Teamsters
Teamsters to US Foods, Sysco: Restore Labor Relations, Customer Confidence Teamster.org ...Following today’s announcement that Sysco terminated its merger agreement with US Foods, the Teamsters Union cited the decision as a critical step toward restoring labor relations and renewing customer confidence at the two companies. “As Sysco and US Foods move forward, we remain committed to a meaningful dialogue about the future health and prosperity of these companies,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
EVSC, Teamsters exchange contract proposals, negotiations to occur again Tuesday Courier & Press ...Contracts expire at the end of June 30 and an agreement has not yet been reached, but discussions are occurring between the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiating teams. EVSC and Teamsters officials met on Monday afternoon. Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey said the union offered a proposal, the EVSC negotiating team countered, and the union offered another proposal...
Global Labor & Trade
In bipartisan ceremony, Obama signs trade legislation, calls for infrastructure bill Washington Post ...President Obama hailed a "true bipartisan effort" on Monday as he signed a package of trade bills into law, and he called on Washington to summon a similar spirit of compromise to address the nation's crumbling infrastructure. Obama was joined by seven members of Congress, including two Republicans, during a signing ceremony for the two bills, which will give his administration "fast-track" authority to complete trade accords and provide retraining for workers displaced by trade pacts...
TPP ministerial meeting set for last week of July: source Reuters ...A ministerial meeting aimed at finalizing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, trade deal is set for the last week of July, a source close to the negotiations said on Monday on condition of anonymity. The meeting of trade ministers from the dozen countries involved would likely mark the final stage in the TPP negotiations, a massive trade pact covering 40 percent of the world's economy...
New trade battle looms on the horizon The Hill ...President Obama’s prized fast-track authority is a done deal in Congress, but Washington is already steeling for the next major trade battle — this one over lawmakers’ approval of a sweeping Pacific Rim agreement. Completion of talks in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could come as early as August, setting up a fall fight over ratification that is all but certain to spill into the 2016 presidential race...
Trade vote puts Froman on faster track Politico ...Following Congress’ hard-fought approval of “fast-track” trade authority last week, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman vowed not only to complete the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership but an even bigger pact with the European Union and three other major trade deals — all in the 18 months remaining in President Barack Obama’s term. It could add up to the biggest trade blitz in history, transforming the rules under which the world does business...
Thousands Of Greeks March For A No Vote On Austerity Measures Buzzfeed ...Thousands of Greeks gathered outside the country’s parliament on Monday night to campaign for a No vote in Sunday’s referendum on whether to accept austerity measures demanded by international organizations. Following months of negotiations between the left-wing Syriza-led government and international institutions, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has called an all-or-nothing referendum...
13,700 Moroccan Call Center Workers Win Union Solidarity Center ...Some 13,700 workers won collective bargaining rights at 11 call centers across Morocco, a major victory for the country’s union movement that culminates a three-year effort to help call center workers form a union. Elections took place between June 1 and June 10, and the results were announced late last week. The Union Marocaine du Travail (Moroccan Labor Union, UMT) also won the right to represent all the country’s workers at the national level...
State & Living Wage Battles
Pennsylvania’s Contentious Charter School Fight Think Progress ...On Sunday, the Pennsylvania Senate passed a bill allowing a state-run district, the Achievement School District, to take control of low-performing public schools. The bill would require that the lowest performing schools would make huge changes in three years by converting to charter schools or contracting out work. The bill has been controversial among some education advocates, who argue that these bills are an effort to privatize education or deprioritize spending on public schools...
Study: Repealing prevailing wage will hurt Michigan Michigan Radio ...One new study suggests repealing Michigan’s prevailing wage law is a bad idea. Smart Cities Prevail and the Midwest Economic Policy Institute — two groups that support union-level pay and benefits for workers on publicly-funded construction projects — say their research shows overturning the prevailing wage would have “quite profound impacts” on Michigan’s economy...
Prevailing wage remains sticking point in budget stalemate Wisn.com ...Nearly 60 percent of public projects in Wisconsin would not be subject to the prevailing wage law under a proposal introduced Monday by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos as the state budget stalemate enters its fifth week. What to do with the prevailing wage -- a law that sets minimum salaries for construction workers on a variety of public projects -- is one of several large issues that Republicans who control both the Senate and Assembly have not been able to agree on...
House speaker: Minimum wage hike 'unlikely' to pass this session Oregon Live ...House Speaker Tina Kotek said Monday it's "unlikely" that her proposal to raise Oregon's minimum wage to $13 an hour has enough support to pass before the end of session, all but confirming the Legislature won't vote on the issue until at least next year...
Puerto Rico Unemployment at 12.6%, Poverty at 41% 24/7 ...At the depth of the recession, unemployment reached 10.1% in the United States. Today, its sits at 5.5%, and job additions have surged at an average rate of over 250,000 a month. Puerto Rico has an unemployment rate of 12.6%, another sign of how poorly off the territory’s economy is. Puerto Rico’s civilian labor force is small, only 1.42 million, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, about the same as Nevada’s...
Meet One Of The First Home Care Workers In The Country To Win A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...Kindalay Cummings-Akers has been working as a personal care attendant, caring for the elderly and disabled in their homes, for nearly a decade. But she will soon be making $15 an hour for the first time ever after she and her union, 1199SEIU, reached an agreement with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) at the end of last week. Home care workers have long been poorly paid, thanks in part to the fact that they are excluded from federal minimum wage and overtime requirements.
Victory for Democracy as Court Sides with Voters over 'Self-Dealing Legislators' Common Dreams ...In a decision hailed as a "major victory for voters," the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld an Arizona ballot initiative, adopted by voters in 2000, which took redistricting power away from elected politicians and gave it to a nonpartisan commission. The 5-4 decision, which saw Justice Anthony Kennedy serving as the swing vote, allows redistricting commissions to remain in place across the country and in turn works to curb the practice known as gerrymandering...
Citizenship proof for federal voter registration form rejected Tucson.com ...Arizona cannot require people to produce proof of citizenship before they register to vote, at least not for federal elections, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The justices upheld a ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that said neither Arizona nor Kansas can demand the federal Election Assistance Commission add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal registration form the panel designed...
Fast-Food Restaurants Should Raise Minimum Wage, New York Panel Says New York Times ...The minimum wage for fast-food workers in New York should be raised substantially, maybe even to $15 an hour, a state panel appointed to study the issue said on Monday. The three-man panel, known as a wage board, agreed that fast-food restaurants that are parts of national chains should be required to pay more than the state’s minimum wage of $8.75 an hour. But the panel said it was not ready to make a full recommendation...
U.S. Labor
President Obama overtime rule could raise wages for 5 million Politico ...President Barack Obama will this week release a long-awaited overtime rule aimed at raising wages for 5 million people as soon as 2016, according to sources familiar with the plans. The proposed rule will more than double the salary level under which virtually all workers qualify for overtime pay whenever they work more than 40 hours in any given week. That threshold, now $23,660, will rise to $50,440...
Thousands of Santa Clara County Union Workers Set to Strike NBC ...Santa Clara County's largest union is on the verge of a strike. The union includes 911 dispatchers, public health nurses and many others. The union voted to strike if they can't reach a contract agreement with the county by Tuesday. The union has complained of unfair labor practices and worker shortages. The county says it's taking those concerns seriously and is close to making a deal...
Boston Airport Workers Strike, Join Growing Campaign to Unionize Subcontracted Airport Employees In These Times ...On the morning of June 17, a large group of non-union airport employees went on strike at Boston’s Logan Airport, with about 100 of them picketing outside the facility. The contracted workers belong to G2 Secure Staff and ReadyJet Flight Support; workers accuse both companies of engaging in unsafe labor practices and say they are seeking a fairer work environment and a union...
FairPoint workers seek more time to consider severance deal before layoffs Portland Herald Press ...FairPoint Communications workers in Maine have until Tuesday night to accept a voluntary severance deal before up to 80 employees are laid off in order of reverse seniority. But union leader Peter McLaughlin said that many employees had not received their severance offers as of Monday afternoon. McLaughlin, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Local 2327 in Augusta, said the union is asking North Carolina-based FairPoint to push back its 11:59 p.m. Tuesday deadline...
