Today's Teamster News 11.09.15

TEAMSTERS
Waste Workers in Tennessee Join Teamsters Local 667  Teamster.org  ...Drivers at Waste Management, Inc., in Memphis, Tenn., have voted to join Teamsters Local 667 seeking improved wages and benefits. The 37-worker unit remained strong and united as the company waged a vicious anti-worker campaign. During the campaign, the workers were joined in support by students and campus workers...
Workers Speak Up After Being Told To Go Back To Work After Chemical Spill  Think Progress  ...A group of immigrant workers and community members rallied on Thursday at Taylor Farms in California, the largest producer of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, asking for safer work conditions nearly one month after managers failed to evacuate the plant after a chemical spill. At the Taylor Farms’ Tracy plant, about 900 workers have been trying to organize a union with the Teamsters over the past two years...
Labor and Climate Groups Blast TPP as Full Text is Released  American Prospect  ...Within hours of the text’s release, leading environmental, labor, and civil liberties groups blasted the deal for its lackluster provisions on workers rights, climate change, and human rights. On Twitter, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters noted that the TPP includes no penalties for human trafficking...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Lufthansa cabin crew strike affects 113,000 passengers  AP  ...Some 113,000 Lufthansa passengers were facing domestic and international cancellations Monday due to all-day walkouts at three German airports staged by a cabin crew union protesting cost cuts. The UFO flight attendant union says it will rotate its strike action to different airports as it presses its demands regarding early retirement payments...
Finance chair: Trade deal may need to be renegotiated  The Hill  ...The top Republican overseeing trade in the Senate on Friday suggested inadequate intellectual property protections may halt the passage of a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he is most concerned about a provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that provides pharmaceutical companies with up to eight years of exclusive rights to their clinical trial data, instead of the 12-year standard set by Congress six years ago...
How the five most contentious issues in Obama’s big trade deal turned out  Washington Post  ...The full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership became public Thursday, and there's a lot we still don't know about it. This deal isn't really about lowering tariffs, after all — much more importantly, it's the rulebook for trade across a giant region. While advocacy groups acknowledged some improvements from previous drafts, they're still worried that even the best provisions won't be enforced...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Text Released, Waving Green Flag for Debate  New York Times  ...The release on Thursday of the full text of President Obama’s trade accord with 11 Pacific Rim nations brought out opponents and supporters and officially opened what may be the last big battle of the president’s tenure: winning congressional approval of the largest regional trade deal in history. The opposition mainly came from the left, as an array of unions, environmental groups and public advocacy organizations that typically resist global trade agreements registered their dismay...
Historic Trade Deal Confirms Critics' Worst Fears  Huffington Post  ...The United States government released the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday, and a wide array of advocacy groups did not like what they saw. Organizations promoting climate change action and global health have long argued that the 12-nation trade deal would undermine participating countries’ freedom to set and preserve their own economic and social policies...
TPP revealed: Pact details ignite debate over privacy, internet freedom, whistleblowers  RT  ...With the release of the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sharpening of arguments on both sides outline a debate about privacy, corporatism, internet freedom and intellectual property, and even the plight of whistleblowers. The world got its first look at the international agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries on Thursday, exactly one month after it was finalized on October 5...
Chris Hedges: TPP Is the Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History  (opinion) Alternet  ...The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared. “The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history,” Ralph Nader told me...
Over three million Europeans sign anti-TTIP petition  DW.com  ...A European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) called "Stop TTIP" on Monday handed over an updated list of 3.28 million signatures from people opposed to the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the US. The list was given to the head of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, in Berlin, with the campaigners demanding a parliamentary hearing...
1 Worker Dies, 18 Faint at Cambodian Garment Factory  AP  ...One worker died and 18 others fainted at a garment factory in eastern Cambodia that has been closed pending an investigation, authorities said Friday. They were sent to a hospital, where a 21-year-old worker later died, he said. On Friday, 14 more workers fell ill with similar symptoms...
Rising Left Bloc in Portugal Could Threaten Austerity Drive  New York Times  ...Last month’s elections in Portugal were meant to deliver a clear verdict on the center-right coalition of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose austerity program has been held up as a model by creditors and countries like Germany that have advocated belt-tightening in Europe. Instead, it yielded a vexing muddle, allowing both left and right to claim victory...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-to-Work weighed heavily in Kentucky race for governor  PR News  ...Right-to-Work may not have been a front-and-center issue in the highly competitive race for governor in Kentucky, but it was a major issue behind the scenes. Those on both sides of the divisive Right-to-Work issue knew that whoever won the governor’s race in Kentucky might play a critical–if not pivotal–role on whether the state becomes the next to fall to Right-to-Work...
Fight for $15 rallies and strikes Tuesday supporting minimum wage hike  Cleveland.com  ...Demonstrations are planned throughout Ohio, including Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown, according to the labor-backed Fight for $15 movement, which is organizing the day of action. The locations of these rallies and the day on which they are being held is not by happenstance. Fight for $15, intends to send a political message by rallying on the steps of City Halls throughout the country...
Childcare Workers Make 40% Less Than the Nationwide Median Wage  The Nation  .... Tuesday’s protests in Atlanta and hundreds of other cities will launch the Fight for $15’s yearlong campaign leading up to Election Day. The SEIU-backed movement to press nationwide demands for a living wage and a union, now includes their demand as voters, that politicians commit to raising pay and working conditions. With hourly wages averaging about $10.30, childcare workers earn some 40 percent less than the nationwide median wage...
How Corrupt Is Your State?  Mother Jones  ...In Missouri, a lawmaker who pushed through a bill that prohibited cities from banning plastic bags in supermarkets also happened to be the director of the state's Grocer's Association. New Mexico lawmakers passed a resolution that exempted their emails from public scrutiny...
Wisconsin Begins Drug Testing Applicants For Food Stamps And Unemployment Benefits Today  Think Progress  ...On Monday, many Wisconsin residents who apply for food stamps, unemployment benefits, jobs training, or benefits and training from a handful of other state programs will have to be screened and potentially tested for drug use. Applicants will have to fill out a questionnaire about drug use, and depending on their answers, may have to submit to an actual test...

