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...
Showing posts with label truck safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label truck safety. Show all posts
Friday, November 6, 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Hoffa says highway safety more important than higher profits
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| Hoffa talks about the danger of 'twin 33s' at Hill press conference. |
Allowing trucks to pull 33-foot trailers would add an additional 10 feet to the length of existing double trailers, making it harder to pass these trucks and harder for truck drivers to see who’s beside them. Longer trucks also need greater stopping distances, and already over-capacity thoroughfares leave little room for driver reaction times when it comes to changing lanes and reduced speeds.While some on Capitol Hill support the move, the Department of Transportation is recommending lawmakers make no changes to truck size rules at this time.
Hoffa told lawmakers they need to be vigilant to make sure language is not slipped into larger "must pass" legislation that Congress then feels obliged to support. Pointing to a tractor-trailer with twin 33-foot trailers behind him, he said:
Can you imagine pulling that rig on an off-ramp built 30 years ago? It's not designed for that. Drivers tell me how dangerous this is. It's a safety issue. It's an infrastructure issue.Several legislators issue similar concerns. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) said highway safety is at stake if trailer size is expanded nationwide:
Mr. Hoffa hit this issue right on the head. This issue can never make it in the light of day. It can only be added in massive legislation like the transportation bill.Representatives from the trucking industry also spoke about the dangers to truck drivers resulting from operating with twin 33-foot trailers, and said double trailers take a lot more time to load and unload because of the repeated coupling and uncoupling of trailers.
More than 4,000 lives are claimed each year on U.S. highways in accidents involving tractor trailers. And that will almost certainly increase if the 39 states that currently don’t allow “twin 33s” on their roads are forced by Congress to open their highways to these up to 91-foot behemoths. Currently, the federal standard is 28 feet for double trailers.
The debate over trailer length comes at the same time as elected officials grapple with a host of transportation-related issues, many of which could affect motorist safety. They include allowing teenage truckers to drive in interstate commerce; trying to dismantle the ability of states to create meal and rest breaks for their drivers; and making it harder for regulators to improve safety rules. Several of these issues could be included in legislation set to be considered by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Today's Teamster News 10.20.15
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Congress Should Rebuild Roads, Not Lengthen Trailers Huffington Post ...America's highways can be a dangerous place for motorists. That's why it makes no sense that some in Congress want to cave to trucking industry interests and approve the use of even longer double trailers on over-congested highways. Such a move further hampers highway safety and could potentially cause an uptick of deaths on the nation's thoroughfares...
Coca-Cola Workers Vote Teamsters Yes In Pennsylvania Teamster.org ...By a majority vote, production workers at the Coca Cola manufacturing facility in Allentown, PA have voted to join Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown. There are 90 employees in the union bargaining unit, all of which work in the syrup production facility, the key ingredient in Coca-Cola beverages...
Teamsters Local 745 Wins Two Organizing Campaigns Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas recently won two organizing campaigns, with more than 20 workers on their way to more secure futures. In the first victory, on October 7, 2015 workers at Exel, a distribution center in Socorro, Texas, near El Paso, voted 8 to 4 to join Local 745. There are 12 warehouse workers in the bargaining unit. On October 9, workers at Darling International in Dallas, a grease recycling company, voted 6 to 2 to join Local 745...
Teamsters Say Union Buster C&S Wholesale Grocers Aims To Kill Jobs at Safeway In These Times ...Teamster members and their supporters are mobilizing to block a union busting effort at two huge warehouses controlled by the Safeway supermarket chain, one of several food retailers recently combined into national grocery store colossus by Wall Street private equity firm Cerberus Capital. The two warehouses are located in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and currently employ about 700 workers, most of them represented by the Teamsters...
EVSC, Teamsters Optimistic of Reaching Deal TriState Homepage ...The Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and a local union remain at odds and without a contract, but leaders from both sides still have hope. At Monday night's EVSC School Board meeting, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey expressed optimism about reaching a deal. The school board matched the sentiment. However, nothing beyond that was discussed...
3 senators set news conference to state opposition to 33-foot trailers The Trucker ...Three senators - two Democrats and one Republican - say they will hold a news conference in front of the Capitol Wednesday to discuss their bipartisan opposition to a federal mandate that would allow large trucks to pull double 33-foot trailers on the nation’s highways. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., say they will be joined by representatives from the trucking industry, Teamsters, law enforcement and a safety advocacy group...
Teamsters: Canadians Choose Change Teamsters Canada ...Canadians made their choice. They sent a clear message by electing a Liberal majority. Canadians are eager for change and expressed it eloquently. The challenges ahead are great, but this new generation of politicians was brought to power with a strong mandate. The drawn-out election campaign allowed Justin Trudeau to speak out on several issues that are important not only for the workers we represent, but for all citizens of this country...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Opposition's Trudeau wins, raising doubts on TPP Nikkei ...Canada's opposition Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, defeated Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party in Monday's snap election, ending nine years of Conservative rule. The shift in power to the center-left party casts uncertainty on whether Canada will ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Trudeau, 43, has been critical of the TPP...
Public Services Under Attack through TTIP and CETA Atlantic Trade Deals Global Research ...Public services in the European Union (EU) are under threat from international trade negotiations that endanger governments’ ability to regulate and citizens’ rights to access basic services. The EU’s CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) agreement with Canada, the ratification of which could begin in 2016, and the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) treaty under negotiation with the United States are the latest culmination in such efforts...
TTIP Already 'Rewriting the Rule Book' for EU Food Standards, New Report Finds Common Dreams ...The pending Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will likely spark a "race to the bottom" for national policies that regulate everything from the air we breath to the food we eat and, according to a new report, the controversial pact is already pushing European governments to loosen key food safety standards. Put forth by the UK-based social justice organization Global Justice now, the report, published Sunday, highlights a component of the pact known as "regulatory cooperation" or "regulatory coherence"...
The TPP: Priority #1 of US Multinational Corporations TeleSUR ...Although the full TPP document is still being kept secret — to all but the representatives of multinational corporations who chaired the 30 committees and told the government trade representatives what to negotiate, some details of the super-secret deal have been leaking out. And if the leaks are any indication of what’s to come when full details are released, consumers, workers, and everyone concerned about the growing global “corporatization” of democracy, are in for a big shock...
Obama takes to op-ed pages to push Trans-Pacific Partnership CNN ...President Barack Obama is taking to the op-ed pages of several local newspapers to make his case for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. On Saturday, the Concord Monitor of New Hampshire published an op-ed under Obama's byline advocating for the deal and why it stands to benefit New Hampshire. The day before, the Tampa Bay Times published virtually the same op-ed by Obama...
Canadians hit at politics of austerity Financial Times ...The politics of austerity took a beating in the Canadian federal election on Monday, as the Liberal party of Justin Trudeau swept to victory on a platform of increasing the budget deficit to fund infrastructure projects and thereby stimulate the economy. Under Mr Trudeau, the Liberals tacked to the left this year, arguing that Canada should take advantage of the current low level of interest rates to increase borrowing and bolster an economy left reeling by lower prices for oil and other commodities...
Greece eyes new reforms as workers call strike, farmers mobilize Reuters ...Greece's international lenders will start assessing its economic reforms this week as the debt-riddled nation braced for more economic pain and its largest union called for a nationwide strike on Nov. 12. The Greek parliament last week approved a first raft of reforms to the pension and tax systems, sought by lenders as a condition for up to 86 billion euros in aid. The retirement age will incrementally rise to 67...
MBIE workers to go on strike 3News ...Staff at the controversy-plagued Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment are going on strike. More than 1000 workers have voted to take industrial action on November 5 and November 23. Their union, the Public Service Association, says MBIE is refusing to offer any pay increases and management continue to contribute to poor workplace culture. "These people help keep to set the standard for all New Zealand workers"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
The Kochs Want to End WI's Era of Clean Government PR Watch ...Following the bipartisan "John Doe" investigation into campaign finance violations by Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin Republicans are out for revenge. And the Kochs have their back. This week, the Wisconsin state legislature will take up a trifecta of bills that will undermine the state's long traditions of clean and transparent government. One bill will gut the state's campaign finance laws...
Judge Refuses To Expand Wisconsin Voter ID Law To Help Students And Veterans Vote Think Progress ...On Monday, a federal district court in Wisconsin rejected demands from local students, veterans, and low-income residents to allow them to use alternative forms of voter ID or have the ability to sign a sworn affadavit at the ballot box. A lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the strict voter ID law Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed in 2011 placed “an unjustified burden” on their ability to vote...
Judge to rule on Kentucky county's right-to-work law Reuters ...A federal judge is poised to rule on a union challenge to a Kentucky county's right-to-work ordinance, in a closely watched case testing the legality of local bans on union security agreements. Twenty-five states have right-to-work laws prohibiting provisions in collective bargaining agreements calling on workers to pay money to labor unions as a condition of employment. But Kentucky, which has no statewide right-to-work law, became a testing ground for local laws...
Veterans Don't Want Lawmakers to Repeal Prevailing Wage WILX ...Some veterans who work in the construction industry are trying to convince state lawmakers not to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law. Around 9% of construction workers are veterans, compared to 6% of the rest of the workforce. The prevailing wage law requires contractors to pay union-scale salaries for all taxpayer-funded projects...
Right to Work lawmakers impose their own 'union dues' MLive ...When Republican legislators pushed through a contentious Right To Work law two years ago, they said they were freeing unionized workers from a system that "confiscated" a portion of employee paychecks through union dues. Yet those GOP lawmakers hypocritically engage in their own rigid employment system. The leadership of both parties essentially charges legislative aides dues by instructing them to contribute hundreds of dollars for their respective party's campaign activities...
Robert Reich: Working Full Time and Living in Abject Poverty - That's What Today's Minimum Wage Will Get You Alternet ...Have you noticed how often conservatives who disagree with a policy proposal call it a “job killer?” They’re especially incensed about proposals to raise the federal minimum wage. They claim it will force employers to lay off workers. But as Princeton University economist Alan Krueger pointed outrecently in the New York Times, “research suggests that a minimum wage set as high as $12 an hour will do more good than harm for low-wage workers”...
Can Drought-Ridden California Keep Growing? The Atlantic ...As the population of the San Joaquin Valley swells despite city-planning and water-system crises, it’s the poor, rural communities that tend to be worst off. Emissions from transportation, mostly from trucks, are what primarily make the region’s air quality among the worst in the nation. The zip codes with the highest rate of respiratory risk have poor and predominantly Hispanic populations. And lately, the drought has made air even more unbreathable...
U.S. LABOR
Grocery workers ratify new contract with Safeway Business Journal ...Grocery-store workers at Safeway and Vons stores in Northern and Central California have ratified a new contract, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union announced Friday afternoon. The four-year contract between Local UFCW 8-Golden State covers about 9,000 workers at 130 Safeway stores, including about 15 in the Sacramento region...
UAW members to begin voting on new FCA contract The Detroit News ...As 40,000 United Auto Workers members begin voting Tuesday on the latest tentative agreement between the union and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, hostility that fueled an overwhelmingly majority of workers to reject the first four-year deal appears to have been dialed down to a simmer. Since the new deal was reached just prior to a strike deadline on Oct. 7, there have been no large protests planned, social media chatter has cooled and talk on many factory floors is that the deal is far improved...
Steelmakers still ask for layoffs, concessions NWI Times ...The United Steelworkers union is fighting U.S. Steel on layoffs, and taking a break from negotiations with ArcelorMittal. The USW won't resume talks with ArcelorMittal until Oct. 25. The union told its members little progress has been made in talks over the past week with the Luxembourg-based steelmaker...
