TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Despite Deal, Resistance to TPP Grows in All Corners Huffington Post ...We know a bad deal when we see one and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) just announced in Atlanta sure looks like one. Hundreds of Teamsters were joined in the streets of Atlanta this past week by other fair trade advocates sticking up for everyday Americans who could be damaged by the TPP. Unfortunately, negotiators from the U.S. and the other involved nations did not listen...
Shuttle Drivers with Dollar Thrifty Choose Teamsters Local 299 Teamster.org ...Detroit shuttle drivers with Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings, have voted to join the Teamsters. The 15 shuttle drivers transport passengers to and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the rental car facility. They united seeking respect and the protections of a union contract...
Tentative Agreement Reached for Teamster Flight Attendants at NetJets Teamster.org ...In a message to Teamster flight attendants at NetJets Aviation (NJA) this week, Teamsters Local 284 President Paul Suffoletto announced that a tentative agreement covering NJA’s 278 flight attendants had been reached. As with any tentative agreement, there’s still work to be done to finalize the definitions, develop implementation timelines and transition agreements, create explanatory materials, and proof and clean up the language before it is submitted to the flight attendants for a ratification...
Illinois Training Center Goes Extra Mile Teamster.org ...Talking with Mike Borjas, the director of the Illinois Teamsters Joint Council No. 25 Employers Apprenticeship and Training Fund in Joliet, Illinois, you’d think that he was drawing up a lesson plan for training military personnel. But, his goal is providing the best training for Teamsters working in the construction trades as he can. Fortunately for the union, he is accomplishing this every day...
Bid to unionize Uber, Lyft advances Seattle Times ...Seattle City Council members voted 7-0 in a committee Friday to move ahead with a bill that would help independent-contractor drivers for companies like Uber to unionize. The bill, championed by Councilmember Mike O’Brien in partnership with the Teamsters Local 117, is a new approach by labor organizers to unionize workers who lack certain rights because they’re not classified as employees...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Pacific Rim trade pact gets skeptical greeting in U.S. Congress Reuters ...A 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact hammered out over the weekend in Atlanta got a rocky response in Washington on Monday from U.S. lawmakers, indicating it has a long, difficult road ahead as Congress considers whether or not to approve it. Even influential Republicans, who had championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), initially criticized the result but didn't pinpoint specific concerns...
Republicans Sour on Obama's Trade Pact The Atlantic ...Having secured a landmark trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, President Obama is now relying on trade-loving Republicans to ratify it in Congress. But as details of the pact emerge, the chances of widespread GOP support are dicier than they once were. Senior Republicans have long been the loudest cheerleaders for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yet on Monday those same Republicans criticized the very deal that they gave Obama the power to strike...
Sanders Condemns 'Disastrous' TPP as Ministers Seal Deal for Corporate Elite Common Dreams ...Amid a last minute scramble, leaders from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries announced Monday that they had reached agreement on a sweeping trade deal, one that critics, including US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, say will slash standards and protections for both consumers and workers—with impacts to be felt across the globe...
Will Hillary Clinton flip on trade? Politico ...As much as she might want it, Hillary Clinton won’t get a free pass on free trade. Clinton has presented herself as a skeptic of the biggest trade deal in recent history, saying this summer that “we should be prepared to walk away” from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership unless it boosts Americans’ wages and national security. But with a deal announced Monday after months of backstage wrangling, she will be under intense pressure to take a stance...
Trade Officials Announce Conclusion of TPP—Now the Real Fight Begins (opinion) EFF ...Trade officials have announced today that they have reached a final deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Their announcement came after a drawn out round of negotiation in Atlanta, Georgia, which was mainly held up around disagreements over medicine patent rules and tariffs over autos and dairy. We have no reason to believe that the TPP has improved much at all from the last leaked version released in August...
Air France Workers Rip Shirts From Top Managers in Jobs Protest Bloomberg ...Air France executives were forced to flee with their clothes in tatters after workers stormed a meeting at Charles de Gaulle airport in protest at 2,900 planned job cuts. Violence erupted Monday as Air France told its works council that 300 pilots, 900 flight attendants and 1,700 ground staff might have to go after failed productivity talks with flight crew...
Outrage Stirred as Police Deploy Snipers to 'Observe' Anti-Austerity March in UK Common Dreams ...As the national Conservative Party in the U.K. held its annual meeting in Manchester over the weekend, an anti-austerity demonstration against the ruling party's economic policies attracted not only tens of thousands of people to march peacefully... but a few police snipers to keep "watch" over those who oppose the government's gutting of the public sector...
South Africa: 30,000 Miners Strike Over Pay Demand Morning Star ...Some 30,000 South African coalminers downed tools on Sunday night after cross-sector pay talks broke down. Conciliation came to an abrupt end last week when parties could not reach an agreement over demands by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) demand for a 1,000 rand (£48) rise for the lowest paid workers and 14 per cent for artisans, miners and officials...
Indigenous Communities Seek Autonomous Development Projects in Guatemala Truthout ...As Guatemala faces its greatest political crisis since the 1980s, behind the scenes, plans for the United States' Alliance for Prosperity continue to move along. The expansion of hydroelectric construction projects and the further integration of electric grids are central to the plan, yet these projects threaten indigenous communities' land rights...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Maine Governor Revives Old Rule To Punish Poor People For Saving Money Think Progress ...Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has already knocked tens of thousands of people of his state’s food stamps rolls through a variety of stringent new rules for the program, but he’s not done. At a hearing Tuesday, state officials will lay out a new barrier to entry for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applicants that most other states have abandoned in recent years...
Opponents ask court to relax Wisconsin voter ID requirements Journal Sentinel ...Opponents of Wisconsin's voter identification law argued in federal court Monday that the legislation is improperly restrictive and should be expanded to allow people to use more forms of ID. The case represents the latest push from the American Civil Liberties Union against a law that has been the focus of a string of legal battles since it was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker four years ago...
Hearing set on Voter ID legal challenge Winston-Salem Journal ...The voter ID law will be back in federal court later this month. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder plans to hold a hearing Oct. 23 to get an update on efforts to settle the legal claims against the photo ID requirement. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s Voter Information Verification Act...
