Saturday, July 20, 2013

Today's Teamster News 07.20.13

Teamster Waste Workers Near San Diego Ratify Solid First Contract  IBT   ...On July 13, workers at Waste Management in El Cajon, California, overwhelmingly ratified their first contract, which provides solid pay increases and excellent benefits. The contract will cover 190 workers who joined Local 683 in San Diego in March...
Court Denies SCI’s Attempt to Stop Teamsters Strike  IBT   ...Dignity Memorial’s attempt to silence the free speech of local picketers has been denied by the Circuit Court of Cook County...
Fremont City Council OKs pact with the Teamsters Union  San Jose Mercury News   ...Fremont City Council unanimously voted to approve an amended memorandum of understanding with Local 856 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
BLET Denounces One-Person Train Operations; Rail Companies Put Cost-Cutting Ahead of Public Safety   IBT   ...The following is the official statement from Dennis R. Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen regarding the danger to public safety that one-train operations represent...
$12 Minimum Wage For Walmart Workers Would Cost The Average Shopper Just 46 Cents Per Trip  Huffington Post   ...Walmart last week decided not to build three stores in Washington D.C. after the passage of a D.C. Council bill, which demands big-box retailers pay their workers a "living wage" of $12.50. Such a wage, Walmart claimed, would drive up its famously-low prices...
DC councilmember to introduce minimum wage hike  Associated Press ...D.C. councilmember Tommy Wells says he'll introduce a bill that would raise the minimum wage for all District of Columbia workers — not just those who work at Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers...
Middle class still left behind in U.S. economic recovery, data show  Washington Post   ...The economic recovery of summer 2013 is playing out in an all-too-familiar way for poor and middle-class Americans: Gas prices are up, growth is slowing, and there still aren’t nearly enough new jobs to employ the almost 12 million people seeking work...
Elizabeth Warren’s new fight: Why even the Tea Party backs it!  Salon   ...Banks that try to take private losses and pin them on taxpayers may have a new problem...
With Filibuster Deal, NLRB Could Soon Return To Full Force  NPR News   ...If the deal holds together and the new nominees are confirmed in the coming days, the NLRB will be fully staffed with five Senate-approved members for the first time in a decade...
Greece approves austerity measures to fire 25,000 public workers and secure bailout   The Independent ...Greece plans to lay off 25,000 public sector workers, in a move which has sparked a new surge of anti-austerity protests outside parliament...
Michigan AG challenges judge's ruling that Detroit bankruptcy is unconstitutional  Detroit Free Press   ...An Ingham County judge says Thursday's historic Detroit bankruptcy filing violates the Michigan Constitution and state law and must be withdrawn...
WEDC offers taxpayer support for Walker campaign contributors (opinion)  The Paper   ...Fast-forward to Gov. Scott Walker's Wisconsin, where the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), staffed by the governor's cronies, has misplaced millions in tax dollars, blew off auditing compliance rules, and went on a spending spree for iTunes gift cards, football tickets and booze. And the consequences are nil...
Low-Wage Workers in D.C. Turn Pledge of Allegiance Into Protest Chant  In These Times   ...Courtney Shackleford, a 20-year-old college student working at a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop in the District of Columbia’s Union Station, walked off the job Thursday morning, along with roughly 70 other concession workers at the grand old railroad station...
World Trade Center owners’ bid to sue airlines for 9/11 attacks blocked   New York Daily News   ...The owners of the World Trade Center were blocked Thursday from filing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the two airlines whose hijacked planes brought down the twin towers...
Detroit union leaders call bankruptcy filing premature, say they were trying to negotiate   Detroit Free Press   ...Leaders of Detroit’s unions blasted emergency manager Kevyn Orr for the city’s bankruptcy filing, saying it was a premature move when they’d been trying to negotiate in good faith to help pull Detroit out of its staggering financial hole...
Bill would let Californians vote on Saturday  Sacramento Bee   ...For California voters, finding time to cast ballots on a Tuesday could become a thing of the past. A bill by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would give them a chance to vote on a Saturday in the month before an election...
New Jersey Supreme Court Restricts Police Searches of Phone Data  New York Times   ...Staking out new ground in the noisy debate about technology and privacy in law enforcement, the New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that the police will now have to get a search warrant before obtaining tracking information from cellphone providers...