Today's Teamster News 01.29.15

Teamsters
Shining the Light on Corporate Tax Breaks  teamster.org   ..."We need a more accurate accounting of tax abatements over the long term to “effectively bargain with our members’ governmental employers and to advocate for sound public policies that benefit our members working in the construction of infrastructure,” Hoffa said...
Tim Hortons can’t cut more than 20 per cent of HQ staff: Ottawa  The Star   ...Industry Canada says Burger King has agreed to keep 80 per cent of corporate jobs in takeover...“This round of layoffs should serve as a warning to Tim Hortons’ franchisees who depend on support from the company to grow their businesses, taxpayers who expect corporations to pay their fair share, and consumers who expect Tim Hortons to be a community leader in Canada,” said a group of union leaders from Unifor, Teamsters and SEIU Healthcare in a statement Wednesday...
Trade
Trans Pacific Pact is Almost Ready, Says US Trade Official Even As Protests Rock New York  International Business Times   …negotiators working on the TPP held parleys in New York City on Monday at an undisclosed location. But braving all secrecy, hundreds of protesters from drawn trade, labour, environmental, health, anti-GMO, food justice, anti-fracking, animal activists protested in the blizzard, against the trade agreement for its reported "fast tracking" by Trade Promotion Authority, according to Oped News...
Rep. Cooper must oppose Fast Track, defend TN economy (opinion)  The Tennessean   ...Rep. Cooper was one of just a handful of Democrats in the House of Representatives to not stand up against an undemocratic 1970s-era procedure known as Fast Track that has been used to railroad the most controversial and damaging of U.S. “trade” deals through Congress...
10 Tall Tales on Trade  Global Trade Watch   ...Here’s a rundown of the top 10 fibs and half-truths that Froman uttered before the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee yesterday in his sales pitch for the administration’s bid to expand the NAFTA “trade” pact model by Fast-Tracking through Congress the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner Previews 'Right-To-Work Zones' As First-Year Priority  Peoria Journal Star   ...Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday he wants to prioritize creating "right-to-work zones" in economically depressed areas where local officials could decide whether union fees would be voluntary for local workers...
Logan County Gives First Nod To Right-To-Work Ordinance  Bowling Green Daily News   ...Logan County Fiscal Court approved the first reading of a right-to-work ordinance today. The ordinance passed unanimously on the first reading, Logan County Judge-Executive Logan Chick said in a phone interview. A final reading of the ordinance is scheduled for Feb. 24...
'Right To Work' Not Dead  WSAU   ...The controversial right-to-work legislation might not be on a fast track in Wisconsin, but it’s also not a dead issue. That’s according to state Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau). “It’s still out there. I think it’s still something that deserves debate. The votes are probably there in the Assembly, which is odd that there’s so much focus on the Senate I guess, but that’s fine. I’m not counting noses, I’ve said all along. I’m still talking to members about how they feel about the issue.”...
New Kansas Job Figures Reveal Another Failure For Sam Brownback’s Tax Cuts (opinion)  Kansas City Star   ...The final Kansas job figures are in for 2014, and Gov. Sam Brownback’s costly income tax cut “experiment” has laid another egg. Total nonfarm employment climbed only 1,700 people in December, according to Tuesday’s release of figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, that means Kansas added a meager 12,800 jobs from December 2013 to December 2014, or barely more than 1,000 a month. That’s a puny growth rate of .9 percent, one of the lowest in the BLS data for 2014...
Senate Republicans Ready For A Fight On Right To Work Bill  Charleston Daily Mail   ...Five Republican lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, introduced Senate Bill 337 on Tuesday. The bill, known as “Creating Workplace Freedom Act,” would make West Virginia the 25th state in the country to adopt a right to work law. The Mountain State would be the first in the nation since 2012 when Michigan and Indiana became right to work states, if the bill is enacted...
House Panel Kills Minimum Wage Proposal  WTOP   ...A Republican-led House committee has killed a proposal to raise Virginia’s minimum wage...
Washington State House Weighs Minimum Wage Hike  KING5   ...Washington state's minimum wage, already the highest statewide wage in the country, would get a boost to $12 an hour over the next four years if lawmakers pass a bill under consideration by the state House...
War on Workers
Gains From Economic Recovery Still Limited to Top One Percent  New York Times   ... the economic recovery so far has only boosted the incomes of the rich, and it has yielded no improvement for the bottom 99 percent of the distribution. After adjusting for inflation, the average income for the richest 1 percent (excluding capital gains) has risen from $871,100 in 2009 to $968,000 over 2012 and 2013. By contrast, for the remaining 99 percent, average incomes fell by a few dollars from $44,000 to $43,900...
Here's How Much You Have To Earn To Be In The 1 Percent In Each State  Huffington Post   ...What does it take to make it into the 1 percent of earners? In Arkansas, you'd need to pull in $228,298 a year. In Connecticut, the threshold is $677,608...
Mexican authorities pronounce 43 missing students dead but parents reject murder theory  The Independent   ...The 43 students abducted by police in Mexico have been officially declared dead for the first time, despite the fact that remains of only one person have been identified. Parents accuse the government of trying to close an investigation that has implicated security forces, the army and a mayor in a case that shocked the world...
Oil Train Spills Hit Record Level In 2014  NBC News   ...By volume, that's dramatically less crude than trains spilled in 2013, when major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota leached a record 1.4 million gallons -- more than was lost in the prior 40 years combined. But by frequency of spills, 2014 set a new high with 141 "unintentional releases," according to data from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). By comparison, between 1975 and 2012, U.S. railroads averaged just 25 spills a year...
On-Demand Workers: ‘We Are Not Robots’  Wall Street Journal   ...Current and former workers for Uber, Amazon Inc.’s Mechanical Turk and Handybook, better known as Handy, say on-demand work platforms give them little control over the terms of their labor, and complain that the contracts they’re required to accept force them to shoulder personal and financial risk without the returns or advantages they’d hoped for...
Worker dies on Taiwan film lot to be used for Scorsese movie  Associated Perss   …A worker was killed in an accident Thursday at a Taiwanese film lot during preparations for the shooting of a new Martin Scorsese movie, media reports said...
Miscellaneous
Scott Walker’s “Our American Revival” PAC Uses Foreign Stock Videos In Debut Ad  Buzzfeed   …Republican Gov. Scott Walker announced Tuesday the creation of a political action committee to help him raise money as he mulls a presidential run. The PAC, “Our American Revival,” debuted with this video…Several of the videos ... come from foreign-based photographers and appear to have been purchased through stock image sites...

