Saturday, July 27, 2013

Today's Teamster News 7.27.13

Chicagoland Families Stand With Striking Teamster Funeral Directors, Transfer Services to Alternative Funeral Homes  IBT ...Families throughout Chicagoland are supporting striking funeral directors and drivers by refusing to cross picket lines and transferring their funeral services to worker-friendly funeral homes...
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Encouraged By Actions of Canadian Rail Safety Regulator  BLET   ...The following is the official statement from Dennis R. Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen in response to media inquiries regarding the BLET’s reaction to the July 23 Emergency Directive issued by Transport Canada...
DD2 renews contract with Durham School Services  WCSC-5 News   ...Dorchester District 2 has renewed its contract with Durham School Services, the company which provides transportation for its students. The workers are represented by Teamsters Local 509...
Teamsters Picket In WV To Support Tenn. Members  WCHS-8 News   ...Members of the Teamsters union are picketing in West Virginia in support of their union brothers in Tennessee. Picketers set up shop outside the Cummins Crosspoint plant in Cross Lanes Friday morning. See the video here...
UFCW Locals 21, 367 and the Teamsters Stand Together for Fair Grocery Contract  UFCW   ...30,000  members of UFCW Locals 21 and 367 and Teamsters Local 38 in Washington state are covered by contracts at grocers Albertsons, Safeway, Fred Meyer and Quality Food Centers and other local independent stores that are up for bargaining this year. As the companies propose the elimination of healthcare, cuts to pay, and denied paid sick days, the union members have responded with more solidarity than ever...
Banks shiver as UBS swallows $885 million U.S. fine  Reuters   ...UBS will pay $885 million (574.8 million pounds) in a settlement with a U.S. regulator over allegations the Swiss bank misrepresented mortgage-backed bonds during the housing bubble, paving the way for billions more to be paid by other banks...
SAC Capital Is Arraigned on a Raft of Criminal Charges  New York Times   ...the firm was arraigned on a raft of criminal insider trading charges, making it the first large American company to face an indictment in more than a decade. Prosecutors on Thursday announced the case against SAC, run by the billionaire Steven A. Cohen, calling it a “veritable magnet of market cheaters...”
Fast-food workers’ pay protests pick up steam  Washington Post   ...Supporters of a fledgling movement for better pay for fast-food and other poorly paid employees are hoping for a major boost next week when thousands of low-wage workers are expected to walk off their jobs in seven U.S. cities. On Monday, workers are planning to stage one-day strikes at some of the nation’s best known and most profitable fast-food restaurants, including KFC, Wendy’s, Burger King and McDonald’s...
Seattle fast-food workers file wage-theft complaints  Seattle Times   ...Fast-food workers announced the filing of wage-theft complaints against some local restaurants Thursday, as part of an effort to spotlight what some say is an epidemic problem for low-wage workers...
Solidarity Sing Along crowd grows as arrests continue at Wisconsin Capitol  The Cap Times   ...Arrests of protesters continued for the third straight day Friday at the state Capitol, suggesting a renewed effort by Gov. Scott Walker’s administration to silence the ad-hoc “Solidarity Sing Along” group is doing little to stop the daily event...
In Scott Walker era, unions are essential (opinion)  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ...Contrary to the notion in the Journal Sentinel July 23 editorial that Act 10 means public employee unions "lost many of their reasons for being," Wisconsin's lagging economy since Act 10 underscores exactly why these unions are needed more than ever...
Labor Leaders Seek Government Aid for Detroit   New York Times ...Top leaders of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. on Thursday called on President Obama and the Congress to offer an immediate financial infusion to Detroit, which last week became the largest American city ever to file for bankruptcy...
Creditors to fight Detroit insolvency claim  Detroit News   ...“pension funds, unions and unsecured bondholders would receive, in some cases, as little as 10 cents on the dollar” while Bank of American and UBS will get 75 cents...
North Carolina approves nation’s most restrictive voter suppression law  Salon   ...the North Carolina state legislature approved a radical voter suppression bill on a party line vote. The measure, easily the most extreme anti-voter bill passed by any state since the Jim Crow era, now heads to Republican Governor Pat McCrory for his signature. Court challenges — many of them — will most assuredly follow...
Florida can continue purging voters  MSNBC   ...More fallout from the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act came this week as a Federal Appeals court dismissed a lawsuit brought last year that tried to block a Florida voter purge...
Obama and Vietnam’s Leader Pledge Deeper Ties  New York Times   ...Bearing a copy of a letter from Ho Chi Minh to Harry S. Truman, the president of Vietnam met President Obama on Thursday and pledged to deepen trade and military ties with the United States even as they tangled over human rights...
Why a Train Crash like Spain’s is Unlikely To Happen in the U.S.  Time   ...The train that derailed and killed at least 80 people and injured 178 Wednesday night is a harrowing reminder of what can go wrong at high speeds. But experts say that U.S. riders have little to fear from the rails...
Gubernatorial candidate seeks to overhaul public-sector unions  St. Cloud Times   ...Minnesota State Sen. Dave Thompson roused conservative support and drew unions’ ire last year with his sponsorship of a so-called “right-to-work” constitutional amendment...
Illinois Unions Call for Investigation  WTAX News Radio   ...Unions are calling for an investigation into whether business leaders tried to persuade credit agencies to lower Illinois’ bond rating...
Rhode Island Bars Criminal History Questions on Job Applications  JCK Online   ...A new Rhode Island law will prevent employers in the state from asking prospective employees about their criminal history on job applications...
David Simon urges Tribune Co. not to sell the Sun to Koch brothers  City Paper   ...David Simon, who spent 13 years as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun before creating The Wire and Treme, has lent his voice to a campaign urging the Sun‘s owners, the Chicago-based Tribune Company, not to sell the paper to the oil-company heirs and right-wing activists Charles and David Koch...