AT&T, Communications Workers of America Reach Tentative Agreements In AT&T Southeast Wireline Contract Negotiations MarketWatch ...AT&T today announced that AT&T southeast wireline operations have reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America in southeast wireline contract negotiations. Additionally, the Company reached tentative agreements with the CWA on two southeast regional contracts. They cover about 24,000 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee...
Union workers picket to get better deal with AT&T Robesonian ...Thirteen members of Local 3609 of the Communications Workers of America joined fellow-union members in nine states Friday on informational picket lines to build public support in their effort to get a better contract with AT&T. “We want to reach a fair contract. We want to provide the quality service our customers deserve,” said Local President Nathan Mason...
Why We Need to Take Care of the Workers Behind Home Healthcare The Nation ... Since home-based healthcare services is one of the fastest growing sectors, home care jobs are being redefined largely by market trends. But a program developed through the SEIU home care union in Washington sees the sector’s expansion as a platform to systematically transform one of the lowest-paid jobs into a career of the future...
No Haitians need apply: Horribly racist help wanted ad sparks outrage, investigation Salon ...An outrageous help-wanted ad in a New York newspaper has sparked a torrent of outrage. The ad in the New City (N.Y.) Pennysaver, filled with spelling errors, seeks a “Laid back nurse, no haitians, must have strong respiratory mngt” for in-home nursing positions in West Haverstraw, Rockland County. After the ad sparked a torrent of public outrage on social media, New York State Sen. David Carlucci posted on Twitter that he would call an investigation...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
What happened to the president's immigration programs? LA Times ...Demonstrators are fasting this week in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, protesting a suit brought by 26 states that seeks an end to the temporary protection from deportation granted to immigrants by executive action. A panel of three appeals court judges heard arguments July 10 but has delayed ruling nearly a month beyond its self-imposed 60-day deadline...
Ferguson Traffic Fines Reform Is Having A Surprising Side Effect Think Progress ...A tiny Missouri town disbanded its police department last week, acknowledging that its old way of operating was untenable under a new state law restricting towns in St. Louis County from using cops, courts, and speed traps as a money mill. The law was prompted by federal investigations in the wake of Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson’s killing of unarmed teenager. Those inquiries revealed systematic exploitation of the traffic court system to ensnare drivers – predominantly people of color and low means...
Hoffa: Congress Should Rebuild Roads, Not Lengthen Trailers Huffington Post ...America's highways can be a dangerous place for motorists. That's why it makes no sense that some in Congress want to cave to trucking industry interests and approve the use of even longer double trailers on over-congested highways. Such a move further hampers highway safety and could potentially cause an uptick of deaths on the nation's thoroughfares...
Coca-Cola Workers Vote Teamsters Yes In Pennsylvania Teamster.org ...By a majority vote, production workers at the Coca Cola manufacturing facility in Allentown, PA have voted to join Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown. There are 90 employees in the union bargaining unit, all of which work in the syrup production facility, the key ingredient in Coca-Cola beverages...
Teamsters Local 745 Wins Two Organizing Campaigns Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas recently won two organizing campaigns, with more than 20 workers on their way to more secure futures. In the first victory, on October 7, 2015 workers at Exel, a distribution center in Socorro, Texas, near El Paso, voted 8 to 4 to join Local 745. There are 12 warehouse workers in the bargaining unit. On October 9, workers at Darling International in Dallas, a grease recycling company, voted 6 to 2 to join Local 745...
Teamsters Say Union Buster C&S Wholesale Grocers Aims To Kill Jobs at Safeway In These Times ...Teamster members and their supporters are mobilizing to block a union busting effort at two huge warehouses controlled by the Safeway supermarket chain, one of several food retailers recently combined into national grocery store colossus by Wall Street private equity firm Cerberus Capital. The two warehouses are located in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and currently employ about 700 workers, most of them represented by the Teamsters...
EVSC, Teamsters Optimistic of Reaching Deal TriState Homepage ...The Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and a local union remain at odds and without a contract, but leaders from both sides still have hope. At Monday night's EVSC School Board meeting, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey expressed optimism about reaching a deal. The school board matched the sentiment. However, nothing beyond that was discussed...
3 senators set news conference to state opposition to 33-foot trailers The Trucker ...Three senators - two Democrats and one Republican - say they will hold a news conference in front of the Capitol Wednesday to discuss their bipartisan opposition to a federal mandate that would allow large trucks to pull double 33-foot trailers on the nation’s highways. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., say they will be joined by representatives from the trucking industry, Teamsters, law enforcement and a safety advocacy group...
Teamsters: Canadians Choose Change Teamsters Canada ...Canadians made their choice. They sent a clear message by electing a Liberal majority. Canadians are eager for change and expressed it eloquently. The challenges ahead are great, but this new generation of politicians was brought to power with a strong mandate. The drawn-out election campaign allowed Justin Trudeau to speak out on several issues that are important not only for the workers we represent, but for all citizens of this country...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Opposition's Trudeau wins, raising doubts on TPP Nikkei ...Canada's opposition Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, defeated Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party in Monday's snap election, ending nine years of Conservative rule. The shift in power to the center-left party casts uncertainty on whether Canada will ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Trudeau, 43, has been critical of the TPP...
Public Services Under Attack through TTIP and CETA Atlantic Trade Deals Global Research ...Public services in the European Union (EU) are under threat from international trade negotiations that endanger governments’ ability to regulate and citizens’ rights to access basic services. The EU’s CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) agreement with Canada, the ratification of which could begin in 2016, and the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) treaty under negotiation with the United States are the latest culmination in such efforts...
TTIP Already 'Rewriting the Rule Book' for EU Food Standards, New Report Finds Common Dreams ...The pending Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will likely spark a "race to the bottom" for national policies that regulate everything from the air we breath to the food we eat and, according to a new report, the controversial pact is already pushing European governments to loosen key food safety standards. Put forth by the UK-based social justice organization Global Justice now, the report, published Sunday, highlights a component of the pact known as "regulatory cooperation" or "regulatory coherence"...
The TPP: Priority #1 of US Multinational Corporations TeleSUR ...Although the full TPP document is still being kept secret — to all but the representatives of multinational corporations who chaired the 30 committees and told the government trade representatives what to negotiate, some details of the super-secret deal have been leaking out. And if the leaks are any indication of what’s to come when full details are released, consumers, workers, and everyone concerned about the growing global “corporatization” of democracy, are in for a big shock...
Obama takes to op-ed pages to push Trans-Pacific Partnership CNN ...President Barack Obama is taking to the op-ed pages of several local newspapers to make his case for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. On Saturday, the Concord Monitor of New Hampshire published an op-ed under Obama's byline advocating for the deal and why it stands to benefit New Hampshire. The day before, the Tampa Bay Times published virtually the same op-ed by Obama...
Canadians hit at politics of austerity Financial Times ...The politics of austerity took a beating in the Canadian federal election on Monday, as the Liberal party of Justin Trudeau swept to victory on a platform of increasing the budget deficit to fund infrastructure projects and thereby stimulate the economy. Under Mr Trudeau, the Liberals tacked to the left this year, arguing that Canada should take advantage of the current low level of interest rates to increase borrowing and bolster an economy left reeling by lower prices for oil and other commodities...
Greece eyes new reforms as workers call strike, farmers mobilize Reuters ...Greece's international lenders will start assessing its economic reforms this week as the debt-riddled nation braced for more economic pain and its largest union called for a nationwide strike on Nov. 12. The Greek parliament last week approved a first raft of reforms to the pension and tax systems, sought by lenders as a condition for up to 86 billion euros in aid. The retirement age will incrementally rise to 67...
MBIE workers to go on strike 3News ...Staff at the controversy-plagued Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment are going on strike. More than 1000 workers have voted to take industrial action on November 5 and November 23. Their union, the Public Service Association, says MBIE is refusing to offer any pay increases and management continue to contribute to poor workplace culture. "These people help keep to set the standard for all New Zealand workers"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
The Kochs Want to End WI's Era of Clean Government PR Watch ...Following the bipartisan "John Doe" investigation into campaign finance violations by Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin Republicans are out for revenge. And the Kochs have their back. This week, the Wisconsin state legislature will take up a trifecta of bills that will undermine the state's long traditions of clean and transparent government. One bill will gut the state's campaign finance laws...
Judge Refuses To Expand Wisconsin Voter ID Law To Help Students And Veterans Vote Think Progress ...On Monday, a federal district court in Wisconsin rejected demands from local students, veterans, and low-income residents to allow them to use alternative forms of voter ID or have the ability to sign a sworn affadavit at the ballot box. A lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the strict voter ID law Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed in 2011 placed “an unjustified burden” on their ability to vote...
Judge to rule on Kentucky county's right-to-work law Reuters ...A federal judge is poised to rule on a union challenge to a Kentucky county's right-to-work ordinance, in a closely watched case testing the legality of local bans on union security agreements. Twenty-five states have right-to-work laws prohibiting provisions in collective bargaining agreements calling on workers to pay money to labor unions as a condition of employment. But Kentucky, which has no statewide right-to-work law, became a testing ground for local laws...
Veterans Don't Want Lawmakers to Repeal Prevailing Wage WILX ...Some veterans who work in the construction industry are trying to convince state lawmakers not to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law. Around 9% of construction workers are veterans, compared to 6% of the rest of the workforce. The prevailing wage law requires contractors to pay union-scale salaries for all taxpayer-funded projects...
Right to Work lawmakers impose their own 'union dues' MLive ...When Republican legislators pushed through a contentious Right To Work law two years ago, they said they were freeing unionized workers from a system that "confiscated" a portion of employee paychecks through union dues. Yet those GOP lawmakers hypocritically engage in their own rigid employment system. The leadership of both parties essentially charges legislative aides dues by instructing them to contribute hundreds of dollars for their respective party's campaign activities...
Robert Reich: Working Full Time and Living in Abject Poverty - That's What Today's Minimum Wage Will Get You Alternet ...Have you noticed how often conservatives who disagree with a policy proposal call it a “job killer?” They’re especially incensed about proposals to raise the federal minimum wage. They claim it will force employers to lay off workers. But as Princeton University economist Alan Krueger pointed outrecently in the New York Times, “research suggests that a minimum wage set as high as $12 an hour will do more good than harm for low-wage workers”...
Can Drought-Ridden California Keep Growing? The Atlantic ...As the population of the San Joaquin Valley swells despite city-planning and water-system crises, it’s the poor, rural communities that tend to be worst off. Emissions from transportation, mostly from trucks, are what primarily make the region’s air quality among the worst in the nation. The zip codes with the highest rate of respiratory risk have poor and predominantly Hispanic populations. And lately, the drought has made air even more unbreathable...
U.S. LABOR
Grocery workers ratify new contract with Safeway Business Journal ...Grocery-store workers at Safeway and Vons stores in Northern and Central California have ratified a new contract, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union announced Friday afternoon. The four-year contract between Local UFCW 8-Golden State covers about 9,000 workers at 130 Safeway stores, including about 15 in the Sacramento region...
UAW members to begin voting on new FCA contract The Detroit News ...As 40,000 United Auto Workers members begin voting Tuesday on the latest tentative agreement between the union and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, hostility that fueled an overwhelmingly majority of workers to reject the first four-year deal appears to have been dialed down to a simmer. Since the new deal was reached just prior to a strike deadline on Oct. 7, there have been no large protests planned, social media chatter has cooled and talk on many factory floors is that the deal is far improved...