Largest federal workers union sues OPM over breach The Hill ...The country’s largest federal workers union has filed a class action lawsuit against the government agency at the center of the recent hack that exposed millions of people’s sensitive information. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) on Monday became the first to sue the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in the wake of the massive data breach that has shaken the government...
Justices Take up Dispute Over Union Fees ABC News ...The Supreme Court will consider limiting the power of government employee unions to collect fees from non-members in a case that labor officials say could threaten membership and further weaken union clout. The justices said Tuesday they will hear an appeal from a group of California teachers who say it violates their First Amendment rights to have to pay any fees if they disagree with a union's positions and don't want to join it...
Miscellaneous
Americans Are Ready to Fight Powerful Interests New York Times ...Not long ago same-sex marriage was abhorrent to a majority of Americans, but now, according to polls, most approve of it. Meanwhile, the Confederate flag is being removed from public buildings and grounds. And even conservatives now agree fewer people should be imprisoned. But economic inclusiveness is proving more elusive. Yet Americans may be signaling they're ready for such a fight. Witness the current battle over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the elections of Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio...
President Obama’s immigration actions face skeptical judges Politico ...Two judges who dealt a significant blow to President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration last month will again play key roles in deciding whether the controversial programs are legally sound. Fifth Circuit Court Judges Jennifer Walker Elrod and Jerry Smith, both Republican appointees, in May ruled against the Obama administration’s request to proceed with the executive actions — which would protect more than 4 million immigrants here illegally from being deported...
Renting: Awful for Just About Everyone Right Now The Atlantic ...A recent report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard, puts some numbers on just how bad this problem is: About half of all renters in the U.S. are using more than 30 percent of their income to cover housing costs, and about 25 percent have rent that exceeds 50 percent of their monthly pay. It’s not just the poorest city-dwellers who are feeling the rent pressure...
Robert Reich: Economic Apartheid in America Alternet ...In a 5-4 ruling, the Court found that the Fair Housing Act of 1968 requires plaintiffs to show only that the effect of a policy is discriminatory, not that defendants intended to discriminate. The decision is important in the fight against economic apartheid in America – racial segregation on a much larger geographic scale than ever before...
Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi are on the wrong side of history and they want us to know it Daily Kos ...As if determined that the South should retain its poor reputation on civil rights for another generation or two, the attorneys general of three states are saying "not so fast, Supreme Court" when it comes to marriage equality. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton has told county clerks that they can refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and judges and justices of the peace that they can refuse to marry them...
"This Flag Comes Down Today": Bree Newsome Scales SC Capitol Flagpole, Removing Confederate Flag Democracy Now ...On Saturday, Bree Newsome, a 30-year-old African-American woman, was arrested at the state Capitol after scaling the 30-foot flagpole and unhooking the Confederate flag. As police officers shouted at her to come down, Bree Newsome shimmied to the top, took the flag in her hand and said, "You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today!"...
Showing posts with label us foods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label us foods. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Increasing Teamster Power!
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| Joint Council 7's Doug Bloch was one of the attendees. |
Representatives from locals and joint councils from around the country heard from both Teamsters' officials and experts from outside the union on a host of policy issues, as well as on how to best reach and communicate with membership. It was all part of a effort to improve the union's push of an agenda that will benefit all workers.
Doug Bloch, political director of Joint Council 7 for Northern California and Northern Nevada, said membership outreach is essential to political success:
We know when we talk to our members, it works. The numbers don't lie.Attendees heard about how the Teamsters are moving full force to defeat fast track trade authority in Congress as well as push back on efforts in state capitals around the country to get right-to-work approved. They were also briefed on the continuing Sysco/US Foods and School Bus campaigns.
It's all part of the effort to grow Teamster Power!
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Today's Teamster News 05.05.15
Teamsters
LA Mayor Announces Eco-Flow, A New Port Drayage Trucking Company Teamster.org ...Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, port truck drivers, business leaders, labor leaders, and environmental groups today announced the formation of Eco Flow Transportation, a new, innovative company that will transform the drayage trucking industry by hiring all drivers as employees thereby creating a stable workforce...
Teamsters has allies on board for battle over school buses The Times ...National Express has come under renewed pressure from one of America’s most powerful unions to reform working practices at a subsidiary that carries more than a million children a day to and from school. The Teamsters union, which represents more than 1.4 million blue-collar workers in North America, has tabled a proposal for a vote at the transport group’s annual meeting tomorrow...
Teamsters: Workers reinstated after public pressure Capital New York ...Two workers who said they were fired from a New York City private trash hauling firm after testifying to the City Council about poor working conditions were reinstated, according to an announcement from the Teamsters who intervened on the workers' behalf. “New Yorkers have learned two things this week: Five Star Carting does not respect its workers or their free speech rights, but also that when workers, community members, and elected officials stand together, we win"...
Teamsters launch effort to stem growth of nonunion commercial movers Crain's New York ...Teamsters Local 814, along with their employers in the commercial-moving industry and other local labor organizations, began an advertising blitz Monday and released a letter from elected officials to discourage businesses from hiring nonunion or pseudo-union commercial movers...
These Food Distributors Are Trying To Convince A Judge To Let Them Form A Monopoly Think Progress ...After years of acquiring smaller competitors, US Foods and Sysco, Inc. are the last two large companies in the food distribution industry. The government, AAI, Food and Water Watch, and the Teamsters union all argue that the companies already control the market, and would represent a monopoly if merged...
St. Vincent technicians organize as Teamsters Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital voted 130-40 last week to be represented by Teamsters Local 170, the union reported. The local will represent more than 200 technicians who work in radiology, operating rooms and other departments...
Global Labor & Trade
Harry Reid Plans To Block Trade Deal Until The Senate Deals With Surveillance Reform, Highway Funding Huff Post ...Reid said he has spoken with his leadership team and is confident Democratic senators will stick together to demand the two bills be dealt with before moving to approval for trade promotion authority or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "I'm not willing to lay over and play dead on trade until we have some commitment from them on surface transportation," he said...
Economists Say White House Argument on Outsourcing Falls Flat Wall Street Journal ...Economists on both sides of the trade debate say the White House seems to be barking up the wrong tree, muddling arguments about two distinct things–foreign investment and outsourcing–on a hot-button issue that is dividing the public and Congress. Labor unions and skeptical economists are warning the Pacific pact could lead to the kind of outsourcing many workers blame on the North American Free Trade Agreement...
Chuck Schumer Warns Obama His Trade Agenda Is Dead Without A China Currency-Manipulation Crackdown Huff Post ...With Obama pushing Congress to give him so-called fast-track authority to pass massive new trade agreements with Pacific nations and Europe, Schumer and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are using the opportunity to try and force the White House to get tough on China's monetary policy...
GOP scrambling to limit defections on trade The Hill ...House Republican opposition to sweeping trade legislation isn’t breaking down along traditional Tea Party-GOP establishment fault lines. But the pockets of GOP defections will give President Obama and Republican leaders little wiggle room to muscle a bill through the lower chamber...
Robert Reich: The Trans Pacific Partnership is a corporate hijacking (opinion) Salon ...What we should have learned by now about trickle-down economics is that nothing trickles down. If the Trans Pacific Partnership is enacted, big corporations, Wall Street, and their top executives and shareholders will make out like bandits. Who will the bandits be stealing from? The rest of us...
Humanitarians split on Obama’s trade agenda: Trans Pacific Partnership Humanosphere ...Leading humanitarian organizations like the ONE Campaign and Oxfam appear to strongly disagree on whether to support the Obama Administration’s push to ‘fast-track’ an international trade agreement – and if its impact on the global fight against poverty and inequity will do more harm than good...
State & Living Wage Battles
As McDonald's Announces Corporate Shake-Up, Workers Vow to Rise Up Common Dreams ...On the same day that McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook announced sweeping changes aimed at "returning excitement" to the behemoth—and struggling—fast-food chain, thousands of McDonald's cooks and cashiers vowed to descend on the the company's annual shareholder meeting in Illinois later this month to demand higher wages, fairer treatment, and the right to organize...
