VIDEO: Here's what some will do for paid family leave

The U.S. maybe know as the Land of Opportunity, but it fails to provide many basic necessities to its workers that other nations around the world make available. 

Chief among those is paid family leave, which the Teamsters and other advocates have stood up for in the past as a necessary provision to help female and male providers better provide for their families. Currently, 87 percent of Americans don't receive any, and thus are left in a real conundrum when they have children.

Last month, the Economic Policy Institute introduced a 12-point policy for making women's lives better, and paid leave was part of it. Now, some in Hollywood and in the entertainment industry are joining in to demand it as well.

As the video above shows, their message isn't subtle. But hopefully it will be effective in bringing more dignity to workers.

Today's Teamster News 12.16.15

TEAMSTERS
Flexjet and Flight Options Pilots Vote to Join Teamsters  Teamster.org  ...Pilots at luxury on-demand air travel companies Flexjet and Flight Options voted today to join the Teamsters Union. Following the vote tallied by the National Mediation Board, the 670 pilots in the class will join Teamsters Local 1108, in Richmond Heights, Ohio. On Sept. 30, 2015, the NMB determined that Flexjet and Flight Options are operating as a single transportation system for representation purposes under the Railway Labor Act...
Teamsters Protest Closure of MillerCoors Plant in Eden  TWC News  ...Teamsters from Local 391 rallied Tuesday in support of the more than 500 employees from the MillersCoors plant that will be losing their jobs in the new year. The plant in Eden is set to close in late 2016 because of what company officials say is "logistics." Facilities in Virgina and Florida will take over Eden's responsibilities. Teamsters say there is no reason for the plant to close...
In Memoriam: Ralph Taurone, Teamster Leader  Teamster.org  ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is saddened to announce the passing of Ralph J. Taurone, a beloved member of the Teamster family, on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015. Taurone began his Teamster career in 1964 when he was initiated into Local 282, New York, while employed as a construction driver. In 1965 he moved to Chicago and became a member of Local 710...
Mediation to Resume Tuesday, But Coca-Cola Trashes Retroactivity, Adds Pitiful Health Care Increases in Latest Proposal  Local 727  ...Coca-Cola Refreshments abruptly broke off negotiations on Monday night with Local 727 and asked to resume mediation on Tuesday, December 15. After the union had already told the company it was willing to negotiate into the night, Local 727 agreed to return Tuesday. Coca-Cola wasted another six hours engaging in delay tactics...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
New Zealand Bunnings workers go on strike, union warns Christmas shoppers will be disrupted  Stuff.co.nz  ...As many as 850 Bunnings staff will go on strike on Wednesday afternoon, with more industrial action planned as the dispute continues. Workers from 21 stores, mostly across the North Island, voted to strike for the day after a morning meeting. Staff from a further seven stores will meet on Friday and decide whether to take similar action...
Speaker Ryan: House vote ‘very possible’ in 2016 on Obama’s trade bill  Washington Post  ...Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that it is "very possible" that the House could vote on President Obama's Pacific Rim trade accord next year, providing hope for the administration after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested last week that the pact should be delayed until a new president takes office. Ryan (R-Wis.) did not specify a timetable...
White House says optimistic Congress will back TPP trade pact  Reuters  ...The White House said on Tuesday it was optimistic Congress would back the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact "in timely fashion" and that it will work with Republican congressional leaders to that end. "We continue to be optimistic that this is something that Congress can and should do in a timely fashion," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a White House briefing...
Pena Nieto Pushes Labor Reforms, But Unions Still See Shortcomings  MyInforms  ...Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has newly pledged to carry out labor rights reforms in two areas identified as critical by House Democrats and U.S. labor unions in the context of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) debate, but labor advocates are already questioning the extent to which the promised steps will really represent meaningful change...
8 Terrible Things About the Trans-Pacific Partnership  In These Times  ...Progressive public-interest organizations say that the final text, the fruit of seven years of secretive trade talks between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, dashed even their low expectations. The deal not only continues most of the troubling features of trade agreements since NAFTA but also breaks worrisome new ground. Like most recent international economic agreements, the TPP only glancingly resembles a classic trade deal...
How the GOP Is Diverting Our Attention Away from the TPP  (opinion) Alternet  ...GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump stokes the fire by urging Americans to blame anyone but corporations and corporate honchos like himself. One-percenter Trump and his fellow GOP candidates exhort average Americans to hate and fear Muslims, Syrian refugees, Black Lives Matter activists and undocumented immigrants. Division and diversion help the one percent secure policies like trickle-down economics and job-destroying trade deals...