Steelmakers still ask for layoffs, concessions NWI Times ...The United Steelworkers union is fighting U.S. Steel on layoffs, and taking a break from negotiations with ArcelorMittal. The USW won't resume talks with ArcelorMittal until Oct. 25. The union told its members little progress has been made in talks over the past week with the Luxembourg-based steelmaker...
AT&T, Communications Workers of America Reach Tentative Agreements In AT&T Southeast Wireline Contract Negotiations MarketWatch ...AT&T today announced that AT&T southeast wireline operations have reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America in southeast wireline contract negotiations. Additionally, the Company reached tentative agreements with the CWA on two southeast regional contracts. They cover about 24,000 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee...
Union workers picket to get better deal with AT&T Robesonian ...Thirteen members of Local 3609 of the Communications Workers of America joined fellow-union members in nine states Friday on informational picket lines to build public support in their effort to get a better contract with AT&T. “We want to reach a fair contract. We want to provide the quality service our customers deserve,” said Local President Nathan Mason...
Why We Need to Take Care of the Workers Behind Home Healthcare The Nation ... Since home-based healthcare services is one of the fastest growing sectors, home care jobs are being redefined largely by market trends. But a program developed through the SEIU home care union in Washington sees the sector’s expansion as a platform to systematically transform one of the lowest-paid jobs into a career of the future...
No Haitians need apply: Horribly racist help wanted ad sparks outrage, investigation Salon ...An outrageous help-wanted ad in a New York newspaper has sparked a torrent of outrage. The ad in the New City (N.Y.) Pennysaver, filled with spelling errors, seeks a “Laid back nurse, no haitians, must have strong respiratory mngt” for in-home nursing positions in West Haverstraw, Rockland County. After the ad sparked a torrent of public outrage on social media, New York State Sen. David Carlucci posted on Twitter that he would call an investigation...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
What happened to the president's immigration programs? LA Times ...Demonstrators are fasting this week in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, protesting a suit brought by 26 states that seeks an end to the temporary protection from deportation granted to immigrants by executive action. A panel of three appeals court judges heard arguments July 10 but has delayed ruling nearly a month beyond its self-imposed 60-day deadline...
Ferguson Traffic Fines Reform Is Having A Surprising Side Effect Think Progress ...A tiny Missouri town disbanded its police department last week, acknowledging that its old way of operating was untenable under a new state law restricting towns in St. Louis County from using cops, courts, and speed traps as a money mill. The law was prompted by federal investigations in the wake of Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson’s killing of unarmed teenager. Those inquiries revealed systematic exploitation of the traffic court system to ensnare drivers – predominantly people of color and low means...
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.15.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Urge Airgas Investors to Vote Against Directors Teamster.org ...In a letter to Airgas stockholders, Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall is urging shareholders to withhold support for all three independent directors standing for re-election at the company’s Annual Meeting on August 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. "These long-tenured directors, who each joined the board in 1999, and serve together on the board’s Governance and Compensation Committee, have failed to implement a proposal to declassify the board of directors"...
California bill would protect carriers from misclassification claims — if they settle with drivers CCJ ...California lawmakers are considering a misclassification amnesty program for drayage companies that would relieve port drayage companies from liability for penalties associated with misclassification of drivers as independent contractors if the company enters into a settlement agreement with the state before 2017. The Teamsters-backed bill stipulates the agreement would also require the motor carrier to convert independent contractor truckers to employee drivers...
Growing Labor Movement Shakes Up Silicon Valley KQED ...Silicon Valley companies are reluctant to discuss the issue of wages and their relationships with their service workers. And they refuse to discuss the recent labor agitation and organizing. But they have to be aware of the increased activism. In February, for example, shuttle bus drivers for Yahoo, Apple, Genentech, eBay and Zynga voted to joined the Teamsters union...
Senator Feinstein: Safety first, not bigger trucks (opinion) The Hill ...the Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved an amendment to allow even longer trailer trucks on our highways. This provision stands in stark contrast to highway safety, putting the profits of trucking companies ahead of personal safety. The Teamsters Union opposed this amendment too, arguing that our highways are not designed for the larger configurations...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan minister says TPP deal without some nations possible The Mainichi ...Japan's minister in charge of a 12-country Pacific Rim free trade initiative said Tuesday one possible option is to reach a broad agreement without some members that are unwilling to end negotiations at the next ministerial meeting later this month in Hawaii. Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari did not name the countries he thinks could be excluded from a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, but Canada and New Zealand are said to be lagging behind...
Trans-Pacific Partnership deal in sight, says Andrew Robb The Australian ...Trade Minister Andrew Robb is “confident’’ a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership will be signed within weeks after a ministerial meeting to clinch the agreement late this month. Mr Robb also said he was confident that China, which is not party to the TPP negotiations, could eventually be able to join, as a precursor to creating an Asia-Pacific free-trade zone...
Canada and Ukraine announce 'milestone' free trade agreement The Guardian ...Canada formally announced a “milestone” free trade agreement with Ukraine after the two countries’ prime ministers met in Ottawa on Tuesday. The agreement, which has to be ratified by both nations’ parliaments, will be implemented as soon as possible, Stephen Harper said after meeting Arseniy Yatsenyuk. With more than a million people claiming roots in Ukraine, Canada has supported Kiev many times since the 2014 revolution...
The TPP's Bad Medicine Foreign Affairs ...U.S.-drafted TPP terms include patent linkage, which can allow spurious patent filings to delay generic market entry. Further, a proposed investor-state dispute settlement system would allow pharmaceutical corporations to force a government into arbitration over decisions that would reduce the price of medicines. A similar process has served as the platform for corporate challenges to the Canadian government’s invalidation of drug patents, antismoking regulations in Australia and Uruguay, and an environmental court ruling in Ecuador...
Undermining the State Department's trafficking report (opinion) The Hill ...Recent press reports suggest that the State Department will recommend that Secretary John Kerry take a shameless and unprincipled stand in this year's Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) by concluding that the government of Malaysia is making significant efforts to combat human trafficking. The State Department is trying to ensure that, come what may, Malaysia can stay part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
TTIP will force all Europeans to take Greece's medicine (opinion) Politics UK ...If the Greek crisis has shown how the institutions of the EU will stop at nothing to force through their own brand of capitalist discipline, TTIP is confirmation that we will all soon be tasting the same medicine. This week sees the 10th round of negotiations towards the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the controversial EU-US trade deal that threatens our jobs, our public services and our democracy itself...
Greek parliament to vote on austerity bill amid growing dissent in governing party US News & World Report ...Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced a rising wave of hostility from members of his own party Wednesday ahead of a parliament vote on an austerity bill that condemns the country to years of spending cuts but is required to get a new bailout package. The raft of consumer tax increases and pension reforms has led to growing anger among Greece's governing left-wing Syriza party, while the country's civil servants' union voiced its objections with a 24-hour public sector strike...
Key Driver Of International Austerity Push Now Says Europe Must Forgive Greek Debt Think Progress ...A day after agreeing to discuss a new Greek bailout, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned European Union leaders that their expectations for Greece’s financial future are unsupported by the facts. A realistic accounting of things requires Europe to agree to forgive Greece’s debts or else leave them uncollected for a generation, a leaked report from the group says...
UK unemployment in surprise rise Yahoo News ...Britain's unemployment rate climbed to 5.6 percent in the quarter ending in May, with the number of jobless up for the first time in over two years, data showed Wednesday. Unemployment edged up from 5.5 percent in the quarter ending in February, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement...
Ecuador National Strike: Labor, Social Groups To Protest As Pressure On Correa Grows International Business Times ...Labor unions and social groups in Ecuador are planning a one-day national strike to launch another blow against President Rafael Correa, who is still grappling with mass outrage over a slate of tax proposals. Correa has accused opposition factions of fomenting a “soft coup” against his government. Unions and social and indigenous groups said this week that a “people’s national strike” would take place next month...
Farm Workers’ Global Struggle for Rights on the Job Solidarity Center ...Agriculture employs nearly half of the world’s workforce. Low-paying and seasonal, it also is one of the three most hazardous sectors for workers (along with construction and mining), according to the International Labor Organization. Despite the hardships, agricultural workers—cacao harvesters in the Dominican Republic, vegetable farmers in South Africa and Moroccan vineyard and olive grove laborers in Meknes—are joining with unions and worker associations to improve their workplaces and win rights on the job...
After Greece’s defeat, we need a new European movement against austerity (opinion) The Guardian ...Ater five months of negotiations, Sunday evening brought a moment of painful realisation: democracy has left the EU building. The proposals put forward by the German government and its allies were preposterous – a clear message that any government opposing neoliberalism and austerity should be brought to its knees at all costs...
State & Living Wage Battles
The Past Goes On Trial in North Carolina The Atlantic ...A group of plaintiffs—including the Justice Department, NAACP, and League of Women Voters—are suing the state over new voting laws implemented in 2013, saying that they represent an attempt to suppress the minority vote. The new laws were passed shortly after the Supreme Court struck down a section of the Voting Rights Act that required some jurisdictions to seek approval from the federal government before altering voting laws...
Scott Walker Strips Wisconsin Workers Of 'Living Wage' In New State Budget Huffington Post ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed the new state budget into law on Sunday with a last-minute change that strips the words "living wage" from state laws and replaces it with "minimum wage." The change means minimum-wage Wisconsin workers will earn nearly $6,000 per year less than what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculates is a living wage in the state...
Bangor considers raising minimum wage WCSH ...Bangor City Council has introduced an ordinance that would increase the city's minimum wage. The proposal comes a week after Portland's City Council voted to increase its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. If the Bangor ordinance passes, the minimum wage would increase 75 cents every year for three years...
State unemployment rate climbs to 5.5 percent Statesman Journal ...Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in June, a slight increase from May’s rate of 5.3 percent. The increase was not a surprise because one characteristic of Oregon’s labor market following the Great Recession has been small increases in the unemployment rate during the summer months...
Oregon governor signs paid sick leave, retirement legislation Yahoo News ...Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed legislation on Monday mandating paid sick leave for nearly all workers and establishing a first-of-its kind state-run retirement program for private sector employees. Brown said the four bills, dubbed the "Fair Shot" agenda, will help working, low-income families...
Scott Walker makes Mitt Romney look like FDR: The Kohl’s shopper is even more callous toward the poor Salon ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker thinks his humble background gives him working class appeal. But we know the man who shops at Kohl’s is wholly owned by the Kochs. But if he wasn’t born a plutocrat, he’s a zealous convert to the cause. His first shot out of the gate Monday night, after his relatively successful campaign launch, was to attack the minimum wage on his friend Sean Hannity’s show...
Four Ways ALEC Tried to Ruin Your State This Year Alternet ...In a year with unprecedented rightwing dominance in state legislative chambers, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has continued to wreak havoc in states across the country--despite an ongoing exodus of high-profile corporate members, including BP, Google, and several high-tech firms...
WV Legislature staff finds prevailing wage documents missing from first submission State Journal ...A law passed during the 2015 regular legislative session called for the state’s prevailing wage rate to be recalculated, with the new method in place July 1, 2015. There currently is no prevailing wage rate in place because the wage expired and a new method has not yet been set and a proposal to allow an extension to Sept. 30 in which to set a rate was voted down...
