TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Despite Deal, Resistance to TPP Grows in All Corners Huffington Post ...We know a bad deal when we see one and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) just announced in Atlanta sure looks like one. Hundreds of Teamsters were joined in the streets of Atlanta this past week by other fair trade advocates sticking up for everyday Americans who could be damaged by the TPP. Unfortunately, negotiators from the U.S. and the other involved nations did not listen...
Shuttle Drivers with Dollar Thrifty Choose Teamsters Local 299 Teamster.org ...Detroit shuttle drivers with Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings, have voted to join the Teamsters. The 15 shuttle drivers transport passengers to and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the rental car facility. They united seeking respect and the protections of a union contract...
Tentative Agreement Reached for Teamster Flight Attendants at NetJets Teamster.org ...In a message to Teamster flight attendants at NetJets Aviation (NJA) this week, Teamsters Local 284 President Paul Suffoletto announced that a tentative agreement covering NJA’s 278 flight attendants had been reached. As with any tentative agreement, there’s still work to be done to finalize the definitions, develop implementation timelines and transition agreements, create explanatory materials, and proof and clean up the language before it is submitted to the flight attendants for a ratification...
Illinois Training Center Goes Extra Mile Teamster.org ...Talking with Mike Borjas, the director of the Illinois Teamsters Joint Council No. 25 Employers Apprenticeship and Training Fund in Joliet, Illinois, you’d think that he was drawing up a lesson plan for training military personnel. But, his goal is providing the best training for Teamsters working in the construction trades as he can. Fortunately for the union, he is accomplishing this every day...
Bid to unionize Uber, Lyft advances Seattle Times ...Seattle City Council members voted 7-0 in a committee Friday to move ahead with a bill that would help independent-contractor drivers for companies like Uber to unionize. The bill, championed by Councilmember Mike O’Brien in partnership with the Teamsters Local 117, is a new approach by labor organizers to unionize workers who lack certain rights because they’re not classified as employees...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Pacific Rim trade pact gets skeptical greeting in U.S. Congress Reuters ...A 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact hammered out over the weekend in Atlanta got a rocky response in Washington on Monday from U.S. lawmakers, indicating it has a long, difficult road ahead as Congress considers whether or not to approve it. Even influential Republicans, who had championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), initially criticized the result but didn't pinpoint specific concerns...
Republicans Sour on Obama's Trade Pact The Atlantic ...Having secured a landmark trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, President Obama is now relying on trade-loving Republicans to ratify it in Congress. But as details of the pact emerge, the chances of widespread GOP support are dicier than they once were. Senior Republicans have long been the loudest cheerleaders for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yet on Monday those same Republicans criticized the very deal that they gave Obama the power to strike...
Sanders Condemns 'Disastrous' TPP as Ministers Seal Deal for Corporate Elite Common Dreams ...Amid a last minute scramble, leaders from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries announced Monday that they had reached agreement on a sweeping trade deal, one that critics, including US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, say will slash standards and protections for both consumers and workers—with impacts to be felt across the globe...
Will Hillary Clinton flip on trade? Politico ...As much as she might want it, Hillary Clinton won’t get a free pass on free trade. Clinton has presented herself as a skeptic of the biggest trade deal in recent history, saying this summer that “we should be prepared to walk away” from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership unless it boosts Americans’ wages and national security. But with a deal announced Monday after months of backstage wrangling, she will be under intense pressure to take a stance...
Trade Officials Announce Conclusion of TPP—Now the Real Fight Begins (opinion) EFF ...Trade officials have announced today that they have reached a final deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Their announcement came after a drawn out round of negotiation in Atlanta, Georgia, which was mainly held up around disagreements over medicine patent rules and tariffs over autos and dairy. We have no reason to believe that the TPP has improved much at all from the last leaked version released in August...
Air France Workers Rip Shirts From Top Managers in Jobs Protest Bloomberg ...Air France executives were forced to flee with their clothes in tatters after workers stormed a meeting at Charles de Gaulle airport in protest at 2,900 planned job cuts. Violence erupted Monday as Air France told its works council that 300 pilots, 900 flight attendants and 1,700 ground staff might have to go after failed productivity talks with flight crew...
Outrage Stirred as Police Deploy Snipers to 'Observe' Anti-Austerity March in UK Common Dreams ...As the national Conservative Party in the U.K. held its annual meeting in Manchester over the weekend, an anti-austerity demonstration against the ruling party's economic policies attracted not only tens of thousands of people to march peacefully... but a few police snipers to keep "watch" over those who oppose the government's gutting of the public sector...
South Africa: 30,000 Miners Strike Over Pay Demand Morning Star ...Some 30,000 South African coalminers downed tools on Sunday night after cross-sector pay talks broke down. Conciliation came to an abrupt end last week when parties could not reach an agreement over demands by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) demand for a 1,000 rand (£48) rise for the lowest paid workers and 14 per cent for artisans, miners and officials...
Indigenous Communities Seek Autonomous Development Projects in Guatemala Truthout ...As Guatemala faces its greatest political crisis since the 1980s, behind the scenes, plans for the United States' Alliance for Prosperity continue to move along. The expansion of hydroelectric construction projects and the further integration of electric grids are central to the plan, yet these projects threaten indigenous communities' land rights...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Maine Governor Revives Old Rule To Punish Poor People For Saving Money Think Progress ...Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has already knocked tens of thousands of people of his state’s food stamps rolls through a variety of stringent new rules for the program, but he’s not done. At a hearing Tuesday, state officials will lay out a new barrier to entry for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applicants that most other states have abandoned in recent years...
Opponents ask court to relax Wisconsin voter ID requirements Journal Sentinel ...Opponents of Wisconsin's voter identification law argued in federal court Monday that the legislation is improperly restrictive and should be expanded to allow people to use more forms of ID. The case represents the latest push from the American Civil Liberties Union against a law that has been the focus of a string of legal battles since it was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker four years ago...
Hearing set on Voter ID legal challenge Winston-Salem Journal ...The voter ID law will be back in federal court later this month. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder plans to hold a hearing Oct. 23 to get an update on efforts to settle the legal claims against the photo ID requirement. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s Voter Information Verification Act...
These Lawmakers Want D.C. To Be The First City To Guarantee Paid Family Leave Think Progress ...On Tuesday, seven city councilmembers in the District of Columbia will introduce a paid family leave bill that would create the most progressive system in the country and serve as a model for other cities that might be interested in paid leave. If it eventually gets passed and signed into law, it would be the first city-level program in the country...
Alabama ‘clarifies’ voter ID confusion (opinion) Boston Globe ...If anyone still doubts that the Republican push for voter identification is really about limiting the franchise of Democratic voters — and in particular African-American voters — the state of Alabama has helpfully cleared up the confusion. In 2014, Alabama passed a law that required all of its citizens have a photo ID in order to vote...
U.S. LABOR
Adjuncts Win Union Contract at Maryland Institute College of Art In These Times ...The national movement to unionize part-time faculty at U.S. colleges and universities has secured an initial beachhead in the Baltimore area with ratification of a first contract between Service Employees International Union Local 500 and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Voting on the ratification concluded in mid-September and a formal signing ceremony for the pact is set for October 8, labor representatives report...
We must despise our kids: Our ugly war on teachers must end now Salon ...With September’s data in, we can see how many teachers went back to school this year. And Gould finds that the tremendous gap that opened up when local budgets crashed during the recession has not come close to being filled. At the peak, we had 8.1 million public K-12 education teachers and staff in July 2008. Seven years later, we have far less, 7.8 million, despite a larger population of students that need to be served...
Contra Costa County Nurses Begin Two-Day Strike Tues. Oct 6 IndyBay ...Nurses who work at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and clinics across the County will officially begin a two-day strike Tuesday, October 6, after what nurses say is the County’s continued failure to address serious patient care concerns. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents almost 1,000 County registered nurses, nurse practitioners and public health nurses, called on the County to immediately improve working conditions...
Supreme Court ‘right-to-work’ case could speed decline of unions Al Jazeera ...The Supreme Court will soon take up a case that could impose a de facto “right-to-work” rule across the public sector, eliminating public employee unions’ ability to require fees from nonmembers and, labor leaders say, threatening the unions’ survival. Labor officials often complain that right-to-work rules create a “free rider” problem...
UAW pledges new approach to members for FCA deal Detroit News ...United Auto Workers leaders are promising to handle a second round of contract talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV differently than the first discussions that culminated with membership overwhelmingly voting down a tentative four-year deal. In separate messages published online Monday, UAW President Dennis Williams and Vice President Norwood Jewell said they will not only address members’ issues with the contract itself, but communicate better...
Deere deal: Did UAW workers come out ahead? Des Moines Register ...United Auto Workers voted Sunday to ratify a six-year contract with Deere & Co., deciding that a modest pay bump and increased job security outweighed increases in their medical costs. The Moline, Ill.-based maker of iconic farm and construction equipment said the United Auto Workers union notified the company...
A Union Leader Who Always Knew Which Side He Was On The Nation ...Marty Beil knew which side he was on. He was a union man. Indeed, as Congressman Mark Pocan noted after Beil’s death last week at age 68, “Marty embodied the longstanding Wisconsin tradition of fighting for workers’ rights and protections.” Beil’s commitment to trade unionism was old-school and unequivocal. He was ready to bargain; but if the deal was no good, he took the fight to the streets...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Infrastructure Creaks, Congress Dithers Wall Street Journal ...Back in July, Congress failed, once again, to pass a long-term highway bill to make improvements in the nation’s transportation system. Instead of funding big infrastructure needs with a multiyear plan, as once was the norm in Washington, lawmakers passed a bill covering a grand total of three months—the 34th time since 2009 Congress has passed a temporary Band-Aid...