Hopes of a global trade deal remain low as WTO meets in Nairobi  The Guardian  ...Fourteen years of tortuous global trade talks will end in failure this week unless there is a sudden and unexpected end to the impasse between developed and developing countries that has bedevilled negotiations. Hopes are low of a breakthrough at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting that begins in Nairobi on Tuesday, with the US openly calling for time to be called on the Doha round of talks that began in the Qatari capital in November 2001...
Global Trade Faces Fragmentation Risks From TPP, TTIP, TiSA  Sputnik News  ...The United States and the European Union launched secretive trade and services deregulation talks with other countries, outside the framework of the WTO, as the Doha Development Agenda stalled in 2008 amid disagreement between advanced and developing nations over agriculture, services and tariffs...
Portugal's New Govt Starts Reversing Austerity Measures  ABC  ...Portugal's new anti-austerity government is making good on its promise to put more money in people's pockets, reducing or eliminating for most families a 3.5 percent super tax on monthly pay introduced during the country's financial crisis. Fernando Rocha Andrade, secretary of state for fiscal affairs, said Tuesday the tax will be eliminated next year for households with income below 7,000 euros...
Slave-peeled shrimp tied to major retailers, restaurants  CNBC  ...Poor migrant workers and children are being sold to factories in Thailand and forced to peel shrimp that ends up in global supply chains, including those of Wal-Mart and Red Lobster, the world's largest retailer and the world's largest seafood restaurant chain, an Associated Press investigation found. At the Gig Peeling Factory, nearly 100 Burmese laborers were trapped, most working for almost nothing...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
After LePage’s Anti-Poor Crusade, Maine Could Face Giant Fine Over Food Stamp Gridlock  Think Progress  ...Maine’s efficiency at processing food stamps applications has gotten so bad that the United States Department of Agriculture is warning Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) team to fix things fast or get hit with significant penalties. Maine ranked 36th out of 53 administrative units in processing speed for food stamps back in 2014, but has now slipped all the way down to last...
California lawmaker sets up debate over next big issue in the 'gig' economy  Business Journal  ...Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez offered a glimpse Monday of what could be the next chapter in a battle involving workers in the so-called gig economy. Upcoming legislation would allow those workers to collectively bargain for rights like health care – even if they aren’t unionized...
California’s Medicaid Program May Be Failing 7.3 Million Latinos  Think Progress  ...California is failing its low-income residents by declining to attract doctors who can treat people enrolled in its Medicaid program, according to a civil rights complaint filed with the federal government this week.
Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid health program for low-income residents, provides free medical care for about 30 percent of the state’s population, including nearly 7.3 million Latinos...
Paid Sick Leave Set To Go Statewide In Oregon  KPLU  ...More Oregon employees will be able to take sick leave in the coming year. It's because of a new law taking effect in January. If you already get sick leave in Oregon this law probably won't affect you. But advocates for the bill, which narrowly passed both legislative chambers in June, said many low-wage workers have to choose between taking unpaid time off or going to work sick...
Trial over redistricting in NC gets underway  WNCN  ...A trial over redistricting in North Carolina began Wednesday morning in federal court. A federal judge will decide if General Assembly drawn maps are constitutional. The trial has been about four years in the making, which is when the maps were drawn. Democrats say Republicans used race as a reason to draw the maps and have been fighting to have them overturned...
Airport employers seek new hearing on SeaTac minimum wage  Seattle Times  ...There’s some good news and bad news for workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport who’ve been looking for a bump up to $15 in minimum wage for the last two years. The good news: Most, since August, have been getting paid $15.24 an hour, according to an attorney for the group that backed the minimum-wage law. The bad news: The legal wrangling over whether the minimum-wage law should apply at the airport has gained new life...
Missouri Lawmaker Wants To Revoke Scholarships If Athletes Protest  Huffington Post  ...Legislation introduced in Missouri would strip college athletes of their scholarships if they refuse to play for any reason "unrelated to health." The proposal, filed Friday by state Rep. Rick Brattin, comes a month after the University of Missouri was roiled by protests in which 30 black football players refused to show up unless President Tim Wolfe resigned...
Ill. Village Becomes State’s First ‘Right to Work’ Zone  CBS  ...Illinois has its first “right to work zone” after a vote  by trustees in a Chicago suburb. But a legal challenge is expected to follow. The village board of Lincolnshire passed an ordinance Monday to prevent local private sector employers from requiring workers to join a union or pay dues through payroll deductions...

