Fairness still eludes many mothers on the job

The two-income American family has become increasingly necessary is an age where a majority of workers are being stifled by stagnant or even falling wages. Mothers who entered in the workforce were in previous decades derided for such a decision. But that is not the case today.

Teamsters make sure women are treated fairly on the job.

A new study shows all-time high support of mothers holding down jobs by both teens and adults. For 12th graders, only 22 percent currently believe a preschool-aged child would suffer if their mother worked, down from 34 percent in the 1990s and 59 percent in the 1970s. Meanwhile, some 35 percent currently believe young children are hurt by having working mothers, down from 42 percent in 1998 and 68 percent in 1977.

Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and a lead author of the study, said despite some stating that younger generations have turned against such a dynamic, the research doesn't bear that out:

This goes against the popular belief that millennials want to "turn back the clock," or that they are less supportive of working moms because their own mothers worked. Instead they are more supportive.

All this is as it should be. All women should be accepted in the workplace. After all, for many it is not a choice, but a necessity. Many single moms, for instance, are doing all they can to keep their families above water. But just because the public now supports the idea of moms on the job doesn't mean this country is making it easy for them to do so.

Take the lack of fairness in pay. Congress has repeatedly rejected the Paycheck Fairness Act in recent years. In essence, a majority of lawmakers are saying they don't have a problem with women making 78 cents on the dollar that men earn. It's nothing less than insulting.

Add to that the continuing problem of workers lacking paid sick leave as well as affordable childcare options, and working isn't really much of a deal for women. But many simply have no other option.

It is time U.S. elected officials recognize the value of women both at home and at work. They deserve equality in pay, and they should be allowed the flexibility to balance the home and work lives when events intervene.