U.S. Labor
USW Local 444 rejects three-year contract proposal Daily Gate City ...The Membership of United Steel Workers Local 444 has voted to reject a three year contract proposal from Henniges Automotive in Keokuk, according to a union news release. The ratification meeting took place Friday at the Grand Theatre in Keokuk after the proposal was reviewed before the membership. The union and the employer have agreed to continue work under the terms of the 2012-2015 bargaining agreement with an extension agreement signed July 10...
Alabama Company Admits Locking Katrina Workers in Squalid Camps, Settles for $20 Million Slate ...An Alabama company has agreed to a $20 million settlement and admitted that workers it brought from India to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina were deceptively recruited and then forcibly corralled in squalid, overcrowded camps, the Los Angeles Times reports. The settlement covers several lawsuits brought against marine services company Signal International by 200 guest workers...
Fiat Chrysler, UAW agree on ending two-tier wages CBS ...Fiat Chrysler (FCUA) CEO Sergio Marchionne and United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams agree on at least one thing: getting rid of the two-tier wages for hourly workers in the company's U.S. plants. Marchionne and Williams formally opened bargaining a new four-year contract for Fiat Chrysler's 35,700 workers Tuesday. The current contract expires in September...
Teachers Say No Freaking Way to AFT Endorsement of Hillary Clinton Common Dreams ...On Saturday, July 11th - the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President, Randi Weingarten came under fire after her executive council voted overwhelmingly to endorse Hillary Clinton for the democratic primary for President of the United States. AFT is the parent organization of Washington Teachers' Union, Local 6 and has 1.5 million members...
Union to challenge new prison food contract Detroit Free Press ...A union representing state employees is challenging the State of Michigan's decision to take the prison food contract away from one private company and give the contract to a second company without first calling for bids. Michigan AFSCME Council 25 said today it will challenge as unlawful the $158-million three-year deal with Trinity...
UFW launches a sponsored AdelanTech Leadership Program The Californian ...A dozen Salinas-area residents have been selected for the first AdelanTECH Leadership Program that will empower emerging rural leaders into so-called “STEM” industries. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. In an effort to give opportunities to dedicated but underserved students, the UFW in association with AT&T, CORO and Udacity will launch for the first time their AdelanTECH Leadership Program...
Growth in the ‘Gig Economy’ Fuels Work Force Anxieties New York Times ...When the California Labor Commissioner’s Office ruled last month that an Uber driver was an employee deserving of a variety of workplace protections — and was not, as the company maintained, an independent contractor — it highlighted the divided feelings many Americans have about what is increasingly being called the “gig economy”...
11 jobs where a hard day’s work only results in poverty Salon ...Why should people in the richest country on Earth toil long hours for wages that would make Charles Dickens recoil in horror? A lot of Americans have been wondering the same thing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2012, 1.57 million Americans earned the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Millions more were just above that figure, and plenty actually ended up below it...
Miscellaneous
Martin O’Malley lays out broad immigration plan MSNBC ...Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley outlined an extensive immigration plan on Tuesday, vowing that if elected, he would make comprehensive reform a priority on his first day in office. The former Maryland governor said he would expand President Obama’s embattled executive actions on immigration and ultimately press Congress to resurrect a bipartisan deal on comprehensive reform to extend a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States...
Black Children Almost 4 Times More Likely to Grow Up Poor Than Whites Common Dreams ...For the first time since the U.S. Census began, the number of black children living in poverty has surpassed the number of poor white children, despite the significant difference in population size, a new Pew Research study published Tuesday has found. According to the Pew analysis of recent Census data, in 2013, 14.7 million children in the U.S. (roughly 20 percent) lived in a household with an annual income below $23,624 for a family of four. This marks a decline of two percent since 2010...
Millennials Who Are Thriving Financially Have One Thing in Common The Atlantic ...there are those who are doing just great—owning a house, buying a car, and consistently putting money away for retirement. These, however, are not your run-of-the-mill Millennials. Nope. These Millennials have something very special: rich parents. These Millennials have help paying their tuition, meaning they graduate in much better financial shape than their peers...
ExxonMobil gave millions to climate-denying lawmakers despite pledge The Guardian ...ExxonMobil gave more than $2.3m to members of Congress and a corporate lobbying group that deny climate change and block efforts to fight climate change – eight years after pledging to stop its funding of climate denial, the Guardian has learned. Climate denial – from Republicans in Congress and lobby groups operating at the state level – is seen as a major obstacle to US and global efforts to fight climate change...
'Money Isn't Justice': Eric Garner Family Calls for Real Accountability Common Dreams ...The family of Eric Garner held a press conference Tuesday to discuss the $5.9 million settlement it reached with New York City days before the one-year anniversary of his death—and to renew calls to criminally charge the police officer who put Garner in a fatal chokehold last July. Garner, an unarmed 43-year-old black man, died on July 17, 2014 after white New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo used a chokehold to subdue him...
Teamsters Urge Airgas Investors to Vote Against Directors Teamster.org ...In a letter to Airgas stockholders, Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall is urging shareholders to withhold support for all three independent directors standing for re-election at the company’s Annual Meeting on August 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. "These long-tenured directors, who each joined the board in 1999, and serve together on the board’s Governance and Compensation Committee, have failed to implement a proposal to declassify the board of directors"...
California bill would protect carriers from misclassification claims — if they settle with drivers CCJ ...California lawmakers are considering a misclassification amnesty program for drayage companies that would relieve port drayage companies from liability for penalties associated with misclassification of drivers as independent contractors if the company enters into a settlement agreement with the state before 2017. The Teamsters-backed bill stipulates the agreement would also require the motor carrier to convert independent contractor truckers to employee drivers...
Growing Labor Movement Shakes Up Silicon Valley KQED ...Silicon Valley companies are reluctant to discuss the issue of wages and their relationships with their service workers. And they refuse to discuss the recent labor agitation and organizing. But they have to be aware of the increased activism. In February, for example, shuttle bus drivers for Yahoo, Apple, Genentech, eBay and Zynga voted to joined the Teamsters union...
Senator Feinstein: Safety first, not bigger trucks (opinion) The Hill ...the Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved an amendment to allow even longer trailer trucks on our highways. This provision stands in stark contrast to highway safety, putting the profits of trucking companies ahead of personal safety. The Teamsters Union opposed this amendment too, arguing that our highways are not designed for the larger configurations...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan minister says TPP deal without some nations possible The Mainichi ...Japan's minister in charge of a 12-country Pacific Rim free trade initiative said Tuesday one possible option is to reach a broad agreement without some members that are unwilling to end negotiations at the next ministerial meeting later this month in Hawaii. Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari did not name the countries he thinks could be excluded from a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, but Canada and New Zealand are said to be lagging behind...
Trans-Pacific Partnership deal in sight, says Andrew Robb The Australian ...Trade Minister Andrew Robb is “confident’’ a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership will be signed within weeks after a ministerial meeting to clinch the agreement late this month. Mr Robb also said he was confident that China, which is not party to the TPP negotiations, could eventually be able to join, as a precursor to creating an Asia-Pacific free-trade zone...
Canada and Ukraine announce 'milestone' free trade agreement The Guardian ...Canada formally announced a “milestone” free trade agreement with Ukraine after the two countries’ prime ministers met in Ottawa on Tuesday. The agreement, which has to be ratified by both nations’ parliaments, will be implemented as soon as possible, Stephen Harper said after meeting Arseniy Yatsenyuk. With more than a million people claiming roots in Ukraine, Canada has supported Kiev many times since the 2014 revolution...
The TPP's Bad Medicine Foreign Affairs ...U.S.-drafted TPP terms include patent linkage, which can allow spurious patent filings to delay generic market entry. Further, a proposed investor-state dispute settlement system would allow pharmaceutical corporations to force a government into arbitration over decisions that would reduce the price of medicines. A similar process has served as the platform for corporate challenges to the Canadian government’s invalidation of drug patents, antismoking regulations in Australia and Uruguay, and an environmental court ruling in Ecuador...
Undermining the State Department's trafficking report (opinion) The Hill ...Recent press reports suggest that the State Department will recommend that Secretary John Kerry take a shameless and unprincipled stand in this year's Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) by concluding that the government of Malaysia is making significant efforts to combat human trafficking. The State Department is trying to ensure that, come what may, Malaysia can stay part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
TTIP will force all Europeans to take Greece's medicine (opinion) Politics UK ...If the Greek crisis has shown how the institutions of the EU will stop at nothing to force through their own brand of capitalist discipline, TTIP is confirmation that we will all soon be tasting the same medicine. This week sees the 10th round of negotiations towards the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the controversial EU-US trade deal that threatens our jobs, our public services and our democracy itself...
Greek parliament to vote on austerity bill amid growing dissent in governing party US News & World Report ...Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced a rising wave of hostility from members of his own party Wednesday ahead of a parliament vote on an austerity bill that condemns the country to years of spending cuts but is required to get a new bailout package. The raft of consumer tax increases and pension reforms has led to growing anger among Greece's governing left-wing Syriza party, while the country's civil servants' union voiced its objections with a 24-hour public sector strike...
Key Driver Of International Austerity Push Now Says Europe Must Forgive Greek Debt Think Progress ...A day after agreeing to discuss a new Greek bailout, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned European Union leaders that their expectations for Greece’s financial future are unsupported by the facts. A realistic accounting of things requires Europe to agree to forgive Greece’s debts or else leave them uncollected for a generation, a leaked report from the group says...
UK unemployment in surprise rise Yahoo News ...Britain's unemployment rate climbed to 5.6 percent in the quarter ending in May, with the number of jobless up for the first time in over two years, data showed Wednesday. Unemployment edged up from 5.5 percent in the quarter ending in February, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement...
Ecuador National Strike: Labor, Social Groups To Protest As Pressure On Correa Grows International Business Times ...Labor unions and social groups in Ecuador are planning a one-day national strike to launch another blow against President Rafael Correa, who is still grappling with mass outrage over a slate of tax proposals. Correa has accused opposition factions of fomenting a “soft coup” against his government. Unions and social and indigenous groups said this week that a “people’s national strike” would take place next month...
Farm Workers’ Global Struggle for Rights on the Job Solidarity Center ...Agriculture employs nearly half of the world’s workforce. Low-paying and seasonal, it also is one of the three most hazardous sectors for workers (along with construction and mining), according to the International Labor Organization. Despite the hardships, agricultural workers—cacao harvesters in the Dominican Republic, vegetable farmers in South Africa and Moroccan vineyard and olive grove laborers in Meknes—are joining with unions and worker associations to improve their workplaces and win rights on the job...
After Greece’s defeat, we need a new European movement against austerity (opinion) The Guardian ...Ater five months of negotiations, Sunday evening brought a moment of painful realisation: democracy has left the EU building. The proposals put forward by the German government and its allies were preposterous – a clear message that any government opposing neoliberalism and austerity should be brought to its knees at all costs...
State & Living Wage Battles
The Past Goes On Trial in North Carolina The Atlantic ...A group of plaintiffs—including the Justice Department, NAACP, and League of Women Voters—are suing the state over new voting laws implemented in 2013, saying that they represent an attempt to suppress the minority vote. The new laws were passed shortly after the Supreme Court struck down a section of the Voting Rights Act that required some jurisdictions to seek approval from the federal government before altering voting laws...
Scott Walker Strips Wisconsin Workers Of 'Living Wage' In New State Budget Huffington Post ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed the new state budget into law on Sunday with a last-minute change that strips the words "living wage" from state laws and replaces it with "minimum wage." The change means minimum-wage Wisconsin workers will earn nearly $6,000 per year less than what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculates is a living wage in the state...
