16 times to face murder charge, reports say  The Guardian  ...A charge of murder is expected to be filed against a white Chicago police officer accused of shooting a black teenager 16 times, just one day before a deadline by which a judge has ordered the city to release a squad-car video of the incident. Veteran officer Jason Van Dyke is expected to be indicted on Tuesday on a murder charge in the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald...
Why Trump's Race-Baiting Works  Slate ...Donald Trump has spent most of his campaign indulging and encouraging nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment. When it came to other racial and ethnic groups, however, Trump was silent, even telling crowds that he had a “great relationship with the blacks.” This past weekend, that changed. While Trump has been explicit with his nativist, and now racist, rhetoric, he’s not an innovator. If large numbers of Republicans are responsive to Trump’s vitriol, it’s because he echoes—in less coded terms—the discourse of much of right-wing media...
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Elected After Popular Uprising, Defends Local Control of Schools  Democracy Now  ...The education system of Newark, New Jersey has faced years of crisis, with high dropout rates, low-performing schools and a state takeover dating back two decades. In 2010, Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Democratic Mayor Cory Booker of Newark and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg joined forces to revamp Newark schools. But despite trumpeting their plan as a model for national school reform, millions of dollars flowed not to schools but to outside consultants...

Today's Teamster News 11.23.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamster Silicon Valley Drivers Vote Overwhelmingly in Favor of Contract  Teamster.org  ...Shuttle drivers for seven major Silicon Valley companies voted by an overwhelming 95 percent today to approve a first contract that provides for industry-leading wages and benefits. The nearly 200 drivers, who are members of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., work for Compass Transportation, contractor to Apple, eBay, PayPal, Yahoo, Evernote, Genentech and Amtrak...
Labor deal for more Silicon Valley tech shuttle drivers  USA Today  ...Shuttle drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay and several other Silicon Valley companies overwhelmingly voted Sunday to accept a contract that will increase wages and benefits and give them their first paid Thanksgiving holiday. The drivers for those companies, as well as Amtrak, Evernote, Genentech and Paypal, voted to unionize with Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., back in February...
Teamsters, Employer Group Reconvene for Carhaul Negotiations  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) met this week with the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division to begin negotiating a revised national carhaul contract. This week’s negotiations come after carhaulers voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements earlier this year...
Local 727 Reaches Tentative Agreement on New 4-Year Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Contract  Local 727  ...Teamsters Local 727 reached tentative agreement on a new four-year contract for 600 members at Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola. Final negotiations stretched late into the night on Nov. 19 as the Bargaining Committee hammered out final details for strong wage increases, important benefits and fortified rights for drivers, bulk, merchandisers, laborers and all other Reyes Teamsters...
BMWED To Conduct Research On Occupational Risk Reduction  Teamster.org  ...The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes' (BMWED) President Freddie N. Simpson, with the full support of the BMWED National Division Officers, has approved a Brotherhood-wide research study to address the long-standing absence of high quality data reflecting the nature, frequency, severity and socio-economic consequences of occupational risk and its impact on BMWED members. BMWED members are a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference...
Teamsters Join with Business, Community to Host N.Y. Job Fair  Teamster.org  ...Sunset Park is home to some of the last sections of working waterfront in the city, and a job fair held Tuesday night aims to employ neighborhood residents in some of the good jobs on the waterfront. Manhattan Beer Distributors partnered with Teamsters Local 812, City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, and community organization UPROSE...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
The Maquiladora Workers of Juárez Find Their Voice  The Nation  ... After more than a decade of silence, maquiladora workers in Ciudad Juárez have found their voice. The city, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is now the center of a growing rebellion of laborers in the border factories. At the gates to four plants, including a huge 5,000-worker Foxconn complex, they have set up encampments, or plantons, demanding recognition of independent unions, and protesting firings and reprisals...
Lufthansa cabin crew to strike Thursday, Friday  Globe and Mail  ...Lufthansa cabin crew have been called to another round of strikes starting Thursday and Friday, the head of trade union UFO, Nicoley Baublies, told Reuters on Monday. The cabin crew union staged a week of strikes earlier this month, costing the company tens of millions of euros and forcing the cancellation of about 4,700 flights...
U.S. trade czar confident of 2016 Congress vote on TPP  STL Today  ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Thursday he expected Congress to vote on a 12-nation Pacific Rim free-trade deal early next year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which aims to liberalize trade for 40 percent of the global economy, must be ratified by U.S. Congress but opposition from many Democrats and some Republicans could mean a vote is unlikely before President Barack Obama leaves office...
Obama promotes TPP, says it is 'more than just a trade pact'  The Sun Daily  ...United States President Barack Obama, in his strong bid to promote the TPP to Asean member countries, said it is more than just a trade pact as it will build cooperation among nations. Acknowledging that the debates on TPP in many countries and skepticism on previously failed trade deals, Obama admitted that TPP deal is a “tough sell”...
As Obama heads to Malaysia, human trafficking stance questioned  Reuters  ...U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia on Friday for a Southeast Asia leaders’ summit comes amid allegations by U.S. lawmakers and rights groups that his administration ignored Malaysia’s abuse of trafficking victims such as Baser to secure the country’s help sealing a high-profile trade deal and strengthen ties to offset China’s growing political clout...
EFF Joins Broad Coalition of Groups to Protest the TPP in Washington D.C.  (opinion) EFF  ...Contained within these 6,000-plus pages of the completed TPP text are a series of provisions that empower multinational corporations and private interest groups at the expense of the public interest. Civil society groups represent diverse concerns, so while we may disagree on our specific concerns about the TPP, we commonly recognize that this is a toxic, undemocratic deal that must be stopped at all costs...
Trade laws undo local progress on food systems  (opinion) IATP.org  ...Careful examination of the recently released text for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is already revealing new risks for our food system. Those findings also tell us what to watch out for in the other big pending trade deal—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union...
Greek economy stagnates under austerity and capital controls  ABC  ...This is the reality in Greece these days, as the latest austerity cuts a swathe through consumer spending and capital controls — measures to limit withdrawals from banks — stagnate the already downtrodden Greek economy. In what is now a damaging consumer cycle, the damaging of cuts to pensions means grandparents have less money in their wallets and no longer spend up as the dote on their grandchildren — sometimes with handcrafted shoes from France and Italy...
Bangladesh: ‘An Effective Union Can Ensure Fire Safety’  Solidarity Center  ...Bilkish Begum says she and other workers at a garment factory in Bangladesh could not discuss implementing fire safety measures with their employer—even after the deadly blaze at Tazreen Fashions factory killed 112 workers three years ago next week. Only when they formed a union, which provides workers with protection against retaliation for seeking to improve their workplace conditions, could they take steps to help ensure their safety...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Louisiana votes for Medicaid expansion  Daily Kos  ...The monumental David Vitter loss in Louisiana Saturday promises to be a big win for Louisiana. While it was Vitter's past scandals that dominated the election, it's Democratic Governor-elect John Bel Edwards' main policy promise that's the big news, and likely means health care for some 242,000 Louisiana residents in the coming year...
Advocates Dispute Dire Predictions of $15 Minimum Wage Study  Public News Service  ...A report released this week by a business group predicting dire consequences if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour doesn't reflect reality, fair-wage advocates say. According to the report by the Long Island Association, more than 23,000 Long Island jobs would be lost. Advocates for raising the wage say businesses would benefit from the increased spending...
Exposing North Carolina's shell game of electoral apartheid  Daily Kos  ...This fall, Daily Kos community member Bill Busa exposed North Carolina's sneaky new voter suppression tool in which county boards of elections in the state closed almost one-third of the state’s early voting polling places in 2014, replacing them with polls at new locations. The result of moving those early voting locations: African American voters found themselves 350,000 miles farther away from their nearest early voting sites...
Strangers Raise Money For Walmart Worker Fired For Picking Up Cans  Think Progress  ...When a parking lot attendant dared to recycle trash he picked up outside an upstate New York Walmart, the store fired him. Now generous strangers are trying to help cushion his sudden fall. Thomas Smith, 52, had been earning $9 an hour at an upstate New York Walmart for less than three months when his manager terminated him over the cans...
California cities embracing higher minimum wage  SGV Tribune ...Surrounded by city and union officials at a Labor Day rally in South Los Angeles last year, Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed raising the city’s minimum wage to $13.25 per hour by the end of the decade — a plan he said would significantly help low-income workers in Los Angeles while placing minimal burden on employers. Nine months later, Garcetti signed an ordinance that is more progressive than he proposed — a citywide wage hike to $15 an hour by 2021...