'Once-In-A-Millenium' Flooding Creates 'Otherworldly Scenes' in South Carolina Common Dreams ...South Carolina's once-in-a-millennium flooding this weekend left at least seven people dead and much of the state paralyzed—and as rains continued into Monday morning, officials warned that the deluge is likely to worsen. Climate scientists have linked South Carolina's catastrophic rains to climate change. "Joaquin has been traveling over a record-warm ocean surface and undoubtedly that has contributed to its rapid intensification," Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told The Huffington Post...
War Crime in Afghanistan?: Outrage After U.S. Airstrike on Hospital Kills 22 Patients & Staff Democracy Now ...Doctors Without Borders is demanding an independent international inquiry into a U.S. airstrike Saturday on an Afghan hospital in the city of Kunduz that killed 22 people, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, three of them children. At least three dozen people were injured. The attack continued for 30 minutes after the U.S. and Afghan militaries were informed by telephone that the hospital was being bombed...
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015
New TPP deal meets resistance from all sides
 |
| Georgia Teamsters joined in protest of TPP in Atlanta last week. |
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa noted that everyday workers gain nothing from the TPP -- not new jobs, not higher wages or even better products imported into the U.S. Instead, the pact is all for the good of big business:
The Teamsters and many, many others just don't see any value in what TPP brings to this country. First and foremost is the deal won't create any new jobs here. That is significant and can't be pushed aside by proponents. After all, TPP backers like to insist it will result in new work for Americans, although they can never quite explain how. There's a reason why their responses are so vague.But disagreement over the deal stretches much further than just the Teamsters and other unions. Indeed, politicians on all side of the political spectrum voiced their displeasure with the deal soon after it was announced this morning.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a leading presidential candidate, said:
Wall Street and other big corporations have won again. It is time for the rest of us to stop letting multi-national corporations rig the system to pad their profits at our expense.But more surprising was the statement of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a proponent of the agreement, who argues it isn't up to snuff:
Closing a deal is an achievement for our nation only if it works for the American people and can pass Congress by meeting the high-standard objectives laid out in bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority. While the details are still emerging, unfortunately I am afraid this deal appears to fall woefully short.And maybe the most enlightening is the comments made by Ziad Ojakli, Ford Motor Company's Group Vice President for Government and Community Relations, who notes the deal doesn't address currency manipulation concerns that would drive up U.S. trade deficits:
To ensure the future competitiveness of American manufacturing, we recommend Congress not approve TPP in its current form, and ask the Administration to renegotiate TPP and incorporate strong and enforceable currency rules. This step is critical to achieving free trade in the 21st century.Add that up, and you've got a lot of unhappy people representing different parts of the public and private sectors. In short, this is a bad deal that doesn’t deserve the stamp of approval from Congress. As the Teamsters have stressed as part of our new Let’s Get America Working campaign, businesses need to invest at home, not abroad. And elected officials need to remember who they serve. Corporations aren't people too.
Today's Teamster News 10.05.15
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa Says Tenuous TPP Agreement Does Not Listen to Workers' Concerns Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to trade officials reaching an agreement on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal which would lead to thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas and unsafe food and products flooding our store shelves. “Bum trade deals like NAFTA have killed upwards of 1 million U.S. jobs, many of which moved abroad. And that’s the concern with the looming TPP"...
Don't break faith with workers on multiemployer pension plans: Marcy Kaptur and James P. Hoffa (opinion) Cleveland Plain Dealer ...This year, as we celebrate its 41st anniversary, ERISA's pension protections are crumbling. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Department held a hearing in Washington, D.C., on finalizing a rule that opens the door to significant pension cuts including for current retirees. More than 100 retirees traveled to Washington, D.C., at their own expense to protest, and dozens spoke out against the rule at the hearing...
Union Continues Fight for CVS Pharmacists’ Breaks Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 representatives continue to fight to ensure CVS pharmacist members are no longer denied their breaks and meal periods. Earlier this year, the union filed a grievance on behalf of all members for the company’s denial of uninterrupted breaks and meal periods. CVS management refused to work with the union to resolve the grievance, so Local 727’s legal department is taking the case to arbitration...
Strike, protests could happen for tech bus drivers, union warns SF Gate ...A union representing tech bus drivers warned members to prepare to strike if their employer, Compass Transportation, refuses to budge on giving them better health care benefits and more holidays. The drivers shuttle employees for large companies, including Apple, Genentech, Yahoo, eBay, PayPal and Evernote, and are represented by the Teamsters Union...
Teamsters Demand Reinstatement of Haitian Worker Unfairly Dismissed From Heineken Plant Teamsters Canada ...On September 1st, Wilson Celiné, an employee of Brasserie Nationale d’Haïti, showed up for work as usual, only to be handed a dismissal letter. Hired as a maintenance technician in 2006 by this subsidiary of multinational Heineken International, this engineer by profession and labour activist incurred the wrath of his employer by participating in a union activity and filing a complaint...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached New York Times ...The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. The Trans-Pacific Partnership still faces months of debate in Congress...
Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific Partnership Reuters ...Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal on the most sweeping trade liberalization pact in a generation that will cut trade barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an official familiar with the talks said on Monday. Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments...
Sanders blasts ‘disastrous’ Obama trade deal The Hill ...Sen. Bernie Sanders labeled a new trade deal finalized by the Obama administration on Monday as “disastrous,” and said he would work to defeat it. Sanders, the Vermont senator leading Hillary Clinton in polls of New Hampshire, said the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal will lead to the loss of U.S. jobs, adding he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the decision to complete it. “Wall Street and other big corporations have won again,” Sanders said...
TPP Would Include Auto Market Opening for Japan New York Times ...A U.S.-Japan agreement on autos trade as part of a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal would have its own dispute settlement mechanism, including penalties, if Japan does not open its market enough to U.S. vehicles, a source close to the negotiations said on Friday. Negotiators are working to finalize a trade deal which would stretch from Japan to Peru and autos trade has been one of a few remaining and politically charged sticking points...
If There Really Is a Final TPP Deal: Can It Pass Congress? When Does Congress Get to See a Final Text? Citizen.org ...If there really is a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, its fate in Congress is highly uncertain given the narrow margin by which trade authority passed this summer, the concessions made to get a deal, and growing congressional and public concerns about the TPP’s threats to jobs, wages, safe food and affordable medicines and more...
Australia, US reach trade compromise Business Review ...The US and Australia are in agreement on an elaborate compromise within the Trans-Pacific Partnership to protect the intellectual property of complex drugs known as biologics, according to industry officials and an organisation following the talks. Under the bilateral deal, whose exact language is believed to be incomplete, countries in the trade bloc would have an alternative of either providing eight years of exclusivity to biologic drugs, or providing five years of so-called data exclusivity...
Three million people across Europe call for TTIP to be scrapped Economic Voice ...A Europe-wide petition calling for a halt to the trade deals being negotiated between the EU and the USA and Canada has reached three million signatures in the space of one year, days before it will be delivered to the European Commission in Brussels. Over 500,000 of the signatures that had been collected were from people resident in the UK. This morning 3,007,065 had signed the petition...
Anti-austerity protesters march in Manchester The Guardian ...Tens of thousands of people have joined an anti-austerity protest in Manchester on the opening day of the Conservative party conference, voicing opposition to policies including spending and benefit cuts, NHS reforms and restrictions on trade unions. Up to 60,000 people are said to have joined the demonstration, which was largely peaceful...
South Africa Coal Wage Strike Starts With No Dialog Planned Bloomberg ...The largest labor union at South Africa’s biggest coal producers said no meetings are planned with the companies after a wage strike started on Sunday night. “Our members have downed tools and supported our call for a strike,” Livhuwani Mammburu, a spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers, which represents about 30,000 staff in the sector, said by phone on Monday. No meetings are scheduled with producers, including Anglo American Plc, Glencore Plc and Exxaro Resources Ltd., he said...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Back In Court For Discriminating Against Students And Veterans Think Progress ...Wisconsin once again has to defend its voter ID law in federal court, this time responding to a challenge to the law’s exclusion of veterans’ IDs, technical college IDs, and out-of-state drivers’ licenses. Staff attorney Sean Young with the American Civil Liberties Union will argue before the federal district court in Milwaukee on Monday, asking them to allow these alternative IDs to be added to the state’s strict list of acceptable documents...
Tough voter ID rules pull Kansas into multiple lawsuits Salina Journal ...Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s successful push to require new Kansas voters to document their U.S. citizenship has spawned three lawsuits, including one he pursued against a federal agency in trying to enforce the policy. Kansas is one of only four states that make new voters show a birth certificate, passport or other citizenship papers. The Kansas requirement took effect in 2013...
Hoffa Says Tenuous TPP Agreement Does Not Listen to Workers' Concerns Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to trade officials reaching an agreement on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal which would lead to thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas and unsafe food and products flooding our store shelves. “Bum trade deals like NAFTA have killed upwards of 1 million U.S. jobs, many of which moved abroad. And that’s the concern with the looming TPP"...
Don't break faith with workers on multiemployer pension plans: Marcy Kaptur and James P. Hoffa (opinion) Cleveland Plain Dealer ...This year, as we celebrate its 41st anniversary, ERISA's pension protections are crumbling. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Department held a hearing in Washington, D.C., on finalizing a rule that opens the door to significant pension cuts including for current retirees. More than 100 retirees traveled to Washington, D.C., at their own expense to protest, and dozens spoke out against the rule at the hearing...
Union Continues Fight for CVS Pharmacists’ Breaks Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 representatives continue to fight to ensure CVS pharmacist members are no longer denied their breaks and meal periods. Earlier this year, the union filed a grievance on behalf of all members for the company’s denial of uninterrupted breaks and meal periods. CVS management refused to work with the union to resolve the grievance, so Local 727’s legal department is taking the case to arbitration...
Strike, protests could happen for tech bus drivers, union warns SF Gate ...A union representing tech bus drivers warned members to prepare to strike if their employer, Compass Transportation, refuses to budge on giving them better health care benefits and more holidays. The drivers shuttle employees for large companies, including Apple, Genentech, Yahoo, eBay, PayPal and Evernote, and are represented by the Teamsters Union...