Bangor considers raising minimum wage WCSH ...Bangor City Council has introduced an ordinance that would increase the city's minimum wage. The proposal comes a week after Portland's City Council voted to increase its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. If the Bangor ordinance passes, the minimum wage would increase 75 cents every year for three years...
State unemployment rate climbs to 5.5 percent Statesman Journal ...Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in June, a slight increase from May’s rate of 5.3 percent. The increase was not a surprise because one characteristic of Oregon’s labor market following the Great Recession has been small increases in the unemployment rate during the summer months...
Oregon governor signs paid sick leave, retirement legislation Yahoo News ...Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed legislation on Monday mandating paid sick leave for nearly all workers and establishing a first-of-its kind state-run retirement program for private sector employees. Brown said the four bills, dubbed the "Fair Shot" agenda, will help working, low-income families...
Scott Walker makes Mitt Romney look like FDR: The Kohl’s shopper is even more callous toward the poor Salon ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker thinks his humble background gives him working class appeal. But we know the man who shops at Kohl’s is wholly owned by the Kochs. But if he wasn’t born a plutocrat, he’s a zealous convert to the cause. His first shot out of the gate Monday night, after his relatively successful campaign launch, was to attack the minimum wage on his friend Sean Hannity’s show...
Four Ways ALEC Tried to Ruin Your State This Year Alternet ...In a year with unprecedented rightwing dominance in state legislative chambers, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has continued to wreak havoc in states across the country--despite an ongoing exodus of high-profile corporate members, including BP, Google, and several high-tech firms...
WV Legislature staff finds prevailing wage documents missing from first submission State Journal ...A law passed during the 2015 regular legislative session called for the state’s prevailing wage rate to be recalculated, with the new method in place July 1, 2015. There currently is no prevailing wage rate in place because the wage expired and a new method has not yet been set and a proposal to allow an extension to Sept. 30 in which to set a rate was voted down...
U.S. Labor
USW Local 444 rejects three-year contract proposal Daily Gate City ...The Membership of United Steel Workers Local 444 has voted to reject a three year contract proposal from Henniges Automotive in Keokuk, according to a union news release. The ratification meeting took place Friday at the Grand Theatre in Keokuk after the proposal was reviewed before the membership. The union and the employer have agreed to continue work under the terms of the 2012-2015 bargaining agreement with an extension agreement signed July 10...
Alabama Company Admits Locking Katrina Workers in Squalid Camps, Settles for $20 Million Slate ...An Alabama company has agreed to a $20 million settlement and admitted that workers it brought from India to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina were deceptively recruited and then forcibly corralled in squalid, overcrowded camps, the Los Angeles Times reports. The settlement covers several lawsuits brought against marine services company Signal International by 200 guest workers...
Fiat Chrysler, UAW agree on ending two-tier wages CBS ...Fiat Chrysler (FCUA) CEO Sergio Marchionne and United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams agree on at least one thing: getting rid of the two-tier wages for hourly workers in the company's U.S. plants. Marchionne and Williams formally opened bargaining a new four-year contract for Fiat Chrysler's 35,700 workers Tuesday. The current contract expires in September...
Teachers Say No Freaking Way to AFT Endorsement of Hillary Clinton Common Dreams ...On Saturday, July 11th - the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President, Randi Weingarten came under fire after her executive council voted overwhelmingly to endorse Hillary Clinton for the democratic primary for President of the United States. AFT is the parent organization of Washington Teachers' Union, Local 6 and has 1.5 million members...
Union to challenge new prison food contract Detroit Free Press ...A union representing state employees is challenging the State of Michigan's decision to take the prison food contract away from one private company and give the contract to a second company without first calling for bids. Michigan AFSCME Council 25 said today it will challenge as unlawful the $158-million three-year deal with Trinity...
UFW launches a sponsored AdelanTech Leadership Program The Californian ...A dozen Salinas-area residents have been selected for the first AdelanTECH Leadership Program that will empower emerging rural leaders into so-called “STEM” industries. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. In an effort to give opportunities to dedicated but underserved students, the UFW in association with AT&T, CORO and Udacity will launch for the first time their AdelanTECH Leadership Program...
Growth in the ‘Gig Economy’ Fuels Work Force Anxieties New York Times ...When the California Labor Commissioner’s Office ruled last month that an Uber driver was an employee deserving of a variety of workplace protections — and was not, as the company maintained, an independent contractor — it highlighted the divided feelings many Americans have about what is increasingly being called the “gig economy”...
11 jobs where a hard day’s work only results in poverty Salon ...Why should people in the richest country on Earth toil long hours for wages that would make Charles Dickens recoil in horror? A lot of Americans have been wondering the same thing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2012, 1.57 million Americans earned the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Millions more were just above that figure, and plenty actually ended up below it...
Miscellaneous
Martin O’Malley lays out broad immigration plan MSNBC ...Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley outlined an extensive immigration plan on Tuesday, vowing that if elected, he would make comprehensive reform a priority on his first day in office. The former Maryland governor said he would expand President Obama’s embattled executive actions on immigration and ultimately press Congress to resurrect a bipartisan deal on comprehensive reform to extend a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States...
Black Children Almost 4 Times More Likely to Grow Up Poor Than Whites Common Dreams ...For the first time since the U.S. Census began, the number of black children living in poverty has surpassed the number of poor white children, despite the significant difference in population size, a new Pew Research study published Tuesday has found. According to the Pew analysis of recent Census data, in 2013, 14.7 million children in the U.S. (roughly 20 percent) lived in a household with an annual income below $23,624 for a family of four. This marks a decline of two percent since 2010...
Millennials Who Are Thriving Financially Have One Thing in Common The Atlantic ...there are those who are doing just great—owning a house, buying a car, and consistently putting money away for retirement. These, however, are not your run-of-the-mill Millennials. Nope. These Millennials have something very special: rich parents. These Millennials have help paying their tuition, meaning they graduate in much better financial shape than their peers...
ExxonMobil gave millions to climate-denying lawmakers despite pledge The Guardian ...ExxonMobil gave more than $2.3m to members of Congress and a corporate lobbying group that deny climate change and block efforts to fight climate change – eight years after pledging to stop its funding of climate denial, the Guardian has learned. Climate denial – from Republicans in Congress and lobby groups operating at the state level – is seen as a major obstacle to US and global efforts to fight climate change...
'Money Isn't Justice': Eric Garner Family Calls for Real Accountability Common Dreams ...The family of Eric Garner held a press conference Tuesday to discuss the $5.9 million settlement it reached with New York City days before the one-year anniversary of his death—and to renew calls to criminally charge the police officer who put Garner in a fatal chokehold last July. Garner, an unarmed 43-year-old black man, died on July 17, 2014 after white New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo used a chokehold to subdue him...
Friday, June 26, 2015
Today Teamster News 06.26.15
Teamsters
SEIRPC board OKs Teamsters contract The Hawk Eye ...The Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commissions approved a three-year contract with the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local Union No. 238, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, at Wednesday's executive board meeting in West Burlington. The contract will need final approval by the full board at its July meeting. The contract includes a 3 percent increase in wages for each of the next three years for SEIBUS drivers and a maintenance manager...
GOP measure would permit longer tandem trucks Associated Press ...Over the objections of safety advocates, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a trucking industry bid to allow longer tandem trucks on the nation's highways. Pushing the measure were large trucking operations that stand to profit from lower costs. In opposition were unions such as the Teamsters, many states and local governments, and safety advocates. Many smaller trucking companies were against it as well...
Teamster Officers Training Being Held in Missouri Teamster.org ...A Teamsters officers’ training is being held today and Friday, June 26, at the Teamsters Complex in Kansas City, Mo. More than 50 Teamster officers are gathered to take part in the program that is hosted by Teamsters Joint Council 56 and Joint Council 56 President Jim Kabell and coordinated by the IBT Training and Development Department...
Global Labor & Trade
House completes Obama’s trade items as Pacific pact looms Washington Post ...The Republican-led Congress rounded out President Barack Obama’s trade package Thursday, overwhelmingly passing a worker training program just weeks after it was stymied. The House voted 286 to 138 to renew the program for workers displaced by international trade. Obama had said he wanted to sign that bill alongside the “fast track” negotiating authority that Congress approved a day earlier...
Congress approves assistance for workers who lose jobs to trade LA Times ...Congress gave final approval Thursday to a program that provides funds for retraining workers who lose their jobs to overseas trade, a key component of President Obama's trade agenda. The Trade Adjustment Assistance bill, which is now on its way to the White House, became tangled in a political debate over giving the administration fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals...
Obama Bolsters His Leverage With Trade Victory, but at a Cost New York Times ...President Obama’s success in rescuing his high-priority trade legislation from a rebellion by fellow Democrats strengthens his hand internationally and paves the way for completion of the most expansive economic agreement in generations. While the turbulent process was embarrassing for the president and deeply confusing for foreign negotiating partners, Mr. Obama now has the leverage he sought to force the final concessions needed to wrap up a free-trade pact...
Democrats Mend Fences After Bloody Trade Fight National Journal ...After weeks of all-out fighting over President Obama's trade agenda—and a bitter defeat for its Democratic opponents—the combatants in the House Democratic Caucus are ready to bury the hatchet. That doesn't mean Democrats are done fighting over trade. TPA prevents Congress from amending the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, but members will still get an up-or-down vote when the 12-nation trade deal is completed...
Sen. Stabenow Calls for Voluntary Country-of-Origin Labels on Meat Wall Street Journal ...U.S. lawmakers are weighing the fate of country-of-origin labels, known as COOL, after the World Trade Organization said in May that the existing requirement discriminates against animals from Canada and Mexico. Following their win at the WTO, both Canada and Mexico are now threatening retaliatory measures totaling more than a combined $3 billion. Canada has threatened trade restrictions on a range of U.S. products...
The Fight for Fair Trade: How Far We've Come, How Much Further We Will Go (opinion) Huffington Post ...After a long, arduous fight, Congress passed legislation that will put harmful trade pacts on the fast track. Now our job is to put aside this momentary loss, build on the incredible momentum we have created in the fight for fair and responsible trade, and shift focus to the even bigger fights ahead. We must now focus on defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
In China, Walmart Is Unionized, But Workers Have No Power on the Job In These Times ...Walmart has succeeded in meeting the Chinese government’s demands that the company allow unions to be formally established, but this has not translated into any effective collective bargaining power for some 107,000 workers at the company’s 411 Chinese stores, says Han Dongfang, Executive Director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin...
State & Living Wage Battles
New Mexico Will Make It Even Harder To Get Food Stamps Think Progress ...With an unemployment rate well above the national average and more than one in four of its children on the brink of hunger, New Mexico is poised to make it harder to get food stamps. Like most other states, New Mexico has waived federal work requirements tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since about 2009. The work rules are designed to lapse when the unemployment is severe, since requiring people to find work or starve makes little sense when there’s no work to be had...
Connecticut Just Passed a Law Requiring Bosses Who Steal Workers’ Wages to Pay Them Back Double In These Times ...For many employers, wage theft makes good business sense. The probability of getting caught refusing to pay a worker overtime, shaving hours off their check or paying less than the minimum wage is low. This Wednesday, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 914, a measure that will allow victims of wage theft to collect double the amount due them...
W.Va. governor: No prevailing wage July 1 due to lawmakers Herald-Dispatch ...Blaming inaction by state lawmakers, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration says the state's prevailing wage will disappear July 1 for a short-term lapse that is creating uncertainty for the construction industry. On Thursday, the Democratic governor's spokesman, Chris Stadelman, said WorkForce West Virginia couldn't calculate the rate for public construction projects by July 1...