U.S. LABOR
UAW reaches end of winding road with Detroit automakers  Detroit Free Press  ...Detroit’s once-every-four-years ritual of UAW negotiations and ratification is finally over. The final two companies: General Motors and Ford, ratified their agreements late Friday after months of grueling talks. There are as many opinions about who won and who came up short as the 140,000 workers whose pay and benefits for the next four years were set in the contracts...
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, The Case To Push Right To Work Nationally  NH Labor News  ...The Supreme Court is about to hear a case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association that could overturn a nearly forty-year decision that allows unions to negotiate “fair-share” fees for non-union members who benefit from the union’s contract. “We are disappointed that at a time when big corporations and the wealthy few are rewriting the rules in their favor, the Supreme Court has chosen to take a case that threatens the fundamental promise of America"...
CWA accuses Alcatel-Lucent of stealing Lucent retirees' health care funds  Fierce Telecom  ...The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union has filed a request with the U.S. District Court in New Jersey to get a temporary restraining order against Alcatel-Lucent over claims that the French company plans to use money for retirees' health care to cover its own pension funding obligations. Under the proposed plan, CWA said that Alcatel-Lucent will move 20,000 retirees and an additional $1.2 billion...
Verizon workers rally for contract  Godanriver.com  ...Verizon workers across the East Coast, including Danville, rallied over contract negotiations Thursday evening. A small group of regional workers gathered at the 141 Trade St. garage where most of the technicians that service Verizon lines in Danville base their operation. The previous contract expired on Aug. 1. Verizon employees have been working without a contract since then...
The U.S. Is Beaten By 27 Other Countries When It Comes To Women’s Equality  Think Progress  ...While the world has made progress closing the gap between women and men in health, education, economic participation, and political empowerment over the last decade, the United States is not keeping up. The World Economic Forum (WEF) just released its 2015 Global Gender Gap report, which showed that the gap has dropped by 4 percent in the last ten years...
Heat kills California farmworkers, but the state won't always admit it  Daily Kos  ...Agricultural workers have fewer job protections than most other workers even as they do physically grueling labor for low pay. It’s a vicious circle—most of the people who work in the fields come from vulnerable groups, and the low wages and lack of protections keep them vulnerable. California’s heat is one significant source of illness and even death for farmworkers. But you might not know that from the state’s official statistics...
When Temp Workers Die While Being Taken to the Job, Who’s Responsible?  In These Times ...Since the Great Recession, the temporary staffing industry has boomed, and temp employment has accounted for significant portions of rebounding job growth. Temps—who are employed by agencies and whose labor is simply rented out by third-party businesses—have become seen as some of America’s most vulnerable workers. Labor advocates say that, in treating workers as replaceable units of labor, the temp industry can overlook workers’ most basic human needs...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Many Americans Have Criminal Records as College Diplomas  Truthout  ...The number of Americans with a criminal history has risen sharply over the past three decades. Today, nearly one-third of the adult working age population has a criminal record. In fact, so many Americans have a criminal record that counting them all is nearly impossible...
How Prison Reform Could Turn the Prison-Industrial Complex Into the Treatment-Industrial Complex  The Nation   ... many of the dollars expected to be “saved” from shuttering prisons may simply be funneled into privatized “alternatives to incarceration” like parole programs and halfway houses. These operations are often run by the household names of the prison business—they’re simply moving from behind bars to the so-called “treatment-industrial complex”...
Wall Street's Reprieve Expires  The Atlantic  ...Financial-regulation legislation—or efforts to stop it—ranks among the trickiest political knots that the White House and Congress have to unravel if they want to keep with their October budget compromise and fund the government. Democrats and Republicans in Congress—though not in the country at large—still line up on opposite sides of the fence...
Trump Supporters Punch, Kick Black Lives Matter Protester at Rally  Slate  ...Several people taking part in a rally for Donald Trump in Birmingham, Alabama pushed down, kicked, and punched a black protester. At least six Trump supporters shoved and tackled the protester, while one man punched the demonstrator and a woman kicked him while he was on the ground, according to CNN. One even attempted to choke the protester...
France Asks UN to Back 'Merciless' Military Response to Paris Attacks  Common Dreams  ...Just days after French President François Hollande vowed a "merciless" response to the Paris attacks, his government on Thursday submitted a resolution for the United Nations Security Council to "take all necessary measures" against ISIS. The French proposal, which could face a vote as early as Friday, competes with a separate one re-submitted by Russia this week...

