Teamsters
Hoffa: CEO Pay Rule Will Help Close Wage Gap Detroit News ...Those in favor of corporate disclosure won a hard-fought victory at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week when the agency finally decided to move ahead with a portion of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that requires companies to report the pay gap between CEOs and rank-and-file workers...
Sun Tran Worker Strike Now In Sixth Day, Still Going Strong WTTU ...On day six of the Sun Tran worker strike, the mood at Ronstadt Transit Center in downtown, Tucson was unity and solidarity...
Nearly 30 percent Of Loudoun County’s Commuter Bus Drivers May Strike Loudoun Times Mirror ...Nearly 30 percent of the county's public transit bus drivers may go on strike if their Teamsters union and Loudoun's commuter bus contractor, Transdev, can't reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement...
City Council Skips Closed Session Over For Police Contract Negotiations Chicago Tribune ...Teamsters Local 700 represents 10,000 public employees across the state of Illinois, including more than 5,000 law enforcement members, according to the union's website. Forty police officers and personnel from the Park Ridge Police Department voted to join the union in May 2014. After briefly reviewing a bargaining agreement for a three-year contract with the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, which represents seven police sergeants in Park Ridge, city councilors decided to forgo an option to take the discussion into closed session, with some alderman stating that they failed to see the advantage in keeping the talks a secret...
Global Labor & Trade
Will Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Go Up In Smoke Over Anti-Tobacco Proposal? Politico ...Big Tobacco is pushing back against a strict anti-smoking provision in the massive Trans-Pacific trade deal — and it has enlisted the support of the most powerful Republican in the Senate...
The Ripple Effects Of China's Weakening Currency The Atlantic ...China devalued its currency for the second straight day, sending markets across the region sharply lower and raising fresh concerns about the health of the world’s second-largest economy...
TPP Protesters Descend On Parliament Radio New Zealand ...The group said it was conducting a nationwide search for the full text of the TPP trade deal, and started with the ministry's Auckland headquarters. Several members of the group went into the offices, equipped with giant magnifying glasses, to demand the Government release the full TPP text by the end of the month...
State & Living Wage Battles
Long Beach City Council Votes To Study Minimum Wage Hike KPCC ...The Long Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to commission a study of the impact of raising the city's minimum wage - to even higher than the wage hike coming to Los Angeles...
New York State Officials Recover More Than $18.1 Million In Wages For Short-Changed Workers New York Daily News ...During the first six months of 2015, the state Labor Department recovered more than $18.1 million for nearly 19,000 workers who were not paid the proper minimum wage, overtime or fringe benefits, officials reported. The recoveries represented a 6% increase from the same time period in 2014 and put the state on pace to surpass last year’s record of $30.2 million...
More N.J. Public Employee Unions Join Lawsuit Against Christie Over Pay Freeze NJ.com ...The state's largest state workers union and three others have joined a lawsuit against the Christie administration over its decision to freeze wages for state employees...
Railroads Face Big Fines For Failure To Meet Federal Safety Deadline Truthout ...The Federal Railroad Administration plans to impose big penalties on railroads that fail to meet a year-end deadline to install a new collision avoidance system, including more than 70 percent of the nation's commuter railroads...
Scott Walker Signs Arena Deal, Handing $400 Million To Billionaire NBA Owners Huffington Post ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed legislation Wednesday that commits hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to a new arena for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, a move that could complicate the Republican presidential candidate’s efforts to paint himself as the most ardent small-government conservative in a crowded field...
U.S. Labor
Single Mothers ‘Most Likely’ To Benefit From Paid Overtime Expansion Al Jazeera America ...A proposal to extend overtime pay eligibility to millions of workers would have its biggest impact on single mothers and women of color, according to a study published Tuesday by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and the advocacy group MomsRising...
Uber Drivers Could Earn Thousands In Benefits As Full-Time Employees Forbes ...According to a new analysis, Uber drivers in six major U.S. cities would receive paid holidays and health care benefits worth an average of $5,500 annually...
America Is Working Itself To Death: How “9 To 5″ Became “24/7″ Salon.com ...The reality is, Americans don’t just work more than they have in the past, they work more than most of the industrialized world. It’s not exactly breaking news that we spend more hours at the office — or on the assembly line or behind the coffee counter — than our European peers. A 2004 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found Americans work “50 percent more than do the Germans, French, and Italians.” More recent data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that in 2014, Americans outworked several expected other countries, among them Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland and Austria, all countries that (coincidentally, I’m so sure) rank higher than us on the most recent World Happiness survey...
Social Justice & Other News
Black Poverty Differs From White Poverty Washington Post ...The poverty that poor African Americans experience is often different from the poverty of poor whites. It's more isolating and concentrated. It extends out the door of a family's home and occupies the entire neighborhood around it, touching the streets, the schools, the grocery stores. A poor black family, in short, is much more likely than a poor white one to live in a neighborhood where many other families are poor, too, creating what sociologists call the "double burden" of poverty. The difference is stark in most major metropolitan areas, according to new data analyzed by Rutgers University's Paul Jargowsky in a new report for the Century Foundation...
Teachers Union Lawsuit Over State Evaluation System May Go To Trial Santa Fe New Mexican ...State District Judge Francis Mathew of Santa Fe cleared the way Tuesday for a trial on whether New Mexico’s system of evaluating teachers should remain in place...
St. Louis County Police File Charges Against 3 Journalists One Year After Ferguson Protests Think Progress ...St. Louis County police are suddenly levying an onslaught of charges against journalists who covered the Ferguson protests last year, accusing them of minor offenses days before the statute of limitations is up. This week alone, three journalists have been charged for interfering with on-duty officers — a full year after their arrests. The recent developments follow an ongoing trend of criminalizing journalists for doing their jobs...
Teaching People Not To Be Corrupt Could Save Millions Of Lives Think Progress ...Corruption takes a particularly heavy toll in developing countries which lack the political and economic infrastructure to effectively regulate businesses. “In developing countries, corruption is a killer,” said David McNair of the advocacy organization ONE. “Up to 3.6 million lives could be saved if we end the web of secrecy that helps the criminal and corrupt. When governments are deprived of their own resources to invest in the essentials — like nurses and teachers — the human cost is devastating.”...
Black Activists Know Feds Are Monitoring Them, Yet Refuse to Be Intimidated Alternet ...When Erika Totten returned to protesting in the DC area after taking a few months off last winter, law enforcement officers were waiting to greet her...
Amnesty International Is Finally On The Right Side Of The Sex Work Struggle The Nation ...“We really hope that those who have opposed Amnesty’s position in the past will reconsider their position and look at the evidence that criminalization of sex work is a key factor in our vulnerability to violence and abuse,” Stevenson told me. “We hope that this evidence-based decision by Amnesty will help other progressive organizations take a position to support sex workers’ rights.”...
Don’t Blame Citizens United For Donald Trump; Blame 1976’s Buckley v. Valeo Decision The Intercept ...If you don’t think it’s fair that billionaires like Donald Trump can run their own self-funded campaigns for president, don’t blame the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision. Blame the 1976 case Buckley v. Valeo instead. Citizens United lets billionaires give unlimited money to Super PACs trying to elect other people, but billionaires have been able to give as much money as they wanted to their own campaigns since Buckley...
The Pentagon's Half-Billion Dollar Drone Boondoggle The Intercept ...Rivalry between the Army and Air Force over Predator drones may have cost the Pentagon over $500 million in wasteful spending, according to a report released under the Freedom of Information Act. The report, which the Pentagon’s Inspector General completed in 2010, is not available on the Defense Department’s public website, which instructs people to request it through the Freedom of Information Act. The Pentagon released a copy of the report to The Intercept this week, nearly five years after it was originally requested...
Showing posts with label Chris Christie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Christie. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Friday, July 17, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.17.15
Teamsters
Chicago Parking Valet Engaged in Unfair Labor Practices, NLRB Rules Local 727 ...Chicago Parking Valet has engaged in unfair labor practices, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Last year, an arbitrator ordered Chicago Parking Valet to pay employees, Teamsters Local 727 and the union Benefit Funds years’ worth back pay, dues and benefit contributions. However, the company then refused to furnish the union with requested information that was essential to carrying out the arbitration decision...
Teamsters, without a contract for last year-and-a-half, go on strike Thursday Belleville News-Democrat ...Some local construction sites may not be receiving concrete Thursday after about 80 metro-east laborers went on strike Thursday morning. The Teamsters Union Local 50 in Swansea announced the work stoppage after members had been delivering ready-mix concrete while working without a contract for the past year and a half. Union president Scott Alexander said the laborers were no closer to a settlement over their wages, pension and health care...
Teamsters Rail Ratify Five-Year Agreement with Ontario Northland Corridor Capital ...Northland Transportation Commission (Ontario Northland) and Teamsters Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees Division (TCRC MWED) announced today the ratification of a new five-year collective agreement. 94% of the vote was in favour of the agreement. “I am happy that the membership strongly supported the agreement,” said Louis Wilson, representative of TCRC MWED...
Still No Deal Between EVSC and Teamsters Tristate Homepage ...Still no deal between the EVSC and Teamsters Local 215, the jobs of nearly 700 employees are on the line as both sides are still working to secure a contract. Their contract expired June 30. We're told while the Teamsters and the EVSC have been communicating negotiations have yet to resume...
Teamsters Local Union 340 holding annual food drive to benefit Caribou Catholic Charities News Channel Network ...Everyone loves being part of the Potato Blossom Festival…tomorrow the Teamsters Local Union 340 food truck will head up to the County to do just that. They’re holding their 6th annual statewide food drive to benefit Catholic Charities in Caribou. They’ll be bringing up what they’ve collected so far...
Global Labor & Trade
Tension builds between Canada, U.S. over TPP deal Globe and Mail ...The U.S. government is frustrated with Canada over Pacific Rim trade talks because it believes Ottawa promised greater foreign access to its dairy and poultry markets as a condition of joining – and yet has offered nothing as discussions enter the final stretch, sources say. This friction between Canada and the U.S. is exposing a fundamental disagreement...
Lawmakers say Canada risks ouster from TPP unless it opens access to dairy market AgriPulse ...A bipartisan group of 21 House members is warning Canada that it may not be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) if it continues to resist increasing access to its dairy market. The warning was contained in a letter to Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., and signed by House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas...
Public-Private 'Revolving Door' Boosts TTIP Lobby, Report Says TeleSur ...As a massive lobby fight swirls around TTIP negotiations, the extent of the fast-spinning revolving door between the public sector and the prospective private beneficiaries of the deal threatens to create major conflicts of interest and tighten the corporate stranglehold on TTIP trade talks, says a new report released Wednesday...
Pushed by unions, Labor threatens China trade deal in Senate Financial Review ...Pressure is building on the Abbott government to tighten the China Australia Free Trade Agreement with the federal Opposition saying the deal does not adequately protect Australian jobs. As the trade union movement prepares for an assault on the signed agreement at next week's Labor National Conference, shadow trade minister Penny Wong said it "lacks critical safeguards"...
Greek debt crisis eases as banks prepare to reopen Monday Washington Post ...The acute economic crisis that has gripped Greece for weeks eased markedly Thursday as European officials dismantled key obstacles to desperately needed loans and the country’s banks prepared to reopen Monday, three weeks after locking their doors. The positive signals came hours after Greece’s Parliament reluctantly approved austerity measures required as a condition of a $96 billion bailout...
Advancing Bailout, Greece Approves 'Terms of Surrender' to Austerity Common Dreams ...After a lengthy and tense debate that stretched into the early hours of Thursday morning, the 300-member Greek Parliament voted by a majority of 229-64 to pass what former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis—one of those to vote "No"—is calling the "Terms of Greece's Surrender" to European creditors. The €86 billion bailout comes at a high political and social cost, forcing the imposition of harsh austerity measures and economic reforms tougher than those rejected by more than 60 percent of Greek voters...
State & Living Wage Battles
Chris Christie Is Turning Tap Water Into a Private Commodity The Nation ...In 2010, the citizens of Trenton, New Jersey, were asked to sell part of their water system for $80 million to New Jersey American Water, the largest private water utility company in the state. They rejected the privatization attempt by nearly four-to-one at the ballot box. However, lawmakers in New Jersey have passed legislation that attempts to silence the voices of communities like Trenton.
5 Ways Scott Walker's Allies On Wisconsin's High Court Just Legalized Political Corruption Alternet ...The Wisconsin Supreme Court has single-handedly rewritten the state’s limits on money in politics, rendering the state’s disclosure laws and contribution limits meaningless, and opening the door to unlimited funds directly from corporations and foreign firms. In a 4-2 decision that broke along ideological lines, the Court's conservative majority ended the John Doe probe into whether Governor Scott Walker illegally coordinated with supposedly "independent" dark money groups during the recall elections...
Do the math: Rauner’s call for repeal of prevailing wage law doesn’t add up (opinion) Chicago Reporter ...Illinois residents are starting to feel the pain from the state’s budget stalemate, as Governor Rauner continues to insist that his anti-union “turnaround agenda” be part of any budget solution. As part of that agenda, Rauner has called for repeal of the state’s prevailing wage law. In his state of the state address, he argued that the prevailing wage law increases the cost of construction by 20 percent. That’s not mathematically possible...