These Lawmakers Want D.C. To Be The First City To Guarantee Paid Family Leave Think Progress ...On Tuesday, seven city councilmembers in the District of Columbia will introduce a paid family leave bill that would create the most progressive system in the country and serve as a model for other cities that might be interested in paid leave. If it eventually gets passed and signed into law, it would be the first city-level program in the country...
Alabama ‘clarifies’ voter ID confusion (opinion) Boston Globe ...If anyone still doubts that the Republican push for voter identification is really about limiting the franchise of Democratic voters — and in particular African-American voters — the state of Alabama has helpfully cleared up the confusion. In 2014, Alabama passed a law that required all of its citizens have a photo ID in order to vote...
U.S. LABOR
Adjuncts Win Union Contract at Maryland Institute College of Art In These Times ...The national movement to unionize part-time faculty at U.S. colleges and universities has secured an initial beachhead in the Baltimore area with ratification of a first contract between Service Employees International Union Local 500 and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Voting on the ratification concluded in mid-September and a formal signing ceremony for the pact is set for October 8, labor representatives report...
We must despise our kids: Our ugly war on teachers must end now Salon ...With September’s data in, we can see how many teachers went back to school this year. And Gould finds that the tremendous gap that opened up when local budgets crashed during the recession has not come close to being filled. At the peak, we had 8.1 million public K-12 education teachers and staff in July 2008. Seven years later, we have far less, 7.8 million, despite a larger population of students that need to be served...
Contra Costa County Nurses Begin Two-Day Strike Tues. Oct 6 IndyBay ...Nurses who work at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and clinics across the County will officially begin a two-day strike Tuesday, October 6, after what nurses say is the County’s continued failure to address serious patient care concerns. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents almost 1,000 County registered nurses, nurse practitioners and public health nurses, called on the County to immediately improve working conditions...
Supreme Court ‘right-to-work’ case could speed decline of unions Al Jazeera ...The Supreme Court will soon take up a case that could impose a de facto “right-to-work” rule across the public sector, eliminating public employee unions’ ability to require fees from nonmembers and, labor leaders say, threatening the unions’ survival. Labor officials often complain that right-to-work rules create a “free rider” problem...
UAW pledges new approach to members for FCA deal Detroit News ...United Auto Workers leaders are promising to handle a second round of contract talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV differently than the first discussions that culminated with membership overwhelmingly voting down a tentative four-year deal. In separate messages published online Monday, UAW President Dennis Williams and Vice President Norwood Jewell said they will not only address members’ issues with the contract itself, but communicate better...
Deere deal: Did UAW workers come out ahead? Des Moines Register ...United Auto Workers voted Sunday to ratify a six-year contract with Deere & Co., deciding that a modest pay bump and increased job security outweighed increases in their medical costs. The Moline, Ill.-based maker of iconic farm and construction equipment said the United Auto Workers union notified the company...
A Union Leader Who Always Knew Which Side He Was On The Nation ...Marty Beil knew which side he was on. He was a union man. Indeed, as Congressman Mark Pocan noted after Beil’s death last week at age 68, “Marty embodied the longstanding Wisconsin tradition of fighting for workers’ rights and protections.” Beil’s commitment to trade unionism was old-school and unequivocal. He was ready to bargain; but if the deal was no good, he took the fight to the streets...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Infrastructure Creaks, Congress Dithers Wall Street Journal ...Back in July, Congress failed, once again, to pass a long-term highway bill to make improvements in the nation’s transportation system. Instead of funding big infrastructure needs with a multiyear plan, as once was the norm in Washington, lawmakers passed a bill covering a grand total of three months—the 34th time since 2009 Congress has passed a temporary Band-Aid...
'Once-In-A-Millenium' Flooding Creates 'Otherworldly Scenes' in South Carolina Common Dreams ...South Carolina's once-in-a-millennium flooding this weekend left at least seven people dead and much of the state paralyzed—and as rains continued into Monday morning, officials warned that the deluge is likely to worsen. Climate scientists have linked South Carolina's catastrophic rains to climate change. "Joaquin has been traveling over a record-warm ocean surface and undoubtedly that has contributed to its rapid intensification," Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told The Huffington Post...
War Crime in Afghanistan?: Outrage After U.S. Airstrike on Hospital Kills 22 Patients & Staff Democracy Now ...Doctors Without Borders is demanding an independent international inquiry into a U.S. airstrike Saturday on an Afghan hospital in the city of Kunduz that killed 22 people, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, three of them children. At least three dozen people were injured. The attack continued for 30 minutes after the U.S. and Afghan militaries were informed by telephone that the hospital was being bombed...
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Friday, June 26, 2015
Today Teamster News 06.26.15
Teamsters
SEIRPC board OKs Teamsters contract The Hawk Eye ...The Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commissions approved a three-year contract with the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local Union No. 238, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, at Wednesday's executive board meeting in West Burlington. The contract will need final approval by the full board at its July meeting. The contract includes a 3 percent increase in wages for each of the next three years for SEIBUS drivers and a maintenance manager...
GOP measure would permit longer tandem trucks Associated Press ...Over the objections of safety advocates, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a trucking industry bid to allow longer tandem trucks on the nation's highways. Pushing the measure were large trucking operations that stand to profit from lower costs. In opposition were unions such as the Teamsters, many states and local governments, and safety advocates. Many smaller trucking companies were against it as well...
Teamster Officers Training Being Held in Missouri Teamster.org ...A Teamsters officers’ training is being held today and Friday, June 26, at the Teamsters Complex in Kansas City, Mo. More than 50 Teamster officers are gathered to take part in the program that is hosted by Teamsters Joint Council 56 and Joint Council 56 President Jim Kabell and coordinated by the IBT Training and Development Department...
Global Labor & Trade
House completes Obama’s trade items as Pacific pact looms Washington Post ...The Republican-led Congress rounded out President Barack Obama’s trade package Thursday, overwhelmingly passing a worker training program just weeks after it was stymied. The House voted 286 to 138 to renew the program for workers displaced by international trade. Obama had said he wanted to sign that bill alongside the “fast track” negotiating authority that Congress approved a day earlier...
