TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Transportation bill loosens political gridlock Detroit News ...For more than a decade, Congress’s failure to approve a long-term transportation spending bill placed infrastructure improvements on the back burner in Michigan and all across the country. That ended last week, however, when members of the House and Senate united behind a five-year, $305 billion plan to pay for road, rail and mass transit upgrades...
Coca-Cola, union agree to federal mediation as strike continues Chicago Tribune ...The union representing striking Coca-Cola workers accepted the company's offer for federal mediation, even as it shot back at a letter the beverage giant mailed to employees defending the company's behavior during contract negotiations. Members of Teamsters Local 727, the union representing 319 production and warehouse workers at facilities in Niles and Alsip, took to the picket lines Thursday to protest what the union calls unfair labor practices...
Teamsters, Activists To Deliver Nearly 50,000 Signed Petitions Calling On UPS To Withdraw From ALEC PR Newswire ...On Thurs., Dec. 10, Teamsters Union representatives in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Ga. will be joined by environmental and community activists as they deliver nearly 50,000 signed petitions to UPS offices in both cities. The petitions call on the corporation to withdraw its membership in the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
U.S. Representatives Call on Treasury to Reject CSPF Application for Cuts Teamster.org ...Members of Congress have submitted letters to Treasury Department appointee Ken Feinberg asking him to deny the massive pension cuts proposed in the Teamsters Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan application. The representatives denounced the plan for the burden it would place on middle class workers and retirees and called for a more equitable solution...
Unions mourn members killed in San Bernardino shooting Workday Minnesota ...Twelve of the 15 people killed – and several of those injured – in the San Bernardino terrorist shooting were members of the Service Employees International Union or the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Both organizations are holding vigils and fundraisers for all the victims. Teamsters (link is external) General President Jim Hoffa said, “Today is a sad day, as we join the San Bernardino community with a heavy heart in mourning this tragic loss"...
Teamsters members at Fieldbrook Foods ratify union contract Observer Today ...The drivers, warehouse and production personnel employed by Fieldbrook Foods on One Ice Cream Drive, Dunkirk, have overwhelmingly ratified a successor collective bargaining agreement. The members approved the new four-year contract by a margin of two to one...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Sudan: Central Darfur State Workers On Strike All Africa ...The Central Darfur state employees and workers embarked on a brief strike on Tuesday in protest against the non-payment of their November salaries. They gave the authorities 48 hours to pay them their salaries. Otherwise, they will start an open-ended strike on Thursday, the head of the Central Darfur Workers' Union, Tajir Zakaria Idris, told Radio Dabanga...
India not seeking membership in TPP, TTIP Economic Times ...India has not sought membership in either of the two mega trade deals, Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic, the government informed Parliament today. "The government has not sought for membership of either the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)"...
Customs bill could reach finish line this week The Hill ...House and Senate lawmakers are nearing an agreement on a customs enforcement measure, even amid some Democratic dissent, which would wrap up another key piece of President Obama’s legislative trade agenda. Levin said that he is concerned a conference report will retain what he called “very troubling changes to the negotiating objectives in TPA [trade promotion authority]...
How the TPP Will Affect You and Your Digital Rights EFF ...By excluding a large sector of communities—like security researchers, artists, libraries, and user rights groups—trade negotiators skewed the priorities of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) towards major tech companies and copyright industries that have a strong interest in maintaining and expanding their monopolies of digital services and content...
TiSA: A Framework for Reregulating the Global Trade in Services? (opinion) Huffington Post ...The EU is negotiating on behalf of its 28 member states, and with 23 other countries including the USA, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia alongside the WTO, for a 'plurilateral' Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). TiSA's main purpose is to set out new rules to make the global trade in services fit for the internet era...
Superbug Apocalypse: How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Harms Public Health Truthout ...If you thought the only reason to be concerned was eight years of government secrecy surrounding the trade deal, its relation to the growing likelihood of antibacterial-resistant strains of bacteria from unchecked antibiotics in our food may give you nightmares...
Anti-austerity protesters march in Dublin city centre Irish Times ...There was a strong Garda presence outside Leinster House today as protestors demonstrated against austerity. Kildare Street and Molesworth Street were closed as up to 200 of people gathered outside Leinster House for a National Demonstration against Austerity. The action was in opposition to the water charges, the property taxes and to austerity imposed by the Government...
Pakistan Journalists Assert Human Rights, Worker Rights Solidarity Center ...The recent murders of three Pakistani journalists in separate incidents highlight the dangers media professionals in that country face daily on the job. ollowing the launch of a recent series of Solidarity Center workshops that covered safety as well as gender equality, more than 60 journalists from around 15 local unions in Pakistan came away with the resources and information they need to better protect themselves...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Ohio Democrats rethink strategy against right-to-work, unemployment legislation Cleveland.com ...As Ohio's Republican lawmakers pick up a new battle to reduce unemployment benefits and reduce the power of unions in the state, Democrats say they have a more difficult case against them. The last Republican-lead attempt to limit union power, Senate Bill 5 in 2011, was rebuffed and overturned by outraged voters...
Michigan prevailing wage repeal group preparing to launch second petition drive MLive ...A committee seeking to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law plans to begin collecting a second round of petition signatures within the month. Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, regrouping after a failed petition drive marred by duplicate signatures, has hired National Petition Management of Brighton...
BIC to push right-to-work during 2016 Legislative Session Metro News ...Supporting right-to-work legislation is one of the top priorities for the West Virginia Business and Industry Council heading into the 2016 Legislative Session, according to chairman Chris Hamilton. The right-to-work bill would allow workers to choose whether to pay labor unions. Meetings will be held throughout the state this month. Hamilton said this is to ensure they are fully prepared for the upcoming session...
The Supreme Court Looks Poised To Blow Up Everything You Think You Know About Redistricting Think Progress ...There is little reason to think that the Roberts Court will take a modest approach to redistricting. To the contrary, Evenwel now seems likely to upset the racial balance of many states’ congressional delegations and throw many states’ redistricting processes into chaos...
Justices appear split in Texas redistricting challenge Washington Post ...The phrase has come to symbolize American democracy: “One person, one vote.” But there was considerable disagreement Tuesday among the justices of the Supreme Court about exactly what it means. When electoral districts are drawn by the states and localities, should they be derived from the total population of a place, as is done in all 50 states? Or, as the challengers to Texas’s redistricting plan propose, should only those eligible to vote be counted?...
Bellingham tells state lawmakers to pass paid sick leave Bellingham Herald ...City Council will ask the state Legislature to require paid sick and safe leave rather than look to pass a rule locally. By a 5-2 vote Monday night, Dec. 7, the council passed a resolution calling on state legislators to require employers to provide their workers paid sick and safe leave...
Christie: Union 'pigs will be charging' to Statehouse if Democrat succeeds him NJ.com ...Warning that "pigs will be charging down State Street" in Trenton if voters elect a Democratic governor after he leaves office, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday urged New Jersey's business community to join his fight against public employee unions. Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, responded Tuesday afternoon, saying "Gov. Christie's tired strategy of finger pointing, blame and scare tactics is a smokescreen, not a solution"...
U.S LABOR
UAW reaches 2nd tentative deal with supplier Nexteer Detroit Free Press ...The UAW said late Tuesday that it has reached a new tentative agreement with Nexteer Automotive, an automotive supplier just outside of Saginaw, that ends a strike that began earlier in the day. More than 3,200 UAW members who work at Nexteer went on strike Tuesday, one day after 97% of workers who voted rejected the first contract...
Striking Capitol Workers Take Their Fight To Ted Cruz Think Progress ...The contractors, who work in the cafeterias and clean the buildings, say they were shut out of talks between Republican Senators and federal contractor organizations handling the renewal process. The new contract went into effect on Monday, according to their group’s press release, and failed to include the living wage of $15 an hour or union rights that they have been demanding for years...
Citrus workers go on strike in San Luis Yuma Sun ...Workers from two agriculture companies in the area, Bravo Harvesting and Pacific Avenue Growers, went on strike for a second day Tuesday, demanding higher pay and better working conditions. The strike began on Monday as workers gathered in the entrance and exits of parking lots for both companies...
Company threatens managers: If workers unionize, we'll cut your pay 60 percent Daily Kos ...Bosses have lots of strategies to block their workers from unionizing. Midwestern hardware chain Menards (owned by a huge Scott Walker supporter) really, really doesn’t want unions, it’s safe to say. So much so that the contract that managers sign threatens them with a big pay cut if workers join a union on their watch...
This is what the social safety net could look like for on-demand workers Washington Post ...Less than seven years after the founding of the largest company in the space, Uber, Washington is buzzing with talk of how to overhaul labor law to fit the new category of workers it claims to have created. That might seem like a long time. But the main corpus of regulations governing the work experience hasn’t changed substantially for more than 60 years...
Working Families Party Endorses Bernie Sanders for President NYTimes ...The Working Families Party, the labor-aligned third party that originated in New York and has sought to become a national force, endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for president on Tuesday, handing him a symbolic boost from the state that twice elected Hillary Clinton to the Senate...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Unaccompanied Children Are Crossing The Southern Border Again Think Progress ...Federal officials will open three shelters in response to a resurgent flow of unaccompanied children through the southern U.S. border. Senior Obama administration officials said on Monday that the shelters, set to open in Texas and California, will add at least 1,400 more beds, according to the New York Times. In recent years, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have fled violence and poverty in the Central America...
Chicago police inquiry triggers long-awaited change but hard choices ahead The Guardian ...Just hours after the US Justice Department announced this week that it would investigate the Chicago police department for civil rights violations, local elected officials went on the offensive. During an often-tense press conference, embattled Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who previously called a federal civil rights investigation “misguided”, pledged his full support...
Trump Isn't the Problem. It's the Bigotry of the GOP Base. Slate ...Fifty-seven percent say Islamic values are at odds with American values. As for Trump’s proposal to bar Muslim refugees, when the question is presented without cues, 5 of every 6 Republicans agree with him. The problem is the base—and by many measures, the majority—of the Republican Party. If you think we can’t elect a government in 2016 that would target a religious minority, you’re underestimating Trump. And you’re overestimating America...
With Anti-Muslim Bombast, Trump Doubles Down on 'Fascist Demagoguery' Common Dreams ...GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is doubling down on his xenophobic remarks about Muslims, even as they provoke widespread outrage and condemnation across the political spectrum. On Tuesday, Trump defended his fascist plan for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" by comparing it with President Franklin Roosevelt's decision to inter Japanese Americans during World War II...
What Do Survivors of War Have to Do to Live in Peace?: Voices from France's Largest Refugee Camp Democracy Now ...Residents of the largest refugee camp in France, situated outside the northern port city of Calais, often call it "The Jungle." It is a maze of wind-swept, ripped tents and muddy walkways where people informally live in sections according to their home countries. Walking through the camp is like walking through a map of the targets of U.S. bombing campaigns...
Showing posts with label transportation bill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation bill. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.03.15
TEAMSTERS
Chicago Teamsters Strike Coca-Cola Refreshments Over Unfair Labor Practices Teamster.org ...More than 300 Teamsters Local 727 members are initiating an unfair labor practice strike against Coca-Cola Refreshments at 5 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 3, after the beverage industry behemoth intimidated workers and engaged in bad faith bargaining during negotiations for a new contract.
Local 727 represents 319 production and warehouse workers and transport drivers at Coca-Cola Refreshments facilities in Niles and Alsip, Ill...
Coca-Cola workers strike Thursday morning Chicago Tribune ...Coca-Cola workers at two Chicago-area production plants went on strike Thursday morning to protest unfair labor practices including delay tactics and intimidation. Teamsters Local 727 had agreed to Coca-Cola's request for a single-day strike delay to continue negotiations after the workers' three-year contract expired at midnight Tuesday. But when the parties returned to the bargaining table Wednesday, Coca-Cola officials "re-presented the same unfair, unreasonable, harsh proposals"...
Teamsters International Approves Strike Benefits for Coca-Cola Workers Teamster.org ...The General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters today approved strike assistance benefits for more than 300 Chicago-area workers who could initiate an unfair labor practice strike at any time against Coca-Cola Refreshments. The union’s bargaining committee and company managers met 12 times since Oct. 28 to try to reach an agreement...
Congressional Deal on Transportation Bill is a Win for Infrastructure, Motorist Safety Teamster.org ...The Teamsters today are lauding a new five-year, $305 billion transportation infrastructure bill set to be considered soon by Congress that would help rebuild America’s highway and rail networks after years of short-term fixes that hampered long-term planning and improvements...
Hoffa: House-Passed Customs Bill Does Nothing to Improve TPP for U.S. Workers Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the House passing a customs reauthorization bill today that does little to address the many shortfalls contained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): “While some have suggested that the passage of customer reauthorization legislation would include language that would make the TPP more palatable, the deal leaves the same sour taste in the mouths of everyday Americans"...
DoubleTree Arlington Heights Housekeepers Ratify First Union Contract Local 727 ...Thirty housekeepers at DoubleTree Arlington Heights ratified their first union contract just a few weeks after shuttle bus drivers at the hotel did the same. Both bargaining units voted to join Teamsters Local 727 late last year. “The union fought to secure solid agreements for our new members with provisions that truly demonstrate the value of a Teamster contract,” said John Coli Jr., President of Teamsters Local 727...
Teamsters strike Oregon City-based beer distributor NW Labor Press ...About 80 members of Teamsters Local 162 went on strike Nov. 17 at General Distributors, Inc. (GDI), of Oregon City —truck drivers, warehouse workers, and sales employees. GDI distributes Miller-Coors beers and dozens of craft beers, wines and ciders in 11 Oregon counties, from Salem to Hood River. Local 162 says the profitable company is seeking $1.5 million a year in concessions...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
What Do Burmese Workers Want? Huffington Post ...In meetings with more than 100 rank-and-file workers and union leaders from Burma's factories and fields the week after that country's momentous elections, the mood was one of wary optimism. It was clear that labor voted overwhelmingly for the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. They did so as companies around Yangon and in the growing industrial zones of Bago, two hours to the north, had become increasingly belligerent toward workers, particularly those attempting to organize...