Voter ID Laws, Legacy of Segregation Still Affect Alabama US News & World Report ...Earlier this month, when the Center for American Progress Action Fund think tank released a state-by-state assessment of democracy, which looked at citizens' access to the polls, legislative representation and political influence, most observers weren't surprised that the Deep South ended up on the bottom rung. The grade, however, is an indication of a deeper, more complex problem found in Alabama and other Southern red states like Louisiana and Texas. The region's bitter legacy of racial segregation has created an environment where access to the polls is still questionable...
Tomblin weighs in on prevailing wage debate Daily Mail ...When discussing the ongoing spectacle surrounding the expiration of West Virginia’s prevailing wage law, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on Thursday said misunderstanding has fueled the dispute between legislators and WorkForce West Virginia, the agency tasked with developing a new wage. While Tomblin acknowledged WorkForce West Virginia’s failure to disclose requested documents that Republicans are saying show how labor organizations attempted to influence the wage recalculation, he said he doesn’t believe the agency tried to hide anything...
Martin O’Malley Backs $15 National Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley on Thursday declared his support for raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, contrasting himself with frontrunner Hillary Clinton. “I strongly support the national movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, because it will lift millions of families out of poverty and create better customers for American businesses,” O’Malley said in a statement...
U.S. Labor
EEOC Rules Workplace Sexual Orientation Discrimination Already Illegal Under Federal Law Slate ...On Thursday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission unanimously ruled that sexual orientation discrimination is already illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner reports, the EEOC's groundbreaking decision effectively declares that employment discrimination against gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers is unlawful in all 50 states...
Democrats push to limit abusive work scheduling practices like split shifts Daily Kos ...Low hourly wages aren't the only thing that keep workers in the fast food and retail industries struggling. Scheduling matters, too. These days it's common for workers to not know their schedules more than a week ahead. Democrats, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Patty Murray, and Chris Murphy and Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Bobby Scott, have a bill to fix that, or at least start to fix it: the Schedules That Work Act...
Wage Disparities High on List as Fiat Chrysler, UAW Begin Talks Wall Street Journal ...Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV Chief Sergio Marchionne is open to killing the controversial two-tier wage system that union members dislike but is unwilling to raise overall labor costs, a position that could complicate the path to reaching a new labor deal in mid-September. “We need to make money in order to pay people, as crass as that may sound,” Mr. Marchionne said during Tuesday’s ceremonial handshake to mark the start of contract negotiations...
KapStone workers OK unfair labor practice strike TDN ...KapStone's union mill workers overwhelmingly authorized an unfair labor practice strike this week, the union reported. About 99 percent of voting union members approve of the strike authorization, officials of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers said Wednesday night. The vote is an attempt to show that any strike would be over an unfair labor practice rather than purely economic concerns...
Papa John’s Franchisee Faces Jail Time Over Stealing Workers’ Wages Think Progress ...On Wednesday, the owner of nine Papa John’s franchises in New York City pled guilty to the first criminal case brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman against a fast food franchisee over wage theft. According to court documents, including company records obtained by the attorney general’s office, Abdul Jamil Khokhar, the franchisee, and BMY Foods Inc. paid its 300 current and former workers the same base rate for any hours they worked after putting in 40 a week...
Unemployment Rates in New York City and State Fall to Seven-Year Lows New York Times ...The unemployment rates in New York City and New York State fell to their lowest levels in nearly seven years as the long, steady improvement of New York’s economy continued in June, according to State Labor Department figures released on Thursday. The department reported that New York City’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.1 percent, from 6.4 percent in May...
Wisconsin unemployment rate holds steady at 4.6% Journal-Sentinel ...Wisconsin's unemployment rate stood unchanged in June at 4.6% from May, although the index is below the 5.4% in the same month a year ago and well below a peak of 9.2% at the worst point after the recession. Statistics show that Wisconsin has been a slow-growth jobs state for more than a decade...
Serfing the Web: On-Demand Workers Deserve a Place at the Table The Nation ...The Federal Trade Commission workshop “The ‘Sharing’ Economy” purported to focus on “issues facing platforms, participants, and regulators.” But calling an Uber driver a mere “participant” unfairly predetermines the most fundamental labor issue of the digital economy: whether those who work for massive digital platforms deserve the protection of employment, or can be treated as mere “independent contractors” bereft of traditional labor protections...
Miscellaneous
Federal Government Deepens Commitment To Separate Justice Systems For Wall Street, Main Street Think Progress ...People who apply for jobs with federal contractors still have to check a box if they have been to prison, but a government agency is finally trying to “ban the box” — at least, for billionaire bankers. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is quietly seeking to negate the consequences of felony guilty pleas that some of Wall Street’s biggest names entered earlier this year, according to a letter from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)...
Immigration Reform: Undocumented Immigrant Protest In Los Angeles Against County Jails Leads To 3 Arrests International Business Times ...Three people were arrested Wednesday evening at a Los Angeles demonstration protesting county jails taking part in a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiative that asks law enforcement officers to notify the agency if they believed an inmate was an undocumented immigrant before he or she was released. The controversial Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) was debated at a public forum hosted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department before protesters took to the streets...
Mass Graves of Immigrants Found in Texas, But State Says No Laws Were Broken Democracy Now ...Texas says there is "no evidence" of wrongdoing after mass graves filled with bodies of immigrants were found miles inland from the U.S.-Mexico border. The bodies were gathered from the desert surrounding a checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, in Brooks County...
A Black Woman Named Sandra Bland Got Pulled Over in Texas and Died in Jail Three Days Later. Why? Slate ... troubling story posted Wednesday night by an ABC affiliate in Chicago is picking up momentum online Thursday: the case of Sandra Bland, a black woman from Naperville, Illinois, who was stopped by police in Waller County, Texas, for making an improper lane change last Friday and ended up dead in jail on Monday morning. Police say Bland—who was in the area for a job interview at her alma mater, Texas Prairie View A&M—was arrested for “assault on a public servant” and appears to have committed suicide...
After EPA Ignored Environmental Racism for Decades, Communities Fight Back Common Dreams ...The Environmental Protection Agency has been ignoring complaints about environmental racism across the United States for up to 20 years, repeatedly failing to investigate evidence that incinerators, power plants, and hazardous waste dumps are disproportionally harming the health of low-income communities of color, a new lawsuit charges...
Chicago Parking Valet Engaged in Unfair Labor Practices, NLRB Rules Local 727 ...Chicago Parking Valet has engaged in unfair labor practices, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Last year, an arbitrator ordered Chicago Parking Valet to pay employees, Teamsters Local 727 and the union Benefit Funds years’ worth back pay, dues and benefit contributions. However, the company then refused to furnish the union with requested information that was essential to carrying out the arbitration decision...
Teamsters, without a contract for last year-and-a-half, go on strike Thursday Belleville News-Democrat ...Some local construction sites may not be receiving concrete Thursday after about 80 metro-east laborers went on strike Thursday morning. The Teamsters Union Local 50 in Swansea announced the work stoppage after members had been delivering ready-mix concrete while working without a contract for the past year and a half. Union president Scott Alexander said the laborers were no closer to a settlement over their wages, pension and health care...
Teamsters Rail Ratify Five-Year Agreement with Ontario Northland Corridor Capital ...Northland Transportation Commission (Ontario Northland) and Teamsters Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees Division (TCRC MWED) announced today the ratification of a new five-year collective agreement. 94% of the vote was in favour of the agreement. “I am happy that the membership strongly supported the agreement,” said Louis Wilson, representative of TCRC MWED...
Still No Deal Between EVSC and Teamsters Tristate Homepage ...Still no deal between the EVSC and Teamsters Local 215, the jobs of nearly 700 employees are on the line as both sides are still working to secure a contract. Their contract expired June 30. We're told while the Teamsters and the EVSC have been communicating negotiations have yet to resume...
Teamsters Local Union 340 holding annual food drive to benefit Caribou Catholic Charities News Channel Network ...Everyone loves being part of the Potato Blossom Festival…tomorrow the Teamsters Local Union 340 food truck will head up to the County to do just that. They’re holding their 6th annual statewide food drive to benefit Catholic Charities in Caribou. They’ll be bringing up what they’ve collected so far...
Global Labor & Trade
Tension builds between Canada, U.S. over TPP deal Globe and Mail ...The U.S. government is frustrated with Canada over Pacific Rim trade talks because it believes Ottawa promised greater foreign access to its dairy and poultry markets as a condition of joining – and yet has offered nothing as discussions enter the final stretch, sources say. This friction between Canada and the U.S. is exposing a fundamental disagreement...
Lawmakers say Canada risks ouster from TPP unless it opens access to dairy market AgriPulse ...A bipartisan group of 21 House members is warning Canada that it may not be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) if it continues to resist increasing access to its dairy market. The warning was contained in a letter to Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., and signed by House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas...
Public-Private 'Revolving Door' Boosts TTIP Lobby, Report Says TeleSur ...As a massive lobby fight swirls around TTIP negotiations, the extent of the fast-spinning revolving door between the public sector and the prospective private beneficiaries of the deal threatens to create major conflicts of interest and tighten the corporate stranglehold on TTIP trade talks, says a new report released Wednesday...
Pushed by unions, Labor threatens China trade deal in Senate Financial Review ...Pressure is building on the Abbott government to tighten the China Australia Free Trade Agreement with the federal Opposition saying the deal does not adequately protect Australian jobs. As the trade union movement prepares for an assault on the signed agreement at next week's Labor National Conference, shadow trade minister Penny Wong said it "lacks critical safeguards"...
Greek debt crisis eases as banks prepare to reopen Monday Washington Post ...The acute economic crisis that has gripped Greece for weeks eased markedly Thursday as European officials dismantled key obstacles to desperately needed loans and the country’s banks prepared to reopen Monday, three weeks after locking their doors. The positive signals came hours after Greece’s Parliament reluctantly approved austerity measures required as a condition of a $96 billion bailout...
Advancing Bailout, Greece Approves 'Terms of Surrender' to Austerity Common Dreams ...After a lengthy and tense debate that stretched into the early hours of Thursday morning, the 300-member Greek Parliament voted by a majority of 229-64 to pass what former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis—one of those to vote "No"—is calling the "Terms of Greece's Surrender" to European creditors. The €86 billion bailout comes at a high political and social cost, forcing the imposition of harsh austerity measures and economic reforms tougher than those rejected by more than 60 percent of Greek voters...
State & Living Wage Battles
Chris Christie Is Turning Tap Water Into a Private Commodity The Nation ...In 2010, the citizens of Trenton, New Jersey, were asked to sell part of their water system for $80 million to New Jersey American Water, the largest private water utility company in the state. They rejected the privatization attempt by nearly four-to-one at the ballot box. However, lawmakers in New Jersey have passed legislation that attempts to silence the voices of communities like Trenton.
5 Ways Scott Walker's Allies On Wisconsin's High Court Just Legalized Political Corruption Alternet ...The Wisconsin Supreme Court has single-handedly rewritten the state’s limits on money in politics, rendering the state’s disclosure laws and contribution limits meaningless, and opening the door to unlimited funds directly from corporations and foreign firms. In a 4-2 decision that broke along ideological lines, the Court's conservative majority ended the John Doe probe into whether Governor Scott Walker illegally coordinated with supposedly "independent" dark money groups during the recall elections...
Do the math: Rauner’s call for repeal of prevailing wage law doesn’t add up (opinion) Chicago Reporter ...Illinois residents are starting to feel the pain from the state’s budget stalemate, as Governor Rauner continues to insist that his anti-union “turnaround agenda” be part of any budget solution. As part of that agenda, Rauner has called for repeal of the state’s prevailing wage law. In his state of the state address, he argued that the prevailing wage law increases the cost of construction by 20 percent. That’s not mathematically possible...
Voter ID Laws, Legacy of Segregation Still Affect Alabama US News & World Report ...Earlier this month, when the Center for American Progress Action Fund think tank released a state-by-state assessment of democracy, which looked at citizens' access to the polls, legislative representation and political influence, most observers weren't surprised that the Deep South ended up on the bottom rung. The grade, however, is an indication of a deeper, more complex problem found in Alabama and other Southern red states like Louisiana and Texas. The region's bitter legacy of racial segregation has created an environment where access to the polls is still questionable...
Tomblin weighs in on prevailing wage debate Daily Mail ...When discussing the ongoing spectacle surrounding the expiration of West Virginia’s prevailing wage law, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on Thursday said misunderstanding has fueled the dispute between legislators and WorkForce West Virginia, the agency tasked with developing a new wage. While Tomblin acknowledged WorkForce West Virginia’s failure to disclose requested documents that Republicans are saying show how labor organizations attempted to influence the wage recalculation, he said he doesn’t believe the agency tried to hide anything...
Martin O’Malley Backs $15 National Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley on Thursday declared his support for raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, contrasting himself with frontrunner Hillary Clinton. “I strongly support the national movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, because it will lift millions of families out of poverty and create better customers for American businesses,” O’Malley said in a statement...
U.S. Labor
EEOC Rules Workplace Sexual Orientation Discrimination Already Illegal Under Federal Law Slate ...On Thursday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission unanimously ruled that sexual orientation discrimination is already illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner reports, the EEOC's groundbreaking decision effectively declares that employment discrimination against gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers is unlawful in all 50 states...
Democrats push to limit abusive work scheduling practices like split shifts Daily Kos ...Low hourly wages aren't the only thing that keep workers in the fast food and retail industries struggling. Scheduling matters, too. These days it's common for workers to not know their schedules more than a week ahead. Democrats, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Patty Murray, and Chris Murphy and Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Bobby Scott, have a bill to fix that, or at least start to fix it: the Schedules That Work Act...