Congress approves assistance for workers who lose jobs to trade LA Times ...Congress gave final approval Thursday to a program that provides funds for retraining workers who lose their jobs to overseas trade, a key component of President Obama's trade agenda. The Trade Adjustment Assistance bill, which is now on its way to the White House, became tangled in a political debate over giving the administration fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals...
Obama Bolsters His Leverage With Trade Victory, but at a Cost New York Times ...President Obama’s success in rescuing his high-priority trade legislation from a rebellion by fellow Democrats strengthens his hand internationally and paves the way for completion of the most expansive economic agreement in generations. While the turbulent process was embarrassing for the president and deeply confusing for foreign negotiating partners, Mr. Obama now has the leverage he sought to force the final concessions needed to wrap up a free-trade pact...
Democrats Mend Fences After Bloody Trade Fight National Journal ...After weeks of all-out fighting over President Obama's trade agenda—and a bitter defeat for its Democratic opponents—the combatants in the House Democratic Caucus are ready to bury the hatchet. That doesn't mean Democrats are done fighting over trade. TPA prevents Congress from amending the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, but members will still get an up-or-down vote when the 12-nation trade deal is completed...
Sen. Stabenow Calls for Voluntary Country-of-Origin Labels on Meat Wall Street Journal ...U.S. lawmakers are weighing the fate of country-of-origin labels, known as COOL, after the World Trade Organization said in May that the existing requirement discriminates against animals from Canada and Mexico. Following their win at the WTO, both Canada and Mexico are now threatening retaliatory measures totaling more than a combined $3 billion. Canada has threatened trade restrictions on a range of U.S. products...
The Fight for Fair Trade: How Far We've Come, How Much Further We Will Go (opinion) Huffington Post ...After a long, arduous fight, Congress passed legislation that will put harmful trade pacts on the fast track. Now our job is to put aside this momentary loss, build on the incredible momentum we have created in the fight for fair and responsible trade, and shift focus to the even bigger fights ahead. We must now focus on defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
In China, Walmart Is Unionized, But Workers Have No Power on the Job In These Times ...Walmart has succeeded in meeting the Chinese government’s demands that the company allow unions to be formally established, but this has not translated into any effective collective bargaining power for some 107,000 workers at the company’s 411 Chinese stores, says Han Dongfang, Executive Director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin...
State & Living Wage Battles
New Mexico Will Make It Even Harder To Get Food Stamps Think Progress ...With an unemployment rate well above the national average and more than one in four of its children on the brink of hunger, New Mexico is poised to make it harder to get food stamps. Like most other states, New Mexico has waived federal work requirements tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since about 2009. The work rules are designed to lapse when the unemployment is severe, since requiring people to find work or starve makes little sense when there’s no work to be had...
Connecticut Just Passed a Law Requiring Bosses Who Steal Workers’ Wages to Pay Them Back Double In These Times ...For many employers, wage theft makes good business sense. The probability of getting caught refusing to pay a worker overtime, shaving hours off their check or paying less than the minimum wage is low. This Wednesday, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 914, a measure that will allow victims of wage theft to collect double the amount due them...
W.Va. governor: No prevailing wage July 1 due to lawmakers Herald-Dispatch ...Blaming inaction by state lawmakers, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration says the state's prevailing wage will disappear July 1 for a short-term lapse that is creating uncertainty for the construction industry. On Thursday, the Democratic governor's spokesman, Chris Stadelman, said WorkForce West Virginia couldn't calculate the rate for public construction projects by July 1...
Lawsuit aims to declare Nevada minimum wage unconstitutional Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Several Nevada businesses are asking a federal judge to declare the state’s minimum wage law unconstitutional. According to a recent fact sheet prepared by a Legislative Counsel Bureau researcher, an amendment to the Nevada Constitution to raise the minimum wage paid to employees was approved by voters in 2004 and was reaffirmed in 2006. The 2006 voter-approved amendment requires the minimum wage to be recalculated each year...
Maine House members launching push to impeach LePage Bangor Daily News ...Six lawmakers said Thursday they will attempt to launch impeachment proceedings against Republican Gov. Paul LePage for his alleged role in pushing Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves out of a new job at Good Will-Hinckley School. The House of Representatives has “sole power of impeachment” according to Article 4 of the Maine Constitution...
U.S. Labor
Truckers end protest over terminal wait time at Port of New Orleans NOLA.com The independent truck drivers who protested outside the Port of New Orleans this week returned to work Thursday morning (June 25) after reaching an agreement with terminal operators and local trucking companies that satisfied part of their demands. As part of the deal, drivers said the local trucking companies that hire them have agreed to pay them $40 to transport each damaged shipping container to a repair facility...
More Than 9,000 Santa Clara County SEIU Union Workers Vote to Strike Over "Unfair Labor" Practices NBC ...More than 9,000 Santa Clara County union workers voted on Wednesday to authorize a strike next week over what they say are unfair labor practices – the first time in more than four decades. SEIU 521 spokeswoman Khanh Weinberg said that 97 percent of the union members comprising of 911 dispatchers, janitors, librarians and nurses, voted to authorize the strike on Tuesday. Workers voted to hold an "open-ended" strike with no end date...
Ford, UAW talking in advance of contract talks NWI Times ...Ford and the United Auto Workers union have been talking before upcoming contract negotiations, which should officially start next month. The UAW represents about 5,000 workers locally at the Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch and the Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights. The union hopes to boost pay and eliminate a two-tier system where newer workers make less to do the same job as more senior employees...
State, AFSCME OK ongoing talks without lockout or strike News & Observer ...Negotiations on a contract with Illinois' largest public employee union will continue without the possibility of a strike or lockout for one month after the contract expires next week. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, released a statement Thursday about the agreement. The idea is to let both sides negotiate in July without the threat of disruption of public services. The statement says "all legal and contractual" rights will be preserved...
Miscellaneous
Senate Recommends $1.7 Billion In Education Cuts Think Progress ...The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a labor, health and education bill for the next fiscal year out of committee Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education would lose $1.7 billion in the Senate spending bill compared to its current funding levels. Those cuts were significantly less than the House Appropriations Committee, which cut the department by $2.8 billion...
In Surprise Decision, SCOTUS Rules Against Discriminatory Housing Practices Common Dreams ...In a decision applauded by housing and civil rights groups on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) allows people to pursue lawsuits when a housing practice has a discriminatory effect, even if that practice wasn't intended to discriminate—an effect known as "disparate impact"...