Today's Teamster News 08.08.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Fully Ratify AEI Contract  teamster.org   ...The contract, which runs through Dec. 31, 2016, covers about 800 Teamsters across the U.S. employed by AEI, the domestic air freight forwarding arm of DHL Global Forwarding...
Wegmans: Teamsters fund dispute going to court  Rochester Democrat & Chronicle   ...Wegmans Food Markets has gone to federal court to resolve a dispute over workers' compensation payments to Teamsters-represented employees that the company says could cost it millions of dollars...
Trade
Pressure on Canada to Open Poultry Markets for Trade Talks with US  The Poultry Site   ...A powerful group of US members of Congress says the White House should cut Canada out of a major global trade deal unless it opens up its protected dairy and poultry markets...
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman Announces U.S. Victory in Challenge to China’s Rare Earth Export Restraints  Office of the USTR   ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman today announced that the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body found China’s export restraints on rare earths, tungsten, and molybdenum, which are used as key components in a multitude of U.S-made products for critical American manufacturing sectors, including hybrid car batteries, wind turbines, and energy-efficient lighting, to be inconsistent with China’s WTO obligations...
TTIP: Have We Lost Our Democratic Privileges?  The London Economic   ...As the European Commission and the US are busy negotiating a free trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), campaigners say they are increasingly worried citizens are losing their democratic privileges. While corporations are looking forward to an improved trade and regulatory cooperation between the US and EU, the opposition -which includes Pan-European civil society groups – is concerned that regulatory convergence will grind down hard-won social and environmental standards...
State Battles
Daniel Golden: Media go too easy on Scott Walker (opinion)  The Cap Times   ..."Wrong Way Walker" has achieved the impossible and launched Wisconsin on an economic death spiral...
Disney World, Union Strike Deal To Raise Minimum Wage  The Ledger   ...The world's most popular vacation resort recently struck an agreement with its largest union group. Last week, Walt Disney World and the Service Trades Council signed off on a 5½-year pact that will raise the minimum hourly pay for the union group's full-time workers to $10 by 2016...
Anchorage Assembly Repeals, Replaces City Labor Law  KTUU   ...The Anchorage Assembly voted 7-4 Tuesday night to repeal controversial ordinance AO37, Mayor Dan Sullivan's overhaul of how the city interacts with municipal workers....
Latest Blow To Gov. Brownback: Kansas Debt Downgrade  Wall Street Journal   ...Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is more stumbling than storming into the general election. On Tuesday night, results from the GOP primary showed 37% of those voting cast their ballots for a Republican political newcomer over Mr. Brownback. Then Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on Wednesday morning dropped Kansas’s credit rating by one notch, blaming the downgrade on a sharp slide in state revenues that followed deep tax cuts Mr. Brownback championed...
War On Workers
Part-Time Market Basket Workers Have Hours Cut  Boston Globe   ...Thousands of part-time workers at Market Basket stores have had their hours cut by half or more this week, as the cost of the unusual protest movement hits home for the employees seeking the reinstatement of ousted boss Arthur T. Demoulas...
Plot Thickens as 900 Writers Battle Amazon  New York Times   ...This latest uproar in Amazon’s three-month public battle with Hachette comes at a vulnerable moment for the Internet giant, which is rapidly transforming itself into an empire...
U.S. Labor Force: Where Have All the Workers Gone?  IMF Direct   ...The equivalent of 7.5 million workers have been lost from the U.S. labor force...
Fed Study Finds 2 million in "Forced Retirement", 52% Cannot Afford an Unexpected $400 Expense  Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis   ...Almost half of respondents had not planned financially for retirement, with 24 percent saying they had given only a little thought to financial planning for their retirement and another 25 percent saying they had done no planning at all...
The Federal Reserve Is Telling Us The Economy Is Pitiful  Huffington Post   ...Just 30 percent of survey respondents described themselves as better off than they were in 2008, with 34 percent saying they were doing about the same and 34 percent saying they were worse off...
Worker Killed When Crate Falls From Truck In The Bronx  CBS News   ...A construction worker was killed Tuesday when a heavy crate fell on him as he unloaded a truck near the Throgs Neck Bridge in in the Bronx...
Cornering the Zero-Day Market  Cryptome   ...“The CIA and the big corporations were, in my experience, in step with each other. Later I realized that they may argue about details of strategy - a small war here or there. However, both are vigorously committed to supporting the system.”...
What If Walmart's CEO Took A Pay Cut For His Workers?  Vox   ...The compensation packages of all 500 of the biggest corporations' CEOs are worth enough to boost all full-time minimum wage workers' annual pay by nearly $5,000...
Miscellaneous
Really Big Number Spent on High Speed Rail  Center for Economic and Policy Research   ... the federal government has spent roughly $550 billion on transportation over the last six years, so spending on high speed rail would be roughly 2.0 percent of total transportation spending...