Today's Teamster News 11.18.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Support House Introduction of Pension Accountability Act  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters Union expressed its support today of the introduction of the House companion bill for Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-Ohio) Pension Accountability Act. The bill (HR 4029), which was introduced in the House by Reps. David Joyce (R-Ohio) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), would guarantee that the votes of thousands of retirees and participants would not be nullified as part of the process included in the Multi-employer Pension Reform Act (MPRA)...
Teamsters Applaud SFMTA Vote Ensuring Labor Harmony for Commuter Shuttles  Teamster.org  ...Today, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) voted to make the city’s commuter shuttle pilot program permanent, while also ensuring labor harmony for workers employed by commuter shuttle operators. The commuter shuttle program pertains to buses primarily serving Silicon Valley’s high tech industry, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and others. Consistent efforts by commuter shuttle drivers, Teamsters and community members to keep public attention on the critical labor harmony resolution resulted in final passage...
Miami Transfer Ratifies New 3 Year Contract  Local 769  ...On Monday November 16, 2015, Teamsters Local 769 members from Miami Transfer ratified a new 3 year contract. Miami Transfer has been in business since 1896 and along with Florida Rigging they do a lot of work for Florida Power and Light. They also do a lot of rigging work for Pike and other utility pole companies throughout the Miami, Broward, and Palm Beach county areas...
Teamsters, Carhaul Employer Group to Reconvene  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) will reconvene with the carhaul employer group this week to negotiate on the members’ behalf after carhaulers overwhelmingly voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements. The negotiations come after local unions held meetings over the past few weeks with the carhaul members to discuss the recently rejected tentative agreement...
Workers protest poverty wages at the U of MN  Fight Back News  ...More than 350 workers on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses of the University of Minnesota braved the rain, Nov. 17, to rally and picket for raises and respect for unionized staff at the U of MN. Members of U of MN AFSCME and Teamsters Local 320, which collectively represent over 4000 university workers, are currently in contract negotiations...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Obama presses Canada for quick TPP approval  Globe and Mail  ...U.S. President Barack Obama is pressuring Canada and the other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to approve the trade deal as quickly as possible. The 12 leaders of TPP nations met Wednesday for the first time since they announced the deal in October and released the text on Nov. 5. The closed-door meeting was also the first opportunity for Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with TPP leaders...
Protests Continue as Obama Praises TPP at APEC Summit  TeleSUR  ...Activists protesting against the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Manila, Philippines, clashed with police on Wednesday in attempts to take their demonstration to the site of the the APEC meetings, where world leaders also met to discuss the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership. Social movements including labor unions, women’s groups, students, Indigenous people, farmer organizations, and international activists have protested the negative impacts of APEC’s free trade model...
TPP activists storm Morgan Stanley office in Washington  RT  ...Activists united against the Trans Pacific Partnership deal disrupted the Washington, DC offices of investment firm Morgan Stanley. Protesters pushed by the company’s security as they charged their way into the building. Morgan Stanley is one of many US companies supporting the TPP and has spent almost $10m on lobbying over the past three years...
The Trans-Pacific Partnership could end US-made clothing  New York Post  ...The deal would eliminate tariffs between the US, Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. A key NYC industry, clothing and apparel, is more divided in its take on TPP. “They’re not encouraging the consumer to buy more American-made products,” says Ramdat Harihar, CEO of R&C Apparel.  “If they’re cutting tariffs, they will manufacture more overseas”...
Greece, Lenders Reach Deal over Austerity Reforms; Aid Unlocked  TeleSUR  ...The Greek Finance Ministry said a payment of 2 billion euros will be made by creditors on Friday after reforms are ratified by parliament. Greece has reached an agreement with its European creditors Tuesday over financial reforms and austerity measures, allowing the country to receive bailout loans that were blocked because of disagreements over the reforms...
Honduran Union Leader, Family Leave Home after Threats  Solidarity Center  ...Honduran union leader Nelson Geovanni Nuñez Chavez was forced to leave his home with his family last week after repeatedly being followed and harassed, according to the Honduras-based nonprofit ACI-Participa. Nuñez Chavez is technical adviser to the Honduran agricultural workers’ union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria y Similares (STAS), and host of the radio program, “The Unionist, Live”...
India cbank workers' strike on Thursday likely to disrupt settlements  Reuters  ...Nov 18 About 17,000 employees of the Reserve Bank of India are set to go on strike on Thursday for better retirement benefits and to oppose reforms to the central bank, raising the prospect of disruptions to banks and markets. The four unions that have called the strike say the reforms will reduce the RBI's regulatory powers and take away debt management operations away from the central bank...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right To Work Is Debated in West Virginia  The Intelligencer  ...West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole said it is time to join the 25 other states that have passed right-to-work laws, but labor leaders Mike Caputo and Kenny Perdue said this is merely a Republican attempt to reduce wages for workers in an already poor state. State law currently allows companies to require membership in a union as a condition of employment. That practice is forbidden in right-to-work states...
Is "Right to Work" Right for W.Va.?  WV Public  ...Dozens of union members attended a joint committee meeting Sunday making their opposition for Right to Work legislation clear. For two hours, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary met to discuss possible Right to Work legislation and how it might affect West Virginia. Right to Work laws prohibit certain types of agreements between labor unions and employers...
Bills introduced by Simon address sexual orientation, campaign funds, paid sick leave  WTVR  ...HB07 wants full time employees to get a reasonable number of sick days. “Hard working Virginians shouldn’t have to choose between getting paid and going to work with a fever, the flu or worse,” Simon said. “It is essential to the health of Virginia’s workplaces that we provide a reasonable number of paid sick days for full time employees"...
L.A. County sets up wage enforcement program to police new minimum wage rules  LA Times  ...In  the wake of this summer's decision to hike the minimum wage in unincorporated areas to $15 by 2020, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to set up a new division to go after employers who violate the wage law. Details of how the enforcement program will work and what penalties will apply to offending employers remain to be worked out...

