Today's Teamster News 04.14.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Sharon Block Appointment A 'Victory For The Middle Class'  Teamster.org   ...James P. Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on the announcement of Sharon Block’s appointment: "With the announcement of Sharon Block’s installation as Senior Advisor for Labor and Working Families in the White House Office of Public Engagement, the administration has made a real commitment to focusing on the issues that concern middle class Americans"...

Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S. aim for Pacific trade pact progress before summit  Reuters   ...Japanese and U.S. officials will meet from Wednesday in a bid to strike a two-way deal giving momentum to a pan-Pacific free-trade pact, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Success, however, depends on whether the U.S. Congress, which returns from recess this week, approves measures to ease passage of trade deals, or trade promotion authority (TPA)...
Obama’s trade pitch falling flat with Dems  The Hill   ...An aggressive effort by the administration to win support for President Obama’s trade agenda appears to be stuck. As few as 15 House Democrats might vote to give the president fast-track authority, according to dozens of Democratic lawmakers, business group representatives and activists on both sides of the trade fight interviewed by The Hill...
How We Can Hold American Companies that Use Sweatshop Labor Accountable  In These Times   ...Without granting workers of the world legal power in American or international courts, union jobs will continue leaving the United States and they will leave Guatemala or Vietnam if workers unionize there. That legal framework isn’t happening tomorrow and it isn’t happening in the next election cycle. But this is the long-term change to labor law we need if we are to give workers around the world a chance to live dignified lives...
U.S. Government Starts Investigation Of Alleged Subsidies To Gulf Airlines  Dallas Morning News   ...Three federal departments said they’ll review charges by the three biggest U.S. airlines, including American Airlines Group, that three Persian Gulf carriers receive $42 billion in unfair subsidies from their governments...
Fast Track a Bad Deal for Farmers and Our Food System, 110+ groups say  IATP   ...Over 110 farm, food and consumer groups urged members of Congress in a letter today to oppose trade promotion authority or “fast track” legislation that would pave the way for trade agreements detrimental to farmers, ranchers and food systems, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Fast Track To Lost Jobs And Lower Wages  (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...Claims that trade and investment deals would support domestic job creation have proven to be empty promises. Expanding exports alone is not enough to ensure that trade adds jobs to the economy. Increases in U.S. exports tend to create jobs in the United States, but increases in imports lead to job loss--by destroying existing jobs and preventing new job creation...
The Public Deserves to Know Exactly What’s in the Trans-Pacific Partnership  (opinion) Slate  ...In the next few weeks, Congress may give special status to a massive “free trade” treaty that you are not allowed to read. Based on leaks of portions of the deal, however, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) appears to be at least partly a grab bag of special favors for corporate interests—among them the entertainment and pharmaceutical industries—and an end-run around domestic law...

State & Living Wage Battles
Unions, angry Republican voters rally in support of Indiana's wage law  News and Tribune   ...Frank Marshall calls himself a lifelong Republican, but on Monday he stood on the steps of the Statehouse and denounced GOP leaders for their efforts to kill Indiana’s 80-year-old common construction wage. He told about 8,000 protesters that he regretted donations to Republicans who want end the system that sets wages for workers on public projects...
Charleston OKs Support Of Right-To-Work Zones  Journal Gazette and Times-Courier   ...Charleston joined a list of several cities including Clinton and Makanda on Tuesday when it endorsed some governmental reforms proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, including right-to-work zones...
Oregon minimum wage hike debated  The State-Register   ...Proponents of a big increase in Oregon’s minimum wage — potentially raising it to as much as $15 an hour — got the chance to make their case to state lawmakers on Monday. During a packed evening hearing that followed a brief rally inside the Capitol’s rotunda, low-income workers from throughout the state shared stories of struggling to make ends meet...
Legislator Takes Aim At Automated Union Dues  Houston Chronicle   ...A Senate panel on Monday is expected to vote on a bill that would keep most state employees from paying union and other association dues through payroll deductions...
Rally Backs Fines For Employers Paying Less Than $15 An Hour  Hartford Courant   ...Mayors and legislators on Thursday rallied support for a bill that would fine large employers who pay their employees less than $15 an hour to reimburse the cost to the state for social services those employees are using...
Report: US Taxpayers Bear 'Hidden Cost' of Poverty Wages  Common Dreams   ...Stagnant wages and declining employer-provided benefits mean that low-wage workers in the United States are increasingly reliant on federal and state-run public assistance programs...
McMugging The Middle Class: How Corporate Welfare Conquered The American Economy  Salon.com   ...A telling fact: Of the more than 47 million Americans currently receiving food stamps, tens of millions work full time. This is because their jobs at fast food chains such as McDonalds, Dominos and Taco Bell — or at major retailers like Walmart, Target and Rite-Aid — simply don’t pay them enough to support themselves...

