Teamsters
Cross-Border Trucking Program Moving Forward Texas Tribune ...After two decades of political posturing, a cross-border trucking program will soon be ready to roll, opening up an avenue to expand trade between Texas and Mexico....
Teamsters Approve New Contracts at MillerCoors Breweries In N.C. And Texas teamster.org …Teamsters at MillerCoors breweries in Eden, N.C., and Fort Worth, Texas, have ratified new, three-year contracts. The agreements cover more than 900 employees at the two breweries and provide lifetime retiree health care benefits. Members of Local 391 and 997 at each location voted Saturday to ratify the contracts by 88 percent...
Teamster Unity Versus Heidelberg Family Feud teamster.org ... In a dramatic show of unity in the face of unreasonable demands on Heidelberg Distributing’s unionized workforce, Teamsters who represent approximately 500 workers at six of Heidelberg’s family-owned distributorships of beer, wine and spirits in Ohio declared their solidarity by marching together into negotiations with Teamsters Local 284 in Columbus for contract talks yesterday. Employees there voted to join the Teamsters two years ago, but are still without a contract...
Clark County School District Employees Win New Teamster Election teamster.org ...Today, in a major victory for workers, the Employee-Management Relations Board (EMRB) acknowledged that the supermajority election rule for Clark County School District (CCSD) support staff was not in the best interest of the employees and has ordered a new election take place requiring simple majority...
Hoffa To President Obama: Sign The Keystone Pipeline Act teamster.org ...With the passage of the Keystone Pipeline Act by the House of Representatives today, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa is urging President Obama to sign the legislation when it reaches his desk...
GW Professor Becomes Inaugural James R. Hoffa Teamsters Professor In Modern American Labor History Newswise ...Eric Arnesen, a specialist in the history of race, labor, politics and civil rights was officially installed yesterday as the George Washington University’s James R. Hoffa Teamsters Professor in Modern American Labor History...
York County Prison Counselors Get New Contract York Dispatch ...The county and Teamsters Local 776, which represents the workers, couldn't reach a deal and were slated to go to arbitration, when the two sides revisited the contract and were able to reach an agreement...
Sysco Meets With FTC Commissioners In Effort To Allay Antitrust Concerns Wall Street Journal ...Sysco Corp. met with the five commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission in a last-ditch attempt to avert a possible antitrust lawsuit to block the food distributor’s planned $3.5 billion purchase of rival US Foods Inc...
Trade
Council Member Helen Rosenthal calls for NYC to be a "TPP-Free Zone" Helen Rosenthal ...On Thursday Council Member Helen Rosenthal introduced a new resolution that opposes the President’s “fast-track” authority over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and declares New York City a “TPP-Free Zone.”...
Liberal Democrats align with Tea Party against Obama’s trade agenda Daily Times ...A coalition of liberal Democrats and Tea Party Republicans is fighting against US President Barack Obama’s
ambitious trade agenda that he hopes to secure before he leaves office...
The ‘Movement of Movements’ against Fast Tracking the TPP has the power to win Daily Kos …Since the President’s State of the Union message where he announced his plan to push corporate trade agreements and seek Fast Track trade promotion authority, the movement against Fast Track, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and globalized trade has grown. Instead of the bump in support that Obama expected after the State of the Union, opposition has increased inside Congress and in the grass roots...
Leaked : TTIP negotiations to constrain regulations that protect public interest unbalanced evolution …According to the proposal, as soon as a new regulation is in the pipeline, businesses should be informed through an annual report, and be involved. This is now called 'early information on planned acts', until recently called 'early warning'….This means businesses, for instance, at an early stage, can try to block rules intended to prevent the food industry from marketing foodstuffs with toxic substances, laws trying to keep energy companies from destroying the climate, or regulations to combat pollution and protect consumers.”...
A corporate coup d’etat Illinois Times ...You haven’t heard of the TPP? Dubbed “a corporate coup d’etat” by Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, it’s a grandiose grab for power masked as a trade deal allowing an unprecedented level of global corporate rule over Americans. One reason we commoners don’t know about it is that the corporate and governmental elites of the 12 nations that have been negotiating this momentous deal in strict secrecy not only are keeping us in the dark, but also Congress. Another reason, however, is that the mass media has been shockingly silent, apparently even incurious, about what clearly is a huge story with historic consequences...