U.S. LABOR
Sonoma County SEIU workers strike amid contract talks  Press Democrat  ...About 1,500 Sonoma County government employees joined picket lines Tuesday for the first day of a planned three-day strike by the county’s largest group of unionized workers. The demonstrations, clustered mainly outside county offices in Santa Rosa, escalated a standoff between local government officials and rank-and-file employees about the rising cost of health care and other living expenses...
Ford-UAW contract passage in doubt as voting nears end  Reuters  ...Workers at two large Ford Motor Co (F.N) plants in Louisville, Kentucky, rejected a proposed four-year labor contract by 2-to-1 margin, putting its passage in doubt as voting at Ford plants factories nears an end. Of 7,408 votes cast at Louisville Assembly and Kentucky Truck plants, 65.5 percent voted against the contract, according to a UAW official...
Papa John's Franchisee Gets Jail Time For Failing To Pay Full Wages  Huffington Post  ...The owner of several Papa John's franchises in New York City will serve 60 days in jail for failing to pay his workers the minimum wage and overtime, New York's attorney general announced Monday. Two months isn't a particularly long time in the hoosegow, but any jail time at all is notable in a wage theft case...
McDonald's franchises must comply with NLRB subpoenas, judge says  Reuters  ...A U.S. judge has ordered 10 McDonald's franchisees in New York City to comply with subpoenas from the National Labor Relations Board seeking information on their relationship with McDonald's Corp, as the agency tries to prove that the fast food giant is a joint employer of franchise workers...
Airlines Do Fixes on the Cheap by Sending Planes Abroad to Unlicensed Mechanics  Alternet  ...Like outsourcing in every other industry, aviation outsourcing comes down to money. After 9/11, when America’s airline industry found itself in financial dire straits, commercial fliers introduced a number of cost-cutting measures. We’re now far too familiar with these practices, most of which remain with us. Less widely known is the fact that airlines also looked for ways to slash repair costs, a solution that required looking abroad...
The Lowest End Of The Income Spectrum Is A Dangerous Place For Mothers To Be  Think Progress  ...In a new research paper from Kristin S. Seefeldt and Heather Sandstrom published by the Russell Sage Foundation, the authors note that about 12 percent of all low-income mothers had neither a job nor welfare benefits in 2004, which jumped to about 20 percent by 2008. “The number of families with children who are without work and without cash welfare benefits has been growing over time since the implementation of welfare reform in 1996,” said Seefeldt...
U.S. Economy Increasingly Dominated by Monopolies as 2015 Corporate Mergers Continue  Alternet  ...There’s more evidence that corporate America is becoming ever more monopolistic and that’s not good for small businesses or consumers. This year is on track to see the most corporate mergers and takeovers since the Great Recession of 2008, according to many business page reports that said October was the fifth biggest month ever for mergers...
SEIU endorses Clinton  Politico  ...The powerful union behind the fast food workers' wage movement endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Tuesday. The 2-million-member Service Employees International Union approved the endorsement through a vote by its executive board. “Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families,” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry in a statement...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Poll shows support for reversing highway bill safety changes  The Hill  ...Safety advocates are touting a poll showing public support for reversing a host of regulatory changes that are included in a highway funding bill that is being negotiated by lawmakers. 77 percent of U.S. residents oppose a controversial proposal to increase a current limit on the length of double-trailer truck rigs from 28 feet to 33 feet. Only 22 percent of the poll's respondents said they support the longer truck proposal...
Koch brothers hijack historic criminal justice reform to make it tougher to go after corporate criminals  Salon  ...Not one Wall Street executive was criminally charged following the 2008 global financial collapse, and if the Koch brothers and House Republicans have their way, it’ll be harder to hold white collar criminals accountable for their future malfeasance. In an age when even acts of terror fail to lessen the tense political divisions in Washington, D.C. a rare beacon of bipartisanship comprise has taken root among elected federal officials working on criminal justice reform...
Paris attacks reshape U.S. debate on immigration, security  Reuters  ...U.S. lawmakers called on Tuesday for even tighter scrutiny of Syrian refugees fleeing to the United States as last week's deadly Paris attacks recast America's debate over immigration and national security, prompting a sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama, who said attempts to block entry were "offensive and contrary to American values"...
France Rejects Fear, Renews Commitment To Take In 30,000 Syrian Refugees  Think Progress  ...French President Francois Hollande promised to honor his commitment to take in tens of thousands of refugees on Wednesday. He said France would do so despite concerns raised by ultra-right nationalist leaders that refugees might pose a security threat to the country. Many immigration experts and political leaders noted that such humanitarian measures undermine ISIS’ argument that the West is at odds with Muslims...
"A Disturbing Increase in Islamophobia": U.S. Mosques Threatened, Canadian Mosque Set on Fire  Democracy Now  ...There are growing reports of Islamophobic attacks since Friday’s massacre in Paris. Just hours after the Paris assault, a caller left a voicemail laced with racial slurs for the Islamic Society of Pinellas County in St. Petersburg, Florida. The caller left his full name and threatened to "firebomb you, shoot whoever’s there on sight in the head." Meanwhile in Pflugerville, Texas, residents found a torn Qur’an covered in feces...
Latest Incidents Show Police Brutality Persists Despite Elevated Awareness  Common Dreams  ...Separate incidents in two U.S. cities over recent days reveal that tensions remain elevated over police brutality and use of excessive force in the United States. Captured last week on tape, the beating of a man in San Francisco has been likened to the infamous assault on Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991...