Dems bet on $12 minimum wage The Hill ..Democrats are doubling down on their push for a national minimum wage hike ahead of the 2016 presidential election, as they look to make a campaign issue of an effort that met a stinging legislative defeat last year. Party leaders are rallying behind new legislation that would raise the wage to $12 an hour, well beyond the $10.10 effort that failed to pass when Democrats controlled the Senate...
LA Mayor Announces Eco-Flow, A New Port Drayage Trucking Company Teamster.org ...Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, port truck drivers, business leaders, labor leaders, and environmental groups today announced the formation of Eco Flow Transportation, a new, innovative company that will transform the drayage trucking industry by hiring all drivers as employees thereby creating a stable workforce...
Teamsters has allies on board for battle over school buses The Times ...National Express has come under renewed pressure from one of America’s most powerful unions to reform working practices at a subsidiary that carries more than a million children a day to and from school. The Teamsters union, which represents more than 1.4 million blue-collar workers in North America, has tabled a proposal for a vote at the transport group’s annual meeting tomorrow...
Teamsters: Workers reinstated after public pressure Capital New York ...Two workers who said they were fired from a New York City private trash hauling firm after testifying to the City Council about poor working conditions were reinstated, according to an announcement from the Teamsters who intervened on the workers' behalf. “New Yorkers have learned two things this week: Five Star Carting does not respect its workers or their free speech rights, but also that when workers, community members, and elected officials stand together, we win"...
Teamsters launch effort to stem growth of nonunion commercial movers Crain's New York ...Teamsters Local 814, along with their employers in the commercial-moving industry and other local labor organizations, began an advertising blitz Monday and released a letter from elected officials to discourage businesses from hiring nonunion or pseudo-union commercial movers...
These Food Distributors Are Trying To Convince A Judge To Let Them Form A Monopoly Think Progress ...After years of acquiring smaller competitors, US Foods and Sysco, Inc. are the last two large companies in the food distribution industry. The government, AAI, Food and Water Watch, and the Teamsters union all argue that the companies already control the market, and would represent a monopoly if merged...
St. Vincent technicians organize as Teamsters Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital voted 130-40 last week to be represented by Teamsters Local 170, the union reported. The local will represent more than 200 technicians who work in radiology, operating rooms and other departments...
Global Labor & Trade
Harry Reid Plans To Block Trade Deal Until The Senate Deals With Surveillance Reform, Highway Funding Huff Post ...Reid said he has spoken with his leadership team and is confident Democratic senators will stick together to demand the two bills be dealt with before moving to approval for trade promotion authority or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "I'm not willing to lay over and play dead on trade until we have some commitment from them on surface transportation," he said...
Economists Say White House Argument on Outsourcing Falls Flat Wall Street Journal ...Economists on both sides of the trade debate say the White House seems to be barking up the wrong tree, muddling arguments about two distinct things–foreign investment and outsourcing–on a hot-button issue that is dividing the public and Congress. Labor unions and skeptical economists are warning the Pacific pact could lead to the kind of outsourcing many workers blame on the North American Free Trade Agreement...
Chuck Schumer Warns Obama His Trade Agenda Is Dead Without A China Currency-Manipulation Crackdown Huff Post ...With Obama pushing Congress to give him so-called fast-track authority to pass massive new trade agreements with Pacific nations and Europe, Schumer and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are using the opportunity to try and force the White House to get tough on China's monetary policy...
GOP scrambling to limit defections on trade The Hill ...House Republican opposition to sweeping trade legislation isn’t breaking down along traditional Tea Party-GOP establishment fault lines. But the pockets of GOP defections will give President Obama and Republican leaders little wiggle room to muscle a bill through the lower chamber...
Robert Reich: The Trans Pacific Partnership is a corporate hijacking (opinion) Salon ...What we should have learned by now about trickle-down economics is that nothing trickles down. If the Trans Pacific Partnership is enacted, big corporations, Wall Street, and their top executives and shareholders will make out like bandits. Who will the bandits be stealing from? The rest of us...
Humanitarians split on Obama’s trade agenda: Trans Pacific Partnership Humanosphere ...Leading humanitarian organizations like the ONE Campaign and Oxfam appear to strongly disagree on whether to support the Obama Administration’s push to ‘fast-track’ an international trade agreement – and if its impact on the global fight against poverty and inequity will do more harm than good...
State & Living Wage Battles
As McDonald's Announces Corporate Shake-Up, Workers Vow to Rise Up Common Dreams ...On the same day that McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook announced sweeping changes aimed at "returning excitement" to the behemoth—and struggling—fast-food chain, thousands of McDonald's cooks and cashiers vowed to descend on the the company's annual shareholder meeting in Illinois later this month to demand higher wages, fairer treatment, and the right to organize...
Dems bet on $12 minimum wage The Hill ..Democrats are doubling down on their push for a national minimum wage hike ahead of the 2016 presidential election, as they look to make a campaign issue of an effort that met a stinging legislative defeat last year. Party leaders are rallying behind new legislation that would raise the wage to $12 an hour, well beyond the $10.10 effort that failed to pass when Democrats controlled the Senate...
Right to work bills launch hours of debate in Maine Legislature Central Maine ...abor union members faced off against the LePage administration and Republican lawmakers on Monday over the latest push to make Maine a so-called “right to work” state. The hours of debate and rhetoric over several bills largely echoed previous “right to work” attempts in Maine with supporters claiming the measures are needed to improve the state’s business competitiveness and opponents dismissing them as blatant efforts to undermine organized labor...
State Assembly passes bill allowing higher state minimum wage Daily News ...The state Assembly passed a bill Monday allowing a higher state minimum wage in New York City and nearby counties. The legislation, which faces opposition in the Senate, seeks to phase in a minimum wage that would reach $15 an hour by the end of 2018 in the city and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties...
Kanawha County will continue paying prevailing wage WV Gazette ...Members of the Kanawha County Commission are expected to vote Tuesday to keep paying prevailing wage rates for all county construction projects. In March, the WV Legislature passed a bill eliminating prevailing wage rates for public construction projects of less than $500,000. But Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said that doesn’t mean the county has to go along with the change...
U.S. Labor
Tufts Students Stage ‘Indefinite’ Hunger Strike Against Janitor Layoffs In These Times ...Tufts University students launched a hunger strike and took over a quad next to the Medford/Somerville campus’s main administrative building Sunday to protest planned layoffs of 35 janitors. Five undergraduates joined the “indefinite” hunger strike as a show of solidarity with the janitors, 17 percent of whom are slated to lose their jobs...
Clark County, SEIU heading to binding arbitration Review Journal ...Clark County and its largest union, which represents about 5,000 county employees, agreed Monday to go to binding arbitration to reach a contract agreement. The county and the Service Employees International Local 1107 started negotiations in June 2013. They’ve also spent months trying to get the matter to a third-party arbitrator, or fact-finder, for a final decision on the terms of a contract...
Union plans to fight MUA dissolution, job cuts Press of Atlantic City ...At a union meeting Monday, about two dozen local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees members were urged to fight the potential dissolution of the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority, along with cuts to city staffing. “It’s about survival and supporting each other,” said Rafael Valentin, a staff representative for AFSCME District Council 71...
The conservative answer on Baltimore: Blame the teachers Daily Kos ...What's responsible for Baltimore's problems? Republicans need answers other than "massive economic inequality, racism, and police violence," and when Republicans need answers but can't admit what the real problems are, they turn to a familiar set of scapegoats. "...you still have a failing education system dominated by public sector unions, teachers unions"...
Miscellaneous
Relatives of 43 Missing Students: U.S.-Backed Drug War Fights Organized People, Not Organized Crime Democracy Now ...he relatives have criticized U.S. support for the drug war, saying Mexico is using the aid to kill innocent people. "If they were really fighting organized crime, as the United States government says, then the crime rates would have gone down," Bautista Salbador says. "Apparently they are not fighting organized crime; they are fighting organized people"...
America's Growing Inequality Worsens In One's Senior Years Alternet ...As traditional pension coverage has declined, those who still have adequate retirement packages are likely to be professionals, business executives, and the wealthy. To the extent that middle-class and poorer Americans have access to retirement plans at all, they are typically 401(k) or similar plans that depend on optional contributions from workers and employers...
