Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Today's Teamster News 03.25.14

Teamster News
Teamsters conference, CN to enter labor negotiations  Progressive Railroading ...CN announced on Friday that the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference - Conductors, Trainpersons and Yardpersons (TCRC-CTY) has accepted the Class I's offer to enter labor negotiations for a contract settlement, on the condition that final and binding arbitration will apply if the parties cannot reach an agreement...
Pacific 9 Transport, Teamsters Reach Settlement on Organization Effort  Transportation Topics ...Pacific 9 Transportation, a Los Angeles-area port trucker, and the Teamsters have reached a settlement agreement that bars the carrier from penalizing drivers who support the union’s effort to organize them...
Charleston School Bus Drivers, Community Speak Out About Safety Concerns  teamster.org   ...Teamster school bus drivers were joined by parents, community, political and faith leaders, as well as representatives from Teamsters Local 509, at Monday night’s Charleston County School Board meeting...
Trade
Philippines Engages US on TPP Membership  Tax News ...The United States and the Philippines, during their recent meeting under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), agreed to a program of expanded future engagement on bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade issues, and, in particular, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty...
Memo to USTR: Global governance deals cause US economic decline  Trade Reform   ...We don’t need to give up our sovereignty.  We don’t need global governance.  We don’t need unilateral trade disarmament and economic decline.  We don’t need offshoring in the guise of “global supply chains”.  We don’t need the same-old “investment” deals for Froman’s Wall Street buddies… because they helped drive the economy into the ditch...
State Battles
Right to work is wrong for Missouri workers and businesses (opinion)  Kansas City Star   ...The best way to ensure economic security for Missouri’s working families is through quality jobs with family supporting wages and quality benefits...
Illinois working families face major threat with Rauner primary win  People’s World   ...Working families, organized labor, progressives, and other democratic forces face a major threat from the right with billionaire venture capitalist Bruce Rauner winning the Republican contest for governor in the Mar. 18 primaries...
War on Workers
More Evidence that Half of America is In or Near Poverty  Nation of Change   ...The original poverty measures were (and still are) based largely on the food costs of the 1950s. But while food costs have doubled  since 1978, housing has more than  tripled, medical expenses are six times higher, and college tuition is eleven times higher...
Document: JPMorgan Chase Bets $10.4 Billion on the Early Death of Workers  Wall Street on Parade   ...Families of young JPMorgan Chase workers who have experienced tragic deaths over the past four months, have been kept in the dark on many details, including the fact that the bank most likely held a life insurance policy on their loved one – payable to itself...
How you support the Koch Brothers (even if you don’t know it)  Washington Post   ...On Feb. 26, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blasted billionaires Charles and David Koch, calling them “about as un-American as anyone that I can imagine.” Less than a week later, he continued railing against the duo, saying: “Senate Republicans are addicted to Koch.” As it turns out, we all may be...
Union: Train operator in crash 'tired'  Associated Press   ...An operator of a Chicago public-transit train that jumped the tracks and scaled an escalator at one of nation's busiest airports Monday may have dozed off, a union official said...
Chinese Wal-Mart Employees Protest Layoffs  New Tang Dynasty Television   ...Wal-Mart's practice of closing stores across China, then turning around and opening a slew of new stores, has met with resistance from its laid-off employees, who organized protests to demand labor rights...
Report: 22,000 mortgage workers fired in fourth quarter  Los Angeles Times   ...Mortgage-related firings totaled nearly 22,000 in the fourth quarter of 2013, the highest level in six years, according to a tally by Mortgage Daily...
New Lawsuit Alleges That Wells Fargo Has a Manual for Mass Fabrication of Foreclosure Documents  Naked Capitalism   ...A smoking gun about fabrication may have been found...
Court reverses ruling on swipe fees in favor of banks  Washington Post   ...In a victory for the banking industry, a U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a district court decision that ordered the Federal Reserve to rewrite its rules governing fees that banks collect each time a debit card is swiped...
Wall Street Bonuses and the Minimum Wage  Portside   ...Wall Street banks handed out $26.7 billion in bonuses to their 165,200 employees last year. That amount would be enough to more than double the pay for all 1,085,000 Americans who work full-time at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour...
Miscellaneous
You call this a meritocracy? How rich inheritance is poisoning the American economy  Huffington Post   ...No, your economic fortune isn't just based on work ethic and idea quality. It's also a gaping inheritance disparity...