TEAMSTERS
Port truck drivers and warehouse workers strike together for better wages and 'employee' status KPCC ...Truck drivers who haul cargo at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are on strike again this week - this time with some new comrades on their picket lines: warehouse workers. Workers from California Cartage, a warehouse at the Port of L.A., have joined striking truckers who drive for Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistics, creating the potential for disruption at two key links in the cargo supply chain...
CA Port Driver Strike Lingers Go By Trucks ...Drayage drivers for two trucking companies at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have entered their 15th week of striking. The drivers, who are classified as independent contractors for XPO Logistics and Pacific 9 Transportation, are seeking employee status. Teamsters and the organization Justice for Port Truckers are backing the strike...
Teamsters at Sysco Ratify New 3-Year Contract Local 117 ...In the end, solidarity won the day. On Saturday, October 24, Teamster drivers and warehouse workers, employed at Sysco, voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new three-year contract. In contract negotiations, Sysco was proposing a two-tier system which would have divided the group and rolled back industry standards with respect to wages, health and welfare and seniority. But Teamsters at Sysco would not be pushed around...
Union Begins Coca-Cola Negotiations, Trades Initial Contract Proposals Local 727 ...The Teamsters Local 727 Coca-Cola Bargaining Committee met with Coca-Cola representatives on October 28 to kick off new contract negotiations. Both the union and management traded initial, non-economic contract proposals. Economic proposals for wages, pensions and health and welfare will be forthcoming. After several hours of deliberations following the exchange, both sides agreed to reconvene on Thursday...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership Provision On Trade Disputes Draws Criticism NPR ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement the Obama administration is trying to sell to Congress includes a seemingly obscure and controversial provision. It's called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS among wonks. Under the system, cases are arbitrated by one of two bodies - the World Bank or a division of the United Nations. To date, the U.S. has been sued 17 times and won all its cases...
Froman tells UK: No to EU means no to trade deal Politico ...Michael Froman, U.S. trade representative, said the U.S. is “not particularly in the market for free trade agreements with individual countries.” The Obama administration has focused on wrapping up multilateral trade deals like TTIP (with the EU) and TPP (with Pacific partners). The Americans hope to finalize the deal with Europe before President Obama leaves office, an official said last week...
House uses rare procedure to revive Export-Import bank USA Today ...The House launched a rare effort Monday to circumvent Republican leadership in hopes of reviving the Export-Import Bank, which conservatives managed to choke off earlier this year. Business groups have pushed hard to renew the bank's charter. The bank provides loans and loan guarantees to allow foreign customers to buy U.S. goods and services...
Ontario mayors urge Trudeau to protect auto sector from TPP deal Globe and Mail ...Fresh discontent is surfacing over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Canada signed in the dying days of Stephen Harper’s government. Mayors representing 20 Ontario cities, from Oshawa to Windsor, with a significant number of auto-sector jobs on Wednesday called on Mr. Trudeau, the prime-minister-designate, to protect their industry from being sideswiped by the TPP...
Greece’s Bailout Deal with Europe Is Starting to Show Cracks Foreign Policy ...The European Union’s agreement to provide Greece with the 86 billion euros, or $95 billion, bailout that Athens needs to stay solvent is beginning to show signs of strain, with creditors threatening to delay an October payment as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras struggles to implement promised austerity reforms...
Austerity cuts are causing mental distress and are linked to rise in suicides, health professionals warn Independent ...In the UK, suicide rates rose in 2011 and 2012. Men especially seem to be at risk: the male suicide rate is the highest it's been since 2001 and, for men between the ages of 45 and 59, the highest since 1981. After five years of austerity, families, charities, mental health professionals, campaigners and researchers have been highlighting what they regard as the profound effects on mental health...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
McCrory signs controversial immigration bill Winston-Salem Journal ...North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation Wednesday that targets “sanctuary cities” and immigrant identification, turning back pleas from advocates to veto a bill that they say harms immigrants and businesses that rely on immigrant labor. While protesters have been a constant presence at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh to urge McCrory to veto the measure, there were no protesters seen around the sheriff’s office...
Campaign to ditch workers' comp Fort Stockton Pioneer ...A series of new laws has cut workers’ compensation benefits, given employers and insurers more control over medical care, and made it more difficult for workers to qualify for coverage. But other than Texas and Oklahoma, no state has allowed companies to simply opt out. One Texas lawyer is helping companies opt out of workers’ compensation and write their own rules. What does it mean for injured workers?...
Can Fast-Food Work Ever Be A Decent Job? These Swedish McDonald's Workers Say Yes Fast Coexist ...What can a union do for low-wage workers? Comparing the lives of McDonald's workers in Chicago and Sweden shows the difference organizing can make. "Life is pretty hard right now," says KeJioun Johnson, a 20-year-old, part-time McDonald's cashier who lives with his single mom (a part-time bus driver) in government-subsidized housing...
Jersey City council expands paid sick leave law NJ.com ...Almost everyone working in Jersey City will be able to accrue paid sick leave, thanks to a measure adopted by the City Council tonight. The council in 2013 made the city the first in the state to mandate that most private employers provide their workers with paid sick leave. The council voted 7-1-1 to approve the measure (Ord. 15.145)...
U.S. LABOR
Michigan Transit Workers Fight To Prevent City Bus System From Eliminating Their Pensions In These Times ...For the drivers behind the wheel of this top-of-the-line fleet, not all is well: Grand Rapids bus drivers are without a signed union contract, because city officials want to cut their pension funds. One Rapid board member has called the current pension system a “terrible plan” and claims the board wants to “do better” for drivers, the board claims the pension fund is $2.6 million in the red. The drivers disagree...
UAW-GM workers set to vote on agreement with 'significant gains' MLive ...In a proposed agreement with General Motors, the UAW touts "significant gains" for workers, though only voting will tell if the rank-and-file agrees with this sentiment. In the proposed deal, workers would have traditional wages within eight years. It's similar to an agreement reached with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles...
In Historic Ruling, NLRB Says Tucson Taxi Drivers are Employees Market Watch ...In a groundbreaking ruling, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Tucson, Arizona, has determined that more than 200 taxi drivers employed by AAA Transportation/Yellow Cab are employees and are therefore eligible for union representation. The ruling is the first of its kind for taxi drivers...
When Bank Workers Occupy the Banks The Nation ....After about eight years of seeing Main Street households get owned by Big Finance, front-line bank workers are now trying to reclaim Wall Street, branch by branch. In Los Angeles, where communities are still reeling from the financial crisis, front-line bank employees, and activists last week occupied the lobbies of Wells Fargo and Bank of America and demanded fair terms for the customers and the workforce...
Workers Pay The Price For Amazon’s New One-Hour Delivery Think Progress ...Amazon’s one-hour delivery option launched in the Bay Area this week, but the workers behind the scenes of the “Prime Now” service say they’re paying a steep price to make the super-fast turnaround a reality.
Prime Now drivers are suing Amazon over pay that amounts to less than the California minimum wage. Drivers in the Los Angeles market make $11 an hour, but buy their own gas, insurance, and auto maintenance service...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Amid Flood of Dark Money, Groups Make Simple Request of FEC: 'Do Your Job' Common Dreams ...Decrying the unprecedented flow of so-called "dark money" into the U.S. political process, a coalition of civic and religious organizations, environmentalists, and academics on Tuesday submitted comments to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), calling on the agency to—put simply—do its job...
Criminalizing the Classroom: Inside the School-to-Prison Pipeline Democracy Now ...New York City has more than 5,000 police officers patrolling the city’s schools—that’s more than the combined number of school guidance counselors and social workers. Nationwide, more than 17,000 officers work in the school. What happens when students are arrested in the classroom?...
A GOP Debate Without a Winner—Or Much of a Point The Nation ...Donald Trump lost interest mid-way through the third Republican presidential debate. It’s a bad night for Trump when his most memorable line is a closing-statement claim of credit for negotiating a shorter debate: “I got it down to two hours so we can get the hell out of here.” The billionaire contender’s disdain for the whole affair was appropriate after an empty night of whining about the media...
The Budget Deal Clears the House of Representatives The Atlantic ...The final major vote of John Boehner’s drama-filled tenure as House speaker turned out to have very little drama at all. A bipartisan majority in the House on Wednesday afternoon easily approved the two-year budget agreement that Boehner negotiated with fellow congressional leaders and the Obama administration. The vote was 266-167...
Immigrant Women Launch Indefinite Hunger Strike, Asking To Be Freed From Detention Center Think Progress ...Detained women seeking asylum or other forms of humanitarian relief began an indefinite hunger strike at an immigration detention center in Texas on Wednesday night, sending hand-written letters to the federal government calling for their release. At least 27 immigrant women refused dinner on Wednesday at the T. Don Hutto detention center...
Showing posts with label transit workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transit workers. Show all posts
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.29.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: Retirees, Workers Deserve to Receive Their Pensions Huffington Post ...The golden years of everyday Americans who worked hard for decades to put away money for retirement are increasingly being jeopardized by the nation's pension system. Earlier this month, several hundred Teamster members and retirees came to Washington to voice outrage over proposed rules governing pension cuts and support for legislation offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) that would bolster multi-employer plans...
Teamsters Local 357, Republic Airways Reach Tentative Agreement on New Contract Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 357 and Republic Airways Holdings Inc. announced today that they have reached a consensual tentative agreement on the terms of a new three-year contract for the 2,100 Republic pilots represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “This milestone is long overdue,” said Captain Jim Clark, Teamsters Local 357 president...
Teamsters-Sun Tran contract includes some 50% pay raises Arizona Daily Star ...A labor contract released Monday details pay raises of up to 50 percent for some Sun Tran workers. Teamsters Local 104 and Sun Tran management firm Professional Transit Management signed the two-year contract on Sept. 16, ending a 42-day bus strike in Tucson. Details of the contract were first made public Monday...
FedEx stockholders approve union-backed proposal Commercial Appeal ...FedEx stockholders on Monday approved a Teamsters-backed resolution that proposes an easier path for share owners to promote candidates for the board of directors. It was the only shareholder proposal adopted during the Memphis-based company's annual meeting, and the first such proposal to pass since 2010...
Browning-Ferris Joint-Employer Row Back At NLRB Law360 ...The Teamsters on Friday filed an unfair labor charge against the successor company to Browning-Ferris Industries, bringing the parties at the center of the board’s decision changing the joint-employer standard head-to-head for another round after the company refused to bargain with the union. Workers at a recycling plant owned by Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc., now owned by Republic Services Inc., had voted to be represented by Teamsters Local 350...
Global Labor & Trade
Chief TPP negotiators race to wrap up broad trade deal Japan Times ...Chief negotiators from the United States, Japan and 10 other countries restarted talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative Saturday, seeking to conclude years of negotiations before tight political schedules in some countries crimp the chances of making a quick deal. Ahead of a TPP ministerial meeting beginning Wednesday, the top working-level officials will try to reduce differences over thorny issues...