Customs bill is coming to town Politico ...The last outstanding piece of legislation from President Barack Obama’s big trade push earlier this year could soon be on its way to his desk. The House on Tuesday approved, by a 252-170 vote, a motion to go to conference on customs reauthorization. The bill promises to beef up the enforcement of trade laws...
TPP Dooms World to Climate Crisis, Says Report TeleSUR ...The controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, fully drafted and pending final approval, would not only ignore climate change but would also actively fuel worsening environmental crises, according to a new report released by Sierra Club Wednesday. As world leaders mull over a climate deal at COP21 in Paris, the report, “A Dirty Deal: How the TPP Threatens the Climate,” slams the TPP for strengthening corporate power...
Environmental Group Assails 'Polluter-Friendly' Obama Trade Deal Huffington Post ...The Sierra Club on Wednesday released a report on the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, concluding that the landmark trade deal would be a significant setback in efforts to combat climate change and protect the environment. "In its more than 6,000 pages of binding rules, the deal fails to even mention the words 'climate change,'" the report reads...
More strikes, cost hikes likely with TPP, study indicates Malay Mail ...Malaysian employers may face more industrial action by employees along with higher business costs if the country signs the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), consultants PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) said in its cost-benefit analysis released today. PwC said Putrajaya would have to amend its labour laws and regulations to fulfil its obligations under the agreement...
Greeks Strike to Protest Latest Austerity Measures New York Times ...Workers across Greece walked off their jobs on Thursday, heeding a call by labor unions to join the second general strike in three weeks to protest a new round of austerity measures. The 24-hour walkout shut down public services, disrupted public transportation, left ferries moored in ports, closed schools and forced hospitals to function with reduced staffs...
Norway Ratification Boosts Fight against Modern Slavery Solidarity Center ...On November 18, 2015, Norway ratified the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Forced Labor Protocol, which strengthens and updates the 1930 Forced Labor Convention (Convention 29) by adding new measures to prevent, protect and compensate those affected. According to ILO data, some 21 million people globally are victims of forced labor, generating approximately $150 billion each year. However, the hidden nature of this and other forms of extreme labor exploitation mean the true figures could be much higher...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Labor unions crowd hearing to oppose Ohio right-to-work bill Columbus Dispatch ...Bringing back memories of the 2011 fight over Senate Bill 5 — the bill that targeted public-employees unions and was overturned by voters — more than 100 union supporters packed hearing rooms and a Statehouse hallway on Tuesday as a House committee heard a bill that would ban private employee unions from requiring that workers pay dues commonly known as “fair share” fees...
Alabama’s Controversial Voter-ID Law Is Challenged In Court The Nation ... Today civil-rights groups—led by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on behalf of the Alabama NAACP—filed suit against the state’s voter-ID law, arguing that it violates Section 2 of the VRA. The complaint alleges that the law will disenfranchise 280,000 registered voters without government-issued ID but there has been only 1 case of voter impersonation in Alabama out of 22.4 million votes cast since 2000 to justify the measure...
Tennessee DOL Announces 2016 Highway Prevailing Wage Rates Chattanoogan ...Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development announced Tuesday the 2016 Highway Prevailing Wage Rates. There was an increase in wage rates for 14 classifications, a decrease in nine classifications, and the wage rates for two classifications remained unchanged since 2015. The wage rate for one classification – Mechanic (Class II) Light Duty – increased more than a dollar...
Pro-Democracy Group Warns of Secret Right-Wing Push to Rewrite Constitution Common Dreams ...A "dangerous proposal" is bubbling up in state legislatures throughout the country. The threat comes in the form of a constitutional convention, assembled under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, one of several mechanisms that enables future amendments. Article V requires Congress to call such a gathering once 34 state legislatures submit petitions to do so. Pro-corporate, right-wing lobby groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Citizens for Self-Governance are pushing for such a convention...
$15-an-hour minimum wage eludes Mass. cities Boston Globe ...Just a few years ago, the notion of a $15 minimum hourly wage was widely dismissed as unrealistic. But over the past 18 months, the threshold has gained impressive traction around the country, with citywide ordinances enacted in Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco, and other proposals pending in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. So why hasn’t the issue caught fire in Boston and other liberal-leaning Massachusetts communities?...
Making Change at Walmart Launches National “Are You With Us” Campaign UFCW ...Making Change at Walmart’s national “Are You With Us?” tour will include rallies at Walmart stores and other retail locations in cities in all 50 states across the country in the coming weeks. The kick-off is in Quincy, Mass., on Wednesday, Dec. 2. The tour and campaign are meant to showcase and highlight the negative impact that the country’s largest employer has on all American retail workers, which includes paying employees poverty-level wages...
U.S. LABOR
Huffington Post Workers Vote to Join Union, Continuing Trend in New Media Advertising Age ...The Huffington Post has joined the unionization wave that has been rolling through digital media since the spring. On Tuesday, the editorial staff of the New York City-based web news giant formally asked management to recognize the Writers Guild of America, East, as its collective-bargaining representative...
UAW betting on big, symbolic win in Volkswagen vote Detroit Free Press ...The UAW will know by the end of the week if its decision to take a second shot at organizing workers at Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., will pay off with a high-profile victory and deliver its first clear-cut win at an automotive assembly plant in the South. Over the next two days about 160 of Volkswagen's skilled trades workers will vote on whether they want the UAW to be their exclusive bargaining agent...
SEIU ratifies new contract Lansing State Journal ...A second state employee union has approved a new contract with Gov. Rick Snyder's administration, the union announced Wednesday. The three bargaining units of the Service Employees International Union Local 517M each approved their contracts with about 90% supporting, the union announced in a press release...
ATI lockout drags into Christmas holiday season WTAE ...Allegheny Technologies locked out its employees Aug. 15, and labor negotiations continue to drag on. Members of United Steelworkers 1196 are on the picket lines as the holiday season begins. Their unemployment benefits expire in March. "This company was built by immigrants and labor, and to be treated like this is very devastating as an employee," union president Fran Arabia said...
Toledo Mobis workers take strike authorization vote 13ABC ...Employees at a Fiat Chrysler supplier are taking a strike vote right now. Mobis workers help build the Jeep Wrangler at the Toledo Assembly Complex. The workers started voting at 11 Wednesday morning and voting continues until 7 Wednesday night. According to union leaders, Mobis has more than 500 employees here in Toledo.
What they do is critical to the assembly of the iconic Jeep Wrangler...
"All You Americans Are Fired" Buzzfeed ...Last year, thousands of American companies won permission to bring a total of more than 150,000 people into the country as legal guest workers for unskilled jobs, under a federal program that grants them temporary work permits known as H-2 visas. Officially, the guest workers were invited here to fill positions no Americans want. Yet a BuzzFeed News investigation has found that many businesses go to extraordinary lengths to skirt the law, deliberately denying jobs to American workers...
How Debt Collectors Ruin Lives The Nation ... Under the settlement in Federal District Court, involving various companies colluding in a huge debt-collection scheme, about $59 million will be paid out to individual consumers in a class of roughly 350,000 New Yorkers. They match the profile of typical debt-racket victims: mainly the poor and people of color. Beyond the hefty award, the lawsuit has helped expose what advocates describe as a reign of financial terror...
Pittsburgh attorney says unionizing should be a civil right Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Pittsburghers know as well as anyone that labor unions are struggling. In 2014, federal statistics show, 11.1 percent of all workers were union members — roughly half the rate in 1983, when Pittsburgh’s unionized steelworkers were stepping out of the gate for the last time. If unions can reverse that decline, a 2012 book co-authored by Pittsburgher Moshe Marvit may be one reason why...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Married Couple Committed San Bernardino Massacre Before Being Killed by Police Slate ...What we know about Wednesday's massacre of at least 14 people at a social services center in San Bernardino, California, as of Thursday morning: Police believe the shooting was carried out by 28-year-old Syed Farook and 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik, who were married. Both were killed Wednesday in a shootout in San Bernardino after they were initially located in nearby Redlands...
Syed Farooq is an American: Let’s stop the Muslim vs. Christian debate and take a look at ourselves Salon ...Guessing the identity of shooters—black or white, Christian or Muslim, man or woman (though masculinity is almost guaranteed)—has become a vicious social media ritual. Too many people seem to believe we can discern motivation by ethnicity, or that ethnicity alone determines what type of terror can rightly be deemed terrorism...
E. coli outbreak prompts Taylor Farms recall Tracy Press ...Taylor Farms Pacific Inc. of Tracy has voluntarily recalled 71 products sold at 7-Eleven, Raley’s, Costco and 10 other stores because of the possibility of E. coli contamination. A news release from the United States Food and Drug Administration referred to testing done by the Montana Department of Health, which found the virulent bacteria in a celery-and-onion diced blend that was used in a Costco Rotisserie Chicken Salad linked to a multi-state outbreak...
The Welfare State: A Terrible Name for an Essential System The Atlantic ...Regardless of whether the gig economy is growing, now is as good a time as ever to discuss the need for “the welfare state”—a highly useful policy program that has been given an off-putting name. “Welfare” has two main meanings: general well-being, and, in some circles, government handouts...
8 ways the super rich make life miserable for the rest of us Salon ...The richest Americans increasingly are taking over the levers of power and shaping the political debate, despite opposing views held by a majority of Americans, a new and unprecedented academic study of the top 1 percent has confirmed. The super-rich are more politically active than average Americans, financing and contacting elected officials and knowing many on a first-name basis...
Twenty Billionaires Have More Wealth Than Half U.S. Households Huffington Post ...The very wealthiest 400 Americans command dizzying fortunes. Their combined net worth, as catalogued in the 2015 Forbes 400 list, is $2.34 trillion. You can't make this list unless you're worth a cool $1.7 billion. These 400 rich people -- including Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, and heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- have roughly as much wealth as the bottom 62 percent of the population, or over 190 million people added together, according to a new report...
Ray of hope for undocumented immigrants in sidelined debate on immigration PRI ...The Obama administration suffered a major setback last month in its effort to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. But a small victory from the Supreme Court this week has renewed hope for the program. An injunction blocking President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration was upheld in the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals...
If You Feel Like There Is A Mass Shooting Every Day, That’s Because There Basically Is Think Progress ...In 2015, the longest America has gone without a mass shooting happening somewhere was eight days. The country has gone three or more days without a mass shooting just 14 times so far this year. The 8-day streak in mid-April was the only time Americans passed a full week between mass shootings this year according to the site. In June, the United States literally failed to go more than a single day between mass shootings...
Chicago Teamsters Strike Coca-Cola Refreshments Over Unfair Labor Practices Teamster.org ...More than 300 Teamsters Local 727 members are initiating an unfair labor practice strike against Coca-Cola Refreshments at 5 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 3, after the beverage industry behemoth intimidated workers and engaged in bad faith bargaining during negotiations for a new contract.
Local 727 represents 319 production and warehouse workers and transport drivers at Coca-Cola Refreshments facilities in Niles and Alsip, Ill...
Coca-Cola workers strike Thursday morning Chicago Tribune ...Coca-Cola workers at two Chicago-area production plants went on strike Thursday morning to protest unfair labor practices including delay tactics and intimidation. Teamsters Local 727 had agreed to Coca-Cola's request for a single-day strike delay to continue negotiations after the workers' three-year contract expired at midnight Tuesday. But when the parties returned to the bargaining table Wednesday, Coca-Cola officials "re-presented the same unfair, unreasonable, harsh proposals"...
Teamsters International Approves Strike Benefits for Coca-Cola Workers Teamster.org ...The General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters today approved strike assistance benefits for more than 300 Chicago-area workers who could initiate an unfair labor practice strike at any time against Coca-Cola Refreshments. The union’s bargaining committee and company managers met 12 times since Oct. 28 to try to reach an agreement...
Congressional Deal on Transportation Bill is a Win for Infrastructure, Motorist Safety Teamster.org ...The Teamsters today are lauding a new five-year, $305 billion transportation infrastructure bill set to be considered soon by Congress that would help rebuild America’s highway and rail networks after years of short-term fixes that hampered long-term planning and improvements...
Hoffa: House-Passed Customs Bill Does Nothing to Improve TPP for U.S. Workers Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the House passing a customs reauthorization bill today that does little to address the many shortfalls contained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): “While some have suggested that the passage of customer reauthorization legislation would include language that would make the TPP more palatable, the deal leaves the same sour taste in the mouths of everyday Americans"...
DoubleTree Arlington Heights Housekeepers Ratify First Union Contract Local 727 ...Thirty housekeepers at DoubleTree Arlington Heights ratified their first union contract just a few weeks after shuttle bus drivers at the hotel did the same. Both bargaining units voted to join Teamsters Local 727 late last year. “The union fought to secure solid agreements for our new members with provisions that truly demonstrate the value of a Teamster contract,” said John Coli Jr., President of Teamsters Local 727...
Teamsters strike Oregon City-based beer distributor NW Labor Press ...About 80 members of Teamsters Local 162 went on strike Nov. 17 at General Distributors, Inc. (GDI), of Oregon City —truck drivers, warehouse workers, and sales employees. GDI distributes Miller-Coors beers and dozens of craft beers, wines and ciders in 11 Oregon counties, from Salem to Hood River. Local 162 says the profitable company is seeking $1.5 million a year in concessions...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
What Do Burmese Workers Want? Huffington Post ...In meetings with more than 100 rank-and-file workers and union leaders from Burma's factories and fields the week after that country's momentous elections, the mood was one of wary optimism. It was clear that labor voted overwhelmingly for the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. They did so as companies around Yangon and in the growing industrial zones of Bago, two hours to the north, had become increasingly belligerent toward workers, particularly those attempting to organize...
