Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Today's Teamster News 05.15.13

Fast-food workers stage protests for higher wages  USA Today   ...A recent wave of strikes by fast-food employees in four cities is expected to spread to Milwaukee Wednesday as demands for higher pay shake up an industry previously insulated from worker unrest...
Tougher drunken driving threshold weighed  Associated Press  ...Federal accident investigators were weighing a recommendation Tuesday that states reduce their threshold for drunken driving from the current .08 blood alcohol content to .05, a standard that has been shown to substantially reduce highway deaths in other countries...
Walmart Sues Labor Organizations Over 'Disorderly Conduct' That Helped Spark National Protests  Huffington Post ...Walmart is accusing two labor organizations of "disorderly conduct" during a protest at a Los Angeles-area Walmart last year that helped set off a chain of demonstrations nationwide against the retail giant...
Gap, Walmart Fail To Endorse Bangladesh Safety Accord Backed By Europe's Biggest Retailers  Reuters   ...Major U.S. retailers, including Gap Inc, declined to endorse an accord on Bangladesh building and fire safety backed by Europe's two biggest fashion chains, a trans-Atlantic divide that may dilute garment industry reform efforts...
Eight top fashion retailers fail to sign Bangladesh safety accord  The Guardian   ..."Are 1,200 dead workers not enough to make them realise something needs to be done?"...
DOD poised to trim furlough days, add exemptions  Associated Press   ...The Defense Department is poised to trim the number of civilian furlough days from 14 to 11 and will allow the military to exempt thousands of additional workers from the unpaid day off requirements, according to defense officials...
CBO Update: Deficit Shrinking Rapidly  Calculated Risk   ...The rapidly declining deficit might provide policymakers some room to alter the ill-conceived sequestration budget cuts. But at the least, this takes all short term (next 2 to 3 years) deficit reduction proposals off the table... 
Elizabeth Warren Pushes Feds For Answer On Big Bank Enforcement  Huffington Post   ...Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised the stakes of her quest to find out why a single Wall Street bank has not been prosecuted in the aftermath of the financial crisis Tuesday, sending a letter to the heads of three federal agencies...
New Amtrak Engines Unveiled for Northeast  New York Times   ...Amtrak rolled out three new locomotives on Monday, the first step in the railroad’s plan to modernize its aging fleet of trains...
Former Florida GOP Hispanic outreach director switches to Democrat  Miami Herald   ...Pablo Pantoja, who was at one time employed as the RNC's Hispanic outreach director in Florida but has switched to Democrat, citing "the culture of intolerance surrounding the Republican Party…
Officials mark new W.Va. pipeline safety law  Associated Press   ...State and local officials are marking West Virginia's new pipeline safety law. The legislation raises state penalties for safety violations to federal levels...
NJ Governor Vetoes Early Voting Bill  FMF News   ...New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) vetoed a bill on Thursday that would have created 14 days of in-person early voting in New Jersey...
Workers strike at IKEA Richmond store  CBC News   ...IKEA's Richmond store is behind picket lines after the Teamsters union served the company with a strike notice last week. Teamsters Local 213 in Vancouver, BC — which represents 350 store employees — takes issue with the company's contract offers, rejected twice by members, which proposed a return to a tiered-wage system...