The unexpected upshot of John Boehner’s ouster: The Trans-Pacific Partnership is in danger Salon ...Even if negotiators work out a tentative agreement this week, the biggest announcement on TPP may have already happened. That would be last Friday’s resignation of House Speaker John Boehner. We don’t even know if the meetings in Atlanta can produce a deal, given all the deadlocks and unresolved provisions between the nations involved. But even if there’s a big announcement this week, the administration won’t have John Boehner in their corner...
TTIP negotiations not even half done Politico ...Negotiations on a massive EU-U.S. trade agreement are not even halfway complete, according to a new European Commission internal assessment, and the lack of progress is raising questions about Brussels’ hopes for concluding the agreement before the end of the Obama administration...
Conservatives line up support from auto-parts makers for TPP deal Globe and Mail ...The governing Conservatives have lined up enough support for a massive Pacific Rim trade agreement from big auto-parts makers to expose a split in the industry ahead of talks this week that may yield a 12-country deal. Talks between trade ministers resume shortly in Atlanta and one of the most contentious subjects is provisions agreed to by Japan and the United States that some warn could sideswipe some of the 80,000 auto-parts manufacturing jobs in Canada...
Good chance for conclusion of TPP: Mustapa News Straits Times ...There is a 50:50 chance for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations to be concluded in the US this Thursday, says International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. "It is 50:50 with a slight edge for conclusion," he told the Business Times before leaving for Atlanta this afternoon. The two-day ministerial round of talks opens tomorrow...
Japan considers making new offer on U.S. rice in Atlanta TPP talks Japan Times ... Japan is considering sweetening the pot for U.S. rice farmers in a bid to reach agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a source close to the matter said Monday. As talks resumed on Saturday between the United States, Japan and 10 other countries negotiating the bloc in Atlanta, Washington and Tokyo remained at odds...
Fiscal Austerity May Jeopardize Brazil's Poverty Alleviation Program Truthout ...Latin America's largest economy, Brazil, has succeeded in lifting 36 million people out of extreme poverty over the past 12 years. But it has still a long way to go towards promoting inclusive and sustainable growth. Financial crisis and fiscal austerity goals resulting in a cut to the 2015 budget of almost USD23 billion may imperil social achievements, according to experts...
UN Finally Puts Child Slavery on Development Agenda Solidarity Center ...Last week the United Nations passed its next set of commitments for development, the “Sustainable Development Goals,” for the coming 15 years and added important labor issues that its member states are obligated to prioritize. “This is significant,” said child labor crusader and Nobel Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi at the UN Summit, “because for the first time these goals include the issues of child slavery, labor and trafficking, and has brought forth the language to address them”...
State & Living Wage Battles
Immigration bill clears NC Senate Charlotte Observer ...The state Senate voted 28-17 to restrict forms of identification for non-citizens and ban counties and municipalities from having “sanctuary city” policies that limit enforcement of immigration laws. The bill was approved largely along party lines, with Sen. Josh Stein of Raleigh as the only Democrat voting yes...
Contractors Ask Legislature to Preserve Prevailing Wage WDET ...A group of construction contractors and trade unions is pushing back against an effort at the state Capitol to repeal prevailing wage requirements on many publicly funded projects. State and local prevailing wage rules require contractors to pay union-level wages on schools and other public building projects. A petition drive led by non-union builders has gathered signatures to put the question before the Legislature....
US politicians agree to delay minimum wage increase Radio New Zealand ...The United States House of Representatives has voted to delay until 2017 a 50 cent increase in the American Samoa minimum wage due to come into effect at the end of this month. The bill sponsored by American Samoa's congresswoman Aumua Amata now goes to the US Senate for consideration. If passed by the full Congress, the measure would still need to get to President Obama for approval...
Changes could be coming for Minneapolis workers Kare11 ...The city of Minneapolis is looking to change how employers schedule and pay their workers. The "Working Families Agenda" has three key issues: fair scheduling, earned sick time and wage theft. "I'm here to continue to listen and that's what we're doing," said Elizabeth Glidden, city council vice president...
Support for fuel terminals is support for state’s workers (opinion) News Tribune ...The governor, the executives of King and Pierce County, the Seattle City Council, some members of the Tacoma City Council and others should seriously rethink their opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal in Bellingham and the Millennium Bulk Terminal and Vancouver Energy export terminals in Vancouver. While these export terminals provide construction and operational jobs, they are also important private investments in Washington’s trade infrastructure...
U.S. Labor
UAW gets yes vote at Warren Truck Detroit Free Press ...A majority of production workers at Warren Truck Assembly narrowly voted in favor of a proposed national agreement on Monday with Fiat Chrysler, giving the UAW its first glimmer of hope in recent days that it can convince a majority of workers to ratify the proposed contract. The UAW is scrambling to win support from about 40,000 Fiat Chrysler workers that it represents at 37 different UAW local units...
Al Jazeera America Will Not Recognize Union: NLRB Elections Underway International Business Times ...After several weeks, the management at Al Jazeera America (AJAM) has decided not to recognize the union drive announced by staffers on Sept. 3, putting into motion an election in which votes will be cast by employees and administered by the National Labor Relations Board, International Business Times has learned from a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Elections are happening Tuesday...
UFCW Local 5 still negotiating with Safeway Supermarket News ...United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 5, which represents 14,000 Safeway employees in parts of Northern California, is continuing to negotiate with the company nearly a year after the previous contract expired.
UFCW Local 8-Golden State announced a tentative agreement last week with 9,000 Safeway employees in Northern and Central California...
Marco Rubio's paid family leave plan would do little to expand paid family leave Daily Kos ...Four in five Americans thinks companies should be required to "offer paid leave to parents of new children and employees caring for sick family members." So trust a Republican to come up with a paid family leave policy that doesn't require anything and benefits business, not workers. Marco Rubio is the one Republican presidential candidate with any plan on this issue...
After Decades of Discrimination, Farm Workers Get Pesticide Protections Common Dreams ...Farm workers will now have sweeping new protections from pesticides under new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules announced Monday—safeguards which labor leaders say eluded farm workers for decades due to racial discrimination. The new rules [were] announced by EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, and United Farm Workers (UFW) president Arturo Rodriguez...
In America, the Poorer You Are, the Poorer Your Children Will Be The Nation ...When people talk about “balancing work and family,” they’re usually talking more about the workplace than what’s going on at home. Now we’re starting to get data on what the workaday life looks like from a kid’s eye view, and it doesn’t look good...
Social Justice & Other News
What John Boehner’s Surprise Resignation Means For Immigration Reform Think Progress ...House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is the favorite to succeed John Boehner (R-OH) after his surprise resignation as the House Speaker last week. The appointment of McCarthy, who represents a heavily Latino district, to preside over a more radically conservative Republican caucus could have implications for immigration reform...
Humane Criminal Justice Is Not Hopeless Slate ...Pope Francis concluded his historic first visit to the United States on Sunday, spending most of his final few hours with women and men imprisoned at Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and putting an exclamation mark on a central theme of his visit: the need to infuse more dignity and hope into America’s criminal justice system...
US supreme court: conservatives set to retake reins after year of liberal wins The Guardian ...The supreme court returns on Monday for a new series of cases, and all indications point to equally dramatic plot twists involving race, class and murder. While 2014-15 will be remembered for surprise wins by the liberal wing of the court, particularly two blockbuster decisions endorsing gay marriage and Obamacare, legal experts expect this year will see a clutch of decisions that reassert the power of the conservative majority...
Trump’s Tax Plan Is A Big Giveaway To The Wealthiest Think Progress ...On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will unveil a detailed tax reform plan — and he is already positioning it as a populist proposal. In a press alert about the plan, the campaign states, “Essentially, the plan is a major tax reduction for almost all citizens and corporations, in particular, those in the middle and lower income classes.” But the plan has a number of provisions that will overwhelmingly help the already well off...
Hoffa: Retirees, Workers Deserve to Receive Their Pensions Huffington Post ...The golden years of everyday Americans who worked hard for decades to put away money for retirement are increasingly being jeopardized by the nation's pension system. Earlier this month, several hundred Teamster members and retirees came to Washington to voice outrage over proposed rules governing pension cuts and support for legislation offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) that would bolster multi-employer plans...
Teamsters Local 357, Republic Airways Reach Tentative Agreement on New Contract Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 357 and Republic Airways Holdings Inc. announced today that they have reached a consensual tentative agreement on the terms of a new three-year contract for the 2,100 Republic pilots represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “This milestone is long overdue,” said Captain Jim Clark, Teamsters Local 357 president...
Teamsters-Sun Tran contract includes some 50% pay raises Arizona Daily Star ...A labor contract released Monday details pay raises of up to 50 percent for some Sun Tran workers. Teamsters Local 104 and Sun Tran management firm Professional Transit Management signed the two-year contract on Sept. 16, ending a 42-day bus strike in Tucson. Details of the contract were first made public Monday...
FedEx stockholders approve union-backed proposal Commercial Appeal ...FedEx stockholders on Monday approved a Teamsters-backed resolution that proposes an easier path for share owners to promote candidates for the board of directors. It was the only shareholder proposal adopted during the Memphis-based company's annual meeting, and the first such proposal to pass since 2010...
Browning-Ferris Joint-Employer Row Back At NLRB Law360 ...The Teamsters on Friday filed an unfair labor charge against the successor company to Browning-Ferris Industries, bringing the parties at the center of the board’s decision changing the joint-employer standard head-to-head for another round after the company refused to bargain with the union. Workers at a recycling plant owned by Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc., now owned by Republic Services Inc., had voted to be represented by Teamsters Local 350...
Global Labor & Trade
Chief TPP negotiators race to wrap up broad trade deal Japan Times ...Chief negotiators from the United States, Japan and 10 other countries restarted talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative Saturday, seeking to conclude years of negotiations before tight political schedules in some countries crimp the chances of making a quick deal. Ahead of a TPP ministerial meeting beginning Wednesday, the top working-level officials will try to reduce differences over thorny issues...
The unexpected upshot of John Boehner’s ouster: The Trans-Pacific Partnership is in danger Salon ...Even if negotiators work out a tentative agreement this week, the biggest announcement on TPP may have already happened. That would be last Friday’s resignation of House Speaker John Boehner. We don’t even know if the meetings in Atlanta can produce a deal, given all the deadlocks and unresolved provisions between the nations involved. But even if there’s a big announcement this week, the administration won’t have John Boehner in their corner...
TTIP negotiations not even half done Politico ...Negotiations on a massive EU-U.S. trade agreement are not even halfway complete, according to a new European Commission internal assessment, and the lack of progress is raising questions about Brussels’ hopes for concluding the agreement before the end of the Obama administration...
Conservatives line up support from auto-parts makers for TPP deal Globe and Mail ...The governing Conservatives have lined up enough support for a massive Pacific Rim trade agreement from big auto-parts makers to expose a split in the industry ahead of talks this week that may yield a 12-country deal. Talks between trade ministers resume shortly in Atlanta and one of the most contentious subjects is provisions agreed to by Japan and the United States that some warn could sideswipe some of the 80,000 auto-parts manufacturing jobs in Canada...