Wage Disparities High on List as Fiat Chrysler, UAW Begin Talks Wall Street Journal ...Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV Chief Sergio Marchionne is open to killing the controversial two-tier wage system that union members dislike but is unwilling to raise overall labor costs, a position that could complicate the path to reaching a new labor deal in mid-September. “We need to make money in order to pay people, as crass as that may sound,” Mr. Marchionne said during Tuesday’s ceremonial handshake to mark the start of contract negotiations...
KapStone workers OK unfair labor practice strike TDN ...KapStone's union mill workers overwhelmingly authorized an unfair labor practice strike this week, the union reported. About 99 percent of voting union members approve of the strike authorization, officials of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers said Wednesday night. The vote is an attempt to show that any strike would be over an unfair labor practice rather than purely economic concerns...
Papa John’s Franchisee Faces Jail Time Over Stealing Workers’ Wages Think Progress ...On Wednesday, the owner of nine Papa John’s franchises in New York City pled guilty to the first criminal case brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman against a fast food franchisee over wage theft. According to court documents, including company records obtained by the attorney general’s office, Abdul Jamil Khokhar, the franchisee, and BMY Foods Inc. paid its 300 current and former workers the same base rate for any hours they worked after putting in 40 a week...
Unemployment Rates in New York City and State Fall to Seven-Year Lows New York Times ...The unemployment rates in New York City and New York State fell to their lowest levels in nearly seven years as the long, steady improvement of New York’s economy continued in June, according to State Labor Department figures released on Thursday. The department reported that New York City’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.1 percent, from 6.4 percent in May...
Wisconsin unemployment rate holds steady at 4.6% Journal-Sentinel ...Wisconsin's unemployment rate stood unchanged in June at 4.6% from May, although the index is below the 5.4% in the same month a year ago and well below a peak of 9.2% at the worst point after the recession. Statistics show that Wisconsin has been a slow-growth jobs state for more than a decade...
Serfing the Web: On-Demand Workers Deserve a Place at the Table The Nation ...The Federal Trade Commission workshop “The ‘Sharing’ Economy” purported to focus on “issues facing platforms, participants, and regulators.” But calling an Uber driver a mere “participant” unfairly predetermines the most fundamental labor issue of the digital economy: whether those who work for massive digital platforms deserve the protection of employment, or can be treated as mere “independent contractors” bereft of traditional labor protections...
Miscellaneous
Federal Government Deepens Commitment To Separate Justice Systems For Wall Street, Main Street Think Progress ...People who apply for jobs with federal contractors still have to check a box if they have been to prison, but a government agency is finally trying to “ban the box” — at least, for billionaire bankers. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is quietly seeking to negate the consequences of felony guilty pleas that some of Wall Street’s biggest names entered earlier this year, according to a letter from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)...
Immigration Reform: Undocumented Immigrant Protest In Los Angeles Against County Jails Leads To 3 Arrests International Business Times ...Three people were arrested Wednesday evening at a Los Angeles demonstration protesting county jails taking part in a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiative that asks law enforcement officers to notify the agency if they believed an inmate was an undocumented immigrant before he or she was released. The controversial Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) was debated at a public forum hosted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department before protesters took to the streets...
Mass Graves of Immigrants Found in Texas, But State Says No Laws Were Broken Democracy Now ...Texas says there is "no evidence" of wrongdoing after mass graves filled with bodies of immigrants were found miles inland from the U.S.-Mexico border. The bodies were gathered from the desert surrounding a checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, in Brooks County...
A Black Woman Named Sandra Bland Got Pulled Over in Texas and Died in Jail Three Days Later. Why? Slate ... troubling story posted Wednesday night by an ABC affiliate in Chicago is picking up momentum online Thursday: the case of Sandra Bland, a black woman from Naperville, Illinois, who was stopped by police in Waller County, Texas, for making an improper lane change last Friday and ended up dead in jail on Monday morning. Police say Bland—who was in the area for a job interview at her alma mater, Texas Prairie View A&M—was arrested for “assault on a public servant” and appears to have committed suicide...
After EPA Ignored Environmental Racism for Decades, Communities Fight Back Common Dreams ...The Environmental Protection Agency has been ignoring complaints about environmental racism across the United States for up to 20 years, repeatedly failing to investigate evidence that incinerators, power plants, and hazardous waste dumps are disproportionally harming the health of low-income communities of color, a new lawsuit charges...
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.01.15
Teamsters
Danafilms Workers Join Teamsters Local 170 Teamster.org ...Production workers at Danafilms, a plastic film manufacturer in Westborough, Mass., voted to join Teamsters Local 170 in an election held in April. Ballots impounded after the vote were counted yesterday, resulting in a 23-13 count in favor of representation. There are 44 workers in the bargaining unit...
EVSC, Teamsters haven't reached agreements, current contracts expire at midnight Courier & Press ...The midnight deadline to reach an agreement was not met between the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiating teams, meaning the school corporation's contracts with secretaries, special education assistants, bus aides, custodians and bus drivers are expired...
EVSC, Teamsters Still Deadlocked on Contract Tristate ...The Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and Teamsters Local 215 remain deadlocked on contract negotiations as the eleventh-hour approaches. The talks have started and stalled for months, and at midnight Wednesday the contract will expire, leaving an uncertain future for nearly 700 employees and their union representation...
Global Labor & Trade
Australian politicians slam TPP for ‘excessive secrecy’ RT ...Australian lawmakers have slammed the country’s deal-making process as one lacking transparency and oversight. They’ve particularly criticized the currently negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership for its “excessive secrecy.” The report, entitled the “Blind Agreement,” was a joint party report from the Labor, Liberal and Green parties...
Secret TPP Negotiations Denounced as “Undemocratic” in Peru TeleSUR ...On Tuesday, a group of Peruvian members of Congress and analysts denounced the secret negotiations of the US led Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty – or TPP – as undemocratic and an attempt by elites to force decisions on Peru. Together with 11 other countries, Peru has been negotiating TPP in secret, a trade agreement which could become the largest on the planet...
How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Will Hand Corporations the Reins to Our Government In These Times ...critics argue that within the hundreds of pages of esoteric provisions, the deal—like similar ones before it—includes a glaring double standard: It provides legal rights to corporations and investors that it does not extend to unions, public interest groups and individuals. Recently leaked drafts of the agreement show the pact includes the kind of “Investor-State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS) provisions written into most major trade deals...
Administration objects to Israeli-linked provision in trade bill Politico ...A day after President Barack Obama signed a key trade bill, his administration publicly stated its objection to a provision of the measure that critics say appears to legitimize Israeli settlements in Palestinian-claimed territories. The amendment to the trade law instructs U.S. trade negotiators to try to discourage foreign governments, especially in Europe, from signing on to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement...
Austerity ‘condemns’ children to poverty – report to UN RT ...Young people in the UK risk falling deeper into poverty if the government continues to make cuts to welfare programs, Britain’s four children’s commissioners have said. In a report for the United Nations, the commissioners say austerity policies have already pushed 2.3 million children into poverty with the figure set to hit 4.7 million by 2020...
Tube strike: RMT and TSSA union workers vote to go on strike BBC ...More London Underground workers have voted to strike in a dispute over the new all-night Tube service. Members of the RMT and TSSA unions backed industrial action following a similar vote by drivers. Workers in these unions will now join a planned 24-hour walkout by members of the drivers' union Aslef, which begins at 21:30 BST on 8 July...
GM Korea workers vote in favor of strike over pay, output Reuters ...General Motors Co employees in South Korea voted on Wednesday in favour of a strike over wages and production volumes, prompted by uncertainty over the U.S. auto maker's output plans as its labor costs in the country rise. South Korea's National Labor Relations Commission is expected to meet on July 6 to decide whether to order a 10-day arbitration period, according to the company and the workers' union...
Greece debt crisis: Tsipras in new bailout 'concessions' BBC ...Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has offered new concessions to the country's creditors. A letter to creditors sent by Mr Tsipras says he was prepared to accept most conditions that were on the table before talks collapsed and he called a referendum. On Tuesday, eurozone finance ministers refused to extend the previous bailout...
State & Living Wage Battles
Paid Sick Leave Law Gives California Employees More Time Off CBS ...Paid sick days are no longer an option for California employers as a new law takes effect this week. Baristas Kyla Wiegand and Eduard Andrusyak are part-time employees at Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters in East Sacramento. But come Wednesday, a new benefit is brewing at work—paid sick leave...
A Chris Christie presidency would be 'very disturbing', New Jerseyans warn The Guardian ...As he prepares to unveil his presidential campaign on Tuesday, Chris Christie is promising American voters that he will tell it to them straight – New Jersey-style. New Jersey has a straight message for American voters, too: run away. Criticism of Christie in his home state, where a Monmouth University poll last month tracked his favorability rating at a record low of 35%, is not confined to teachers. In a blistering editorial published at the weekend, the Newark Star-Ledger warned, bluntly: “He lies”...
Inside The Push To End A State’s ‘Ugly Policy’ Targeting Poor Mothers Think Progress ...In most states, when a family in need has a new child, their welfare benefits increase to cover the extra costs that come with a new family member. But 16 other states operate differently, limiting benefits after a certain number of children. There’s no evidence that these limits have the desired result — in fact, people on welfare have the same sized families as those who don’t enroll, and there is strong evidence that these caps increase poverty...
The Curious Case of Puerto Rico, And Why Default Poses A Risk To The U.S. Huffington Post ...U.S. lawmakers have no firm plan to help more than 3 million American citizens living 1,000 miles off the coast of Florida under a government staring down the barrel of a $73 billion debt crisis. Those U.S. citizens live in the territory of Puerto Rico. Thousands of them are fleeing each month to the U.S. mainland in the search of economic opportunity, compounding the island’s financial crisis...
West Virginia's prevailing wage set to temporarily expire WOWKTV ...West Virginia's prevailing wage is set expire Tuesday at midnight, as WorkForce West Virginia and economists with West Virginia University and Marshall University continue to work on a new calculation method. During the 2015 regular legislative session, state lawmakers passed a bill to change the way prevailing wage is calculated...
Minimum Wage Increase Takes Effect in Chicago NBC ...Minimum wage employees in Chicago will begin earning $10 an hour Wednesday as the first part of a yearly incremental minimum wage increase takes effect in the city. The $1.75 hourly bump is part of a plan aimed at raising the minimum wage in the city to $13 an hour by 2019...
Starting today, the D.C. minimum wage jumps to $10.50 Washington Post ...D.C.’s minimum-wage workers will get a city-mandated increase in their paychecks beginning Wednesday, when their hourly wage bumps from $9.50 to $10.50. The hike is part of legislation signed into law in January 2014 that brought the District’s minimum wage from $8.25 to an eventual $11.50 per hour in 2016...
Minimum wage ordinance upheld by judge Courier-Journal ...Louisville workers can expect a pay raise starting July 1 after a Jefferson County Circuit judge on Monday upheld an ordinance raising the city's minimum wage to $9 an hour over the next three years. In a four-page ruling, Circuit Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman said state law establishes a floor for wages that does not expressly authorize or forbid a local government from raising workers' pay rates...
U.S. Labor
Obama and labor reconcile, sort of, on overtime Politico ...What a difference a day makes. Last week, President Barack Obama was a traitor to progressive groups and unions for pushing his trade agenda through Congress. This week, he’s their hero for putting forward a regulation to expand overtime, which would give an estimated 5 million Americans a raise...
The Rise Of Anti-Union Rhetoric In The 2016 Race Think Progress ...This week, the Supreme Court agreed to take a case that could spell doom for public sector unions, with the potential to make the entire country so-called “right-to-work” territory. If that effort fails, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has vowed to make every state a “right-to-work” state if elected president. But while Walker may be the loudest and proudest union buster in the 2016 race, his fellow candidates are also striving to prove their anti-labor bona fides...
Supreme Court will hear case on public sector union fees Aljazeera ...A case that will soon be heard before the Supreme Court has the potential to institute a de facto right-to-work regime across the entire public sector. The Court said on Tuesday it would soon hear arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (CTA), a case concerning government employee unions' ability to gather fees from non-members...
With New Overtime Rule, President Obama May Have Given an Estimated 5 Million Workers a Raise In These Times ...President Obama’s administration took another promised step on Tuesday towards raising the living standards of American workers, and Republicans and business groups are not likely to be able to stop it. Using the administration’s power to update workplace rules regarding premium pay for overtime work, the Department of Labor on Tuesday began taking steps that could bring higher pay or more leisure time to an estimated 5 million middle-income workers by next year...
Santa Clara County, SEIU Reach 11th Hour Deal to Avoid Strike San Jose Inside ...Hours before thousands of workers planned to walk off the job, Santa Clara County's largest employee union reached a tentative four-year agreement after 72 straight hours of bargaining. The 11th hour deal reached at 4:30am today came in time for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521 to call off the 6am strike...
USW Offers to Remain at Work at ATI While Continuing to Bargain for a New Agreement PR Newswire ...Late Tuesday evening, the United Steelworkers (USW) offered to continue working following the expiration of the current labor agreement with Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI), and to continue negotiations for a fair agreement. While the differences between the parties are quite significant, the USW believes the company should depart from its current, nonsense course of hiring temporary replacement workers and security goons...
Milwaukee County bus drivers strike, scrambling commute St. Louis Post-Dispatch ..Hundreds of Milwaukee County union bus drivers went on strike early Wednesday, leaving tens of thousands of commuters scrambling to make alternative plans to get to work and elsewhere. The roughly 750 drivers walked off the job at 3 a.m. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 leaders said the strike would last until Saturday...
