Today's Teamster News 04.17.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Fast Track Is The Wrong Track  Teamster.org   ...Official statement of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the introduction today in Congress of legislation that would allow Congress to give a quick up-or-down vote to trade agreements: "Leaders in the House and Senate, buoyed by their friends in big business, are moving forward with pushing fast-track trade promotion legislation that would allow secret trade pacts to sail through Congress"...
Congress Is Facing Its Last Call to Stand Up for Fair Trade (Hoffa column) Huffington Post   ...The moment has arrived. Worries about Congress allowing secret trade deals to be enacted with little oversight are no longer theoretical. Legislation that would allow agreements like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to slide unscathed through Capitol Hill has been introduced and will soon be considered by the Senate Finance Committee. And the consequences are dangerous for all Americans...
Uber Drivers, Teamsters Protest On National Day Of Action For Higher Wages  KUOW.org  ...One of the half-dozen protests in the Seattle area focused on the way drivers for Uber and other taxi-like services are paid. The company sets the fares that drivers can charge. Drivers use their own cars and pay their own expenses. Organizers with the Teamsters Local 117 said the drivers often wind up making less than minimum wage. The Teamsters helped drivers form the App-Based Drivers Association last year...
Guam Foremost Workers Back To Work  Marianas Variety   ...For about two dozen Foremost Foods Inc./Coca Cola Guam employees, it’s back to business and negotiations for fair salaries and benefits are back on the table. On Tuesday, Foremost Foods Inc. management said the 25 strikers who demonstrated along Route 16 on April 2 returned to work. The employees who went on strike were part of the Teamsters 986 union...
Seven Union Leaders Urge Congress To Support Opening Consultations With Qatar And The UAE To Address Unfair Subsidies  Teamster.org   ....The presidents of the Air Line Pilots Association International, the Allied Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Communications Workers of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO sent a letter to Congress urging members to call on the U.S. government to open consultations with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates...

Global Labor & Trade
Fast Track to Hell: Trade Bill Officially Introduced in Congress  Common Dreams   ...The fight over Fast Track just got real. U.S. House and Senate leaders announced Thursday afternoon that they have reached a deal on legislation aimed at jamming the Trans Pacific Partnership through Congress...
Trade-off: Deal splits Democrats between business, labor  Washington Post  ...The hardest sell for President Barack Obama will be persuading members of his own party to back a bipartisan agreement on global U.S. trade policy. Longtime divisions in the Democratic ranks broke open Thursday when top congressional lawmakers finally reached a long-sought deal that would pave the way for the broadest trade policy pact in years...
U.S. lawmakers' bill holds key to Pacific trade deal  Reuters  ...Senior U.S. lawmakers reached agreement on Thursday on a bill to give the White House "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade pact with 11 other Pacific nations that is central to President Barack Obama's strategic shift toward Asia. The agreement, over six months in the making, sets the stage for a tough legislative battle over the rules for Obama's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Democrats’ civil war over free trade  Politico   ...The most important trade bill in a decade has pitted Harry Reid against President Barack Obama. Liberal Democrat Rosa DeLauro against moderate Democrat Ron Kind. Labor unions against pro-business Democrats. And Elizabeth Warren against virtually everyone who supports a landmark piece of legislation that would allow the president to close what could be the biggest free-trade deal in history...
Fast Track Introduced: Hatch Bill Would Revive Controversial 2002 Mechanism That Faces Broad Congressional, Public Opposition  Public Citizen   ...The Fast Track bill introduced today would revive the old unacceptable Fast Track process. It would delegate away Congress’ constitutional trade authority and give blank-check powers to whomever may be president during the next three to six years for any agreements he or she may pursue. Instead of establishing a new “exit ramp,” the bill includes the same impossible conditions from past Fast Track bills...
Obama’s Free Trade Deal Lets Corporations Impose Their Will  Think Progress  ...Progressives who usually make up President Obama’s base supporters are mounting loud protests against his newest proposal on international trade, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as a key Democrat in the Senate reportedly prepares to strike a deal that would send the TPP hurtling toward passage.
“Fast track” bad for America’s manufacturers  (opinion) The Hill  ...For decades, we’ve heard that so-called “free trade” agreements will lead to higher wages, new jobs and more economic development. Free trade was supposed to be the panacea that will cure our nation’s economic ills. But small business owners like me know better...
French public radio strike winds down after four weeks  Reuters   ...A strike at France's public radio operation ran out of steam on Wednesday, journalists at the company said, ending four weeks of daily reminders to listeners that the unpopular Socialist government had been unable to stop it...
After Decades of Struggle, Salvadoran Communities Declare Territory Free of Mining  Truthout.org  ...The Vancouver-based Pacific Rim mining corporation also filed an ICSID lawsuit against El Salvador in 2009, after the permit for operations at its El Dorado gold mining project didn't come through. Both Pacific Rim and Commerce Group Corp cited provisions in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and Salvadoran investment protection legislation as the legal basis for their cases...