State Battles
Missouri House Approves Right-To-Work Bill, But Margin Not Veto-Proof St. Louis Public Radio ...For the first time ever, the Missouri House has approved a right-to-work bill that curbs union rights. But the House’s 92-66 vote Wednesday afternoon was far short of the number – 109 -- needed to withstand a likely veto by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat with close union ties...
‘Paycheck Protection’ Bill Aims At Unions Lee's Summit Journal ...A [Missouri] House committee on Monday signed off on legislation supporters have christened “paycheck protection” — and detractors call “paycheck deception” — that would require public employees to give permission before union dues are taken from their paychecks...
Beer Battle Brewing In Frankfort Spills Into Commercials WHAS ...A-B InBev has stressed that House Bill 168 is backed by rival distributorships that want to take over businesses it would be forced to sell. The Belgium-based company has the backing of the Teamsters Union. About 200 Teamsters work at the Louisville facility...
House panel shoots down two Senate bills opposed by Kentucky unions Herald-Leader ... Union workers flooded the state Capitol on Thursday to express their disdain for bills that would allow people to work for unionized employers without joining the union and repeal the prevailing-wage requirement for school construction projects. They liked what they heard in the House Labor and Industry Committee. The panel overwhelmingly voted down Senate Bill 1, the so-called right-to-work bill sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and SB 9, the prevailing-wage measure sponsored by Sen. Wil Schroder, R-Campbell County...
More Kentucky Counties Getting Behind the Right-to-Work Movement WKU ...Butler County is joining the growing list of Kentucky counties passing or considering right-to-work laws. ..
Right-Wing Media Discover A Lawless Executive Order They Support -- It's Anti-Union, Of Course Media Matters for America ...Right-wing media are celebrating Gov. Bruce Rauner's (R-IL) executive order blocking public-sector unions from collecting "fair share" fees from the state employees they represent, even though there is no precedent for such a move...
Education Is Newest Target Of Kansas Budget Cuts New York Times ...The cuts come amid a larger budget picture in which the governor has been forced to fill a $344 million budget gap for the fiscal year ending in June; a shortfall of nearly $600 million has been forecast for the fiscal year starting July 1....
States Dangle Water To Tempt California Dairy Farmers NBC News ...Mark Watte, a diversified row crop and dairy farmer in Tulare, said he's considered moving his 1,000-cow operation out of California due to water shortages and burdensome regulations, but his family obligations keep him here...
War on Workers
Are You Being Served - By A Drone Bloomberg News ...Timbre introduced tablets at its restaurants more than three years ago to enable customers to place orders faster; it resulted in a 25 percent increase in productivity, Chia said. It now plans to equip its five venues with eight drones each, four at the bar and four for the kitchen. After diners place their orders on the tablets, the drones will pick up the food and drinks from the kitchen or bar and deliver them to a service area, from where the staff will take them to the tables, he said. They will also be loaded with empties to take back to the kitchen...
OUTRAGE! Indiana Wants Workers To Repay Unemployment Cash Received Because State Messed Up! Praise Indy ...During the summer months school bus drivers, Head Start workers and others who work most of the year, but have a hiatus during the summer, used to be able to file for unemployment benefits. But the Legislature changed the law prohibiting it. But it seems none told employees at state unemployment offices who approved the benefits when workers applied. Now, after catching their mistake, the state wants the workers to payback the cash, even though it was the state that screwed up...
Oil Workers Are Striking Because They're Underpaid and Overworked—and It's Killing Them New Republic ...The union accuses oil companies like Shell and BP of keeping operations too lean while oil prices are low, hiring inexperienced non-union operators, and overworking staff. "We're concerned about the excessive overtime," said Lynne Hancock, a spokesperson for United Steelworkers. "In a lot of locations the workers have mandatory overtime. And when people are working non-stop, they get tired and fatigued. And when you are fatigued, you have a tendency to make some mistakes...
Study says 401(k)-style public pensions cost more than traditional plans Reuters ...Public worker unions and others who back traditional pensions over 401(k)-style plans got ammunition on Tuesday from a new study that shows U.S. state governments that made the switch did not achieve the predicted savings but rather lost money...
South Texas oil worker dies, fell from rig Associated Press …An oil field worker in South Texas has died after falling while near the top of a 50-foot rig...
Miscellaneous
Goldman: Here's Why Oil Crashed—and Why Lower Prices Are Here to Stay Bloomberg News ...The big take-away: “[T]he decline in oil has been driven by an oversupplied global oil market,” wrote Goldman economist Sven Jari Stehn. As a result, “the new equilibrium price of oil will likely be much lower than over the past decade.”...