Victoria’s Secret Is Getting Rid Of On-Call Scheduling In Stores Buzzfeed ...Victoria’s Secret is ending the use of on-call scheduling in its stores, employees were told yesterday — a major reversal of a policy that wreaked havoc on the lives of tens of thousands of retail workers across the country.
The chain told employees it would no longer use the controversial scheduling practice, which requires staff to be available for shifts that can be cancelled at the last minute...
GOP's New Attack on Social Security's Disability Benefits: Exaggerate Number Of Claims Alternet ...Congressional Republicans are trying to block a routine reallocation of funds to the SSDI Trust Fund, insisting that they will only allow reallocation if “reforms” to SSDI are implemented. The intellectual underpinning for their demands is that there is an unfolding fiscal crisis caused by workers who are able to earn a living but are instead choosing to claim disability benefits. However, a closer look at the evidence shows that SSDI benefits have become, if anything, less generous...
Miscellaneous
Ruling Against "Three Strikes" Sentencing Law Opens Door to Reform Truthout ...Friday's Supreme Court decision in Johnson v. United States highlights the complicated nature of sentencing provisions that result in lengthy prison terms, a leading cause of mass incarceration. The ruling struck down a sentencing provision that lengthened prison terms for certain federal prisoners and potentially impacts the lives of thousands of people who have received enhanced federal sentences...
White Racism, NIMBYism, And The Surprise Supreme Court Ruling That Could Finally Desegregate Cities Think Progress ...The people who fight housing discrimination and residential segregation in America were bracing for a defeat last Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruled on Texas Department of Housing v. Inclusive Communities Project. But instead of gutting a decades old legal theory known as “disparate impact,” as court watchers had predicted, Justice Anthony Kennedy penned a strong defense of the anti-racism tool on behalf of a 5-4 majority...
High Court's Ruling, Say Critics, Endorses 'Torturing People to Death' Common Dreams ...In the most closely-watched death penalty case in years, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 (pdf) that Oklahoma can use the controversial and experimental execution drug midazolam that was behind the last year's horrific killing of 38-year-old man Clayton Lockett—who writhed and groaned for 43 minutes before ultimately succumbing to a heart attack...
U.S. and Cuba to Re-Establish Diplomatic Ties, Reopen Embassies After 50 Years Slate ...The gradual warming of relations between the U.S. and Cuba continued on Tuesday with the news that the two will formally restore diplomatic relations and reopen embassies. The final agreement is expected to be announced on Wednesday and the U.S. embassy is Havana should be up and running in July. U.S. diplomatic ties with Cuba were severed in 1961 following Castro’s ascent to power during the Cuban revolution...
US police killings headed for 1,100 this year, with black Americans twice as likely to die The Guardian ...Police in the United States are killing people at a rate that would result in 1,100 fatalities by the end of this year, according to a Guardian investigation, which recorded an average of three people killed per day during the first half of 2015. The Counted, a project working to report and crowdsource names and a series of other data on every death caused by law enforcement in the US this year, found that 547 people had been killed by the end of June...
Danafilms Workers Join Teamsters Local 170 Teamster.org ...Production workers at Danafilms, a plastic film manufacturer in Westborough, Mass., voted to join Teamsters Local 170 in an election held in April. Ballots impounded after the vote were counted yesterday, resulting in a 23-13 count in favor of representation. There are 44 workers in the bargaining unit...
EVSC, Teamsters haven't reached agreements, current contracts expire at midnight Courier & Press ...The midnight deadline to reach an agreement was not met between the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiating teams, meaning the school corporation's contracts with secretaries, special education assistants, bus aides, custodians and bus drivers are expired...
EVSC, Teamsters Still Deadlocked on Contract Tristate ...The Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and Teamsters Local 215 remain deadlocked on contract negotiations as the eleventh-hour approaches. The talks have started and stalled for months, and at midnight Wednesday the contract will expire, leaving an uncertain future for nearly 700 employees and their union representation...
Global Labor & Trade
Australian politicians slam TPP for ‘excessive secrecy’ RT ...Australian lawmakers have slammed the country’s deal-making process as one lacking transparency and oversight. They’ve particularly criticized the currently negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership for its “excessive secrecy.” The report, entitled the “Blind Agreement,” was a joint party report from the Labor, Liberal and Green parties...
Secret TPP Negotiations Denounced as “Undemocratic” in Peru TeleSUR ...On Tuesday, a group of Peruvian members of Congress and analysts denounced the secret negotiations of the US led Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty – or TPP – as undemocratic and an attempt by elites to force decisions on Peru. Together with 11 other countries, Peru has been negotiating TPP in secret, a trade agreement which could become the largest on the planet...
How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Will Hand Corporations the Reins to Our Government In These Times ...critics argue that within the hundreds of pages of esoteric provisions, the deal—like similar ones before it—includes a glaring double standard: It provides legal rights to corporations and investors that it does not extend to unions, public interest groups and individuals. Recently leaked drafts of the agreement show the pact includes the kind of “Investor-State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS) provisions written into most major trade deals...
Administration objects to Israeli-linked provision in trade bill Politico ...A day after President Barack Obama signed a key trade bill, his administration publicly stated its objection to a provision of the measure that critics say appears to legitimize Israeli settlements in Palestinian-claimed territories. The amendment to the trade law instructs U.S. trade negotiators to try to discourage foreign governments, especially in Europe, from signing on to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement...
Austerity ‘condemns’ children to poverty – report to UN RT ...Young people in the UK risk falling deeper into poverty if the government continues to make cuts to welfare programs, Britain’s four children’s commissioners have said. In a report for the United Nations, the commissioners say austerity policies have already pushed 2.3 million children into poverty with the figure set to hit 4.7 million by 2020...
Tube strike: RMT and TSSA union workers vote to go on strike BBC ...More London Underground workers have voted to strike in a dispute over the new all-night Tube service. Members of the RMT and TSSA unions backed industrial action following a similar vote by drivers. Workers in these unions will now join a planned 24-hour walkout by members of the drivers' union Aslef, which begins at 21:30 BST on 8 July...
GM Korea workers vote in favor of strike over pay, output Reuters ...General Motors Co employees in South Korea voted on Wednesday in favour of a strike over wages and production volumes, prompted by uncertainty over the U.S. auto maker's output plans as its labor costs in the country rise. South Korea's National Labor Relations Commission is expected to meet on July 6 to decide whether to order a 10-day arbitration period, according to the company and the workers' union...
Greece debt crisis: Tsipras in new bailout 'concessions' BBC ...Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has offered new concessions to the country's creditors. A letter to creditors sent by Mr Tsipras says he was prepared to accept most conditions that were on the table before talks collapsed and he called a referendum. On Tuesday, eurozone finance ministers refused to extend the previous bailout...
State & Living Wage Battles
Paid Sick Leave Law Gives California Employees More Time Off CBS ...Paid sick days are no longer an option for California employers as a new law takes effect this week. Baristas Kyla Wiegand and Eduard Andrusyak are part-time employees at Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters in East Sacramento. But come Wednesday, a new benefit is brewing at work—paid sick leave...
A Chris Christie presidency would be 'very disturbing', New Jerseyans warn The Guardian ...As he prepares to unveil his presidential campaign on Tuesday, Chris Christie is promising American voters that he will tell it to them straight – New Jersey-style. New Jersey has a straight message for American voters, too: run away. Criticism of Christie in his home state, where a Monmouth University poll last month tracked his favorability rating at a record low of 35%, is not confined to teachers. In a blistering editorial published at the weekend, the Newark Star-Ledger warned, bluntly: “He lies”...
Inside The Push To End A State’s ‘Ugly Policy’ Targeting Poor Mothers Think Progress ...In most states, when a family in need has a new child, their welfare benefits increase to cover the extra costs that come with a new family member. But 16 other states operate differently, limiting benefits after a certain number of children. There’s no evidence that these limits have the desired result — in fact, people on welfare have the same sized families as those who don’t enroll, and there is strong evidence that these caps increase poverty...
The Curious Case of Puerto Rico, And Why Default Poses A Risk To The U.S. Huffington Post ...U.S. lawmakers have no firm plan to help more than 3 million American citizens living 1,000 miles off the coast of Florida under a government staring down the barrel of a $73 billion debt crisis. Those U.S. citizens live in the territory of Puerto Rico. Thousands of them are fleeing each month to the U.S. mainland in the search of economic opportunity, compounding the island’s financial crisis...
West Virginia's prevailing wage set to temporarily expire WOWKTV ...West Virginia's prevailing wage is set expire Tuesday at midnight, as WorkForce West Virginia and economists with West Virginia University and Marshall University continue to work on a new calculation method. During the 2015 regular legislative session, state lawmakers passed a bill to change the way prevailing wage is calculated...
Minimum Wage Increase Takes Effect in Chicago NBC ...Minimum wage employees in Chicago will begin earning $10 an hour Wednesday as the first part of a yearly incremental minimum wage increase takes effect in the city. The $1.75 hourly bump is part of a plan aimed at raising the minimum wage in the city to $13 an hour by 2019...
Starting today, the D.C. minimum wage jumps to $10.50 Washington Post ...D.C.’s minimum-wage workers will get a city-mandated increase in their paychecks beginning Wednesday, when their hourly wage bumps from $9.50 to $10.50. The hike is part of legislation signed into law in January 2014 that brought the District’s minimum wage from $8.25 to an eventual $11.50 per hour in 2016...
Minimum wage ordinance upheld by judge Courier-Journal ...Louisville workers can expect a pay raise starting July 1 after a Jefferson County Circuit judge on Monday upheld an ordinance raising the city's minimum wage to $9 an hour over the next three years. In a four-page ruling, Circuit Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman said state law establishes a floor for wages that does not expressly authorize or forbid a local government from raising workers' pay rates...
U.S. Labor
Obama and labor reconcile, sort of, on overtime Politico ...What a difference a day makes. Last week, President Barack Obama was a traitor to progressive groups and unions for pushing his trade agenda through Congress. This week, he’s their hero for putting forward a regulation to expand overtime, which would give an estimated 5 million Americans a raise...
The Rise Of Anti-Union Rhetoric In The 2016 Race Think Progress ...This week, the Supreme Court agreed to take a case that could spell doom for public sector unions, with the potential to make the entire country so-called “right-to-work” territory. If that effort fails, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has vowed to make every state a “right-to-work” state if elected president. But while Walker may be the loudest and proudest union buster in the 2016 race, his fellow candidates are also striving to prove their anti-labor bona fides...
Supreme Court will hear case on public sector union fees Aljazeera ...A case that will soon be heard before the Supreme Court has the potential to institute a de facto right-to-work regime across the entire public sector. The Court said on Tuesday it would soon hear arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (CTA), a case concerning government employee unions' ability to gather fees from non-members...
With New Overtime Rule, President Obama May Have Given an Estimated 5 Million Workers a Raise In These Times ...President Obama’s administration took another promised step on Tuesday towards raising the living standards of American workers, and Republicans and business groups are not likely to be able to stop it. Using the administration’s power to update workplace rules regarding premium pay for overtime work, the Department of Labor on Tuesday began taking steps that could bring higher pay or more leisure time to an estimated 5 million middle-income workers by next year...
Santa Clara County, SEIU Reach 11th Hour Deal to Avoid Strike San Jose Inside ...Hours before thousands of workers planned to walk off the job, Santa Clara County's largest employee union reached a tentative four-year agreement after 72 straight hours of bargaining. The 11th hour deal reached at 4:30am today came in time for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521 to call off the 6am strike...
USW Offers to Remain at Work at ATI While Continuing to Bargain for a New Agreement PR Newswire ...Late Tuesday evening, the United Steelworkers (USW) offered to continue working following the expiration of the current labor agreement with Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI), and to continue negotiations for a fair agreement. While the differences between the parties are quite significant, the USW believes the company should depart from its current, nonsense course of hiring temporary replacement workers and security goons...
Milwaukee County bus drivers strike, scrambling commute St. Louis Post-Dispatch ..Hundreds of Milwaukee County union bus drivers went on strike early Wednesday, leaving tens of thousands of commuters scrambling to make alternative plans to get to work and elsewhere. The roughly 750 drivers walked off the job at 3 a.m. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 leaders said the strike would last until Saturday...
Victoria’s Secret Is Getting Rid Of On-Call Scheduling In Stores Buzzfeed ...Victoria’s Secret is ending the use of on-call scheduling in its stores, employees were told yesterday — a major reversal of a policy that wreaked havoc on the lives of tens of thousands of retail workers across the country.
The chain told employees it would no longer use the controversial scheduling practice, which requires staff to be available for shifts that can be cancelled at the last minute...
GOP's New Attack on Social Security's Disability Benefits: Exaggerate Number Of Claims Alternet ...Congressional Republicans are trying to block a routine reallocation of funds to the SSDI Trust Fund, insisting that they will only allow reallocation if “reforms” to SSDI are implemented. The intellectual underpinning for their demands is that there is an unfolding fiscal crisis caused by workers who are able to earn a living but are instead choosing to claim disability benefits. However, a closer look at the evidence shows that SSDI benefits have become, if anything, less generous...