Today's Teamster News 06.25.12

The Ohio House unanimously passes a resolution urging Washington to act on China's currency manipulation  manufacture this   ...China has “significantly intervened in foreign exchange markets in order to hold the value of their currency within its tight and artificial trading band, resulting in enormous grown in China’s dollar reserves.”...
Koch brothers hope to raise even more funds at secretive right-wing gathering  The Guardian   ...If they meet their target of $400m for this year's presidential election cycle, the Kochs will have surpassed the $370m that John McCain had at his disposal as his entire campaign funding in 2008...
The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia  Rolling Stone   ...How America's biggest banks took part in a nationwide bid-rigging conspiracy - until they were caught on tape...
Mitt and the junk bond king  Boston Globe   ...“Mitt, I think, spent his life balanced between fear and greed,” Wolpow said. “He knew that he had to make a lot of money to launch his political career...
Trucker jobs go unfilled, leading to delayed deliveries  USA Today   ...A worsening shortage of truck drivers is pushing up freight rates and delaying some deliveries, defying the weak economy, high unemployment and falling gasoline prices...
Teamsters to help Seattle-area cabdrivers voice their concerns  Seattle Times   ... the Western Washington Taxi Cab Operators Association, formally launched by drivers at a meeting at the Teamsters Building in Tukwila on Saturday, will contract with Teamsters Local 117 to lobby governments on its behalf. The new alliance will address continuing complaints about competition from "flat-rate" drivers who operate under a different set of rules, new workers' compensation premiums and other business costs...

Teamsters Davis Wire picket spreads to CA; workers honor picket lines

Teamster solidarity is a beautiful thing. Local 986 Teamsters are refusing to cross a picket line in California that was set up by their striking brothers in Washington State.

Here's the latest about the strike from Teamsters Local 117:

Workers at a Davis Wire mill in Irwindale honored picket lines that were established on Wednesday night by striking Teamsters in Washington State. Picket lines were set up at the company’s facility at 10 PM.

“Our members are exercising their contractual right to honor a lawful picket line.  Their decision not to cross the line shows that they stand in solidarity with their Teamster brothers in Washington State,” said Christopher Griswold, the Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 986.  Local 986 represents approximately 115 workers at the company’s Irwindale facility (in California). 

The 85 workers at the Kent, WA facility have been without a contract since December 1 of last year.  They went on strike on May 21 to protest a series of unlawful actions by the company. 