Good chance for conclusion of TPP: Mustapa News Straits Times ...There is a 50:50 chance for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations to be concluded in the US this Thursday, says International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. "It is 50:50 with a slight edge for conclusion," he told the Business Times before leaving for Atlanta this afternoon. The two-day ministerial round of talks opens tomorrow...
Japan considers making new offer on U.S. rice in Atlanta TPP talks Japan Times ... Japan is considering sweetening the pot for U.S. rice farmers in a bid to reach agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a source close to the matter said Monday. As talks resumed on Saturday between the United States, Japan and 10 other countries negotiating the bloc in Atlanta, Washington and Tokyo remained at odds...
Fiscal Austerity May Jeopardize Brazil's Poverty Alleviation Program Truthout ...Latin America's largest economy, Brazil, has succeeded in lifting 36 million people out of extreme poverty over the past 12 years. But it has still a long way to go towards promoting inclusive and sustainable growth. Financial crisis and fiscal austerity goals resulting in a cut to the 2015 budget of almost USD23 billion may imperil social achievements, according to experts...
UN Finally Puts Child Slavery on Development Agenda Solidarity Center ...Last week the United Nations passed its next set of commitments for development, the “Sustainable Development Goals,” for the coming 15 years and added important labor issues that its member states are obligated to prioritize. “This is significant,” said child labor crusader and Nobel Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi at the UN Summit, “because for the first time these goals include the issues of child slavery, labor and trafficking, and has brought forth the language to address them”...
State & Living Wage Battles
Immigration bill clears NC Senate Charlotte Observer ...The state Senate voted 28-17 to restrict forms of identification for non-citizens and ban counties and municipalities from having “sanctuary city” policies that limit enforcement of immigration laws. The bill was approved largely along party lines, with Sen. Josh Stein of Raleigh as the only Democrat voting yes...
Contractors Ask Legislature to Preserve Prevailing Wage WDET ...A group of construction contractors and trade unions is pushing back against an effort at the state Capitol to repeal prevailing wage requirements on many publicly funded projects. State and local prevailing wage rules require contractors to pay union-level wages on schools and other public building projects. A petition drive led by non-union builders has gathered signatures to put the question before the Legislature....
US politicians agree to delay minimum wage increase Radio New Zealand ...The United States House of Representatives has voted to delay until 2017 a 50 cent increase in the American Samoa minimum wage due to come into effect at the end of this month. The bill sponsored by American Samoa's congresswoman Aumua Amata now goes to the US Senate for consideration. If passed by the full Congress, the measure would still need to get to President Obama for approval...
Changes could be coming for Minneapolis workers Kare11 ...The city of Minneapolis is looking to change how employers schedule and pay their workers. The "Working Families Agenda" has three key issues: fair scheduling, earned sick time and wage theft. "I'm here to continue to listen and that's what we're doing," said Elizabeth Glidden, city council vice president...
Support for fuel terminals is support for state’s workers (opinion) News Tribune ...The governor, the executives of King and Pierce County, the Seattle City Council, some members of the Tacoma City Council and others should seriously rethink their opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal in Bellingham and the Millennium Bulk Terminal and Vancouver Energy export terminals in Vancouver. While these export terminals provide construction and operational jobs, they are also important private investments in Washington’s trade infrastructure...
U.S. Labor
UAW gets yes vote at Warren Truck Detroit Free Press ...A majority of production workers at Warren Truck Assembly narrowly voted in favor of a proposed national agreement on Monday with Fiat Chrysler, giving the UAW its first glimmer of hope in recent days that it can convince a majority of workers to ratify the proposed contract. The UAW is scrambling to win support from about 40,000 Fiat Chrysler workers that it represents at 37 different UAW local units...
Al Jazeera America Will Not Recognize Union: NLRB Elections Underway International Business Times ...After several weeks, the management at Al Jazeera America (AJAM) has decided not to recognize the union drive announced by staffers on Sept. 3, putting into motion an election in which votes will be cast by employees and administered by the National Labor Relations Board, International Business Times has learned from a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Elections are happening Tuesday...
UFCW Local 5 still negotiating with Safeway Supermarket News ...United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 5, which represents 14,000 Safeway employees in parts of Northern California, is continuing to negotiate with the company nearly a year after the previous contract expired.
UFCW Local 8-Golden State announced a tentative agreement last week with 9,000 Safeway employees in Northern and Central California...
Marco Rubio's paid family leave plan would do little to expand paid family leave Daily Kos ...Four in five Americans thinks companies should be required to "offer paid leave to parents of new children and employees caring for sick family members." So trust a Republican to come up with a paid family leave policy that doesn't require anything and benefits business, not workers. Marco Rubio is the one Republican presidential candidate with any plan on this issue...
After Decades of Discrimination, Farm Workers Get Pesticide Protections Common Dreams ...Farm workers will now have sweeping new protections from pesticides under new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules announced Monday—safeguards which labor leaders say eluded farm workers for decades due to racial discrimination. The new rules [were] announced by EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, and United Farm Workers (UFW) president Arturo Rodriguez...
In America, the Poorer You Are, the Poorer Your Children Will Be The Nation ...When people talk about “balancing work and family,” they’re usually talking more about the workplace than what’s going on at home. Now we’re starting to get data on what the workaday life looks like from a kid’s eye view, and it doesn’t look good...
Social Justice & Other News
What John Boehner’s Surprise Resignation Means For Immigration Reform Think Progress ...House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is the favorite to succeed John Boehner (R-OH) after his surprise resignation as the House Speaker last week. The appointment of McCarthy, who represents a heavily Latino district, to preside over a more radically conservative Republican caucus could have implications for immigration reform...
Humane Criminal Justice Is Not Hopeless Slate ...Pope Francis concluded his historic first visit to the United States on Sunday, spending most of his final few hours with women and men imprisoned at Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and putting an exclamation mark on a central theme of his visit: the need to infuse more dignity and hope into America’s criminal justice system...
US supreme court: conservatives set to retake reins after year of liberal wins The Guardian ...The supreme court returns on Monday for a new series of cases, and all indications point to equally dramatic plot twists involving race, class and murder. While 2014-15 will be remembered for surprise wins by the liberal wing of the court, particularly two blockbuster decisions endorsing gay marriage and Obamacare, legal experts expect this year will see a clutch of decisions that reassert the power of the conservative majority...
Trump’s Tax Plan Is A Big Giveaway To The Wealthiest Think Progress ...On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will unveil a detailed tax reform plan — and he is already positioning it as a populist proposal. In a press alert about the plan, the campaign states, “Essentially, the plan is a major tax reduction for almost all citizens and corporations, in particular, those in the middle and lower income classes.” But the plan has a number of provisions that will overwhelmingly help the already well off...
Monday, September 21, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.21.15
Teamsters
Teamsters to FedEx: ‘Stop Paying Executives' Personal Taxes' Teamster.org ...Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the nation’s leading proxy voting advisor, recommends FedEx shareholders vote for a Teamster-sponsored shareholder proposal aimed at reforming the company’s executive compensation. The proposal urges the company to stop paying the personal taxes on behalf of the senior executive officers...
Local 727 Tackles Unjust Treatment of Beverage Industry Members Local 727 ...Since Teamsters Local 727 began representing more than 1,500 beverage industry members earlier this year, the union has won dozens of grievances relating to discipline and terminations, holiday pay, attendance, overtime, seniority and other issues. In total, Local 727 representatives have filed nearly 150 grievances for members at Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper Snapple, Hinckley Springs and Home Juice over the past five months...
Sun Tran, Teamsters release agreement details Tucson News Now ...Both sides originally did not want to talk about it, but now Tucson News Now has learned new details about the agreement between Sun Tran and the Teamsters Local 104 Union. City of Tucson officials said they used savings from the 42-day strike to come up with $1.5 million to settle it, so taxpayers are not out any extra money. Under the terms of the new agreement, each Teamsters striker will get a one-time lump sum payment of $3,303.37...
Will aggrieved workers get their day in court? OC Register ...In response to the successful complaints, trucking companies that employ hundreds of drivers are now insisting the drivers sign arbitration contracts waiving their right to file complaints, according to Julie Gutman Dickinson, a Teamsters union attorney who has been representing them. “Many drivers are monolingual Spanish speakers,” she said. “They are not given copies of the arbitration agreements they are forced to sign in any language other than English"...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S., Canada, Mexico to restart auto TPP talks Monday Japan News ...Japan, the United States, Canada and Mexico will hold working-level talks on Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday, focusing on automobile trade, according to the Japanese government. The upcoming talks are aimed at narrowing their gap over rules of origin, prior to a ministerial meeting that 12 countries joining TPP negotiations plan to hold in Atlanta in late September...
Stephen Harper Says Concessions Likely for Auto Industry in Pacific Trade Pact Wall Street Journal ...Canadian leader Stephen Harper signaled in an election debate late Thursday that he will make a concession on protections for the auto industry to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, a suggestion that is triggering protest from the Canadian units of the big Detroit-based auto makers...
Harper’s TPP remarks draw ire of Ontario, union leader Globe and Mail ...Stephen Harper is being accused of sacrificing Canada’s 80,000-job auto-parts industry in his eagerness to sign on to a massive Pacific Rim trade deal – one his government is negotiating in the middle of the federal election campaign. The Conservative Leader made waves Thursday when he signaled that he’s determined to be part of a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement even over the objections of the auto sector, whose members fear it will lead to a flood of foreign parts, produced by cheaper labour, killing their industry...
International agreement could hurt Saskatchewan dairy producers Global News ...Many Saskatchewan dairy producers are concerned their domestic market may shrink due to a possible trade agreement, according to their provincial advocacy group. SaskMilk’s policy manager Joy Smith says producers will have their eyes on upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement talks planned in Atlanta. The trade pact includes 12 North American and Asian countries, including Canada, the U.S. and Japan...
No deal at next TPP talks to extend negotiations for years: minister Mainichi ...The Japanese minister in charge of negotiations for a Pacific Rim free trade initiative said Friday that talks on the free trade deal will not be concluded anytime soon if the 12 member countries fail to strike an accord at an upcoming meeting starting late September. "There is a risk that an agreement will be put off for years" if no deal is reached at the next session, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari said at a press conference...
More Austerity Awaits Greeks in Election Aftermath Greek Reporter ...Greeks are bracing to face a series of austerity measures and harsh reforms in the aftermath of the election that brought to power the previous coalition of SYRIZA and ANEL. About fifty measures and reforms have to be implemented by December as required by the bailout program Athens signed in July. Also a series of pension cuts will be implemented depending on how high each pension is...
Sierra Leone workers strike at Shandong's iron ore mine Reuters ...Hundreds of Sierra Leonean workers at Shandong Steel's iron ore mine declared an unlimited strike on Saturday, alleging unfair treatment, a union leader said. The Chinese firm, formerly a minority partner of African Minerals in the African Minerals-run project, acquired full ownership earlier this year and resumed operations in May...