Customs bill is coming to town Politico ...The last outstanding piece of legislation from President Barack Obama’s big trade push earlier this year could soon be on its way to his desk. The House on Tuesday approved, by a 252-170 vote, a motion to go to conference on customs reauthorization. The bill promises to beef up the enforcement of trade laws...
TPP Dooms World to Climate Crisis, Says Report TeleSUR ...The controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, fully drafted and pending final approval, would not only ignore climate change but would also actively fuel worsening environmental crises, according to a new report released by Sierra Club Wednesday. As world leaders mull over a climate deal at COP21 in Paris, the report, “A Dirty Deal: How the TPP Threatens the Climate,” slams the TPP for strengthening corporate power...
Environmental Group Assails 'Polluter-Friendly' Obama Trade Deal Huffington Post ...The Sierra Club on Wednesday released a report on the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, concluding that the landmark trade deal would be a significant setback in efforts to combat climate change and protect the environment. "In its more than 6,000 pages of binding rules, the deal fails to even mention the words 'climate change,'" the report reads...
More strikes, cost hikes likely with TPP, study indicates Malay Mail ...Malaysian employers may face more industrial action by employees along with higher business costs if the country signs the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), consultants PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) said in its cost-benefit analysis released today. PwC said Putrajaya would have to amend its labour laws and regulations to fulfil its obligations under the agreement...
Greeks Strike to Protest Latest Austerity Measures New York Times ...Workers across Greece walked off their jobs on Thursday, heeding a call by labor unions to join the second general strike in three weeks to protest a new round of austerity measures. The 24-hour walkout shut down public services, disrupted public transportation, left ferries moored in ports, closed schools and forced hospitals to function with reduced staffs...
Norway Ratification Boosts Fight against Modern Slavery Solidarity Center ...On November 18, 2015, Norway ratified the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Forced Labor Protocol, which strengthens and updates the 1930 Forced Labor Convention (Convention 29) by adding new measures to prevent, protect and compensate those affected. According to ILO data, some 21 million people globally are victims of forced labor, generating approximately $150 billion each year. However, the hidden nature of this and other forms of extreme labor exploitation mean the true figures could be much higher...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Labor unions crowd hearing to oppose Ohio right-to-work bill Columbus Dispatch ...Bringing back memories of the 2011 fight over Senate Bill 5 — the bill that targeted public-employees unions and was overturned by voters — more than 100 union supporters packed hearing rooms and a Statehouse hallway on Tuesday as a House committee heard a bill that would ban private employee unions from requiring that workers pay dues commonly known as “fair share” fees...
Alabama’s Controversial Voter-ID Law Is Challenged In Court The Nation ... Today civil-rights groups—led by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on behalf of the Alabama NAACP—filed suit against the state’s voter-ID law, arguing that it violates Section 2 of the VRA. The complaint alleges that the law will disenfranchise 280,000 registered voters without government-issued ID but there has been only 1 case of voter impersonation in Alabama out of 22.4 million votes cast since 2000 to justify the measure...
Tennessee DOL Announces 2016 Highway Prevailing Wage Rates Chattanoogan ...Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development announced Tuesday the 2016 Highway Prevailing Wage Rates. There was an increase in wage rates for 14 classifications, a decrease in nine classifications, and the wage rates for two classifications remained unchanged since 2015. The wage rate for one classification – Mechanic (Class II) Light Duty – increased more than a dollar...
Pro-Democracy Group Warns of Secret Right-Wing Push to Rewrite Constitution Common Dreams ...A "dangerous proposal" is bubbling up in state legislatures throughout the country. The threat comes in the form of a constitutional convention, assembled under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, one of several mechanisms that enables future amendments. Article V requires Congress to call such a gathering once 34 state legislatures submit petitions to do so. Pro-corporate, right-wing lobby groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Citizens for Self-Governance are pushing for such a convention...
$15-an-hour minimum wage eludes Mass. cities Boston Globe ...Just a few years ago, the notion of a $15 minimum hourly wage was widely dismissed as unrealistic. But over the past 18 months, the threshold has gained impressive traction around the country, with citywide ordinances enacted in Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco, and other proposals pending in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. So why hasn’t the issue caught fire in Boston and other liberal-leaning Massachusetts communities?...
Making Change at Walmart Launches National “Are You With Us” Campaign UFCW ...Making Change at Walmart’s national “Are You With Us?” tour will include rallies at Walmart stores and other retail locations in cities in all 50 states across the country in the coming weeks. The kick-off is in Quincy, Mass., on Wednesday, Dec. 2. The tour and campaign are meant to showcase and highlight the negative impact that the country’s largest employer has on all American retail workers, which includes paying employees poverty-level wages...
U.S. LABOR
Huffington Post Workers Vote to Join Union, Continuing Trend in New Media Advertising Age ...The Huffington Post has joined the unionization wave that has been rolling through digital media since the spring. On Tuesday, the editorial staff of the New York City-based web news giant formally asked management to recognize the Writers Guild of America, East, as its collective-bargaining representative...
UAW betting on big, symbolic win in Volkswagen vote Detroit Free Press ...The UAW will know by the end of the week if its decision to take a second shot at organizing workers at Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., will pay off with a high-profile victory and deliver its first clear-cut win at an automotive assembly plant in the South. Over the next two days about 160 of Volkswagen's skilled trades workers will vote on whether they want the UAW to be their exclusive bargaining agent...
SEIU ratifies new contract Lansing State Journal ...A second state employee union has approved a new contract with Gov. Rick Snyder's administration, the union announced Wednesday. The three bargaining units of the Service Employees International Union Local 517M each approved their contracts with about 90% supporting, the union announced in a press release...
ATI lockout drags into Christmas holiday season WTAE ...Allegheny Technologies locked out its employees Aug. 15, and labor negotiations continue to drag on. Members of United Steelworkers 1196 are on the picket lines as the holiday season begins. Their unemployment benefits expire in March. "This company was built by immigrants and labor, and to be treated like this is very devastating as an employee," union president Fran Arabia said...
Toledo Mobis workers take strike authorization vote 13ABC ...Employees at a Fiat Chrysler supplier are taking a strike vote right now. Mobis workers help build the Jeep Wrangler at the Toledo Assembly Complex. The workers started voting at 11 Wednesday morning and voting continues until 7 Wednesday night. According to union leaders, Mobis has more than 500 employees here in Toledo.
What they do is critical to the assembly of the iconic Jeep Wrangler...
"All You Americans Are Fired" Buzzfeed ...Last year, thousands of American companies won permission to bring a total of more than 150,000 people into the country as legal guest workers for unskilled jobs, under a federal program that grants them temporary work permits known as H-2 visas. Officially, the guest workers were invited here to fill positions no Americans want. Yet a BuzzFeed News investigation has found that many businesses go to extraordinary lengths to skirt the law, deliberately denying jobs to American workers...
How Debt Collectors Ruin Lives The Nation ... Under the settlement in Federal District Court, involving various companies colluding in a huge debt-collection scheme, about $59 million will be paid out to individual consumers in a class of roughly 350,000 New Yorkers. They match the profile of typical debt-racket victims: mainly the poor and people of color. Beyond the hefty award, the lawsuit has helped expose what advocates describe as a reign of financial terror...
Pittsburgh attorney says unionizing should be a civil right Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Pittsburghers know as well as anyone that labor unions are struggling. In 2014, federal statistics show, 11.1 percent of all workers were union members — roughly half the rate in 1983, when Pittsburgh’s unionized steelworkers were stepping out of the gate for the last time. If unions can reverse that decline, a 2012 book co-authored by Pittsburgher Moshe Marvit may be one reason why...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Married Couple Committed San Bernardino Massacre Before Being Killed by Police Slate ...What we know about Wednesday's massacre of at least 14 people at a social services center in San Bernardino, California, as of Thursday morning: Police believe the shooting was carried out by 28-year-old Syed Farook and 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik, who were married. Both were killed Wednesday in a shootout in San Bernardino after they were initially located in nearby Redlands...
Syed Farooq is an American: Let’s stop the Muslim vs. Christian debate and take a look at ourselves Salon ...Guessing the identity of shooters—black or white, Christian or Muslim, man or woman (though masculinity is almost guaranteed)—has become a vicious social media ritual. Too many people seem to believe we can discern motivation by ethnicity, or that ethnicity alone determines what type of terror can rightly be deemed terrorism...
E. coli outbreak prompts Taylor Farms recall Tracy Press ...Taylor Farms Pacific Inc. of Tracy has voluntarily recalled 71 products sold at 7-Eleven, Raley’s, Costco and 10 other stores because of the possibility of E. coli contamination. A news release from the United States Food and Drug Administration referred to testing done by the Montana Department of Health, which found the virulent bacteria in a celery-and-onion diced blend that was used in a Costco Rotisserie Chicken Salad linked to a multi-state outbreak...
The Welfare State: A Terrible Name for an Essential System The Atlantic ...Regardless of whether the gig economy is growing, now is as good a time as ever to discuss the need for “the welfare state”—a highly useful policy program that has been given an off-putting name. “Welfare” has two main meanings: general well-being, and, in some circles, government handouts...
8 ways the super rich make life miserable for the rest of us Salon ...The richest Americans increasingly are taking over the levers of power and shaping the political debate, despite opposing views held by a majority of Americans, a new and unprecedented academic study of the top 1 percent has confirmed. The super-rich are more politically active than average Americans, financing and contacting elected officials and knowing many on a first-name basis...
Twenty Billionaires Have More Wealth Than Half U.S. Households Huffington Post ...The very wealthiest 400 Americans command dizzying fortunes. Their combined net worth, as catalogued in the 2015 Forbes 400 list, is $2.34 trillion. You can't make this list unless you're worth a cool $1.7 billion. These 400 rich people -- including Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, and heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- have roughly as much wealth as the bottom 62 percent of the population, or over 190 million people added together, according to a new report...
Ray of hope for undocumented immigrants in sidelined debate on immigration PRI ...The Obama administration suffered a major setback last month in its effort to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. But a small victory from the Supreme Court this week has renewed hope for the program. An injunction blocking President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration was upheld in the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals...
If You Feel Like There Is A Mass Shooting Every Day, That’s Because There Basically Is Think Progress ...In 2015, the longest America has gone without a mass shooting happening somewhere was eight days. The country has gone three or more days without a mass shooting just 14 times so far this year. The 8-day streak in mid-April was the only time Americans passed a full week between mass shootings this year according to the site. In June, the United States literally failed to go more than a single day between mass shootings...
Friday, November 6, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.06.15
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa Says Release of TPP Text Does Little to Allay Workers' Concerns About Deal Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the White House today releasing the text of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal which would lead to tens of thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas and lower wages for many Americans: "While we are pleased that Congress and the public will now be able to see the entire text of this massive agreement, viewing it in person will not make it any better for U.S. workers"...
Hoffa: Safety Can't Be Compromised as Part of Transportation Funding Bill Huffington Post ...Congress is on the cusp of doing something it hasn't done in more than a decade - approve a long-term highway bill. A bipartisan collection of lawmakers in both the House and Senate should be lauded for the difficult work they have accomplished thus far in attempting to enact a six-year funding measure. This includes rejecting an amendment that would have allowed heavier trucks on the nation's thoroughfares...
House Moves Multi-Year Transportation Bill Forward, but Concerns for Drivers Remain Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa after the House today overwhelming approved a six-year, $340 billion transportation funding bill that would invest in much-needed infrastructure improvements while protecting motorists from heavier trucks on the road:
“A bipartisan collection of lawmakers came together today to back a long-term plan for transportation"...
Teamsters Local 700 Stands Up for Firefighters and Paramedics Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 700 represents 31 hardworking firefighters and paramedics at the Summit Fire Department whose jobs are on the line as the Village of Summit threatens to outsource their services to nearby Bedford Park. Local 700 filed a complaint on Oct. 27 with the Illinois Labor Relations Board against the Village of Summit for violating the collective bargaining agreement...
Pennsylvanians Elect Teamster-Endorsed Judges Throughout Court System PR Newswire ...Pennsylvania's working families won a major victory at the polls on Nov. 3 when voters elected judges throughout the court system that were endorsed by labor unions across the state. The results sent a strong message to special interest groups that poured millions into the state to support anti-union and anti-worker candidates – Pennsylvania's courts are not for sale...
BMWED/Teamsters Holds Advanced Officer Education Program Teamster.org ...Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWED) members from several System Federations gathered once again in Hendersonville, Tenn. to participate in the BMWED two-week Advanced Officer Education Program this past July. The educational courses take place at Volunteer State Community College, with curriculum focused on union-specific subjects...
Teamsters Address Outstanding Contract Proposals With Coke, Company Cuts Meeting Short Local 727 ...Even before contract negotiations resumed on Thursday, November 5, Coca-Cola representatives made it clear to Teamsters Local 727 they had to cut the day short. Management kicked off the morning by addressing just one lone provision among its dense and varied contract proposals. The company initially offered no movement or other specifics regarding the remaining proposals on the table...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
21 Workers Die in Pakistan Factory Collapse; Many Missing Solidarity Center ...Workers once again gave their lives for their jobs when a plastic bag factory collapsed in Lahore, Pakistan, yesterday, killing at least 21 and injuring dozens. Between 150 and 200 workers, including child laborers, were in the factory when the building collapsed. Rescuers, who mostly include members of the Pakistan Army, report hearing voices in the rubble, and family members say they have received calls from relatives trapped in the debris...
Obama tells Congress he will sign TPP The Hill ...President Obama notified Congress on Thursday that he intends to sign a broad trade agreement spanning from Asia to Latin America. The president’s notification was expected soon after the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was released around 3:30 a.m. Thursday. The message kicks off a period of at least 90 days before Obama can sign the agreement...