State Assembly passes bill allowing higher state minimum wage Daily News ...The state Assembly passed a bill Monday allowing a higher state minimum wage in New York City and nearby counties. The legislation, which faces opposition in the Senate, seeks to phase in a minimum wage that would reach $15 an hour by the end of 2018 in the city and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties...
Kanawha County will continue paying prevailing wage WV Gazette ...Members of the Kanawha County Commission are expected to vote Tuesday to keep paying prevailing wage rates for all county construction projects. In March, the WV Legislature passed a bill eliminating prevailing wage rates for public construction projects of less than $500,000. But Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said that doesn’t mean the county has to go along with the change...
U.S. Labor
Tufts Students Stage ‘Indefinite’ Hunger Strike Against Janitor Layoffs In These Times ...Tufts University students launched a hunger strike and took over a quad next to the Medford/Somerville campus’s main administrative building Sunday to protest planned layoffs of 35 janitors. Five undergraduates joined the “indefinite” hunger strike as a show of solidarity with the janitors, 17 percent of whom are slated to lose their jobs...
Clark County, SEIU heading to binding arbitration Review Journal ...Clark County and its largest union, which represents about 5,000 county employees, agreed Monday to go to binding arbitration to reach a contract agreement. The county and the Service Employees International Local 1107 started negotiations in June 2013. They’ve also spent months trying to get the matter to a third-party arbitrator, or fact-finder, for a final decision on the terms of a contract...
Union plans to fight MUA dissolution, job cuts Press of Atlantic City ...At a union meeting Monday, about two dozen local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees members were urged to fight the potential dissolution of the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority, along with cuts to city staffing. “It’s about survival and supporting each other,” said Rafael Valentin, a staff representative for AFSCME District Council 71...
The conservative answer on Baltimore: Blame the teachers Daily Kos ...What's responsible for Baltimore's problems? Republicans need answers other than "massive economic inequality, racism, and police violence," and when Republicans need answers but can't admit what the real problems are, they turn to a familiar set of scapegoats. "...you still have a failing education system dominated by public sector unions, teachers unions"...
Miscellaneous
Relatives of 43 Missing Students: U.S.-Backed Drug War Fights Organized People, Not Organized Crime Democracy Now ...he relatives have criticized U.S. support for the drug war, saying Mexico is using the aid to kill innocent people. "If they were really fighting organized crime, as the United States government says, then the crime rates would have gone down," Bautista Salbador says. "Apparently they are not fighting organized crime; they are fighting organized people"...
America's Growing Inequality Worsens In One's Senior Years Alternet ...As traditional pension coverage has declined, those who still have adequate retirement packages are likely to be professionals, business executives, and the wealthy. To the extent that middle-class and poorer Americans have access to retirement plans at all, they are typically 401(k) or similar plans that depend on optional contributions from workers and employers...
Monday, May 4, 2015
Today's Teamster News 05.04.15
Teamsters
US Foods Drivers in Michigan Vote to Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Domicile drivers at US Foods in Kalamazoo, Mich., voted yesterday to join Teamsters Local 337 in Detroit. The drivers voted more than 70 percent in favor of Teamster representation, joining more than 200 US Foods drivers and warehouse workers in Novi, Mich., who are already members of Local 337...
Teamsters: Port Truck Drivers At 3 Major Drayage Firms Return To Work Teamster.org ...Striking drivers from Intermodal Bridge Transport, Pacer Cartage, and Harbor Rail Transport returned to work this morning after a four day strike that drastically impacted company operations and left containers bound for the companies’ customers – including Walmart, Costco, Toyota, General Electric, Target, Procter and Gamble, and JC Penney – languishing on the docks at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as nearly all marine terminals turned away trucks from struck companies...
BLET urges FRA to require additional buffer cars on crude oil trains BLE-T.org ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is urging the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the nation’s Class 1 rail carriers to take action to address a serious shortcoming in current railroad operating regulations that endangers the lives of train crew members who work on crude oil trains...
Convention Center files emergency motion in Carpenters, Teamsters case Philadelphia Business Journal ...The Carpenters and Teamsters, the two unions who filed the unfair labor charges against the Convention Center, were barred from working at the site after failing to sign a new customer satisfaction agreement by a May 5 deadline last year. The unions maintain that they had until May 10, the date of a contract extension...
Global Labor & Trade
Extreme secrecy eroding support for Obama's trade pact Politico ...If you want to hear the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the Obama administration is hoping to pass, you’ve got to be a member of Congress, and you’ve got to go to classified briefings and leave your staff and cellphone at the door. If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving...
Obama vows to help pro-trade Democrats fight off the left wing Washington Post ...President Obama is pledging to campaign for skittish House Democrats against challenges from the left if they support his massive Pacific free-trade pact, putting his political capital on the line as the administration enters a crucial stretch to win passage...
American workers deserve a trade deal negotiated in public (opinion) Cleveland.com ...the fact that "fast track" would give the president of the United States unilateral authority to negotiate global trade deals under a cloak of secrecy where Congress can only vote up or down on the final deal is indicative of an agreement that could only pass with no scrutiny...
May Day: Workers Stand Strong in Face of Threats Solidarity Center ...Workers in Bahrain, Burundi, Morocco, Swaziland and Turkey are standing strong in the face of economic and political threats this May Day. Working women and men are undaunted by intimidation and, in some cases, risking their lives to exercise their freedom to gather in the public space and stand up for their rights. This year more than ever, May Day stands as a beacon for internationally recognized human and labor rights...
State & Living Wage Battles
Wisconsin Republicans Don’t Want Food Stamp Recipients Buying Beans, Potatoes, Pasta Sauce Think Progress ...Low-income Wisconsin families won’t be able to buy shellfish with food stamps, and will have a much harder time getting basics like dried beans, pasta sauce, and cooking spices into their kitchens, under the latest state-level Republican proposal to tighten the government’s grip on the poor...
Jasper County GOP boosts right-to-work legislation The Joplin Globe ...Members of the Jasper County Republican Central Committee passed a resolution in support of right-to-work legislation currently before the Missouri General Assembly, then heard opposing viewpoints on whether the bill could survive a gubernatorial veto. The vote came Thursday in a quarterly meeting of the group...
Here’s How The Nation’s Two Largest States Plan To Crack Down On Predatory Lending Think Progress ...If the Texas laws pass, the two largest states in the country would likely be building payday loan databases at the same time. California regulators are introducing a new slate of rules for policing high-cost lending, including a database provision that would help the state to better enforce the rules that are already on the books...
G.O.P. Expands Labor Battle to Laws Setting State Construction Wages New York Times ...Indiana’s Republican-held legislature narrowly voted in April to repeal the state’s so-called common construction wage, a provision that had been around in various forms for 80 years and that sets pay standards for workers on publicly financed projects. The debate over the change, which Mr. Pence has said he supports, was muted compared with two decades ago, when tens of thousands of union workers turned up at the State Capitol and held off repeal...
San Francisco Minimum Wage Rises to $12.25, Other Bay Area Cities Considering Hikes NBC Bay Area ...San Francisco will join the city of Oakland in having the highest minimum wage in the nation as it increases its minimum wage from $11.05 to $12.25. Affecting more than 142,000 workers, the pay hike is the first in a set of increases that will see the minimum wage rise to $15 per hour by 2018, according to officials from the Service Employees International Union 1021...
U.S. Labor
NLRB rules against Pennsylvania-American Water Business Management ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that Pennsylvania-American Water Co. violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when it disciplined two Pittsburgh-area workers for refusing to cross a picket line. The board also censured the company for removing a union letter from a bulletin board...
Strike avoided, UAW and administration come to agreement The Daily UW ...UW union UAW Local 4121 announced Thursday night it had reached a bargaining agreement with the Cauce administration, avoiding a strike. The union represents research assistants and teaching assistants. The tentative agreement with the UW will be sent to union members for review. If ratified, the contract would become binding...
National Nurses Union reached a deal with UCMC, avoids strike The Chicago Maroon ...As union-affiliated nurses employed by the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) and the hospital braced for a planned one-day nurses’ strike on April 30, an announcement early this week signaled the aversion of the strike and a sudden and complete resolution of more than eight months of contentious contract negotiations between the two parties...