Workers Strike at Chinese Shipyard, Demand Three Months' Back-Pay RFA ...More than 1,000 workers at a shipbuilding yard in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu are on strike over unpaid wages, workers told RFA on Friday, as the industrial action entered its third day. Around one-fifth of the 5,000-strong workforce at the Sinopacific-owned shipyard in Jiangsu's Dayang city walked out on Wednesday...
State & Living Wages Battles
Scott Walker's Partisans Poised to Raze Nonpartisan Government Accountability Board Huffington Post ...Stung by the campaign finance probe into potentially illegal coordination between Governor Scott Walker and independent campaign finance groups, the Wisconsin GOP is on the warpath. Governor Walker called for "dismantling" of the Government Accountability Board (GAB), the nonpartisan, independent agency that oversees Wisconsin elections, campaign finance and ethics laws that gave the go-ahead to the investigation...
Scott Walker Was Coward During 2011 Wisconsin Protests Alternet ...According to a stunning, detailed new statement by a former top Republican legislative aide, it turns out that Walker isolated himself and hid in tightly controlled, heavily-guarded environments during the conflict covering six intense weeks in early 2011—which directly contradicts his tall tale of courageously facing his adversaries...
NJ minimum wage to remain at $8.38 an hour in 2016 North Jersey ...New Jersey's minimum wage will remain $8.38 an hour in 2016, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Monday. The wage has been tied to the inflation rate since January 2014. In November 2013, New Jersey voters approved a constitutional amendment that increased the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour...
Osceola mulls $11.66-an-hour living wage proposal Orlando Sentinel ...Osceola County's newly Democratic-controlled commission has wasted little time taking on controversial issues since January, passing anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender residents while raising the local gas tax to pay for roads and other infrastructure projects. Now the board is preparing to vote on an ordinance Monday that would set one of the highest minimum wages for county contracts in the state, at $11.66 an hour for the first year...
U.S. Labor
United Farm Workers claims victory in labor battle Californian ...Organized labor claimed a victory in a decades-long fight with one of the nation's largest fruit growers when a judge ruled that the company interfered with its employees' vote on whether to reject union representation. A decision issued Thursday sets aside an election held nearly two years ago by workers at Gerawan Farming Inc., which hires thousands of people annually to harvest nectarines, peaches and grapes in the Central Valley...
Shifting work to Mexico now up for UAW vote Detroit Free Press ...Building more cars in Mexico. It's a flash point for about 40,000 UAW workers preparing to vote on a tentative agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, knowing the new four-year pact includes pay increases, profit sharing and bonuses but also shifts car production to plants south of the border...
Tile, marble union workers preparing to strike statewide Khon ...Members of the Hawaii Masons Union, specifically ceramic tile and marble setters are planning a statewide strike Monday. “Nobody wants a strike, nobody wins but this is like a last resort,” said Todd Saito, a business representative for Local #1 of Hawaii. He says contract negotiations with the Tile Contractors Association of Hawaii have been going on for over a year. “We just want a package that represents industry standards,” said Saito...
HCA, nurses reach collective bargaining agreement in 5 states Tennessean ...HCA reached tentative collective bargaining agreements with National Nurses United that would cover almost 8,000 nurses in five states if ratified. Nurses at the 17 hospitals will vote Monday whether to accept the agreements that cover a range of work conditions, including staffing, scheduling and workplace safety...
IBEW Local 125 authorizes strike at Pacific Power NW Labor Press ...Workers across Northern Oregon and Southeastern Washington voted overwhelmingly Sept. 1 to reject a contract offer and authorize the union bargaining committee to call a strike at Pacific Power. BEW Local 125 represents 320 linemen, meter readers, substation wiremen and other workers at the electric utility, in a service area that extends from Astoria to Bend to Walla Walla...
Judge’s Ruling Awards $600,000 to Exploited Workers New York Times ...More than six years after their rescue from virtual servitude, in which they worked for little pay in a turkey processing plant while living in a decrepit Iowa schoolhouse, more than two dozen men with intellectual disabilities will share nearly $600,000 owed to them, after a federal court order issued Thursday in Dallas...
American Slavery, Reinvented The Atlantic ...Given the scope and scale of prison labor in the modern era, one could reasonably expect some degree of compliance with modern labor standards. However, despite the hard-won protections secured by the labor movement over the past 100 years, incarcerated workers do not enjoy most of these protections...
Social Justice & Other News
New Report Shows How Women of Color Bear the Costs of Mass Incarceration Truthout ...As the report emphasizes, it is overwhelming women - particularly low-income women of color, given the race and class bias of our criminal justice system - who shoulder these burdens. A recent study found that 44 percent of Black women and 12 percent of white women have a family member imprisoned...
Are Student Debt Forgiveness Scams The Next Mortgage Meltdown? Think Progress ...With student loan defaults on the rise, regulatory agencies are increasingly concerned about borrowers being preyed upon by student debt relief scammers. These scammers, which promise students they can cut their student loan payments by 50 percent or more, take advantage of students’ lack of knowledge about repayment options...
Pope Francis in Cuba: "The World Needs Reconciliation in This Atmosphere of a Third World War" Democracy Now ...Ahead of his first U.S. visit, Pope Francis celebrated mass in Cuba Sunday before hundreds of thousands of worshipers in Havana’s Revolution Square. Born in Argentina, Francis is the first Latin American pope. The pope’s homily in Havana included no direct political message besides urging the successful conclusion of Colombia peace talks that have been taking place in Cuba for nearly three years...
The Media Can No Longer Pretend That Trump’s Racist Birtherism Is Old News The Nation ... Until last night, Trump has successfully built a great big wall to keep his ugly birther narrative from crossing into his current presidential run. His candidacy now turns on his racist immigrant-bashing. It’s not that the press has completely forgotten the birther storm, which peaked in 2011...
Hedge Fund Manager Buys Rights To Critical Drug, Hikes Price By 5000% Alternet ...The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars...
Teamsters to FedEx: ‘Stop Paying Executives' Personal Taxes' Teamster.org ...Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the nation’s leading proxy voting advisor, recommends FedEx shareholders vote for a Teamster-sponsored shareholder proposal aimed at reforming the company’s executive compensation. The proposal urges the company to stop paying the personal taxes on behalf of the senior executive officers...
Local 727 Tackles Unjust Treatment of Beverage Industry Members Local 727 ...Since Teamsters Local 727 began representing more than 1,500 beverage industry members earlier this year, the union has won dozens of grievances relating to discipline and terminations, holiday pay, attendance, overtime, seniority and other issues. In total, Local 727 representatives have filed nearly 150 grievances for members at Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper Snapple, Hinckley Springs and Home Juice over the past five months...
Sun Tran, Teamsters release agreement details Tucson News Now ...Both sides originally did not want to talk about it, but now Tucson News Now has learned new details about the agreement between Sun Tran and the Teamsters Local 104 Union. City of Tucson officials said they used savings from the 42-day strike to come up with $1.5 million to settle it, so taxpayers are not out any extra money. Under the terms of the new agreement, each Teamsters striker will get a one-time lump sum payment of $3,303.37...
Will aggrieved workers get their day in court? OC Register ...In response to the successful complaints, trucking companies that employ hundreds of drivers are now insisting the drivers sign arbitration contracts waiving their right to file complaints, according to Julie Gutman Dickinson, a Teamsters union attorney who has been representing them. “Many drivers are monolingual Spanish speakers,” she said. “They are not given copies of the arbitration agreements they are forced to sign in any language other than English"...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S., Canada, Mexico to restart auto TPP talks Monday Japan News ...Japan, the United States, Canada and Mexico will hold working-level talks on Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday, focusing on automobile trade, according to the Japanese government. The upcoming talks are aimed at narrowing their gap over rules of origin, prior to a ministerial meeting that 12 countries joining TPP negotiations plan to hold in Atlanta in late September...
Stephen Harper Says Concessions Likely for Auto Industry in Pacific Trade Pact Wall Street Journal ...Canadian leader Stephen Harper signaled in an election debate late Thursday that he will make a concession on protections for the auto industry to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, a suggestion that is triggering protest from the Canadian units of the big Detroit-based auto makers...
Harper’s TPP remarks draw ire of Ontario, union leader Globe and Mail ...Stephen Harper is being accused of sacrificing Canada’s 80,000-job auto-parts industry in his eagerness to sign on to a massive Pacific Rim trade deal – one his government is negotiating in the middle of the federal election campaign. The Conservative Leader made waves Thursday when he signaled that he’s determined to be part of a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement even over the objections of the auto sector, whose members fear it will lead to a flood of foreign parts, produced by cheaper labour, killing their industry...
International agreement could hurt Saskatchewan dairy producers Global News ...Many Saskatchewan dairy producers are concerned their domestic market may shrink due to a possible trade agreement, according to their provincial advocacy group. SaskMilk’s policy manager Joy Smith says producers will have their eyes on upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement talks planned in Atlanta. The trade pact includes 12 North American and Asian countries, including Canada, the U.S. and Japan...
No deal at next TPP talks to extend negotiations for years: minister Mainichi ...The Japanese minister in charge of negotiations for a Pacific Rim free trade initiative said Friday that talks on the free trade deal will not be concluded anytime soon if the 12 member countries fail to strike an accord at an upcoming meeting starting late September. "There is a risk that an agreement will be put off for years" if no deal is reached at the next session, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari said at a press conference...
More Austerity Awaits Greeks in Election Aftermath Greek Reporter ...Greeks are bracing to face a series of austerity measures and harsh reforms in the aftermath of the election that brought to power the previous coalition of SYRIZA and ANEL. About fifty measures and reforms have to be implemented by December as required by the bailout program Athens signed in July. Also a series of pension cuts will be implemented depending on how high each pension is...
Sierra Leone workers strike at Shandong's iron ore mine Reuters ...Hundreds of Sierra Leonean workers at Shandong Steel's iron ore mine declared an unlimited strike on Saturday, alleging unfair treatment, a union leader said. The Chinese firm, formerly a minority partner of African Minerals in the African Minerals-run project, acquired full ownership earlier this year and resumed operations in May...
Workers Strike at Chinese Shipyard, Demand Three Months' Back-Pay RFA ...More than 1,000 workers at a shipbuilding yard in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu are on strike over unpaid wages, workers told RFA on Friday, as the industrial action entered its third day. Around one-fifth of the 5,000-strong workforce at the Sinopacific-owned shipyard in Jiangsu's Dayang city walked out on Wednesday...
State & Living Wages Battles
Scott Walker's Partisans Poised to Raze Nonpartisan Government Accountability Board Huffington Post ...Stung by the campaign finance probe into potentially illegal coordination between Governor Scott Walker and independent campaign finance groups, the Wisconsin GOP is on the warpath. Governor Walker called for "dismantling" of the Government Accountability Board (GAB), the nonpartisan, independent agency that oversees Wisconsin elections, campaign finance and ethics laws that gave the go-ahead to the investigation...