“Davis Wire is not treating its workers in Washington State with dignity and respect.  We have come to Irwindale to demand that this company stops breaking the law and improves working conditions inside the mill,” said Larry Dunson, a 28-year employee.

Local 117 has filed Unfair Labor Practices with the NLRB, charging Davis Wire with a dozen violations of federal labor law. The company has bargained in bad faith, spied on and intimidated workers and made illegal threats to shut down the plant.

Davis Wire laid off 27 employees at its facility in Kent, Wash., on May 15. That just happened to be three days after workers voted to authorize a strike. Think those layoffs may have been retaliation (we sure do).

As we reported earlier, the company's indifference to safety caused workers at the Kent mill to break bones and mangle their fingers. Four workers have been killed over the past few years in industrial accidents in plants owned by Davis Wire's parent, Heico Wire Group. Recently, a machine operator was hospitalized after his hand got caught between spinning rollers of a fabric machine.

Davis Wire employees joined a class-action lawsuit charging the company with running a sweatshop and stealing their wages. Employees were pressured to work 12-hour shifts without a break and to eat their lunch while operating dangerous machinery.

Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

This is what solidarity feels like

(UPDATES to correct typo in last graf, spotted by @trkrsvoice)

We're hoping to hear some good news soon from our brothers and sisters at Republic Services. In the meantime, we again praise the remarkable solidarity of 400 Teamsters in New York, Ohio and Washington. They refused to cross the picket line, giving up their pay, to help out their 24 brothers in Mobile.

Alternet had a story about the spreading sympathy strike. The reporter interviewed Alabama striker Robert Agee.

“It means a whole lot to know that other guys stand behind us…” says Alabama striker Robert Agee. “To have that much support from people you don’t even know means a whole lot.” That solidarity – from South to Northeast to Midwest to Northwest – may be what brought Republic back to the negotiating table for the first time in months.

The photo above shows a FedEx driver refusing to cross the Republic picket line in Mobile. That should lift all our spirits. The company had to send a representative out to sign for the packages. We hope that was a very long walk.

Republic Waste strike spreads to WA

Steve Burroughs holding the line in Bellevue.

Steve Burroughs takes the Republic Services strike from Mobile, Ala., to Washington state and holds the line in Bellevue. In another inspiring act of solidarity, members of Teamsters Joint Council 28 and community supporters also put up sympathy pickets at Seattle-area Republic Services facilities. Refusing to cross the lines in Kent, Bellevue and Lynnwood were 250 members of Teamsters Locals 117 and 174, 38 and 763.

Burroughs, who has worked at Republic for 16 years, didn't want to strike. But, he said,

These top 1 percent corporations have done nothing but harass and intimidate us. As a worker, I’m part of the 99 percent in America and I can’t stand by any more while our jobs are destroyed.

According to Local 991's press release,

On Thursday night, March 22, all 24 Republic Services workers in Mobile went on strike, including two workers who are not members of Teamsters Local 991. They are striking over Republic’s labor laws violations. In February, Republic negotiators agreed to a contract, then backed out when they decided they wanted to pay less for workers’ families health care coverage.

It sure helps when your brothers and sisters have your back. Hours after Mobile workers went on strike, members of Local 284 in Columbus and Local 449 in Buffalo refused to cross sympathy picket lines at Republic Services facilities. Props to the 400 Teamsters who have honored picket lines so far.

There's even more to come. Sympathy strikes are spreading to Republic facilities across the country, as the Teamsters represent 9,000 employees with nearly 150 contracts in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

In 2011, Republic Services/Allied Waste earned $8.2 billion in revenues and declared profit of $589 million, up 15 percent per share from 2010. And yet it claims it can't afford to provide quality, reasonably priced health care for its employees.
 
Stand strong, brothers and sisters!

This is not what democracy looks like

Sadly, it's what our political process looks like these days.

A Washington congresswoman decided to hold a town hall meeting with friendly constituents. Then she asked the local paper to keep it secret in order to keep out people asking unseemly questions. Like, "Why do you want to cut my Medicare?"

ThinkProgress has the deets:

Freshman Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) told a town hall gathering Monday that “the whole purpose” of the meeting “is to hear from you.” But apparently Herrera Beutler isn’t interested in hearing from everyone.

The congresswoman’s Communications Director Casey Bowman called the Centralia Chronicle Friday to ask them not to publish a notice of the town hall, out of fear that people would come and say “whatever’s on their minds,” the paper reports:

The Chronicle refused [Bowman's] request and published an announcement in Saturday’s paper.

