Thursday, July 25, 2013

Today's Teamster News 07.25.13

Labor and Human Rights Coalition, including Teamsters, Call for Suspension of Trade Discussion with Vietnam  IBT   ...Yesterday, a coalition of labor and human rights leaders called on negotiations with Vietnam around the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to be suspended until the country can prove it has met basic labor, environmental and human right standards...
SCI is a Bad Neighbor, Forcing Teamsters Out on Strike   IBT   ...SCI, a $3.5 billion corporation which operates 16 funeral homes in the Chicagoland area, forced its Local 727 Teamsters out on an unfair labor practices strike on July 2. Visit http://www.integrityinillinois.com/ for updates on their fight for fairness. View the video here...
The Teamsters donate $40,000 to the victims of Lac-Mégantic  Canada Newswire   ...Teamsters Canada has collected $40,000 from its locals throughout the country and it will be donated to help out the victims of the Lac-Mégantic rail tragedy...
Teamster nursing staff at ECRMC in contract negotiations with hospital  Imperial Valley Press   ...El Centro Regional Medical Center’s nursing staff has presented the hospital with a financial proposal as part of its first contract with the hospital as an organized labor group, a representative from Teamsters Local 542 confirmed...
BLET wants feds to mandate 2-member train crews  Associated Press   ...Most railroads in the U.S. use at least two crew members to operate freight trains. But there's no federal rule to prevent them from using one employee as did a Maine-based railroad whose train, while unattended, careened into a Canadian town, causing an explosion and fire that killed 47 people…
Some CPD officers seek to join Teamsters Local 142   Chesterton Tribune   ...Within the next 30 to 60 days, full-time employees of the Chesterton (Indiana) Police Department -- both sworn officers and civilians -- could put unionization to the vote...
Teamsters Support Vance-Cooks for U.S. Public Printer  IBT   ...George Tedeschi, on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has written Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in support of the nomination of Davita Vance-Cooks as U.S. Public Printer...
Fired Walmart Workers Arrested in Protest at Yahoo Headquarters  The Nation   ...Five activists were arrested at Yahoo! headquarters Monday afternoon in a protest over the firing of eleven Walmart employees who this month went on strike...
Wal-Mart Workers Launch Surprise Strike Over Safety Issues  Mint Press News   ...At least 30 non-union Wal-Mart warehouse workers in California launched a surprise two-day strike this morning to protest alleged retaliation for exposing safety risks...
Wisconsin Capitol Protest Leads To Two Dozen Arrests As Police Crack Down On Anti-GOP Demonstration  Huffington Post   ...Police made numerous arrests inside the Wisconsin's Capitol building on Wednesday, more than two years after tens of thousands of Wisconsinites filled the rotunda in Madison to protest Gov. Scott Walker's (R) budget...
Chicago Teachers Protest Layoffs, Chanting ‘Emanuel Has Got To Go!’  In These Times   ...Bravo and Johnson were among several hundred teachers, parents and community members marching outside the Chicago Board of Education Wednesday morning, protesting the layoffs of more than 2,100 teachers and staff in the past week and other public school cuts...
Detroit firefighters protest outside of bankruptcy hearing  Detroit News   ...A group of about 40 Detroit firefighters joined protesters gathered outside the downtown federal courthouse Wednesday, to fight against expected cuts to pensions and the potential loss of public safety positions, as lawyers gathered inside for the first hearing in the historic bankruptcy case...
Congress Tells Detroit to Forget Financial Bailout  Bloomberg   ...Lawmakers in Congress are dismissing the possibility of a federal bailout for Detroit, the largest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy....
Hundreds protest Pittsburgh’s most notorious low-wage employers  WPXI-TV   ...Hundreds of protestors joined together Wednesday to call on Pittsburgh’s most notorious low wage employers...
North Carolina Senate Passes the Most Draconian Voter Suppression Bill Ever  Politicususa   ...This bill makes registering hard and voting harder – with the added bonus of longer voting lines.  To add insult to the pretense that this is about preserving election integrity, they are making it easier for thugs like True the Vote and the Voter Integrity Project to intimidate voters and for outside groups to help Art Pope buy the government...
OSHA To Require Flight Department Hazmat Training  Aviation International News   ...New regulations from the OSHA mandate the training of thousands of airline workers by December 1 to educate them on how to identify and protect themselves from hazardous chemicals used in the workplace...
Are Shrinking Unions Making Workers Poorer?  The Atlantic   ...Here's what we know: Union membership has been nearly cut in half over the past thirty years. During that time, income inequality grew, with the top one percent of wealthiest Americans seeing especially big gains in their pre- and post-tax income. And although the economy has grown, wages have not…
Worker Centers Offer a Backdoor Approach to Union Organizing  Wall Street Journal   ...Juan Campis was sweating in the 90-plus degree heat as he whipped a white towel across a gleaming black Chevy TrailBlazer at a carwash here in Bronx, N.Y.—one of six in the city that was unionized in recent months with help from two nonprofit community groups…
3 Months After Texas Fertilizer Explosion, Workplace Safety Still Ignored   Mint Press News ...Long after the explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, killed 15 people, workplace safety violations continue to plague workers across the U.S...
New Illinois law to fight misclassification of workers  WREX13   ...A bill addressing the misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors has been signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn., meant to fight employers who missclassify their workers in an attempt to avoid paying state employment taxes, unemployment insurance, worker's compensation, and overtime...
Senate passes student loan interest rate compromise  Politico   ...A hard fought deal to keep student loan interest rates down cleared the Senate Wednesday on a 81-18 vote, despite strong opposition from liberal Democrats who believe it would make skyrocketing student debt even worse in the long run...