Today's Teamster News 09.16.15

Teamsters
Labor Department Awards Teamsters $4.6 Million Training Grant  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters Safety and Health Department has been awarded a $4.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to establish apprenticeship programs for workers in the trucking industry. The grant will be awarded over a five-year funding cycle. The DOL published a Notice of Funding Opportunity in the fall of 2014 in an effort to develop a trained workforce in industries that are deemed critical to the U.S. economy...
Bus operator to dissolve ‘sham’ union, in agreement with Teamsters  SF Examiner  ...Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation will dissolve its “sham” company union and allow local Teamsters to proceed with organizing employees of the bus company. That’s according to an agreement revealed by a formal settlement stipulation issued Monday by the National Labor Relations Board’s Local Region 20...
Tucson Teamster bus strikers standing strong  FightBack News  ...Nearly 500 members of the Teamsters Local 104 entered day 40 of their strike against Sun Tran Management. Bus drivers, mechanics and service island operators cite unaddressed safety concerns and undelivered pay increases as the reasons for the strike. Sun Tran Management is operated by Transdev, a corporation with a track record of union busting and using scab labor. Transdev is also a subsidiary of Veolia, one of the world’s largest water privatizers...
LA port truckers strike grows, drivers demanding employee classification status  CCJ  ...Truckers picketing Pacific 9 Transportation have been joined by drivers from two other Southern California drayage companies as Pac 9 enters its 10th week of strike. Carrying “We Are All Employees” signs, the recently unionized Shippers Transport Express and Eco Flo Transportation joined the protest at Pac 9’s Carson headquarters...

Global Labor & Trade
What's Going On With the TPP?  Truthout  ...At this late stage of negotiations, the US Trade Representative (USTR) has pretty much abandoned all remaining pretense of transparency in its consideration of these remaining policy issues. Since the failure to conclude the deal at the meeting in Hawaii over the summer, the USTR has held several closed-door meetings between high-level officials to finalize the agreement and it is under intensifying pressure to finish it off as soon as possible...
Senators: Address China Currency Manipulation in TPP  Roll Call  ...With Chinese President Xi Jinping due at the White House next week, seven senators are making a new push against currency manipulation. The lawmakers, led by Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio, want to see currency devaluation addressed as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks, citing recent moves by both Vietnam and South Korea in response to China’s adjusting the value of its currency, the yuan...
Conservatives rush to resolve TPP auto-parts impasse before election  Globe and Mail  ...Stephen Harper finds himself in the toughest spot so far in negotiations to clinch a Pacific Rim trade deal, with Japan seemingly unwilling to bend on provisions that could sideswipe Canadian auto-sector jobs and with time running out for a deal before the Oct. 19 election. Efforts to create a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc stretching from Chile to Japan hit a wall in Hawaii this summer after Canada and Mexico balked at import rules for vehicle imports...
EU proposes special dispute court for US trade deal  Yahoo  ...The European Union on Wednesday proposed a special court to resolve any disputes arising from a planned huge trade deal with the United States, instead of the widely criticized private tribunals that Washington wants. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said there was huge public skepticism about the previous dispute resolution plans, the most controversial element of the massive TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) deal with the United States...
New U.K. Opposition Leader Vows to Fight Austerity, Antiunion Legislation  Wall Street Journal  ...Jeremy Corbyn, the new far-left leader of the U.K.’s main opposition Labour Party, pledged to fight public-spending cuts and government efforts to curb trade-union powers as he sought to rally his deeply divided party. In his first policy speech as leader, Mr. Corbyn labeled the governing center-right Conservatives as “poverty deniers” and said a more equal Britain wasn’t a far-fetched dream...
Petrobras Oil Output May Face Interruptions If Workers Strike  Bloomberg  ...Oil production in Brazil may be interrupted if Petroleo Brasileiro SA workers decide to strike for an extended period, said Deyvid Bacelar, the company’s board member representing workers. Workers may decide whether to go on strike as soon as Friday, Bacelar, who is also an oil union coordinator in the state of Bahia, said in an interview Tuesday...
A Migration Juggernaut Is Headed for Europe  New York Times  ...European leaders probably don’t want to hear this now, as they frantically try to close their borders to stop hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants and asylum seekers escaping hunger and violence in Africa and the Middle East. But they are dealing with the unstoppable force of demography...