U.S. LABOR
Trump’s Vegas Hotel Refuses To Recognize Its Workers’ Union  Think Progress  ...Just 24 hours before billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump took the stage for the fifth GOP debate, the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas launched a legal challenge to its 500-odd workers’ effort to form a union. After a year of organizing, much of it in secret, a narrow majority of the workers voted earlier this month to join the Culinary Workers Union and Bartenders Union, which are part of the national hospitality workers union Unite Here...
In Landslide Election, University of Chicago Adjuncts Vote to Form Union  In These Times  ...In a landslide election, University of Chicago non-tenure track faculty voted to form a union last week—becoming the first faculty to unionize in the Faculty Forward Chicago movement that has seen growing support at universities across the city. On December 9, contingent faculty, largely representing the Humanities Division, voted 96-22 in favor of a bargaining unit that will be represented by Service Employees International Union's Local 73...
Kohler Co., UAW reach tentative deal  Sheboygan Press  ...Kohler Co. and the United Auto Workers Local 833 jointly released a press release Tuesday at 10:34 p.m. to announce they have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract that would resolve the more than month-long labor dispute. In the press release, the two sides say the new agreement "features increased wages and benefits"...
Suburban building owners & custodians reach new contract  Business Journal  ...Suburban office building landlords and the union representing roughly 1,400 janitors reached a new contract Tuesday night that puts workers' wages just shy of their desired rate. Members of the 32BJ Service Employees International Union and the Building Operators Labor Relations group, which represents the owners of about 170 suburban Philadelphia properties, agreed to raise wages...
AFSCME local OKs contract with UI  News Gazette  ...Members of a large employee union at the University of Illinois have approved a new three-year contract with the Urbana campus after 16 months of negotiations. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3700 voted overwhelmingly to accept the terms of the tentative agreement reached last month, union officials said...
Democrats resist provision blocking NLRB's joint employer ruling  Reuters  ...U.S. congressional Democrats are beating back a Republican push to defang a National Labor Relations Board decision that could give unions greater bargaining power with large companies that rely on franchisees or contractors, a Senate Democratic aide said on Tuesday. The aide, who asked not to be identified, said that for now, a government funding and tax policy bill was unlikely to contain a provision that would basically strike down the "Browning-Ferris Industries" NLRB ruling from earlier this year...
King Soopers reaches deal with 10,000 union workers  9 News  ...The King Soopers grocery chain said it's reached a new labor deal with 10,000 union employees in Colorado. Kroger Co., parent of the Denver-based grocery chain, said the 10,000 UFCW Local 7 workers at 103 King Soopers and City Market stores in the state have ratified new labor agreements...
Senate workers win raise in new contract — but not quite ‘$15 and a union’  Washington Post  ...The blue-collar workers who serve meals to U.S. senators, their staff and Capitol visitors have won a significant increase in wages under a new contract that took effect Monday. The agreement with Restaurant Associates, the private contractor that operates the Senate’s cafeteria, private dining room and other facilities, stands to help raise the living standards for dozens of workers...
Ashland's Largest Employer to Lay Off 620 Just Before Christmas  The Levisa Lazer  ...Layoffs at AK Steel’s manufacturing plant in Ashland, Ky., are being called devastating for the community by the president of the union representing hourly steel workers. As of now, the union leader says plans are moving forward to temporarily idle the blast furnace and related steelmaking operations at Ashland Works. Company leaders blame cuts on rising levels of unfairly traded steel imports to the United States...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Congress reaches deal on spending bill to fund federal government  Daily Kos  ...Congressional leaders released their long-negotiated omnibus spending bill Tuesday evening, with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan touting Republican wins that seem less than great victories. What's out—any restrictions on the implementation of net neutrality, along with Planned Parenthood defunding and the Iraqi and Syrian refugee ban...
Defending immigration, Obama says Muslim refugees are like Catholics in 1900  USA Today  ... President Obama delivered a full-throated defense of a liberal immigration policy Tuesday, saying, America betrays its history and its values when it fails to welcome those fleeing poverty, hunger, war and persecution from all over the world. Speaking at a naturalization ceremony for 31 new American citizens at the National Archives, Obama compared the current wave of immigrants to the waves of German, Scottish, Irish and German immigrants of the past...
GOP Debate: Trump Defends Muslim Ban, Other Candidates Debate How to Restrict Rights & Go to War  Democracy Now  ...The nine leading Republican presidential candidates squared off last night in the first debate since Donald Trump shook up the race by proposing to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Much of the debate focused on national security, with several candidates pushing for increasing the size of the U.S. military, escalating the wars in the Middle East and expanding the power of the National Security Agency...
Donald Trump Details Plan To Close ‘Areas’ Of The Internet  Think Progress  ...Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump followed up on his promise to close parts of the internet in order to fight ISIS radicalization, offering his most specific idea yet in the GOP debate Tuesday night.
When explicitly asked if he would take similar steps as repressive governments in China and North Korea to censor the internet, Trump said he would seal off the internet from places at war with America, since the internet was “our idea”...
Lawmakers 'Fail the Internet,' Sneak Cyber Bill Into Must-Pass Omnibus  Common Dreams  ...A controversial cyber bill is included in the final text of the must-pass "omnibus" spending deal to be voted on in U.S. Congress this week, even as civil liberties advocates warn it is nothing more than an expansion of government surveillance powers in disguise. This means the bill is likely to pass "without meaningful debate or transparency on the final text," digital rights group Fight for the Future said Wednesday...
The Kochs’ kind of welfare: “Outreach” to the poor is just another power grab for the billionaire brothers  Salon  ...Not content with having built their own parallel economy and their own parallel political party, the Koch brothers have also started to build their own parallel welfare state, Politico’s Ken Vogel reports. According to Vogel, the Kochs’ new beneficence is inspired, at least in part, by a desire to present “a more compassionate side of the brothers’ politics to new audiences, while fighting the perception that their groups are merely fronts for rich Republicans...