U.S. LABOR 
Ford UAW leaders meet to approve proposed agreement  Detroit Free Press  ...The UAW's top elected Ford leaders from around the country are in Detroit today to review a tentative agreement reached last week between the automaker and the union that would deliver $10,000 in signing bonuses and $9 billion in new U.S. product investments, retaining or creating 8,500 jobs...
UAW deals with Ford, GM enter critical week  The Detroit News  ...Monday marks the beginning of a critical week for labor negotiations between the United Auto Workers and two of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Labor leaders at Ford Motor Co. will convene at 10 a.m. Monday at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center on Jefferson in downtown Detroit to accept or reject a proposed tentative deal that the union and Dearborn automaker agreed to Friday afternoon...
AFSCME withdraws petition for OU call center union election  Athens News  ...A major public employees union, citing an alleged “aggressive” campaign undertaken by “hired union busters,” has withdrawn its petition for an election for student workers employed at Ohio University’s call center in Athens. The university and Wilson-Bennett Technology – the subcontractor OU pays to manage the alumni fundraising call center – have denied hiring the alleged union busting group...
Why Childcare Workers Are So Poor, Even Though Childcare Costs So Much  The Atlantic   ...Childcare is really expensive. In some states the costs can top 15 percent of the median income for a married couple. And when looking at single-family households, that burden can easily pass 40 percent of the median income. One place all that money is not going: the pockets of the workers doing all that childcare...
Rutgers group documents Trump Taj Mahal casino workers' fight for benefits  NJ.com  ...NJ Spark, a social justice journalism lab at Rutgers University, is chronicling the fight of workers at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotels to have their health insurance and pension benefits restored. The union is demanding the restoration of the workers' health insurance and pension benefits, which were stripped away by the casino's previous owner, Trump Entertainment Resorts, as part of a $14.6 million cost cutting campaign...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
With Mass Civil Disobedience, Young Activists March Against 'Broken System'  Common Dreams  ...Roughly 1,000 young activists are marching through the streets of Washington, D.C. on Monday in what they hope will be the largest-ever planned civil disobedience action to demand racial, immigration, and climate justice reform for a "broken" political system. Under the banner Our Generation, Our Choice, millenials from a range of grassroots advocacy organizations...
University of Missouri president resigns amid protests  Daily Kos  ...Today, faculty, students, graduate students, and student-athletes at the University of Missouri will be engaged in protests as the Board of Curators calls a special meeting to address a long-simmering racial tension and protest surrounding racial incidents on campus. The #ConcernedStudent1950 protests center around the hunger strike of Jonathan Butler, a graduate student who began the strike in response to several unaddressed incidents of bigotry...
Paul Krugman just made perfect sense of Donald Trump, Ben Carson and angry white Republican voters  Salon  ...Some people who feel left behind by the American story turn self-destructive; others turn on the elites they feel have betrayed them. No, deporting immigrants and wearing baseball caps bearing slogans won’t solve their problems, but neither will cutting taxes on capital gains. So you can understand why some voters have rallied around politicians who at least seem to feel their pain...