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling The Guardian ...Same-sex marriages are now legal across the entirety of the United States after a historic supreme court ruling that declared attempts by conservative states to ban them unconstitutional. In what may prove the most important civil rights case in a generation, five of the nine court justices determined that the right to marriage equality was enshrined under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment...
"Slavery Deeply Embedded" in South Carolina: Emanuel AME Church on Street Named for Racist Lawmaker Democracy Now ...When Rev. Clementa Pinckney lay in state at the Capitol this week, his body had to be brought past the Confederate flag that still flies there and is the symbol embraced by his killer, Dylann Roof. The Emanuel AME Church in Charleston is located on Calhoun Street, named for one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history, the late Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, who argued slavery was a "positive good" rather than a "necessary evil"...
Separate Attacks Leave One Dead in France and Dozens Killed in Tunisia Common Dreams ...Violence was making global news headlines in two countries on Friday as an earlier attack on a U.S.-owned gas plant in France was later overshadowed by an attack on a hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, where nearly thirty people are reported dead. The Associated Press reports on the attacks in Tunisia: "Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that one of the two beachside hotels where tourists were shot in Tunisia, killing at least 27 people, is owned by a Spanish company"...
SEIRPC board OKs Teamsters contract The Hawk Eye ...The Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commissions approved a three-year contract with the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local Union No. 238, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, at Wednesday's executive board meeting in West Burlington. The contract will need final approval by the full board at its July meeting. The contract includes a 3 percent increase in wages for each of the next three years for SEIBUS drivers and a maintenance manager...
GOP measure would permit longer tandem trucks Associated Press ...Over the objections of safety advocates, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a trucking industry bid to allow longer tandem trucks on the nation's highways. Pushing the measure were large trucking operations that stand to profit from lower costs. In opposition were unions such as the Teamsters, many states and local governments, and safety advocates. Many smaller trucking companies were against it as well...
Teamster Officers Training Being Held in Missouri Teamster.org ...A Teamsters officers’ training is being held today and Friday, June 26, at the Teamsters Complex in Kansas City, Mo. More than 50 Teamster officers are gathered to take part in the program that is hosted by Teamsters Joint Council 56 and Joint Council 56 President Jim Kabell and coordinated by the IBT Training and Development Department...
Global Labor & Trade
House completes Obama’s trade items as Pacific pact looms Washington Post ...The Republican-led Congress rounded out President Barack Obama’s trade package Thursday, overwhelmingly passing a worker training program just weeks after it was stymied. The House voted 286 to 138 to renew the program for workers displaced by international trade. Obama had said he wanted to sign that bill alongside the “fast track” negotiating authority that Congress approved a day earlier...
Congress approves assistance for workers who lose jobs to trade LA Times ...Congress gave final approval Thursday to a program that provides funds for retraining workers who lose their jobs to overseas trade, a key component of President Obama's trade agenda. The Trade Adjustment Assistance bill, which is now on its way to the White House, became tangled in a political debate over giving the administration fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals...
Obama Bolsters His Leverage With Trade Victory, but at a Cost New York Times ...President Obama’s success in rescuing his high-priority trade legislation from a rebellion by fellow Democrats strengthens his hand internationally and paves the way for completion of the most expansive economic agreement in generations. While the turbulent process was embarrassing for the president and deeply confusing for foreign negotiating partners, Mr. Obama now has the leverage he sought to force the final concessions needed to wrap up a free-trade pact...
Democrats Mend Fences After Bloody Trade Fight National Journal ...After weeks of all-out fighting over President Obama's trade agenda—and a bitter defeat for its Democratic opponents—the combatants in the House Democratic Caucus are ready to bury the hatchet. That doesn't mean Democrats are done fighting over trade. TPA prevents Congress from amending the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, but members will still get an up-or-down vote when the 12-nation trade deal is completed...
Sen. Stabenow Calls for Voluntary Country-of-Origin Labels on Meat Wall Street Journal ...U.S. lawmakers are weighing the fate of country-of-origin labels, known as COOL, after the World Trade Organization said in May that the existing requirement discriminates against animals from Canada and Mexico. Following their win at the WTO, both Canada and Mexico are now threatening retaliatory measures totaling more than a combined $3 billion. Canada has threatened trade restrictions on a range of U.S. products...
The Fight for Fair Trade: How Far We've Come, How Much Further We Will Go (opinion) Huffington Post ...After a long, arduous fight, Congress passed legislation that will put harmful trade pacts on the fast track. Now our job is to put aside this momentary loss, build on the incredible momentum we have created in the fight for fair and responsible trade, and shift focus to the even bigger fights ahead. We must now focus on defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
In China, Walmart Is Unionized, But Workers Have No Power on the Job In These Times ...Walmart has succeeded in meeting the Chinese government’s demands that the company allow unions to be formally established, but this has not translated into any effective collective bargaining power for some 107,000 workers at the company’s 411 Chinese stores, says Han Dongfang, Executive Director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin...
State & Living Wage Battles
New Mexico Will Make It Even Harder To Get Food Stamps Think Progress ...With an unemployment rate well above the national average and more than one in four of its children on the brink of hunger, New Mexico is poised to make it harder to get food stamps. Like most other states, New Mexico has waived federal work requirements tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since about 2009. The work rules are designed to lapse when the unemployment is severe, since requiring people to find work or starve makes little sense when there’s no work to be had...
Connecticut Just Passed a Law Requiring Bosses Who Steal Workers’ Wages to Pay Them Back Double In These Times ...For many employers, wage theft makes good business sense. The probability of getting caught refusing to pay a worker overtime, shaving hours off their check or paying less than the minimum wage is low. This Wednesday, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 914, a measure that will allow victims of wage theft to collect double the amount due them...
W.Va. governor: No prevailing wage July 1 due to lawmakers Herald-Dispatch ...Blaming inaction by state lawmakers, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration says the state's prevailing wage will disappear July 1 for a short-term lapse that is creating uncertainty for the construction industry. On Thursday, the Democratic governor's spokesman, Chris Stadelman, said WorkForce West Virginia couldn't calculate the rate for public construction projects by July 1...