Lawsuit aims to declare Nevada minimum wage unconstitutional Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Several Nevada businesses are asking a federal judge to declare the state’s minimum wage law unconstitutional. According to a recent fact sheet prepared by a Legislative Counsel Bureau researcher, an amendment to the Nevada Constitution to raise the minimum wage paid to employees was approved by voters in 2004 and was reaffirmed in 2006. The 2006 voter-approved amendment requires the minimum wage to be recalculated each year...
Maine House members launching push to impeach LePage Bangor Daily News ...Six lawmakers said Thursday they will attempt to launch impeachment proceedings against Republican Gov. Paul LePage for his alleged role in pushing Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves out of a new job at Good Will-Hinckley School. The House of Representatives has “sole power of impeachment” according to Article 4 of the Maine Constitution...
U.S. Labor
Truckers end protest over terminal wait time at Port of New Orleans NOLA.com The independent truck drivers who protested outside the Port of New Orleans this week returned to work Thursday morning (June 25) after reaching an agreement with terminal operators and local trucking companies that satisfied part of their demands. As part of the deal, drivers said the local trucking companies that hire them have agreed to pay them $40 to transport each damaged shipping container to a repair facility...
More Than 9,000 Santa Clara County SEIU Union Workers Vote to Strike Over "Unfair Labor" Practices NBC ...More than 9,000 Santa Clara County union workers voted on Wednesday to authorize a strike next week over what they say are unfair labor practices – the first time in more than four decades. SEIU 521 spokeswoman Khanh Weinberg said that 97 percent of the union members comprising of 911 dispatchers, janitors, librarians and nurses, voted to authorize the strike on Tuesday. Workers voted to hold an "open-ended" strike with no end date...
Ford, UAW talking in advance of contract talks NWI Times ...Ford and the United Auto Workers union have been talking before upcoming contract negotiations, which should officially start next month. The UAW represents about 5,000 workers locally at the Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch and the Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights. The union hopes to boost pay and eliminate a two-tier system where newer workers make less to do the same job as more senior employees...
State, AFSCME OK ongoing talks without lockout or strike News & Observer ...Negotiations on a contract with Illinois' largest public employee union will continue without the possibility of a strike or lockout for one month after the contract expires next week. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, released a statement Thursday about the agreement. The idea is to let both sides negotiate in July without the threat of disruption of public services. The statement says "all legal and contractual" rights will be preserved...
Miscellaneous
Senate Recommends $1.7 Billion In Education Cuts Think Progress ...The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a labor, health and education bill for the next fiscal year out of committee Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education would lose $1.7 billion in the Senate spending bill compared to its current funding levels. Those cuts were significantly less than the House Appropriations Committee, which cut the department by $2.8 billion...
In Surprise Decision, SCOTUS Rules Against Discriminatory Housing Practices Common Dreams ...In a decision applauded by housing and civil rights groups on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) allows people to pursue lawsuits when a housing practice has a discriminatory effect, even if that practice wasn't intended to discriminate—an effect known as "disparate impact"...
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling The Guardian ...Same-sex marriages are now legal across the entirety of the United States after a historic supreme court ruling that declared attempts by conservative states to ban them unconstitutional. In what may prove the most important civil rights case in a generation, five of the nine court justices determined that the right to marriage equality was enshrined under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment...
"Slavery Deeply Embedded" in South Carolina: Emanuel AME Church on Street Named for Racist Lawmaker Democracy Now ...When Rev. Clementa Pinckney lay in state at the Capitol this week, his body had to be brought past the Confederate flag that still flies there and is the symbol embraced by his killer, Dylann Roof. The Emanuel AME Church in Charleston is located on Calhoun Street, named for one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history, the late Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, who argued slavery was a "positive good" rather than a "necessary evil"...
Separate Attacks Leave One Dead in France and Dozens Killed in Tunisia Common Dreams ...Violence was making global news headlines in two countries on Friday as an earlier attack on a U.S.-owned gas plant in France was later overshadowed by an attack on a hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, where nearly thirty people are reported dead. The Associated Press reports on the attacks in Tunisia: "Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that one of the two beachside hotels where tourists were shot in Tunisia, killing at least 27 people, is owned by a Spanish company"...
SEIRPC board OKs Teamsters contract The Hawk Eye ...The Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commissions approved a three-year contract with the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local Union No. 238, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, at Wednesday's executive board meeting in West Burlington. The contract will need final approval by the full board at its July meeting. The contract includes a 3 percent increase in wages for each of the next three years for SEIBUS drivers and a maintenance manager...
GOP measure would permit longer tandem trucks Associated Press ...Over the objections of safety advocates, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a trucking industry bid to allow longer tandem trucks on the nation's highways. Pushing the measure were large trucking operations that stand to profit from lower costs. In opposition were unions such as the Teamsters, many states and local governments, and safety advocates. Many smaller trucking companies were against it as well...
Teamster Officers Training Being Held in Missouri Teamster.org ...A Teamsters officers’ training is being held today and Friday, June 26, at the Teamsters Complex in Kansas City, Mo. More than 50 Teamster officers are gathered to take part in the program that is hosted by Teamsters Joint Council 56 and Joint Council 56 President Jim Kabell and coordinated by the IBT Training and Development Department...
Global Labor & Trade
House completes Obama’s trade items as Pacific pact looms Washington Post ...The Republican-led Congress rounded out President Barack Obama’s trade package Thursday, overwhelmingly passing a worker training program just weeks after it was stymied. The House voted 286 to 138 to renew the program for workers displaced by international trade. Obama had said he wanted to sign that bill alongside the “fast track” negotiating authority that Congress approved a day earlier...
Congress approves assistance for workers who lose jobs to trade LA Times ...Congress gave final approval Thursday to a program that provides funds for retraining workers who lose their jobs to overseas trade, a key component of President Obama's trade agenda. The Trade Adjustment Assistance bill, which is now on its way to the White House, became tangled in a political debate over giving the administration fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals...
Obama Bolsters His Leverage With Trade Victory, but at a Cost New York Times ...President Obama’s success in rescuing his high-priority trade legislation from a rebellion by fellow Democrats strengthens his hand internationally and paves the way for completion of the most expansive economic agreement in generations. While the turbulent process was embarrassing for the president and deeply confusing for foreign negotiating partners, Mr. Obama now has the leverage he sought to force the final concessions needed to wrap up a free-trade pact...
Democrats Mend Fences After Bloody Trade Fight National Journal ...After weeks of all-out fighting over President Obama's trade agenda—and a bitter defeat for its Democratic opponents—the combatants in the House Democratic Caucus are ready to bury the hatchet. That doesn't mean Democrats are done fighting over trade. TPA prevents Congress from amending the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, but members will still get an up-or-down vote when the 12-nation trade deal is completed...
Sen. Stabenow Calls for Voluntary Country-of-Origin Labels on Meat Wall Street Journal ...U.S. lawmakers are weighing the fate of country-of-origin labels, known as COOL, after the World Trade Organization said in May that the existing requirement discriminates against animals from Canada and Mexico. Following their win at the WTO, both Canada and Mexico are now threatening retaliatory measures totaling more than a combined $3 billion. Canada has threatened trade restrictions on a range of U.S. products...
The Fight for Fair Trade: How Far We've Come, How Much Further We Will Go (opinion) Huffington Post ...After a long, arduous fight, Congress passed legislation that will put harmful trade pacts on the fast track. Now our job is to put aside this momentary loss, build on the incredible momentum we have created in the fight for fair and responsible trade, and shift focus to the even bigger fights ahead. We must now focus on defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
In China, Walmart Is Unionized, But Workers Have No Power on the Job In These Times ...Walmart has succeeded in meeting the Chinese government’s demands that the company allow unions to be formally established, but this has not translated into any effective collective bargaining power for some 107,000 workers at the company’s 411 Chinese stores, says Han Dongfang, Executive Director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin...
State & Living Wage Battles
New Mexico Will Make It Even Harder To Get Food Stamps Think Progress ...With an unemployment rate well above the national average and more than one in four of its children on the brink of hunger, New Mexico is poised to make it harder to get food stamps. Like most other states, New Mexico has waived federal work requirements tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since about 2009. The work rules are designed to lapse when the unemployment is severe, since requiring people to find work or starve makes little sense when there’s no work to be had...
Connecticut Just Passed a Law Requiring Bosses Who Steal Workers’ Wages to Pay Them Back Double In These Times ...For many employers, wage theft makes good business sense. The probability of getting caught refusing to pay a worker overtime, shaving hours off their check or paying less than the minimum wage is low. This Wednesday, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 914, a measure that will allow victims of wage theft to collect double the amount due them...
W.Va. governor: No prevailing wage July 1 due to lawmakers Herald-Dispatch ...Blaming inaction by state lawmakers, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration says the state's prevailing wage will disappear July 1 for a short-term lapse that is creating uncertainty for the construction industry. On Thursday, the Democratic governor's spokesman, Chris Stadelman, said WorkForce West Virginia couldn't calculate the rate for public construction projects by July 1...
Lawsuit aims to declare Nevada minimum wage unconstitutional Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Several Nevada businesses are asking a federal judge to declare the state’s minimum wage law unconstitutional. According to a recent fact sheet prepared by a Legislative Counsel Bureau researcher, an amendment to the Nevada Constitution to raise the minimum wage paid to employees was approved by voters in 2004 and was reaffirmed in 2006. The 2006 voter-approved amendment requires the minimum wage to be recalculated each year...
Maine House members launching push to impeach LePage Bangor Daily News ...Six lawmakers said Thursday they will attempt to launch impeachment proceedings against Republican Gov. Paul LePage for his alleged role in pushing Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves out of a new job at Good Will-Hinckley School. The House of Representatives has “sole power of impeachment” according to Article 4 of the Maine Constitution...
U.S. Labor
Truckers end protest over terminal wait time at Port of New Orleans NOLA.com The independent truck drivers who protested outside the Port of New Orleans this week returned to work Thursday morning (June 25) after reaching an agreement with terminal operators and local trucking companies that satisfied part of their demands. As part of the deal, drivers said the local trucking companies that hire them have agreed to pay them $40 to transport each damaged shipping container to a repair facility...
More Than 9,000 Santa Clara County SEIU Union Workers Vote to Strike Over "Unfair Labor" Practices NBC ...More than 9,000 Santa Clara County union workers voted on Wednesday to authorize a strike next week over what they say are unfair labor practices – the first time in more than four decades. SEIU 521 spokeswoman Khanh Weinberg said that 97 percent of the union members comprising of 911 dispatchers, janitors, librarians and nurses, voted to authorize the strike on Tuesday. Workers voted to hold an "open-ended" strike with no end date...
Ford, UAW talking in advance of contract talks NWI Times ...Ford and the United Auto Workers union have been talking before upcoming contract negotiations, which should officially start next month. The UAW represents about 5,000 workers locally at the Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch and the Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights. The union hopes to boost pay and eliminate a two-tier system where newer workers make less to do the same job as more senior employees...
State, AFSCME OK ongoing talks without lockout or strike News & Observer ...Negotiations on a contract with Illinois' largest public employee union will continue without the possibility of a strike or lockout for one month after the contract expires next week. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, released a statement Thursday about the agreement. The idea is to let both sides negotiate in July without the threat of disruption of public services. The statement says "all legal and contractual" rights will be preserved...