"Racism Isn't Funny": Trump's SNL Gig Draws Outrage, Calls to Disrupt Show  Common Dreams  ...From civil rights groups to lawmakers to Hollywood A-listers, members of the public are furious that the popular comedy program Saturday Night Live (SNL) has invited 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump—whose rhetoric demonizing immigrants has reportedly inspired hate crimes—to host its November 7th show...

At Unity, Teamsters look ahead to a bright future

Building Teamster Power at Unity Conference.

Some 1,600 Teamster brothers and sisters from across North America gathered together today as part of the 12th annual Unity Conference to share their success stories and speak truth to power about the increasingly perilous state of workers across the continent.

Rank-and-file union members joined with Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa as well as other Teamster leaders to let attendees know they all have a role in ensuring that Teamster Power will not flourish if they don't continue to contribute and speak out.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa

Hoffa said there are political forces that are trying to hamper the power of the Teamsters and the labor movement, both in Congress and in state capitals across the country. But he said the union won't sit quietly by and let that happen:

These people are crazy. They want to roll the clock back to 1890. We need to make sure we stand together. They are not going to get rid of us.

One of those fights is against fast track trade authority, which would allow lousy trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to move forward. Hoffa said the government shouldn't sacrifice good U.S. jobs for even bigger corporate profits:

We are not sending any more jobs out of America. Leave the damn jobs at home!

Hoffa greeted new Teamsters likes the 13,500 San Bernardino County, Calif. public workers who joined the union earlier this year. And he also gave a shout out to more than 11,000 Clark County, Nev. school district employees who won a battle against the state that nearly ensures those same workers will be joining the Teamsters after a planned union election this fall.

Elena Rodriguez, a clerical worker at the school district, said she and her fellow workers will be empowered once they can join the union:

With the Teamsters, we will have real power. This time next year, we will be your brother and sisters.

Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall

Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall said the union is in excellent financial shape, which will enable it to seek out organizing opportunities and flex its muscle when necessary to get better contracts for its members:

We have the money and the resources to take on the fights. That's what we're supposed to be doing.

That said, it was clear there have been plenty of victories for the Teamsters in the past year. Whether it was Facebook contract bus drivers, workers at several hubs of Fed Ex Freight and Con-way, port truck drivers in Los Angeles and Long Beach or Selland car haul workers, the victories kept coming.

For many, the union plays an important role in their life. A waste worker at Universal Waste in Los Angeles who recently joined Local 396 talked about how his life has improved for himself and his family since becoming a member.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Ceja Morones, a driver with new drayage trucking firm Eco Flow Transportation that will hire all its Southern California drivers as employees, said he is already winning by having a more stable job:

The Teamster have taught us how to fight our fights. With the support of the Teamsters, we will earn a good  wage, good benefits, and respect on the job.

Clark County worker Elena Rodriguez

But there are still more battles to be won. A worker at salad processing giant Taylor Farms in California's Central Valley talked about the company's ongoing illegal attacks on their right to organize. And there are other such challenges that must be defeated.