Miscellaneous
Ruling Against "Three Strikes" Sentencing Law Opens Door to Reform Truthout ...Friday's Supreme Court decision in Johnson v. United States highlights the complicated nature of sentencing provisions that result in lengthy prison terms, a leading cause of mass incarceration. The ruling struck down a sentencing provision that lengthened prison terms for certain federal prisoners and potentially impacts the lives of thousands of people who have received enhanced federal sentences...
White Racism, NIMBYism, And The Surprise Supreme Court Ruling That Could Finally Desegregate Cities Think Progress ...The people who fight housing discrimination and residential segregation in America were bracing for a defeat last Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruled on Texas Department of Housing v. Inclusive Communities Project. But instead of gutting a decades old legal theory known as “disparate impact,” as court watchers had predicted, Justice Anthony Kennedy penned a strong defense of the anti-racism tool on behalf of a 5-4 majority...
High Court's Ruling, Say Critics, Endorses 'Torturing People to Death' Common Dreams ...In the most closely-watched death penalty case in years, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 (pdf) that Oklahoma can use the controversial and experimental execution drug midazolam that was behind the last year's horrific killing of 38-year-old man Clayton Lockett—who writhed and groaned for 43 minutes before ultimately succumbing to a heart attack...
U.S. and Cuba to Re-Establish Diplomatic Ties, Reopen Embassies After 50 Years Slate ...The gradual warming of relations between the U.S. and Cuba continued on Tuesday with the news that the two will formally restore diplomatic relations and reopen embassies. The final agreement is expected to be announced on Wednesday and the U.S. embassy is Havana should be up and running in July. U.S. diplomatic ties with Cuba were severed in 1961 following Castro’s ascent to power during the Cuban revolution...
US police killings headed for 1,100 this year, with black Americans twice as likely to die The Guardian ...Police in the United States are killing people at a rate that would result in 1,100 fatalities by the end of this year, according to a Guardian investigation, which recorded an average of three people killed per day during the first half of 2015. The Counted, a project working to report and crowdsource names and a series of other data on every death caused by law enforcement in the US this year, found that 547 people had been killed by the end of June...
Monday, October 27, 2014
Today's Teamster News 10.27.14
Teamsters
Disney workers appeal firing over sweaty costumes Orlando Sentinel ...The Teamsters union that represents them is bringing the issue in front of a federal arbitrator later this year. The union argues Disney violated its contract by providing unsanitary clothing...
Philadelphia Labor Law Attorney Bruce M. Ludwig Presents at International Conference of Teamsters Lawyers North Fork View ...Bruce M. Ludwig, of the labor, employment and workers’ compensation law firm Willig, Williams & Davidson, recently presented a paper at the 29th meeting of the International Conference of Teamsters Lawyers in Providence, R.I., entitled “Growing the Union at Penn State University: Issues in Organizing a Residual Unit in the Public Sector.”...
Trade
TPP talks in Sydney end with no breakthrough Japan Times ...Japan and the United States failed to reach a much-awaited breakthrough, seen as vital to advancing the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, at a three-day meeting on the proposed trade accord that wrapped in Sydney on Monday...
The row over TTIP rumbles on Left Foot Forward ...The row over TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal between the EU and the USA) and the inclusion of an ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement) mechanism is growing almost daily...
UK poultry industry worried about TTIP impact on food safety Global Meat News ...Members of the UK poultry industry are concerned that trade negotiations under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and US could undermine food safety...
State Battles
Wisconsin Voters Know Walker -- and That’s His Problem Bloomberg ...Yet if Walker is to advance his momentum into the 2016 presidential race, he needs to win re-election next week in a state where roughly half of the voters say they’ve had enough of him...
Fox News Host Calls Out Chris Christie For Putting Millionaires Over State’s Economy ThinkProgress ...You decided to cut payments to pension funds and instead of raising taxes on millionaires and businesses. The credit rating for New Jersey has actually been downgraded eight times your watch, and the polls in New Jersey show you with your lowest favorability rating since you became governor...
War on Workers
States With The Widest Gap Between Rich And Poor: 24/7 Wall St. Huffington Post ...New York was one of only two states, along with Connecticut, where more than 25% of all income was earned by just the top 5% of households...
Inflation Deceptive, CPI 0.1% Yet Some Items Off the Charts Economic Populist ...The average hourly real wage feel -0.2% [in September] and is now $10.32. and has increased just 0.3% for the year. This means wages are not keeping up with inflation. Weekly real earnings increased by only because people were working 0.3% more hours per week...
Police Pay Gap: Many of America's Finest Struggle on Poverty Wages NBC News ...Data obtained by NBC News from 24 municipal police departments in St. Louis County reveal a gulf between police officer pay in poor, majority African-American northern cities and wealthier, whiter cities further south. Average annual patrol officer pay ranges from $23,000 in Hillsdale to nearly $70,000 in Town and County and Des Peres...
Chris Christie Stuck Her In 'Prison.' So Ebola Nurse Says She'll Sue. Forbes ...She worked for Doctors Without Borders — the aid group fighting West Africa’s Ebola epidemic — before flying home on Friday and being rushed into a surprise isolation that she’s described as scary, disorganized, and even cruel...
Disney workers appeal firing over sweaty costumes Orlando Sentinel ...The Teamsters union that represents them is bringing the issue in front of a federal arbitrator later this year. The union argues Disney violated its contract by providing unsanitary clothing...
Philadelphia Labor Law Attorney Bruce M. Ludwig Presents at International Conference of Teamsters Lawyers North Fork View ...Bruce M. Ludwig, of the labor, employment and workers’ compensation law firm Willig, Williams & Davidson, recently presented a paper at the 29th meeting of the International Conference of Teamsters Lawyers in Providence, R.I., entitled “Growing the Union at Penn State University: Issues in Organizing a Residual Unit in the Public Sector.”...
Trade
TPP talks in Sydney end with no breakthrough Japan Times ...Japan and the United States failed to reach a much-awaited breakthrough, seen as vital to advancing the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, at a three-day meeting on the proposed trade accord that wrapped in Sydney on Monday...
The row over TTIP rumbles on Left Foot Forward ...The row over TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal between the EU and the USA) and the inclusion of an ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement) mechanism is growing almost daily...
UK poultry industry worried about TTIP impact on food safety Global Meat News ...Members of the UK poultry industry are concerned that trade negotiations under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and US could undermine food safety...
State Battles
Wisconsin Voters Know Walker -- and That’s His Problem Bloomberg ...Yet if Walker is to advance his momentum into the 2016 presidential race, he needs to win re-election next week in a state where roughly half of the voters say they’ve had enough of him...
Fox News Host Calls Out Chris Christie For Putting Millionaires Over State’s Economy ThinkProgress ...You decided to cut payments to pension funds and instead of raising taxes on millionaires and businesses. The credit rating for New Jersey has actually been downgraded eight times your watch, and the polls in New Jersey show you with your lowest favorability rating since you became governor...
War on Workers
States With The Widest Gap Between Rich And Poor: 24/7 Wall St. Huffington Post ...New York was one of only two states, along with Connecticut, where more than 25% of all income was earned by just the top 5% of households...
Inflation Deceptive, CPI 0.1% Yet Some Items Off the Charts Economic Populist ...The average hourly real wage feel -0.2% [in September] and is now $10.32. and has increased just 0.3% for the year. This means wages are not keeping up with inflation. Weekly real earnings increased by only because people were working 0.3% more hours per week...
Police Pay Gap: Many of America's Finest Struggle on Poverty Wages NBC News ...Data obtained by NBC News from 24 municipal police departments in St. Louis County reveal a gulf between police officer pay in poor, majority African-American northern cities and wealthier, whiter cities further south. Average annual patrol officer pay ranges from $23,000 in Hillsdale to nearly $70,000 in Town and County and Des Peres...
Chris Christie Stuck Her In 'Prison.' So Ebola Nurse Says She'll Sue. Forbes ...She worked for Doctors Without Borders — the aid group fighting West Africa’s Ebola epidemic — before flying home on Friday and being rushed into a surprise isolation that she’s described as scary, disorganized, and even cruel...
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Today's Teamster News 10.26.14
Teamsters
Teamsters show support for FairPoint strikers Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal ...Teamsters Local 340 came to support the striking FairPoint workers on Davis Farm Road in Portland on Saturday. Business agents from Local 340 brought hamburgers and hot dogs for 500, letting IBEW members know that they were not alone in their dispute with FairPoint management...
U.S. Sen. Carper, Tennant lead Democrats at South Charleston rally West Virginia Sunday Gazette-Mail ...U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, of Delaware, makes an appearance in support of Natalie Tennant and other Democrats at a rally held at the Teamsters Local 175 headquarters in South Charleston on Saturday...
Trade
Japan Market Access Still Hurdle at Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks Wall Street Journal ...Japan will come under renewed pressure to further open up its automotive and agriculture industries to global trade during Trans-Pacific Partnership talks here over coming days, amid heightened calls for Tokyo to ensure increased market access remains a key plank of its structural reform agenda under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe...
Momentum building on TPP deal despite U.S.-Japan impasse Japan Times ...Froman said there was now an opportunity to narrow differences ahead of leaders meetings in Asia in coming weeks. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Beijing and G20 summit in Brisbane will both take place next month...
State Battles
Another 150,000 Detroit Residents Are About To Become Homeless Under GOP Governor’s Emergency Manager Addicting Info ...there has been a ‘billionaire’s buying spree‘, as the rich swoop in like the vultures they are, to buy up the property of the very people they made poor, through their own criminal activity...
Walker Claims Next Budget Will Start With Surplus, Though Evidence Indicates Otherwise Wisconsin Public Radio ... the bureau found that the state would begin the next budget with a gross balance of zero dollars — a far cry from the half-billion the governor is claiming...
Scott Walker’s Corruption Problem The Progressive ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is locked in a dead-heat for reelection on November 4, has been dogged throughout his tenure by secret criminal investigations that so far have led to 15 felony indictments of six of his closest aides and associates. This week, new documents released on a judge’s orders show that Walker, while he was Milwaukee County executive, helped his longtime campaign treasurer get inside information for a bid to lease office space to the county...
North Carolina Fights To Take Voting Site Away From Pesky College Kids Moyers & Co. ...Early voting starts today, Thursday in North Carolina, even as the state has pushed to move early voting sites farther away from college campuses...
Christie wants GOP control of voting rules, election officials msnbc ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) stunned voting-rights advocates this week, arguing that Republican governors should control “voting mechanisms” in order to help the party win the 2016 presidential election...
Rick Explains It All You Got Schooled ...During his first year as governor, Rick Snyder made drastic cuts to education. He’s been trying to explain his way out of this for years, but this handy-dandy graph shows that his math doesn’t quite add up...
War on Workers
FairPoint and striking unions brace for a long stalemate Portland Press Herald ...While workers get ready to go without paychecks, the company pays for police details at picketing sites...
Ebola outbreak: US nurse criticises quarantine treatment BBC News ...A nurse quarantined on her return to the US from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has criticised the way she was dealt with at Newark airport. Kaci Hickox said the experience was frightening and could deter other health workers from travelling to West Africa to help tackle the Ebola virus...
High school cafeteria worker tried to stop gunman USA Today ... A high school cafeteria worker tried to stop a gunman who killed one girl and shot four other students before taking his own life inside the cafeteria at a school north of Seattle, officials said Saturday...
'Koch Congress' Could Make Oligarchy Official The Progressive ...At a time when most Americans agree that the country has too much power in too few hands, the world’s two wealthiest men are only six seats away from seizing the Senate and consolidating their current control of the House...
Dark Money Will Decide Which Party Controls the Senate Center for Public Integrity ...In the most competitive U.S. Senate races this year, big-money special interests that proliferated after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision are routinely out-muscling and out-messaging the candidates themselves...
Teamsters show support for FairPoint strikers Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal ...Teamsters Local 340 came to support the striking FairPoint workers on Davis Farm Road in Portland on Saturday. Business agents from Local 340 brought hamburgers and hot dogs for 500, letting IBEW members know that they were not alone in their dispute with FairPoint management...
U.S. Sen. Carper, Tennant lead Democrats at South Charleston rally West Virginia Sunday Gazette-Mail ...U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, of Delaware, makes an appearance in support of Natalie Tennant and other Democrats at a rally held at the Teamsters Local 175 headquarters in South Charleston on Saturday...
Trade
Japan Market Access Still Hurdle at Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks Wall Street Journal ...Japan will come under renewed pressure to further open up its automotive and agriculture industries to global trade during Trans-Pacific Partnership talks here over coming days, amid heightened calls for Tokyo to ensure increased market access remains a key plank of its structural reform agenda under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe...
Momentum building on TPP deal despite U.S.-Japan impasse Japan Times ...Froman said there was now an opportunity to narrow differences ahead of leaders meetings in Asia in coming weeks. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Beijing and G20 summit in Brisbane will both take place next month...
State Battles
Another 150,000 Detroit Residents Are About To Become Homeless Under GOP Governor’s Emergency Manager Addicting Info ...there has been a ‘billionaire’s buying spree‘, as the rich swoop in like the vultures they are, to buy up the property of the very people they made poor, through their own criminal activity...
Walker Claims Next Budget Will Start With Surplus, Though Evidence Indicates Otherwise Wisconsin Public Radio ... the bureau found that the state would begin the next budget with a gross balance of zero dollars — a far cry from the half-billion the governor is claiming...
Scott Walker’s Corruption Problem The Progressive ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is locked in a dead-heat for reelection on November 4, has been dogged throughout his tenure by secret criminal investigations that so far have led to 15 felony indictments of six of his closest aides and associates. This week, new documents released on a judge’s orders show that Walker, while he was Milwaukee County executive, helped his longtime campaign treasurer get inside information for a bid to lease office space to the county...