Teamsters Demand Reinstatement of Haitian Worker Unfairly Dismissed From Heineken Plant Teamsters Canada ...On September 1st, Wilson Celiné, an employee of Brasserie Nationale d’Haïti, showed up for work as usual, only to be handed a dismissal letter. Hired as a maintenance technician in 2006 by this subsidiary of multinational Heineken International, this engineer by profession and labour activist incurred the wrath of his employer by participating in a union activity and filing a complaint...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached New York Times ...The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. The Trans-Pacific Partnership still faces months of debate in Congress...
Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific Partnership Reuters ...Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal on the most sweeping trade liberalization pact in a generation that will cut trade barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an official familiar with the talks said on Monday. Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments...
Sanders blasts ‘disastrous’ Obama trade deal The Hill ...Sen. Bernie Sanders labeled a new trade deal finalized by the Obama administration on Monday as “disastrous,” and said he would work to defeat it. Sanders, the Vermont senator leading Hillary Clinton in polls of New Hampshire, said the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal will lead to the loss of U.S. jobs, adding he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the decision to complete it. “Wall Street and other big corporations have won again,” Sanders said...
TPP Would Include Auto Market Opening for Japan New York Times ...A U.S.-Japan agreement on autos trade as part of a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal would have its own dispute settlement mechanism, including penalties, if Japan does not open its market enough to U.S. vehicles, a source close to the negotiations said on Friday. Negotiators are working to finalize a trade deal which would stretch from Japan to Peru and autos trade has been one of a few remaining and politically charged sticking points...
If There Really Is a Final TPP Deal: Can It Pass Congress? When Does Congress Get to See a Final Text? Citizen.org ...If there really is a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, its fate in Congress is highly uncertain given the narrow margin by which trade authority passed this summer, the concessions made to get a deal, and growing congressional and public concerns about the TPP’s threats to jobs, wages, safe food and affordable medicines and more...
Australia, US reach trade compromise Business Review ...The US and Australia are in agreement on an elaborate compromise within the Trans-Pacific Partnership to protect the intellectual property of complex drugs known as biologics, according to industry officials and an organisation following the talks. Under the bilateral deal, whose exact language is believed to be incomplete, countries in the trade bloc would have an alternative of either providing eight years of exclusivity to biologic drugs, or providing five years of so-called data exclusivity...
Three million people across Europe call for TTIP to be scrapped Economic Voice ...A Europe-wide petition calling for a halt to the trade deals being negotiated between the EU and the USA and Canada has reached three million signatures in the space of one year, days before it will be delivered to the European Commission in Brussels. Over 500,000 of the signatures that had been collected were from people resident in the UK. This morning 3,007,065 had signed the petition...
Anti-austerity protesters march in Manchester The Guardian ...Tens of thousands of people have joined an anti-austerity protest in Manchester on the opening day of the Conservative party conference, voicing opposition to policies including spending and benefit cuts, NHS reforms and restrictions on trade unions. Up to 60,000 people are said to have joined the demonstration, which was largely peaceful...
South Africa Coal Wage Strike Starts With No Dialog Planned Bloomberg ...The largest labor union at South Africa’s biggest coal producers said no meetings are planned with the companies after a wage strike started on Sunday night. “Our members have downed tools and supported our call for a strike,” Livhuwani Mammburu, a spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers, which represents about 30,000 staff in the sector, said by phone on Monday. No meetings are scheduled with producers, including Anglo American Plc, Glencore Plc and Exxaro Resources Ltd., he said...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Back In Court For Discriminating Against Students And Veterans Think Progress ...Wisconsin once again has to defend its voter ID law in federal court, this time responding to a challenge to the law’s exclusion of veterans’ IDs, technical college IDs, and out-of-state drivers’ licenses. Staff attorney Sean Young with the American Civil Liberties Union will argue before the federal district court in Milwaukee on Monday, asking them to allow these alternative IDs to be added to the state’s strict list of acceptable documents...
Tough voter ID rules pull Kansas into multiple lawsuits Salina Journal ...Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s successful push to require new Kansas voters to document their U.S. citizenship has spawned three lawsuits, including one he pursued against a federal agency in trying to enforce the policy. Kansas is one of only four states that make new voters show a birth certificate, passport or other citizenship papers. The Kansas requirement took effect in 2013...
Right-to-work issue prompts push in Republican Party Joplin Globe ...In the wake of the right-to-work fight in Missouri this year, some conservative business leaders and organizations have launched a two-pronged push that, if successful, could bring changes to the state's work environment, its education and legal systems, and more. But some Republicans fear one part of that push could end up dividing the party...
Prevailing wage backers push for public vote on repeal Detroit News ...The best chance advocates have to save a Michigan law that promises better wages on public works projects is if Republican legislators ignore a petition initiative and instead let voters decide the fate of prevailing wage. The 50-year-old statute requires workers on state-financed government construction projects to be paid local wage and benefit rates, which are based on union contracts...
Koch Brothers Backing Misleading Anti-Solar Campaign in Florida Truthout ...The Koch brothers and utility giants are bankrolling a ballot initiative in Florida to block the development of home solar and to protect the utilities' continuing oligopoly on energy generation in the Sunshine State. Solar is booming in the U.S., with a thirty percent increase in generation in 2014, but surprisingly it's facing an uphill battle in Florida...
Brown proposes paid sick leave Journal-News ...Federal legislation introduced last month would mandate employers provide some form of sick days, to use to heal or to care for a sick family member. While some business professionals understand the need, they say it may not be practical. Congress is considering the Healthy Families Act, a bill that’s being pushed by 30 senators in the Senate, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio...
Lawsuit Against St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike In Court Tomorrow CBS ...It’s business versus the city in court tomorrow. St. Louis is 10 days away from a minimum wage increase to $8.25 per hour, and eventually up to $11 per hour in 2018. But Attorney Jane Dueker is representing a coalition of business groups against the minimum wage hike. Her side believes the city is not able to raise the minimum wage to higher than what the state requires...
U.S. LABOR
Bankruptcy Lawyers Strip Cash from Coal Miners’ Health Insurance Pro Publica ...As coal companies go bankrupt or shut down throughout Appalachia and parts of the Midwest, the immediate fallout includes lost jobs and devastated communities. But the Indiana case stands out as an example of how financial deals hatched far from coal country can also endanger the future safety net. At issue is health insurance promised to people who worked for the Squaw Creek Coal Company in Warrick County, Indiana...
UAW, Fiat officials miscalculated young worker angst USA Today ...UAW negotiators failed to understand the deep hostility of entry-level workers who, instead of taking a substantial raise, chose to join forces with higher-paid veterans to resoundingly defeat a proposed, four-year deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Entry-level workers, referred to as Tier 2, have been stuck in a separate, lower pay range since 2007...
Frontier strikes deals with IBEW unions in California, Florida Fierce Telecom ...Frontier has reached union labor agreements with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) AFL-CIO in California and Florida, allowing it to move forward with its $10.5 billion acquisition of Verizon's wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas that's expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016. The IBEW local unions in California and Florida said in separate statements that they support the deal...
Prevailing wage backers push for public vote on repeal Detroit News ...The best chance advocates have to save a Michigan law that promises better wages on public works projects is if Republican legislators ignore a petition initiative and instead let voters decide the fate of prevailing wage. The 50-year-old statute requires workers on state-financed government construction projects to be paid local wage and benefit rates, which are based on union contracts...
Koch Brothers Backing Misleading Anti-Solar Campaign in Florida Truthout ...The Koch brothers and utility giants are bankrolling a ballot initiative in Florida to block the development of home solar and to protect the utilities' continuing oligopoly on energy generation in the Sunshine State. Solar is booming in the U.S., with a thirty percent increase in generation in 2014, but surprisingly it's facing an uphill battle in Florida...
Brown proposes paid sick leave Journal-News ...Federal legislation introduced last month would mandate employers provide some form of sick days, to use to heal or to care for a sick family member. While some business professionals understand the need, they say it may not be practical. Congress is considering the Healthy Families Act, a bill that’s being pushed by 30 senators in the Senate, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio...
Lawsuit Against St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike In Court Tomorrow CBS ...It’s business versus the city in court tomorrow. St. Louis is 10 days away from a minimum wage increase to $8.25 per hour, and eventually up to $11 per hour in 2018. But Attorney Jane Dueker is representing a coalition of business groups against the minimum wage hike. Her side believes the city is not able to raise the minimum wage to higher than what the state requires...
U.S. LABOR
Bankruptcy Lawyers Strip Cash from Coal Miners’ Health Insurance Pro Publica ...As coal companies go bankrupt or shut down throughout Appalachia and parts of the Midwest, the immediate fallout includes lost jobs and devastated communities. But the Indiana case stands out as an example of how financial deals hatched far from coal country can also endanger the future safety net. At issue is health insurance promised to people who worked for the Squaw Creek Coal Company in Warrick County, Indiana...
UAW, Fiat officials miscalculated young worker angst USA Today ...UAW negotiators failed to understand the deep hostility of entry-level workers who, instead of taking a substantial raise, chose to join forces with higher-paid veterans to resoundingly defeat a proposed, four-year deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Entry-level workers, referred to as Tier 2, have been stuck in a separate, lower pay range since 2007...
Frontier strikes deals with IBEW unions in California, Florida Fierce Telecom ...Frontier has reached union labor agreements with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) AFL-CIO in California and Florida, allowing it to move forward with its $10.5 billion acquisition of Verizon's wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas that's expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016. The IBEW local unions in California and Florida said in separate statements that they support the deal...