U.S. Labor
State AG Probing ‘On-Call’ Shifts’ Impact On Workers  Buffalo News   ...The state Attorney General’s Office is looking into retailers’ use of “on-call shifts,” in which employees are required to check in the night before or even just a few hours ahead of a shift to see if they are needed – and receive no pay if they are told not to show up...
Where The Presidential Candidates Stand On Equal Pay  Think Progress  ...Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, the symbolic day by which women’s earnings catch up to what men earned in a single year last year, given that the gender wage gap means that women who work full-time, year-round made 78 percent of what men make. It also comes as presidential hopefuls are announcing campaigns for 2016, so where do they all stand on this particular issue?...
Can Labor Bring Wall Street Back to Main Street?  The Nation  ...Seven years since Wall Street imploded, it seems the banking sector has rebounded far faster than the communities it has devastated, according to a report published by Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), which builds on a global campaign to advocate for fair labor and corporate accountability in Big Banks...
Bonanza for the Super-Rich: The Fund Managers' Tax Break  (opinion) Truthout.org   ...The reason most of us have seen little gain from economic growth over the last three decades is that the rich have rigged the rules to ensure that money flows upward. Through their control of trade policy, Federal Reserve Board policy, and other key levers of government, they have structured the market to weaken the bargaining power of ordinary workers and benefit the CEOs and Wall Street crew...
1199 Postpones Nursing Home Strike  Hartford Courant  ...One of the state's largest unions has postponed a nursing home strike at the request of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union had voted for a strike against 27 nursing homes, but they have called off the walkout after discussions with Malloy's office...

Local UAW-GM Tiff May Herald Fractious Contract Talks  Wards Auto  ...General Motors and the United Auto Workers resolve a shop-floor dispute at the automaker’s Wentzville, MO, assembly plant, but the underlying tensions that erupted are symptomatic of a rising tide of discontent among workers at GM, Ford and FCA US that will play out during contract negotiations this year...
Kroger Ratifies Agreement with UFCW 227  MarketWatch   ...The Kroger Co. associates working at Kroger in the Louisville division have ratified a new labor agreement with UFCW Local 227. The contract covers nearly 14,000 associates working in 89 stores in the Louisville and Southern Indiana areas...

Miscellaneous
The New Segregation (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as part of his War on Poverty. The law recognized the power of an education to lift any student, regardless of background, out of poverty. But what I and the authors of the ESEA also recognized was that not every student is the same. Low-income, immigrant, or disabled students often require additional supports...
The NSA Wants Tech Companies To Give It 'Front Door' Access To Encrypted Data  The Verge   ...The National Security Agency is embroiled in a battle with tech companies over access to encrypted data that would allow it to spy (more easily) on millions of Americans and international citizens. Last month, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple urged the Obama administration to put an end to the NSA's bulk collection of metadata...

Today's Teamster News 11.03.14

Trade
Republican gains in midterm elections could aid TPP talks  Associated Press   ...Big Republican gains on Election Day would be a blow to much of President Barack Obama’s agenda, but one stymied item on his to-do list might get a fresh chance to move forward: trade. That could breathe life into Asia-Pacific trade talks essential to his efforts to deepen engagement in the region...
U.S. says hard to imagine EU trade deal without investor protection  Reuters   ...European Union lawmakers have said they will reject any Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement that contains investor protections and Germany, the bloc's biggest economy, also opposes such provisions...
State Battles
Taxpayer Dollars Used For Voter Suppression In Milwaukee  Crooks & Liars   ...Republican Milwaukee County Supervisor Deanna Alexander uses taxpayer dollars to falsely inform her constituents that they need photo ID to vote...
War on Workers
Women's Charity Looks into Sweatshop Allegations Over "Feminist" Shirts  Jezebel   ...The Fawcett Society, the women's rights charity responsible for those "This is what a feminist looks like" tees is currently investigating allegations that the shirts were actually made in sweatshop conditions on the island of Mauritius, where workers were paid 62p, about a dollar per hour to make the shirts...
New Wages and Salaries Data from the Employment Cost Index Show Yet Again It’s Not Quite Time To Declare Mission Accomplished  Economic Policy Institute   ... the weak labor market of the last seven years has put enormous downward pressure on wages, and there has been no significant and sustained pickup in nominal wage growth in recent years. Employers still don’t seem to have to offer big wage increases to get and keep the workers they need, when hiring rates and net job creation remain far slower than what’s needed to generate healthy labor market outcomes...
Maine nurse gives ground on Ebola quarantine  USA Today   ...Kaci Hickox also said on NBC's Meet the Press that she would not go into town or into public places during the 21-day incubation period that will end Nov. 10...
Consumers wasted at least $300 million paying for AT&T’s ‘unlimited’ data  Washington Post   ...the Federal Trade Commission is suing AT&T for how it treats its unlimited data customers. Despite paying for an unlimited plan, these subscribers had their mobile Internet slowed to dial-up speeds, or "throttled," once AT&T decided they had surfed the Web too much....Tens of thousands of consumers have complained about the practice...
The New Loan Sharks   Jacobin   ... salary lending has expanded, but under a different name: payday lending, a wildly lucrative industry that occupies more storefronts than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. These new loan sharks operate under the same logic as salary lenders, but specifically target more vulnerable populations like welfare recipients, and are armed with new techniques to squeeze as much surplus as possible from debtors...
Worker killed in truck accident at dairy plant  WNDU.com   ...Authorities in western Michigan say that a worker was killed when a tractor-trailer ran over him at the loading dock of a dairy plant...