Miscellaneous
Candidate Sanders Calls for 'Political Revolution' Against Billionaire Class Common Dreams ...Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is calling for revolution. The independent senator from Vermont who just this week announced his bid for Democratic nominee, minced no words when speaking on ABC's This Week on Sunday. "I think I'm the only candidate who's prepared to take on the billionaire class which now controls our economy, and increasingly controls the political life of this country"...
Robert Reich: America’s economy is a nightmare of our own making Salon ...The ensuing debate over the merits of the “free market” versus an activist government has diverted attention from how the market has come to be organized differently from the way it was a half-century ago, why its current organization is failing to deliver the widely shared prosperity it delivered then, and what the basic rules of the market should be...
'We Have Each Other's Backs': May Day Rallies Highlight Black Lives Matter Movement Common Dreams ...With May Day rallies taking place worldwide on Friday, activists in the U.S. are expanding their message—historically focused on workers' rights—to take a stand for racial justice, as the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality continues to spread...
US Foods Drivers in Michigan Vote to Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Domicile drivers at US Foods in Kalamazoo, Mich., voted yesterday to join Teamsters Local 337 in Detroit. The drivers voted more than 70 percent in favor of Teamster representation, joining more than 200 US Foods drivers and warehouse workers in Novi, Mich., who are already members of Local 337...
Teamsters: Port Truck Drivers At 3 Major Drayage Firms Return To Work Teamster.org ...Striking drivers from Intermodal Bridge Transport, Pacer Cartage, and Harbor Rail Transport returned to work this morning after a four day strike that drastically impacted company operations and left containers bound for the companies’ customers – including Walmart, Costco, Toyota, General Electric, Target, Procter and Gamble, and JC Penney – languishing on the docks at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as nearly all marine terminals turned away trucks from struck companies...
BLET urges FRA to require additional buffer cars on crude oil trains BLE-T.org ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is urging the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the nation’s Class 1 rail carriers to take action to address a serious shortcoming in current railroad operating regulations that endangers the lives of train crew members who work on crude oil trains...
Convention Center files emergency motion in Carpenters, Teamsters case Philadelphia Business Journal ...The Carpenters and Teamsters, the two unions who filed the unfair labor charges against the Convention Center, were barred from working at the site after failing to sign a new customer satisfaction agreement by a May 5 deadline last year. The unions maintain that they had until May 10, the date of a contract extension...
Global Labor & Trade
Extreme secrecy eroding support for Obama's trade pact Politico ...If you want to hear the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the Obama administration is hoping to pass, you’ve got to be a member of Congress, and you’ve got to go to classified briefings and leave your staff and cellphone at the door. If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving...
Obama vows to help pro-trade Democrats fight off the left wing Washington Post ...President Obama is pledging to campaign for skittish House Democrats against challenges from the left if they support his massive Pacific free-trade pact, putting his political capital on the line as the administration enters a crucial stretch to win passage...
American workers deserve a trade deal negotiated in public (opinion) Cleveland.com ...the fact that "fast track" would give the president of the United States unilateral authority to negotiate global trade deals under a cloak of secrecy where Congress can only vote up or down on the final deal is indicative of an agreement that could only pass with no scrutiny...
May Day: Workers Stand Strong in Face of Threats Solidarity Center ...Workers in Bahrain, Burundi, Morocco, Swaziland and Turkey are standing strong in the face of economic and political threats this May Day. Working women and men are undaunted by intimidation and, in some cases, risking their lives to exercise their freedom to gather in the public space and stand up for their rights. This year more than ever, May Day stands as a beacon for internationally recognized human and labor rights...
Germany Braces for Longest Rail Strike as Drivers Walk Out Bloomberg ...The government-owned train operator is wrestling with the union over pay, working hours and which employees the union may represent. This week’s strike alone may cost the German economy about 500 million euros ($557 million) as depleted stocks and stuttering supply chains may result in production being hampered or even halted at some companies...
Bus strikes: Hundreds of thousands of workers stranded in massive walkout over privatisation of routes Irish Mirror ...The first day of a 48-hour bus strike left hundreds of thousands of commuters stranded and disrupted Bank Holiday travel yesterday. Pickets were held at Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus depots as drivers walked out over a row on the planned privatisation of 10% of routes...
Bus strikes: Hundreds of thousands of workers stranded in massive walkout over privatisation of routes Irish Mirror ...The first day of a 48-hour bus strike left hundreds of thousands of commuters stranded and disrupted Bank Holiday travel yesterday. Pickets were held at Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus depots as drivers walked out over a row on the planned privatisation of 10% of routes...
State & Living Wage Battles
Wisconsin Republicans Don’t Want Food Stamp Recipients Buying Beans, Potatoes, Pasta Sauce Think Progress ...Low-income Wisconsin families won’t be able to buy shellfish with food stamps, and will have a much harder time getting basics like dried beans, pasta sauce, and cooking spices into their kitchens, under the latest state-level Republican proposal to tighten the government’s grip on the poor...
Jasper County GOP boosts right-to-work legislation The Joplin Globe ...Members of the Jasper County Republican Central Committee passed a resolution in support of right-to-work legislation currently before the Missouri General Assembly, then heard opposing viewpoints on whether the bill could survive a gubernatorial veto. The vote came Thursday in a quarterly meeting of the group...
Here’s How The Nation’s Two Largest States Plan To Crack Down On Predatory Lending Think Progress ...If the Texas laws pass, the two largest states in the country would likely be building payday loan databases at the same time. California regulators are introducing a new slate of rules for policing high-cost lending, including a database provision that would help the state to better enforce the rules that are already on the books...
G.O.P. Expands Labor Battle to Laws Setting State Construction Wages New York Times ...Indiana’s Republican-held legislature narrowly voted in April to repeal the state’s so-called common construction wage, a provision that had been around in various forms for 80 years and that sets pay standards for workers on publicly financed projects. The debate over the change, which Mr. Pence has said he supports, was muted compared with two decades ago, when tens of thousands of union workers turned up at the State Capitol and held off repeal...
San Francisco Minimum Wage Rises to $12.25, Other Bay Area Cities Considering Hikes NBC Bay Area ...San Francisco will join the city of Oakland in having the highest minimum wage in the nation as it increases its minimum wage from $11.05 to $12.25. Affecting more than 142,000 workers, the pay hike is the first in a set of increases that will see the minimum wage rise to $15 per hour by 2018, according to officials from the Service Employees International Union 1021...
U.S. Labor
NLRB rules against Pennsylvania-American Water Business Management ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that Pennsylvania-American Water Co. violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when it disciplined two Pittsburgh-area workers for refusing to cross a picket line. The board also censured the company for removing a union letter from a bulletin board...
Strike avoided, UAW and administration come to agreement The Daily UW ...UW union UAW Local 4121 announced Thursday night it had reached a bargaining agreement with the Cauce administration, avoiding a strike. The union represents research assistants and teaching assistants. The tentative agreement with the UW will be sent to union members for review. If ratified, the contract would become binding...
National Nurses Union reached a deal with UCMC, avoids strike The Chicago Maroon ...As union-affiliated nurses employed by the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) and the hospital braced for a planned one-day nurses’ strike on April 30, an announcement early this week signaled the aversion of the strike and a sudden and complete resolution of more than eight months of contentious contract negotiations between the two parties...
Miscellaneous
Candidate Sanders Calls for 'Political Revolution' Against Billionaire Class Common Dreams ...Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is calling for revolution. The independent senator from Vermont who just this week announced his bid for Democratic nominee, minced no words when speaking on ABC's This Week on Sunday. "I think I'm the only candidate who's prepared to take on the billionaire class which now controls our economy, and increasingly controls the political life of this country"...
Robert Reich: America’s economy is a nightmare of our own making Salon ...The ensuing debate over the merits of the “free market” versus an activist government has diverted attention from how the market has come to be organized differently from the way it was a half-century ago, why its current organization is failing to deliver the widely shared prosperity it delivered then, and what the basic rules of the market should be...
'We Have Each Other's Backs': May Day Rallies Highlight Black Lives Matter Movement Common Dreams ...With May Day rallies taking place worldwide on Friday, activists in the U.S. are expanding their message—historically focused on workers' rights—to take a stand for racial justice, as the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality continues to spread...