These Guestworkers Just Won $20 Million Back From the Company That Trafficked Them The Nation ... They came from India to repair the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and were repaid with months of abuse. On Katrina’s 10th anniversary, both the workers and their bosses are finally getting their due. Following a landmark lawsuit victory in February, the maritime company that imported the roughly 500 “guestworkers” to repair storm-damaged Gulf Coast oil facilities has officially apologized as part of a $20 million settlement...
Video Game Voice Actors Push for Strike Over Performance Bonuses and Stressful Recordings In These Times ...Voice actors are demanding they receive residual income based on sales, with a performance bonus for every 2 million online subscribers or copies sold. This set-up is designed to ensure smaller games are unaffected, as this is the threshold at which a game can be considered a "blockbuster," according to creen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union representing the actors...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The irreversible damage of Volkswagen’s stunning deceit Salon ...Volkswagen’s ruse to circumvent U.S. auto emissions standards has left many wondering about the precise environmental impact of its cars, which emitted more pollutants than regulations allow. On September 18 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered that four Volkswagen vehicles from model years 2009 to 2015 had been rigged with illegal software. They used a sophisticated algorithm that would make the cars run cleanly during emissions tests...
How Global Warming Makes Overcrowded Prisons Even More Dangerous Mother Jones ...There is no population more captive to the effects of global warming than the incarcerated. And given the huge concentration of black and Latino prisoners in America, this is a classic case of environmental injustice, as these consequences fall widely on prisoners of color. A new study from Daniel W. E. Holt of the Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law explains over 144 pages what the climate-change toll truly is on the two-million-plus bodies caged in our prison system...
Doctors Without Borders Says U.S. May Have Committed War Crime Slate ...Doctors Without Borders said it was closing its hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Sunday, a day after it was hit by what seems to have been a U.S. airstrike. The medical charity, commonly known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, increased the death toll in the bombing, saying the total fatalities amount to 22, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, and 37 people were wounded...
Britain Says No to Slavery Reparations, But Offers to Buy Jamaica New Prison Common Dreams ...British Prime Minister David Cameron stirred outrage this week when he rejected growing calls for slavery reparations and instead offered £25 million for a new prison that would allow his government to deport Jamaican nationals incarcerated in the UK to serve out their sentences on the Caribbean island...
Video Game Voice Actors Push for Strike Over Performance Bonuses and Stressful Recordings In These Times ...Voice actors are demanding they receive residual income based on sales, with a performance bonus for every 2 million online subscribers or copies sold. This set-up is designed to ensure smaller games are unaffected, as this is the threshold at which a game can be considered a "blockbuster," according to creen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union representing the actors...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The irreversible damage of Volkswagen’s stunning deceit Salon ...Volkswagen’s ruse to circumvent U.S. auto emissions standards has left many wondering about the precise environmental impact of its cars, which emitted more pollutants than regulations allow. On September 18 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered that four Volkswagen vehicles from model years 2009 to 2015 had been rigged with illegal software. They used a sophisticated algorithm that would make the cars run cleanly during emissions tests...
How Global Warming Makes Overcrowded Prisons Even More Dangerous Mother Jones ...There is no population more captive to the effects of global warming than the incarcerated. And given the huge concentration of black and Latino prisoners in America, this is a classic case of environmental injustice, as these consequences fall widely on prisoners of color. A new study from Daniel W. E. Holt of the Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law explains over 144 pages what the climate-change toll truly is on the two-million-plus bodies caged in our prison system...
Doctors Without Borders Says U.S. May Have Committed War Crime Slate ...Doctors Without Borders said it was closing its hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Sunday, a day after it was hit by what seems to have been a U.S. airstrike. The medical charity, commonly known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, increased the death toll in the bombing, saying the total fatalities amount to 22, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, and 37 people were wounded...
Britain Says No to Slavery Reparations, But Offers to Buy Jamaica New Prison Common Dreams ...British Prime Minister David Cameron stirred outrage this week when he rejected growing calls for slavery reparations and instead offered £25 million for a new prison that would allow his government to deport Jamaican nationals incarcerated in the UK to serve out their sentences on the Caribbean island...
Friday, October 2, 2015
UPS driver says he was 'called' to donate kidney
 |
| Jason Henley (l.) and Greg Hall celebrate their birthday with kidney-shaped cake. |
Like most people I meet on my route, I got to know him well know enough to say ‘hi’ and visit some. When I noticed he was not at the store as often, I wondered if something was wrong but it wasn’t until I overhead him that day that I found out he was missing work due to illness and fatigue. In this position I meet many different people. I see most of them on a daily basis. I hear their stories, get to know them, I truly care about them.The clerk was Greg Hall, a married father of three. In April 2014 he was diagnosed with kidney failure and eventually ended up on dialysis. Doctors told him a kidney transplant was needed to improve his condition. Upon hearing this, Henley started asking what was involved with donating a kidney:
'What can I do?’ I kept asking. I had so many questions. Then I began asking, 'Why couldn't I give him a kidney?'Henley went home and learned all that he could about kidney transplants:
It felt like this was my purpose to give Greg my kidney. I knew we’d be a match. It all felt too predestined not too work out.After receiving the paperwork for the transplant process Henley waited for a month to go over it, knowing that once he did, his life would change. It was a scary time for Henley. He knew that God would direct him:
It just so happened we shared a rare blood type. We also found out we shared the same birthday. It was another sign the gift was meant to be.In late September, a successful transplant took place. Henley told Teamster Nation that he and Hall talk on a daily basis and are both on the road to recovery:
He’s looking forward to spending many years with his family. Greg is set to live a long and healthy life. He’s a brother to me now.
Today's Teamster News 10.02.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters And Coalition Of Unions Ratify Agreement At American Red Cross Teamster.org ...After several months of serious negotiations and a month-long balloting process, the Teamsters, as part of a union coalition, have ratified a new contract for members working at American Red Cross. The agreement will impact more than 1,300 Teamsters at 18 different local unions across the United States. The Teamsters are part of a coalition of unions that negotiated the contract...
National Mediation Board Determines Single Carrier Status for Flight Options, Flexjet Teamster.org ...The National Mediation Board (NMB) has determined single carrier status for Flight Options, LLC, and Flexjet, LLC, after the Teamsters Union asserted that the two fractional carriers constitute a single transportation system. In its Sept. 30 decision, the NMB determined that Flight Options and Flexjet, wholly owned subsidiaries of OneSky Flight, LLC, are operating as a single transportation system for representation purposes under the Railway Labor Act...
United Airlines Fails to Reach Agreement with Teamster Aviation Maintenance Technicians Teamster.org ...United Airlines’ labor woes continue as talks with International Brotherhood of Teamsters-represented aviation maintenance technicians and related workers stalled today. “Delta and American are setting the pace and United is dragging its feet,” said Clacy Griswold, lead negotiator for the Teamsters...
Threshold and Teamsters in Negotiations Press Banner ...According to Steven Lua, Member Specialist of Local 912, Threshold Enterprises, Ltd., headquartered in ScottsValley, has approximately 800 employees; 600 of whom are union members in their ScottsValley and Santa Cruz manufacturing, warehouse, packaging, and distribution centers. The union has been representing the employees, seventy percent of whom are women, for the last three years. This will be their second contract...
Still no contract agreement between EVSC, Teamsters Courier & Press ...As soon as a contract agreement with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Board seems to be in sight, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey said something happens to stop progress. Throughout the process, which started in April and has consisted of sporadic meetings to negotiate new contracts for five EVSC employee groups represented by the union, Whobrey said there has been a mixture of positive open dialogue and setbacks...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Negotiators signal that they’re close to final accord on Asia Pacific trade deal Washington Post ...U.S. negotiators on Thursday closed in on a final agreement on an expansive Asia-Pacific trade deal, but congressional leaders cautioned that the accord should not be rushed to completion over fears that a subpar deal could lose support among lawmakers. The Obama administration is hoping to cap a week of negotiations between the United States and 11 other nations with an announcement Friday...
Trade leaders demand White House ramp up talks on TPP The Hill ...Congressional trade leaders are demanding that the Obama administration immediately ramp up talks with lawmakers as negotiations on a massive Asia-Pacific agreement reach a critical stage. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), panel ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and the panel's top Democrat, Ron Wyden (Ore.), said "we expect you to intensify these consultations"...
As Secret Trade Talks Reveal Cracks, Demonstrators Aim Death Blows at TPP Common Dreams ...As trade ministers from around the world continued meeting in Atlanta on Thursday for final-stretch negotiations on the corporate-friendly Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), civil society groups demonstrated on the streets in a final salvo against a deal they describe as "a wholesale auction of our rights, our freedoms, and our democracy to multinational corporations who put profits over people"...
House lawmakers express concern about TPP autos provision The Hill ...A bipartisan group of House lawmakers are worried that proposed rule of origin standards on autos in a Pacific trade deal will hurt the U.S. industry. Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) on Thursday led a bipartisan group 20 Democrats and one Republican — all who opposed fast-track authority for President Obama — calling on top U.S. trade officials to ensure that the United States doesn’t lower tariffs...
What’s still wrong with the TPP (opinion) Politico ...In theory, TPP could be a powerful lever to change this. The agreement includes enforceable worker rights and environmental standards that were first negotiated in an agreement on May 10th, 2007, by House Democrats. But the simple inclusion of this language, known as the May 10th Agreement, isn’t enough—the example of Mexico shows that countries must bring their laws and practices into compliance before Congress votes on TPP...
Latest TPP Biologics Proposal Is a Step in the Wrong Direction (opinion) AARP ...As negotiators meet on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Atlanta, AARP is again urging them to be mindful of the consumers who depend on prescription drugs to manage their health conditions. We continue to have serious concerns with the direction of the TPP negotiations on key issues that will have long-lasting effects on access to affordable prescriptions in the U.S. and around the world...
TTIP: France threatens to walk away from negotiations The Independent ...A French minister has said that France is considering walking away from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. Matthias Fekl, France’s junior trade minister, told France’s Sud-Ouest paper on Monday that he was considering withdrawing France from the negotiations altogether because they are conducted in favour of American interests...