Seattle lawmakers side with Uber, taxi drivers

The Seattle City Council took the first swing at the nation's ballooning freelance "gig" economy, approving a measure that would give app-based drivers and others in the jurisdiction the ability to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions.

Drivers stood up and were counted in Seattle fight.

Under the proposal, drivers would have the ability to come together to choose a nonprofit organization to represent them. Once authorized, the organization could engage in collective bargaining on the drivers’ behalf. The new law would apply to all taxi drivers, for-hire drivers and drivers for app-based dispatch companies, such as Uber and Lyft.

Drivers and community supporters celebrated the bill’s passage, calling it a turning point toward greater protections for workers in a changing economic landscape. Peter Kuel, an Uber driver and member of the leadership council of the App-Based Drivers Association, said:

Since I started driving for Uber, Uber has cut our pay without notice, terminated drivers without giving a reason and blocked our efforts to improve our working conditions. We’re looking for fairness and the ability to earn a living wage. 

Seattle app-based drivers as well as traditional taxi drivers are already aligned with Teamsters Local 117.Taxi drivers formed the Western Washington Taxicab Operators Association in 2012. In 2013, drivers for app-based dispatch companies formed the App-Based Drivers Association.

Because of their disputed status as independent contractors, however, for-hire drivers don't have the ability to unionize through a traditional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process, and they aren't covered under Seattle's wage theft, sick leave or new $15 an hour minimum wage law.

John Scearcy, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 117, is hopeful the legislation -- if signed by the mayor -- will go a long way towards making things more fair:

All workers, no matter where they work or the nature of their work, deserve the opportunity to have a voice. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights identifies the right of workers to bargain collectively as a fundamental human right. Now these workers have that right.

Figuring out the future of organizing as the gig economy continues to grow in the U.S. is a major challenge for workers. The Teamsters' victory earlier this year in the "Browning-Ferris" case decided by the NLRB was seen by many as an opportunity to expand union representation among millions of workers nationwide who previously were misclassified as independent contractors.

Legal challenges to the NLRB ruling have already been filed and are expected if the Seattle measure becomes law. But these rulings are just more proof that when workers are Teamster Strong, America is Stronger!

Today's Teamster News 12.15.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters: Seattle Drivers Win a Voice With Historic City Council Vote  Teamster.org  ...Drivers in Seattle’s for-hire industry won the right to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions through an initiative passed by the City Council today. The Mike O’Brien-sponsored bill will now move to the mayor’s desk for his signature. Drivers and community supporters celebrated the bill’s passage...
Seattle first U.S. city to let Uber drivers unionize  Detroit News  ...Seattle on Monday became the first city in the nation to allow drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions. Supporters erupted into cheers after the City Council voted 8-0 in favor of the legislation, which is seen as a test case for the changing 21st century workforce. The Teamsters Union Local 117 also celebrated the vote, while the National Right To Work Legal Foundation criticized it as a violation of drivers’ rights...
Teamsters Make Progress at Carhaul Talks, More Negotiations to be Scheduled  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters Union and carhaul employer representatives continue to discuss and exchange proposals for a new national contract that are responsive to the concerns of the membership. Based on the talks just concluded last week, we can report some tentative progress. Many of the contract proposals have been resolved, but both sides still need to focus on the economic issues. The parties have decided to suspend talks over the holidays...
AFSCME and University reach tentative contract agreement  Workday Minnesota  ...AFSCME will brief clerical and technical workers this week on a tentative contract settlement with the University of Minnesota that the union said "begins to close the gap between the haves and have-nots at the University." The union credited solidarity among its local unions and with Teamsters Local 320 for leading to a breakthrough in the six-month negotiations...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Hundreds of Myanmar Garment Workers Mark Seventh Day of Labor Strike  Radio Free Asia  ...More than 200 garment workers in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon Monday marked the seventh day of a strike demanding full salary for November after the owner of the factory that employs them docked their pay for failing to meet production targets. The workers have been protesting since Dec. 7...
Steelworkers union calls on Canada, U.S. to reject TPP  Canadian Manufacturing  ...The executive board of the United Steelworkers have adopted a formal resolution urging Ottawa and Washington to reject the tentative Trans-Pacific Partnership. The union says the resolution is the precursor for a “fully engaged” TPP rejection campaign that will get underway in both Canada and the U.S. “The TPP will only continue the failed trade policies of the past"...
Major Summit Could Put World's Poorest Inhabitants on Corporate Chopping Block  Alternet  ...Last week, 453 civil society groups including trade unions, farmers, environmentalists, public interest groups and development advocates from over 150 countries wrote an urgent letter to members of the WTO to “express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO.” The 10th Ministerial meeting of the WTO is occurring against a backdrop of accelerated “mega-regional” comprehensive pro-corporate “trade” deals...
TPP trade agreement undercuts biologic patents  Washington Examiner  ...An important part of the deal is protection of intellectual property — including copyright, trademarks and patents — which are necessary for commercial and scientific innovation. The biggest obstacle to congressional approval, however, appears to be the deal's inadequate protection of intellectual property in "biologic" medicines...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Takes a Hit  Hoosier Ag Today  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal recently suffered a huge setback after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview Congress should not take up the trade deal before the November elections. McConnell told the Washington Post that President Obama would be making a big mistake by pushing for a vote on TPP during the election cycle...
Don’t Be Misled; The TPP Is Still Coming Full Steam  (opinion) OurFuture.org  ...Recently there have been news reports that Republicans are going to delay TPP until after the 2016 elections. Do not be misled; this is a bargaining ploy. They want the Obama administration to make “side agreements” that give corporations even more. We have to keep up the fight, and keep getting the word out. People opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “trade” agreement have recently had their hopes lifted...
India's October tea output drops 7% as workers strike  Economic Times  ...India's tea production in key October month dropped 7 per cent from a year earlier to 158.06 million kg, the state-run Tea Board said in a statement, as a strike called by plantation workers in southern India hit plucking. Production in the southern state of Kerala, where plantation workers went on strike demanding higher wages, dropped 60 percent...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-Wing GOP Governor Succeeds in Making More People Go Hungry  Alternet  ...Maine's Gov. Paul LePage can now claim the proud policy achievement of making more needy people go hungry.   David Farmer reports in Daily Bangor News that during LePage's administration, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which administers SNAP benefits, has been so badly mismanaged it risks losing federal funding. The USDA also admonished the organization for failing to process applications in a timely way...
Amid $15 debate, tipped workers call for one minimum wage  Times Union  ...If state lawmakers approve a raise for all workers during the next legislative session, those earning tips say it’s time to dismantle the state’s two-tiered wage system. In a letter sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Co-Founder and Co-Director Saru Jayaraman called on the governor to move to abolish the separate tipped minimum wage for certain workers in the restaurant and hospitality industries...
New state laws address gender pay gap, child care, disability leave  SF Chronicle  ...About three dozen employment laws take effect in California next year, including ones that bolster equal-pay protections, help workers with chronic health conditions and give parents unpaid time off to research schools and deal with child care emergencies. The most significant law on an annual list put out by the California Chamber of Commerce is SB358, the widely publicized Fair Pay Act...
Senate’s Motives At Issue As Redistricting Trial Starts  CBS  ...The decisions prompting state Senate leaders to choose a redistricting plan they recommended to a Leon County judge took center stage Monday, the first day of a trial to determine whether that map should go to the Florida Supreme Court. Circuit Judge George Reynolds has the task of recommending to the Supreme Court either the Senate’s redistricting proposal or one of several plans offered by a coalition of voting-rights groups...
Lincolnshire creates right-to-work zone that unions oppose  Daily Herald  ...Lincolnshire has become the first town in the Chicago area to establish itself as a right-to-work zone, a move critics have assailed as anti-union. t's also a move experts say is sure to face a legal challenge. To create the zone, the village board approved an ordinance preventing local employers from requiring workers to pay union dues with payroll deductions...