North Carolina Fights To Take Voting Site Away From Pesky College Kids Moyers & Co. ...Early voting starts today, Thursday in North Carolina, even as the state has pushed to move early voting sites farther away from college campuses...
Christie wants GOP control of voting rules, election officials msnbc ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) stunned voting-rights advocates this week, arguing that Republican governors should control “voting mechanisms” in order to help the party win the 2016 presidential election...
Rick Explains It All You Got Schooled ...During his first year as governor, Rick Snyder made drastic cuts to education. He’s been trying to explain his way out of this for years, but this handy-dandy graph shows that his math doesn’t quite add up...
War on Workers
FairPoint and striking unions brace for a long stalemate Portland Press Herald ...While workers get ready to go without paychecks, the company pays for police details at picketing sites...
Ebola outbreak: US nurse criticises quarantine treatment BBC News ...A nurse quarantined on her return to the US from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has criticised the way she was dealt with at Newark airport. Kaci Hickox said the experience was frightening and could deter other health workers from travelling to West Africa to help tackle the Ebola virus...
High school cafeteria worker tried to stop gunman USA Today ... A high school cafeteria worker tried to stop a gunman who killed one girl and shot four other students before taking his own life inside the cafeteria at a school north of Seattle, officials said Saturday...
'Koch Congress' Could Make Oligarchy Official The Progressive ...At a time when most Americans agree that the country has too much power in too few hands, the world’s two wealthiest men are only six seats away from seizing the Senate and consolidating their current control of the House...
Dark Money Will Decide Which Party Controls the Senate Center for Public Integrity ...In the most competitive U.S. Senate races this year, big-money special interests that proliferated after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision are routinely out-muscling and out-messaging the candidates themselves...
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.23.14
Teamster News
More Labor Problems at Buffett's NetJets IBT ...As contract talks drag on at Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers are picketing at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC). NUC is a coalition between the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), the pilots' union, and the Teamsters, which represents all of the other unionized NetJets employees...
Trade
TTIP: don’t mention the job losses The Broker ...The headline finding from the official assessment of TTIP is that there will be a loss of at least one million jobs in the EU and US as a direct result of the agreement’s coming into force...
State Battles
Moral Mondays battles low pay, injustice, racism and more Indianapolis Star ...About 200 people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday to fight for better pay, affordable health care, equal justice and other causes...
Google: We’re parting with the climate change skeptics at ALEC Washington Post ...Google is going to stop funding a key conservative group because of its stance on climate change, executive chairman Eric Schmidt revealed Monday...
Declining median incomes becomes anti-Rick Scott talking point for Fla. Dems St. Peters Blog ...Average household incomes in South Florida are declining. A study released Thursday by the U.S. Census bureau shows median income in 2013 at $46,946 down from $48,275 in 2010...
Christie's Pension Overseer Invested New Jersey Money In Fund He Is Linked To Privately International Business Times ...Grady was pushing to invest New Jersey public money into the same Blackstone fund in which his own firm was investing -- without disclosing that fact to N.J. officials...
In Brownbackistan, Everything Is Awesome! And Don’t Let Any Liberal Tell You Different Salon.com ...You’ve got runaway incompetence in the state administration; heavy-handed partisanship, with conservative Republicans crushing moderate Republicans after the familiar pattern; corporate money—Koch Industries is based in Wichita—sloshing around like a vast underground aquifer. You’ve got privatization, deregulation, and an enthusiastic race to the bottom...
Nikki Haley Busted Inflating Job Numbers...Again FitsNews ...For a third time, a mainstream media outlet in the Palmetto State has caught S.C. Gov.Nikki Haley inflating her administration’s job numbers...
State Has No Budget For Voter ID, Agencies Say Wisconsin State Journal ...Three state agencies charged with implementing voter ID for the Nov. 4 election say they have no additional money set aside to help voters and state workers comply with the newly reinstated requirement...
War On Workers
Obama Administration Issues New Rules to Combat Tax Inversions Wall Street Journal ...The Treasury Department tightened tax rules Monday to deter U.S. companies from moving their legal headquarters to lower-tax countries, part of a White House effort to slow a wave of so-called corporate inversions that effectively reduce federal revenues...
Dangers Aside, Railways Reshape Crude Market Wall Street Journal ...But it has frightened communities across the country where first responders fear the fireballs that have erupted in the past year after some oil-train derailments. Federal regulators recently proposed new rules to require sturdier cars to carry oil, lower speed limits on some shipments and testing of the volatility of the crude transported by train...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online As 'Nudge' To Employers Bloomberg Businessweek ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work. The agency estimates that tens of thousands of injuries go unreported...
D.C. Cab Companies Blame Steep Declines In Revenue On Ridesharing WAMU ...The rise of the “ridesharing” service UberX is bleeding traditional taxicabs in Washington. Although precise District-wide data is not available, taxicab company managers and individual drivers said their business is down at least 20 percent — and in some cases much more — because they cannot compete with the unregulated, low-price competition of UberX...
Oregon Residents Challenge the State "Right-to-Farm" Law The Progressive ...Such so-called "right-to-farm" laws insulate agricultural operations -- including large industrial livestock confinement operations and, in Oregon, private timber companies -- against lawsuits as long as they're following what is (or, in some cases, may become) a "generally accepted" farming or forest practice. These can include heavy aerial pesticide applications...
U.S. Home Sales Falter as Investors Pull Back Wall Street Journal ...The decline reflected fewer purchases by investors, who helped fuel the housing-market rebound. The share of overall sales that went to investors fell to 12% last month, the lowest level since late 2009. Investors accounted for as much as 23% of sales in early 2012 as they bought up properties, many in foreclosure, at bargain prices...
Lincoln County worker killed in dump truck wreck, fire The Clarion-Ledger ...A Lincoln County road crew member was killed in what appears to be a wreck in which his dump truck left the road, hit a tree and caught on fire, according to Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing...
Construction worker killed falling from building in Waterloo CTV News ...An 18-year-old man is dead after falling from a building at the Barrel Yards development in Waterloo...
More Labor Problems at Buffett's NetJets IBT ...As contract talks drag on at Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers are picketing at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC). NUC is a coalition between the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), the pilots' union, and the Teamsters, which represents all of the other unionized NetJets employees...
Trade
TTIP: don’t mention the job losses The Broker ...The headline finding from the official assessment of TTIP is that there will be a loss of at least one million jobs in the EU and US as a direct result of the agreement’s coming into force...
State Battles
Moral Mondays battles low pay, injustice, racism and more Indianapolis Star ...About 200 people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday to fight for better pay, affordable health care, equal justice and other causes...
Google: We’re parting with the climate change skeptics at ALEC Washington Post ...Google is going to stop funding a key conservative group because of its stance on climate change, executive chairman Eric Schmidt revealed Monday...
Declining median incomes becomes anti-Rick Scott talking point for Fla. Dems St. Peters Blog ...Average household incomes in South Florida are declining. A study released Thursday by the U.S. Census bureau shows median income in 2013 at $46,946 down from $48,275 in 2010...
Christie's Pension Overseer Invested New Jersey Money In Fund He Is Linked To Privately International Business Times ...Grady was pushing to invest New Jersey public money into the same Blackstone fund in which his own firm was investing -- without disclosing that fact to N.J. officials...
In Brownbackistan, Everything Is Awesome! And Don’t Let Any Liberal Tell You Different Salon.com ...You’ve got runaway incompetence in the state administration; heavy-handed partisanship, with conservative Republicans crushing moderate Republicans after the familiar pattern; corporate money—Koch Industries is based in Wichita—sloshing around like a vast underground aquifer. You’ve got privatization, deregulation, and an enthusiastic race to the bottom...
Nikki Haley Busted Inflating Job Numbers...Again FitsNews ...For a third time, a mainstream media outlet in the Palmetto State has caught S.C. Gov.Nikki Haley inflating her administration’s job numbers...
State Has No Budget For Voter ID, Agencies Say Wisconsin State Journal ...Three state agencies charged with implementing voter ID for the Nov. 4 election say they have no additional money set aside to help voters and state workers comply with the newly reinstated requirement...
War On Workers
Obama Administration Issues New Rules to Combat Tax Inversions Wall Street Journal ...The Treasury Department tightened tax rules Monday to deter U.S. companies from moving their legal headquarters to lower-tax countries, part of a White House effort to slow a wave of so-called corporate inversions that effectively reduce federal revenues...
Dangers Aside, Railways Reshape Crude Market Wall Street Journal ...But it has frightened communities across the country where first responders fear the fireballs that have erupted in the past year after some oil-train derailments. Federal regulators recently proposed new rules to require sturdier cars to carry oil, lower speed limits on some shipments and testing of the volatility of the crude transported by train...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online As 'Nudge' To Employers Bloomberg Businessweek ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work. The agency estimates that tens of thousands of injuries go unreported...
D.C. Cab Companies Blame Steep Declines In Revenue On Ridesharing WAMU ...The rise of the “ridesharing” service UberX is bleeding traditional taxicabs in Washington. Although precise District-wide data is not available, taxicab company managers and individual drivers said their business is down at least 20 percent — and in some cases much more — because they cannot compete with the unregulated, low-price competition of UberX...
Oregon Residents Challenge the State "Right-to-Farm" Law The Progressive ...Such so-called "right-to-farm" laws insulate agricultural operations -- including large industrial livestock confinement operations and, in Oregon, private timber companies -- against lawsuits as long as they're following what is (or, in some cases, may become) a "generally accepted" farming or forest practice. These can include heavy aerial pesticide applications...
U.S. Home Sales Falter as Investors Pull Back Wall Street Journal ...The decline reflected fewer purchases by investors, who helped fuel the housing-market rebound. The share of overall sales that went to investors fell to 12% last month, the lowest level since late 2009. Investors accounted for as much as 23% of sales in early 2012 as they bought up properties, many in foreclosure, at bargain prices...
Lincoln County worker killed in dump truck wreck, fire The Clarion-Ledger ...A Lincoln County road crew member was killed in what appears to be a wreck in which his dump truck left the road, hit a tree and caught on fire, according to Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing...
Construction worker killed falling from building in Waterloo CTV News ...An 18-year-old man is dead after falling from a building at the Barrel Yards development in Waterloo...
Monday, September 22, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.22.14
Trade
More questions and answers on contentious TTIP trade deal Guardian ...Congratulations on Owen Jones’s article highlighting the threat that the proposed EU-US free-trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership presents to our sovereignty – not to mention our standards of workers’ rights, environmental standards and food safety rules...
U.S. Trade Rep. Froman Pushes Secret TPP With Business, Political Elites New American ...U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Michael Froman ... is making the rounds, addressing high-powered commercial, political, and academic circles to build support for the still-secret (and developing) Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive assault on America’s national sovereignty that the Obama administration is attempting to market as a trade pact...
State Battles
Sam Brownback’s failed ‘experiment’ puts state on path to penury (opinion) Washington Post ...as the damaging social and budgetary impacts of his slash-and-burn fiscal measures have become apparent, Mr. Brownback, a conservative Republican seeking reelection this fall in a state where every statewide elected official is also a Republican, is in the disorienting position of trailing his Democratic challenger in the polls...
The real crimes of Chris Christie (opinion) Philly.com ...Over the last five years, the New Jersey governor has been running a political Ponzi scheme -- probably legal but definitely immoral -- in steering money, huge tax breaks, and other perks to his friends and to the 1 Percent, while the poor and middle class have suffered...
Audit discovers massive mismanagement problems and millions of lost dollars at Scott Walker's job-creation agency Wisconsin Gazette ...WEDC's official database includes documentation for only 4,796 "actual" jobs created by the agency over a two-year period. To create those jobs about $203 million in taxpayer money went out the door in grants, loans and bonding authority...
War on Workers
For-Profit Colleges as Factories of Debt naked capitalism ...A whopping 96% of students who manage to graduate from for-profits leave owing money, and they typically carry twice the debt load of students from more traditional schools...
Professors on food stamps: The shocking true story of academia in 2014 Salon ...Over three quarters of college professors are adjunct. Legally, adjunct positions are part-time, at-will employment. Universities pay adjunct professors by the course, anywhere between $1,000 to $5,000...
Labor Groups Seek Probe of Wal-Mart's PAC Wall Street Journal ...Labor and advocacy groups are seeking an investigation into whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc. … violated federal election laws by soliciting employees for donations to its political-action committee in exchange for charitable contributions to a fund that helps Wal-Mart employees in need...
Walmart's Plan To Encourage Political Donations Violates Election Law, Groups Claim Huffington Post ...The company entices managers, executives, professional workers and shareholders to give to its political action committee by promising to donate twice as much money to a company-run charity for Walmart employees as its workers give to the PAC...
Man, 51, is killed while working at Supervalu warehouse in Hopkins Minneapolis Star-Tribune ...A 51-year-old man was killed Sunday at the Supervalu warehouse in Hopkins in what authorities are calling an industrial accident...
Upstate NY farm worker dies after being trapped in hay baler Associated Press ...The Genesee County Sheriff's Office says a 23-year-old farm worker has died after becoming trapped in a hay baling machine...
Miscellaneous
Jerry Brown Seeks More Electric Cars in California New York Times ...Gov. Jerry Brown of California has signed several bills … designed to make electric cars more affordable for low-income residents, and the intent is to have at least one million zero-emission and near-zero-emission vehicles on the state’s roads by 2023...