Lawsuit aims to declare Nevada minimum wage unconstitutional Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Several Nevada businesses are asking a federal judge to declare the state’s minimum wage law unconstitutional. According to a recent fact sheet prepared by a Legislative Counsel Bureau researcher, an amendment to the Nevada Constitution to raise the minimum wage paid to employees was approved by voters in 2004 and was reaffirmed in 2006. The 2006 voter-approved amendment requires the minimum wage to be recalculated each year...
Maine House members launching push to impeach LePage Bangor Daily News ...Six lawmakers said Thursday they will attempt to launch impeachment proceedings against Republican Gov. Paul LePage for his alleged role in pushing Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves out of a new job at Good Will-Hinckley School. The House of Representatives has “sole power of impeachment” according to Article 4 of the Maine Constitution...
U.S. Labor
Truckers end protest over terminal wait time at Port of New Orleans NOLA.com The independent truck drivers who protested outside the Port of New Orleans this week returned to work Thursday morning (June 25) after reaching an agreement with terminal operators and local trucking companies that satisfied part of their demands. As part of the deal, drivers said the local trucking companies that hire them have agreed to pay them $40 to transport each damaged shipping container to a repair facility...
More Than 9,000 Santa Clara County SEIU Union Workers Vote to Strike Over "Unfair Labor" Practices NBC ...More than 9,000 Santa Clara County union workers voted on Wednesday to authorize a strike next week over what they say are unfair labor practices – the first time in more than four decades. SEIU 521 spokeswoman Khanh Weinberg said that 97 percent of the union members comprising of 911 dispatchers, janitors, librarians and nurses, voted to authorize the strike on Tuesday. Workers voted to hold an "open-ended" strike with no end date...
Ford, UAW talking in advance of contract talks NWI Times ...Ford and the United Auto Workers union have been talking before upcoming contract negotiations, which should officially start next month. The UAW represents about 5,000 workers locally at the Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch and the Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights. The union hopes to boost pay and eliminate a two-tier system where newer workers make less to do the same job as more senior employees...
State, AFSCME OK ongoing talks without lockout or strike News & Observer ...Negotiations on a contract with Illinois' largest public employee union will continue without the possibility of a strike or lockout for one month after the contract expires next week. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, released a statement Thursday about the agreement. The idea is to let both sides negotiate in July without the threat of disruption of public services. The statement says "all legal and contractual" rights will be preserved...
Showing Solidarity with Ink Master Workers AFL-CIO ...Workers at "Ink Master" voted overwhelmingly for a union last year. Since then, Original Media, the master behind "Ink Master," has refused to bargain in good faith with the Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO. Original Media is being investigated currently by the National Labor Relations Board for failing to bargain in good faith...
Inside the Growing Movement to Unionize Charter Schools The American Prospect ...The labor struggle happening in Los Angeles mirrors a growing number of efforts taking place at charter schools around the country, where most teachers work with no job security on year-to-year contracts. For teachers, unions, and charter school advocates, the moment is fraught with challenges. Traditional unions are grappling with how they can both organize charter teachers and still work politically to curb charter expansion...
Diversifying labor ‘one way or the other’ St. Louis American ...Attendees gave a nod to union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA), who passed a “Black Lives Matter” resolution at their national convention on June 10 to address the issues of “systematic racism” in the United States. “Part of our goal in passing the resolution is to start active members of CWA talking about these issues,” said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA Local 6355. “That has already started. I think it deepened our commitment towards working for racial justice”...
Inside the Growing Movement to Unionize Charter Schools The American Prospect ...The labor struggle happening in Los Angeles mirrors a growing number of efforts taking place at charter schools around the country, where most teachers work with no job security on year-to-year contracts. For teachers, unions, and charter school advocates, the moment is fraught with challenges. Traditional unions are grappling with how they can both organize charter teachers and still work politically to curb charter expansion...
Diversifying labor ‘one way or the other’ St. Louis American ...Attendees gave a nod to union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA), who passed a “Black Lives Matter” resolution at their national convention on June 10 to address the issues of “systematic racism” in the United States. “Part of our goal in passing the resolution is to start active members of CWA talking about these issues,” said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA Local 6355. “That has already started. I think it deepened our commitment towards working for racial justice”...
Miscellaneous
Senate Recommends $1.7 Billion In Education Cuts Think Progress ...The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a labor, health and education bill for the next fiscal year out of committee Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education would lose $1.7 billion in the Senate spending bill compared to its current funding levels. Those cuts were significantly less than the House Appropriations Committee, which cut the department by $2.8 billion...
In Surprise Decision, SCOTUS Rules Against Discriminatory Housing Practices Common Dreams ...In a decision applauded by housing and civil rights groups on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) allows people to pursue lawsuits when a housing practice has a discriminatory effect, even if that practice wasn't intended to discriminate—an effect known as "disparate impact"...
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling The Guardian ...Same-sex marriages are now legal across the entirety of the United States after a historic supreme court ruling that declared attempts by conservative states to ban them unconstitutional. In what may prove the most important civil rights case in a generation, five of the nine court justices determined that the right to marriage equality was enshrined under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment...
"Slavery Deeply Embedded" in South Carolina: Emanuel AME Church on Street Named for Racist Lawmaker Democracy Now ...When Rev. Clementa Pinckney lay in state at the Capitol this week, his body had to be brought past the Confederate flag that still flies there and is the symbol embraced by his killer, Dylann Roof. The Emanuel AME Church in Charleston is located on Calhoun Street, named for one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history, the late Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, who argued slavery was a "positive good" rather than a "necessary evil"...
Separate Attacks Leave One Dead in France and Dozens Killed in Tunisia Common Dreams ...Violence was making global news headlines in two countries on Friday as an earlier attack on a U.S.-owned gas plant in France was later overshadowed by an attack on a hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, where nearly thirty people are reported dead. The Associated Press reports on the attacks in Tunisia: "Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that one of the two beachside hotels where tourists were shot in Tunisia, killing at least 27 people, is owned by a Spanish company"...
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.19.14
Teamster News
Michigan Teamsters Joint Council 43 President Nowak, Executive Board Re-Elected Without Opposition IBT ...Michigan Teamster local union officers who gathered at the Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire, Mich. for Joint Council 43’s 2014 Fall Delegates Meeting voted unanimously to re-elect Joint Council 43 President Greg Nowak, Secretary-Treasurer Jim “Cinci” Cianciolo and the entire Executive Board to a new three-year term...