U.S. LABOR
Detroit casino workers ratify new contract  Detroit Free Press  ...Workers at Detroit's three casinos ratified a new five-year contract Sunday — ending months of contentious and complicated negotiations and providing relief to thousands of workers. Joe Daugherty, president of Unite Here Local 24 and head of the bargaining committee for a group of unions, said in an e-mail that a majority of workers at all three casinos approved the contract...
UAW-Nexteer workers to vote on second deal  Detroit News  ...UAW Local 699 President Rick Burzynski believes a second tentative agreement reached with Nexteer Automotive addresses concerns that led to a 20-hour strike and 97 percent of membership rejecting a first deal. “We pretty much addressed everything that our workers wanted,” he said Monday morning, a week after workers walked off their jobs and picketed the Chinese-owned auto supplier...
NLRB certifies VW Chattanooga election results  Times Free Press  ...The National Labor Relations Board has certified the results of the United Auto Workers election held at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant on Dec. 3 and 4. Maintenance, or skilled trades, workers at the plant agreed to be represented by the UAW for collective bargaining purposes by a margin of 108 to 44...
Progress made in UAW, Kohler talks  Sheboygan Press  ...The Kohler Co. strike has entered its fifth week, with more talks scheduled for today between the company and the United Auto Workers Local 833. Union officials weren’t immediately available for comment Monday morning but posted on the UAW Local 833 Facebook page on Friday, Dec. 11, that there was “good movement in talks with the company today”...
IBEW 125 members ratify contract at Pacificorp  NW Labor Press  ...In votes counted Dec. 14, members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125 approved a new four-year contract with Pacific Power by a 72 percent margin. Local 125’s previous collective bargaining agreement with Pacific Power expired Jan. 26, 2015. In June and again in August, members voted down company proposals by overwhelming margins, and on Sept. 1, 2015, they authorized the union to call a strike...
Chicago Teachers Union’s Overwhelming Approval of Strike Shows Power of Bottom-up Organizing  In These Times  ...The numbers are in from the Chicago Teachers Union's strike authorization vote, and it's not even close. After three days of voting last week, 22,678 of the union's 24,752 eligible members cast ballots, and 96.05 percent of them voted “yes”—88 percent of all CTU members. The nation's third-largest — and arguably most important — teachers union has sent a clear message that they are willing to walk off the job amid their current round of contract negotiations...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New rule: Truck drivers must electronically record hours  Newsday  ...An estimated 3 million commercial truck and bus drivers must electronically record their hours behind the wheel under a new government rule aimed at enforcing regulations designed to prevent fatigue. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released the long-awaited rule on Thursday. Drivers have been required to keep paper logs of their hours dating back to 1938...
After Paris, There Is Some Room for Hope  The Nation  ... it will undoubtedly be many years before renewable forms of energy—wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and others still in development—replace fossil fuels as the world’s leading energy providers. Nonetheless, 2015 can be viewed as the year in which the epochal transition from one set of fuels to another took off, with renewables making such significant strides...
On policing, the national mood turns toward reform  Washington Post  ...In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired his police chief and faces a growing clamor for his resignation. In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired her police chief and abandoned plans to seek reelection. And in San Francisco, protesters are demanding the head of yet another police chief, prompting Mayor Edwin Lee to vow last week to overhaul police procedures regarding deadly force...
A Tense Baltimore Braces for A Verdict  The Atlantic  ...As the jury prepares to deliver a verdict in the trial of the first of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore police department is taking pains to reach out to the community and signal that it is ready to respond to any outcome, including protest. Community activists, meanwhile, say that distrust of the police still runs deep...
Robert Reich: Why the Middle Class Is in Revolt and Susceptible to a Dangerous 'Strongman'  Alternet  ...Now someone comes along who’s even more of a bully than those who for years have bullied them economically, politically, and even violently. The attraction is understandable, even though misguided. If not Donald Trump, then it will be someone else posing as a strongman. If not this election cycle, it will be the next one. The revolt of the anxious class has just begun...
Flood of Anti-Muslim Violence Driving Record Year for Crimes of Hate  Common Dreams  ...2015 is shaping up to be "one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history," according to reports, as increasing xenophobia and hateful rhetoric has propelled a record number of attacks on mosques and Islamic centers across the U.S...