Swazi Trade Union Federation Sounds Alarm over Job Losses Solidarity Center ...Representatives of Swaziland’s trade union federation, TUCOSWA—who are in Washington, D.C., to receive a human rights award from the AFL-CIO in recognition of the courage and persistence of Swaziland’s workers in demanding their rights—say an alarming number of people are losing their jobs because of the country’s unwillingness to improve its poor human rights record...
Guatemalan Union Activist Murdered in Front of His Home Solidarity Center ...Mynor Rolando Ramos Castillo, a municipal worker in Jalapa, a city in southeast Guatemala, was shot and killed in front of his home over the weekend. His family detained the killer and turned him into the police. The killer confessed to accepting the hit for 1,500 quetzales (roughly $195). Ramos Castillo was a union activist with the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Municipalidad de Jalapa (SITRAMJ)...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Alabama Makes Photo IDs Mandatory for Voting, Then Shutters DMV Offices in Black Counties Common Dreams ...Some observers say that Alabama's move to close dozens of drivers license offices is a discriminatory move that could trigger a civil rights probe. Here's why: in 2011 lawmakers approved a voter ID law requiring a government-issued ID to vote, and the 31 offices the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency set for closing will take a disproportionate hit on counties that are majority African-American...
Voter ID case put on hold until after March elections Daily Tar Heel ...N.C. Superior Judge Michael Morgan placed a hold on the case against the North Carolina voter ID law last week until after the March primary elections. The case before Morgan dealt with whether a June amendment allowing for exceptions to the 2013 law made existing complaints moot; he issued a hold because the amendment was not enough to dismiss the case. The General Assembly passed the voter ID law in August 2013...
Armstead says prevailing wage repeal “very likely” in next year’s session MetroNews ...House of Delegates Speaker Tim Armstead said Thursday it’s “very likely” prevailing wage will be repealed during next year’s legislative session. Armstead (R-Kanawha), speaking on MetroNews “Talkline”, said the new wage that came out from WorkForce West Virginia Wednesday was flawed. The Republican-controlled House and Senate passed a bill earlier this year spelling out a new way to determine the prevailing wage...
Montana’s minimum wage to stay at $8.05 Great Fall Tribune ...Montanans earning minimum wage will see the rate remain at $8.05. An estimated 5,500 workers, or approximately 1.2 percent of the workforce, receive minimum wage. In 2014, the industry with the largest number of workers earning minimum wage was the accommodations and food industry, followed by the retail trade industry...
UC system minimum wage increases to $13 per hour Contra Costa Times ...The University of California's plan to raise the minimum wage for all workers systemwide took effect Thursday, the first of three incremental raises expected to bring wages to at least $15 an hour by 2017. The minimum wage rose to $13 an hour for all university employees hired to work 20 hours or more a week. It will be increased to $14 an hour on Oct. 1, 2016, and to $15 an hour on the same day in 2017...
Teamsters And Coalition Of Unions Ratify Agreement At American Red Cross Teamster.org ...After several months of serious negotiations and a month-long balloting process, the Teamsters, as part of a union coalition, have ratified a new contract for members working at American Red Cross. The agreement will impact more than 1,300 Teamsters at 18 different local unions across the United States. The Teamsters are part of a coalition of unions that negotiated the contract...
National Mediation Board Determines Single Carrier Status for Flight Options, Flexjet Teamster.org ...The National Mediation Board (NMB) has determined single carrier status for Flight Options, LLC, and Flexjet, LLC, after the Teamsters Union asserted that the two fractional carriers constitute a single transportation system. In its Sept. 30 decision, the NMB determined that Flight Options and Flexjet, wholly owned subsidiaries of OneSky Flight, LLC, are operating as a single transportation system for representation purposes under the Railway Labor Act...
United Airlines Fails to Reach Agreement with Teamster Aviation Maintenance Technicians Teamster.org ...United Airlines’ labor woes continue as talks with International Brotherhood of Teamsters-represented aviation maintenance technicians and related workers stalled today. “Delta and American are setting the pace and United is dragging its feet,” said Clacy Griswold, lead negotiator for the Teamsters...
Threshold and Teamsters in Negotiations Press Banner ...According to Steven Lua, Member Specialist of Local 912, Threshold Enterprises, Ltd., headquartered in ScottsValley, has approximately 800 employees; 600 of whom are union members in their ScottsValley and Santa Cruz manufacturing, warehouse, packaging, and distribution centers. The union has been representing the employees, seventy percent of whom are women, for the last three years. This will be their second contract...
Still no contract agreement between EVSC, Teamsters Courier & Press ...As soon as a contract agreement with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Board seems to be in sight, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey said something happens to stop progress. Throughout the process, which started in April and has consisted of sporadic meetings to negotiate new contracts for five EVSC employee groups represented by the union, Whobrey said there has been a mixture of positive open dialogue and setbacks...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Negotiators signal that they’re close to final accord on Asia Pacific trade deal Washington Post ...U.S. negotiators on Thursday closed in on a final agreement on an expansive Asia-Pacific trade deal, but congressional leaders cautioned that the accord should not be rushed to completion over fears that a subpar deal could lose support among lawmakers. The Obama administration is hoping to cap a week of negotiations between the United States and 11 other nations with an announcement Friday...
Trade leaders demand White House ramp up talks on TPP The Hill ...Congressional trade leaders are demanding that the Obama administration immediately ramp up talks with lawmakers as negotiations on a massive Asia-Pacific agreement reach a critical stage. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), panel ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and the panel's top Democrat, Ron Wyden (Ore.), said "we expect you to intensify these consultations"...
As Secret Trade Talks Reveal Cracks, Demonstrators Aim Death Blows at TPP Common Dreams ...As trade ministers from around the world continued meeting in Atlanta on Thursday for final-stretch negotiations on the corporate-friendly Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), civil society groups demonstrated on the streets in a final salvo against a deal they describe as "a wholesale auction of our rights, our freedoms, and our democracy to multinational corporations who put profits over people"...
House lawmakers express concern about TPP autos provision The Hill ...A bipartisan group of House lawmakers are worried that proposed rule of origin standards on autos in a Pacific trade deal will hurt the U.S. industry. Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) on Thursday led a bipartisan group 20 Democrats and one Republican — all who opposed fast-track authority for President Obama — calling on top U.S. trade officials to ensure that the United States doesn’t lower tariffs...
What’s still wrong with the TPP (opinion) Politico ...In theory, TPP could be a powerful lever to change this. The agreement includes enforceable worker rights and environmental standards that were first negotiated in an agreement on May 10th, 2007, by House Democrats. But the simple inclusion of this language, known as the May 10th Agreement, isn’t enough—the example of Mexico shows that countries must bring their laws and practices into compliance before Congress votes on TPP...
Latest TPP Biologics Proposal Is a Step in the Wrong Direction (opinion) AARP ...As negotiators meet on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Atlanta, AARP is again urging them to be mindful of the consumers who depend on prescription drugs to manage their health conditions. We continue to have serious concerns with the direction of the TPP negotiations on key issues that will have long-lasting effects on access to affordable prescriptions in the U.S. and around the world...
TTIP: France threatens to walk away from negotiations The Independent ...A French minister has said that France is considering walking away from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. Matthias Fekl, France’s junior trade minister, told France’s Sud-Ouest paper on Monday that he was considering withdrawing France from the negotiations altogether because they are conducted in favour of American interests...
Swazi Trade Union Federation Sounds Alarm over Job Losses Solidarity Center ...Representatives of Swaziland’s trade union federation, TUCOSWA—who are in Washington, D.C., to receive a human rights award from the AFL-CIO in recognition of the courage and persistence of Swaziland’s workers in demanding their rights—say an alarming number of people are losing their jobs because of the country’s unwillingness to improve its poor human rights record...
Guatemalan Union Activist Murdered in Front of His Home Solidarity Center ...Mynor Rolando Ramos Castillo, a municipal worker in Jalapa, a city in southeast Guatemala, was shot and killed in front of his home over the weekend. His family detained the killer and turned him into the police. The killer confessed to accepting the hit for 1,500 quetzales (roughly $195). Ramos Castillo was a union activist with the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Municipalidad de Jalapa (SITRAMJ)...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Alabama Makes Photo IDs Mandatory for Voting, Then Shutters DMV Offices in Black Counties Common Dreams ...Some observers say that Alabama's move to close dozens of drivers license offices is a discriminatory move that could trigger a civil rights probe. Here's why: in 2011 lawmakers approved a voter ID law requiring a government-issued ID to vote, and the 31 offices the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency set for closing will take a disproportionate hit on counties that are majority African-American...
Voter ID case put on hold until after March elections Daily Tar Heel ...N.C. Superior Judge Michael Morgan placed a hold on the case against the North Carolina voter ID law last week until after the March primary elections. The case before Morgan dealt with whether a June amendment allowing for exceptions to the 2013 law made existing complaints moot; he issued a hold because the amendment was not enough to dismiss the case. The General Assembly passed the voter ID law in August 2013...
Armstead says prevailing wage repeal “very likely” in next year’s session MetroNews ...House of Delegates Speaker Tim Armstead said Thursday it’s “very likely” prevailing wage will be repealed during next year’s legislative session. Armstead (R-Kanawha), speaking on MetroNews “Talkline”, said the new wage that came out from WorkForce West Virginia Wednesday was flawed. The Republican-controlled House and Senate passed a bill earlier this year spelling out a new way to determine the prevailing wage...
Montana’s minimum wage to stay at $8.05 Great Fall Tribune ...Montanans earning minimum wage will see the rate remain at $8.05. An estimated 5,500 workers, or approximately 1.2 percent of the workforce, receive minimum wage. In 2014, the industry with the largest number of workers earning minimum wage was the accommodations and food industry, followed by the retail trade industry...