State & Living Wage Battles
Missouri right to work issue continues Wednesday  KMBZ  ...The Missouri General Assembly starts it's veto session Wednesday. The main issue is Right to Work. Legislators passed a bill to eliminate workplace contracts with mandatory union fees. Governor Jay Nixon vetoed it, and has been campaigning to keep the veto "off the critical list.There is more talk about Missouri's need for skilled workers, than about Right to Work, said Nixon...
Sponsor may drop 'right to work' union measure in Oregon after adverse legal ruling  Oregon Live  ...The sponsor of a proposed ballot measure aimed at making union dues voluntary for public employees may well drop the initiative after receiving a politically unpalatable ballot title. Portland attorney Jill Gibson said she is leaning toward abandoning the proposal after the Oregon Supreme Court upheld a ballot description that will make the measure harder to sell to voters...
Group seeking repeal of prevailing wage law submits signatures  Michigan Radio  ...A group called Protecting Michigan Taxpayers wants to repeal Michigan's 50-year-old prevailing wage law. It recently turned in to the Secretary of State about 391,000 signatures collected in a petition drive to repeal Michigan's law which requires workers on state-financed construction projects to be paid prevailing union-scale wages...
Wage Theft Penalties Would Be Increased Under New Bill  Wisconsin Public Radio  ...The Senate's labor committee is considering a bill that would increase penalties for employers who illegally withhold wages from their workers and make it easier for workers to win wage claims filed with the state. The bill makes changes to current law that protects employees from what is commonly called "wage theft," comprising everything from forcing people to work off the clock to paying workers less than minimum wage...
Dozens gather in Mountain Brook to protest bill blocking Birmingham minimum wage hike  AL.com  ...Supporters of a higher minimum wage gathered in Mountain Brook Village Tuesday to protest a bill by one state lawmaker to block Birmingham's wage hike. Dozens chanted and marched in suburban Mountain Brook because it's the home of Republican state Rep. David Faulkner, who proposed a bill to prevent cities from setting a minimum wage for private employers...
Taxpayer tab for changes to voting laws tops $8 million  Express News  ...Republicans used their majority in 2011 to muscle through the Legislature a controversial voter ID law and new redistricting maps — and Texas taxpayers haven’t stopped picking up the bill for the state to defend those measures in courts ever since. Texas’ total legal tab to date: more than $8 million, data obtained under the state’s Public Information Act show...

U.S. Labor
Striking Seattle Teachers to Return to Classroom  ABC  ...Seattle teachers ended a weeklong strike and headed to their classrooms Wednesday after winning a 9.5 percent pay raise over three years, mandatory 30-minute recesses for elementary students, a longer school day and more say over standardized tests. The union's board of directors and representative assembly voted Tuesday evening to suspend the strike and urged the 5,000 members to approve the three-year deal...
UAW, Fiat Chrysler strike tentative labor pact  Market Watch  ...The United Auto Workers union has struck a tentative deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV that will eventually remove a controversial two-tier wage system that saw newer hires paid less than their mo re-experienced co-workers, according to people familiar with the agreement. Under the current arrangement, newer employees earn about $9 an hour less than more senior factory employees...
Elizabeth Warren Wants To Stop Companies From Checking Your Credit Before They Hire You  Think Progress  ...They’re riddled with errors. They’re difficult to correct. And they may be keeping you from getting a job. But a spotty credit report could cease being a reason for employers to reject applicants, if legislation introduced Tuesday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) becomes law...
Scott Walker Is Down in the Polls. His Strategy To Climb Back Up: More Union-Busting.  In These Times  ...Having plummeted in the presidential primary polls, Walker needs to figure out a way to stand out in the pack, and he has apparently decided that running hard against labor unions and their “bosses” can endear him to many blue-collar voters as well as such billionaire backers as the Koch brothers...
CA farm workers allege wage theft, bad working conditions  WDAM  ...Wage theft and dangerous working conditions are abuses that often happen to farm workers in Santa Barbara County, according to a survey from an advocacy group. It released a report filled with analysis from a survey it conducted over the past couple of months. The group CAUSE, or Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, said all of the data comes from farm workers in Santa Barbara County...
50 years ago, Cesar Chavez led a crusade to unite and empower farmworkers  LA Times  ...On  a Thursday night 50 years ago, at the height of the table grape harvest in California's Central Valley, hundreds of Mexican American farmworkers crowded expectantly into a Delano church hall. They were tired of being treated like disposable farm tools. Tired of being cheated out of even their meager wages. Tired of watching their mothers and sisters humiliated and harassed. Tired of being stripped of dignity. Tired of being invisible...

Social Justice & Other News
Mass Incarceration Has Become the New Welfare  The Atlantic  ...Mass incarceration is not just (or even mainly) a response to crime, but rather a perverse form of social spending that uses state power to address a host of social problems at the back end, from poverty to drug addiction to misbehavior in school. These are problems that voters, taxpayers, and politicians—especially white voters, taxpayers, and politicians—seem unwilling to address in any other way...
A Man Who’s Probably Innocent Will Die Today, And Lawyers Can’t Save Him  Think Progress  ...Eighteen years after the murder of motel owner Barry Van Treese, there is no concrete evidence to suggest Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip was involved in the crime. According to witnesses, the actual killer, Justin Sneed, has repeatedly bragged about setting his former boss up by pinning him as the mastermind behind Treese’s murder. Still, after a long battle to prove his innocence and have his sentence overturned, Glossip will be executed by lethal injection Wednesday afternoon...
The Ugly Message of Trump-Mania  Slate  ...Trump is a sideshow, and in the presence of his personality, it’s easy to overlook the ugliness behind his campaign. But it’s there, a debased successor to the nationalist white resentment of Pat Buchanan and George Wallace. And although spectators may miss it, it’s more than clear for the targets of his xenophobia, and the people who hate them...

VIDEO: Inside unionizing Silicon Valley

The Teamsters' efforts to organize low-wage workers in the Silicon Valley at places such as Facebook and Google are getting the attention of the national media at a time when income inequality is a top concern of Americans.