Trade
Awash In Coal, U.S. Imports Even More Wall Street Journal ...Coal imports surged 44% to 5.4 million metric tons during the first six months of 2014, compared with a year ago, according to Global Trade Information Services...
State Battles
Nebraska: Minimum Wage Increase to Be on Ballot New York Times ...A proposal to increase Nebraska’s minimum wage has qualified for the November ballot. The secretary of state’s office said Friday it had verified enough signatures. If approved by voters, the measure would increase the state’s minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2016 from $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal minimum...
California teachers union fears right-to-work law inevitable Washington Examiner ... the change might be inevitable based on various lawsuits that could reach the Supreme Court...
With close ties to sugar, Florida’s next House speaker admits taking King Ranch trip Miami Herald ...Crisafulli, who will become the most powerful man in the Florida House of Representatives this fall, has been a major beneficiary of the state’s sugar industry. During the past two election cycles, agricultural interests have contributed at least $200,000 to Rep. Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and his political action committees...
How Much Of Wal-Mart Is Really Made In America? Bloomberg Businessweek ...At least one company, Kent Bicycles, has said it located a new factory in South Carolina because of the state’s right-to-work law. The chief executive noted that Wal-Mart had introduced him to South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley...
Democracy A Casualty Of Voter-Suppression Politics (opinion) Billings Gazette ...When same-day voter registration and voting is being cut back, as pushed in Montana by the Republican Legislature, and evidence shows that the majority of late registrants do not vote the Republican way, no wonder many Montanans think someone is trying to stop them from voting because of where they stand philosophically...
6,000 Lack Proper Voter ID Locally The Robesonian ...More than 6,000 Robeson County (North Carolina) residents will have to get a voter ID if they they want to vote in the 2016 General Election...
War On Workers
Blame Employers, Not Workers, for Any Skills Gap, Economist Says Wall Street Journal ...The “obvious solution” to “virtually all the skill problems reported by employers is to increase training and produce the skilled workers they want themselves.” Much of the evidence in support of a skills gap could be explained by employers who are no longer willing to train their employees or raise salaries, and instead want to be able to hire people with exactly the right skills–and on the cheap...
Average cost of raising a child hits $245,000 CNN ...To raise a child born in 2013 to the age of 18, it will cost a middle-income couple just over $245,000, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up $4,260, or almost 2%, from the year before...
Feds: Red light camera firm paid for Chicago official’s car, condo ars technica ...The former chief executive officer of Redflex, a major red light camera (RLC) vendor, has been indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from a contract with the City of Chicago...
Worker Killed In North Side Industrial Accident KSAT ...A man in his 60s was killed Monday when a 3,500 pound sack of fracking sand fell on him...
Efforts Advance To Stabilize The Schedules Of Part-Time Workers Kansas City Star ...The movement to support “schedules that work” for employees includes a bill by that name, introduced this summer in the U.S. House and Senate, that would let employees request changes to their work schedules “without fear of retaliation,” among other things...
Money in Politics: Rising in Intensity as a 2014 Election Issue Huffington Post ...candidates all over the country, in red states as well as purple and blue, are taking up the fight against money in politics, to take the country back from the Koch brothers, Wall Street, and the big business interests that run things right now...
Miscellaneous
Community Health says data stolen in cyber attack from China Reuters ...Community Health Systems Inc (CYH.N), one of the biggest U.S. hospital groups, said on Monday it was the victim of a cyber attack from China, resulting in the theft of Social Security numbers and other personal data belonging to 4.5 million patients...
Michigan Teamsters Joint Council 43 President Nowak, Executive Board Re-Elected Without Opposition IBT ...Michigan Teamster local union officers who gathered at the Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire, Mich. for Joint Council 43’s 2014 Fall Delegates Meeting voted unanimously to re-elect Joint Council 43 President Greg Nowak, Secretary-Treasurer Jim “Cinci” Cianciolo and the entire Executive Board to a new three-year term...
Trade
Awash In Coal, U.S. Imports Even More Wall Street Journal ...Coal imports surged 44% to 5.4 million metric tons during the first six months of 2014, compared with a year ago, according to Global Trade Information Services...
State Battles
Nebraska: Minimum Wage Increase to Be on Ballot New York Times ...A proposal to increase Nebraska’s minimum wage has qualified for the November ballot. The secretary of state’s office said Friday it had verified enough signatures. If approved by voters, the measure would increase the state’s minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2016 from $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal minimum...
California teachers union fears right-to-work law inevitable Washington Examiner ... the change might be inevitable based on various lawsuits that could reach the Supreme Court...
With close ties to sugar, Florida’s next House speaker admits taking King Ranch trip Miami Herald ...Crisafulli, who will become the most powerful man in the Florida House of Representatives this fall, has been a major beneficiary of the state’s sugar industry. During the past two election cycles, agricultural interests have contributed at least $200,000 to Rep. Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and his political action committees...
How Much Of Wal-Mart Is Really Made In America? Bloomberg Businessweek ...At least one company, Kent Bicycles, has said it located a new factory in South Carolina because of the state’s right-to-work law. The chief executive noted that Wal-Mart had introduced him to South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley...
Democracy A Casualty Of Voter-Suppression Politics (opinion) Billings Gazette ...When same-day voter registration and voting is being cut back, as pushed in Montana by the Republican Legislature, and evidence shows that the majority of late registrants do not vote the Republican way, no wonder many Montanans think someone is trying to stop them from voting because of where they stand philosophically...
6,000 Lack Proper Voter ID Locally The Robesonian ...More than 6,000 Robeson County (North Carolina) residents will have to get a voter ID if they they want to vote in the 2016 General Election...
War On Workers
Blame Employers, Not Workers, for Any Skills Gap, Economist Says Wall Street Journal ...The “obvious solution” to “virtually all the skill problems reported by employers is to increase training and produce the skilled workers they want themselves.” Much of the evidence in support of a skills gap could be explained by employers who are no longer willing to train their employees or raise salaries, and instead want to be able to hire people with exactly the right skills–and on the cheap...