Obama Faces Tough Battle In House To Pass TPP Forbes ...President Obama now faces probably his toughest political challenge since passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2009 – persuading Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Republicans, who have been reliable yes votes on free trade agreements since the beginning of time, aren’t so sure about this one...
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): ‘Worse Than We Thought’. A Total Corporate Power Grab Nightmare Global Research ...As expert analysis of the long-shrouded, newly publicized Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) final text continued to roll out on Thursday, consensus formed around one fundamental assessment of the 12-nation pact: It’s worse than we thought. In fact, Public Citizen charged, the TPP rolls back past public interest reforms to the U.S. trade model while expanding problematic provisions demanded by the hundreds of official U.S. corporate trade advisers...
Civil Society Reacts to Finally-Released TPP Text CTC ...The United States formally entered into negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in February 2008. For years afterwards, the public had to rely on leaked documents to learn what U.S. negotiators were proposing in our names. On November 5, 2015, text for the TPP was officially released for the first time. Within hours, a broad range of civil society organizations representing the labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, LGBT and other social movements issued statements...
TPP nations agree to abstain from currency wars Japan Times ...The dozen countries that signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership have committed to refraining from competitive currency devaluations and to being transparent about their exchange-rate policies, the U.S. said. Negotiators for Pacific Rim nations including Japan, Australia and Vietnam agreed last month to the deal...
TPP Caves to the Tobacco Industry, Threatens Public Health CPATH ...The vacuous “tobacco control” provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) virtually capitulates to the demands of multinational tobacco corporations, jeopardizing nations’ health and economic welfare. Public health and medical advocates in the U.S. and abroad consistently urged negotiators to exclude tobacco control protections from trade challenges under the TPP...
As US Promotes TPP As A Way To Improve Labor Standards, Guatemala Shows Failed Promises Of Previous Trade Deals IBTimes ...When the country joined the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2006, proponents of the deal said it would improve conditions for workers, raise wages and make it easier for laborers to organize. Seven years later, Guatemala was named the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. Supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are making many of the same promises...
Mass European Protest against TTIP corporate Takeover: EU Commission Sanctions “Revolution Against Law” Global Research ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has its objectors – mainly the citizens of the countries involved in what can only be seen as confirmation of a corporate takeover. Governments have confirmed that democracy is no longer a principle worth pursuing. Three million citizens have signed a petition voicing their opposition, of which 500,000 were from Britain alone...
Canada’s Montreal hit with massive student anti-austerity protest RT ...A few thousand students marched through the streets of Montreal protesting the Canadian government’s austerity measures and calling for “a massive reinvestment in public services.” Around 2,000 members of a local student organization ASSÉ (Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante) took part in a large demonstration against what they call the “pillaging of public services” by Quebec’s provincial government...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Pennsylvania Supreme Court sweep gives Democrats legislative redistricting control Daily Kos ...In what was by far the most important victory of the night, Democrats swept three seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, giving them a five to two majority; previously, Republicans had controlled the bench three to two, with two vacancies. This victory isn't simply about ensuring a more just court, though undoubtedly the cause of fairness will benefit greatly. It will also have an enormous impact on the next round of legislative redistricting...
Failed prevailing wage repeal petition drive prompts calls for investigation, prosecution MLive ...A group seeking to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law turned in an estimated 161,781 invalid signatures, prompting rejection by the Board of State Canvassers and calls for investigation, prosecution and a review of circulator laws. The board officially killed the petition drive Thursday afternoon...
Reform Wins: Ohio Bans Gerrymandering While Maine and Seattle Bust Big Money The Nation ... In Ohio, 71 percent of voters backed Issue 1, a constitutional amendment to ban partisan gerrymandering and establish a bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission to draw legislative district lines that promote real competition. In Maine, 55 percent of voters backed a proposal to dramatically strengthen the state’s 19-year-old old Clean Elections system...
Activists in Portland and beyond fight for $15 minimum wage Oregon Live ...The latest minimum-wage movement caught fire in New York City in 2012, when a couple of hundred fast-food workers walked off the job and demanded higher pay. Since then, their $15-an-hour rallying cry has reverberated across the country. In the Northwest, local leaders say Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, a socialist elected in 2013 on a platform that included a $15-an-hour minimum, sparked action...
Elizabeth joins municipal paid sick leave movement NJ Biz ...Earlier this week, Elizabeth became New Jersey's 10th municipality to pass a paid sick leave initiative after voters approved a ballot-box question. The new ordinance will largely mirror those that have come before it in other New Jersey municipalities, allowing private-sector workers the ability to accrue up to an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, with a 40-hour-per-year cap for workers at businesses with 10 or more employees...
U.S. LABOR
Sweet Relief: A Strong October Jobs Report The Atlantic ...After three consecutive months of disappointing jobs reports, October finally delivered the strong numbers economists had been hoping for. The report from the Labor Department shows that the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent, and the economy added 271,000 jobs in October—beating expectations of 180,000. That’s the strongest showing in 2015 thus far...
GM and UAW Come to Agreement US News & World Report ...United Auto Workers union members at General Motors appear poised to approve a new four-year contract with the company. Workers at two union locals at a huge factory in Lordstown, Ohio, east of Cleveland, and at an SUV assembly plant near Lansing, Michigan, voted overwhelmingly for the deal on Friday. Glenn Johnson, president of one of two locals at the sprawling Lordstown complex that makes the Chevrolet Cruze, said 72 percent of 3,000 workers at the assembly plant voted yes...
Kaiser mental health workers set to strike Nov. 16 SF Gate ...Nearly 1,400 Kaiser mental health workers in Northern California will walk off their jobs Nov. 16 to protest what union officials say are too few mental health care employees to meet patient demand. The workers — psychologists, social workers and therapists — criticize Kaiser’s management, which they say understaffs mental health services...
ATI to terminate health insurance for 2,200 USW workers at end of November Ellwood City Ledger ...The United Steelworkers have claimed in a posting on their website that Allegheny Technologies will terminate healthcare coverage for all of the 2,200 locked out union workers at the end of November. USW representatives said ATI recently mailed a letter to the homes of all locked out union workers detailing its intent to cut insurance benefits on Nov. 30...
3 Depressing Findings From A Huge New Study Of The Gender Pay Gap Think Progress ...On the whole, the average woman with a year-round full-time job can expect to make just 79 percent of what a man doing the same makes in a year. There are many factors that go into the disparity. But new data released from PayScale on Thursday tells a different story. Even with all of the variables taken into consideration, women in the survey made 2.7 percent less than men...
Now White People Are Dying From Our Terrible Economic Policies, Too The Nation ... A demographic analysis of public health trends in recent years shows that middle-aged whites are living more miserable and sicker lives—and also appear to be dying at a higher rate. From 1999 to 2013, Princeton University researchers observed a disturbing jump in deaths among whites aged 45 to 54...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Austerity’s Grim Legacy New York Times ...The Obama administration and its counterparts realized that in a slumping economy budget deficits were helpful, not harmful. And the money-printing and borrowing worked: A repeat of the Great Depression, which seemed all too possible at the time, was avoided. Then it all went wrong. And the consequences of the wrong turn we took look worse now than the harshest critics of conventional wisdom ever imagined....
With the "Robin Hood Tax," a Grassroots Movement Seeks to Bring Wall Street to Heel Truthout ...Across the country, movements are rising up to challenge politicians who balance public budgets on the backs of working people instead of taxing corporations. "Municipal frugality" and "shared sacrifice" are examples of the political doublespeak and hypocrisy that governments employ while the 1% hoards its record levels of wealth...
Obama to reject Keystone XL pipeline in victory for environmental activists The Guardian ...Barack Obama is expected on Friday to reject a proposal from TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline through the American heartland, the Guardian has learned. The decision, to be announced with US secretary of state John Kerry from the White House, ends years of review and debate about the project...
Locked Up & Neglected After Fleeing Danger, Immigrant Women Detainees Launch Hunger Strike in Texas Democracy Now ...Last week, 27 immigrant women detained at the for-profit T. Don Hutto facility in Austin began refusing meals, demanding an end to mistreatment and their immediate release. Most are asylum seekers from Central America, which has seen a surge in migrants fleeing violence and abuse. The detainees said they’ve faced threats and unjustified surveillance as they languish in custody without hope of freedom...
Hoffa Says Release of TPP Text Does Little to Allay Workers' Concerns About Deal Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the White House today releasing the text of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal which would lead to tens of thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas and lower wages for many Americans: "While we are pleased that Congress and the public will now be able to see the entire text of this massive agreement, viewing it in person will not make it any better for U.S. workers"...
Hoffa: Safety Can't Be Compromised as Part of Transportation Funding Bill Huffington Post ...Congress is on the cusp of doing something it hasn't done in more than a decade - approve a long-term highway bill. A bipartisan collection of lawmakers in both the House and Senate should be lauded for the difficult work they have accomplished thus far in attempting to enact a six-year funding measure. This includes rejecting an amendment that would have allowed heavier trucks on the nation's thoroughfares...
House Moves Multi-Year Transportation Bill Forward, but Concerns for Drivers Remain Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa after the House today overwhelming approved a six-year, $340 billion transportation funding bill that would invest in much-needed infrastructure improvements while protecting motorists from heavier trucks on the road:
“A bipartisan collection of lawmakers came together today to back a long-term plan for transportation"...
Teamsters Local 700 Stands Up for Firefighters and Paramedics Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 700 represents 31 hardworking firefighters and paramedics at the Summit Fire Department whose jobs are on the line as the Village of Summit threatens to outsource their services to nearby Bedford Park. Local 700 filed a complaint on Oct. 27 with the Illinois Labor Relations Board against the Village of Summit for violating the collective bargaining agreement...
Pennsylvanians Elect Teamster-Endorsed Judges Throughout Court System PR Newswire ...Pennsylvania's working families won a major victory at the polls on Nov. 3 when voters elected judges throughout the court system that were endorsed by labor unions across the state. The results sent a strong message to special interest groups that poured millions into the state to support anti-union and anti-worker candidates – Pennsylvania's courts are not for sale...
BMWED/Teamsters Holds Advanced Officer Education Program Teamster.org ...Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWED) members from several System Federations gathered once again in Hendersonville, Tenn. to participate in the BMWED two-week Advanced Officer Education Program this past July. The educational courses take place at Volunteer State Community College, with curriculum focused on union-specific subjects...
Teamsters Address Outstanding Contract Proposals With Coke, Company Cuts Meeting Short Local 727 ...Even before contract negotiations resumed on Thursday, November 5, Coca-Cola representatives made it clear to Teamsters Local 727 they had to cut the day short. Management kicked off the morning by addressing just one lone provision among its dense and varied contract proposals. The company initially offered no movement or other specifics regarding the remaining proposals on the table...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
21 Workers Die in Pakistan Factory Collapse; Many Missing Solidarity Center ...Workers once again gave their lives for their jobs when a plastic bag factory collapsed in Lahore, Pakistan, yesterday, killing at least 21 and injuring dozens. Between 150 and 200 workers, including child laborers, were in the factory when the building collapsed. Rescuers, who mostly include members of the Pakistan Army, report hearing voices in the rubble, and family members say they have received calls from relatives trapped in the debris...
Obama tells Congress he will sign TPP The Hill ...President Obama notified Congress on Thursday that he intends to sign a broad trade agreement spanning from Asia to Latin America. The president’s notification was expected soon after the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was released around 3:30 a.m. Thursday. The message kicks off a period of at least 90 days before Obama can sign the agreement...
Obama Faces Tough Battle In House To Pass TPP Forbes ...President Obama now faces probably his toughest political challenge since passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2009 – persuading Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Republicans, who have been reliable yes votes on free trade agreements since the beginning of time, aren’t so sure about this one...
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): ‘Worse Than We Thought’. A Total Corporate Power Grab Nightmare Global Research ...As expert analysis of the long-shrouded, newly publicized Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) final text continued to roll out on Thursday, consensus formed around one fundamental assessment of the 12-nation pact: It’s worse than we thought. In fact, Public Citizen charged, the TPP rolls back past public interest reforms to the U.S. trade model while expanding problematic provisions demanded by the hundreds of official U.S. corporate trade advisers...
Civil Society Reacts to Finally-Released TPP Text CTC ...The United States formally entered into negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in February 2008. For years afterwards, the public had to rely on leaked documents to learn what U.S. negotiators were proposing in our names. On November 5, 2015, text for the TPP was officially released for the first time. Within hours, a broad range of civil society organizations representing the labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, LGBT and other social movements issued statements...
TPP nations agree to abstain from currency wars Japan Times ...The dozen countries that signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership have committed to refraining from competitive currency devaluations and to being transparent about their exchange-rate policies, the U.S. said. Negotiators for Pacific Rim nations including Japan, Australia and Vietnam agreed last month to the deal...
TPP Caves to the Tobacco Industry, Threatens Public Health CPATH ...The vacuous “tobacco control” provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) virtually capitulates to the demands of multinational tobacco corporations, jeopardizing nations’ health and economic welfare. Public health and medical advocates in the U.S. and abroad consistently urged negotiators to exclude tobacco control protections from trade challenges under the TPP...
As US Promotes TPP As A Way To Improve Labor Standards, Guatemala Shows Failed Promises Of Previous Trade Deals IBTimes ...When the country joined the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2006, proponents of the deal said it would improve conditions for workers, raise wages and make it easier for laborers to organize. Seven years later, Guatemala was named the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. Supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are making many of the same promises...
Mass European Protest against TTIP corporate Takeover: EU Commission Sanctions “Revolution Against Law” Global Research ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has its objectors – mainly the citizens of the countries involved in what can only be seen as confirmation of a corporate takeover. Governments have confirmed that democracy is no longer a principle worth pursuing. Three million citizens have signed a petition voicing their opposition, of which 500,000 were from Britain alone...