Today's Teamster News 01.08.13

Teamster UPS Freight Local Union Leaders Recommend New Tentative Agreement  teamster.org   ...Teamster Local Union leaders representing UPS Freight workers across the country endorsed a new tentative national agreement that would provide for major economic improvements and protect work and jobs at a time when most LTL companies are cutting wages and benefits...
New Safety Recommendations for Maintenance of Way Rail Employees  teamster.org   ...The Fatality Analysis of Maintenance of Way Employees and Signalmen (FAMES) Committee has released a report on its analysis of “Fatal Accidents occurring under Train Approach Warning (Watchmen/Lookout Protection), and includes specific recommendations to improve safety...
Retirement Shouldn’t Be Sacrificed for Corporate Welfare  teamster.org   ...“The absolute last thing we should do … is allow [Social Security] to begin to be dismantled inch by inch.”...
Teamsters Continue to Stand in Solidarity with Korean Railway Workers  teamster.org   ...Teamsters are standing in solidarity with Korean workers as they prepare for general strikes on January 9 and 16...
Angry Workers Swarm Seoul’s Streets, Demand President Resign  In These Times   ...South Korea may best be known for slick electronics and saccharine pop tunes. Instead, the streets were filled with throngs of angry union workers, facing down riot police in a show of defiance against a government plan that they say would lead to layoffs and privatization...
Scalia’s golden chance to kill unions The Salon   ...A "sweeping" ruling could force right to work on every U.S. public sector worker, Harvard's Ben Sachs warns...
Senate moves ahead with measure to extend long-term unemployment benefits  Washington Post   ...The Senate voted Tuesday to move ahead with a measure to extend long-term federal unemployment benefits to more than 1 million Americans for three months…
What happened to US life expectancy?  Incidental Economist   ...Possible causes of this departure from international norms were highlighted in a 2013 Institute of Medicine report and have been ascribed to many factors, only some of which are attributed to medical care financing or delivery. These include differences in cultural norms that affect healthy behaviors (gun ownership, unprotected sex, drug use, seat belts), obesity, and risk of trauma...
Letter to My Elected Officials Regarding "Fast Track" on TPP (opinion)  OpEd News   ...The exclamation point on the demise of democracy in the once Superpower may well be the Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP, which has been devised by 600+ corporate attorneys, and will be monitored by the same, behind those closed doors that even YOU, our elected official, has been shut from knowing what is contained in the document, said to be some 26 Chapters with only three (3) having to do with "trade"...
Leaked Email Exposes Bank Of America's Social Media Spies  Popular Resistance   ...An email uncovered through a Washington state public records request has confirmed the existence of a Bank of America “social media trolling” spy team, used to carry out surveillance on multiple political groups...
JP Morgan Pulled $275 Million Of Its Own Money From Madoff Feeder Funds Months Before His Arrest  Business Insider   ...JP Morgan was aware of the Ponzi scheme before Madoff's arrest...
Boeing reports record orders and deliveries for 2013 BBC News   ...Boeing reports record orders and deliveries last year, showing they can definitely pay their workers more...
The U.S. Government Uses Sweatshops, Too  In These Times ...The collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh last April exposed the cruel link between abusive Global South factories and the Western brands they supply. But while consumers may have been shocked to learn of the Gap or Benetton's latest designs strewn amid the wreckage of “death trap” factories, they might have missed that much of the clothing churned out by overseas sweatshops is custom-made for Uncle Sam...
America declared an ‘unconditional war on poverty’ 50 years ago, but you’d never know it  The Guardian   ...This 8 January marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s declaration of “unconditional war on poverty.” But a half century later, it’s time to re-examine the case Johnson made in 1964 for remedying poverty in America...
Workplace Deaths Among Miners Rose In 2013  ThinkProgress   ...The number of deaths among miners caused by work-related accidents in 2013 increased to 42 last year, up from 36 in 2012, according to the latest Department of Labor (DOL) data...
Retirement Theft in 4 Despicable Steps  AlterNet   ...American workers are being cheated out of the retirement they've paid for all their lives...
Koch-backed political coalition, designed to shield donors, raised $400 million in 2012  Washington Post   ...The political network spearheaded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch has expanded into a far-reaching operation of unrivaled complexity, built around a maze of groups that cloaks its donors…
Here’s Why Some Of The World’s Billionaires Dislike Pope Francis  carbonated.tv   ...How long were the rich going to remain silent and let the Pope Francis attack capitalism and consumerism? Not long. Billionaire feathers have been ruffled and they are making it known...
Wisconsin Lawmaker Wants To Take Away Workers’ Weekends  ThinkProgress   ...Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R) is pushing to undo the state’s law that employers have to provide their employees with at least one day off a week, the Huffington Post reports...
Oklahoma labor commissioner opposes OSHA proposal  Kansas City Star   ...Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Mark Costello will testify against a proposed federal regulation made by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that Costello says is "fraught with peril."...