New Calif. law will bring equal pay for all

Once again taking the lead where the dysfunctional U.S. Congress failed to do so, California’s legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown – with significant lobbying from the Teamsters and other unions – pushed through a strong equal pay law that brings fairness of all workers.

Jerry Brown signed the bill into law in October.

The California Fair Pay Act (CFPA), which takes effect Jan. 1, closes loopholes created since the federal Equal Pay Act passed in 1963, at least in the Golden State, home to one of every eight people in the U.S. The CFPA is among almost two dozen pro-worker laws the Democratic-run pro-labor legislature approved in its 2015 session.

The California law expands federal equal pay rights by mandating that employers pay workers, regardless of sex or gender, equally for “substantially similar” work, not just strictly equal work. Federal courts have been increasingly strict in deciding what is “equal work” the federal law covers. They’ve turned most such pay discrimination cases down.

The California law also strengthens worker protection against employer retaliation and requires firms to keep employment records, including pay records, for three years, not two.

A legal summary says California bans paying workers of the opposite sex less for "substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility." And the employer must take account of "similar working conditions," not just wages at the worksite or company branch involved.

California employers could still discriminate in pay, but only if they can show the wage differences “are due to a seniority system, merit system, a system that measures the quantity or quality of production, or a ‘bona fide factor other than sex, such as education, training, or experience,’" the law adds.

And if they cite those reasons, they must be directly job-related – and show that the factor that produces wage discrimination is “consistent with business necessity." The new law then gives workers a defense against business necessity by showing “an alternative business practice exists that would serve the same purpose without producing the wage disparity.”

The California law also bans employers from retaliating against workers who disclose their own wages, discuss other workers’ wages, ask about others’ wages or help other workers exercise their rights. But if the worker asks about wages, the
employer can refuse to answer.

If the employer is guilty of breaking the law, the worker gets back pay plus interest, an equal amount in damages, and attorney’s fees.

• Press Associates, Inc., contributed to this report.