Today's Teamster News 07.02.14

Teamster News
RTC Bus Driver Contract Extended To July 31  Reno Gazette-Journal   ...A contract extension until July 31 for Washoe County public transit employees was agreed to today by their labor union and MV Transportation, which operates the transit system for the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County...
Labor Board Rules In Favor Of Union  Bennington Banner   ...Nearly a month after a single challenged ballot left the notion of Green Mountain Express bus driver joining the Teamsters Union hanging, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled in the union’s favor...
'Longmire' Crew Member's Death Is Suspected to Be Caused by Too-Long Working Hours  AceShowBiz   ...A crew member of A&E's crime drama series "Longmire" named Gary Tuck, 48, died early morning on Saturday, June 28, in a car accident. Gary's truck rolled over on a highway in an area known as Stanley, N. M. when he was on his way home from the drama's set around 4:30 A.M. Gary was a member of Teamsters Local 492...
NYCLASS Furious That Bill de Blasio Hasn’t Banned Horse Carriages Yet  New York Observer   ...Mr. de Blasio and his advisers have been shying away from banning the Central Park-based carriages, sources say, and are not pressuring the City Council to pass a bill after promising last year the carriages would be history when he took office...
Trade
Plan a Made-in-the-USA July 4th Celebration  manufacture this   ...Display your stars and stripes with a Made in the USA flag (you’d be surprised – not all flags are!)...
State Battles
Private Contractor For Michigan Prisons Repeatedly Failed To Give Inmates Enough Food  Think Progress   ...Less than a year after Michigan shifted responsibility for feeding its prisoners to a private contract with international food services conglomerate Aramark, the state Department of Corrections (DOC) is warning the company that it may yank the contract if chronic food shortages and security violations don’t cease...
The Minimum Wage Will Increase Tomorrow In D.C.  Washington City Paper   ...Beginning tomorrow, the minimum wage will jump to $9.50 per hour from today's $8.25...
California Minimum Wage Rising To $9 Per Hour Tuesday  KCRA   ...California's minimum wage will rise to $9 an hour when a new law takes effect on Tuesday and provides workers with the first such increase since 2008. That amount will increase again to $10 an hour starting on Jan. 1, 2016, under AB10, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last fall...
Gov. Scott Walker to blame for poor job growth (opinion)  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...The 2011-'12 reductions of 10% in real per student K-12 spending were the fourth-largest in the nation. Cuts in higher education spending, the reduction in the purchasing power of state employees through Act 10 and foregone federal dollars in Walker's rejection of high-speed rail and Medicaid investments all helped dampen aggregate demand in the state (compared to other states) and throw sand in the gears of Wisconsin's job creation machinery...
Dead Last in Jobs in the Midwest  Wisconsin State AFL-CIO   ...You know what doesn’t create jobs?  Rejecting high-speed rail projects, failing to expand Medicaid for the poor, focusing on voter disenfranchisement laws instead of job growth policies, taking money out of local economies with austerity policies such as Act 10, tax cuts for the rich and a lack of accountability and transparency in the WEDC, the jobs agency created by Gov. Walker that has been plagued by scandals...
Whistling Past the Intellectual Graveyard  Econbrowser   ...After three years of an experiment in ALEC-Laffernomics, Kansas lags the US economy significantly...
War On Workers
America Ranks 36th in Feeling Free to Choose What to Do With Your Life  firedoglake   ...many of the first world countries where people are more satisfied with their freedom of choice are the Scandinavian countries with very large social safety nets. Despite the Republican claim that a “government takeover” of health care would destroy our freedom, those countries with far more government involvement in health care feel freer...
Why is Washington still protecting the secret political power of corporations? (opinion)  Guardian   ...Regulators at the SEC could illuminate the future of campaign donations. But they aren't interested in disclosing the truth – even though voters are...
Profiteering on Banker Deaths: Regulator Says Public Has No Right to Details  Wall Street on Parade   ... JPMorgan held $17.9 billion in Bank-Owned Life Insurance (BOLI) assets, a dark corner of the insurance market that allows banks to take out life insurance policies on their workers, secretly pocket the death benefits, and receive generous tax perks subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer...
Miscellaneous
Court Gave NSA Broad Leeway In Surveillance, Documents Show  Washington Post   ...Virtually no foreign government is off-limits for the National Security Agency, which has been authorized to intercept information “concerning” all but four countries, according to top-secret documents...
Here Are 4 Lawsuits That Could Inflict More Damage On Unions After Harris V. Quinn  Mother Jones   ...It's possible that one of these cases could do further damage to the labor movement—with the potential to wipe out the precedent set in 1977's Abood v. Detroit Board of Education decision. (In Abood, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of public-employee unions collecting fair-share fees from non-members to pay the costs of collective bargaining.)...