Canada’s Montreal hit with massive student anti-austerity protest RT ...A few thousand students marched through the streets of Montreal protesting the Canadian government’s austerity measures and calling for “a massive reinvestment in public services.” Around 2,000 members of a local student organization ASSÉ (Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante) took part in a large demonstration against what they call the “pillaging of public services” by Quebec’s provincial government...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Pennsylvania Supreme Court sweep gives Democrats legislative redistricting control Daily Kos ...In what was by far the most important victory of the night, Democrats swept three seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, giving them a five to two majority; previously, Republicans had controlled the bench three to two, with two vacancies. This victory isn't simply about ensuring a more just court, though undoubtedly the cause of fairness will benefit greatly. It will also have an enormous impact on the next round of legislative redistricting...
Failed prevailing wage repeal petition drive prompts calls for investigation, prosecution MLive ...A group seeking to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law turned in an estimated 161,781 invalid signatures, prompting rejection by the Board of State Canvassers and calls for investigation, prosecution and a review of circulator laws. The board officially killed the petition drive Thursday afternoon...
Reform Wins: Ohio Bans Gerrymandering While Maine and Seattle Bust Big Money The Nation ... In Ohio, 71 percent of voters backed Issue 1, a constitutional amendment to ban partisan gerrymandering and establish a bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission to draw legislative district lines that promote real competition. In Maine, 55 percent of voters backed a proposal to dramatically strengthen the state’s 19-year-old old Clean Elections system...
Activists in Portland and beyond fight for $15 minimum wage Oregon Live ...The latest minimum-wage movement caught fire in New York City in 2012, when a couple of hundred fast-food workers walked off the job and demanded higher pay. Since then, their $15-an-hour rallying cry has reverberated across the country. In the Northwest, local leaders say Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, a socialist elected in 2013 on a platform that included a $15-an-hour minimum, sparked action...
Elizabeth joins municipal paid sick leave movement NJ Biz ...Earlier this week, Elizabeth became New Jersey's 10th municipality to pass a paid sick leave initiative after voters approved a ballot-box question. The new ordinance will largely mirror those that have come before it in other New Jersey municipalities, allowing private-sector workers the ability to accrue up to an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, with a 40-hour-per-year cap for workers at businesses with 10 or more employees...
U.S. LABOR
Sweet Relief: A Strong October Jobs Report The Atlantic ...After three consecutive months of disappointing jobs reports, October finally delivered the strong numbers economists had been hoping for. The report from the Labor Department shows that the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent, and the economy added 271,000 jobs in October—beating expectations of 180,000. That’s the strongest showing in 2015 thus far...
GM and UAW Come to Agreement US News & World Report ...United Auto Workers union members at General Motors appear poised to approve a new four-year contract with the company. Workers at two union locals at a huge factory in Lordstown, Ohio, east of Cleveland, and at an SUV assembly plant near Lansing, Michigan, voted overwhelmingly for the deal on Friday. Glenn Johnson, president of one of two locals at the sprawling Lordstown complex that makes the Chevrolet Cruze, said 72 percent of 3,000 workers at the assembly plant voted yes...
Kaiser mental health workers set to strike Nov. 16 SF Gate ...Nearly 1,400 Kaiser mental health workers in Northern California will walk off their jobs Nov. 16 to protest what union officials say are too few mental health care employees to meet patient demand. The workers — psychologists, social workers and therapists — criticize Kaiser’s management, which they say understaffs mental health services...
ATI to terminate health insurance for 2,200 USW workers at end of November Ellwood City Ledger ...The United Steelworkers have claimed in a posting on their website that Allegheny Technologies will terminate healthcare coverage for all of the 2,200 locked out union workers at the end of November. USW representatives said ATI recently mailed a letter to the homes of all locked out union workers detailing its intent to cut insurance benefits on Nov. 30...
3 Depressing Findings From A Huge New Study Of The Gender Pay Gap Think Progress ...On the whole, the average woman with a year-round full-time job can expect to make just 79 percent of what a man doing the same makes in a year. There are many factors that go into the disparity. But new data released from PayScale on Thursday tells a different story. Even with all of the variables taken into consideration, women in the survey made 2.7 percent less than men...
Now White People Are Dying From Our Terrible Economic Policies, Too The Nation ... A demographic analysis of public health trends in recent years shows that middle-aged whites are living more miserable and sicker lives—and also appear to be dying at a higher rate. From 1999 to 2013, Princeton University researchers observed a disturbing jump in deaths among whites aged 45 to 54...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Austerity’s Grim Legacy New York Times ...The Obama administration and its counterparts realized that in a slumping economy budget deficits were helpful, not harmful. And the money-printing and borrowing worked: A repeat of the Great Depression, which seemed all too possible at the time, was avoided. Then it all went wrong. And the consequences of the wrong turn we took look worse now than the harshest critics of conventional wisdom ever imagined....
With the "Robin Hood Tax," a Grassroots Movement Seeks to Bring Wall Street to Heel Truthout ...Across the country, movements are rising up to challenge politicians who balance public budgets on the backs of working people instead of taxing corporations. "Municipal frugality" and "shared sacrifice" are examples of the political doublespeak and hypocrisy that governments employ while the 1% hoards its record levels of wealth...
Obama to reject Keystone XL pipeline in victory for environmental activists The Guardian ...Barack Obama is expected on Friday to reject a proposal from TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline through the American heartland, the Guardian has learned. The decision, to be announced with US secretary of state John Kerry from the White House, ends years of review and debate about the project...
Locked Up & Neglected After Fleeing Danger, Immigrant Women Detainees Launch Hunger Strike in Texas Democracy Now ...Last week, 27 immigrant women detained at the for-profit T. Don Hutto facility in Austin began refusing meals, demanding an end to mistreatment and their immediate release. Most are asylum seekers from Central America, which has seen a surge in migrants fleeing violence and abuse. The detainees said they’ve faced threats and unjustified surveillance as they languish in custody without hope of freedom...
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.30.15
Teamsters Remember James R. Hoffa on 40th Anniversary of Disappearance Teamster.org ...July 30, 2015 marks the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of one of the greatest labor leaders in American history – James R. Hoffa. As Teamsters General President, Hoffa honed his well-earned reputation as a tough and effective bargainer and gained the respect of labor and business leaders alike across the country. He worked hard to expand the number of working men and women who were protected by union contracts...
Hoffa: Senate Transportation Bill is Positive Step, but Safety Issues Remain Teamster.org ...Since 2008, Congress has transferred more than $62 billion from the general fund to keep the Highway Trust Fund afloat, and it has been more than a decade since Congress has passed a highway bill more than two years in duration. Meanwhile, infrastructure continues to crumble and the safety of those who work and travel along the vast network of U.S. roads and rails is being jeopardized. Despite a serious effort by the Senate to pass a long-term bill in advance of the July 31 funding deadline, here we are once again – recess and a three-month, short-term fix...
Plumbers and Pipefitters avert strike, Teamsters end strike Belleville News-Democrat ...Workers from two metro-east-area unions have reached tentative agreements with their respective bargaining units after one had been on strike and the other had threatened a work stoppage. About 80 members of the Teamsters Union Local 50 in Swansea are back to work after walking the picket line for just more than a week. The union confirmed a tentative agreement was reached July 24 after the union had gone on strike July 16. The union’s brief strike halted the delivery of ready-mix concrete throughout the metro-east for seven working days...
New bill would stand up for workers against misclassification Teamster Nation ...For years, the Teamsters have stood with port truck drivers in Southern California, Georgia and elsewhere who have been repeatedly shortchanged on wages, fair labor standards, health and safety protections and unemployment and workers' compensation benefits. This afternoon, several members of Congress rolled out legislation that would prohibit the practice as a way for companies to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. The measure, "The Payroll Fraud Prevention Act," requires all workers to be accurately classified as employees or non-employees...
Truck Drivers In Georgia Are Fight Back Against Wage Theft And Misclassification NH Labor News ...Throughout the country hard working men and women are being screwed out their hard earned money by companies who are “mis-classifying” their employees. These workers are getting shafted by these unscrupulous employers who are stealing from their own employers to line their pockets. This is wrong and it has to stop! The good news is that in Georgia, workers are coming together to fight back. Watch this great video from the Port Drivers Union...
Global Labor & Trade
Environmentalists, union members protest Pacific trade pact being negotiated at Maui resort Associated Press ...About 400 protesters blew conch shells on a Hawaii beach on Wednesday to demonstrate against a trade agreement being negotiated by ministers from 12 Pacific Rim nations. The demonstrators blew into their shells in unison on the sand in front of the Westin Maui resort on Kaanapali Beach, where ministers were meeting this week to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. Protest organizers say the trade agreement would benefit a few major corporations while sacrificing protections for public health, the environment, local jobs and indigenous rights...
Harper Says Canada ‘Cannot Be Left Out’ of Pacific Trade Deal Bloomberg ...Canada is determined to reach a final deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, though the government will safeguard the country’s highly restricted dairy and poultry markets “as best we can,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. While Canada has defended its protectionist system of quotas and tariffs, known as supply management, in previous trade talks, it’s become a sticking point in TPP negotiations...
Eyeing the 2016 election calendar, trade ministers meet in Hawaii Washington Post ...Trade ministers from a dozen nations have gathered at a beachside hotel in Maui on Tuesday for talks aimed at knocking down tariff barriers, clearing political hurdles and sealing a new Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that would bind countries on both sides of the vast ocean. For the U.S. delegation, these late-stage negotiations may be the last chance to close the deal before it gets swamped by 2016 election politics...
Pro-trade Dems want green goals in TPP The Hill ...A group of pro-trade House Democrats penned letter on Wednesday, calling on the Obama administration to lock in strong environmental provisions as part of a massive Asia-Pacific trade deal. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Suzan DelBene (Wash.), Scott Peters (Calif.) and 16 other Democrats who supported President Obama’s trade agenda argue that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) presents a unique chance to raise global environmental standards...
EU steps up PR campaign to overcome U.S. trade deal hostility Reuters ...Using some of the tools employed by anti-trade campaigners, the European Commission, which is negotiating with the United States for a deal which may still be a year off, has taken the unusual step of launching video clips on YouTube. It has also published leaflets, fact sheets and "myth-busting" brochures to counter what it says are misconceptions about TTIP...
Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Treaty: State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Issues for Ministerial Guidance Wikileaks ...Today, 29 July 2015, WikiLeaks releases a secret letter from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP or TPPA) Ministerial Meeting in December 2013, along with a comprehensive expert analysis of the document. The letter indicates a wide-ranging privatisation and globalisation strategy within the Agreement which aims to severely restrict "state-owned enterprises" (SOEs). SOEs continue to fulfil vital public functions in even the most privatised countries, such as Canada and Australia...
Pacific partners may discuss currency rules along with trade deal Reuters ...Pacific Rim trading partners might convene a top-level forum to discuss how to stop countries manipulating currencies for competitive advantage, Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said on Tuesday. Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Hawaii where ministers are negotiating a 12-nation trade deal, Robb said member countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) were considering a U.S. proposal for a separate forum...
Trans-Pacific Partnership: 'Magnificent' progress sets up tough ministerial talks CBC ...International Trade Minister Ed Fast meets his U.S. trade counterpart Michael Froman today in Maui, with key political decisions ahead on this second day of talks towards a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal for 12 Pacific Rim countries. Ministerial talks began Tuesday afternoon in Hawaii, following a weekend of very long days for each country's negotiators in an attempt to clear the deck of minor or technical issues...
Osun NLC Suspends Strike Again, Recalls Workers Channels Television ...The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Osun State has again suspended its ongoing eight weeks industrial action, with a call on workers to resume work immediately. The workers union ended the strike after it singed another Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) with the State government at the Governors Office in Abere, Osun State..
State & Living Wage Battles
Supreme Court upholds right-to-work for state workers Detroit Free Press ...The Michigan Supreme Court, in an opinion that has the effect of making state employees subject to Michigan’s 2012 right-to-work law, ruled Wednesday that Michigan's Civil Service Commission never had the authority to impose union fees on state workers, even before the controversial law was passed. The 4-3 ruling is a blow to the United Auto Workers and other unions representing about 36,000 state employees...
Jeb Bush's and Bill Clinton's Boasts of Economic Growth Based on Market Bubbles That Burst Alternet ...Paul Krugman rightly mocks Jeb Bush for taking credit for the strong growth in Florida during his tenure as governor. As Krugman points out, the reason for the strong growth was that Florida had one of the worst housing bubbles in the country. Its collapse gave Florida one of the worst downturns in the country...
Deadbeat corporations: How schools suffer when big companies don’t pay their fair share of state taxes Salon ...Corporations have reaped trillion-dollar benefits from 60 years of public education in the U.S., but they’re skipping out on the taxes meant to sustain the educational system. Children suffer from repeated school cutbacks. And parents subsidize the deadbeat corporations through increases in property taxes and sales taxes...
With new bump, Minnesota ushers in region's top minimum wage Post Bulletin ...Minnesota will vault past Illinois, Michigan and South Dakota this week to gain the highest minimum wage in the Midwestern region at $9 an hour, which also will rank among the most-generous state-wage floors in the country. The dollar-per-hour bump taking effect Saturday for about 288,000 of Minnesota's lowest-paid workers is the second of a three-stage increase adopted in 2014, when the state had one of the lowest minimum wages in the region...
University of California raises minimum wage to $15 USA Today ...While fast food workers successfully organized and pushed legislation calling for action on a $15 minimum wage in New York on July 22, 2015, the University of California has become the first public school in the nation to commit to a wage increase. On July 22, the 238,000-student university system joined pioneering municipalities mandating that the wages of all employees of the university’s 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national labs — both direct and service contract employees — be raised to $15 per hour over the next three years...