The reason for not publishing an advance notice of the meeting was the fear that people from outside the immediate area could come and “just yell” at the congresswoman “whatever’s on their minds,” Bowman said Friday.

“When word gets in the paper, you get a certain set of people,” Bowman said.

Nice.

Props to the Centralia Chronicle, btw. The mainstream media too often plays along with politicians' little puppet shows.

Today's Teamster News 09.10.11

Labor Leaders Back Obama Jobs Plan  ABC News   ...“I’m especially pleased that President Obama wants to invest in infrastructure improvements and in jobs for our military veterans,” Hoffa said in a statement. “I’m also pleased he recognizes the need to put money in the pockets of working people...”
Teamsters' Union calls in big gun to rally Fred Meyer workers  KOMO News   ...The Teamsters are fighting with Fred Meyer over health care benefits and brought in union president James Hoffa to rile the troops...
Senate leader does not want "right-to-work" in Michigan  Michigan Radio   ...Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville says union workers have already made many concessions to help Michigan’s economic outlook...
SB 5 ad campaign: Firefighter vs. firefighter  Cincinnati Enquirer   ...There are two principal images at this early stage in the battle over Issue 2 - the Ohio ballot referendum that would repeal Senate Bill 5, which limits collective bargaining rights for public employees...
Fla. passes up over $100 million in federal grants  Miami Herald   ...Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature have rejected or declined to pursue more than $106 million in federal grant money and returned another $4.5 million for programs linked to federal health care initiatives, including cancer prevention, leading critics to say he is putting his conservative agenda ahead of residents' needs...
Post-union busting, Scott Walker's Wisconsin is #1 in education ... cuts  Daily Kos   ...Wisconsin has the dubious distinction of reducing state aid per student this school year the most of 24 states studied by an independent, Washington-based think tank, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...
State employee fired after telling co-workers about photo ID policy  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...A low-level state employee was fired Thursday after he sent an email to his fellow employees telling them about the state Department of Transportation’s policy on giving out free photo identification cards for voting... 

WA longshoremen keep right to picket

Longshore Shipping News tells us a judge today denied EGT's attempt to take away the Washington Longshoremen's right to picket:

Leal Sundet, Coast Committeeman for the ILWU Coast Longshore Division, said

Union members are pleased with the outcome even though they are smarting from false allegations of hostage-taking that were spread in the media throughout the day, an outright lie intended to discredit the union and its struggle for good jobs for the community...

EGT has employed a professional strike breaker and a labor provocateur to manufacture trouble during peaceful protest, but they can’t change the fact that longshore workers are simply wanting to go to work and do their jobs.

The Stand provides a good summary of what they're mad about:

...a taxpayer-subsidized international conglomerate, which is operating on public property, is suing the public so it can avoid paying the area’s standard wages and undercut its competitors that do. Then, it exacerbated tensions with the local labor community by importing union workers from another jurisdiction to cross the picket lines.

Today's Teamster News 06.27.11

Union contracts will come to an end on Wednesday  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Tens of thousands of teachers and government workers will be without union contracts for the first time in decades on Wednesday...
State PBA Filing Suit Over Pension Changes  Belleville Patch   ...The ongoing debate over the landmark pension and health benefits reform package expected to be signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie on Monday will soon be heading to New Jersey's courts...
Follow the exit signs  Columbus Dispatch   ...Amid a push by Gov. John Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly to reduce public workers' take-home pay, benefits and collective-bargaining rights, state and local governments are seeing the biggest exodus of experienced workers in recent history, perhaps ever...
'Most Restrictive' Voter ID Law In The Country Loses Support Of Republican Secretary Of State  Talking Points Memo   ...Ohio's measure is so restrictive -- it requires the photo IDs to be issued by the state, so voters couldn't identify themselves with their full Social Security numbers -- that it lost the support of Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted...
FACT CHECK: McKenna campaigns with faulty data  Associated Press   ...(Washington State Attorney General) Rob McKenna launched his campaign for governor recently with a vow to curb the costs of personnel in state government, citing statistics that drew gasps from his audience of supporters...
The Selling of the World: Privatization Schemes Proliferate  firedoglake   ... Greece essentially must sell the family silver – their ports, their state-run water supply systems, their utility company, their telephone company – to get out of the mess created largely by the financial crisis and the Great Recession...

Tens of thousands rally nationwide this weekend

Thousands of Teamsters came out this weekend to rally for workers' rights in Washington, Ohio, New York and Illinois. The showing of solidarity was impressive, with Teamsters "Stop the War on Workers" signs everywhere.

