Saturday, September 28, 2013

Today's Teamster News 09.28.13

Regulator Said to Look Other Way on Unsafe Mexican Trucks  Bloomberg   ...“They need these companies, they need the numbers,” said Fred McLuckie, director of federal legislation and regulation for the Teamsters, which unsuccessfully sued to stop regulators from allowing Mexican trucks. “They’re looking the other way...”
Chicago Teamsters reject Rahm Emanuel’s bid for contract concessions on 461-11 vote  Chicago Sun-Times   ...Already feuding with police, firefighters, teachers and other public employees, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration sought but failed to win concessions this week from the only major labor group that had supported Emanuel’s election...
Funeral Industry Giant SCI Committed Unfair Labor Practices, Labor Board Says  teamster.org   ...Region 13 of the National Labor Relations Board has found merit in several unfair labor practice charges filed against funeral industry giant Service Corporation International (SCI), which has locked out 59 funeral directors and drivers at 16 Chicago-area funeral homes...
Teamsters To Vote Wegmans' Offer  teamster.org   ...Workers will cast ballots on the company’s proposal that would eliminate the pensions of more than 900 of its Rochester employees and dramatically reduce their compensation package...
Beware of Outlandish Claims About Economic Benefits of U.S.-EU ‘Free Trade’ Deal  Public Citizen   ...The study ignored the predictable social and economic costs that would result from such extreme regulatory rollback, such as an increase in the incidence of foodborne illness and a rise in financial instability...
4 Reasons Why the White House's Domestic-Worker Protections Matter  Mother Jones   ...Starting in January 2015, the federal labor laws that currently ensure minimum wage and overtime protections will be extended to the nation's direct-care workers—some 2 million people who perform jobs like caring for the elderly and the disabled. And yesterday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights into law, expanding the legal protections for its estimated 360,000 (PDF) domestic workers...
How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers  The Atlantic   ...Taxpayers fund the stadiums, antitrust law doesn't apply to broadcast deals, the league enjoys nonprofit status, and Commissioner Roger Goodell makes $30 million a year. It's time to stop the public giveaways to America's richest sports league—and to the feudal lords who own its teams...
Sen. Ron Wyden: NSA 'repeatedly deceived the American people'  The Guardian   ..."the leadership of NSA built an intelligence collection system that repeatedly deceived the American people..."
NSA employees used surveillance system to spy on spouses, lovers  Raw Story   ... a woman told the NSA that she’d recorded a conversation between her husband and a foreign telephone number because she suspected he’d been unfaithful...
School Bus Companies Ordered to Restore Lost Wages to ATU 1181 Workers  LaaborPress   ...Judge Matsumoto ordered the companies to return to the bargaining table they abandoned in March; bargain in good faith with the union; rescind the wage and benefit cuts and all other terms and working conditions previously imposed by the companies; and restore the wages, benefits and working conditions in effect at the time the companies imposed their cuts...
I worked all week for free?!: The horrifying, true story of $0 paychecks  Salon   ...Photos provided to Salon by the National Guestworker Alliance, the group behind the work stoppage, show checks reading “No Dollars and No Cents,” and a page dated June 25 warning guest workers on H-2B visas that, “Any worker who does not show up for your assignment will be immediately removed from Mister Clean Housing and will be reported as AWOL (Absent Without Leave) to ICE (Immigration Custom Enforcement)...”
American Workers: Hanging on by the Skin of Their Teeth  Counterpunch   ...Americans are losing faith in the nation’s economic recovery.” Because they don’t see any recovery...