Scott Walker Was Coward During 2011 Wisconsin Protests Alternet ...According to a stunning, detailed new statement by a former top Republican legislative aide, it turns out that Walker isolated himself and hid in tightly controlled, heavily-guarded environments during the conflict covering six intense weeks in early 2011—which directly contradicts his tall tale of courageously facing his adversaries...
NJ minimum wage to remain at $8.38 an hour in 2016 North Jersey ...New Jersey's minimum wage will remain $8.38 an hour in 2016, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Monday. The wage has been tied to the inflation rate since January 2014. In November 2013, New Jersey voters approved a constitutional amendment that increased the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour...
Osceola mulls $11.66-an-hour living wage proposal Orlando Sentinel ...Osceola County's newly Democratic-controlled commission has wasted little time taking on controversial issues since January, passing anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender residents while raising the local gas tax to pay for roads and other infrastructure projects. Now the board is preparing to vote on an ordinance Monday that would set one of the highest minimum wages for county contracts in the state, at $11.66 an hour for the first year...
U.S. Labor
United Farm Workers claims victory in labor battle Californian ...Organized labor claimed a victory in a decades-long fight with one of the nation's largest fruit growers when a judge ruled that the company interfered with its employees' vote on whether to reject union representation. A decision issued Thursday sets aside an election held nearly two years ago by workers at Gerawan Farming Inc., which hires thousands of people annually to harvest nectarines, peaches and grapes in the Central Valley...
Shifting work to Mexico now up for UAW vote Detroit Free Press ...Building more cars in Mexico. It's a flash point for about 40,000 UAW workers preparing to vote on a tentative agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, knowing the new four-year pact includes pay increases, profit sharing and bonuses but also shifts car production to plants south of the border...
Tile, marble union workers preparing to strike statewide Khon ...Members of the Hawaii Masons Union, specifically ceramic tile and marble setters are planning a statewide strike Monday. “Nobody wants a strike, nobody wins but this is like a last resort,” said Todd Saito, a business representative for Local #1 of Hawaii. He says contract negotiations with the Tile Contractors Association of Hawaii have been going on for over a year. “We just want a package that represents industry standards,” said Saito...
HCA, nurses reach collective bargaining agreement in 5 states Tennessean ...HCA reached tentative collective bargaining agreements with National Nurses United that would cover almost 8,000 nurses in five states if ratified. Nurses at the 17 hospitals will vote Monday whether to accept the agreements that cover a range of work conditions, including staffing, scheduling and workplace safety...
IBEW Local 125 authorizes strike at Pacific Power NW Labor Press ...Workers across Northern Oregon and Southeastern Washington voted overwhelmingly Sept. 1 to reject a contract offer and authorize the union bargaining committee to call a strike at Pacific Power. BEW Local 125 represents 320 linemen, meter readers, substation wiremen and other workers at the electric utility, in a service area that extends from Astoria to Bend to Walla Walla...
Judge’s Ruling Awards $600,000 to Exploited Workers New York Times ...More than six years after their rescue from virtual servitude, in which they worked for little pay in a turkey processing plant while living in a decrepit Iowa schoolhouse, more than two dozen men with intellectual disabilities will share nearly $600,000 owed to them, after a federal court order issued Thursday in Dallas...
American Slavery, Reinvented The Atlantic ...Given the scope and scale of prison labor in the modern era, one could reasonably expect some degree of compliance with modern labor standards. However, despite the hard-won protections secured by the labor movement over the past 100 years, incarcerated workers do not enjoy most of these protections...
Social Justice & Other News
New Report Shows How Women of Color Bear the Costs of Mass Incarceration Truthout ...As the report emphasizes, it is overwhelming women - particularly low-income women of color, given the race and class bias of our criminal justice system - who shoulder these burdens. A recent study found that 44 percent of Black women and 12 percent of white women have a family member imprisoned...
Are Student Debt Forgiveness Scams The Next Mortgage Meltdown? Think Progress ...With student loan defaults on the rise, regulatory agencies are increasingly concerned about borrowers being preyed upon by student debt relief scammers. These scammers, which promise students they can cut their student loan payments by 50 percent or more, take advantage of students’ lack of knowledge about repayment options...
Pope Francis in Cuba: "The World Needs Reconciliation in This Atmosphere of a Third World War" Democracy Now ...Ahead of his first U.S. visit, Pope Francis celebrated mass in Cuba Sunday before hundreds of thousands of worshipers in Havana’s Revolution Square. Born in Argentina, Francis is the first Latin American pope. The pope’s homily in Havana included no direct political message besides urging the successful conclusion of Colombia peace talks that have been taking place in Cuba for nearly three years...
The Media Can No Longer Pretend That Trump’s Racist Birtherism Is Old News The Nation ... Until last night, Trump has successfully built a great big wall to keep his ugly birther narrative from crossing into his current presidential run. His candidacy now turns on his racist immigrant-bashing. It’s not that the press has completely forgotten the birther storm, which peaked in 2011...
Hedge Fund Manager Buys Rights To Critical Drug, Hikes Price By 5000% Alternet ...The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars...
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.17.15
Teamsters
Bipartisan Coalition Upholds Gov. Nixon Veto of Right-to-Work in Victory for Working Families Teamster.org ...Today, a bipartisan group of state legislators in the Missouri House and Senate came together to protect working families by voting to sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of so-called right-to-work legislation. “I would like to thank the state legislators who put aside their partisan differences and came together to uphold Gov. Nixon’s veto,” said Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa...
Teamsters Support Murray-Scott Legislation to Strengthen Worker Protections Under NLRA Teamster.org ...The Teamsters applaud today’s introduction of the Workplace Action for a Growing Economy (WAGE) Act by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). The WAGE Act is a positive step forward, addressing the shortcomings of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in the areas of workers protections and penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights...
Tucson bus strike ends after union vote Arizona Daily Star ...The 42-day Tucson bus strike ended Wednesday when drivers, mechanics and other members of Teamsters Local 104 voted to accept a new contract. The vote was 351-41, an 89 percent approval, said Teamsters Local 104 President Andy Marshall. Everyone gets a raise under the new contract, he said, but he wouldn’t release contract details, saying he didn’t want to inflame opinions...
Bus Strike Ends! The Teamsters Approve Sun Tran's Two-Year Deal Tucson Weekly ...With a vote of 351 to 41, the bus drivers and mechanics who have been picketing for six weeks approved a deal between the Teamsters Local Union 104 and Professional Transit Management—the company contracted by the city of Tucson to oversee Sun Tran. The two had reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama upbeat on prospects for Pacific trade deal Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was confident Pacific Rim nations could nail down an agreement on a free-trade pact this year although approval by the U.S. Congress was not guaranteed. Speaking to a group of corporate executives, Obama said trade ministers should soon have an opportunity to close a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Ministers to reconvene TPP talks in late September Japan Times ...Ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries will meet in late September in Atlanta as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free-trade zones, negotiation sources said Thursday. A meeting of chief negotiators from the United States, Japan, Canada and nine other member countries involved in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership talks will begin from Sept. 26...
Final push for Pacific Rim pact set for end of September Globe and Mail ...An effort to land a massive Pacific Rim free trade agreement within weeks is under way, raising the prospect the wide-ranging Trans-Pacific Partnership could dominate the final stretch of the Canadian election campaign. Chief negotiators for the 12 countries involved, including Canada, will begin meeting in Atlanta on Sept. 26...
Chilean Airport Workers Strike, Leave Thousands Stranded Aviation Pros ...On the heels of strikes in throughout Europe last month and Seattle just last week, Chilean airport workers have begun a 24-hour strike that has left an estimated 70,000 travelers stranded in the South American country, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The airport strike is led by air traffic controllers and ground support staff demanding better retirement benefits...
Worker Rights under Siege at Oil Refinery in Kyrgyzstan Solidarity Center ...The recent firing of a union leader at a Chinese-owned oil refinery in Kyrgyzstan is the company’s latest attempt in the past two years to prevent workers from forming a union, according to the global union IndustriALL and workers. Zhanaydar Ahmetov, leader of the trade union committee at China Petrol Company Zhongda was fired and locked out of the plant on August 29, the second union leader dismissed in two years, factory workers say...
Border Force workers strike over wages Daily Mail ...Strikes by Department of Immigration and Border Protection employees are expected to cause a week of disruptions at international and domestic airports across the country. The employees, including those from Border Force, began the protected industrial action in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia on Wednesday and plan more until Wednesday next week. The action comes as Community and Public Sector Union members vote on a proposed enterprise agreement...
State & Living Wage Battles
'Right to work' measure dies in Missouri House St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Applause erupted in the the House chamber Wednesday as Republican leaders' goal to make Missouri the 26th "right to work" state died when members failed to vote to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto. The measure, which prohibits companies from requiring union membership or dues as conditions of employment, was pushed through the legislative session in May as Republicans used aggressive tactics...
Union members relieved after right-to-work legislation fails Columbia Missourian ...The Missouri House of Representatives voted 96-63 to uphold the governor's veto, falling 13 votes short of an override. House Bill 116 would have made it illegal for employers to require employees to join a union as a condition of employment. The victory for organized labor was watched closely nationwide. The bill would have made Missouri the 26th right-to-work state in the country, and its failure was cheered by dozens of union members in the House galleries...
Oregon's minimum wage will stay $9.25 in 2016 KATU ...Oregon's minimum wage will stay the same in 2016. The wage is re-calculated each year because of a state law passed by voters in 2002 that ties it to inflation. The wage will remain stuck at $9.25 this January because it is pegged to the Consumer Price Index, which showed little inflation, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said Wednesday. The Legislature considered several bills earlier this year that would have raised the minimum wage — each lacked sufficient support...
Missouri legislators block cities from raising minimum wage Business Journal ...Missouri legislators voted Wednesday to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a measure to stop municipalities from raising minimum wages above the ceiling set by the state. The Missouri House voted 114-46, and later in the day the Senate voted 23-9 to override the veto. That exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to override the Democratic governor's July veto of House Bill 722...
California Workers Could See More Protection Against Wage Theft RH Reality Check ...While California has some of the strongest wage theft laws in the country, regulators have little authority to enforce those laws. That may change after a bill passed last week by the Democratic-led state legislature. SB 588, sponsored by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), would give the California labor commissioner such authority...
Bill seeks to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour in Florida Click Orlando ...As the debate over minimum wage continues across the country, two local bills could soon change the minimum wage in Florida. Two Florida state senators on Thursday will call on legislators to sign bills that would raise the minimum wage in the state to $15 per hour. Both bills would nearly double the state's current minimum wage, which is $8.05...
U.S. Labor
Seattle teachers back in the classroom after tentative deal ends strike Daily Kos ...Seattle teachers went back to work Wednesday to prepare for schools to open on Thursday after the Seattle Education Association and school district management reached a tentative deal to end the teachers strike that delayed the scheduled start of the school year. The teachers were pushing for improved pay after six years without a cost of living increase, as well as for mandatory recess, equity teams in all schools, and limits on the influence of standardized testing...