State & Living Wage Battles
‘Right-to-work’ laws hold down wages but don’t create jobs  Richmond Register  ...The effort to promote “right to work” laws with local governments in Kentucky is founded on claims about job and economic growth that are unsupported by the research, according to a new report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. The report looks at the most careful previous studies on RTW that show the law is not associated with an increase in jobs, but with lower wages and benefits for all workers...
Nannies, Aides For Elderly Push For Labor Law Protections  Hartford Courant  ...Nannies, maids, gardeners, personal chefs, chauffeurs and caregivers for the elderly are asking Connecticut to change labor laws to require that they be paid at least the minimum wage. Currently, domestic workers and farm workers are excluded from federal laws that established the right to a minimum wage and to overtime...
Nebraska Becomes the Thirteenth State to Protect Pregnant Workers' Job Security  National Women's Law Center  ...Earlier this week, Governor Ricketts signed the Nebraska Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (LB 267) into law that grants pregnant workers the right to reasonable accommodations, so that no woman will have to choose between the health and safety of her pregnancy and her paycheck...
Stop Corporate Welfare Kings And Tax Escapees From Strip-Mining America (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...In many states, it is a literal race to the bottom for elected officials to offer corporations sweeter tax deals to keep jobs in their locality -- see the 2013 Boeing controversy in the state of Washington, in which the aerospace industry, much of which is made up of Boeing, was awarded $8.7 billion in tax breaks over 16 years to produce the 777X jetliner in-state...
During Fight for 15 Protests, Nearly 50 Chicago Armored Guards Go on Strike  In These Times   ...The Fight for 15 campaign says that yesterday’s protests in over 200 cities around the country were the biggest yet since the movement began almost three years ago. But they have also expanded in ways that no one, including the campaign’s staffers, thought possible—like when nearly 50 drivers and security guards employed by Brink’s, the global security and logistics company known for its armored bulletproof trucks, suddenly decided to walk off the job early Wednesday morning...
Senate Approves Common Wage Repeal  WRTV   ...After almost two hours of debate, the Indiana Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the state's common construction wage...
What It Will Take To Revive The Middle Class  Washington Post   ...This week, the National Employment Law Project reported that fully 42 percent of U.S. workers make less than $15 an hour — a sea of workers that extends beyond such usual suspects as janitors and food servers; even once decently paid employees such as auto assembly-line workers now work for a median hourly wage that has descended to $15.30...
A New Day For The Minimum Wage?  (opinion)  New York Times   ...Real leadership will also require going beyond calling for a robust minimum wage. It also means supporting the protesters’ parallel demand for the right to organize without retaliation, which would lay the groundwork for collective bargaining in service industries...

U.S. Labor
Airline food workers strike at LAX  LA Times ...More than 100 workers who prepare food for airlines flying out of Los Angeles International Airport went on strike Tuesday, saying they are overworked and lack the proper equipment to do their jobs, union organizers said...
The Laws That Could Protect Workers From Chaotic Schedules That No One Knows About  Think Progress  ...New York has a law on the books that requires employers in most industries to pay workers four hours’ worth of pay if they show up to work, even if they’re then sent home due to a lack of demand. Schneiderman is looking into whether these large companies, which include Gap, Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, the owner of T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s, J. Crew, and Sears, are violating the law with on-call shifts...
Unions Still Matter  (opinion) Al-Jazeera   ...The importance of these studies is clear: Unions are the most important institution in the fight against inequality. But for too long, many liberals seemed happy to watch unions disappear. Part of the problem is that they misunderstood unions as primarily economic institutions, interested in parochially negotiating wages and benefits for their members. In reality, unions are far more important as political actors promoting policies that benefit the working class and middle class as a whole...
Why We've Decided to Organize  Gawker  ...Some of us on the Gawker Media editorial staff have decided to try to unionize. There is already a great deal of interest in this idea among editorial employees in New York (and they are all more than capable of speaking for themselves, and I'm sure that they will). The final shape that the union might take, and who exactly will be in it, and what specific goals it will pursue all remain to be seen...
The Dystopian Way Employers Are Ruining Their Workers’ Job Prospects  Salon.com   ...When Emily Brunner and Caitlin Turowski were hired by Jimmy John’s sandwich shop, prominent among their many employee orientation forms were noncompete agreements (NCAs) that they were required to sign. According to court documents, these agreements outlined when, where, how, and by extension, if they could work for "competing food establishments"...

