Friday, May 30, 2014

Today's Teamster News 05.30.14

Teamster News
MORENO VALLEY: Union vote nixed at food company  Press Enterprise   ...An Inland-based Teamsters local attempting to organize workers at a Moreno Valley food distribution center has canceled an election that had been scheduled for today, claiming that the company continues to threaten and intimidate employees...
Teamsters target Florida West International Airways  teamster.org   ... Today, the Teamsters Airline Division announced the start of a new initiative to organize pilots at Florida West International Airways (FWIA), a cargo airline based out of Miami International Airport. The pilots fly routes throughout the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean...
Teamsters ratify 4 contracts with Pekin  Journal Star   ...The Teamsters represent four units that work for the city — the street department, the wastewater plant workers, solid waste department workers and a general unit that represents bus drivers, mechanics, secretaries, clerks and others...
Trade
EU Elections Pose New Threat To Trade Deal  Financial Times   ...EU and US officials are increasingly concerned about the impact on transatlantic trade talks of a surge in support for anti-establishment parties in European elections, raising the prospect for delays as they adapt to a new political reality...
State Battles
Fort Wayne Moves To End Collective Bargaining  WSBT   ...Indiana's second-largest city is poised to end collective bargaining with all city employees except police and firefighters under a measure a union official said is being pushed by "far-right politicians" to the detriment of hundreds of hard-working public employees...
Why Is The Wall Street Journal Livid That Scott Walker Wants A John Doe Settlement  PR Watch   ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's campaign is reportedly negotiating a settlement with prosecutors in the long-running "John Doe" criminal campaign finance probe -- and the editorial board, which for months has attacked prosecutors and portrayed the investigation as baseless, is livid...
Seattle City Council panel OKs $15 minimum wage  Associated Press   ... City Council members approved a delay to the implementation of the ordinance, from Jan. 1, 2015 to April 1, 2015...
An End to Sweatshop-Made City Workers’ Uniforms in Chicago?  In These Times   ...the people who make those same uniforms are unlikely to have any protections from the wage theft, locked fire exit doors and precarious buildings they could be facing on the job. A new ordinance introduced in the Chicago City Council on May 28 aims to fix that inconsistency. If the ordinance is passed, Chicago will join Los Angeles, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Boston and Seattle in attempting to enforce labor rights for factory workers…
War On Workers
U.S. Economy Shrinks For The First Time In 3 Years  Huffington Post   ...The U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years as it buckled under the weight of a severe winter, but there are signs activity has since rebounded...
Walmart Moms’ Walkout Starts Friday  In These Times   ... hundreds of mothers who work at Walmart stores throughout the country will begin walking off the job on Friday, a week before the company's shareholders meet in Bentonville, Arkansas. The action will culminate in a nationwide strike on Wednesday, June 4...
Few workers confident of easy retirement  USA Today   ...Only 28% of U.S. workers are "very" or "extremely" confident that they'll one day fully retire with a comfortable lifestyle; a third are somewhat confident...
In New Orleans, Major School District Closes Traditional Public Schools For Good  Washington Post   ...The second-graders paraded to the Dumpster in the rear parking lot, where they chucked boxes of old work sheets, notebooks and other detritus into the trash, emptying their school for good. Benjamin Banneker Elementary closed Wednesday as New Orleans’s Recovery School District permanently shuttered its last five traditional public schools this week...
Northwestern And Its Football Players May Have To Wait For Clarity About Unionizing  Chicago Business Journal   ...When the Northwestern football team starts practice for the 2014 season in early August, will there be clarity about whether the team has the right to unionize? Frankly, it's unclear at this point. But here is what is known about where things stand right now...
Here's What Corporate America Really Thinks About You  Huffington Post   ...If you are an American human being today, ... what you really are is a sadly predictable agglomeration of demographic traits and buying habits. This is just how the world works, according to our many "data brokers," who pretty much know everything. These are companies that tirelessly scour the Internet, government records and anyplace else we might leave a mark on this mortal coil and then use the information they glean to help companies sell crap to you...
Miscellaneous
Harry Reid's Attacks On Koch Brothers Send GOP Donors Into The Shadows  Washington Post   ...Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid's relentless attacks on the billionaire Koch brothers are having an unforeseen impact--spurring other wealthy GOP donors to give more money to groups that keep their supporters' names secret...
The Wal-Mart Free City  The New Yorker   ...In October, the city council of Portland, Oregon, ... adopted a resolution banning Walmart—and Walmart alone— from the city’s investment portfolio. The resolution, unanimously approved, cited an anonymous executive who was quoted in Charles Fishman’s 2006 book, “The Wal-Mart Effect,” saying, “They have killed free-market capitalism in America.”...