UC system minimum wage increases to $13 per hour Contra Costa Times ...The University of California's plan to raise the minimum wage for all workers systemwide took effect Thursday, the first of three incremental raises expected to bring wages to at least $15 an hour by 2017. The minimum wage rose to $13 an hour for all university employees hired to work 20 hours or more a week. It will be increased to $14 an hour on Oct. 1, 2016, and to $15 an hour on the same day in 2017...
The Political Power of Takin’ it to the States The Nation ... Progressives historically have not paid enough attention to the state-level governmentin’, and, as usual, Republicans control the majority of state assembly chambers—that’s more power at the state level, in fact, than they’ve enjoyed since the 1920s. Republicans hold both the governorship and a legislative majority in 23 states...
U.S. LABOR
UAW rejects Fiat Chrysler contract; strikes loom Reuters ...Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's (FCAU.N) (FCHA.MI) U.S. workers soundly rejected a four-year contract the automaker had agreed with the UAW, the union said on Thursday, setting the stage for at least localized strikes against the automaker. The tentative agreement was voted down by 65 percent of the 40,000 unionized workers who work at the 37 plants of Fiat Chrysler, the smallest of the three major Detroit automakers...
No decision as UAW grapples with next steps Detroit Free Press ...No decisions were made on the next steps in UAW negotiations with Detroit automakers after a marathon session of the union leadership that stretched into the night Thursday. Union leadership representing 40,000 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles employees across the country spent about six hours painstakingly dissecting why a tentative agreement was rejected...
T-Mobile Workers Say the Company Has Repeatedly Engaged in Union-busting In These Times ...Last month, 20 Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to T-Mobile’s parent company in Germany expressing their concern over the treatment of T-Mobile workers in the United States. At the forefront of the struggle is the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which has been fighting to organize employees since Deutsche Telekom bought the company in 2001...
USW contract with Cliffs extended through October Duluth News Tribune ...The United Steelworkers of America have agreed to keep working under their old contract with Cliffs Natural Resources, at least for another month. The USW bargaining committee said it negotiated a 30-day extension of its current agreement with Cliffs beginning Oct. 1, along with a rolling 168-hour extension if they go past those 30 days...
Job growth falls short of expectations in September; jobless rate unchanged Washington Post ...The U.S. job market slowed sharply in September, according to government data released Friday morning, raising new questions about the sturdiness of the country's economic expansion amid weaker growth across the globe. The Labor Department reported that the nation added just 142,000 jobs in September, well below analysts' expectations...
Do We Value Low-Skilled Work? (opinion) New York Times ...The labels “low-skilled” or “unskilled” workers — the largest demographic being adult women and minorities — often inaccurately describe an individual’s abilities, but play a powerful role in determining their opportunity. The consequences are not only severe, but incredibly disempowering: poverty-level wages, erratic schedules, the absence of retirement planning, health benefits, paid sick or family leave and the constant threat of being replaced...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Immigration Act That Inadvertently Changed America The Atlantic ...The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, whose 50th anniversary comes on October 3, officially committed the United States, for the first time, to accepting immigrants of all nationalities on a roughly equal basis. The law eliminated the use of national-origin quotas, under which the overwhelming majority of immigrant visas were set aside for people coming from northern and western Europe...
Oregon college shootings: witnesses recall horror as Obama calls for action The Guardian ...Harrowing details have begun to emerge after at least nine people were killed at an Oregon community college by a gunman who witnesses said had demanded to know students’ religion before shooting them. A visibly frustrated Barack Obama reacted to the 45th school shooting to take place in the US this year by telling Americans that “somehow this has become routine”...
Paul Krugman: Never forget what the GOP’s really about it — “top-down class warfare” Salon ...New York Times’ columnist Paul Krugman wrote on Friday that the current field of Republican candidates are presenting the nation with tax plans that present a wealth of alternatives, from “huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit” to “huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit.” He acknowledges that Donald Trump’s plan would blow “an even bigger hole in the budget than Jeb’s,” but the reality is that they are all offering variations on the same voodooistic theme — an economically indefensible desire to cut taxing on the rich...
Vatican Says Pope's Meeting With Kim Davis Was Not an Endorsement Slate ...The Vatican says that Pope Francis' Washington, D.C. meeting with Kentucky clerk Kim Davis should not be considered a specific endorsement of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Francis' apparent support for Davis' behavior was a disappointment for those who appreciated the generally non-confrontational tone he has taken toward divisive culture-war issues...
U.S. LABOR
UAW rejects Fiat Chrysler contract; strikes loom Reuters ...Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's (FCAU.N) (FCHA.MI) U.S. workers soundly rejected a four-year contract the automaker had agreed with the UAW, the union said on Thursday, setting the stage for at least localized strikes against the automaker. The tentative agreement was voted down by 65 percent of the 40,000 unionized workers who work at the 37 plants of Fiat Chrysler, the smallest of the three major Detroit automakers...
No decision as UAW grapples with next steps Detroit Free Press ...No decisions were made on the next steps in UAW negotiations with Detroit automakers after a marathon session of the union leadership that stretched into the night Thursday. Union leadership representing 40,000 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles employees across the country spent about six hours painstakingly dissecting why a tentative agreement was rejected...
T-Mobile Workers Say the Company Has Repeatedly Engaged in Union-busting In These Times ...Last month, 20 Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to T-Mobile’s parent company in Germany expressing their concern over the treatment of T-Mobile workers in the United States. At the forefront of the struggle is the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which has been fighting to organize employees since Deutsche Telekom bought the company in 2001...
USW contract with Cliffs extended through October Duluth News Tribune ...The United Steelworkers of America have agreed to keep working under their old contract with Cliffs Natural Resources, at least for another month. The USW bargaining committee said it negotiated a 30-day extension of its current agreement with Cliffs beginning Oct. 1, along with a rolling 168-hour extension if they go past those 30 days...
Job growth falls short of expectations in September; jobless rate unchanged Washington Post ...The U.S. job market slowed sharply in September, according to government data released Friday morning, raising new questions about the sturdiness of the country's economic expansion amid weaker growth across the globe. The Labor Department reported that the nation added just 142,000 jobs in September, well below analysts' expectations...
Do We Value Low-Skilled Work? (opinion) New York Times ...The labels “low-skilled” or “unskilled” workers — the largest demographic being adult women and minorities — often inaccurately describe an individual’s abilities, but play a powerful role in determining their opportunity. The consequences are not only severe, but incredibly disempowering: poverty-level wages, erratic schedules, the absence of retirement planning, health benefits, paid sick or family leave and the constant threat of being replaced...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Immigration Act That Inadvertently Changed America The Atlantic ...The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, whose 50th anniversary comes on October 3, officially committed the United States, for the first time, to accepting immigrants of all nationalities on a roughly equal basis. The law eliminated the use of national-origin quotas, under which the overwhelming majority of immigrant visas were set aside for people coming from northern and western Europe...
Oregon college shootings: witnesses recall horror as Obama calls for action The Guardian ...Harrowing details have begun to emerge after at least nine people were killed at an Oregon community college by a gunman who witnesses said had demanded to know students’ religion before shooting them. A visibly frustrated Barack Obama reacted to the 45th school shooting to take place in the US this year by telling Americans that “somehow this has become routine”...
Paul Krugman: Never forget what the GOP’s really about it — “top-down class warfare” Salon ...New York Times’ columnist Paul Krugman wrote on Friday that the current field of Republican candidates are presenting the nation with tax plans that present a wealth of alternatives, from “huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit” to “huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit.” He acknowledges that Donald Trump’s plan would blow “an even bigger hole in the budget than Jeb’s,” but the reality is that they are all offering variations on the same voodooistic theme — an economically indefensible desire to cut taxing on the rich...
Vatican Says Pope's Meeting With Kim Davis Was Not an Endorsement Slate ...The Vatican says that Pope Francis' Washington, D.C. meeting with Kentucky clerk Kim Davis should not be considered a specific endorsement of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Francis' apparent support for Davis' behavior was a disappointment for those who appreciated the generally non-confrontational tone he has taken toward divisive culture-war issues...
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Workers seeking respect should look to unions
Despite the picture being painted by some leaders engaged in political posturing, the vast majority of adults are working to earn a living. But it is employers who don't seem to value much of what everyday Americans do on the job.
As an excellent piece in The New York Times today highlights, society is quick to judge people on the work they do and categorize them and their salaries. Often, whether one uses their mind to complete their duties is the deciding factor. And if it is determined that a job is unskilled or low-skilled, any respect or dignity for that worker is thrown out the window:
As an excellent piece in The New York Times today highlights, society is quick to judge people on the work they do and categorize them and their salaries. Often, whether one uses their mind to complete their duties is the deciding factor. And if it is determined that a job is unskilled or low-skilled, any respect or dignity for that worker is thrown out the window:The labels “low-skilled” or “unskilled” workers — the largest demographic being adult women and minorities — often inaccurately describe an individual’s abilities, but play a powerful role in determining their opportunity. The consequences are not only severe, but incredibly disempowering: poverty-level wages, erratic schedules, the absence of retirement planning, health benefits, paid sick or family leave and the constant threat of being replaced.
Instead of improved job quality, the rewards for task-oriented workers are pats on the back and the constant encouragement to aspire for something better.
Of course, there are some who value these employees' contributions. The Teamsters and other unions stand up for workers like this everyday because they know these people are the backbone of the U.S. economy. Better pay, benefits and working conditions reward hard-working union workers by allowing them to provide for their families.
That idea isn't popular with corporate America. Some businesses, for instance, are fighting to overturn a National Labor Relations Board ruling in a case brought by Bay Area Teamsters that ruled parent companies can be held responsible for the treatment of temporary or contractor workers at their facilities.
But the benefits of union membership are well-known. The U.S. Labor Department’s own statistics show the median union worker earns more than $200 a week more than the median non-union worker. That’s an extra $10,000 a year that goes into the pockets of union workers. These jobs also offer health benefits and retirement security.
