Friday, April 11, 2014

Today's Teamster News 04.11.14

Teamster News
After Protests, Teamsters Take Over An Art Fair  Crain's New York Business   ...After facing protests last year, the Randall's Island Art Fair has agreed to employ Teamsters and theater union members to set up tents and temporary galleries for the show that begins May 9...
Greece School District Teamsters Approve Contract   International Brotherhood of Teamsters   ...Teamsters Local 118 in Rochester, N.Y. is pleased to announce the ratification of a new four-year agreement with Greece Central School District...
North Las Vegas Teamsters, firefighters OK settlements with struggling city  Las Vegas Review-Journal   ...officials had settled with half of the city’s union heads for exactly $3.35 million — the settlement figure City Council members offered city Teamsters and firefighters early this month...
Starving Artists Fed Up; Seek To Establish Industry Standards With Teamsters Local 705  Digital Journal   ...Teamsters and artists may seem like an unlikely combination, but professional artists at Chicago's Mana Terry Dowd fine art packers and movers are organizing in an effort to establish income and benefit standards in their profession...
Polk Township Road Crew Workers Ratify Teamster Contract  Gnomes   ...Road crew workers employed by Polk Township, PA have recently voted for their first Teamster contract and to be represented by Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown...
Trade
H&M calls for faster factory inspections in Bangladesh  Reuters   ...Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), the world's second-biggest fashion retailer, said on Thursday Bangladesh needed to speed up inspections of its garment industry, almost a year after the collapse of a factory that killed more than 1,100 people...
U.S. Claims Country Building Its Own Network to Protect Against NSA Spying Violates Trade Laws  Washington's Blog   ...The U.S. is trying to not only protect U.S. businesses, but also keep the NSA’s hand in the cookie jar by arguing (wait for it…) that closing borders to the NSA would violate trade law...
State Battles
Corker, Haslam Subpoenaed By UAW For Volkswagon Appeal  Talking Points Memo   ...The United Auto Workers on Wednesday subpoenaed Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R), along with 18 other officials, for the union's challenge of the Chattanooga, Tenn. Volkswagon plant workers' vote to reject unionization, the Associated Press reported...
New Rule Prohibits Voters In Miami-Dade County From Using The Restroom, No Matter How Long The Line  ThinkProgress   ...Earlier this year, the Miami-Dade County Elections Department quietly implemented a policy to close the bathrooms at all polling facilities...
War on Workers
Getting Walmart Workers Off Food Stamps Would Cost Customers Barely Anything  Huffington Post   ...Would you be willing to spend one penny more for a box of macaroni and cheese if it meant that Walmart workers would no longer need food stamps to survive? Because that's all it would cost, according to an analysis by American Public Media’s Marketplace...
Koch Brothers Received Millions In Obamacare Subsidies  ThinkProgress   ...Charles and David Koch may have spent millions of dollars opposing President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, but that didn’t stop them from benefiting from the law to the tune of $1.4 million in subsidies...
Billionaires Score Big Win With McCutcheon Decision
  Truthout   ...The Supreme Court’s McCutcheon ruling dealt another 5-4 body blow to our democracy...
The NCAA Makes Billions and Student Athletes Get None of It
  StudentNation   ...
Despite devoting forty to sixty hours per week to their sport most of the year, Division I football players lack basic economic rights under the NCAA’s cartel restrictions...
Do You Know Where Your Government Uniform Was Made?  The Nation   ...Despite some laudatory local and state efforts, taxpayer dollars are still being used to purchase clothes made in sweatshops...
The Worst Cash Rip-Off Since Bank Fees? Behold an Infuriating New Scheme to Sap Your Money  AlterNet   ...If prepaid debit cards sound too good to be true, it's because they're a scam. Here's the hidden truth behind them...
Family Dollar to cut jobs, shut 370 stores as sales fall
  Reuters   ...The discount retailer, which caters to lower income shoppers--many of whom live from paycheck to paycheck, said it would it would cut jobs, shut hundreds of underperforming stores and slash prices...
Uninsured Greek patients with contagious diseases are being left untreated, voluntary health clinic warns
EnetEnglish ...One health clinic in Greece warned that uninsured patients have contagious and serious diseases but are left untreated due to austerity...
Miscellaneous
Senator Durbin Asks For IG Investigation into Federal Agency's Oversight of Trucking Companies With a History of Violations  eNews Park Forest   ...U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inspector General (IG) to audit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s investigative practices after a report that the FMCSA ordered, but never actually launched, an investigation into an Illinois motor carrier with a long history of violating safety rules...