Today's Teamster News 06.27.14

Teamster News
Supreme Court Ruling Forces NLRB to Scramble to Revisit Cases  Wall Street Journal   ...The Supreme Court ruling that President Barack Obama exceeded his authority in 2012 by appointing three people to the National Labor Relations Board kicks off a scramble by the current board to revisit hundreds of labor decisions made while the now-departed appointees were seated...The company, a division of Noel Corp. of Yakima, Wash., argued the recess appointments were invalid, leaving the NLRB without a quorum when it made the bottler comply with a Teamsters collective-bargaining agreement...
Supreme Court Rebukes Obama on Right of Appointment  New York Times   ...At the same time, the court largely reinstated an uneasy, centuries-long accommodation between the executive branch and the Senate, in which recess appointments were allowed during more substantial breaks...
EVSC employee groups represented by Teamsters Local 215 have until noon Friday to accept 'final offer'  Evansville Courier & Press   ...Teamsters Local 215 have until noon Friday to accept the EVSC School Board's final offer...
Ulster RRA Approves New Contract With Teamster Employees  Mid Hudson News   ...The Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency Board has approved a four-year contract with Teamsters Local 445. The last agreement between the workers and the RRA expired at the end of 2012...
Twinsburg Teamster's Union To See 3% Raises Under New Contract  Twinsburg Bulletin   ...The union employees of the city's wastewater treatment department will see three percent raises to their hourly wages under a new contract approved between the city and Teamsters Local No. 436....
Fed-Up Uber Drivers Give Company Policies A One-Star Rating  LAist   ...A large group of Uber drivers, their family members and teamsters gathered in front of the company's office in Santa Monica on Tuesday to protest what they called a "general lack of communication, arbitrary treatment and unfair business practices." They're also lobbying for state legislation that they say would protect their livelihoods...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership (NAFTA On Steroids) Threatens Sovereignty  The New American   ...Of all the weapons aimed at our freedom and founding documents, though, there is perhaps none more potent than the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
New York’s Ban on Big Sodas Is Rejected by Final Court  New York Times   ...The Bloomberg big-soda ban is officially dead...
With Minimum Wage Increase Accomplished, Massachusetts Labor Activists Turn To Campaign For Earned Sick Time  MassLive   ...The Legislature passed, and Gov. Deval Patrick is expected to sign, a bill raising the state's minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2017....
Wisconsin second only to Alabama in cuts to education funding, study shows  The Cap Times   ...Spending per pupil in Wisconsin was down $1,038 from 2008 for the school year just ended. Alabama cut per-pupil spending by $1,242...
Lawyer clarifies Walker not target  Politico   ...“At the time the investigation was halted, Governor Walker was not a target of the investigation,” Schmitz lawyer Randall Crocker wrote in a one-page statement...
LePage includes Social Security among ‘welfare’ programs  Portland Press Herald   ...He also puts Medicare and jobless aid in that category while arguing that Maine’s personal-income ranking would be better if such federal payments were excluded...
Secrecy in Pensions Triggers Legislative Brawl in North Carolina  Bloomberg   ...(North Carolina Treasurer Janet) Cowell, a 45-year-old Democrat, opposed a bill by the State Employees Association of North Carolina to require more disclosure about deals with Wall Street firms hired to manage alternatives to stocks and bonds for the $87 billion pension she controls...
War On Workers
What’s at Stake in Harris v. Quinn  Economic Policy Institute   ...The Supreme Court is about to issue a decision on a case that could hit working people—especially working women—right in the paycheck. Harris v. Quinn is about isolating individual workers so they are weak and unable to protect themselves in a labor market that fails to reward their hard work...
Oakland emails give another glimpse into the Google-Military-Surveillance Complex  Pando Daily   ...The “Domain Awareness Center” (DAC) — a federally funded project that, if built as planned, would link up real time audio and video feeds from thousands of sensors across the city — including CCTV cameras in public schools and public housing projects, as well as Oakland Police Department mobile license plate scanners ... city officials were more interested in using DAC’s surveillance capabilities to monitor political protests rather than fighting crime. The evidence was abundant and overwhelming: in email after email, Oakland officials had discussed the DAC usefulness for keeping tabs on activists, monitoring non-violent political protests and minimize port disruption due to union/labor strikes...
'We Need Respect: Meet The New 'Rosie The Riveters'  Washington Post   ...From the cashier at the Pentagon Dunkin’ Donuts to the custodian at Union Station, working women, mothers and grandmothers from about 50 companies that do business with the federal government marched to call for higher wages and the right to unionize...
Ikea Will Raise The Minimum Wage For Its American Workers  Think Progress   ...Ikea will announce Thursday a plan to raise its average minimum wage at U.S. stores to $10.76 an hour, a 17 percent increase over the current wage...
Consumer Inflation Hits Highest Level Since 2012, Near Fed’s 2% Target  Wall Street Journal   ...The price index for personal consumption expenditures — the Fed’s preferred gauge — advanced 1.8% in May from a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That was the highest level since October 2012 and a stark pickup from February when annual inflation stood at just 0.8%...
Miscellaneous
Pilots To Begin Contract Negotiations With American in July  SkyTalk   ...American Airlines and its pilots union have agreed to begin contract talks on July 8, the union said on Tuesday. The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American's pilots, said it plans to tackle challenging issues in the contract talks with management...
Union Group Hits $10B Goal, Has Money To Lend On U.S. Infrastructure  Denver Post   ...One of the nation's largest trade union federations announced Tuesday at The Clinton Global Initiative in Denver it has raised $10 billion for investment in America's built infrastructure that it pledged in 2011...