The jobs being done by those at the lower end of the income scale should be valued. By joining a union, workers can help themselves earn the respect and fair pay they're entitled to receive.
Today's Teamster News 10.01.15
Teamsters
American Airlines Passenger Service Agents Reach Tentative Agreement Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters/Communications Workers of America Association has reached a tentative first agreement with American Airlines covering 15,000 passenger service agents. The Association is the joint bargaining group (IBT and CWA) that represents agents at American Airlines. Details of the tentative agreement are being provided to members and a ratification vote will be scheduled...
Southern California Teamsters seek “employee” recognition for harbor truckers AJOT ...A watershed battle between the Teamsters Union and Pacific 9 Transportation in Southern California may be the tipping point in the union’s efforts to force harbor-trucking companies to reclassify drivers from independent contractors to employees. If that happens, there will be major changes in the compensation for drivers picking up and delivering containerized truckloads at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach...
Teamsters tell Whole Foods: Black Lives Matter USI Live ...This past weekend, protesters from the Teamsters and the Sierra Club group Sierra Rise educated attendees of the annual Natural Products Expo East convention about Whole Food’s exploitation of prison labour for profit. The protestors distributed leaflets that read “Whole Prison Labor.” The leaflets were also sponsored by the Organic Consumers Association and the Food Chain Workers Alliance...
Global Labor & Trade
Rift Over Drug Protections Complicates Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Talks Wall Street Journal ...A fight over how long to protect certain high-end drugs from lower-cost imitators has emerged as the leading obstacle to negotiations aimed at completing a 12-nation trade agreement spanning the Pacific. While officials from the U.S. and other counties cite some progress on two other thorny issues, the drug debate continues to divide Australia and other countries from America in the high-level talks that began Wednesday...
Lawmakers push for 'meaningful' sugar market access in TPP Reuters ...Forty-five U.S. lawmakers are pressing trade representative Michael Froman to boost U.S. sugar imports as talks over a Pacific trade agreement resume this week, ratcheting up pressure on a sticking point in prior rounds. Led by Republican Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania and Democrat Earl Blumenauer from Oregon, the legislators are urging Froman to seek a Trans-Pacific Partnership pact with "commercially meaningful liberalization" of sugar trade...
Pacific trade talks step closer to clearing auto parts hurdle Reuters ...Negotiators trying to clinch a Pacific Rim free trade deal made headway on Wednesday over how to remove a stumbling block and give automakers a freer hand to sell cars in the United States with more parts purchased in Asia. People briefed on the closed-door talks said Canada and Mexico signalled a willingness to open the North American auto market to more parts made in Asia...
Pacific Trade Deal Talks Resume, Under Fire From U.S. Presidential Hopefuls New York Times ...Trade ministers for the United States and 11 other Pacific nations gathered in Atlanta on Wednesday to try to reach agreement on the largest regional free-trade pact ever. But knotty differences persist, and antitrade blasts from American presidential candidates have not eased prospects for any deal. The talks in a downtown Atlanta hotel are picking up where ministers left off two months ago after deadlocking at a Maui resort...
Push grows to target tobacco, health in Pacific trade rules Reuters ...Pressure is mounting on Pacific trading partners over potential steps to block foreign investors from suing governments over anti-smoking measures, under a free trade pact that is nearing completion. Trade ministers from 12 countries are discussing possible exemptions from rules letting foreign companies sue governments over damage to investments as they try to wrap up talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Protesting Big Pharma 'Death Sentence,' Cancer Patient Arrested Outside TPP Talks Common Dreams ...A cancer patient was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday after allegedly "disrupting" the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in a protest aimed at maintaining access to affordable cancer medicines in the dozen countries, including the U.S. and Canada, that would be impacted by the colossal trade deal...
Portugal goes to the polls with voters resigned to austerity Yahoo News ...Portugal exited the bailout scheme in May 2014 but only after the government imposed harsh austerity and the biggest tax hikes in living memory. The jobless rate has fallen to 12 percent from a peak of 17.5 percent at the beginning of 2013. But the recovery has yet to be felt on the streets. One in five Portuguese continue to live below the poverty line with an income of less than 5,000 euros per year...
State & Living Wage Battles
Alabama to stop issuing driver’s licenses in counties with 75% black registered voters Raw Story ...The state of Alabama, which requires a photo ID to vote, announced this week that it would stop issuing driver’s licenses in counties where 75 percent of registered voters are black. Due to budget cuts, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said that 31 satellite DMV offices would no longer have access to driver’s licenses examiners, meaning that residents will need to travel to other counties to apply for licenses. The move comes just one year after the state’s voter photo ID law went into effect...
Proposed Fla. bill to require 6 weeks paid family care leave NBC ...Florida Senator Dwight Bullard proposed a bill that, if passed, will require employers to allow six weeks of paid leave for workers after children are born or adopted. "I totally agree with it," said Shellie Desmaret. "I think the bill is long and coming in the state of Florida," said Paul McRae, who supports the bill...
WV has new prevailing wage; critics remain MetroNews ...West Virginia once again has a prevailing wage but there remain critics of how the numbers were calculated. WorkForce West Virginia filed the information with the Secretary of State’s Office Wednesday. The prevailing wage is the wage required for different jobs on construction projects that are totally funded by the state...
Washington state behind the curve on minimum wage KGMI ...Since the 1990s, Washington state has led the nation in raising minimum wage. But will the state’s minimum wage increase again next year? In short, no. And state officials say the reason is because inflation, as measured by the National Consumer Price Index, didn’t increase over the past year either. That index decreased by 0.3 percent...
Details emerge on Sacramento minimum-wage hike plan SacBee ...acramento would require larger businesses to pay a higher minimum wage before small businesses with fewer than 40 employees, according to a draft of the ordinance obtained by The Sacramento Bee. A task force convened by Mayor Kevin Johnson recommended last month that the city gradually increase its minimum wage to $12.50 an hour on Jan. 1, 2020...
U.S. Labor
Political Appeal of Bashing American Unions May Have Peaked Bloomberg ...Unions might never recover the strength they had decades ago, but recent signs suggest renewed support for labor, or at least an end to its run as a Republican bogeyman. After building a campaign around his battle with government workers, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker abruptly ended his presidential campaign Sept. 21. His decision came a month after a Gallup Poll found that support for unions jumped 5 percentage points...
United Auto Workers reject contract deal with Fiat Chrysler CBS ...United Auto Workers union members have rejected a proposed contract with Fiat Chrysler in a rebuke of union leaders who had praised the deal. Official totals weren't released, but workers at many large factories voted against the pact by large margins, making victory impossible...
The Fight For 15 Just Landed at America’s Busiest Airport In These Times ...Encouraged by an energetic rally of more than 100 janitors and other members of Service Employees (SEIU) Local 1, a group of low-wage security, cleaning and passenger service workers at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Tuesday launched a campaign to organize 5,000 airport workers to win higher wages and the right to form a union without intimidation. The O’Hare organizing drive hopes, first, to bring the non-union workers at the airport into the Fight for $15 movement, initiated three years ago among fast food workers...
Janitors march for their jobs, benefits Philly.com ...Thousands of union janitors marched through Center City Wednesday, hoping to preserve their benefits and earn what they call fair wages. The rally on Chestnut Street included brief speeches by mayoral candidate Jim Kenney, City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., and City Council President Darrell L. Clarke. Members of SEIU 32BJ gathered outside a high-rise apartment building at 2116 Chestnut...
IBEW Local 125 Pickets Pacific power headquarters NW Labor Press ...Nearly 200 outside linemen and wiremen from several electrical utilities in Oregon, Washington, and Utah picketed Sept. 23 outside the corporate headquarters of PacifiCorp in the Lloyd District. The union workers at Pacific Power, a subsidiary of PacifiCorp, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, have been bargaining for a new contract for more than a year. They have rejected two proposals. The most recent was on Sept. 1, at which time they also voted to authorize a strike if needed...
Are Deere, UAW headed for a strike? Des Moines Register ...A dramatic tail-off from record profits a couple of years ago for Deere & Co., Iowa's iconic equipment manufacturer, could set the stage for prolonged, and potentially contentious, labor negotiations once the current 6-year contract expires Thursday, economists and analysts say...
Don Blankenship faces more prison time for lying to Wall Street than 29 deaths at Upper Big Branch Daily Kos ...With Don Blankenship, the notorious former Massey Energy CEO, about to go on trial for multiple charges stemming from the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that killed 29 miners in 2010, Mother Jones' Tim Murphy takes an in-depth look at Blankenship's brutal business practices and consolidation of political power in West Virginia...
Social Justice & Other News
Senators to Unveil Bipartisan Plan to Ease Sentencing Laws New York Times ...A long-awaited bipartisan proposal to cut mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent offenders and promote more early release from federal prisons is scheduled to be disclosed Thursday by an influential group of senators who hope to build on backing from conservatives, progressives and the White House...
Hedge Funds Keep Winning Government Auctions To Buy Family Homes. Elizabeth Warren Is Crying Foul. Think Progress ...At a rally with dozens of local government officials from around the nation in Washington, D.C., Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will call on the Obama administration to stop inviting Wall Street speculators into the landlord business and start doing more to keep struggling borrowers in their homes and neighborhoods...
'Exxons of Agriculture' Wielding Power to Block Real Climate Solutions: Report Common Dreams ...The publication by GRAIN describes how the fertilizer industry, whose products the group says are responsible for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, has joined forces with major corporations like Walmart in order to cast itself as a purveyor of "climate smart" policies while protecting its interests...
Dead Man Walking: Richard Glossip vs. The Death Penalty Democracy Now ...Just moments before death row inmate Richard Glossip was scheduled to be killed on Wednesday, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issued a stay of execution citing questions over the execution protocol and the chemicals used for lethal injection. Richard Glossip’s case has attracted international attention. On Wednesday, Pope Francis urged Governor Fallin to commute the death sentence over questions of Glossip’s guilt...