Monday, April 6, 2015
NLRB to issue complaint against Sysco, bring justice for fired Teamsters
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| Shuandrez Fitzgerald, one of the 11 fired workers at Sysco Atlanta |
The National Labor Relations Board told the union last week that it will be issuing a complaint against the company and seeking reinstatement and back pay for the fired workers.
In addition, the NLRB complaint will allege Sysco cut warehouse pay and changed workplace rules without bargaining. And the complaint will allege unlawful interrogation, threats and surveillance against workers.
The 11 fired Teamsters were part of a huge effort to organize their more than 400 coworkers who are drivers and warehouse workers for Sysco. Last week Sysco and US Food Teamsters took part in a national day of action, demanding that Sysco put the fired workers back on the job and negotiate a fair contract.
The Sysco-US Foods workers Facebook page explains:
The Federal Government has spoken, and it's saying: put fired Sysco workers back to work! During Teamster Local 528’s organizing drive in Atlanta last year, Sysco managers engaged in an intense anti-union campaign. Teamsters across the country stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their Atlanta brothers and sisters, pledging to have their back throughout all of Sysco’s unionbusting...
...the National Labor Relations Board informed Teamsters Local 528 that it will issue a complaint against Sysco. The complaint will allege that Sysco violated federal labor law when it: discharged workers in retaliation for union activity, wrongfully terminated and suspended workers, decreased warehouse workers’ pay, changed work rules without bargaining, and unlawfully interrogated, threatened and surveilled workers. The Board will seek reinstatement and backpay for 11 workers fired or disciplined for union activity and is investigating additional charges, including three more terminations.This is a huge victory for workers and a strong statement about the power of Teamster solidarity.
When news of the pending NRLB complaint came out, messages of support spread like wildfire across social media:
Casey Whitson: "Congrats boys, united we stand!!!"
Carlos A. Silva: "Local. 79 Fl ... Way to go!! Keep our union strong!
Benny Hernandez: "That's what I call Teamster Power! #proudteamster"
Jose Flores: "Nothing beats being a Teamster. ..you got a voice and rights."Even in the face of a viciously anti-union company with an army of union-busting lawyers at its disposal, the strength of Teamsters standing together is unbeatable.
In the meantime, our Teamster brothers and sisters in Altanta can count on our continued solidarity. The fight to protect and improve jobs at Sysco and US Foods continues!
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Sysco, US Foods Teamsters rally for answers about their jobs
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| Sysco and US Foods Teamsters from IL, MO, WI, CO, AZ, CA, WA, IN, OH, TX |
Sysco has made vague statements that 'all employees will become Sysco associates Day One' if the merger is approved.
Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall says the men and women who work for the two companies deserve to know what that means.
“Thousands of workers at Sysco and US Foods are concerned about their livelihoods," Hall said in a statement. "Will Sysco honor its existing collective bargaining agreements at both companies? How does it intend to save $600 million over the next four years, and will its loyal, long-term employees pay that price?”
Sysco’s planned merger with its only national competitor, US Foods, is still far from inevitable. The company has twice announced delays in closing the deal since it was announced in December 2013.
Steve Vairma is the Teamsters Warehouse Division Director, which represents 120,000 warehouse workers and nearly 12,000 at Sysco and US Foods. Vairma said,
It’s time Sysco clears the air. We are here to show the company that we will do whatever it takes to protect Teamsters employed at Sysco and US Foods.The Federal Trade Commission is putting the deal under intense scrutiny. The transaction was structured by executives who stand to gain from it. No shareholder had a vote. The companies' workers and customers along with anti-monopoly groups warn the merger could significantly harm competition in U.S. markets.
Scott Laughlin, a Sysco employee, said,
Executives are poised to line their pockets from this merger, but we could lose our jobs and the company won’t even tell us if it plans to sell our warehouse or close it altogether.Forty-six executives stand to pocket cash bonuses on completion of the merger. Chief Financial Officer Robert Kreidler has already cashed in $429,000 and will earn another $715,000 if the transaction closes. Three other executives will split nearly $1.5 million if the deal is approved.
In addition to the rally outside the annual meeting, several Teamsters inside the meeting raised concerns about the merger to Sysco’s senior executives and board members. Shelly Allsup, a Teamsters representative from San Diego, Calif., said:
Investors don't know what the composition of a newly combined company would look like. A possible anti-trust remedy from the FTC could call for divestitures from certain markets.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.06.14
Teamster News
US Foods Workers In Corona, California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 63 IBT ...On Thursday, Sept. 4, US Foods warehouse workers in Corona, Calif. voted by more than a 2-1 margin to join Teamsters Local Union 63 in Covina, Calif. The workers are concerned about job security as Sysco attempts to acquire their employer...
Teamsters, LA trucker clash over alleged firings Journal of Commerce ...A Teamsters-affiliated organization accused a Southern California drayage company of firing at least 33 drivers who filed wage and hour claims against the carrier, an accusation the company said is not truthful...
Tentative Agreement Reached Between MV Transportation, Teamsters KOLO8 ...Drivers, mechanics and dispatchers for RTC RIDE and their employer, MV Transportation, have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement...
Teamsters Launch Campaign Against Republic Services’ Discrimination In The South IBT ...Teamsters who work at Republic Services, Bill Gates’ giant trash corporation [NYSE: RSG], are fighting back against discrimination. Republic workers wore stickers in six states today to protest Republic’s wage discrimination system. In Atlanta, new hires are paid less at all levels for doing the same job as workers hired previously...
Teamsters Rally In Chicago To Support Gov. Quinn, Stand With Workers IBT ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said that corporate-backed candidates waging war on workers should be worried about November’s election. “They may have more money but they can’t outwork us,” Hoffa said. “We have the boots on the ground and those boots are going to go walking to the polls.”...
Trade
Negotiators Struggle To Find Benefits For Public Health In TTIP EurActiv ...More than a year after the launch of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks, negotiators from both sides of the Atlantic still struggle to prove the positive impact of the potential deal on public health...
State Battles
Federal Judge Orders Ohio To Undo Cuts To Early Voting New York Times ...The preliminary injunction issued by Judge Peter C. Economus was a setback for Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican and vocal proponent of the measures, and could affect the upcoming elections in Ohio, a closely contested swing state...
Indiana Supreme Court considers right-to-work challenge Post-Tribune ...The Indiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday morning over Indiana’s right-to-work case and whether it violates the state constitution clause requiring fair payment in return for services provided...
MEA: Fewer than 5,000 members opted-out of union during August window MLive ...The Michigan Education Association says less than 5,000 of its 110,000 active members left the union during a controversial August opt-out period, as allowed under the state’s new right-to-work law...
Koch-backed ALEC infiltrates local governments Wisconsin Gazette ...The American Legislative Exchange Council is taking an interest in local governments, which troubles the progressives who demonstrated for days outside the ALEC’s annual conference in Dallas earlier this summer...
War On Workers
U.S. Payroll Rise Is Weakest This Year at 142,000 for August Bloomberg ...American employers hired fewer workers than forecast in August and the jobless rate dropped because people left the workforce, bolstering those on the Federal Reserve who want to be more deliberate in removing monetary stimulus...
Pace of Job Growth Slows Further in August Center for Economic Policy and Research ...The falloff was widespread across industries.…In percentage terms, the motion pictures sector continues to be a big job loser, shedding 6,000 jobs in August -- 2.0 percent of total employment…
Don’t Blame Boomers For Unemployed Workers Leaving The Labor Force Five Thirty Eight ...The unemployment rate for Americans younger than 25 was 13 percent in August, compared to 4.6 percent for those 55 and older. So it makes sense that younger workers would make up an outsize share of those abandoning their job searches...
Worker Killed In Accident At Metro Airport WXYZ ...Prospect Airport Services says one of their workers has died after being injured on the job at Metro Airport...
Trump Taj Mahal Could Be The Next Atlantic City Casino To Close, Owners Say NorthJersey.com ...The owners of Trump Taj Mahal are warning that it could join the roster of closed casinos in Atlantic City, based on the company’s comments in a recent filing to the state Division of Gaming Enforcement...
One Reason Women Fare Worse in Negotiations? People Lie to Them. Slate ...new research supports my fear: The stereotype that women are incompetent makes people more likely to lie to them during negotiations...