Miscellaneous
U.S. Industrial Production Falters As Oil Sector Weighs  Wall Street Journal   ...U.S. industrial output fell in March and posted the first quarterly decline since the recession ended, signs that a retrenching domestic oil industry and stronger dollar are limiting production. Industrial production, which measures the output of manufacturers, utilities and mines, decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday...
America’s Over-Criminalization Epidemic: How The Prosecution Of Atlanta Teachers Exposes A Broken System  Salon.com   ...Whether it’s drug laws, mandatory minimums, the disenfranchisement of former felons, the widespread scourge of overcrowding, the death penalty or the continuing use of the abhorrent form of torture called solitary confinement, the number of serious problems can be overwhelming. As we saw this week when a group of former Atlanta public school educators were sentenced to seven years for standardized test cheating, it’s necessary to throw over-criminalization into the mix...
Seventy Years On, Let Us Renew FDR’s Struggle For An Economic Bill Of Rights  The Nation   ...Seventy years after this country lost Franklin Roosevelt and the promise of a final term spent advocating for a realization of the “new goals of human happiness and well-being,” those goals have yet to be realized. The historian Havey Kaye has argued that President Obama should recognize Roosevelt’s vision and present it anew...

Today's Teamster News 04.06.15

Teamsters
Anti-Union Allegiant CEO Lives His Worst Dream: Teamster Pilots  Forbes   ...In January, pilots voted 465-8 to authorize a strike. Now, the union is moving on two fronts to use the threat of a strike to improve working conditions. Pilots were prepared to strike on April 2, but on April 1 a U.S. district court judge in Las Vegas issued a temporary restraining order. A hearing is scheduled for Friday, April 10...
Horse Carriage Foes Spend $14k on Subway Ads  City & State   ...Demos Demopoulos, executive officer of the Teamsters Local 553 union that represents about 120 horse carriage drivers, said his group is also lobbying the Council. Demopoulos claimed a majority is opposed to the bill and noted that polling has shown that public opinion is on the side of drivers...
Detroit residents unite to honor Viola Liuzzo  USA Today   ...The committee, supported by the Greening of Detroit, has received financial commitments totaling $300,000 from the UAW-Ford and the Teamsters, among others, and two fundraisers are planned for upcoming days. (Anthony Liuzzo Sr., who died in 1978, was a Teamsters official.)...
NYCHA worker may have been killed by faulty trash machine  NY Daily News   ...An investigation by Teamsters Local 237, which represents 8,000 NYCHA workers, has since found evidence that contradicts the NYPD theory and suggests maintenance failures may have contributed to Jackson’s death...

Global Labor & Trade
White House Says Enviros Love This Trade Pact, But Enviros Say Otherwise  Huffington Post  ...The Obama administration has angered a host of environmentalist organizations with an Internet campaign that suggests green groups broadly support the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, which environmentalists have in fact been fighting for years...
The True Myths on the Trans-Pacific Partnership  CEPR   ...The proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are doing everything they can to try to push their case as they prepare for the fast-track vote before Congress this month. They begin by giving us three myths, all of which happen to be accurate depictions of reality...
Strikes proliferate in China as working class awakens  Today Online   ...More than three decades after Beijing began allowing market reforms, China’s 168 million migrant workers are discovering their labour rights through the spread of social media. They are on the forefront of a labour protest movement that is posing a growing and awkward problem for the ruling Communist Party...

State & Living Wage Battles
Right-to-work backers vow continued push  Albuquerque Journal   ...A high-profile push to approve a New Mexico right-to-work law stalled during the recent 60-day legislative session, but the issue appears likely to be back next year — both in the Roundhouse and on the 2016 campaign trail...
State Looking For National Role In Union-Backed Bill   Hartford Courant   ...Connecticut gained widespread attention in recent years as a national leader in Democratic circles by increasing the minimum wage and passing a first-in-the-nation statewide mandate for paid sick days for some service employees...
Nevada Senate approves minimum wage increase bill  Las Vegas Review Journal   ...A Republican-backed bill to overhaul Nevada’s overtime law and increase the minimum wage for some workers was approved Friday by the state Senate on a party-line vote, with Democrats calling the measure a “slap in the face” to the working poor...
U.S. Supreme Court Declines To Review North Carolina Voting Law  Huffington Post   ...The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the legality of new Republican-backed voting restrictions in North Carolina that were part of a law opponents argued was aimed at making it harder for voters who tend to favor Democrats to cast ballots...
Kansas Will Limit Welfare Recipients To $25 A Day   Think Progress  ...During debate over the bill state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D) pointed out that many recipients need to withdraw hundreds of dollars some days in order to be able to pay rent...
Fast Food Workers: Thanks for the Raise, McDonald’s, But We Said $15 an Hour, Not $10  In These Times   ...The company, fighting to improve its battered image, may not have intended the move to be a joke. But in the end, many workers saw the welcome boost in pay and benefits as largely a fraud perpetrated on the public as well as on fast food workers...
This City Could Become The Next Detroit   Think Progress  ...Starting this week, 25,000 households in Baltimore will suddenly lose their access to water for owing bills of $250 or more, with very little notice given and no public hearings...