Showing Solidarity with Ink Master Workers AFL-CIO ...Workers at "Ink Master" voted overwhelmingly for a union last year. Since then, Original Media, the master behind "Ink Master," has refused to bargain in good faith with the Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO. Original Media is being investigated currently by the National Labor Relations Board for failing to bargain in good faith...
Inside the Growing Movement to Unionize Charter Schools The American Prospect ...The labor struggle happening in Los Angeles mirrors a growing number of efforts taking place at charter schools around the country, where most teachers work with no job security on year-to-year contracts. For teachers, unions, and charter school advocates, the moment is fraught with challenges. Traditional unions are grappling with how they can both organize charter teachers and still work politically to curb charter expansion...
Diversifying labor ‘one way or the other’ St. Louis American ...Attendees gave a nod to union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA), who passed a “Black Lives Matter” resolution at their national convention on June 10 to address the issues of “systematic racism” in the United States. “Part of our goal in passing the resolution is to start active members of CWA talking about these issues,” said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA Local 6355. “That has already started. I think it deepened our commitment towards working for racial justice”...
Inside the Growing Movement to Unionize Charter Schools The American Prospect ...The labor struggle happening in Los Angeles mirrors a growing number of efforts taking place at charter schools around the country, where most teachers work with no job security on year-to-year contracts. For teachers, unions, and charter school advocates, the moment is fraught with challenges. Traditional unions are grappling with how they can both organize charter teachers and still work politically to curb charter expansion...
Diversifying labor ‘one way or the other’ St. Louis American ...Attendees gave a nod to union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA), who passed a “Black Lives Matter” resolution at their national convention on June 10 to address the issues of “systematic racism” in the United States. “Part of our goal in passing the resolution is to start active members of CWA talking about these issues,” said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA Local 6355. “That has already started. I think it deepened our commitment towards working for racial justice”...
Miscellaneous
Senate Recommends $1.7 Billion In Education Cuts Think Progress ...The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a labor, health and education bill for the next fiscal year out of committee Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education would lose $1.7 billion in the Senate spending bill compared to its current funding levels. Those cuts were significantly less than the House Appropriations Committee, which cut the department by $2.8 billion...
In Surprise Decision, SCOTUS Rules Against Discriminatory Housing Practices Common Dreams ...In a decision applauded by housing and civil rights groups on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) allows people to pursue lawsuits when a housing practice has a discriminatory effect, even if that practice wasn't intended to discriminate—an effect known as "disparate impact"...
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling The Guardian ...Same-sex marriages are now legal across the entirety of the United States after a historic supreme court ruling that declared attempts by conservative states to ban them unconstitutional. In what may prove the most important civil rights case in a generation, five of the nine court justices determined that the right to marriage equality was enshrined under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment...
"Slavery Deeply Embedded" in South Carolina: Emanuel AME Church on Street Named for Racist Lawmaker Democracy Now ...When Rev. Clementa Pinckney lay in state at the Capitol this week, his body had to be brought past the Confederate flag that still flies there and is the symbol embraced by his killer, Dylann Roof. The Emanuel AME Church in Charleston is located on Calhoun Street, named for one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history, the late Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, who argued slavery was a "positive good" rather than a "necessary evil"...
Separate Attacks Leave One Dead in France and Dozens Killed in Tunisia Common Dreams ...Violence was making global news headlines in two countries on Friday as an earlier attack on a U.S.-owned gas plant in France was later overshadowed by an attack on a hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, where nearly thirty people are reported dead. The Associated Press reports on the attacks in Tunisia: "Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that one of the two beachside hotels where tourists were shot in Tunisia, killing at least 27 people, is owned by a Spanish company"...
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.25.15
Teamsters
EVSC, Teamsters to resume negotiations Monday Courier & Press ...After three weeks of standstill in discussions, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiating teams have agreed to meet next week for collective bargaining sessions. Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey said meetings are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday...
Teamsters Join Battle Against HOS Changes, Truck Size Provisions Trucking News ...The Teamsters Union this week stood with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), representatives for highway safety advocates and law enforcement and families of highway accident victims to denounce a series of provisions it claims would threaten the safety of the driving public. This week, the Senate will follow the House and mark up the FY 2016 transportation appropriations bill...
Teamsters at Fleischmann's Plant Make Vinegar for the World Local 727 ...Vinegar is Bob Maza’s unofficial family business. Maza followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps as an operator at Fleischmann’s Vinegar Co., beginning at age 17. “My dad got me the job. I started there right out of high school in 1972, and I’ve been there ever since,” said Maza, a Teamsters Local 727 steward...
The war against bad trade deals continues TeamsterNation ...The battle now turns to the TPP. Americans have not yet seen the text of this lengthy and complex agreement and even elected officials have limited access to the document. Teamsters and other advocates plan on keeping up the pressure to build real and enforceable labor and environmental standards...
Global Labor & Trade
Congress renews 'fast track' trade authority USA Today ...The Republican-controlled Congress delivered a significant second-term victory for President Obama, sending to his desk a six-year renewal of trade promotion authority intended to advance one of the largest trade pacts in history later this year. Trade promotion authority, more commonly referred to as "fast track" or TPA, reestablishes an expedited legislative process for presidents to submit trade deals to Congress that can only be approved or rejected, not amended...
Senate approves fast-track, sending trade bill to White House The Hill ...The Senate voted Wednesday to approve fast-track authority, securing a big second-term legislative win for President Obama after a months-long struggle. The 60-38 Senate vote capped weeks of fighting over the trade bill, which pitted Obama against most of his party — including Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)...
Fast-Track’s Passage Sets Up Round Two on Obama’s Trade Agenda Wall Street Journal ...The White House and Republican leaders notched a significant victory Wednesday with the Senate’s passage of divisive trade legislation, but the win kicks off a grueling, monthslong process to complete a Pacific trade pact that still faces domestic opposition and must win final congressional approval. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the fast-track legislation within days, clearing a negotiating roadblock that prevented officials from moving ahead on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Here’s how much corporations paid the Senate to fast-track passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Raw Story ...The US Senate passed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) — the fast-tracking bill — by a 65-33 margin on 14 May. Last Thursday, the Senate voted 62-38 to bring the debate on TPA to a close. Those impressive majorities follow months of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing by the world’s most well-heeled multinational corporations with just a handful of holdouts.
Even in Chicago, Democrats Sprint Away From Obama on Trade National Journal ...Even in Obama's home base, trade has driven a deep rift between the president and his fellow Democrats. At the same time, the labor movement has ramped up pressure on lawmakers to vote against fast-track, which they say will cost American jobs and slash wages. And Chicago-area Democrats locked in primaries that could be decided by a spare few thousand votes can ill afford to get on the wrong side of labor on a litmus-test issue...
Pay deal averts rail strike threat BBC ...The threat of a UK national rail strike has been averted after Network Rail agreed a two-year pay deal with unions. Members of the RMT, TSSA and Unite unions have voted to accept the offer. The deal includes a 2% pay rise this year and a pay increase in line with RPI inflation next year...
Greece 'Shoved Over Red Line' as IMF Pushes Even Harsher Cuts Common Dreams ...More austerity, more cuts, or no deal. That's the message the International Monetary Fund threw back at the Greek government after negotiators on Wednesday rejected the latest reform proposals submitted by the Syriza government. According to reporting on the ground, there were a "flurry of proposals, counter-proposals, leaks and verbal attacks" in Brussels as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras continued to try to hash out an acceptable bail-out...
China Workers Contracted by Uniqlo Strike Over Plant Closure ABC News ...More than 300 Chinese workers at a garment factory that supplies international brands such as Uniqlo have been protesting for about two weeks what they say is a unilateral decision by the management to close down. The strike is one of more than 1,000 collective actions since January by Chinese workers, who are increasingly turning to group actions in fighting for their rights...
State & Living Wage Battles
Dispute over union fees could return to Supreme Court Sacramento Bee ...Powerful public-sector unions are facing another high-profile legal challenge that they say could wipe away millions from their bank accounts and make it tougher for them to survive. A group of California schoolteachers, backed by a conservative group, has asked the Supreme Court to rule that unions representing government workers can't collect fees from those who choose not to join...
Scott Walker Reveals Extreme Views On Equal Pay Think Progress ...He likened the push for equal pay laws to seeking to make more people reliant on government. “For [Obama and Clinton], your measure of success in government is how many people are dependent on the government.”
But what Walker implies he’d rather do to address the wage gap — give women more education and qualifications — won’t do the trick...
Debate ramping up ahead of vote on right-to-work veto Joplin Globe ...While it never received support from a number of House and Senate Republicans from districts near the state’s urban cores, right-to-work received unanimous support from the Republicans who represent Southwest Missouri. The bill was passed out of a committee chaired by Lant, R-Pineville, who said in a recent interview that he is pushing the effort to override Nixon’s veto...
NAACP head says state ‘blinked’ on voter ID Winston-Salem Journal ...A noisy protest staged last week by the state NAACP at the N.C. Legislative Building in Raleigh forced legislators to pass the law that modifies the voter ID law, the Rev. William Barber, the president of the N.C. chapter of the NAACP, said Wednesday. “They blinked,” Barber said. “They had to go back and fix what was clearly voter suppression”...
De Blasio refused offer linking minimum wage to pension deal Capital New York ...Mayor Bill de Blasio was offered a deal to raise the minimum wage for New York City in exchange for supporting a police pension proposal, but he rejected the offer, multiple sources told Capital. The deal, offered by the Republican-controlled State Senate, would have established an $11.50-an-hour minimum wage for New York City, the sources familiar with the talks said...
Lawmakers Unanimously Approve Country’s Most Robust Paid Sick Leave Law Think Progress ...The Montgomery County, Maryland council voted unanimously to pass a paid sick leave bill on Tuesday, making the town the 23rd place in the country to enact such a requirement. The law is one of the most robust to be passed at the city or state level so far. “The Montgomery County paid sick days laws is one of the strongest yet, and it should serve as a model for the state of Maryland and the nation,” said Charly Carter, director of Maryland Working Families...
U.S. Labor
Someone Has to Sort Your Recycling, and It’s a Disgusting and Dangerous Job The Nation ...The industries that pride themselves on being friends of the earth are often hostile to workers, according to new research on the safety conditions in recycling plants. Published by the Massachusetts Council for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH), National COSH, and other advocacy groups, the analysis of the industry shows that, despite the green sector’s clean, progressive image, workers remain imperiled by old-school industrial hazards...
Marathon refinery workers in Texas to end strike July 6 The Courier ...Unionized workers at Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s Galveston Bay refinery in Texas will go back to work July 6 following nearly five months of striking. They ratified a contract with the company on Tuesday. About 1,200 workers at the refinery in Texas City, Texas, walked off the job Feb. 1...
Verizon and its unions off to tough start to contract talks Times Union ...Verizon and the unions that represent 38,000 of its workers in the Northeast, including about 1,000 in the Capital Region, have gotten off to an acrimonious start to their contract negotiations. After Verizon publicized it had offered employees wage increases, which included a $1,000 cash payment in the final year of a proposed three-year agreement, union officials accused the company of trying to surgarcoat what was really a bad deal...
AT&T, CWA begin negotiations for 27,000 Southeast employees Fierce Telecom ...AT&T has begun contract negotiations with 27,000 employees in its Southeast territory represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The Southeast region, which was formerly BellSouth, has wireline employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Both parties met yesterday with both presenting their own position statements on the negotiation process...