This MSNBC video discusses the work of the Teamsters and other unions to organize and the growing appeal of unions nationwide. Workers are organizing because they are tired of getting the short end of the stick while companies rake in huge profits!

Support is growing for unions across the country because everyday Americans realize they are stronger when they organize together than when they stand alone. Teamster Strong makes America Stronger!

Today's Teamster News 09.08.15

Teamsters
Hoffa Pledges Solidarity With UAW In Big Three Negotiations  Teamster.org  ...In remarks at the Detroit Labor Day Parade today, International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa pledged solidarity with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in their contract negotiations with the Big Three: Ford, Chrysler and GM. “I know you haven’t picked a target yet, but it’s one of those three,” Hoffa said. “If the UAW goes on strike, I make a pledge on behalf of the 1.4 million Teamster members – we will honor your picket lines"...
Workers at Center of NLRB's 'Joint Employer' Ruling Vote to Join Teamsters Union  Teamster.org  ...The California waste workers at the center of a recent major National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ‘joint employer’ ruling have voted overwhelmingly in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 350 in Daly City, Calif. Workers with Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI), which is now owned by Republic Services, cast their ballots in a union representation election in April 2014...
Teamsters win election in labor case at center of recent NLRB ruling  LA Times  ...Workers at the Silicon Valley recycling plant that was central to a recent landmark National Labor Relations Board ruling have voted in support of being represented by the Teamsters union. The vote involved Browning-Ferris Industries, a Houston waste management company that used a subcontractor, Leadpoint Business Services, to staff its recycling center in Milpitas, Calif...
Glimmer of hope in ending the Tucson bus strike  Tucson News Now  ...The Teamsters Local 104 union and Sun Tran will meet for an all-day session on Tuesday to see if the two sides can come to an agreement to end the 33-day-old walkout. Regardless of the outcome on Tuesday, the two sides have also scheduled another all-day meeting for Thursday...
Silicon Valley’s Labor Uprising  In These Times  ...The Teamsters have seen four union victories in 2015: the warehouse workers at Google Express, waste disposal workers at Genentech, and workers at two transportation companies that collectively serve Apple, Genentech, Yahoo, eBay, Zynga, Evernote and Amtrak. These are the drivers of the infamous symbols of Silicon Valley’s burgeoning class war: the elite private buses from San Francisco and environs to Silicon Valley...
Richard Greenwald: Power in a union  (opinion) Daily News  ...As workers in old-line industries wake up, workers in emerging ones are coming to realize that unions are not anathema to their experience. Here, the hero of the day is Rome Aloise, international vice president and secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 853 on the West Coast. The Teamsters have been building on their history of aggressive organizing efforts...
This Labor Day, Let’s Look to the Future  Teamster.org  ..."The first Monday in September is set aside to remember the workers who made this country great. For more than 100 years, the hard work and dedication of Teamster members have been a symbol of pride, strength and unity throughout America. Typically, we look back to honor the countless union members, labor leaders and other historically significant figures who paved the way. This Labor Day, however, I want us to look to the future"...

Global Labor &Trade
Japan, U.S. to resume TPP auto talks Wednesday in Washington  Japan Times  ...Japan and the United States will resume bilateral talks Wednesday in Washington on auto trade issues under the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative, the Foreign Ministry said. The negotiations, to continue through Friday, will follow a ministerial meeting of all 12 TPP countries in late July in Hawaii, where they failed to secure a much-anticipated broad agreement...
US, Japan keen to strike a quick agreement on TPP  Today  ...In what may be an injection of political capital into the stalled talks on the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso and United States Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have agreed this week that the two countries should work on concluding the agreement at an early date. Mr Aso told reporters that he discussed with Mr Lew the need to quickly strike a deal on the US-led TPP pact...
China free trade agreement should be renegotiated or blocked, say unions  The Guardian  ...Unions are urging parliament to block the China-Australia free trade agreement (Chafta) if Canberra does not reopen negotiations with Beijing, taking a stronger line than the federal opposition which has suggested safeguards for Australian jobs could be enshrined in domestic law without jeopardising the deal. Representatives of the ACTU – the peak union body – told the treaties committee on Monday that the problems “lie with the text of the agreement itself”...
HHI workers strike, more strikes to follow  IHS Maritime  ....Workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) went on strike on 4 September and are planning more industrial action this month. From 0800-1200hrs local time on 4 September, HHI workers refused to work, causing the world's biggest shipbuilder to suspend production at its Ulsan yard. That followed a previous strike on 26 August. A joint strike with workers from South Korea's two other major shipbuilders, Samsung HI and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, is also planned for 9 September...
Thousands Reach Austria as Refugee Crisis Issues 'Wake-up Call'  Common Dreams  ...Thousands of refugees were welcomed into Austria on Saturday after epic journeys from Hungary that many were forced to begin to take on foot. As USA Today reports, Hungary, which had spent days stopping migrants from leaving by train, provided buses to take them into Austria. The government relented under international pressure and after desperate refugees who had camped out at the Budapest train station simply began walking toward the border...