Today's Teamster News 03.20.14

Teamster News
CCTA Strike Continues, Management Awaits Offer  Vermont Public Radio   ...Two days into their strike, Chittenden County Transportation Authority bus drivers represented by Teamsters Local 597 said Tuesday they have prepared a counter-offer for management...
Amboy School District Workers Ratify Teamster Contract  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...Secretaries, aides, cooks and custodians with Amboy Community School District 272 in central Illinois, who are members of Teamsters Local 722, recently ratified a new three-year agreement that includes better wages, paid holidays and stronger contract language...
Teamsters Union: Hernando violated hiring process for fire chief   Hernando Today   ...Dan Oliver, a steward for Teamsters Local 79, said Hernando County violated its own hiring policy by not posting a job opening for public safety director in-house before seeking outside candidates...
Teamsters Union: More rail workers needed to solve grain transportation backlog  The Canadian Press   ...A cold winter and a record crop have been blamed for a grain transportation backlog, but a Teamsters spokesman says that’s not the whole story...
Trade
Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal Would Deepen Income Divide  Truthout   ...“Those at the top have never done better,” President Obama ruefully acknowledged in his January 28 State of the Union speech. “But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened.”...
China Keeps Moving Forward While America Falls Behind – and We Are Doing Nothing About It!  Trade Reform   ...Our political leaders often deemphasize the downturn in American manufacturing by touting a focus on areas such as new, high tech manufacturing and alternative energy, but it appears China has the same goals and is taking targeted steps to meet them...
Korea Trade Agreement – Exports Actually Decrease  Trade Reform ...Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, never talks about balance of trade. But the USTR is embarrassed that our exports to Korea actually decreased since the Korea trade and global government agreement was passed. Yes. Exports (not net exports) decreased...
State News
“Right to Work” bill trying to gain steam in Missouri  KBIA   "...I’ve seen folks go down to parts of Mississippi and were working for $12 an hour, union jobs, while up in Missouri they’re making $28 an hour at the time..."
Right-to-work is dangerous fraud (Opinion)  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ..The right-to-work proposal being considered in the Missouri Legislature is a dangerous fraud.As American citizens, we already have the right to seek employment and to work. But under a right-to-work law, we would continue to work — for less money and fewer benefits than we already have...
Gov. Cuomo Signs Bill Extending Effective Date of New Independent Contractor Law in New York  Independent Contractor Compliance   ...After months of uncertainty, the law of independent contractor misclassification in New York State will change on April 10, 2014. The new law affects transportation and delivery companies in New York that classify certain drivers that deliver commercial goods in the state as independent contractors...
Thirty-nine Moral Monday Georgia activists arrested in daylong Medicaid expansion protests at the Gold Dome  Creative Loafing   ...Nearly 40 Moral Monday Georgia activists today were arrested for interrupting proceedings throughout the Georgia Capitol in an effort to urge Gov. Nathan Deal to expand Medicaid - and block legislation that would strip him of the authority to do so...
Wisconsin Republican Legislator Tears Into His Own Party For Voter Suppression  ThinkProgress   ...it ought to be abundantly clear to everybody in this state that there is no massive voter fraud. The only thing that we do have in this state is we have long lines of people who want to vote. And it seems to me that we should be doing everything we can to make it easier, to help these people get their votes counted...
Costly Loans Are Drawing Attention From States  New York Times   ...States are increasing efforts to shield vulnerable Americans from short-term loans with interest rates that can exceed 300 percent...
