Saturday, December 6, 2014

Today's Teamster News 12.06.14

Teamster News
Judge Rules Against Sequim Labor Lawsuit  Peninsula Daily News   ...A Clallam County Superior Court judge has spiked — again — an attempt to change the city of Sequim’s process for labor negotiations with its employees. Judge Erik Rohrer on Thursday granted the city’s and Teamsters Local 589’s motions for summary judgment and denied an opposing motion by Susan Brautigam...
Bankruptcy Court Ruling Helps Anti-Union Grocer Slash Benefits And Pensions For 1,100 Workers  In These Times   ...Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey are angry over the loss and apprehensive about their futures, union leaders say. Their new employer, C&S Wholesale Grocers, has a reputation of buying up unionized companies, shifting the work of handling retail food products to non-union distribution centers and then getting rid of the union members altogether...
Council To Introduce Horse Ban Next Week  Capital New York   ...Council members Danny Dromm and Ydanis Rodriguez will officially introduce legislation on Monday to ban horse carriages in the city. According to a copy of the Council’s stated meeting agenda for December 8, the bill will be introduced “by the request of the mayor” through the Council’s transportation committee...
Trade
US Government Study Predicts TPP Trade Agreement Will Produce Practically No Extra Growth For Anyone  TechDirt   ...nearly a half of the increased trade that TTIP might bring according to this forecast would consist of swapping cars across the Atlantic...
It's Not a Free Trade Deal and Michael Froman Wants to Take Food Choices Away from Individuals  Center for Economic and Policy Research   ...the TTIP is not a "free trade" agreement as asserted in the article. The increased protections in the pact, in the form of stronger patent and copyright protections, are likely to do more to raise prices and block trade than any tariff reductions that are included...
Report: More Evidence Samsung Supplier Using Child Labor In China  Tech In Asia   ...American nonprofit group China Labor Watch announced yesterday that it has collected additional evidence that child and student workers were employed “under exploitative working conditions” at the factory of Samsung supplier HEG Technology. That evidence includes interviews with children below China’s legal working age who say they worked ten-hour days with a single day of rest each week for the Samsung supplier...
State Battles
Metro Council Panel Delays Minimum Wage Vote  Louisville Courier Journal   ...A vote on raising the minimum wage in Louisville was delayed Thursday by a Metro Council committee after a Republican request for a study of the possible effects, angering supporters...
War on Workers
Senate considering lowering truck safety standards for special interests  TeamsterNation   …Sen. Susan Collins of Maine wants the government to allow bigger, heavier trucks and to eliminate the mandatory two days rest for drivers. The Teamsters and allies are doing all they can to prevent that from happening...
DOT secretary against longer hours for truck drivers  The Hill   ...Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is urging Senate and House Appropriations committee members to reject an amendment that would allow semi-truck drivers to drive for longer hours...
Workers hit the streets across US in growing minimum wage fight  AlJazeera America   …Fast-food workers and other low-wage employees in nearly 200 cities across the country took part in a strike and protests Thursday, demanding a base wage of $15 per hour and the right to form unions in the latest in a series of day-long labor actions coordinated through a nationwide coalition of workers’ groups...
Hypereducated and on Welfare  Elle   ...a good education may not keep you from hovering near the poverty line. The number of people with graduate degrees receiving food assistance or other forms of federal aid nearly tripled between 2007 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census…
Temporary Work is Bad for Your Cognitive Health  naked capitalism   ...The findings of this study on the effects of temporary work on individuals’ skills has important ramifications for the US ... The first is that workers are harmed by this practice, and not just via stress or having uncertain income. But second is that employers over time also suffer by degrading the capabilities of the labor pool...
Does The Media Care About Labor Anymore?  Politico   ...With the middle class still down in the dumps, the beat’s more important than ever...
Uber launches in Portland, Oregon despite being completely illegal there  The Verge   ...Uber has a remarkably rich history of upsetting local city transportation officials by setting up shop before laws and regulations have been ironed out...
Michigan Road Worker, 21, Killed When Struck By Pickup, Flying 75 Feet  MLive   ...A 21-year-old road construction worker was killed when a pickup struck him and sent him flying more than 75 feet through the air, the Huron County Sheriff's Department reports...
Worker in Vehicle Collision at CNRL Site  Canada Journal   …A worker has been killed in a collision at the Horizon Oil Sands mine north of Fort McMurray early Friday morning, the third workplace fatality in northern Alberta this week...
Miscellaneous
China Just Passed U.S. as World's Largest Economy  Economic Populist   ..."For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet ...
How the NSA Hacks Cellphone Networks Worldwide The Intercept   …the NSA plans to secretly introduce new flaws into communication systems so that they can be tapped into—a controversial tactic that security experts say could be exposing the general population to criminal hackers...
U.S. Adds 321,000 Jobs In November; Unemployment Rate Remains At 5.8%  Huffington Post   ...U.S. employers added a whopping 321,000 jobs in November, the biggest burst of hiring in nearly three years and the latest sign that the United States is outperforming other economies throughout the developed world...