Average cost of raising a child hits $245,000 CNN ...To raise a child born in 2013 to the age of 18, it will cost a middle-income couple just over $245,000, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up $4,260, or almost 2%, from the year before...
Feds: Red light camera firm paid for Chicago official’s car, condo ars technica ...The former chief executive officer of Redflex, a major red light camera (RLC) vendor, has been indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from a contract with the City of Chicago...
Worker Killed In North Side Industrial Accident KSAT ...A man in his 60s was killed Monday when a 3,500 pound sack of fracking sand fell on him...
Efforts Advance To Stabilize The Schedules Of Part-Time Workers Kansas City Star ...The movement to support “schedules that work” for employees includes a bill by that name, introduced this summer in the U.S. House and Senate, that would let employees request changes to their work schedules “without fear of retaliation,” among other things...
Money in Politics: Rising in Intensity as a 2014 Election Issue Huffington Post ...candidates all over the country, in red states as well as purple and blue, are taking up the fight against money in politics, to take the country back from the Koch brothers, Wall Street, and the big business interests that run things right now...
Miscellaneous
Community Health says data stolen in cyber attack from China Reuters ...Community Health Systems Inc (CYH.N), one of the biggest U.S. hospital groups, said on Monday it was the victim of a cyber attack from China, resulting in the theft of Social Security numbers and other personal data belonging to 4.5 million patients...
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Teamsters fight for good jobs, then train members to do them right
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| Teamster pipeliners |
Teamsters have helped build more than 25,000 miles of pipeline with union contractors. On one job, a contractor may have more than 100 trucks to deliver pipe, sand and gravel. Suppliers need trucks to deliver propane, ready mix, fuel oil and steel. They need trucks to remove waste as well.
Pipeline contractors prefer union labor because (a) it's the best and (b) they known they'll have harmony on the job. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters identified pipeline projects and then advised locals on how to approach suppliers and how to unionize their work forces. The IBT also trained Teamster members to do specific jobs and get certified on them. In Minnesota, Teamster Local 346's principal officer Pat Radzak met with the Ready Mix company. He told them they could get two months of work if they had union workers on the job. The Teamsters organized and Ready Mix got what was promised.
Teamsters have worked on pipelines in the East, on pipelines in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. They've worked on them throughout the Midwest and in the Rocky Mountains. They've worked on the Florida Gas and Tiger pipeline that goes through Texas, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. They've also worked on the Ruby Project, a pipeline traversing Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
Teamsters have been fighting hard for approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will create many more good-paying pipeline jobs.
Now, Teamsters Local 891 and Teamsters Local 991 will sponsor a pipeline training program in Lucedale, Miss., on Aug. 10. Teamster drivers who take the training will learn about the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's new regulations to reduce accidents.
Drivers need to understand the new federal regulation. Violations under the new rule could follow drivers from workplace to workplace. The training will help Teamsters protect their driving records -- and potential future employment as a driver.
The training is free, but you have to sign up. If you're interested, call Rex Creel (601) 624-4296 (Local 891) or Jesse Braggs (251) 408-1393 (Local 991).
The training isn't just for Teamsters who work on pipelines, but for all commercial drivers. For more information, click here.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.01.14
Teamsters, techies, tens of thousands take action against Fast Track in intercontinental day of action TeamsterNation ...More than 50 rallies, teach-ins and news conferences are being held on the North American continent, from Edmonton, Canada, to Mexico City. By mid-afternoon, social media drove more than 12,000 phone calls and hundreds of thousands of emails to the U.S. Congress...
Anti-TPP Rally in San Francisco Pressures Pelosi to Take Bolder Stance IndyBay ...Protester numbers swelled during a march down Market Street, eventually reaching an estimated 500...One arrested as Teamsters protest Highway 101 project The Press Democrat ...The picketers were protesting the delivery of the concrete by Superior Supplies Inc., a company whose drivers they said are not in the Teamsters union. They were striking to encourage the company to allow its employees to be represented by the union, Teamsters Local 665 President Ralph Miranda said...
Black History Is Teamster History teamster.org ...The contributions of black members to the success of the Teamsters Union are numerous, varied and as old as the union itself. Black team drivers attended the first Convention in 1903 and were active in all aspects of the union from the beginning. That commitment remains strong today...
Teamsters Local 657 to Host Training for Pipeline Construction Workers teamster.org ...The Teamsters National Pipeline Training Fund in collaboration with Teamsters Local 657 will sponsor a Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) training program on Feb. 16 in Brownswood, Texas...
Report Opens Way to Approval for Oil Pipeline New York Times ...The State Department released a report on Friday concluding that the Keystone XL pipeline would not substantially worsen carbon pollution, leaving an opening for President Obama to approve the politically divisive project...
Hated on the Left, the TPP Draws Conservative Foes Trade Reform ...the American Jobs Alliance and the United States Business and Industry Council—pro-business groups wary of trade’s impact on America’s national interests—joined with Tea Party Nation and the socially conservative Eagle Forum to rail against the TPP...
Walmart warns: Food stamp cuts hurt our profits Raw Story ...Walmart Friday said bad weather and cuts in food stamp support for the poor weighed on US sales and would hit earnings for its November-January fourth quarter...
America's Shopping Malls Are Dying A Slow, Ugly Death Business Insider ...Traffic-driving anchors like Sears and JCPenney are shutting down stores, and mall owners are having a hard time finding retailers large enough to replace them...
Corporate welfare costs more than pension obligations Washington Post ...states often spend more on tax breaks and subsidies for businesses than funding their ... pension plans...
Goldman Awards Blankfein $14.7 Million in Stock Bonus New York Times ...Goldman Sachs’s board granted its chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, restricted shares worth $14.7 million as part of his pay package for 2013, according to a filing made public on Thursday..,
The Greedy Leading the Greedy - Multimillionaire Former Johnson and Johnson CEO Approved Huge Compensation for JP Morgan Chase CEO After Company Paid $20 Billion in Legal Settlements Health Care Renewal ...The current compensation set by the board of directors of JP Morgan Chase for CEO Jamie Dimon, $20 million a year, has attracted some attention ... especially given the contrast between his raise and the $20 billion or so the company had to pay out last year in settlements of allegations of unethical practices...