Miscellaneous
Fake Cell Towers Allow The NSA And Police To Keep Track Of You Newsweek ...The Internet is abuzz with reports of mysterious devices sprinkled across America—many of them on military bases—that connect to your phone by mimicking cell phone towers and sucking up your data. There is little public information about these devices, but they are the new favorite toy of government agencies of all stripes; everyone from the National Security Agency to local police forces are using them...
US Foods Workers In Corona, California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 63 IBT ...On Thursday, Sept. 4, US Foods warehouse workers in Corona, Calif. voted by more than a 2-1 margin to join Teamsters Local Union 63 in Covina, Calif. The workers are concerned about job security as Sysco attempts to acquire their employer...
Teamsters, LA trucker clash over alleged firings Journal of Commerce ...A Teamsters-affiliated organization accused a Southern California drayage company of firing at least 33 drivers who filed wage and hour claims against the carrier, an accusation the company said is not truthful...
Tentative Agreement Reached Between MV Transportation, Teamsters KOLO8 ...Drivers, mechanics and dispatchers for RTC RIDE and their employer, MV Transportation, have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement...
Teamsters Launch Campaign Against Republic Services’ Discrimination In The South IBT ...Teamsters who work at Republic Services, Bill Gates’ giant trash corporation [NYSE: RSG], are fighting back against discrimination. Republic workers wore stickers in six states today to protest Republic’s wage discrimination system. In Atlanta, new hires are paid less at all levels for doing the same job as workers hired previously...
Teamsters Rally In Chicago To Support Gov. Quinn, Stand With Workers IBT ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said that corporate-backed candidates waging war on workers should be worried about November’s election. “They may have more money but they can’t outwork us,” Hoffa said. “We have the boots on the ground and those boots are going to go walking to the polls.”...
Trade
Negotiators Struggle To Find Benefits For Public Health In TTIP EurActiv ...More than a year after the launch of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks, negotiators from both sides of the Atlantic still struggle to prove the positive impact of the potential deal on public health...
State Battles
Federal Judge Orders Ohio To Undo Cuts To Early Voting New York Times ...The preliminary injunction issued by Judge Peter C. Economus was a setback for Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican and vocal proponent of the measures, and could affect the upcoming elections in Ohio, a closely contested swing state...
Indiana Supreme Court considers right-to-work challenge Post-Tribune ...The Indiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday morning over Indiana’s right-to-work case and whether it violates the state constitution clause requiring fair payment in return for services provided...
MEA: Fewer than 5,000 members opted-out of union during August window MLive ...The Michigan Education Association says less than 5,000 of its 110,000 active members left the union during a controversial August opt-out period, as allowed under the state’s new right-to-work law...
Koch-backed ALEC infiltrates local governments Wisconsin Gazette ...The American Legislative Exchange Council is taking an interest in local governments, which troubles the progressives who demonstrated for days outside the ALEC’s annual conference in Dallas earlier this summer...
War On Workers
U.S. Payroll Rise Is Weakest This Year at 142,000 for August Bloomberg ...American employers hired fewer workers than forecast in August and the jobless rate dropped because people left the workforce, bolstering those on the Federal Reserve who want to be more deliberate in removing monetary stimulus...
Pace of Job Growth Slows Further in August Center for Economic Policy and Research ...The falloff was widespread across industries.…In percentage terms, the motion pictures sector continues to be a big job loser, shedding 6,000 jobs in August -- 2.0 percent of total employment…
Don’t Blame Boomers For Unemployed Workers Leaving The Labor Force Five Thirty Eight ...The unemployment rate for Americans younger than 25 was 13 percent in August, compared to 4.6 percent for those 55 and older. So it makes sense that younger workers would make up an outsize share of those abandoning their job searches...
Worker Killed In Accident At Metro Airport WXYZ ...Prospect Airport Services says one of their workers has died after being injured on the job at Metro Airport...
Trump Taj Mahal Could Be The Next Atlantic City Casino To Close, Owners Say NorthJersey.com ...The owners of Trump Taj Mahal are warning that it could join the roster of closed casinos in Atlantic City, based on the company’s comments in a recent filing to the state Division of Gaming Enforcement...
One Reason Women Fare Worse in Negotiations? People Lie to Them. Slate ...new research supports my fear: The stereotype that women are incompetent makes people more likely to lie to them during negotiations...
Miscellaneous
Fake Cell Towers Allow The NSA And Police To Keep Track Of You Newsweek ...The Internet is abuzz with reports of mysterious devices sprinkled across America—many of them on military bases—that connect to your phone by mimicking cell phone towers and sucking up your data. There is little public information about these devices, but they are the new favorite toy of government agencies of all stripes; everyone from the National Security Agency to local police forces are using them...
Friday, August 24, 2012
Today's Teamster News 08.24.12
Household income is below recession levels, report says Washington Post ...median income is 7.2 percent below its December 2007 level and 8.1 percent below where it stood in January 2000, when it was $55,470, according to the report...
China Confronts Mounting Piles of Unsold Goods New York Times ...The glut of everything from steel and household appliances to cars and apartments is hampering China’s efforts to emerge from a sharp economic slowdown. It has also produced a series of price wars and has led manufacturers to redouble efforts to export what they cannot sell at home.//
Scott says no to more days for early voting Associated Press ...Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday flatly rejected any talk of expanding the number of early-voting days in the state prior to this year's presidential election despite a federal court ruling that a new state law could hurt minority participation...
Freedom of the Press dies in Wisconsin CNNiReport ...WTDY News reporter Dylan Brogan was barred from covering a Mitt Romney campaign event Wednesday in Madison featuring US Senator Ron Johnson. The event, held at the Monona Terrace, was open to the Press...
Teamsters, carpenters say protest is "for the middle class" Patriot Ledger ...100 Teamsters and union carpenters picketed outside the Braintree solid waste transfer station lateThursday morning...They were picketing Callahan Inc. of Bridgewater, the general contractor for a $4 million renovation and improvement to the facility...because the company uses subcontractors who have especially poor labor and job-related records...
Arizona Teamsters File Labor Board Charges Against US Foods IBT ...The charges against US Foods include instances of threatening and interrogating workers; issuing unwarranted discipline against union supporters; unilaterally changing work policies and conditions; withholding pay and falsifying company records to discriminate against union supporters; and unlawfully denying employees union representation...
China Confronts Mounting Piles of Unsold Goods New York Times ...The glut of everything from steel and household appliances to cars and apartments is hampering China’s efforts to emerge from a sharp economic slowdown. It has also produced a series of price wars and has led manufacturers to redouble efforts to export what they cannot sell at home.//
Scott says no to more days for early voting Associated Press ...Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday flatly rejected any talk of expanding the number of early-voting days in the state prior to this year's presidential election despite a federal court ruling that a new state law could hurt minority participation...
Freedom of the Press dies in Wisconsin CNNiReport ...WTDY News reporter Dylan Brogan was barred from covering a Mitt Romney campaign event Wednesday in Madison featuring US Senator Ron Johnson. The event, held at the Monona Terrace, was open to the Press...
Teamsters, carpenters say protest is "for the middle class" Patriot Ledger ...100 Teamsters and union carpenters picketed outside the Braintree solid waste transfer station lateThursday morning...They were picketing Callahan Inc. of Bridgewater, the general contractor for a $4 million renovation and improvement to the facility...because the company uses subcontractors who have especially poor labor and job-related records...
Arizona Teamsters File Labor Board Charges Against US Foods IBT ...The charges against US Foods include instances of threatening and interrogating workers; issuing unwarranted discipline against union supporters; unilaterally changing work policies and conditions; withholding pay and falsifying company records to discriminate against union supporters; and unlawfully denying employees union representation...
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Even more solidarity from US Foods Teamsters
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| Bridgeport solidarity, Nov. 3. |
Technomics reports,
Even as the overall economy languished, the largest U.S. foodservice distribution companies managed to grow and solidify their position at the top of the industry.Apparently CD&R and KKR -- the fast-buck artists that have been plundering US Foods for the past four years -- think they can push around their workers. At the heart of the strike is one custodial worker, Mike "Scrapper" Vagasky, a Local 722 member who was punished for participating in contract negotiations. The other custodial worker is on disability.