Beyond all the important talk of organizing and politics, the Unity Conference also provides an opportunity for leaders and members to get back in touch with what it means to be a Teamster. Preach Haynes, a trustee for Local 41 in Kansas City, said:

When you talk about Unity, it means you've got come out of your comfort zone and be willing to help under any circumstances and lend your ear to your members because their concerns are your concerns.

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...

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...

Today's Teamster News 07.30.13

Waste Drivers In Michigan Join Teamsters Local 337  IBT   ...On July 26, drivers who transport trash in their tractor-trailer rigs voted overwhelmingly to join Local 337 in Detroit/Port Huron...
Teamsters Still Question Mexican Truck Safety Despite Court Decision  IBT ...The Teamsters today questioned the safety of Mexican trucks after a federal court refused to rehear the union’s challenge to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s cross-border truck pilot program...
Teamster horse-and-carriage drivers lash out on ASPCA’s alleged anti-Christine Quinn moves  New York Daily News   ...Teamsters Local 533 says the ASPCA violated its nonprofit status by giving $450,000 over the past several years to New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, or NYCLASS, which wants to end the horse-carriage industry and runs a website called QuinnHatesAnimals.com...
Latest UPS Update  IBT   ...As you are aware, the national agreement was approved by a majority of Teamsters who voted. However, 17 supplements and riders were not approved...
Teamster Lake Transit workers vote to strike indefinitely  Lake County News   ...On Sunday, Lake Transit Authority workers, who are members of Teamsters Local 665, voted to strike until they settle their new contract--a move that's expected to result in curtailed services for the county's transit riders...
Massive Cuts Looming for MTD Bus Riders  Santa Barbara Independent   ...Four Lines Face Outright Elimination, Another 13 Threatened With Reduced Service. Unless funding is restored, 50 MTD bus drivers, who are represented by Teamsters Local 186, would be affected by the cuts...
BART And Unions Still Far Apart Before Strike Deadline  KCBS5 News   ...While Bay Area Rapid Transit worker contract talks were scheduled to continue this week, the transit agency’s management and labor unions remain as far apart as ever, offering little hope that an agreement will be made before the strike deadline August 4th...
Misclassification of employees carries penalties (opinion)  ABQ Journal   …This practice of misclassification has created substantial problems for affected employees and for the United States Treasury, the Social Security and Medicare...
Fast food strikes intensify in seven cities  Salon   ...The biggest walkout yet began yesterday morning -- and the strikes could have far-reaching implications for labor…
Teachers crowd final Raleigh 'Moral Monday' protest  Associated Press   ...Thousands of North Carolina teachers and other protesters on Monday staged one of the largest of the almost-weekly demonstrations opposing Republican policy decisions...
Michigan attorney general backs pensioners in Detroit bankruptcy  Global Post   ...Michigan's Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican, said on Saturday he would defend retirees who risk losing public pensions because of Detroit's bankruptcy, putting him at odds with the city's emergency manager appointed by fellow Republican Governor Rick Snyder...
Labor playing field needs to be leveled with ideas from both sides of the aisle (opinion)  Oakland Press   ...A recent guest opinion asserted that the passage of so-called Right-to-Work legislation in Michigan led to the state's mild economic recovery. To the contrary, it is highly doubtful that Michigan gained a single high-wage job as a result of Right-to-Work or any other piece of anti-labor legislation...
Quinn signs bill allowing online voter registration in Illinois  Chicago Tribune   ...Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed a measure into law Saturday that will make Illinois the 18th state to allow voters to register online...
Landmark California regulations under federal fire  Los Angeles Times   ...Companies are going through Congress to fight California's stricter workplace, consumer and environmental laws. Gridlock and sympathetic Republicans in the House could work in their favor...
State agencies crack down on local temp worker abuse  Burlington County Times   ...The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor in South Jersey has some advice for employers who think they are not responsible for making sure temporary workers are getting paid minimum wage: Don’t...
Openness lost in privatization  Muskogee Phoenix   ...A push toward the privatization of Oklahoma state services is spawning criticism from those who see the trend as the decline of government transparency and accountability...