NY Judge Approves $8.5 Billion Bank of America Mortgage Settlement Money News ...A New York judge on Friday approved most of the $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement over investor losses from mortgage-backed securities ... Critics of the settlement had argued that it represented only a fraction of the losses...
Billionaires Attempt To Convince Society That They Are The Good Guys In These Times ...America’s rich see themselves as victims of Nazi-like persecution...
Koch-Tied Groups Funded GOP Effort to Mess With Electoral College Rules Mother Jones ...Last election season, a shadowy nonprofit pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to change how electoral votes are counted...
Amazon wants to send stuff before you order it. Are other retailers doomed? Washington Post ...A couple weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal happened upon a 27-page patent for what Amazon.com calls "anticipatory" or "speculative" shipping, which sounds insane. Here's how it works, in a nutshell...
Reinhart and Rogoff: Great Recession may "surpass in severity" the Great Depression in many Countries Calculated Risk ...The policies of austerity in Europe have failed miserably and many countries there are experiencing a worse slump than during the Depression (austerity in the US has held back the recovery too...
Illinois company fires woman hours after learning she has cancer New York Daily News ...A Chicago-area women is filing a disability discrimination lawsuit, claiming her boss gave her the boot after realizing she’d have to take significant time off for cancer treatments...
Anti-TPP Rally in San Francisco Pressures Pelosi to Take Bolder Stance IndyBay ...Protester numbers swelled during a march down Market Street, eventually reaching an estimated 500...One arrested as Teamsters protest Highway 101 project The Press Democrat ...The picketers were protesting the delivery of the concrete by Superior Supplies Inc., a company whose drivers they said are not in the Teamsters union. They were striking to encourage the company to allow its employees to be represented by the union, Teamsters Local 665 President Ralph Miranda said...
Black History Is Teamster History teamster.org ...The contributions of black members to the success of the Teamsters Union are numerous, varied and as old as the union itself. Black team drivers attended the first Convention in 1903 and were active in all aspects of the union from the beginning. That commitment remains strong today...
Teamsters Local 657 to Host Training for Pipeline Construction Workers teamster.org ...The Teamsters National Pipeline Training Fund in collaboration with Teamsters Local 657 will sponsor a Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) training program on Feb. 16 in Brownswood, Texas...
Report Opens Way to Approval for Oil Pipeline New York Times ...The State Department released a report on Friday concluding that the Keystone XL pipeline would not substantially worsen carbon pollution, leaving an opening for President Obama to approve the politically divisive project...
Hated on the Left, the TPP Draws Conservative Foes Trade Reform ...the American Jobs Alliance and the United States Business and Industry Council—pro-business groups wary of trade’s impact on America’s national interests—joined with Tea Party Nation and the socially conservative Eagle Forum to rail against the TPP...
Walmart warns: Food stamp cuts hurt our profits Raw Story ...Walmart Friday said bad weather and cuts in food stamp support for the poor weighed on US sales and would hit earnings for its November-January fourth quarter...
America's Shopping Malls Are Dying A Slow, Ugly Death Business Insider ...Traffic-driving anchors like Sears and JCPenney are shutting down stores, and mall owners are having a hard time finding retailers large enough to replace them...
Corporate welfare costs more than pension obligations Washington Post ...states often spend more on tax breaks and subsidies for businesses than funding their ... pension plans...
Goldman Awards Blankfein $14.7 Million in Stock Bonus New York Times ...Goldman Sachs’s board granted its chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, restricted shares worth $14.7 million as part of his pay package for 2013, according to a filing made public on Thursday..,
The Greedy Leading the Greedy - Multimillionaire Former Johnson and Johnson CEO Approved Huge Compensation for JP Morgan Chase CEO After Company Paid $20 Billion in Legal Settlements Health Care Renewal ...The current compensation set by the board of directors of JP Morgan Chase for CEO Jamie Dimon, $20 million a year, has attracted some attention ... especially given the contrast between his raise and the $20 billion or so the company had to pay out last year in settlements of allegations of unethical practices...
NY Judge Approves $8.5 Billion Bank of America Mortgage Settlement Money News ...A New York judge on Friday approved most of the $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement over investor losses from mortgage-backed securities ... Critics of the settlement had argued that it represented only a fraction of the losses...
Billionaires Attempt To Convince Society That They Are The Good Guys In These Times ...America’s rich see themselves as victims of Nazi-like persecution...
Koch-Tied Groups Funded GOP Effort to Mess With Electoral College Rules Mother Jones ...Last election season, a shadowy nonprofit pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to change how electoral votes are counted...
Amazon wants to send stuff before you order it. Are other retailers doomed? Washington Post ...A couple weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal happened upon a 27-page patent for what Amazon.com calls "anticipatory" or "speculative" shipping, which sounds insane. Here's how it works, in a nutshell...
Reinhart and Rogoff: Great Recession may "surpass in severity" the Great Depression in many Countries Calculated Risk ...The policies of austerity in Europe have failed miserably and many countries there are experiencing a worse slump than during the Depression (austerity in the US has held back the recovery too...
Illinois company fires woman hours after learning she has cancer New York Daily News ...A Chicago-area women is filing a disability discrimination lawsuit, claiming her boss gave her the boot after realizing she’d have to take significant time off for cancer treatments...
Monday, April 15, 2013
Rave reviews for Teamster business agent training
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| Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa speaks to new business agents. |
The 5-day session trained the BAs in bargaining, time management, member-building skills, communication, arbitration and negotiation of contracts. They learned about Teamster history and about the resources available to them through the international. And they got a hands-on lesson in political activism on Thursday, when they walked over to Capitol Hill and met with their representatives. The BAs urged members of Congress to vet every word of the Trans-Pacific treaty for its impact on American families and get rid of every special deal for corporations.
Here's what the BAs said about the training.
Time management -- collective bargaining -- arbitration were just the top three. This entire course is exactly what every business rep. needs -- a course like this in the beginning of their career.
As a new BA it was reassuring to know that I don't have to go at this alone. I have a support system I can rely on.
I've learned, throughout the entire negotiating and collective bargaining timeline, that having your membership behind you the whole way is key to being effective.
It was good to not only see the process of lobbying, but it also was good to actually participate in the process.Proud to be a Teamster!
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