FCA-UAW contract sets new wage range for 2nd tier Detroit Free Press ...Both new and longtime autoworkers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles represented by the UAW will receive wage increases under a new four-year contract if they vote to ratify it in the coming weeks, the Free Press has learned. A new tentative agreement between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler would set a new wage range for entry-level workers of more than $17 an hour to more than $25 per hour over a period of several years...
Healthcare Workers at Chapman Global Medical Center Vote to Join SEIU-UHW OC Weekly ...In a surprisingly quick campaign, hundreds of healthcare workers at Chapman Global Medical Center in Orange decided to unionize. The vote to join the Service Employee International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) passed Tuesday by a dominating three-to-one margin. Two-hundred and twenty nurses, cooks, medical records clerks, janitors and others will now experience the benefits of being in a union...
Labor law has been frozen for 60 years. Democrats are trying to crack it open. Washington Post ...A new attempt by Democrats to boost worker bargaining power has a lot of failure behind it. The American workplace has changed a whole lot over the past half century. But the major law that governs how workers and employees interact — the National Labor Relations Act — has been essentially frozen since 1947, when the law was reformed to constrain worker power. Liberal legislators are trying to make the law a tool for collective action again...
How Unions Boost Democratic Participation American Prospect ...As part of ongoing research, James Feigenbaum, an economics PhD candidate at Harvard, ran a regression using American National Election Studies data suggesting that union members are about 4 percentage points more likely to vote and 3 points more likely to register (after controlling for demographic factors) and individuals living in a union household are 2.5 points more likely to vote and register...
America’s Poverty Problem Hasn’t Changed The Atlantic ...On Wednesday, the Census Bureau released its latest data on income and poverty for the country, and despite a falling unemployment rate and a rising GDP—two promising macroeconomic signs—things haven’t improved all that much for American families in the past year. America’s poverty problem is basically the same. So the biggest news in the data dump was the shifting methodology behind it all...
Social Justice & Other News
'Perilously' Outdated Voting Machines Threaten 2016 Election, Report Finds Common Dreams ...Electronic voting machines in 43 states are at least a decade old, "perilously close to the end of most systems' expected lifespan," and could pose a risk to the 2016 election, a new study from the the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law finds. After a 10 month probe that included interviews with over 100 election officials and experts in every state, the investigators concluded that the threat also extends to "significant percentages of machines" in swing states...
#NoHateDebate: GOP candidates met with protest over their anti-immigrant rants RT ...Hours before Republican presidential candidates are to clash in a televised debate, dozens of protesters rallied in Los Angeles to express their anger over GOP rhetoric on immigration. The rally occupied streets near the Ronald Reagan Library, where the debate is to start at 8 p.m. EST. Some of the protesters got their anger out on a giant effigy of the leading candidate Donald Trump, slapping and punching it...
Many Jails Are Illegal Debtors' Prisons Truthout ...Congress outlawed debtors' prisons nearly 200 years ago. Since then, federal courts have made it clear that indigent people can not be jailed for being unable to pay legal debts. Still, legal advocates estimate that thousands of low-income people in the South and across the United States are illegally jailed every year because they are unable to pay off legal debts to municipal courts, even when they are trying hard to do so. Debtors' prison practices have an especially heavy impact on communities of color...
Arrest of Muslim Teen for Bringing Clock to School 'Inevitable Byproduct of Culture of Fear' Common Dreams ...A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday. Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling...
Huckabee Says Kim Davis Should Be Able To Discriminate Because Muslim Inmates Can Grow Beards Think Progress ...Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been the most vocal supporter of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriages licenses. He has said he would go to jail on her behalf and has used her situation to argue for strengthening “religious liberty.” But during Wednesday night’s GOP debate, he proved he doesn’t actually understand the meaning of religious freedom...
Bipartisan Coalition Upholds Gov. Nixon Veto of Right-to-Work in Victory for Working Families Teamster.org ...Today, a bipartisan group of state legislators in the Missouri House and Senate came together to protect working families by voting to sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of so-called right-to-work legislation. “I would like to thank the state legislators who put aside their partisan differences and came together to uphold Gov. Nixon’s veto,” said Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa...
Teamsters Support Murray-Scott Legislation to Strengthen Worker Protections Under NLRA Teamster.org ...The Teamsters applaud today’s introduction of the Workplace Action for a Growing Economy (WAGE) Act by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). The WAGE Act is a positive step forward, addressing the shortcomings of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in the areas of workers protections and penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights...
Tucson bus strike ends after union vote Arizona Daily Star ...The 42-day Tucson bus strike ended Wednesday when drivers, mechanics and other members of Teamsters Local 104 voted to accept a new contract. The vote was 351-41, an 89 percent approval, said Teamsters Local 104 President Andy Marshall. Everyone gets a raise under the new contract, he said, but he wouldn’t release contract details, saying he didn’t want to inflame opinions...
Bus Strike Ends! The Teamsters Approve Sun Tran's Two-Year Deal Tucson Weekly ...With a vote of 351 to 41, the bus drivers and mechanics who have been picketing for six weeks approved a deal between the Teamsters Local Union 104 and Professional Transit Management—the company contracted by the city of Tucson to oversee Sun Tran. The two had reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama upbeat on prospects for Pacific trade deal Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was confident Pacific Rim nations could nail down an agreement on a free-trade pact this year although approval by the U.S. Congress was not guaranteed. Speaking to a group of corporate executives, Obama said trade ministers should soon have an opportunity to close a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Ministers to reconvene TPP talks in late September Japan Times ...Ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries will meet in late September in Atlanta as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free-trade zones, negotiation sources said Thursday. A meeting of chief negotiators from the United States, Japan, Canada and nine other member countries involved in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership talks will begin from Sept. 26...
Final push for Pacific Rim pact set for end of September Globe and Mail ...An effort to land a massive Pacific Rim free trade agreement within weeks is under way, raising the prospect the wide-ranging Trans-Pacific Partnership could dominate the final stretch of the Canadian election campaign. Chief negotiators for the 12 countries involved, including Canada, will begin meeting in Atlanta on Sept. 26...
Chilean Airport Workers Strike, Leave Thousands Stranded Aviation Pros ...On the heels of strikes in throughout Europe last month and Seattle just last week, Chilean airport workers have begun a 24-hour strike that has left an estimated 70,000 travelers stranded in the South American country, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The airport strike is led by air traffic controllers and ground support staff demanding better retirement benefits...
Worker Rights under Siege at Oil Refinery in Kyrgyzstan Solidarity Center ...The recent firing of a union leader at a Chinese-owned oil refinery in Kyrgyzstan is the company’s latest attempt in the past two years to prevent workers from forming a union, according to the global union IndustriALL and workers. Zhanaydar Ahmetov, leader of the trade union committee at China Petrol Company Zhongda was fired and locked out of the plant on August 29, the second union leader dismissed in two years, factory workers say...
Border Force workers strike over wages Daily Mail ...Strikes by Department of Immigration and Border Protection employees are expected to cause a week of disruptions at international and domestic airports across the country. The employees, including those from Border Force, began the protected industrial action in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia on Wednesday and plan more until Wednesday next week. The action comes as Community and Public Sector Union members vote on a proposed enterprise agreement...
State & Living Wage Battles
'Right to work' measure dies in Missouri House St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Applause erupted in the the House chamber Wednesday as Republican leaders' goal to make Missouri the 26th "right to work" state died when members failed to vote to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto. The measure, which prohibits companies from requiring union membership or dues as conditions of employment, was pushed through the legislative session in May as Republicans used aggressive tactics...
Union members relieved after right-to-work legislation fails Columbia Missourian ...The Missouri House of Representatives voted 96-63 to uphold the governor's veto, falling 13 votes short of an override. House Bill 116 would have made it illegal for employers to require employees to join a union as a condition of employment. The victory for organized labor was watched closely nationwide. The bill would have made Missouri the 26th right-to-work state in the country, and its failure was cheered by dozens of union members in the House galleries...
Oregon's minimum wage will stay $9.25 in 2016 KATU ...Oregon's minimum wage will stay the same in 2016. The wage is re-calculated each year because of a state law passed by voters in 2002 that ties it to inflation. The wage will remain stuck at $9.25 this January because it is pegged to the Consumer Price Index, which showed little inflation, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said Wednesday. The Legislature considered several bills earlier this year that would have raised the minimum wage — each lacked sufficient support...
Missouri legislators block cities from raising minimum wage Business Journal ...Missouri legislators voted Wednesday to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a measure to stop municipalities from raising minimum wages above the ceiling set by the state. The Missouri House voted 114-46, and later in the day the Senate voted 23-9 to override the veto. That exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to override the Democratic governor's July veto of House Bill 722...
California Workers Could See More Protection Against Wage Theft RH Reality Check ...While California has some of the strongest wage theft laws in the country, regulators have little authority to enforce those laws. That may change after a bill passed last week by the Democratic-led state legislature. SB 588, sponsored by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), would give the California labor commissioner such authority...
Bill seeks to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour in Florida Click Orlando ...As the debate over minimum wage continues across the country, two local bills could soon change the minimum wage in Florida. Two Florida state senators on Thursday will call on legislators to sign bills that would raise the minimum wage in the state to $15 per hour. Both bills would nearly double the state's current minimum wage, which is $8.05...
U.S. Labor
Seattle teachers back in the classroom after tentative deal ends strike Daily Kos ...Seattle teachers went back to work Wednesday to prepare for schools to open on Thursday after the Seattle Education Association and school district management reached a tentative deal to end the teachers strike that delayed the scheduled start of the school year. The teachers were pushing for improved pay after six years without a cost of living increase, as well as for mandatory recess, equity teams in all schools, and limits on the influence of standardized testing...
FCA-UAW contract sets new wage range for 2nd tier Detroit Free Press ...Both new and longtime autoworkers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles represented by the UAW will receive wage increases under a new four-year contract if they vote to ratify it in the coming weeks, the Free Press has learned. A new tentative agreement between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler would set a new wage range for entry-level workers of more than $17 an hour to more than $25 per hour over a period of several years...
Healthcare Workers at Chapman Global Medical Center Vote to Join SEIU-UHW OC Weekly ...In a surprisingly quick campaign, hundreds of healthcare workers at Chapman Global Medical Center in Orange decided to unionize. The vote to join the Service Employee International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) passed Tuesday by a dominating three-to-one margin. Two-hundred and twenty nurses, cooks, medical records clerks, janitors and others will now experience the benefits of being in a union...
Labor law has been frozen for 60 years. Democrats are trying to crack it open. Washington Post ...A new attempt by Democrats to boost worker bargaining power has a lot of failure behind it. The American workplace has changed a whole lot over the past half century. But the major law that governs how workers and employees interact — the National Labor Relations Act — has been essentially frozen since 1947, when the law was reformed to constrain worker power. Liberal legislators are trying to make the law a tool for collective action again...
How Unions Boost Democratic Participation American Prospect ...As part of ongoing research, James Feigenbaum, an economics PhD candidate at Harvard, ran a regression using American National Election Studies data suggesting that union members are about 4 percentage points more likely to vote and 3 points more likely to register (after controlling for demographic factors) and individuals living in a union household are 2.5 points more likely to vote and register...
