Teamsters
Teamsters to help L.A., Long Beach truckers seek unemployment benefits if ports shut down Press-Telegram …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced a plan Wednesday to aid thousands of nonunion truckers who may lose out on pay if labor strife at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach results in a work stoppage at the harbor...
Truckers To Speak About Effects Of Potential Long Beach, Los Angeles Port Shutdown Long Beach Press Telegram ...Officials with the Teamsters Local 848 said in a statement that 10,000 truck drivers — who are not classified as employees, but independent contractors — would be idled without pay nor benefits if the port complex shutters...
Teamsters vote to authorize a strike at Rhode Island Hospital turnto10.com …Hundreds of teamsters who work at Rhode Island Hospital voted Wednesday to authorize a strike. The vote by Teamsters Local 251 gives Rhode Island Hospital 10 days warning…
Cass County Board: Contract settled with Teamsters union Brainerd Dispatch …Cass County Board approved a two-year contract Tuesday with Teamsters General Local Union 346 representing dispatch and records personnel in the sheriff's department...
CP, Teamsters Turn To Binding Arbitration To End Strike; CN, Teamsters Reach Tentative Pact Progressive Railroading ...Over the three-day holiday weekend, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) launched and ended a brief strike against Canadian Pacific, while CP reached a tentative labor agreement with Unifor and CN negotiated a tentative pact with the TCRC...
Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich Says No To NYC Horse-Carriage Ban New York Daily News ...Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) has come off the fence on Mayor de Blasio's mission to get rid of the iconic conveyances, writing in his constituent newsletter that "after listening to all sides, and taking into account the views of my constituents, I have decided to oppose the ban." Ulrich says he "cannot, in good conscience, vote for any legislation that would deny hardworking people a chance to earn a decent living."...
Sysco Wants To Control More Than A Quarter Of Our Food Supply KCET ...They brought in a revenue of $44 billion in 2013. (To compare, McDonald's brought in $28 billion.) They're huge, in other words. And they don't want to stop there. They're trying to merge with their number one competitor, US Foods, which would make them even more dominant in the food industry...
Providence School Bus Strike Averted Providence Journal ...A potential strike by Providence school bus drivers on Monday has been averted. Patrick MacDonald, legislative director for Teamsters union Local 251, said First Student invoked a clause in its contract with the national Teamsters that calls for a 21-day cooling-off period...
Charleston County School Bus Drivers Raise Issues Of Bus Safety Charleston Post and Courier ...Bus driver Kathy Richardson said there are ongoing problems with buses with broken windows, broken heaters and mechanical issues....Richardson was among several bus drivers who spoke out Monday at a community forum sponsored by Rep. Wendell Gilliard and the Teamsters Local 509 of West Columbia. Many of the issues raised were regarding Durham School Services, which provides school bus transportation for Charleston County schools...
Rory D. Potter Asbury Park Press ...Rory was born in Pt Pleasant and was a lifelong resident. He was a Teamster Driver working out of Teamsters Local 469 as the Track Foreman at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, NJ. Rory loved his family and his friends and was a friend to anyone he met...
Trade
OR-Sen: DFA Goes After Ron Wyden (D) On The TPP Daily Kos …Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is reportedly working with Republicans like Paul Ryan and Orrin Hatch to pass the TPP. Their goal: to grease the wheels to get the TPP through Congress without proper review or a chance to make any changes to the deal itself...
US lawmakers tell Japan key deal on trade promotion authority likely this spring U.S. News … A delegation of U.S. lawmakers say a bipartisan congressional agreement on granting President Barack Obama trade promotion authority for a pan-Pacific trade deal is likely this spring...
Trade Group Accelerates Push for a ‘Fast Track’ Deal New York Times …The Trade Benefits America Coalition has started a digital advertising campaign that argues in favor of a more ambitious trade agenda and pushes for legislation granting President Obama “fast track” trade negotiating authority...
Trade deal would hurt Indiana (opinion) Indianapolis Star …If you think those manufacturing jobs were zapped by robots or simply the victims of a globalized world, I have some magic beans for sale. There's a big reason these jobs were lost, and it's called unfair trade policies...
Press Release: Interfaith Coalition Sends Letter to All Members of Congress Opposing Trade Injustice / Fast Track Network Lobby …Major religious groups including Quaker, Jewish, Protestant and Catholic organizations, Catholic sisters, and clergy, today sent a letter to all Members of Congress to express strong opposition to fast track trade promotion authority for trade agreements being negotiated…
State Battles
Missouri Senate leader on the fence about 'right to work' St. Louis Public Radio ...Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, says he has yet to take a position on the “right-to-work’’ bill that is headed to his chamber after passing the House last week...
Senate Dems unveil jobs package; vow to block right-to-work legislation Albuquerque Journal …With the New Mexico House poised to act soon on a high-profile right-to-work bill, Senate Democrats said today the measure could be in for a crash landing if it reaches their chamber...
Koch brothers' group allowed to keep California donors' names secret Bloomberg News …A Koch brothers advocacy group can keep its donor list secret for now, with a federal judge ruling that revealing the identities would chill free speech. The ruling comes as billionaires Charles and David Koch seek to raise almost $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election…
War on Workers
US ports shutdown: millions of dollars in lost exports as labor secretary flies in The Guardian ...Tom Perez heads to San Francisco to meet with shipping companies and dock workers to help settle dispute that has led to a partial shutdown of ports...
Safety tops strike demands for oil workers at BP refinery People's World …With the 1,100 members at the Whiting refinery and 340 at Toledo's, the total number of striking workers rose to more than 4,900, who process 13 percent of the country's oil. A full strike could stop 64 percent of oil production. The workers' demands center on health and safety issues, contracting jobs out to non-union workers and health care…
The Cost of a Decline in Unions New York Times … A study in the American Sociological Review, using the broadest methodology, estimates that the decline of unions may account for one-third of the rise of inequality among men...
Did the GOP Just Give Away $130 Billion of Public Property? The Nation …In December, two Republican senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, pushed Congress and the president into giving away what could amount to over $130 billion in public property. That’s enough to provide every single unemployed American a minimum-wage job for an entire year. That’s enough to pay for a year of tuition at a public institution for every college student in the US…
Construction Worker Killed In Portland KOIN ...Shortly after 5:30 p.m., an Axis Crane contractor died after a steel high beam collapsed and fell onto the cab of a piece of equipment being used in Portland, officials said...
Illinois Worker Dies Cleaning Rail Car Law Firm News … An industrial cleaning company has been fined after a worker collapsed while working to clean a rail car and later died due to the untreated cardiac arrhythmia he suffered...
Miscellaneous
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers Huffington Post ...The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives...