Minnesota GOP Lawmaker Says Sick Leave, Equal Pay Bills Make Women 'Look Like Whiners' Huffington Post   ...A package of bills in Minnesota that would enhance women's economic security by raising the minimum wage, providing paid family and sick leave and addressing the gender pay gap makes women "look like whiners," said State Rep. Andrea Kieffer (R) last week...
War on Workers
McDonald's Reviews Wage Theft Claims As Workers In 30 Cities Protest For Overtime Pay  Forbes   ...Tuesday’s protest in midtown Manhattan was one of dozens planned in 30 cities across the U.S., coming as McDonald’s faces class-action lawsuits in New York, California and Michigan for what workers describe as “wage theft...”
Fast-food workers get new ally in New York City fight for fair pay  The Guardian   ...A hotline for fast-food workers to anonymously report allegations of illegal or unjust pay practices by their bosses would be set up in New York under plans to build on a national campaign to improve conditions for American workers...
Supremes Could Decide Sky's the Limit for Campaign Donations  Public News Service   ...Another major Supreme Court decision on campaign finance could come as early as next week. In McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission, Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon said his First Amendment rights are violated when he cannot give a $2,600 donation to as many parties and candidates for federal office as he pleases. Many groups working to get money out of politics hope the high court rules against McCutcheon...
Reports of the Death of a National License-Plate Tracking Database Have Been Greatly Exaggerated  The Intercept   ... the databases are growing at a furious pace due to rapidly improving technology and ample federal grant money for more cameras and more computers. Tens if not hundreds of millions of observations per month are streaming into bulging electronic archives, often remaining there indefinitely, for a vast array of clients in both the public and private sector...
Expand Overtime Pay? GOP Says No  In These Times   ...Republicans apparently don’t believe that Americans who work longer hours should get paid more...
Meet the ‘Missing Workers’  In These Times   ...More than 5 million Americans have given up hope of a job. Who are they?...
7-11 Clerk Says She Was Fired For Giving Freezing Homeless Man A $1 Cup Of Coffee ThinkProgress   ...The worker felt compelled to help him after her own recent brush with homelessness...
Woman Whose Boss Told Her ‘It’s Best You Go Home With Your Babies’ Won’t Get Discrimination Trial  ThinkProgress   ...Angela Ames was on her first morning back from maternity leave and couldn’t gain access to the lactation room when her department head told her, “I think it’s best that you go home to be with your babies,” handing her a pen and paper and dictating the contents of a resignation letter...
Hershey Investors Suing Over Child Labor Can Pursue Files  Bloomberg   ...Hershey Co., the largest chocolate maker in the U.S., was ordered to face a lawsuit by investors seeking to force it to turn over records about cocoa from African farms that may use illegal child labor...
The Law that Launched a Boondoggle: Gold for Executives, Contempt for Taxpayers  CounterPunch   ...Jamie Dimon took high heat over his 74% mega-raise, but he’s not at fault. The blame goes to a 1993 boondoggle for bigwigs—a boondoggle that’s cost taxpayers by the billions ever since. Congress should call a halt, and the country’s mood could push it to do just that...
Miscellaneous
IRS says security breach affected 20,000 employees, but no taxpayer records  Reuters   ...The personal data of about 20,000 U.S. Internal Revenue Service employees going back to 2007 or earlier may have been exposed on the Internet, but no general taxpayer information or records were part of the security breach, the agency said on Tuesday...
Toyota and Justice Department said to reach $1.2 billion settlement in criminal case  Los Angeles Times   ...Toyota Motor Co. and the Justice Department have agreed on a $1.2-billion settlement to close a criminal probe into whether the automaker handled cases of sudden acceleration...
Google Won’t Face Group E-Mail Privacy Lawsuit: Judge  Bloomberg News   ...Google Inc. won a major victory in its fight against claims it illegally scanned private e-mail messages to and from Gmail accounts, defeating a bid to unify lawsuits in a single group case on behalf of hundreds of millions of Internet users...