America’s Poverty Problem Hasn’t Changed The Atlantic ...On Wednesday, the Census Bureau released its latest data on income and poverty for the country, and despite a falling unemployment rate and a rising GDP—two promising macroeconomic signs—things haven’t improved all that much for American families in the past year. America’s poverty problem is basically the same. So the biggest news in the data dump was the shifting methodology behind it all...
Social Justice & Other News
'Perilously' Outdated Voting Machines Threaten 2016 Election, Report Finds Common Dreams ...Electronic voting machines in 43 states are at least a decade old, "perilously close to the end of most systems' expected lifespan," and could pose a risk to the 2016 election, a new study from the the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law finds. After a 10 month probe that included interviews with over 100 election officials and experts in every state, the investigators concluded that the threat also extends to "significant percentages of machines" in swing states...
#NoHateDebate: GOP candidates met with protest over their anti-immigrant rants RT ...Hours before Republican presidential candidates are to clash in a televised debate, dozens of protesters rallied in Los Angeles to express their anger over GOP rhetoric on immigration. The rally occupied streets near the Ronald Reagan Library, where the debate is to start at 8 p.m. EST. Some of the protesters got their anger out on a giant effigy of the leading candidate Donald Trump, slapping and punching it...
Many Jails Are Illegal Debtors' Prisons Truthout ...Congress outlawed debtors' prisons nearly 200 years ago. Since then, federal courts have made it clear that indigent people can not be jailed for being unable to pay legal debts. Still, legal advocates estimate that thousands of low-income people in the South and across the United States are illegally jailed every year because they are unable to pay off legal debts to municipal courts, even when they are trying hard to do so. Debtors' prison practices have an especially heavy impact on communities of color...
Arrest of Muslim Teen for Bringing Clock to School 'Inevitable Byproduct of Culture of Fear' Common Dreams ...A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday. Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling...
Huckabee Says Kim Davis Should Be Able To Discriminate Because Muslim Inmates Can Grow Beards Think Progress ...Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been the most vocal supporter of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriages licenses. He has said he would go to jail on her behalf and has used her situation to argue for strengthening “religious liberty.” But during Wednesday night’s GOP debate, he proved he doesn’t actually understand the meaning of religious freedom...
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
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...
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...
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Today's Teamsters News 09.10.15
Teamsters
Hoffa Calls for Bipartisan Approach to Infrastructure Investment Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa stressed the need for a commitment by Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisan agendas and move forward to find a long-term solution to surface transportation funding. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour joined Hoffa at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference today to discuss infrastructure investment...
The Teamsters Want Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Unity To “Get America Working” WIN ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has launched their “Get America Working Campaign” calling for massive new investments in infrastructure, transportation and clean energy. The American Society Of Civil Engineers estimates that America needs to spend $3.6 trillion to modernize and repair roads, bridges, ports, airports, railroads and water systems. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says making these investments would create jobs...
Hoffa: Teamsters Urging Bipartisan Effort to Fix Roads, Bridges Newsmax ...The Teamsters union is pushing a bipartisan effort to repair America's crumbling infrastructure and get the country back on top, the group's president James P. Hoffa, tells Newsmax TV. "There's no Republican bridge, there's no Democratic bridge, there's an American bridge," Hoffa said Wednesday on "The Hard Line"...
Baumann and Sons Buses Inc., Acme Buses, Teamsters Local 1205 to resume school bus labor talks Thursday, union chief says Newsday ...Federal mediation was put on hold early Thursday morning between a major Long Island school bus contractor and its drivers -- a situation closely watched by school districts and parents whose children ride the company's vehicles to get to and from school. Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, Acme Buses, plan to reconvene at 4 p.m. Thursday to continue negotiations, union president Timothy Lynch said...
Council sends message to Sun Tran: resolve strike Arizona Daily News ...The Tucson City Council made a political statement Wednesday in the ongoing Sun Tran strike, telling the management to “make every effort to resolve the labor dispute immediately.” Thursday marks the 36th day of the strike. They told Professional Transit Management to meet its obligation to negotiate in good faith with the Teamsters...
Global Labor & Trade
Auto parts makers make plea to save sector as TPP talks resume CBC ...Auto parts makers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have urged their governments not to give in to demands from Japan for less NAFTA-made content in vehicles at new talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canadian and Mexican negotiators are in Washington today trying to work out terms for automotive issues in the trade deal which would open up freer trade among 12 Pacific nations...
US Aims for Next TPP Meeting in Late September MarketPulse ...The United States has sounded out some of the other countries involved in Pacific Rim free trade negotiations about holding the next ministerial gathering in late September on the margins of a session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, negotiation sources said Tuesday. Separately, Japan and the United States will resume bilateral talks on auto trade issues under the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative in Washington from Wednesday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said...
USTR offers update on TPP following Maui meeting Farm Futures ...Following a meeting of the 12 countries represented in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative this week briefed members of the House Ag Committee on TPP movement and released an updated progress report on the anticipated deal. According to the report, USTR says "substantial progress" was specifically made on market access for goods and services as well as environmental issues...
TPP up by year’s end, says US envoy John Berry The Australian ...The US ambassador to Australia says the President and Secretary of State are confident they will be able to sign the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership by the end of the year, facilitating trade through the Asia-Pacific. In Adelaide to attend an innovation roundtable yesterday, John Berry talked up the benefits of the $200 billion TPP, along with international trade partnerships, at an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia forum...
South Africa FAWU Workers Strike Turns Violent Eyewitness News ...Police are keeping a watchful eye on hundreds of Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) members on strike in Ceres. The demonstrators are demanding a 12% increase from Ceres Fruit Growers which has been offering six percent. The striking employees have braved the chilly and wet weather to demonstrate outside the company’s gates...
Hyundai Motor S.Korea union authorises strike; talks continue Reuters ...Hyundai Motor's union workers in South Korea have voted to authorise a strike after failing to reach a deal in annual wage talks and on reforms to its pay structure. Workers could go on strike as early as Sept. 14, although the union and company management agreed to resume negotiations later on Thursday, union spokesman Hwang Ki-tae said...
Peru: 20,000 Public Health Care Workers Strike TeleSUR ...The strike of public health care workers is the latest sign that Peru’s underfunded system is in trouble. Public health care workers have launched a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to pressure Peru’s government into implementing agreements reached in 2014. Last year, after workers held an 18-day strike, the government signed an agreement, which addressed various issues...
State & Living Wage Battles
New York Could Be The First State With A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will become the first governor to call for a $15 minimum wage across his entire state. A wage hike would need to be passed by the state legislature, where the state senate is Republican-controlled. But if his proposal were to become reality, that would give New York the country’s highest state minimum wage...
Tennessee Higher Education Talks Big, Acts Cheap The Nation ... Under a plan recently issued by the administration of Governor Bill Haslam—who won national accolades for making Tennessee the first state to offer comprehensive “free community college for all”—workers at public facilities across the state, including higher-education institutions, will see their jobs outsourced, potentially at the expense of wages and benefits...
California Governor signs two-person crew law BLET ...California Governor Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown signed a two-person crew bill into law on September 8, signifying a significant boost to railroad safety. The bill reads in part: “This bill would prohibit, on and after February 1, 2016, a train or light engine used in connection with the movement of freight, as specified, from being operated unless it has a crew consisting of at least 2 individuals”...
Paid sick leave movement is alive and kicking CBS ...And about 39 percent of U.S. private sector workers lack access to any sick paid leave, according to a joint study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research and the National Partnership for Women & Families. hat has led several local municipalities and at least four states -- California, Connecticut, Oregon and Massachusetts -- to establish their own paid sick leave laws to ensure that workers don't have to chose between working sick, losing part of their pay or, in some cases, losing their jobs altogether...
Puerto Rico Proposes Harsh Austerity To Solve The Debt Crisis Think Progress ...The government of Puerto Rico put forward an official plan on Wednesday to tackle its looming $72 billion debt crisis. In exchange for demanding some concessions from the island’s hedge fund creditors, the government is promising to pay workers less than the minimum wage, slash retirement benefits, limit collective bargaining, cut funding to universities, and shut down more K-12 schools...
Sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of Missouri anti-union bill (editorial) Kansas City Star ...A controversial “right to work” bill, which is expected to take center stage in the Missouri General Assembly’s veto session next week, is part of a long-term effort by right-wing interests to cripple union strength around the nation. It bodes poorly for Missouri workers and the state’s economy and must not be passed over Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto...
U.S. Labor
UPS pilots' union to vote on potential strike The Hill ...The union that represents UPS pilots is calling a vote on a potential strike against one of the nation's largest parcel delivery companies. The Louisville, Ky.-based Independent Pilots Association (IPA), which has more than 2,600 members, said Wednesday that it would hold a vote on a potential strike against UPS beginning on Oct. 1. Union leaders said the vote is an effort to win concessions from UPS after multiple years of protracted labor talks...
'Fighting for Incredible List of Educational Reforms,' Seattle Teachers Go on Historic Strike Common Dreams ...For the first time in 30 years, Seattle teachers are hitting the picket lines on Wednesday after the teachers union and the school board failed to negotiate a tentative agreement. The Tuesday decision to strike—made with what the union describes as "an unprecedented, thunderous unanimous vote," closes schools on what would have been the first day of school for roughly 50,000 students...
Analysts: GM likely UAW target, small strike probable The Detroit News ...General Motors Co. likely will be selected as the lead for UAW negotiations as contracts expire with the Detroit’s Big Three next week, according to Buckingham Research Group auto analysts, who also believe there is a high probability of a small strike. “We view GM as a probable target, given new CEO Mary Barra is likely more labor friendly vs. Mark Fields and Sergio Marchionne,” analysts from the research firm said...
US Unemployment Benefit Applications Dropped to 275,000 AP ...Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, keeping this key indicator of labor market health near historic lows. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 275,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 500 to 275,750...
Republicans take aim at NLRB's 'joint employer' ruling The Hill ...The GOP is girding for another fight with the Obama administration over a controversial labor policy. The Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, introduced Wednesday by Republicans, would roll back a policy that holds companies liable for labor violations committed by their business partners...
Unions 30 Years Ago Are Somehow Making People Richer Today The Atlantic ...According to the study, people between the ages of 26 and 37 who are working full time and whose parents did not go to college and were not in a union earn an average of $39,000 today. But a very similar group of people—everything the same except that they had one parent who was in a union—those people are earning $46,000...
Labor vs. Silicon Valley, David vs. Goliath? (video) MSNBC ...Unions are spreading like wildfire through tech’s low-wage workforce and Derecka Mehrens, Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA says, ‘we’re winning’. Temple Law Professor Brishen Rogers and MSNBC’s Zack Roth discuss what’s next for innovative labor campaigns...
Social Justice & Other News
Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan Is Mostly A Giveaway To The Rich Think Progress ...In a speech on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush will unveil his tax plan. He also previewed the plan in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Tuesday evening. While the plan is still just an outline of what Bush would do and therefore doesn’t include many details, many of the changes he wants to make would benefit the wealthiest Americans...