Today's Teamster News 01.07.13

Teamsters Urged To Boycott Yuengling Beer  teamster.org   ...The General Executive Board recently voted to support a Teamsters Union boycott of Yuengling beer over the owner’s push for anti-union laws...
Hampton selectmen, Teamsters reach tentative contract agreement  SeacoastOnline   ...The town will vote on a new contract with the Teamsters in March, after the selectmen and union ratified a tentative agreement Monday night...
Contract deal averts strike at Minnesota oil refinery  Grand Forks Herald   ...Contract negotiators reached agreement on a new three-year contract for St. Paul Park oil refinery workers, who are represented by Teamsters Local 120, hours before a threatened strike was to begin...
Hoffa: Just Like With NAFTA, Fast Track is the Wrong Track for TPP  Huffington Post   ...Teamsters President James P. Hoffa says Congress should learn from the mistakes it made during the passage of NAFTA 20 years ago, including the approval of fast-track authority that limited debate and prevented amendments to the trade agreement. As the fast track discussion begins anew on Capitol Hill, now is the time for lawmakers to take a different path to ensure fair trade...
Japan, U.S. may meet to discuss TPP on fringes of Davos forum  global post   ..."Unless Japan and the United States make certain progress within January, it will be difficult to finalize the whole (negotiations)," Amari told a press conference in Tokyo...
Americans Suffer After Failure to Extend Emergency Unemployment Benefits  U.S. Department of Labor   ...Want to know how this failure is affecting families near you? Here are the latest state-by-state estimates of people who have been impacted, or will be in the near future...
Why the U.S. Oil Boom may go off the Rails  Oil Price   ...Lawmakers and U.S. regulators began asking questions about the safety of transporting oil on the nation's rail system following a December derailment in North Dakota. The emerging anxiety about midstream issues may create new problems for U.S. oil...
Exclusive: Permit Shows Bakken Shale Oil in Casselton Train Explosion Contained High Levels of Volatile Chemicals  DeSmog Blog   ...On January 2, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a major safety alert, declaring oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") in the Bakken Shale may be more chemically explosive than the agency or industry previously admitted publicly. This alert came three days after the massive Casselton, ND explosion of a freight rail train owned by Warren Buffett's Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and was the first time the U.S. Department of Transportation agency ever made such a statement about Bakken crude...
Forever Temp?  In These Times   ...Not only has temporary employment expanded into sectors that used to be sources of stable full-time employment, he says, but it’s often no longer really temporary. Some temps are brought on for only days or weeks, others work for years at the same plant through the same agency...
Click farms are the new sweatshops  Washington Post   ...Online “popularity” is a commodity, and of course it comes from Bangladesh...
JPMorgan Nears $2 Billion Deal Over Involvement With Madoff  Reuters   ...JPMorgan Chase & Co is reportedly nearing a $2 billion settlement with federal authorities to resolve suspicions that the bank ignored signs of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme...
French workers at Goodyear tyre plant take bosses captive  The Guardian   ...Workers at a French tyre factory threatened with closure have taken two company executives hostage and promised to hold them until given "enormous amounts of money"...
The Last Great Class Equalizer In New York Faces A Tech Threat  Huffington Post   ...Here in New York City, where rising income inequality lets the super-rich frolic while the super-poor despair, laundry is one of the few remaining class equalizers...
Former ALEC tactician Robert King among finalists for UW System presidency  The Cap Times   ...Is a former politician and American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) captain on education reform a good fit for president of the University of Wisconsin System?...
As Session Opens, Missouri Legislature May Refight Old Battles But Resolve Some New Ones  St. Louis Public Radio   ...Jones said in an interview that he also plans to seek House passage of a “right-to-work’’ bill to bar unions and employers from requiring workers to join a union, and pay dues, if a majority of the employees votes for representation. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who presides over the state Senate, says he strongly supports such a move.  A debate over union rights would likely ensnare the state Senate in a filibuster by the Democratic minority...