More questions and answers on contentious TTIP trade deal Guardian ...Congratulations on Owen Jones’s article highlighting the threat that the proposed EU-US free-trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership presents to our sovereignty – not to mention our standards of workers’ rights, environmental standards and food safety rules...
U.S. Trade Rep. Froman Pushes Secret TPP With Business, Political Elites New American ...U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Michael Froman ... is making the rounds, addressing high-powered commercial, political, and academic circles to build support for the still-secret (and developing) Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive assault on America’s national sovereignty that the Obama administration is attempting to market as a trade pact...
State Battles
Sam Brownback’s failed ‘experiment’ puts state on path to penury (opinion) Washington Post ...as the damaging social and budgetary impacts of his slash-and-burn fiscal measures have become apparent, Mr. Brownback, a conservative Republican seeking reelection this fall in a state where every statewide elected official is also a Republican, is in the disorienting position of trailing his Democratic challenger in the polls...
The real crimes of Chris Christie (opinion) Philly.com ...Over the last five years, the New Jersey governor has been running a political Ponzi scheme -- probably legal but definitely immoral -- in steering money, huge tax breaks, and other perks to his friends and to the 1 Percent, while the poor and middle class have suffered...
Audit discovers massive mismanagement problems and millions of lost dollars at Scott Walker's job-creation agency Wisconsin Gazette ...WEDC's official database includes documentation for only 4,796 "actual" jobs created by the agency over a two-year period. To create those jobs about $203 million in taxpayer money went out the door in grants, loans and bonding authority...
War on Workers
For-Profit Colleges as Factories of Debt naked capitalism ...A whopping 96% of students who manage to graduate from for-profits leave owing money, and they typically carry twice the debt load of students from more traditional schools...
Professors on food stamps: The shocking true story of academia in 2014 Salon ...Over three quarters of college professors are adjunct. Legally, adjunct positions are part-time, at-will employment. Universities pay adjunct professors by the course, anywhere between $1,000 to $5,000...
Labor Groups Seek Probe of Wal-Mart's PAC Wall Street Journal ...Labor and advocacy groups are seeking an investigation into whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc. … violated federal election laws by soliciting employees for donations to its political-action committee in exchange for charitable contributions to a fund that helps Wal-Mart employees in need...
Walmart's Plan To Encourage Political Donations Violates Election Law, Groups Claim Huffington Post ...The company entices managers, executives, professional workers and shareholders to give to its political action committee by promising to donate twice as much money to a company-run charity for Walmart employees as its workers give to the PAC...
Man, 51, is killed while working at Supervalu warehouse in Hopkins Minneapolis Star-Tribune ...A 51-year-old man was killed Sunday at the Supervalu warehouse in Hopkins in what authorities are calling an industrial accident...
Upstate NY farm worker dies after being trapped in hay baler Associated Press ...The Genesee County Sheriff's Office says a 23-year-old farm worker has died after becoming trapped in a hay baling machine...
Miscellaneous
Jerry Brown Seeks More Electric Cars in California New York Times ...Gov. Jerry Brown of California has signed several bills … designed to make electric cars more affordable for low-income residents, and the intent is to have at least one million zero-emission and near-zero-emission vehicles on the state’s roads by 2023...
Friday, July 25, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.25.14
Teamster News
Union Official: GET Board Rejects Offer, Strike To Continue KBFX ...Union drivers, mechanics and other support staff went on strike July 15, unhappy with pay and the part-time status of more than half of their GET drivers. The union was asking for a 4 percent wage increase every year over a three-year deal...
Latino Express Bus Drivers Still Fighting For Rights In Chicago teamster.org ...For more than three years, Teamsters Local 777 has continued to fight for approximately 100 school bus drivers in Chicago who want nothing more than fair working conditions...
Teamsters Grievance Prompts Cook County Sheriff to Conduct Manpower Study teamster.org ... Teamsters Local 700, Cook County's largest public employee union, has learned the Sheriff's Office has enlisted college-age interns to oversee a critical new study on manpower shortages facing the department...
Trade
Administration Plans Orwellian Statistics Fudge to Make Offshored Production Look Like US Made naked capitalism ...If the factoryless goods proposal were to be implemented, the value of U.S. brand-name products made outside of the United States and imported here would be counted as manufacturing “services” imports, not imported goods...
State Battles
Seattle Minimum Wage Referendum Effort Fails Daily Caller ...Forward Seattle, a group which represents local businesses in Seattle, announced Wednesday that they failed to collect enough signatures to subject the city’s $15 minimum wage to a November vote...
Recent Report Points To Job Growth Despite Minimum Wage Increase Oakland Press ...New data released by the Department of Labor points toward job growth in states that have raised the minimum wage, something still being debated in Michigan...
Republican lawmakers push 'paycheck protection' in Pa. Pocono Record ...Republican supporters of so-called "paycheck protection" legislation moved bills in both houses last week that would prevent government employee unions, such as the Service Employees International Union and the Pennsylvania State Education Association from deducting union dues and political contributions from members' checks...
Davis And State Dems Planning To Monitor For Voter Suppression, Discrimination Texas Public Radio ...Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and the Texas Democratic Party are launching a voter protection program to monitor voter suppression and discrimination on Election Day...
Christie: Public workers' benefits must be cut Asbury Park Press ...It was the first time Gov. Chris Christie had come to any event in Republican-red Ocean County where the protesters outnumbered his supporters. And these were not just ordinary protesters — they were police officers and firefighters in the hundreds from all over New Jersey, outraged that Christie on Tuesday had come to use a municipal park their fraternal brothers and sisters had built for local children...
War On Workers
The Pay-For-Performance Myth Bloomberg Businessweek ...The trend line—the average of how much a CEO’s ranking is affected by stock performance—shows that a CEO’s income ranking is only 1 percent based on the company’s stock return. That means that 99 percent of the ranking has nothing to do with performance at all. (The size and profitability of companies didn’t affect the random patterns.)...
Obama Seeks to Close Loophole That Firms Use to Shield Profits Abroad New York Times ...President Obama on Thursday called for Congress to strip away tax advantages that have encouraged a rush of mergers and acquisitions that give companies an overseas base while they maintain their presence in the United States...
IMF Cuts US and Global Growth Forecasts for 2014 Associated Press ...The International Monetary Fund foresees the global economy expanding less than it had previously forecast, slowed by weaker growth in the United States, Russia and developing economies...
Koch High: How The Koch Brothers Are Buying Their Way Into The Minds Of Public School Students Huffington Post ...The official mission of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers. In the last school year, the class reached more than 1,000 students across Kansas and Missouri...
Norfolk Southern sues to block disclosure of crude oil shipments McClatchy ...A major hauler of crude oil by rail has sued the state of Maryland to stop the public release of information about the shipments, according to court documents...
Stability Is Good For Employees And Bosses (opinion) New York Times ...Unpredictable, unstable work hours, over which workers may have little control, make it difficult for any employee, at any level of income, to combine or schedule caregiving for family members, education, participation in civic and religious organizations or another job...
Volatile Schedules Exacerbate Inequality (opinion) New York Times ...Across the economy, workers are either employed for too few hours or far too many in an ever-changing workweek that demands 24/7 availability, without guarantees of equal treatment or employee input...
Road Construction Worker Killed In Reno County KAKE ...The Kansas Highway Patrol says a construction worker died after being hit by a trash truck in Reno County...
Miscellaneous
Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon Is Out Huffington Post ...Walmart’s U.S. chief Bill Simon is leaving the company after a rough four years. The 54-year-old will be replaced by Greg Foran, 53, Walmart’s current president and CEO in Asia...
Union Official: GET Board Rejects Offer, Strike To Continue KBFX ...Union drivers, mechanics and other support staff went on strike July 15, unhappy with pay and the part-time status of more than half of their GET drivers. The union was asking for a 4 percent wage increase every year over a three-year deal...
Latino Express Bus Drivers Still Fighting For Rights In Chicago teamster.org ...For more than three years, Teamsters Local 777 has continued to fight for approximately 100 school bus drivers in Chicago who want nothing more than fair working conditions...
Teamsters Grievance Prompts Cook County Sheriff to Conduct Manpower Study teamster.org ... Teamsters Local 700, Cook County's largest public employee union, has learned the Sheriff's Office has enlisted college-age interns to oversee a critical new study on manpower shortages facing the department...
Trade
Administration Plans Orwellian Statistics Fudge to Make Offshored Production Look Like US Made naked capitalism ...If the factoryless goods proposal were to be implemented, the value of U.S. brand-name products made outside of the United States and imported here would be counted as manufacturing “services” imports, not imported goods...
State Battles
Seattle Minimum Wage Referendum Effort Fails Daily Caller ...Forward Seattle, a group which represents local businesses in Seattle, announced Wednesday that they failed to collect enough signatures to subject the city’s $15 minimum wage to a November vote...
Recent Report Points To Job Growth Despite Minimum Wage Increase Oakland Press ...New data released by the Department of Labor points toward job growth in states that have raised the minimum wage, something still being debated in Michigan...
Republican lawmakers push 'paycheck protection' in Pa. Pocono Record ...Republican supporters of so-called "paycheck protection" legislation moved bills in both houses last week that would prevent government employee unions, such as the Service Employees International Union and the Pennsylvania State Education Association from deducting union dues and political contributions from members' checks...
Davis And State Dems Planning To Monitor For Voter Suppression, Discrimination Texas Public Radio ...Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and the Texas Democratic Party are launching a voter protection program to monitor voter suppression and discrimination on Election Day...
Christie: Public workers' benefits must be cut Asbury Park Press ...It was the first time Gov. Chris Christie had come to any event in Republican-red Ocean County where the protesters outnumbered his supporters. And these were not just ordinary protesters — they were police officers and firefighters in the hundreds from all over New Jersey, outraged that Christie on Tuesday had come to use a municipal park their fraternal brothers and sisters had built for local children...
War On Workers
The Pay-For-Performance Myth Bloomberg Businessweek ...The trend line—the average of how much a CEO’s ranking is affected by stock performance—shows that a CEO’s income ranking is only 1 percent based on the company’s stock return. That means that 99 percent of the ranking has nothing to do with performance at all. (The size and profitability of companies didn’t affect the random patterns.)...
Obama Seeks to Close Loophole That Firms Use to Shield Profits Abroad New York Times ...President Obama on Thursday called for Congress to strip away tax advantages that have encouraged a rush of mergers and acquisitions that give companies an overseas base while they maintain their presence in the United States...
IMF Cuts US and Global Growth Forecasts for 2014 Associated Press ...The International Monetary Fund foresees the global economy expanding less than it had previously forecast, slowed by weaker growth in the United States, Russia and developing economies...
Koch High: How The Koch Brothers Are Buying Their Way Into The Minds Of Public School Students Huffington Post ...The official mission of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers. In the last school year, the class reached more than 1,000 students across Kansas and Missouri...
Norfolk Southern sues to block disclosure of crude oil shipments McClatchy ...A major hauler of crude oil by rail has sued the state of Maryland to stop the public release of information about the shipments, according to court documents...
Stability Is Good For Employees And Bosses (opinion) New York Times ...Unpredictable, unstable work hours, over which workers may have little control, make it difficult for any employee, at any level of income, to combine or schedule caregiving for family members, education, participation in civic and religious organizations or another job...
Volatile Schedules Exacerbate Inequality (opinion) New York Times ...Across the economy, workers are either employed for too few hours or far too many in an ever-changing workweek that demands 24/7 availability, without guarantees of equal treatment or employee input...
Road Construction Worker Killed In Reno County KAKE ...The Kansas Highway Patrol says a construction worker died after being hit by a trash truck in Reno County...
Miscellaneous
Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon Is Out Huffington Post ...Walmart’s U.S. chief Bill Simon is leaving the company after a rough four years. The 54-year-old will be replaced by Greg Foran, 53, Walmart’s current president and CEO in Asia...
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Today's Teamster News 06.25.14
Teamster News
D.C. Taxi Drivers To Stage Caravan For Fairness On Wednesday, June 25 teamster.org ... Hundreds of D.C. cab drivers affiliated with the Teamsters Union will take part in a “Fairness NOW!” caravan throughout the city on Wednesday, June 25 to demand an immediate stop to illegal private sedan services until a fair resolution is reached...
Delegates to BMWED/Teamsters Take Historic Action At Convention teamster.org ...Delegates of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division convention have elected the first female member of the union's Executive Board, Stacey Moody Gilbert...
Trade
#SOSJobs: The Story of The Rally On The Iron Range manufacture this ...Less than a month remains until the US Department of Commerce makes its final decision on a trade case that will affect thousands of steelworkers across the United States...
State Battles
Mayoral veto overturned Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette ...City Council members voted along party lines Tuesday to override Mayor Tom Henry’s veto of the new prohibition on collective bargaining for city employees who are not police or firefighters...
Mayors Want Federal Minimum Wage Hike Dallas News ...Mike Rawlings oversaw many minimum-wage workers as top executive at Pizza Hut. Now, as the mayor of Dallas, he’s trying to determine what a living wage is for city residents and city contract workers...
Changes To Wage Theft Prevention Law Approved By New York State Legislature Daily Labor Report ...The new measure would go even further by increasing penalties for violations to $50 to $200 per day from $50 to $200 per week and raising maximum penalties to $5,000 from $2,000. The bill also would establish penalties of $1,000 to $20,000 for repeat violators. Maximum liquidated damages would be increased under the bill to $20,000 from $10,000...