Voter ID Laws Focus of Kansas Civil Rights Committee CBS ...The Kansas division of a federal civil rights commission will investigate whether voter identification laws have affected turnout around the state. The Kansas Committee of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission voted Tuesday to hold hearings to determine if turnout in some communities has been suppressed...
Hedge Funds Want Puerto Rico To Fire Teachers To Pay Them Back Huffington Post ...As Puerto Rico teeters on the edge of default, a new report commissioned by a group of hedge funds insists the U.S. territory can avoid bankruptcy if it lays off teachers, sells off many of its public assets and collects more taxes. If the government tries to restructure or avoid paying its debts, it will be sued and the crisis in confidence that follows will make things much worse for the island, an author of the report argues...
Another Fight for Fair Pay in New York (opinion) New York Times ...Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently earned well-deserved praise for his efforts to secure a $15-an-hour minimum wage for fast-food workers in New York. Now another fight for fairness in pay is brewing in New York that also needs his support. The issue is payroll cards — prepaid debit cards issued to employees and refilled each payday with the employees’ wages in lieu of paper checks or direct deposits into a worker’s bank account...
U.S. Labor
Guardian US votes to unionize Washington Post ...The Guardian US, the stateside operation of the British newspaper, has voted to unionize under the News Media Guild, according to an announcement first reported by the Huffington Post. The vote on the matter was a unanimous 45 to 0, according to guild President Bernie Lunzer. The news marks something of a trend for unionization at American digital media properties...
Clinton-Sanders contest fosters discord within labor Aljazeera ...The 2016 presidential primary contest has fostered discord within some of America’s biggest labor unions, weakening frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s lock on the support of a key Democratic constituency. Although a majority of union leadership and rank-and-file members appear to still support Clinton, a growing activist bloc within the labor movement has thrown its support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders...
Hundreds Take to the Streets Over Chicago Board of Education’s Decision to Further Slash CPS Funding In These Times ...the crowd of about 200 people—most of them members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)—had grown to over 500. Among them were teachers, parents and members of community organizations like Communities United, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), the parent group Bad Ass Moms (BAMs) and Fight for $15, all of whom rejected the cuts and accused the Board of Ed of being "broke on purpose"...
Illinois, public labor union extend no-strike agreement Reuters ...The state of Illinois and its biggest labor union on Wednesday extended for two-months an agreement preventing strikes or lockouts while contract negotiations continue. Republican Governor Bruce Rauner also vetoed a bill sought by public employee labor unions that would send collective bargaining disputes to binding arbitration...
Victory for Farmworkers as Major Grocer Meets Demands for Fair Food Common Dreams ...The Immokalee, Florida farmworkers who have captured international attention for their decades of successful organizing against starvation wages, debt bondage, and slavery, racked up another human rights victory on Wednesday when Ahold USA agreed to become the first major grocer in the United States to join the organization's Fair Food Program...
USW workers to march on ATI headquarters TribLive ...Negotiators for ATI Flat-rolled Products have submitted another contract proposal to the United Steelworkers Union that shows some movement on health care issues. The USW, which represents ATI's 11 flat-rolled products plants and its 2,200 workers, said the proposal, which apparently was made last weekend, “falls far short” on the issues including health care, retirement security and scheduling...
Transit System and Amalgamated Transit Union to start negotiations Thursday CBS ...The Milwaukee County Transit System issued a press release today stating the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 and MCTS will go back to the bargaining table on Thursday, July 30.
It has been nearly a month since the ATU's strike. Milwaukee County Transit System claims the ATU President James Macon is demanding $9 million more than what MCTS can afford...
After Threatening To Strike, NYC Airport Workers Win Union Agreement, Say They’ll Push for $15 In These Times ...Twelve hundred workers at New York’s John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports may soon be negotiating a union contract after pressuring management with the threat of a strike. On July 22, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced that the workers’ employer, Aviation Safeguards, has agreed to remain neutral as they seek to join the SEIU through a “card check” recognition process...
United Farm Workers Turns Up Heat On California Growers Growing Produce ...his week, as high temperatures in parts of California’s Central Valley are expected to hover around 110 degrees, United Farm Workers (UFW) has been filing notices of intent to take access with the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB). According to a report from Western Growers, more than 30 access filings have actually been submitted over the past month. In addition to the Central Valley, UFW organizers have visited a number of farms along the state’s southern and northern coasts...
Democrats Want To Extend Civil Rights Protections To Unpaid Interns Huffington Post ...Unpaid interns in most states aren't covered by the same workplace discrimination and harassment laws as employees, but some House Democrats are trying to change that. Three lawmakers introduced a trio of bills Tuesday aimed at closing loopholes that exclude unpaid interns from protection. The Civil Rights Act doesn't currently cover such workers because they aren't compensated and therefore aren't technically employees...
Applications for US unemployment benefits rose last week to still-low level of 267,000 Associated Press ...More people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, though the increase was from a very low level and the figures still point to a healthy job market. Applications for jobless aid rose 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile figure that is a better measure of underlying trends, dropped 3,750 to 274,750...
Social Justice & Other News
Say Her Name: Protesters in Chicago Demand Justice for Sandra Bland Truthout ...This week, from Dallas to San Diego to the Midwest, activists and community members around the United States are answering a national call to demand justice for Sandra Bland, a Black woman and activist who died in police custody on July 13. In Chicago, protesters lifted up Sandra Bland's name on Michigan Avenue on July 28, as hundreds of protesters lined a bridge over the Chicago River, urging those who believe Black lives matter to "say her name"...
House passes three-month highway bill The Hill ...The House voted Wednesday to approve an $8 billion bill that would extend federal transportation funding until the end of October, sending it to the Senate with just two days to go before the nation's road and transit spending expires. The bill passed in a 385-34 vote, with Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) voting present. Senators are expected to accept the patch to prevent an interruption in the nation's infrastructure spending...
House Republicans Invite Architect Of The Financial Crisis Over For Advice Think Progress ...Five years after the passage of a sweeping Wall Street reform package in the wake of the worst financial crisis in generations, lawmakers opposed to strict government policing of the financial industry are inviting two prominent deregulators back to the scene of the crime. When the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) hears from former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) and longtime conservative analyst Peter Wallison on Tuesday, the pair will have their laissez-faire perspectives on the money business elevated once again...
Wishing Happy Birthday to Medicare, Communities Demand Healthcare for All Common Dreams ...From Hawaii to Florida to Maine, communities in 25 cities across the United States are staging rallies, picnics, and flash mobs this week to celebrate Thursday's 50th anniversary of Medicare—and call for its expansion into a system that provides publicly-funded healthcare for all...
Cincinnati Cop Charged With Murder in Fatal Shooting of Unarmed Black Man Mother Jones ...Officials in Hamilton County, Ohio, released body-camera footage on Wednesday that shows the shooting death of Samuel DuBose, an unarmed black man pulled over by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing on July 19 for driving without a front license plate. The video was released as Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters announced that Tensing would be indicted on a charge of murder...
U.S. Labor
Guardian US votes to unionize Washington Post ...The Guardian US, the stateside operation of the British newspaper, has voted to unionize under the News Media Guild, according to an announcement first reported by the Huffington Post. The vote on the matter was a unanimous 45 to 0, according to guild President Bernie Lunzer. The news marks something of a trend for unionization at American digital media properties...
Clinton-Sanders contest fosters discord within labor Aljazeera ...The 2016 presidential primary contest has fostered discord within some of America’s biggest labor unions, weakening frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s lock on the support of a key Democratic constituency. Although a majority of union leadership and rank-and-file members appear to still support Clinton, a growing activist bloc within the labor movement has thrown its support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders...
Hundreds Take to the Streets Over Chicago Board of Education’s Decision to Further Slash CPS Funding In These Times ...the crowd of about 200 people—most of them members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)—had grown to over 500. Among them were teachers, parents and members of community organizations like Communities United, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), the parent group Bad Ass Moms (BAMs) and Fight for $15, all of whom rejected the cuts and accused the Board of Ed of being "broke on purpose"...
Illinois, public labor union extend no-strike agreement Reuters ...The state of Illinois and its biggest labor union on Wednesday extended for two-months an agreement preventing strikes or lockouts while contract negotiations continue. Republican Governor Bruce Rauner also vetoed a bill sought by public employee labor unions that would send collective bargaining disputes to binding arbitration...
Victory for Farmworkers as Major Grocer Meets Demands for Fair Food Common Dreams ...The Immokalee, Florida farmworkers who have captured international attention for their decades of successful organizing against starvation wages, debt bondage, and slavery, racked up another human rights victory on Wednesday when Ahold USA agreed to become the first major grocer in the United States to join the organization's Fair Food Program...
USW workers to march on ATI headquarters TribLive ...Negotiators for ATI Flat-rolled Products have submitted another contract proposal to the United Steelworkers Union that shows some movement on health care issues. The USW, which represents ATI's 11 flat-rolled products plants and its 2,200 workers, said the proposal, which apparently was made last weekend, “falls far short” on the issues including health care, retirement security and scheduling...
Transit System and Amalgamated Transit Union to start negotiations Thursday CBS ...The Milwaukee County Transit System issued a press release today stating the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 and MCTS will go back to the bargaining table on Thursday, July 30.
It has been nearly a month since the ATU's strike. Milwaukee County Transit System claims the ATU President James Macon is demanding $9 million more than what MCTS can afford...
After Threatening To Strike, NYC Airport Workers Win Union Agreement, Say They’ll Push for $15 In These Times ...Twelve hundred workers at New York’s John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports may soon be negotiating a union contract after pressuring management with the threat of a strike. On July 22, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced that the workers’ employer, Aviation Safeguards, has agreed to remain neutral as they seek to join the SEIU through a “card check” recognition process...
United Farm Workers Turns Up Heat On California Growers Growing Produce ...his week, as high temperatures in parts of California’s Central Valley are expected to hover around 110 degrees, United Farm Workers (UFW) has been filing notices of intent to take access with the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB). According to a report from Western Growers, more than 30 access filings have actually been submitted over the past month. In addition to the Central Valley, UFW organizers have visited a number of farms along the state’s southern and northern coasts...
Democrats Want To Extend Civil Rights Protections To Unpaid Interns Huffington Post ...Unpaid interns in most states aren't covered by the same workplace discrimination and harassment laws as employees, but some House Democrats are trying to change that. Three lawmakers introduced a trio of bills Tuesday aimed at closing loopholes that exclude unpaid interns from protection. The Civil Rights Act doesn't currently cover such workers because they aren't compensated and therefore aren't technically employees...
Applications for US unemployment benefits rose last week to still-low level of 267,000 Associated Press ...More people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, though the increase was from a very low level and the figures still point to a healthy job market. Applications for jobless aid rose 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile figure that is a better measure of underlying trends, dropped 3,750 to 274,750...
Social Justice & Other News
Say Her Name: Protesters in Chicago Demand Justice for Sandra Bland Truthout ...This week, from Dallas to San Diego to the Midwest, activists and community members around the United States are answering a national call to demand justice for Sandra Bland, a Black woman and activist who died in police custody on July 13. In Chicago, protesters lifted up Sandra Bland's name on Michigan Avenue on July 28, as hundreds of protesters lined a bridge over the Chicago River, urging those who believe Black lives matter to "say her name"...
House passes three-month highway bill The Hill ...The House voted Wednesday to approve an $8 billion bill that would extend federal transportation funding until the end of October, sending it to the Senate with just two days to go before the nation's road and transit spending expires. The bill passed in a 385-34 vote, with Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) voting present. Senators are expected to accept the patch to prevent an interruption in the nation's infrastructure spending...
House Republicans Invite Architect Of The Financial Crisis Over For Advice Think Progress ...Five years after the passage of a sweeping Wall Street reform package in the wake of the worst financial crisis in generations, lawmakers opposed to strict government policing of the financial industry are inviting two prominent deregulators back to the scene of the crime. When the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) hears from former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) and longtime conservative analyst Peter Wallison on Tuesday, the pair will have their laissez-faire perspectives on the money business elevated once again...
Wishing Happy Birthday to Medicare, Communities Demand Healthcare for All Common Dreams ...From Hawaii to Florida to Maine, communities in 25 cities across the United States are staging rallies, picnics, and flash mobs this week to celebrate Thursday's 50th anniversary of Medicare—and call for its expansion into a system that provides publicly-funded healthcare for all...
Cincinnati Cop Charged With Murder in Fatal Shooting of Unarmed Black Man Mother Jones ...Officials in Hamilton County, Ohio, released body-camera footage on Wednesday that shows the shooting death of Samuel DuBose, an unarmed black man pulled over by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing on July 19 for driving without a front license plate. The video was released as Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters announced that Tensing would be indicted on a charge of murder...
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.23.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: Senate Transportation Bill is Positive Step, But Safety Issues Remain Teamster.org ...Today, the Senate voted to take up a six-year surface transportation reauthorization that will include three years of funding for highway, rail and transit programs. The House has passed a five-month extension funding programs until the end of the year. “While some lawmakers seem content to ignore our broad transportation infrastructure needs, it is clear many U.S. roads and bridges don’t have the luxury of time to be fixed,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Hoffa: Workers in D.C. and Around the Country Deserve '$15 and a Union' Teamster.org ...The Teamsters stand with thousands of workers who rallied on Capitol Hill today and millions of hardworking Americans around the country who deserve the dignity and respect that earning $15 an hour would bring. These same workers should also have the ability to unionize so they can advocate for themselves going forward...
Teamsters: Toyota is a Danger to American Families Teamster.org ...Today, the Teamsters Union posted the first of several roadside billboards about the Toyota Corporation in order to educate the American public about the economic and safety dangers posed by the company. "Toyota is bidding out much of its automobile transport work to small, unproven operators who undercut the health care protections and retirement security of their drivers,” said Kevin Moore, Teamsters International Trustee and Director of the Teamsters Carhaul Division...