On Friday, about 15,000 Washington Teamsters and allies came together at a "Put People First" rally at the Statehouse in Olympia.

On Saturday, more than 11,000 rallied at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, which was a kickoff to repealing SB5, the state's anti-worker bill. Teamsters in Ohio are turning their attention to collecting signatures for a citizens’ veto of SB5. Petitions will circulate through the June 30th deadline.

More than 10,000 also rallied in downtown Chicago Saturday. Teamsters Joint Council 25 members took part in the rally at Daley Plaza. The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Laborers, carpenters, electricians, machinists, sheet metal workers, police officers, firefighters, teachers, actors, writers and pharmacists from Illinois and surrounding states marched from corners of the Loop, waving pro-union banners and chanting “We are one.”

From the stage, organizers warned that workers in other states, including Illinois, could face union-busting legislation similar to the Wisconsin law and urged them to be prepared.

Teamsters Joint Council 16 members also rallied by the thousands in New York's Times Square on Saturday.

Teamsters will rally today at noon at the Pennsylvania Statehouse in Harrisburg to protest proposed anti-worker legislation there. More on this later today.

Today's Teamster News 04.11.11

Congresswoman Seeks Federal Investigation of Wisconsin Election  The Nation   ...Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to initiate a federal investigation into the questionable handling of disputed vote records in the state's Waukesha County...
Most Ohio big city mayors do not like collective bargaining law Gov. John Kasich says was intended to help them  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...All but one of the mayors of the state's five largest cities are now publicly blasting SB5 as an attack on middle class families...
Third day of 'sleep-in' at Washington state capitol   NWCN.com   ...small groups of protesters have been permitted to sleep on the hard marble floor inside the central rotunda...
The Mindless Mantra of Wall Street: The Corporate Tax Rate Is Too High  CommonDreams.org   ...If these 100 companies had paid the 35% tax designated by U.S. tax law, an additional $150 billion would have been collected in federal taxes in just one year. This is approximately equal to the total budget deficits for all 50 states...
With aid and migrants, China expands its presence in a South American nation  New York Times   ...China’s aid to Suriname includes military assistance, construction of low-income housing, a plan to derive renewable energy from rice husks, help for shrimp farming and an upgrade of the state television network...
Teamsters fight to oust the PBA  Tallahassee.com   ...The Teamsters union is mounting a serious effort to replace the PBA as bargaining agent for probation and prison officers across the state...

Today's Teamster News 04.09.11

Hoffa: Possible Government Shutdown Will Harm Workers, Economy  IBT   ...“We elected these men and women to create jobs, not to put thousands of Americans out of work”...
2011 is not 1995  Washington Post   ...Right now, the economy is weak. Giving into austerity will weaken it further, or at least delay recovery for longer...
Thousands protest in Olympia over proposed budget cuts  The Seattle Times   ...The boisterous chant "We are union! We are one!" echoed throughout the state Capitol Friday as thousands of union members protested budget cuts in what was the largest labor rally this legislative session...
Teamsters to rally Monday at State Capitol  Central Penn Business Journal   ...to voice their objections to House Bill 50...which...would prohibit union membership or paying dues to a union as a condition for employment...
Do as Corbett says, not as he does?  Pocono Record   ...How about Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, his highly paid administrators and state legislators donating part of their salaries to stem the budget deficit?...
Wisconsin court race won't be certified without probe  Reuters   ..."We're going to do a review of the procedures and the records in Waukesha before we certify the statewide results..."
Proud Ohio continues fight against union bill  ABC   ...Some small business owners are part of a grassroots program to support union workers. The program is called Proud Ohio Workers...
N.J. governor assails teachers union  Bloomberg   ... Good teachers do not need unions, he said. “They’re there to protect the lousy ones so they continue to pay their dues every year.’’...

15K at WA capital rally

Teamsters are rallying right now at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia. Teamsters Local 117 members have arrived by the busloads, filling the capitol grounds.

The Washington State Patrol is estimating up to 15,000 ralliers in Olympia right now.
Rally Girl reports a Native American group has blessed the rally and is calling for solidarity.

Teamsters Local 117 members are there chanting, "Put People First." Teamsters "Stop the War on Workers" signs are everywhere. The music is pumping.

Teamsters Local 117 says:

The stakes of this fight are high as political renegades like Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and their corporate cronies attempt to strip working people of their hard-earned wages, benefits, and right to bargain collectively.

Washingtonians understand that a shift in the political landscape in our state could have a similarly devastating impact on our fundamental rights as workers.

Watch it live!