Why Europe’s Trains Are So Much Better Than America's The Atlantic ...California is the only place in the U.S. where high-speed rail (HSR) plans are really moving forward, albeit not that quickly or smoothly. The state is currently building a 520-mile high-speed line from San Francisco to L.A., which will eventually extend to Sacramento to the north and San Diego to the south. The German Marshall Fund put out a report in June on the lessons California could draw from the well-developed HSR systems in Germany and France...
Zero Tolerance for Childhood Slate ...“Kids for cash” is emblematic of a larger problem: the tendency to criminalize so much of what young people do, the tendency to hit them with draconian punishments that are out of proportion to the crime itself, and the ways the system itself profits financially from those impulses...
German Lawmaker: At the Root of Refugee Crisis are Wars Led by the U.S. in the Middle East Democracy Now ...The United Nations is now estimating at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and next, seeking refuge in Europe to escape violence and unrest in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Already 366,000 people have arrived in Europe this year. Annette Groth, member of the German Parliament and spokeswoman for human rights for the Left Party, asks "What is the root for this massive migration?It is war, it is terror, and it is the former U.S. government who is accountable for it"...
Hoffa Calls for Bipartisan Approach to Infrastructure Investment Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa stressed the need for a commitment by Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisan agendas and move forward to find a long-term solution to surface transportation funding. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour joined Hoffa at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference today to discuss infrastructure investment...
The Teamsters Want Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Unity To “Get America Working” WIN ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has launched their “Get America Working Campaign” calling for massive new investments in infrastructure, transportation and clean energy. The American Society Of Civil Engineers estimates that America needs to spend $3.6 trillion to modernize and repair roads, bridges, ports, airports, railroads and water systems. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says making these investments would create jobs...
Hoffa: Teamsters Urging Bipartisan Effort to Fix Roads, Bridges Newsmax ...The Teamsters union is pushing a bipartisan effort to repair America's crumbling infrastructure and get the country back on top, the group's president James P. Hoffa, tells Newsmax TV. "There's no Republican bridge, there's no Democratic bridge, there's an American bridge," Hoffa said Wednesday on "The Hard Line"...
Baumann and Sons Buses Inc., Acme Buses, Teamsters Local 1205 to resume school bus labor talks Thursday, union chief says Newsday ...Federal mediation was put on hold early Thursday morning between a major Long Island school bus contractor and its drivers -- a situation closely watched by school districts and parents whose children ride the company's vehicles to get to and from school. Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, Acme Buses, plan to reconvene at 4 p.m. Thursday to continue negotiations, union president Timothy Lynch said...
Council sends message to Sun Tran: resolve strike Arizona Daily News ...The Tucson City Council made a political statement Wednesday in the ongoing Sun Tran strike, telling the management to “make every effort to resolve the labor dispute immediately.” Thursday marks the 36th day of the strike. They told Professional Transit Management to meet its obligation to negotiate in good faith with the Teamsters...
Global Labor & Trade
Auto parts makers make plea to save sector as TPP talks resume CBC ...Auto parts makers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have urged their governments not to give in to demands from Japan for less NAFTA-made content in vehicles at new talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canadian and Mexican negotiators are in Washington today trying to work out terms for automotive issues in the trade deal which would open up freer trade among 12 Pacific nations...
US Aims for Next TPP Meeting in Late September MarketPulse ...The United States has sounded out some of the other countries involved in Pacific Rim free trade negotiations about holding the next ministerial gathering in late September on the margins of a session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, negotiation sources said Tuesday. Separately, Japan and the United States will resume bilateral talks on auto trade issues under the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative in Washington from Wednesday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said...
USTR offers update on TPP following Maui meeting Farm Futures ...Following a meeting of the 12 countries represented in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative this week briefed members of the House Ag Committee on TPP movement and released an updated progress report on the anticipated deal. According to the report, USTR says "substantial progress" was specifically made on market access for goods and services as well as environmental issues...
TPP up by year’s end, says US envoy John Berry The Australian ...The US ambassador to Australia says the President and Secretary of State are confident they will be able to sign the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership by the end of the year, facilitating trade through the Asia-Pacific. In Adelaide to attend an innovation roundtable yesterday, John Berry talked up the benefits of the $200 billion TPP, along with international trade partnerships, at an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia forum...
South Africa FAWU Workers Strike Turns Violent Eyewitness News ...Police are keeping a watchful eye on hundreds of Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) members on strike in Ceres. The demonstrators are demanding a 12% increase from Ceres Fruit Growers which has been offering six percent. The striking employees have braved the chilly and wet weather to demonstrate outside the company’s gates...
Hyundai Motor S.Korea union authorises strike; talks continue Reuters ...Hyundai Motor's union workers in South Korea have voted to authorise a strike after failing to reach a deal in annual wage talks and on reforms to its pay structure. Workers could go on strike as early as Sept. 14, although the union and company management agreed to resume negotiations later on Thursday, union spokesman Hwang Ki-tae said...
Peru: 20,000 Public Health Care Workers Strike TeleSUR ...The strike of public health care workers is the latest sign that Peru’s underfunded system is in trouble. Public health care workers have launched a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to pressure Peru’s government into implementing agreements reached in 2014. Last year, after workers held an 18-day strike, the government signed an agreement, which addressed various issues...
State & Living Wage Battles
New York Could Be The First State With A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will become the first governor to call for a $15 minimum wage across his entire state. A wage hike would need to be passed by the state legislature, where the state senate is Republican-controlled. But if his proposal were to become reality, that would give New York the country’s highest state minimum wage...
Tennessee Higher Education Talks Big, Acts Cheap The Nation ... Under a plan recently issued by the administration of Governor Bill Haslam—who won national accolades for making Tennessee the first state to offer comprehensive “free community college for all”—workers at public facilities across the state, including higher-education institutions, will see their jobs outsourced, potentially at the expense of wages and benefits...
California Governor signs two-person crew law BLET ...California Governor Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown signed a two-person crew bill into law on September 8, signifying a significant boost to railroad safety. The bill reads in part: “This bill would prohibit, on and after February 1, 2016, a train or light engine used in connection with the movement of freight, as specified, from being operated unless it has a crew consisting of at least 2 individuals”...
Paid sick leave movement is alive and kicking CBS ...And about 39 percent of U.S. private sector workers lack access to any sick paid leave, according to a joint study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research and the National Partnership for Women & Families. hat has led several local municipalities and at least four states -- California, Connecticut, Oregon and Massachusetts -- to establish their own paid sick leave laws to ensure that workers don't have to chose between working sick, losing part of their pay or, in some cases, losing their jobs altogether...
Puerto Rico Proposes Harsh Austerity To Solve The Debt Crisis Think Progress ...The government of Puerto Rico put forward an official plan on Wednesday to tackle its looming $72 billion debt crisis. In exchange for demanding some concessions from the island’s hedge fund creditors, the government is promising to pay workers less than the minimum wage, slash retirement benefits, limit collective bargaining, cut funding to universities, and shut down more K-12 schools...
Sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of Missouri anti-union bill (editorial) Kansas City Star ...A controversial “right to work” bill, which is expected to take center stage in the Missouri General Assembly’s veto session next week, is part of a long-term effort by right-wing interests to cripple union strength around the nation. It bodes poorly for Missouri workers and the state’s economy and must not be passed over Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto...
U.S. Labor
UPS pilots' union to vote on potential strike The Hill ...The union that represents UPS pilots is calling a vote on a potential strike against one of the nation's largest parcel delivery companies. The Louisville, Ky.-based Independent Pilots Association (IPA), which has more than 2,600 members, said Wednesday that it would hold a vote on a potential strike against UPS beginning on Oct. 1. Union leaders said the vote is an effort to win concessions from UPS after multiple years of protracted labor talks...
'Fighting for Incredible List of Educational Reforms,' Seattle Teachers Go on Historic Strike Common Dreams ...For the first time in 30 years, Seattle teachers are hitting the picket lines on Wednesday after the teachers union and the school board failed to negotiate a tentative agreement. The Tuesday decision to strike—made with what the union describes as "an unprecedented, thunderous unanimous vote," closes schools on what would have been the first day of school for roughly 50,000 students...
Analysts: GM likely UAW target, small strike probable The Detroit News ...General Motors Co. likely will be selected as the lead for UAW negotiations as contracts expire with the Detroit’s Big Three next week, according to Buckingham Research Group auto analysts, who also believe there is a high probability of a small strike. “We view GM as a probable target, given new CEO Mary Barra is likely more labor friendly vs. Mark Fields and Sergio Marchionne,” analysts from the research firm said...
US Unemployment Benefit Applications Dropped to 275,000 AP ...Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, keeping this key indicator of labor market health near historic lows. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 275,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 500 to 275,750...
Republicans take aim at NLRB's 'joint employer' ruling The Hill ...The GOP is girding for another fight with the Obama administration over a controversial labor policy. The Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, introduced Wednesday by Republicans, would roll back a policy that holds companies liable for labor violations committed by their business partners...
Unions 30 Years Ago Are Somehow Making People Richer Today The Atlantic ...According to the study, people between the ages of 26 and 37 who are working full time and whose parents did not go to college and were not in a union earn an average of $39,000 today. But a very similar group of people—everything the same except that they had one parent who was in a union—those people are earning $46,000...
Labor vs. Silicon Valley, David vs. Goliath? (video) MSNBC ...Unions are spreading like wildfire through tech’s low-wage workforce and Derecka Mehrens, Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA says, ‘we’re winning’. Temple Law Professor Brishen Rogers and MSNBC’s Zack Roth discuss what’s next for innovative labor campaigns...
Social Justice & Other News
Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan Is Mostly A Giveaway To The Rich Think Progress ...In a speech on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush will unveil his tax plan. He also previewed the plan in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Tuesday evening. While the plan is still just an outline of what Bush would do and therefore doesn’t include many details, many of the changes he wants to make would benefit the wealthiest Americans...
Why Europe’s Trains Are So Much Better Than America's The Atlantic ...California is the only place in the U.S. where high-speed rail (HSR) plans are really moving forward, albeit not that quickly or smoothly. The state is currently building a 520-mile high-speed line from San Francisco to L.A., which will eventually extend to Sacramento to the north and San Diego to the south. The German Marshall Fund put out a report in June on the lessons California could draw from the well-developed HSR systems in Germany and France...
Zero Tolerance for Childhood Slate ...“Kids for cash” is emblematic of a larger problem: the tendency to criminalize so much of what young people do, the tendency to hit them with draconian punishments that are out of proportion to the crime itself, and the ways the system itself profits financially from those impulses...
German Lawmaker: At the Root of Refugee Crisis are Wars Led by the U.S. in the Middle East Democracy Now ...The United Nations is now estimating at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and next, seeking refuge in Europe to escape violence and unrest in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Already 366,000 people have arrived in Europe this year. Annette Groth, member of the German Parliament and spokeswoman for human rights for the Left Party, asks "What is the root for this massive migration?It is war, it is terror, and it is the former U.S. government who is accountable for it"...
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