American Airlines Passenger Service Agents Reach Tentative Agreement Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters/Communications Workers of America Association has reached a tentative first agreement with American Airlines covering 15,000 passenger service agents. The Association is the joint bargaining group (IBT and CWA) that represents agents at American Airlines. Details of the tentative agreement are being provided to members and a ratification vote will be scheduled...
Southern California Teamsters seek “employee” recognition for harbor truckers AJOT ...A watershed battle between the Teamsters Union and Pacific 9 Transportation in Southern California may be the tipping point in the union’s efforts to force harbor-trucking companies to reclassify drivers from independent contractors to employees. If that happens, there will be major changes in the compensation for drivers picking up and delivering containerized truckloads at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach...
Teamsters tell Whole Foods: Black Lives Matter USI Live ...This past weekend, protesters from the Teamsters and the Sierra Club group Sierra Rise educated attendees of the annual Natural Products Expo East convention about Whole Food’s exploitation of prison labour for profit. The protestors distributed leaflets that read “Whole Prison Labor.” The leaflets were also sponsored by the Organic Consumers Association and the Food Chain Workers Alliance...
Global Labor & Trade
Rift Over Drug Protections Complicates Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Talks Wall Street Journal ...A fight over how long to protect certain high-end drugs from lower-cost imitators has emerged as the leading obstacle to negotiations aimed at completing a 12-nation trade agreement spanning the Pacific. While officials from the U.S. and other counties cite some progress on two other thorny issues, the drug debate continues to divide Australia and other countries from America in the high-level talks that began Wednesday...
Lawmakers push for 'meaningful' sugar market access in TPP Reuters ...Forty-five U.S. lawmakers are pressing trade representative Michael Froman to boost U.S. sugar imports as talks over a Pacific trade agreement resume this week, ratcheting up pressure on a sticking point in prior rounds. Led by Republican Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania and Democrat Earl Blumenauer from Oregon, the legislators are urging Froman to seek a Trans-Pacific Partnership pact with "commercially meaningful liberalization" of sugar trade...
Pacific trade talks step closer to clearing auto parts hurdle Reuters ...Negotiators trying to clinch a Pacific Rim free trade deal made headway on Wednesday over how to remove a stumbling block and give automakers a freer hand to sell cars in the United States with more parts purchased in Asia. People briefed on the closed-door talks said Canada and Mexico signalled a willingness to open the North American auto market to more parts made in Asia...
Pacific Trade Deal Talks Resume, Under Fire From U.S. Presidential Hopefuls New York Times ...Trade ministers for the United States and 11 other Pacific nations gathered in Atlanta on Wednesday to try to reach agreement on the largest regional free-trade pact ever. But knotty differences persist, and antitrade blasts from American presidential candidates have not eased prospects for any deal. The talks in a downtown Atlanta hotel are picking up where ministers left off two months ago after deadlocking at a Maui resort...
Push grows to target tobacco, health in Pacific trade rules Reuters ...Pressure is mounting on Pacific trading partners over potential steps to block foreign investors from suing governments over anti-smoking measures, under a free trade pact that is nearing completion. Trade ministers from 12 countries are discussing possible exemptions from rules letting foreign companies sue governments over damage to investments as they try to wrap up talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Protesting Big Pharma 'Death Sentence,' Cancer Patient Arrested Outside TPP Talks Common Dreams ...A cancer patient was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday after allegedly "disrupting" the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in a protest aimed at maintaining access to affordable cancer medicines in the dozen countries, including the U.S. and Canada, that would be impacted by the colossal trade deal...
Portugal goes to the polls with voters resigned to austerity Yahoo News ...Portugal exited the bailout scheme in May 2014 but only after the government imposed harsh austerity and the biggest tax hikes in living memory. The jobless rate has fallen to 12 percent from a peak of 17.5 percent at the beginning of 2013. But the recovery has yet to be felt on the streets. One in five Portuguese continue to live below the poverty line with an income of less than 5,000 euros per year...
State & Living Wage Battles
Alabama to stop issuing driver’s licenses in counties with 75% black registered voters Raw Story ...The state of Alabama, which requires a photo ID to vote, announced this week that it would stop issuing driver’s licenses in counties where 75 percent of registered voters are black. Due to budget cuts, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said that 31 satellite DMV offices would no longer have access to driver’s licenses examiners, meaning that residents will need to travel to other counties to apply for licenses. The move comes just one year after the state’s voter photo ID law went into effect...
Proposed Fla. bill to require 6 weeks paid family care leave NBC ...Florida Senator Dwight Bullard proposed a bill that, if passed, will require employers to allow six weeks of paid leave for workers after children are born or adopted. "I totally agree with it," said Shellie Desmaret. "I think the bill is long and coming in the state of Florida," said Paul McRae, who supports the bill...
WV has new prevailing wage; critics remain MetroNews ...West Virginia once again has a prevailing wage but there remain critics of how the numbers were calculated. WorkForce West Virginia filed the information with the Secretary of State’s Office Wednesday. The prevailing wage is the wage required for different jobs on construction projects that are totally funded by the state...
Washington state behind the curve on minimum wage KGMI ...Since the 1990s, Washington state has led the nation in raising minimum wage. But will the state’s minimum wage increase again next year? In short, no. And state officials say the reason is because inflation, as measured by the National Consumer Price Index, didn’t increase over the past year either. That index decreased by 0.3 percent...
Details emerge on Sacramento minimum-wage hike plan SacBee ...acramento would require larger businesses to pay a higher minimum wage before small businesses with fewer than 40 employees, according to a draft of the ordinance obtained by The Sacramento Bee. A task force convened by Mayor Kevin Johnson recommended last month that the city gradually increase its minimum wage to $12.50 an hour on Jan. 1, 2020...
U.S. Labor
Political Appeal of Bashing American Unions May Have Peaked Bloomberg ...Unions might never recover the strength they had decades ago, but recent signs suggest renewed support for labor, or at least an end to its run as a Republican bogeyman. After building a campaign around his battle with government workers, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker abruptly ended his presidential campaign Sept. 21. His decision came a month after a Gallup Poll found that support for unions jumped 5 percentage points...
United Auto Workers reject contract deal with Fiat Chrysler CBS ...United Auto Workers union members have rejected a proposed contract with Fiat Chrysler in a rebuke of union leaders who had praised the deal. Official totals weren't released, but workers at many large factories voted against the pact by large margins, making victory impossible...
The Fight For 15 Just Landed at America’s Busiest Airport In These Times ...Encouraged by an energetic rally of more than 100 janitors and other members of Service Employees (SEIU) Local 1, a group of low-wage security, cleaning and passenger service workers at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Tuesday launched a campaign to organize 5,000 airport workers to win higher wages and the right to form a union without intimidation. The O’Hare organizing drive hopes, first, to bring the non-union workers at the airport into the Fight for $15 movement, initiated three years ago among fast food workers...
Janitors march for their jobs, benefits Philly.com ...Thousands of union janitors marched through Center City Wednesday, hoping to preserve their benefits and earn what they call fair wages. The rally on Chestnut Street included brief speeches by mayoral candidate Jim Kenney, City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., and City Council President Darrell L. Clarke. Members of SEIU 32BJ gathered outside a high-rise apartment building at 2116 Chestnut...
IBEW Local 125 Pickets Pacific power headquarters NW Labor Press ...Nearly 200 outside linemen and wiremen from several electrical utilities in Oregon, Washington, and Utah picketed Sept. 23 outside the corporate headquarters of PacifiCorp in the Lloyd District. The union workers at Pacific Power, a subsidiary of PacifiCorp, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, have been bargaining for a new contract for more than a year. They have rejected two proposals. The most recent was on Sept. 1, at which time they also voted to authorize a strike if needed...
Are Deere, UAW headed for a strike? Des Moines Register ...A dramatic tail-off from record profits a couple of years ago for Deere & Co., Iowa's iconic equipment manufacturer, could set the stage for prolonged, and potentially contentious, labor negotiations once the current 6-year contract expires Thursday, economists and analysts say...
Don Blankenship faces more prison time for lying to Wall Street than 29 deaths at Upper Big Branch Daily Kos ...With Don Blankenship, the notorious former Massey Energy CEO, about to go on trial for multiple charges stemming from the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that killed 29 miners in 2010, Mother Jones' Tim Murphy takes an in-depth look at Blankenship's brutal business practices and consolidation of political power in West Virginia...
Social Justice & Other News
Senators to Unveil Bipartisan Plan to Ease Sentencing Laws New York Times ...A long-awaited bipartisan proposal to cut mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent offenders and promote more early release from federal prisons is scheduled to be disclosed Thursday by an influential group of senators who hope to build on backing from conservatives, progressives and the White House...
Hedge Funds Keep Winning Government Auctions To Buy Family Homes. Elizabeth Warren Is Crying Foul. Think Progress ...At a rally with dozens of local government officials from around the nation in Washington, D.C., Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will call on the Obama administration to stop inviting Wall Street speculators into the landlord business and start doing more to keep struggling borrowers in their homes and neighborhoods...
'Exxons of Agriculture' Wielding Power to Block Real Climate Solutions: Report Common Dreams ...The publication by GRAIN describes how the fertilizer industry, whose products the group says are responsible for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, has joined forces with major corporations like Walmart in order to cast itself as a purveyor of "climate smart" policies while protecting its interests...
Dead Man Walking: Richard Glossip vs. The Death Penalty Democracy Now ...Just moments before death row inmate Richard Glossip was scheduled to be killed on Wednesday, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issued a stay of execution citing questions over the execution protocol and the chemicals used for lethal injection. Richard Glossip’s case has attracted international attention. On Wednesday, Pope Francis urged Governor Fallin to commute the death sentence over questions of Glossip’s guilt...
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