Teamsters Call On UPS To Leave ALEC At Massive Protest In San Diego Teamster.org ...Hundreds of Teamsters from across California traveled to San Diego today to participate in a massive protest outside a national meeting for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The Teamsters had one clear message they wanted to send – it was time for UPS to end its affiliation with ALEC. The Teamsters Union represents more than 250,000 members at UPS and UPS Freight...
Port truck drivers to get hearings on wage theft claims as they strike against employer, Pacific Transportation 9 OC Register ..."Pac 9’s desperate tactic to stop the drivers from getting their day in court has failed. History will show that the drivers’ sacrifices on the picket line, coupled with the facts presented in court, will lead to permanent change in the port trucking industry,” Eric Tate, Secretary-Treasurer of Local Teamsters 848, which is representing the drivers, said in a statement...
Leslie Marshall Show On Executive Compensation at McKesson (radio) Teamster.org ...Louis Malizia, with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Capital Strategies Department, spoke with the Leslie Marshall Show about the disparity between high-level managers and frontline workers at McKesson. McKesson is the world’s largest wholesale pharmaceutical distributor, yet many of its employees cannot afford health care. The Teamsters recently sponsored a shareholder proposal to curb unearned executive pay...
Global Labor & Trade
Zimbabwe Supreme Court Guts Worker Job Security Solidarity Center ...The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe upheld a decision late last week stating that companies can now terminate workers’ contracts at any time, without offering them layoff benefits, by giving them three months’ notice. The unanimous decision “has grave consequences for anyone under formal employment,” according to one news source and comes “at time when business is crying for flexible labor laws in order to improve industrial competitiveness”...
State poised to issue report crucial to trade deal The Hill ...The State Department will release a human trafficking report Monday that many lawmakers fear could raise Malaysia’s status — allowing them to remain in a sweeping international trade pact. Congressional lawmakers and human rights groups are rankled over speculation that the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report will upgrade the Asian nation — one of 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — from tier 3 to a higher status that would help them remain part of the talks...
Abuse and Exploitation of Migrants Ignored in Exchange for TPPA APR Network ...The recent Reuters report on United States President Barack Obama’s move to upgrade the human rights status of Malaysia to allow the continuation of the negotiations of the TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) gives a taste of what is to come, especially for migrants’ rights, if the trade deal will be signed. Citing congressional sources, Reuters reports that President Obama is going to move Malaysia’s status from Tier 3 in its annual trafficking in persons report, to Tier 2...
Why everyone hates Obama's signature trade deal CNN ...After years of painful, drawn-out meetings, negotiators are preparing for what could be the final round of talks over the biggest free trade deal in history, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Even as the deal nears completion, plenty of groups are trying to scuttle the agreement...
Bar unhappy over Malaysia’s upgrade on U.S. watch list on trafficking Therakyat Post ...The Bar Council expressed its unhappiness that Malaysia may be upgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2 Watch List status in the rankings in the imminent 2015 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report prepared by the United States Department of State. Its president, Steven Thiru, said any upgrade of Malaysia in the 2015 TIP report would appear to be primarily motivated by a desire to allow Malaysia to be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)...
TPP will prevent ban on foreign ownership TVNZ ...Labour says it will not support a trade partnership with the United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific nations if new conditions are not met because it worries that it could see New Zealand give up too much power. ONE News can reveal that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal will stop the right to restrict sales of homes and farm land to non-resident foreigners in fellow TPP countries...
US Trade Deficit Expansion Weighs on GDP The Desert Sun ...The U.S. trade deficit, which had shrunk significantly in the post "great financial recession" aftermath, reversed sharply in the first quarter 2015. Already beset by a drop in business and industry stock building early in the year, together with export restricting West Coast port strikes, and inclement weather in the East and Midwest, plus a strong export-reducing dollar, the first quarter trade deficit posted the greatest downward widening since the pre-recession (2008-10) years...
Anti-Austerity Protesters Massed Outside Greek Parliament Before Vote Huffington Post ...As Greek lawmakers gathered Wednesday to vote on a bill that would institute more economic reforms demanded by the nation's creditors, crowds amassed outside the Hellenic Parliament to decry the latest austerity measures. The vote, expected in the early hours of Thursday, has spurred anger among Greeks who called for an end to austerity when they elected the ruling Syriza party, only to have the government ultimately accept additional harsh economic policies in order to secure bailout funds...
Varoufakis: Troika Forced Syriza Into Choice Between 'Suicide or Execution' Common Dreams ...In his first international television interview since stepping down from his post as Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday that European lenders had forced his government to make a choice between "suicide or execution." After five months of rigorous negotiations, the outspoken Varoufakis stepped down from his post the night of the Greek referendum. And despite voting against the latest austerity package, Varoufakis said he understood why Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras decided to accept...
State & Living Wage Battles
New York Plans $15-an-Hour Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers New York Times ...The labor protest movement that fast-food workers in New York City began nearly three years ago has led to higher wages for workers all across the country. On Wednesday, it paid off for the people who started it. A panel appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recommended on Wednesday that the minimum wage be raised for employees of fast-food chain restaurants throughout the state to $15 an hour over the next few years...
New York Fast Food Workers On Passage Of The $15 Wage: ‘It’s A Dream Come True’ Think Progress ...On Wednesday, the wage board New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) convened unanimously passed a proposal for a $15 an hour minimum wage for the state’s fast food industry. The labor commissioner is expected to approve the recommendation and issue a wage order raising these workers’ pay to at least that amount. The minimum wage for fast food workers will reach $15 an hour in New York City by 2018 and in the rest of the state by 2021...
Aiming to Lift 'Starvation Wage,' Progressive Lawmakers Push for $15 Nationwide Common Dreams ..."We are here today to send a very loud and a very clear message to the United States Congress, the President of the United States, and corporate America," Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders bellowed before a crowd of striking low-wage workers in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. "In the richest country on the face of the earth, no one who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty"...
ALEC Admits School Vouchers Are for Kids in Suburbia PR Watch ...School vouchers were never about helping poor, at-risk or minority students. But selling them as social mobility tickets was a useful fiction that for some twenty-five years helped rightwing ideologues and corporate backers gain bipartisan support for an ideological scheme designed to privatize public schools. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is meeting in San Diego today, has decided to drop the pretense that vouchers have anything to do with social and racial equity...
How Walker Turned 'Job Creation' Into a Goodie Bag for Campaign Donors TPM ...When Scott Walker was elected Wisconsin governor in 2010, he came into office with a playbook he’d followed as the Milwaukee County executive: he declared an emergency. Taxes: too high. Public benefits: too generous. Businesses: too burdened. Unions: too coddled. One of his first acts in January 2011 was to call an emergency session of the state legislature. One of the first pieces of legislation he signed as governor, Act 7, privatized the state’s department of commerce by turning it into a public-private hybrid called the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation...
The Governor Who Forgot How to Veto a Bill The Atlantic ...LePage may have learned the art of politics in the four-and-a-half years since Maine voters first elected him to the governorship, but it seems he hasn’t yet mastered state law. In a turn of events as incomprehensible as it sounds, the combative conservative apparently muffed the vetoes of 65 bills at the end of the annual legislative session. He is now asking the state’s highest court to rule on whether he successfully rejected the measures, or whether they have in fact become law...
Changes to Pittsburgh workers paid-sick leave legislation introduced Post Gazette ...City Councilman Corey O’Connor introduced a series of amendments Wednesday to legislation requiring Pittsburgh employers to offer paid sick leave, softening some of the rough edges to make the proposed law easier to swallow for businesses. Now, the law will not apply to seasonal workers, the amount of paid leave required is reduced and employees must work more hours to accrue it, among other changes...
Hoffa: Senate Transportation Bill is Positive Step, But Safety Issues Remain Teamster.org ...Today, the Senate voted to take up a six-year surface transportation reauthorization that will include three years of funding for highway, rail and transit programs. The House has passed a five-month extension funding programs until the end of the year. “While some lawmakers seem content to ignore our broad transportation infrastructure needs, it is clear many U.S. roads and bridges don’t have the luxury of time to be fixed,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Hoffa: Workers in D.C. and Around the Country Deserve '$15 and a Union' Teamster.org ...The Teamsters stand with thousands of workers who rallied on Capitol Hill today and millions of hardworking Americans around the country who deserve the dignity and respect that earning $15 an hour would bring. These same workers should also have the ability to unionize so they can advocate for themselves going forward...
Teamsters: Toyota is a Danger to American Families Teamster.org ...Today, the Teamsters Union posted the first of several roadside billboards about the Toyota Corporation in order to educate the American public about the economic and safety dangers posed by the company. "Toyota is bidding out much of its automobile transport work to small, unproven operators who undercut the health care protections and retirement security of their drivers,” said Kevin Moore, Teamsters International Trustee and Director of the Teamsters Carhaul Division...
Teamsters Call On UPS To Leave ALEC At Massive Protest In San Diego Teamster.org ...Hundreds of Teamsters from across California traveled to San Diego today to participate in a massive protest outside a national meeting for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The Teamsters had one clear message they wanted to send – it was time for UPS to end its affiliation with ALEC. The Teamsters Union represents more than 250,000 members at UPS and UPS Freight...
Port truck drivers to get hearings on wage theft claims as they strike against employer, Pacific Transportation 9 OC Register ..."Pac 9’s desperate tactic to stop the drivers from getting their day in court has failed. History will show that the drivers’ sacrifices on the picket line, coupled with the facts presented in court, will lead to permanent change in the port trucking industry,” Eric Tate, Secretary-Treasurer of Local Teamsters 848, which is representing the drivers, said in a statement...
Leslie Marshall Show On Executive Compensation at McKesson (radio) Teamster.org ...Louis Malizia, with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Capital Strategies Department, spoke with the Leslie Marshall Show about the disparity between high-level managers and frontline workers at McKesson. McKesson is the world’s largest wholesale pharmaceutical distributor, yet many of its employees cannot afford health care. The Teamsters recently sponsored a shareholder proposal to curb unearned executive pay...
Global Labor & Trade
Zimbabwe Supreme Court Guts Worker Job Security Solidarity Center ...The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe upheld a decision late last week stating that companies can now terminate workers’ contracts at any time, without offering them layoff benefits, by giving them three months’ notice. The unanimous decision “has grave consequences for anyone under formal employment,” according to one news source and comes “at time when business is crying for flexible labor laws in order to improve industrial competitiveness”...
State poised to issue report crucial to trade deal The Hill ...The State Department will release a human trafficking report Monday that many lawmakers fear could raise Malaysia’s status — allowing them to remain in a sweeping international trade pact. Congressional lawmakers and human rights groups are rankled over speculation that the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report will upgrade the Asian nation — one of 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — from tier 3 to a higher status that would help them remain part of the talks...
Abuse and Exploitation of Migrants Ignored in Exchange for TPPA APR Network ...The recent Reuters report on United States President Barack Obama’s move to upgrade the human rights status of Malaysia to allow the continuation of the negotiations of the TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) gives a taste of what is to come, especially for migrants’ rights, if the trade deal will be signed. Citing congressional sources, Reuters reports that President Obama is going to move Malaysia’s status from Tier 3 in its annual trafficking in persons report, to Tier 2...
Why everyone hates Obama's signature trade deal CNN ...After years of painful, drawn-out meetings, negotiators are preparing for what could be the final round of talks over the biggest free trade deal in history, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Even as the deal nears completion, plenty of groups are trying to scuttle the agreement...
Bar unhappy over Malaysia’s upgrade on U.S. watch list on trafficking Therakyat Post ...The Bar Council expressed its unhappiness that Malaysia may be upgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2 Watch List status in the rankings in the imminent 2015 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report prepared by the United States Department of State. Its president, Steven Thiru, said any upgrade of Malaysia in the 2015 TIP report would appear to be primarily motivated by a desire to allow Malaysia to be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)...
TPP will prevent ban on foreign ownership TVNZ ...Labour says it will not support a trade partnership with the United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific nations if new conditions are not met because it worries that it could see New Zealand give up too much power. ONE News can reveal that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal will stop the right to restrict sales of homes and farm land to non-resident foreigners in fellow TPP countries...
US Trade Deficit Expansion Weighs on GDP The Desert Sun ...The U.S. trade deficit, which had shrunk significantly in the post "great financial recession" aftermath, reversed sharply in the first quarter 2015. Already beset by a drop in business and industry stock building early in the year, together with export restricting West Coast port strikes, and inclement weather in the East and Midwest, plus a strong export-reducing dollar, the first quarter trade deficit posted the greatest downward widening since the pre-recession (2008-10) years...
Anti-Austerity Protesters Massed Outside Greek Parliament Before Vote Huffington Post ...As Greek lawmakers gathered Wednesday to vote on a bill that would institute more economic reforms demanded by the nation's creditors, crowds amassed outside the Hellenic Parliament to decry the latest austerity measures. The vote, expected in the early hours of Thursday, has spurred anger among Greeks who called for an end to austerity when they elected the ruling Syriza party, only to have the government ultimately accept additional harsh economic policies in order to secure bailout funds...
Varoufakis: Troika Forced Syriza Into Choice Between 'Suicide or Execution' Common Dreams ...In his first international television interview since stepping down from his post as Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday that European lenders had forced his government to make a choice between "suicide or execution." After five months of rigorous negotiations, the outspoken Varoufakis stepped down from his post the night of the Greek referendum. And despite voting against the latest austerity package, Varoufakis said he understood why Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras decided to accept...
State & Living Wage Battles
New York Plans $15-an-Hour Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers New York Times ...The labor protest movement that fast-food workers in New York City began nearly three years ago has led to higher wages for workers all across the country. On Wednesday, it paid off for the people who started it. A panel appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recommended on Wednesday that the minimum wage be raised for employees of fast-food chain restaurants throughout the state to $15 an hour over the next few years...