Today's Teamster News 12.14.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Testify About Republic Services' Radioactive Landfill  Teamster.org  ...On Tuesday, Teamsters testified at the St. Louis Tribunal that is investigating human rights violations against communities surrounding Republic Services’ West Lake Superfund landfill site in Bridgeton, Mo. The tribunal will report to the United Nations Human Rights and Environment Program.
An underground fire has been raging for five years at the West Lake complex...
Uber: On the Road to Nowhere  American Prospect  ...Working with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, hundreds of app-based drivers have helped persuade the Seattle City Council to vote initial approval—7 to 0—of a bill that would allow them to unionize. It would be the nation’s first law allowing app-based “independent contractor” drivers to unionize. A final vote is tentatively scheduled for December 14...
Chicago-Area Coca-Cola Refreshments Workers to Unite at Rally  Local 727  ...Hundreds of Coca-Cola Refreshments workers will rally in solidarity and in continued support of their unfair labor practice strike on Monday, Dec. 14. More than 300 Teamsters Local 727-represented Coca-Cola Refreshments workers initiated an unfair labor practice strike Dec. 3 after the beverage industry behemoth continually violated federal labor laws by intimidating workers, circumventing the union and engaging in overall bad faith bargaining during negotiations for a new contract...
SEIU, Teamsters Mourn San Bernardino Dead  Labor Press  ....Most of the 15 people killed in the mass murder at a holiday party for county workers here Dec. 2 were union members. Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents San Bernardino County environmental health specialists, has identified 10 of the dead and 10 of the 21 people wounded as members, and the Teamsters said three of the dead and two of the wounded were members of Local 1932...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers Strike At Mexican Border Factory  Fronteras  ...At least 100 workers at a Mexican border factory in Ciudad Juárez are on strike protesting low wages and a hostile workplace. The factory packages printer ink for the American company Lexmark. The highest paid workers claim they earn 77 cents an hour. Several dozen workers who said they were fired this week after demanding a pay raise have set up a protest camp outside the factory...
Workers at Irish Life to hold one day strike  Irish Times  ...Workers at insurance giant Irish Life have voted to hold a one-day strike this Thursday. A dispute has been ongoing since the beginning of November, when four two-hour stoppages were held. The dispute centres on the company’s unilateral imposition of a new pay model...
Thousands of Morocco Public Employees Wage Strike  Solidarity Center  ...Thousands of public-sector employees rallied and marched as part of a national strike yesterday in which workers in local agencies and up to 80 percent in government ministries walked off the job. Workers seek to draw attention to the unwillingness of the government to negotiate with them on such issues as wages and retirement. The strike, held on International Human Rights Day, aimed to “defend the gains of retirement for workers, trade union freedoms, rights and dignity”...
House Passes Trade Component, but Trans-Pacific Partnership Still in Doubt  Wall Street Journal  ...The House passed a key component of President Barack Obama’s trade policy Friday, but tepid support among Republicans and business groups for his big Pacific trade agreement could keep that deal from coming to a vote until the final weeks of his presidency, if then. A customs bill that cleared the House on Friday gives American steel companies greater ability to challenge subsidized and dumped steel from China and other countries...
TPP faces US roadblock  Financial Review  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership suffered a serious setback to being implemented by the pact's lead economy, after the powerful United States Senate leader stunned trade watchers by declaring Congress should not vote on the accord until after next November's presidential election. The blunt message from influential Republican Mitch McConnell means the TPP is likely to face at least 12 months in limbo...
House votes to boost enforcement of trade deals, block climate change provisions  US News & World Report  ...As negotiators in Paris worked to finalize a global agreement on climate change, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill Friday that would block trade deals from being used to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Supporters said the wide-ranging bill would beef up enforcement of U.S. trade agreements and help prevent counterfeit goods from entering the country...
The Empire Strikes Back: the Return of the WTO  Counterpunch  ...In the last two years, we have witnessed the rise of mega regional trade deals. TTIP is one such example of a potential trade deal between the US and the EU. These deals have many similarities. They are designed to open up new markets for global corporations and create the conditions for them to be as lucrative as possible...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
U.S. states pass laws backing Uber's view of drivers as contractors  Reuters  ...State legislators in Ohio and Florida are moving ahead with regulations governing Uber and other ride services that would designate all drivers as independent contractors, bolstering a critical but much-disputed aspect of Uber's business model. The states would join North Carolina, Arkansas, and Indiana in requiring the contractor designation as part of new laws governing so-called transportation network companies...
Federal judges to weigh in on redistricting 13 News Now  ...Heading to court today: a potential change in Congressional district boundaries that would re-assign more than one million voters. Federal judges will weigh in on whether to proceed with redrawing Virginia's congressional districts, or wait for the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal. This comes after the court ruled the current boundaries pack too many African-American voters into the Commonwealth's 3rd District...
Speaker Unsure if House Will Vote on Right-to-Work in 2016  Ozarks First  ...The state House’s Republicans have met to discuss priorities for the coming session, but their leader won’t predict an answer for one key question - whether right-to-work will come to a vote in his chamber. Many speculate that if backers in the state House can’t find more support for right-to-work than it had this year, when they failed to overturn Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) veto, it won’t be brought up for a vote...
The fight over right-to-work  DPost.com  ...The battle lines have formed for the Legislature’s 2016 debate on a right-to-work bill. The West Virginia Business and Industry Council (BIC) has made it its top priority and legislative leaders have it near the top of their to-do lists. Union opponents packed the House of Delegates’ largest meeting room during a November WVU presentation on the topic. Proponents say it will boost jobs and wages and lure new business to the state. Opponents say it will kill jobs, lower wages and do nothing to help business...

U.S. LABOR
Kohler Company forced back to bargaining table  FightBack News  ...As of last week, Kohler Company and United Auto Workers Local 833 went back to the bargaining table for negotiations amidst a strike now entering its fourth week. The negotiations come as company production at its facilities remain largely closed, with the overwhelming majority of members continuing the stand on their picket lines...

Construction workers rally in Manhattan for safer worksites  AM New York  ...Thousands of construction workers rallied outside of City Hall on Thursday, displaying a row of eight black coffins and demanding the city enforce stricter safety measures at construction sites. Many marchers claimed non-union workers posed greater risks at construction sites because they do not go through the same stringent safety requirements as their union counterparts...

