Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Today's Teamster News 12.17.13

Teamsters Urge Dialogue, Caution Around Sysco/US Foods Deal  teamster.org   ...Sysco’s acquisition of US Foods announced last week raises serious concerns for workers, stakeholders and customers as the combined company becomes the country’s largest institutional/restaurant food service provider...
Locked Out Teamsters Buy 'Christmas Carol' Tickets for Corporate Funeral Scrooge SCI  teamster.org   ...After 170 days of being humbugged by Service Corporation International [NYSE: SCI], locked out Teamster funeral directors and drivers hope to bring some Christmas cheer to SCI CEO Thomas L. Ryan with two tickets to the Goodman Theatre’s production of  “A Christmas Carol...
Teamsters deliver Christmas  West Virginia Metro News   ...The staff at the Children’s Home Society in Charleston got an early Christmas gift Monday. The Teamsters Local 175 delivered a tractor trailer filled with toys and non-perishable food to the Davis Child Center...
Revelations That Ikea Spied on Its Employees Stir Outrage in France  New York Times   ...A regional court in Versailles, near Paris, is now examining whether Ikea executives in France broke the law by ordering personal investigations — not only of Ms. Paulin but of hundreds of other people over the course of a decade...
Finally paying for Wal-Mart’s sins: Wage theft settlement yields millions  Salon   ...Workers at a California Wal-Mart warehouse are owed $4.7 million for alleged theft of their wages, under a proposed settlement approved this week by a federal judge. The 568 workers were employed by the Wal-Mart contractor Schneider...
White House: Trans Pacific Partnership ‘remains a top priority’ for Obama  Agence France-Presse   ...The White House sent a strong signal Monday of its desire to create a huge Pacific free trade area, despite the slippage of its year-end deadline for the 12-nation project...
The Financial Crisis: Why Have No High-Level Executives Been Prosecuted?  New York Review of Books   ...In striking contrast with these past prosecutions, not a single high-level executive has been successfully prosecuted in connection with the recent financial crisis, and given the fact that most of the relevant criminal provisions are governed by a five-year statute of limitations, it appears likely that none will be...
Amazon workers in Germany launch strike over wages  Al-Jazeera America   ...Hundreds of workers at Amazon.com in Germany have walked off the job in an effort, times to coincide with the busy pre-Christmas period, to pressure the American online retailer to settle a months-long dispute over pay...
Independent Labor Candidates Win Two Dozen City Council Seats in Ohio  The Real News   ...Two dozen city candidates on an independent labor ticket were recently elected as city counselors of Lorain County, Ohio. Most of the candidates were union members of the AFL-CIO who chose to run after they felt that the traditional Democratic leadership failed...
Victims of Misclassification (opinion)  New York Times   ...In 2000, a United States Department of Labor study estimated that up to 30 percent of employers misclassify workers. This year, the Treasury Department’s inspector general concluded that the problem had worsened...
NSA phone surveillance program likely unconstitutional, federal judge rules  The Guardian   ...A federal judge in Washington ruled on Monday that the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records by the National Security Agency is likely to violate the US constitution, in the most significant legal setback for the agency since the publication of the first surveillance disclosures by the whistleblower Edward Snowden...
Center For American Progress Discloses Corporate Donors After Investigations  firedoglake   ...A review of CAP’s research track record shows that the group’s work is dictated by two simple mainsprings: its obvious and overwhelming fealty to the Democratic Party, and the pursuit of corporate cash…
Unemployment Benefits End Right After Christmas. Here’s What Happens Next.  National Journal   ...On Jan. 6, Majority Leader Harry Reid will reconvene the Senate and attempt to pass a retroactive extension of the benefits as emergency spending. That means the bill won't have an offset and would raise the deficit—sheer blasphemy to most Republicans. It's not clear that it will pass...