School bus company underpaid workers in NY state more than $290K, Cuomo says; Poughkeepsie employees affected Daily Freeman ...More than $290,000 in wages have been returned to 462 workers at Durham School Services locations across New York as the result if an investigation by the state Department of Labor’s Division of Worker Protection, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday. The labor department launched an investigation after Service Employees International Union Local 200 raised concerns about possible pay violations at the Durham location in Syracuse...
Miscellaneous
Federal Judge Halts Sysco-US Foods Merger Wall Street Journal ...A federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking Sysco Corp.’s planned acquisition of US Foods Inc., a ruling that could kill a deal to combine the nation’s two largest food distributors. The decision handed a high-profile victory to the Federal Trade Commission, which filed a lawsuit in February chanllenging the transaction on anti-trust grounds...
Obamacare upheld by US supreme court as conservative justices rescue law The Guardian ...Chief justice John Roberts has come to the rescue of Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms for a second time as the US supreme court struck down a Republican-led challenge to Obamacare that could have gutted the legislation and stripped millions of Americans of their health insurance. The decision in the high stakes case of King v Burwell all but guarantees that Obamacare will survive...
U.S. to Reduce Long Stays for Families at Immigration Centers New York Times ...In a sharp change of policy, Homeland Security officials announced plans Wednesday to end the long-term detention of mothers with children caught crossing the border illegally by allowing most of them to be released quickly on bond. The changes by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson expanded policies he ordered last month that were designed to shorten family detention but that had only limited effect...
Deadly American Extremism: More White Than Muslim The Atlantic ...It’s an accident of fate that Dzokhar Tsarnaev’s formal sentencing for the Boston Marathon bombing is happening just now, as the U.S. continues to reel from the Charleston massacre. Jihadists have killed 26 people, versus 48 by what New America calls “right-wing extremists.” In that way, Dylann Roof is far more representative of political violence in 21st century America than Dzokhar Tsarnaev could ever be...
EVSC, Teamsters to resume negotiations Monday Courier & Press ...After three weeks of standstill in discussions, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiating teams have agreed to meet next week for collective bargaining sessions. Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey said meetings are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday...
Teamsters Join Battle Against HOS Changes, Truck Size Provisions Trucking News ...The Teamsters Union this week stood with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), representatives for highway safety advocates and law enforcement and families of highway accident victims to denounce a series of provisions it claims would threaten the safety of the driving public. This week, the Senate will follow the House and mark up the FY 2016 transportation appropriations bill...
Teamsters at Fleischmann's Plant Make Vinegar for the World Local 727 ...Vinegar is Bob Maza’s unofficial family business. Maza followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps as an operator at Fleischmann’s Vinegar Co., beginning at age 17. “My dad got me the job. I started there right out of high school in 1972, and I’ve been there ever since,” said Maza, a Teamsters Local 727 steward...
The war against bad trade deals continues TeamsterNation ...The battle now turns to the TPP. Americans have not yet seen the text of this lengthy and complex agreement and even elected officials have limited access to the document. Teamsters and other advocates plan on keeping up the pressure to build real and enforceable labor and environmental standards...
Global Labor & Trade
Congress renews 'fast track' trade authority USA Today ...The Republican-controlled Congress delivered a significant second-term victory for President Obama, sending to his desk a six-year renewal of trade promotion authority intended to advance one of the largest trade pacts in history later this year. Trade promotion authority, more commonly referred to as "fast track" or TPA, reestablishes an expedited legislative process for presidents to submit trade deals to Congress that can only be approved or rejected, not amended...
Senate approves fast-track, sending trade bill to White House The Hill ...The Senate voted Wednesday to approve fast-track authority, securing a big second-term legislative win for President Obama after a months-long struggle. The 60-38 Senate vote capped weeks of fighting over the trade bill, which pitted Obama against most of his party — including Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)...
Fast-Track’s Passage Sets Up Round Two on Obama’s Trade Agenda Wall Street Journal ...The White House and Republican leaders notched a significant victory Wednesday with the Senate’s passage of divisive trade legislation, but the win kicks off a grueling, monthslong process to complete a Pacific trade pact that still faces domestic opposition and must win final congressional approval. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the fast-track legislation within days, clearing a negotiating roadblock that prevented officials from moving ahead on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Here’s how much corporations paid the Senate to fast-track passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Raw Story ...The US Senate passed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) — the fast-tracking bill — by a 65-33 margin on 14 May. Last Thursday, the Senate voted 62-38 to bring the debate on TPA to a close. Those impressive majorities follow months of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing by the world’s most well-heeled multinational corporations with just a handful of holdouts.
Even in Chicago, Democrats Sprint Away From Obama on Trade National Journal ...Even in Obama's home base, trade has driven a deep rift between the president and his fellow Democrats. At the same time, the labor movement has ramped up pressure on lawmakers to vote against fast-track, which they say will cost American jobs and slash wages. And Chicago-area Democrats locked in primaries that could be decided by a spare few thousand votes can ill afford to get on the wrong side of labor on a litmus-test issue...
Pay deal averts rail strike threat BBC ...The threat of a UK national rail strike has been averted after Network Rail agreed a two-year pay deal with unions. Members of the RMT, TSSA and Unite unions have voted to accept the offer. The deal includes a 2% pay rise this year and a pay increase in line with RPI inflation next year...
Greece 'Shoved Over Red Line' as IMF Pushes Even Harsher Cuts Common Dreams ...More austerity, more cuts, or no deal. That's the message the International Monetary Fund threw back at the Greek government after negotiators on Wednesday rejected the latest reform proposals submitted by the Syriza government. According to reporting on the ground, there were a "flurry of proposals, counter-proposals, leaks and verbal attacks" in Brussels as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras continued to try to hash out an acceptable bail-out...
China Workers Contracted by Uniqlo Strike Over Plant Closure ABC News ...More than 300 Chinese workers at a garment factory that supplies international brands such as Uniqlo have been protesting for about two weeks what they say is a unilateral decision by the management to close down. The strike is one of more than 1,000 collective actions since January by Chinese workers, who are increasingly turning to group actions in fighting for their rights...
State & Living Wage Battles
Dispute over union fees could return to Supreme Court Sacramento Bee ...Powerful public-sector unions are facing another high-profile legal challenge that they say could wipe away millions from their bank accounts and make it tougher for them to survive. A group of California schoolteachers, backed by a conservative group, has asked the Supreme Court to rule that unions representing government workers can't collect fees from those who choose not to join...
Scott Walker Reveals Extreme Views On Equal Pay Think Progress ...He likened the push for equal pay laws to seeking to make more people reliant on government. “For [Obama and Clinton], your measure of success in government is how many people are dependent on the government.”
But what Walker implies he’d rather do to address the wage gap — give women more education and qualifications — won’t do the trick...
Debate ramping up ahead of vote on right-to-work veto Joplin Globe ...While it never received support from a number of House and Senate Republicans from districts near the state’s urban cores, right-to-work received unanimous support from the Republicans who represent Southwest Missouri. The bill was passed out of a committee chaired by Lant, R-Pineville, who said in a recent interview that he is pushing the effort to override Nixon’s veto...
NAACP head says state ‘blinked’ on voter ID Winston-Salem Journal ...A noisy protest staged last week by the state NAACP at the N.C. Legislative Building in Raleigh forced legislators to pass the law that modifies the voter ID law, the Rev. William Barber, the president of the N.C. chapter of the NAACP, said Wednesday. “They blinked,” Barber said. “They had to go back and fix what was clearly voter suppression”...
De Blasio refused offer linking minimum wage to pension deal Capital New York ...Mayor Bill de Blasio was offered a deal to raise the minimum wage for New York City in exchange for supporting a police pension proposal, but he rejected the offer, multiple sources told Capital. The deal, offered by the Republican-controlled State Senate, would have established an $11.50-an-hour minimum wage for New York City, the sources familiar with the talks said...
Lawmakers Unanimously Approve Country’s Most Robust Paid Sick Leave Law Think Progress ...The Montgomery County, Maryland council voted unanimously to pass a paid sick leave bill on Tuesday, making the town the 23rd place in the country to enact such a requirement. The law is one of the most robust to be passed at the city or state level so far. “The Montgomery County paid sick days laws is one of the strongest yet, and it should serve as a model for the state of Maryland and the nation,” said Charly Carter, director of Maryland Working Families...
U.S. Labor
Someone Has to Sort Your Recycling, and It’s a Disgusting and Dangerous Job The Nation ...The industries that pride themselves on being friends of the earth are often hostile to workers, according to new research on the safety conditions in recycling plants. Published by the Massachusetts Council for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH), National COSH, and other advocacy groups, the analysis of the industry shows that, despite the green sector’s clean, progressive image, workers remain imperiled by old-school industrial hazards...
Marathon refinery workers in Texas to end strike July 6 The Courier ...Unionized workers at Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s Galveston Bay refinery in Texas will go back to work July 6 following nearly five months of striking. They ratified a contract with the company on Tuesday. About 1,200 workers at the refinery in Texas City, Texas, walked off the job Feb. 1...
Verizon and its unions off to tough start to contract talks Times Union ...Verizon and the unions that represent 38,000 of its workers in the Northeast, including about 1,000 in the Capital Region, have gotten off to an acrimonious start to their contract negotiations. After Verizon publicized it had offered employees wage increases, which included a $1,000 cash payment in the final year of a proposed three-year agreement, union officials accused the company of trying to surgarcoat what was really a bad deal...
AT&T, CWA begin negotiations for 27,000 Southeast employees Fierce Telecom ...AT&T has begun contract negotiations with 27,000 employees in its Southeast territory represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The Southeast region, which was formerly BellSouth, has wireline employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Both parties met yesterday with both presenting their own position statements on the negotiation process...
School bus company underpaid workers in NY state more than $290K, Cuomo says; Poughkeepsie employees affected Daily Freeman ...More than $290,000 in wages have been returned to 462 workers at Durham School Services locations across New York as the result if an investigation by the state Department of Labor’s Division of Worker Protection, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday. The labor department launched an investigation after Service Employees International Union Local 200 raised concerns about possible pay violations at the Durham location in Syracuse...
Miscellaneous
Federal Judge Halts Sysco-US Foods Merger Wall Street Journal ...A federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking Sysco Corp.’s planned acquisition of US Foods Inc., a ruling that could kill a deal to combine the nation’s two largest food distributors. The decision handed a high-profile victory to the Federal Trade Commission, which filed a lawsuit in February chanllenging the transaction on anti-trust grounds...
Obamacare upheld by US supreme court as conservative justices rescue law The Guardian ...Chief justice John Roberts has come to the rescue of Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms for a second time as the US supreme court struck down a Republican-led challenge to Obamacare that could have gutted the legislation and stripped millions of Americans of their health insurance. The decision in the high stakes case of King v Burwell all but guarantees that Obamacare will survive...
U.S. to Reduce Long Stays for Families at Immigration Centers New York Times ...In a sharp change of policy, Homeland Security officials announced plans Wednesday to end the long-term detention of mothers with children caught crossing the border illegally by allowing most of them to be released quickly on bond. The changes by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson expanded policies he ordered last month that were designed to shorten family detention but that had only limited effect...
Deadly American Extremism: More White Than Muslim The Atlantic ...It’s an accident of fate that Dzokhar Tsarnaev’s formal sentencing for the Boston Marathon bombing is happening just now, as the U.S. continues to reel from the Charleston massacre. Jihadists have killed 26 people, versus 48 by what New America calls “right-wing extremists.” In that way, Dylann Roof is far more representative of political violence in 21st century America than Dzokhar Tsarnaev could ever be...
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