WMUR booted from next Democratic debate  Politico  ...New Hampshire’s most influential television station is being pushed out of next week’s Democratic debate. The reason? A labor dispute between a handful of employees at the station, WMUR, and its owner, the Hearst Corporation. At issue is an accusation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1228 that WMUR is trying to strip pensions from about a dozen of its employees because they decided to join the union...

USW reviewing new U.S. Steel proposal  NWI.com  ...U.S. Steel has proposed a new contract to the United Steelworkers union, and local union presidents are headed to Pittsburgh to discuss it. Negotiations have been ongoing for six months. U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal, which have declined to comment on specifics during the contract talks, have both asked for concessions they say are necessary...

King Soopers and City Market Ratify Agreements with UFCW Local 7  PR Newswire  ...The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today announced that associates working at King Soopers and City Market stores in Colorado have ratified new labor agreements with UFCW Local 7. The contracts cover more than 10,000 associates working in 103 stores, 36 fuel centers and pharmacy technicians in 78 pharmacies in Colorado, including Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Grand Junction, Longmont, Parker and Pueblo...

Seattle Considers Measure to Let Uber and Lyft Drivers Unionize  New York Times  ...The proposed law is the latest labor issue to bedevil Uber, which lets people hail rides through a smartphone app and takes a roughly 20 to 30 percent cut of each fare. Uber has faced questions about whether its workers should be classified as full-time employees instead of freelancers, and the company, based in San Francisco, is embroiled in a class-action lawsuit on the issue...

The Coming Chicago Teachers Union Strike Could Be a Watershed Moment for a City in Crisis  In These Times  ... The contract the union negotiated during that strike has expired, and CTU members began voting Wednesday on whether to authorize another walkout. Given the strong internal push to vote “yes” and assuming the union meets the legally required yes vote threshold of 75% of its members, we will likely see another Chicago teachers strike sometime next year. Yet a victory this time around will require more than proving that a strike can be a galvanizing tool for workers in the 21st century...
What Economic Recovery? A Good Job is Still Hard to Find  Alternet   ...Encouraging though it may be, the latest nationwide strong jobs report doesn’t change the big picture: the economic recovery, officially underway since June 2009, is still leaving millions of working Americans behind. Earlier this week, a new report from the Alliance for a Just Society highlights the failure of our economic policies to produce the full-time living wage jobs working people need to sustain their families...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New York City to Aid Immigrants Amid Stalled National Reforms  New York Times  ...Immigration reform may be in political and legal limbo nationally, but New York City is moving ahead on a plan of its own. The city will spend $7.9 million next year to boost its immigration services throughout the five boroughs, deploying community organizations to help residents seek free legal services to apply for protection from deportation or even for citizenship...
Video Shows LA Police Fatally Shoot Suspect in the Back as He Is Crawling Away  Slate  ...A shocking video has emerged that shows two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shoot and kill an armed suspect in Lynwood on Saturday as he is walking away. Perhaps most shocking of all is how the two police officers keep firing their guns even as the suspect was knocked to the ground and appears to be crawling away. The man, who died at the scene, was identified as 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson, a father of three...
Historic Climate Deal Reached, But Campaigners say the Work is Just Beginning  Common Dreams  ...The global talks known as COP21 ended Saturday with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a carbon emissions-slashing deal.  But climate campaigners are saying that the agreement doesn't go far enough, and that the real work is just beginning. While Reuters described the deal's adoption as "setting the course for a 'historic' transformation of the world's fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming"...

The middle class deserves lawmakers' attention

America's middle-class majority is dead. And that's not likely to change unless dramatic economic changes are made, a new Pew Research Center report states.

The document shows that those making up the upper- and lower-income households overtook those in the middle in 2015, and Pew said it could be a tipping point for the U.S. demographically away from middle-class workers to the nation's most wealthy.

A summary of the survey tells the story:

[T]he nation's aggregate household income has substantially shifted from middle-income to upper-income households, driven by the growing size of the upper-income tier and more rapid gains in income at the top. Fully 49% of U.S. aggregate income went to upper-income households in 2014, up from 29% in 1970. The share accruing to middle-income households was 43% in 2014, down substantially from 62% in 1970.

And middle-income Americans have fallen further behind financially in the new century. In 2014, the median income of these households was 4% less than in 2000. Moreover, because of the housing market crisis and the Great Recession of 2007-09, their median wealth (assets minus debts) fell by 28% from 2001 to 2013.

This shouldn't be news to readers here. But this Pew study does detail the middle class's precipitous fall. In 1971, 61 percent of households made between two-thirds and double the nation's median income for a family of three. Now, it is just short of half.

Two major reasons for the demise of the middle class can be traced to the drop in unionization as well as lousy trade deals like NAFTA and the teed-up Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). As a result, there are fewer skilled labor jobs paying an honest wage that can support a family.

It's all part of the reason the Teamster debuted our "Let's Get America Working" platform back in September -- to push Congress to invest in this country so workers can get paid a good salary and the economy will benefit from the spending that results from increased incomes.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill took the first step last week when it approved a long-term transportation bill. But they have to follow that up by passing more policies that will help all Americans.