2nd Bridge Inquiry Said To Be Linked To Christie New York Times ...The inquiries into securities law violations focus on a period of 2010 and 2011 when Gov. Chris Christie’s administration pressed the Port Authority to pay for extensive repairs to the Skyway and related road projects, diverting money that was to be used on a new Hudson River rail tunnel that Mr. Christie canceled in October 2010...
Water is a Human Right: Detroit Residents Seek U.N. Intervention as City Shuts Off Taps to Thousands Democracy Now ... Since March, up to 3,000 account holders have had their water cut off every week. The Detroit water authority carries an estimated $5 billion in debt and has been the subject of privatization talks...
War On Workers
After Gap Raised Its Minimum Wage, Job Applications Surged Think Progress ...As of June, the lowest-paid Gap employees are making $9 an hour, and that will increase to $10 in June of next year. The raise will affect 65,000 employees in the United States. One of the reasons originally cited was to be able to “attract and retain great talent,” and Chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy had said, “Our decision to invest in frontline employees will directly support our business, and is one that we expect to deliver a return many times over.”...
Contract Workers Strike: Government Is The Top Low-Wage Employer Of Women Moyers & Company ...Hundreds of women struggling to make ends meet on the low wages paid by federal contractors went on strike in Washington, DC, today....They’re demanding that President Obama sign an executive order allowing them to bargain collectively for better pay, decent health care and paid sick leave...
Fact-Checking Walmart's Fact-Check Of The New York Times Huffington Post ...Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Apple and Wells Fargo paid more in taxes than Walmart...
Miscellaneous
Federal Judge Rules US Citizens Placed on No-Fly List Had Their Due Process Rights Violated firedoglake ...A federal district court in Oregon has ruled that United States citizens who were placed on the No-Fly List had their rights to “procedural due process” violated. The current process is unconstitutional and the government must “provide a new process” that satisfies the “constitutional requirements for due process.”...
Veterangate: VA whistleblower says records of deceased vets were altered RT ...A Veteran Affairs employee has come forward claiming that government officials doctored the medial records of deceased veterans in order to hide the fact that they died waiting for medical care...
Want To Suppress The Vote? Stress People Out Mother Jones ...individuals who have higher baseline levels of the bodily stress hormone cortisol are, as a group, less likely to vote. In other words, individuals who are more sensitive to stress don't appear to vote as often...
D.C. Taxi Drivers To Stage Caravan For Fairness On Wednesday, June 25 teamster.org ... Hundreds of D.C. cab drivers affiliated with the Teamsters Union will take part in a “Fairness NOW!” caravan throughout the city on Wednesday, June 25 to demand an immediate stop to illegal private sedan services until a fair resolution is reached...
Delegates to BMWED/Teamsters Take Historic Action At Convention teamster.org ...Delegates of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division convention have elected the first female member of the union's Executive Board, Stacey Moody Gilbert...
Trade
#SOSJobs: The Story of The Rally On The Iron Range manufacture this ...Less than a month remains until the US Department of Commerce makes its final decision on a trade case that will affect thousands of steelworkers across the United States...
State Battles
Mayoral veto overturned Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette ...City Council members voted along party lines Tuesday to override Mayor Tom Henry’s veto of the new prohibition on collective bargaining for city employees who are not police or firefighters...
Mayors Want Federal Minimum Wage Hike Dallas News ...Mike Rawlings oversaw many minimum-wage workers as top executive at Pizza Hut. Now, as the mayor of Dallas, he’s trying to determine what a living wage is for city residents and city contract workers...
Changes To Wage Theft Prevention Law Approved By New York State Legislature Daily Labor Report ...The new measure would go even further by increasing penalties for violations to $50 to $200 per day from $50 to $200 per week and raising maximum penalties to $5,000 from $2,000. The bill also would establish penalties of $1,000 to $20,000 for repeat violators. Maximum liquidated damages would be increased under the bill to $20,000 from $10,000...
2nd Bridge Inquiry Said To Be Linked To Christie New York Times ...The inquiries into securities law violations focus on a period of 2010 and 2011 when Gov. Chris Christie’s administration pressed the Port Authority to pay for extensive repairs to the Skyway and related road projects, diverting money that was to be used on a new Hudson River rail tunnel that Mr. Christie canceled in October 2010...
Water is a Human Right: Detroit Residents Seek U.N. Intervention as City Shuts Off Taps to Thousands Democracy Now ... Since March, up to 3,000 account holders have had their water cut off every week. The Detroit water authority carries an estimated $5 billion in debt and has been the subject of privatization talks...
War On Workers
After Gap Raised Its Minimum Wage, Job Applications Surged Think Progress ...As of June, the lowest-paid Gap employees are making $9 an hour, and that will increase to $10 in June of next year. The raise will affect 65,000 employees in the United States. One of the reasons originally cited was to be able to “attract and retain great talent,” and Chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy had said, “Our decision to invest in frontline employees will directly support our business, and is one that we expect to deliver a return many times over.”...
Contract Workers Strike: Government Is The Top Low-Wage Employer Of Women Moyers & Company ...Hundreds of women struggling to make ends meet on the low wages paid by federal contractors went on strike in Washington, DC, today....They’re demanding that President Obama sign an executive order allowing them to bargain collectively for better pay, decent health care and paid sick leave...
Fact-Checking Walmart's Fact-Check Of The New York Times Huffington Post ...Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Apple and Wells Fargo paid more in taxes than Walmart...
Miscellaneous
Federal Judge Rules US Citizens Placed on No-Fly List Had Their Due Process Rights Violated firedoglake ...A federal district court in Oregon has ruled that United States citizens who were placed on the No-Fly List had their rights to “procedural due process” violated. The current process is unconstitutional and the government must “provide a new process” that satisfies the “constitutional requirements for due process.”...
Veterangate: VA whistleblower says records of deceased vets were altered RT ...A Veteran Affairs employee has come forward claiming that government officials doctored the medial records of deceased veterans in order to hide the fact that they died waiting for medical care...
Want To Suppress The Vote? Stress People Out Mother Jones ...individuals who have higher baseline levels of the bodily stress hormone cortisol are, as a group, less likely to vote. In other words, individuals who are more sensitive to stress don't appear to vote as often...
Friday, June 20, 2014
Today's Teamster News 06.20.14
Teamster News
Federal board accuses port trucking firm of labor law violations Los Angeles Times ...The federal government has accused a trucking company in Carson of more than 50 labor law violations, including firing drivers for union activity, retaliating against pro-labor employees and planting an anti-union operative amid its workforce...
Teamsters, Carpenters Protest Over Lost Work But Convention Center Is Not Budging NewsWorks ...About 100 union carpenters and Teamsters rallied outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center Wednesday in the first official protest since a labor dispute last month with center management...
Vermont Maintenance Workers Settle On New Contract San Francisco Chronicle ...Transportation maintenance workers in Vermont's Chittenden County have signed a new three-year-contract that takes effect July 1. Union officials for Teamsters Local 597 say the new contract — signed Thursday — includes wage increases averaging two percent a year and access to promotions through professional certification programs...
Toronto Shooting: The Teamsters Want to Meet with Minister Blainey Teamsters Canada ...A member of Teamsters Local Union 419 is in critical condition following a shooting that occurred last night in Toronto. The victim who works for Garda World Cash Services was in an ambush situation with 3 individuals…."This is not the first time a shooting occurs in the Toronto area or elsewhere in the country for that matter in the past few months," points out Jim Chalmers, director of the Teamsters Canada Armoured Car Division...
Trade
Capitol Hill looks hard at dog treats and processed Chicken from China manufacture this ...1,000 dogs have died, 10 percent of America’s pig population is gone, 5,600 more pets are sick, and three people are ill. And poor safety measures in China may be the cause...
Retirees Gather, Organize For Social Justice People's World ...Retired activists discussed how to stop efforts to cut Medicare and Social Security, raise the minimum wage, and fight back against destructive trade deals like the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership...
State Battles
John Doe prosecutors allege Scott Walker at center of 'criminal scheme' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Prosecutors allege Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of an effort to illegally coordinate fundraising ... to help his campaign and those of Republican state senators facing recall elections during 2011 and 2012, according to documents unsealed Thursday...
Exclusive: Prosecutor Is Closing in on Gov. Christie Esquire ...(U.S. Attorney Paul) Fishman’s challenge is to nail down specific criminal charges on several fronts -- the diversion of Port Authority money to fund New Jersey road and bridge projects; the four-day rush-hour closures of George Washington Bridge lanes in Ft. Lee; and a web of real-estate deals spun by David Samson, long a Christie crony, when he chaired the PA’s Board of Commissioners as Christie’s appointee...
Meet The Hotel Workers Going On Hunger Strike For A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...In Providence, Rhode Island, three hotel workers and a city councilwoman started a week-long hunger strike on Monday, protesting a state bill that would block their efforts to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour...
War On Workers
Being Out of Work Longer Makes Finding Work Much Harder Wall Street Journal ...Recent research suggests this discouraging silence may have more to do with the time spent out of the work force than with the job seeker’s skills, education or age...
IRS Chief Promises Stricter Rules For 'Dark Money' Non-Profit Groups Philadelphia Inquirer ...The Internal Revenue Service will propose new and specific rules defining how much money “social welfare” nonprofits may spend on political campaigns...
GE Capital Pays Up For Denying Spanish Speakers Access To Credit Card Repayment Program Huffington Post ...Synchrony Bank, formerly known as GE Capital, has reached an agreement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department over allegations that it denied access to credit card debt-repayment programs to qualified customers just because they preferred to communicate in Spanish or had a mailing address in Puerto Rico...
Miscellaneous
What Green Revolution? Coal Use Highest In 44 Years Oil Price ...In 2013, enough coal was burned to meet 30.1 percent of the world’s energy demands -- its highest share since 1970, according to new data from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy...
Federal board accuses port trucking firm of labor law violations Los Angeles Times ...The federal government has accused a trucking company in Carson of more than 50 labor law violations, including firing drivers for union activity, retaliating against pro-labor employees and planting an anti-union operative amid its workforce...
Teamsters, Carpenters Protest Over Lost Work But Convention Center Is Not Budging NewsWorks ...About 100 union carpenters and Teamsters rallied outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center Wednesday in the first official protest since a labor dispute last month with center management...
Vermont Maintenance Workers Settle On New Contract San Francisco Chronicle ...Transportation maintenance workers in Vermont's Chittenden County have signed a new three-year-contract that takes effect July 1. Union officials for Teamsters Local 597 say the new contract — signed Thursday — includes wage increases averaging two percent a year and access to promotions through professional certification programs...
Toronto Shooting: The Teamsters Want to Meet with Minister Blainey Teamsters Canada ...A member of Teamsters Local Union 419 is in critical condition following a shooting that occurred last night in Toronto. The victim who works for Garda World Cash Services was in an ambush situation with 3 individuals…."This is not the first time a shooting occurs in the Toronto area or elsewhere in the country for that matter in the past few months," points out Jim Chalmers, director of the Teamsters Canada Armoured Car Division...
Trade
Capitol Hill looks hard at dog treats and processed Chicken from China manufacture this ...1,000 dogs have died, 10 percent of America’s pig population is gone, 5,600 more pets are sick, and three people are ill. And poor safety measures in China may be the cause...
Retirees Gather, Organize For Social Justice People's World ...Retired activists discussed how to stop efforts to cut Medicare and Social Security, raise the minimum wage, and fight back against destructive trade deals like the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership...
State Battles
John Doe prosecutors allege Scott Walker at center of 'criminal scheme' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Prosecutors allege Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of an effort to illegally coordinate fundraising ... to help his campaign and those of Republican state senators facing recall elections during 2011 and 2012, according to documents unsealed Thursday...
Exclusive: Prosecutor Is Closing in on Gov. Christie Esquire ...(U.S. Attorney Paul) Fishman’s challenge is to nail down specific criminal charges on several fronts -- the diversion of Port Authority money to fund New Jersey road and bridge projects; the four-day rush-hour closures of George Washington Bridge lanes in Ft. Lee; and a web of real-estate deals spun by David Samson, long a Christie crony, when he chaired the PA’s Board of Commissioners as Christie’s appointee...
Meet The Hotel Workers Going On Hunger Strike For A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...In Providence, Rhode Island, three hotel workers and a city councilwoman started a week-long hunger strike on Monday, protesting a state bill that would block their efforts to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour...
War On Workers
Being Out of Work Longer Makes Finding Work Much Harder Wall Street Journal ...Recent research suggests this discouraging silence may have more to do with the time spent out of the work force than with the job seeker’s skills, education or age...
IRS Chief Promises Stricter Rules For 'Dark Money' Non-Profit Groups Philadelphia Inquirer ...The Internal Revenue Service will propose new and specific rules defining how much money “social welfare” nonprofits may spend on political campaigns...
GE Capital Pays Up For Denying Spanish Speakers Access To Credit Card Repayment Program Huffington Post ...Synchrony Bank, formerly known as GE Capital, has reached an agreement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department over allegations that it denied access to credit card debt-repayment programs to qualified customers just because they preferred to communicate in Spanish or had a mailing address in Puerto Rico...
Miscellaneous
What Green Revolution? Coal Use Highest In 44 Years Oil Price ...In 2013, enough coal was burned to meet 30.1 percent of the world’s energy demands -- its highest share since 1970, according to new data from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy...
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