State & Living Wage Battles
Right-to-work veto clash looms in Missouri  Kansas City Star  ...After nearly a year of debate, procedural hijinks and political maneuvering, the question of whether to make Missouri the country’s 26th right-to-work state will come to a head this month. Neither side seems particularly confident in the outcome. A bill passed by the General Assembly this spring would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to be required to become a union member or to pay dues to a labor organization as a condition of employment...
Right-to-work debate dominates St. Louis Labor Day Parade  St. Louis Today  ...It was a common message in the banners on the floats, which read “Right to Work is Wrong For Missouri” and “Right to Work Leads Missouri Right to the Bottom.” And it was a common refrain from parade-watchers, many of them decked out in brightly colored T-shirts touting their opposition to the “right to work” legislation the Legislature passed this year...
Workers march through Trenton to call for minimum wage hike  NJ.com  ...As the nation recognized Labor Day, workers from across New Jersey marched on Monday through Trenton to show support for raising the minimum wage and other labor issues. With elected officials by their sides, workers from New Jersey's Service Employees International Union marched from Trenton City Hall to the Statehouse, according to an NJTV News report...
Voter ID law still faces pushback after legislative changes  Daily Tar heel ...North Carolina will join more than 30 states requiring some form of ID at the polls when the law goes into effect in 2016. Seven of those states mandate photo ID, while the rest grant exceptions for acceptable excuses or nonphoto ID. North Carolina lawmakers have defined reasonable impediments as including issues with transportation to the polls, a lack of documentation and family responsibilities...
Unions’ ranks grow in right-to-work Arizona  AZ Central  ...Arizona labor unions have something to celebrate this Labor Day, with union membership in the state rising last year for the first time since the start of the recession. Unionized workers rose from 5 percent of the state’s labor force in 2013 to 5.3 percent in 2014, an increase of 16,000 workers over the year to a total of 138,000 union members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Walmart Says Its Reforming Its Brutal Scheduling System, but Workers Tell a Different Story  The Nation  ...Walmart is the American economy’s Invisible Hand, and it giveth and taketh away. So just months after announcing grand plans to give workers raises and better schedules, the mega-retailer appears to be rolling back its generosity, hour by hour. Bloomberg News reports that at various stores workers have seen systematic cutbacks to their schedules...

U.S. Labor
Unions look to bolster numbers, power at Detroit's annual Labor Day parade  Michigan Radio  ...Thousands of union members marched into downtown Detroit Monday as part of the city’s annual Labor Day parade. The UAW is in the midst of bargaining new contracts with Detroit automakers. The current “two-tier” wage system dividing older and newer assembly line workers members is expected to be a central issue, as are health care and profit-sharing...
UAW in no rush to pick contract target from Detroit 3  Detroit Free Press  ...UAW President Dennis Williams said Monday the union is making progress with all three Detroit automakers and is not ready yet to pick a target in its contract negotiations, even though there are only seven days left before contracts expire for about 141,000 autoworkers. Williams, who spoke at the Ford National Program Center near Hart Plaza in Detroit, said he is in no rush to name a lead company...
What The Uber Economy Means For The Future Of Work  Think Progress  ...Rideshare service Uber is facing the possible rupture of its entire business model in a key case that could have even further reaching implications for the U.S. economy. Uber is facing accusations that it illegally misclassifies its drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, therefore ducking responsibility for a variety of schedule and wage protections afforded to employees...
10 times GOP candidates gave labor a giant middle finger  Salon  ...With a crowded field of 17 candidates, the GOP’s 2016 presidential slate features at least two leading Republican candidates who have risen to right-wing notoriety by pushing laws stripping collective bargaining rights from most public employees and another favorite who insists that Americans should just “work longer hours.” And that’s just a start...
Just in Time for Labor Day, NLRB Rules in Favor of Hooters Workers  In These Times ...Just in time for Labor Day, the leading workers’ rights agency within the U.S. government has a tip for the waitresses serving up beer and chicken wings at Hooters. The tip from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is not an extravagant one, nor is it exclusive to the wait staff at Hooters restaurants. Instead, it is a re-affirmation of the labor board’s basic policy that employers cannot use mandatory arbitration agreements to limit the labor rights of employees...
Obama Marks Labor Day With New Order Expanding Paid Sick Leave  Common Dreams  ...President Barack Obama on Monday will issue an executive order expanding paid sick leave for federal contract employees and call on Congress to pass similar legislation, marking Labor Day with a speech at a morning rally in Boston, Massachusetts, where voters recently approved a more worker-friendly policy. The order will require federal contractors to offer one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked...
The media vs. the American worker: How the 1 percent hijacked the business of news  Salon  ...Working people, meanwhile, find themselves lavished with much less attention. And forget about unions, which, even in their diminished state, still represent millions and millions of people. The number of outlets with reporters dedicated to covering labor issues has steadily shrunk in recent years, even as the technological revolution makes an examination of modern-day labor practices more important than ever...
Can Millennials Save Unions?  The Atlantic  ...With irreverent, Internet-fluent headlines, Gawker is seen as a prototypical Millennial media company. For that reason, many saw Gawker’s move as a sign of more to come. “If the unionization effort succeeds, it will be a big PR boost for the ailing labor movement,” wrote Steven Greenhouse, the former labor reporter for The New York Times, on the eve of the vote. “It will show that unions, which have focused in recent years on organizing low-wage workers, can also attract hip, highly educated workers, many of them Ivy League graduates”...

Social Justice & Other News
Immigration reformers seize on Pope Francis’s visit  The Hill  ...Immigration reformers on and off of Capitol Hill are hoping Pope Francis's visit to Washington this month will serve as a catalyst for ending immigrant detentions. The Obama administration has stirred a whirlwind of criticism for expanding its detention of illegal immigrant families in response to last summer's migrant surge — a policy many Democrats and human rights advocates have condemned as harmful to the health of the women and children being held...
Is Southern California the New Deep South?  Slate  ...While the Deep South has moved away from capital punishment, Riverside County, California, has become the buckle of a new Death Belt. An hour’s drive from Los Angeles, with a population of 2.3 million (6 percent of California’s population), Riverside has produced more death sentences since 2010 than any other county in America except one—Los Angeles County, which is four times its size...
Baltimore to pay Freddie Gray's family $6.4m in wrongful death settlement  The Guardian  ...The city of Baltimore says it has reached a $6.4m wrongful death settlement with the family of Freddie Gray, a black man who died after suffering a critical spine injury while in police custody. Gray’s death in April sparked protests, rioting and unrest that shook Baltimore for days. Six Baltimore police officers face criminal charges...