New York Fast Food Workers On Passage Of The $15 Wage: ‘It’s A Dream Come True’ Think Progress ...On Wednesday, the wage board New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) convened unanimously passed a proposal for a $15 an hour minimum wage for the state’s fast food industry. The labor commissioner is expected to approve the recommendation and issue a wage order raising these workers’ pay to at least that amount. The minimum wage for fast food workers will reach $15 an hour in New York City by 2018 and in the rest of the state by 2021...
Aiming to Lift 'Starvation Wage,' Progressive Lawmakers Push for $15 Nationwide Common Dreams ..."We are here today to send a very loud and a very clear message to the United States Congress, the President of the United States, and corporate America," Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders bellowed before a crowd of striking low-wage workers in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. "In the richest country on the face of the earth, no one who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty"...
ALEC Admits School Vouchers Are for Kids in Suburbia PR Watch ...School vouchers were never about helping poor, at-risk or minority students. But selling them as social mobility tickets was a useful fiction that for some twenty-five years helped rightwing ideologues and corporate backers gain bipartisan support for an ideological scheme designed to privatize public schools. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is meeting in San Diego today, has decided to drop the pretense that vouchers have anything to do with social and racial equity...
How Walker Turned 'Job Creation' Into a Goodie Bag for Campaign Donors TPM ...When Scott Walker was elected Wisconsin governor in 2010, he came into office with a playbook he’d followed as the Milwaukee County executive: he declared an emergency. Taxes: too high. Public benefits: too generous. Businesses: too burdened. Unions: too coddled. One of his first acts in January 2011 was to call an emergency session of the state legislature. One of the first pieces of legislation he signed as governor, Act 7, privatized the state’s department of commerce by turning it into a public-private hybrid called the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation...
The Governor Who Forgot How to Veto a Bill The Atlantic ...LePage may have learned the art of politics in the four-and-a-half years since Maine voters first elected him to the governorship, but it seems he hasn’t yet mastered state law. In a turn of events as incomprehensible as it sounds, the combative conservative apparently muffed the vetoes of 65 bills at the end of the annual legislative session. He is now asking the state’s highest court to rule on whether he successfully rejected the measures, or whether they have in fact become law...
Changes to Pittsburgh workers paid-sick leave legislation introduced Post Gazette ...City Councilman Corey O’Connor introduced a series of amendments Wednesday to legislation requiring Pittsburgh employers to offer paid sick leave, softening some of the rough edges to make the proposed law easier to swallow for businesses. Now, the law will not apply to seasonal workers, the amount of paid leave required is reduced and employees must work more hours to accrue it, among other changes...
Uber Strikes Deal With New York City to Avoid Cap on Ride-Hailing Vehicles in City Slate ...Uber and New York City struck a conciliatory tone, agreeing to a deal that would avoid the city capping the number of Uber drivers on city streets. The agreement softens a New York City Council bill that aimed at curtailing the ride-hailing service’s growth over concerns about increasing congestion on city streets caused by ride-hailing services...
U.S. Labor
Grocery Chain’s Financial Meltdown Could Leave Thousands of Union Workers Jobless In These Times ...Plans to dismember the A&P supermarket chain were revealed in a federal bankruptcy court in New York this week, with dire results predicted for more than 15,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. The historic grocery retailer—the original Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. was formed back in 1859—intends to sell or close all of its 300 stores spread across six Mid-Atlantic states, according to documents filed Monday in the U.S...
NYC Airport Strike Averted at JFK, LaGuardia on Labor Truce Bloomberg ...More than 1,200 workers at New York’s Kennedy and LaGuardia airports will stay on the job after scrapping a strike hours before it was supposed to begin. An airline contractor, Command Security Corp.’s Aviation Safeguards unit, agreed to stay neutral in an organizing effort among its workers, the Service Employees International Union’s Local 32BJ said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday. Security officers, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants had planned to walk off the job starting later in the day...
Future of Focus plant looms over start of Ford-UAW talks Detroit Free Press ...Top UAW officials and some of Ford's highest ranking executives will meet today to formally mark the start of contract talks exactly two weeks after the Dearborn automaker said it would move production of the Focus compact car to Mexico. Typically, the ceremonial event to kick-start contract negotiations is a warm and fuzzy event designed to underscore the close working relationship between the union and the automaker...
USW critical of ArcelorMittal contract proposal Chicago Tribune ...The United Steelworkers union said it has received an initial three-year contract proposal from ArcelorMittal management that includes no wage increases, reduced incentive payments and increased costs for health care for active and retired workers. The current USW contract with both ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel expires on Sept. 1...
DOL Decision Could Mean the End of Wage Theft Through “Independent Contractor” Misclassification In These Times ...Last week, the administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, David Weil, released a “letter of guidance” that clarifies who is an employee and who is an “independent contractor”—that is, essentially an individual running his or her own business. He argues that the most definitive statement from Congress comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which says that “to employ” means “to suffer or permit to work.” And, he concludes, “under the Act, most workers are employees”...
A Quiet Triumph for Gay Workers The Atlantic ...Gay Americans can now get married in the morning and then, in the afternoon, just for being gay, their employers can fire them. Is doing so legal? Up until last week, the answer was yes for Americans living in the 28 states without explicit bans on workplace sexual-orientation discrimination. But an important ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) means that courts in those states are now more likely to say that such discrimination is illegal...
UC willl raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, heightening focus on efforts to boost the rate statewide LA Times ... The campaign to significantly increase the minimum wage shifted from local government to the state Wednesday, with UC President Janet Napolitano announcing that several thousand workers would have their salaries increased to $15 an hour by 2017. UC's action is expected to heighten debate in the state Legislature about a proposal to boost the statewide minimum wage and has also prompted calls for the California State University system to follow suit...
Social Security Has Enough Money To Expand Benefits Now, Trustee's Report Shows Alternet ...The Social Security Board of Trustees has just released its annual report to Congress. The most important takeaways are that Social Security has a large and growing surplus, and its future cost is fully affordable. It is sometimes reported that Social Security's current costs exceed its revenue, but if that happened, we wouldn't need a report to tell us. The whole country would know, because 59 million beneficiaries would not get their earned benefits as they now do every month...
Applications for US Unemployment Aid Plummet to 42-Year Low Associated Press ...The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid plunged last week to the lowest level in nearly 42 years, evidence that employers are holding onto their staffs and likely hiring at a steady pace. Yet the drop also reflects seasonal volatility in the data. The unemployment rate fell in June mostly because many of the unemployed stopped looking for work, rather than found jobs. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work fell to a 38-year low...
Miscellaneous
Most Undocumented Immigrants Will Stay Under Obama’s New Policies, Report Says New York Times ...Under new immigration enforcement programs the Obama administration is putting in place across the country, the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants — up to 87 percent — would not be the focus of deportation operations and would have “a degree of protection” to remain in the United States, according to a report published Thursday by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington...
Elizabeth Warren humiliates executive invited by Senate Republicans to defend opposition to financial regulations Salon ...On Tuesday, Senate Republicans invited Primerica President Peter Schneider to testify against proposed regulations that would protect retirement savings from sketchy financial schemes — and it didn’t take long before he wished they hadn’t. The Huffington Post’s Zach Carter reports that Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wasted no time in embarrassing Scheider, whose outfit is precisely the sort of sketchy financial scheme that the legislation is designed to protect the elderly against...
#SayHerName: Protests Demand Justice for Sandra Bland & Black Teen Found Dead in Jail 1 Day Later Democracy Now ...In Texas, new information has emerged about the arrest of Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old African-American woman found dead in a jail cell in what authorities claim was a suicide by hanging. Bland was stopped for not signaling a lane change. Dash cam video shows Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia forced her from her car, threatening to "light [her] up," after she failed to put out her cigarette. Hundreds gathered in New York to honor Sandra Bland and highlight the case of Kindra Chapman, an 18-year-old African-American woman found dead in an Alabama jail cell one day after Sandra Bland was found dead...
Sandra Bland Committed "Contempt of Cop," But That's Not Against the Law Slate ...In 2010, Christy Lopez, the Department of Justice official who led the federal investigation into the Ferguson, Missouri police department after Michael Brown's death, wrote a paper on the subject of "contempt of cop" arrests. (Lopez's Ferguson investigation found that officers in Ferguson had a habit of making unjustified and abusive arrests.) Lopez opens her report by noting that disagreeing with, criticizing, or otherwise being verbally difficult with a police officer is behavior protected by the First Amendement...
U.S. Labor
Grocery Chain’s Financial Meltdown Could Leave Thousands of Union Workers Jobless In These Times ...Plans to dismember the A&P supermarket chain were revealed in a federal bankruptcy court in New York this week, with dire results predicted for more than 15,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. The historic grocery retailer—the original Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. was formed back in 1859—intends to sell or close all of its 300 stores spread across six Mid-Atlantic states, according to documents filed Monday in the U.S...
NYC Airport Strike Averted at JFK, LaGuardia on Labor Truce Bloomberg ...More than 1,200 workers at New York’s Kennedy and LaGuardia airports will stay on the job after scrapping a strike hours before it was supposed to begin. An airline contractor, Command Security Corp.’s Aviation Safeguards unit, agreed to stay neutral in an organizing effort among its workers, the Service Employees International Union’s Local 32BJ said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday. Security officers, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants had planned to walk off the job starting later in the day...
Future of Focus plant looms over start of Ford-UAW talks Detroit Free Press ...Top UAW officials and some of Ford's highest ranking executives will meet today to formally mark the start of contract talks exactly two weeks after the Dearborn automaker said it would move production of the Focus compact car to Mexico. Typically, the ceremonial event to kick-start contract negotiations is a warm and fuzzy event designed to underscore the close working relationship between the union and the automaker...
USW critical of ArcelorMittal contract proposal Chicago Tribune ...The United Steelworkers union said it has received an initial three-year contract proposal from ArcelorMittal management that includes no wage increases, reduced incentive payments and increased costs for health care for active and retired workers. The current USW contract with both ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel expires on Sept. 1...
DOL Decision Could Mean the End of Wage Theft Through “Independent Contractor” Misclassification In These Times ...Last week, the administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, David Weil, released a “letter of guidance” that clarifies who is an employee and who is an “independent contractor”—that is, essentially an individual running his or her own business. He argues that the most definitive statement from Congress comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which says that “to employ” means “to suffer or permit to work.” And, he concludes, “under the Act, most workers are employees”...
A Quiet Triumph for Gay Workers The Atlantic ...Gay Americans can now get married in the morning and then, in the afternoon, just for being gay, their employers can fire them. Is doing so legal? Up until last week, the answer was yes for Americans living in the 28 states without explicit bans on workplace sexual-orientation discrimination. But an important ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) means that courts in those states are now more likely to say that such discrimination is illegal...
UC willl raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, heightening focus on efforts to boost the rate statewide LA Times ... The campaign to significantly increase the minimum wage shifted from local government to the state Wednesday, with UC President Janet Napolitano announcing that several thousand workers would have their salaries increased to $15 an hour by 2017. UC's action is expected to heighten debate in the state Legislature about a proposal to boost the statewide minimum wage and has also prompted calls for the California State University system to follow suit...
Social Security Has Enough Money To Expand Benefits Now, Trustee's Report Shows Alternet ...The Social Security Board of Trustees has just released its annual report to Congress. The most important takeaways are that Social Security has a large and growing surplus, and its future cost is fully affordable. It is sometimes reported that Social Security's current costs exceed its revenue, but if that happened, we wouldn't need a report to tell us. The whole country would know, because 59 million beneficiaries would not get their earned benefits as they now do every month...
Applications for US Unemployment Aid Plummet to 42-Year Low Associated Press ...The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid plunged last week to the lowest level in nearly 42 years, evidence that employers are holding onto their staffs and likely hiring at a steady pace. Yet the drop also reflects seasonal volatility in the data. The unemployment rate fell in June mostly because many of the unemployed stopped looking for work, rather than found jobs. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work fell to a 38-year low...
Miscellaneous
Most Undocumented Immigrants Will Stay Under Obama’s New Policies, Report Says New York Times ...Under new immigration enforcement programs the Obama administration is putting in place across the country, the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants — up to 87 percent — would not be the focus of deportation operations and would have “a degree of protection” to remain in the United States, according to a report published Thursday by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington...
Elizabeth Warren humiliates executive invited by Senate Republicans to defend opposition to financial regulations Salon ...On Tuesday, Senate Republicans invited Primerica President Peter Schneider to testify against proposed regulations that would protect retirement savings from sketchy financial schemes — and it didn’t take long before he wished they hadn’t. The Huffington Post’s Zach Carter reports that Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wasted no time in embarrassing Scheider, whose outfit is precisely the sort of sketchy financial scheme that the legislation is designed to protect the elderly against...
#SayHerName: Protests Demand Justice for Sandra Bland & Black Teen Found Dead in Jail 1 Day Later Democracy Now ...In Texas, new information has emerged about the arrest of Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old African-American woman found dead in a jail cell in what authorities claim was a suicide by hanging. Bland was stopped for not signaling a lane change. Dash cam video shows Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia forced her from her car, threatening to "light [her] up," after she failed to put out her cigarette. Hundreds gathered in New York to honor Sandra Bland and highlight the case of Kindra Chapman, an 18-year-old African-American woman found dead in an Alabama jail cell one day after Sandra Bland was found dead...
Sandra Bland Committed "Contempt of Cop," But That's Not Against the Law Slate ...In 2010, Christy Lopez, the Department of Justice official who led the federal investigation into the Ferguson, Missouri police department after Michael Brown's death, wrote a paper on the subject of "contempt of cop" arrests. (Lopez's Ferguson investigation found that officers in Ferguson had a habit of making unjustified and abusive arrests.) Lopez opens her report by noting that disagreeing with, criticizing, or otherwise being verbally difficult with a police officer is behavior protected by the First Amendement...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)