Bill Knight at the Daily Review Atlas gets the lesson of the US Foods strike:
...a determined few can stand up for themselves; with their union brothers and sisters they can stand up to the rich and powerful; they can use traditional tactics, exemplified by the solidarity of sympathy strikes; and they also can be creative, resorting to actions such as “rolling strikes” – short work stoppages here and there where a common employer operates.
 |
| Determined Teamsters in Swedesboro, Nov. 3. |
Teamsters from Locals 628 in Philadelphia and 169 in Elkins Park, Penn. once again refused to cross picket lines at US Foods distribution facilities in Swedesboro and Bridgeport, N.J. yesterday evening.
The sympathy picket lines, which were established by members of Locals 1414 in Philadelphia and 676 in Collingswood, N.J....
Picket line extensions and sympathy pickets have spread to 12 US Foods facilities across the country during the past month. More than 2,000 Teamsters have honored picket lines in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Colorado and Maryland.Here's what John Williams, Teamsters warehouse division director, said:
Our members who work at US Foods care about this company and its customers, but they are not willing to cross lawful picket lines. Our members, like the rest of the 99 percent in America, are tired of being bullied and having their rights under federal labor law violated while the private equity firms and other Wall Street bankers in the top one percent destroy their livelihood.Props to all our Teamster brothers and sisters who walk and who honor the US Foods picket lines. And props to all who helped Scrapper make ends meet. There's still time. Go to this Facebook page to help a fellow Teamster out.
Find out more about the strike at http://www.usfoodsworkers.org/. Show your solidarity with US Foods workers by "Liking" their Facebook page at USfoods Workersunited. See photos of the actions around the country here. And follow the strike on twitter at #USFoodsWorkers.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Today's Teamster News 11.29.11
Knight: Teamsters’ strength stands up to power (opinion) Pekin Daily Times ...in less than a month, the union has shown that a determined few can stand up for themselves; with their union brothers and sisters they can stand up to the rich and powerful...
Walker Recall Effort Says 300,000 Signatures In Associated Press ...The United Wisconsin coalition needs 540,208 signatures by Jan. 17 to force a recall election sometime in 2012...
Rich James: Indiana doesn’t need right-to-work legislation (opinion) Post-Tribune ...there will be an unwarrated attack upon organized labor. The Republicans, who do the bidding of corporations and other businesses, will seek the passage of a right-to-work bill...
Voting Rights Advocate Held At Gunpoint By SWAT Team With No Warrant Crooks and Liars ...Last Monday, attorney Barbara Arnwine was rudely awakened by the sounds of a police raid on her home...
Euro zone crisis biggest threat to global economy-OECD Reuters ...The euro zone has already entered a mild recession but much worse could follow unless policy makers take decisive action to get ahead of the market...
Judge Blocks Citigroup Settlement With S.E.C. New York Times ... Taking a broad swipe at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s practice of allowing companies to settle cases without admitting that they had done anything wrong, a federal judge on Monday rejected a $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the agency...
Walker Recall Effort Says 300,000 Signatures In Associated Press ...The United Wisconsin coalition needs 540,208 signatures by Jan. 17 to force a recall election sometime in 2012...
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Friday, November 11, 2011
100% Teamster solidarity as USFoods strike spreads to Chicago
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| Scrapper. |
Every driver refused to cross the line in another proud show of Teamster solidarity. We assume the fast-buck artists who've been looting US Foods for four years (that would be private-equity companies KKR and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice) don't understand what "solidarity" means. We're showing them.
Here's what happened today, from a strike flyer:
One hundred percent of the drivers at US Foods Bensenville Distribution Center greeted ULP striker, Mike “Scrapper” Vagasky early this morning, leaving 65 truckloads sitting.On Thursday, nearly 1,000 US Foods Teamsters joined a telephone town hall to get the latest news on the Unfair Labor Practices strike that started in Streator, Ill. Teamsters International Vice President Ken Hall told callers,
After scrambling for four hours, management was able to scrape together 46 scabs in an attempt to temporarily replace the Teamster drivers who honored Scrapper’s picket line. After another two hours and intense training on how to use a hand cart, 23 rented trucks, with two scabs in each, attempted the challenge of finding their way out of the yard. But a student driver of a double jack-knifed in front of the gate. This created a serious challenge for the other scabs to find the exit and made it almost impossible to leave for those who did find it.
On this Veterans Day, USFChicago management begged their veteran Teamster drivers to come back to work real soon.
We are in this fight to win!Teamsters Warehouse Director John Williams chaired the call, which included Streator-based Local 772 President Steve Mongan. He said he was grateful for the more than 2,000 Teamsters who honored the picket line.
Teamsters Attorney Mike Manley explained to listeners their right to honor a picket line at their facility. John Williams reminded callers if they had specific questions to ask shop stewards and business agents.
There were a number of questions on the call, but they had only two themes:
When is Scrapper coming to my yard?and
I am proud to be a Teamster.There's more background on the strike here. And click here to help out Scrapper, who can't work his other two jobs while he's traveling to extend the picket line.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Teamsters to US Foods: An injury to two is an injury to all
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| Denver. |
The Teamsters' show of solidarity for two of their brothers in Streator, Ill., should inspire us all as the rolling national strike of US Foods enters its second week.
Mike "Scrapper" Vagasky, a 49-year-old native of Streator, is one of two US Foods maintenance workers who went on strike Sunday, October 30th. This small strike escalated into a nationwide battle after Teamsters Local 722 extended pickets -- or Teamsters set up sympathy pickets -- to facilities in Indianapolis, St. Louis, Buffalo, Seattle, Minnesota, New Jersey and Denver. Sympathy pickets and picket line extensions have lasted for about 12 hours.
At nearly all US Foods warehouses, not one Teamster crossed the line. In Colorado, Teamsters shut down the US Foods facility all weekend.
Memo to KKR and CD&R, the fast-buck artists who've been plundering US Foods and attacking its workers for the past four years:
When we say 'An injury to one is an injury to all,' we mean it.Here's a recap of what's happened so far.
Local 722 struck the Streator facility on Sunday, October 30, at 4 pm, because the company disciplined Scrapper, a member of the bargaining committee, for being absent while he was in contract negotiations. The line stayed up until Monday afternoon. Not one Teamster driver or warehouse worker crossed the line.
Local 722 extended the picket in St. Louis at 3 a.m. on Tuesday. Teamsters from 610 and 688 honored the line.
Half an hour later, Local 375 put up a sympathy picket in Buffalo. The line was honored by 100 percent of drivers and warehouse workers who are members of Local 264, crippling US Food’s delivery schedule Wednesday in upstate New York.
That evening, Local 722 extended the picket line in Fishers, Ind., and Teamsters from Local 135 refused to cross it. The line came down the next morning. Late that night, Local 638 established a sympathy picket in Plymouth, Minn., and members of Local 120 honored it. They shut down the warehouse until late Wednesday afternoon.
From Thursday evening through some or all of Friday, Teamsters set up pickets at three New Jersey warehouses. Props to Locals 202 and 282, who crippled the Friday delivery schedule for US Foods' Perth Amboy facility. One hundred percent of warehouse workers honored the line put up in sympathy by Local 111.
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| Swedesboro Solidarity. |
The Swedesboro line went up simultaneously with Bridgeport. Deliveries in Philadelphia were shut down for seven hours due to the solidarity of 100 percent of Teamster drivers and warehouse workers from Local 628. Local 1414 put up the sympathy picket.
Out west, Local 174 held the line at the Fife, Wash., warehouse for 72 hours to meet contractual requirements for notice. Local 117's drivers and warehouse workers -- without exception -- honored the line for 12 hours on Friday.
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| Scrapper. |
Scrapper is the only striker from Streator traveling across the country without pay because the other maintenance worker is out on disability. He started working at the Streator distribution center at 19, and 28 years later, he's still only making $12 an hour. Scrapper and works two other jobs just to make ends meet.
This strike has taken its toll on the Scrapper, as he can’t work his other jobs while on the road. The Teamsters have set up a way to donate money to Scrapper online. Clock on this link to be taken to the fundraising page. This money will go directly to Mike and will help him keep going until this strike is settled. Please help out a Teamster in need.
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