U.S. Labor
Be Nervous (But Not Panicked) About The March Jobs Report   FiveThirtyEight   ...Employers added 126,000 jobs last month, breaking a 12-month streak of growth over 200,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The report was far weaker than most economists expected and represented the slowest pace of growth since the end of 2013. The government also revised down its estimate of January and February hiring by a combined 69,000 jobs...
Michigan Factory Owner Gives Out $6 Million In Thank-You Bonuses  Huffington Post  ...When J.C. Huizenga sold his namesake machinery manufacturing company, he wanted to share the spoils. The Huizenga Group chairman gave out nearly $6 million in bonuses to more than 575 workers in his two Michigan factories. It was his way of thanking the employees for helping grow the company, which now earns about $170 million in annual sales, according to CBS News...
Trade workers set to benefit from Gov. Jerry Brown's project list  Los Angeles Times   ...At his recent groundbreaking for the state's high-speed train, Gov. Jerry Brown paused while extolling the project to laud the union workers who will build it. "You've got to put something in the ground," Brown said, riffing on what drives economic growth. "You've got to get these building trades men and women doing stuff. That's what makes America — what makes the world — go 'round."...
Workers — not employers — are the real wage movers and shakers  (opinion) Washington Post   ...“We’re too big and complicated a system to do anything in reaction to a particular group or something happening,” Karen King, who has the wonderful title of “chief people officer” at McDonald’s, said Wednesday, explaining her company’s decision to raise wages for some of its employees. If you believe that, don’t go near anyone purporting to sell you a bridge, even if it comes with fries on the side...

Today's Teamster News 06.15.13

America's private prison system is a national disgrace  The Guardian   ... in a recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF)...the ACLU contends, the facility, which is operated by private contractors, is rife with horrific abuses...
New Report: How the U.S.-EU Trade Deal would Grant Sweeping Corporate Privileges  Public Citizen   ...Report after report has indicated that the massive U.S.-EU deal is on shaky ground now that the NSA spying scandal has fueled European privacy concerns and botched the hopes of U.S. telecommunications firms to use the deal to downsize data privacy protections...
Senator Warren Presses White House to Release Pacific Trade Text  Bloomberg Business Week   ...President Barack Obama’s administration should release documents the U.S. and 10 other Pacific-region nations are using as they negotiate a new trade agreement, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said...
Another reason to love Costco: better prices for generic prescription drugs   Deseret News   ...Not only does Costco pay its workers decent wages, Los Angeles Times reporter David Lazarus recently reported that Costco's drug prices consistently came in well below those of other leading pharmacies…
Google lambasted over tax avoidance in the U.K  MarketWatch   ...Google Inc. has aggressively avoided paying corporation tax in Britain and its reputation won’t be restored until it begins to pay what is due, a U.K. parliamentary committee said Thursday, in the latest sign that governments around the world are stepping up scrutiny of the tax affairs of multinational firms...
NSA snooping: Facebook reveals details of data requests  BBC News   ...Facebook received 9,000-10,000 requests for user data from US government entities in the second half of 2012...
BofA Gave Bonuses to Foreclose on Clients, Lawsuit Claims  Bloomberg News   ...Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the second-biggest U.S. lender, rewarded staff with cash bonuses and gift cards for meeting quotas tied to sending distressed homeowners into foreclosure, former employees said in court documents...
IT FINALLY COMES OUT: Elite Traders Are Getting Access To Data Before Everyone Else  Business Insider   ...Time after time ahead of major news, there seems to be someone who knows something before it happens — there seem to be trades that hit too hard and fast before the news is actually made...
Banks Slow to Clean Up the Mortgage Mess  CNBC   ...After multiple enforcement actions, lawsuits and multibillion-dollar settlements, state and federal regulators are making sluggish progress in their efforts to prod banks to help mortgage borrowers...
More unpaid interns file lawsuits against employers for pay   Los Angeles Times   ...There are tens of thousands of interns during the summer time, asked to make coffee and shuffle mail for little to no pay, all for a line to add to their resume. But the unpaid internship is under assault, at least in New York, where employment lawyers are filing lawsuit after lawsuit against media companies over unpaid internships – and winning...
MT task force will address wage gap for men and women state workers  KXLH News   ...On Thursday, Governor Steve Bullock signed an executive order establishing a task force to address the issue of the wage gap between men in women in Montana's work force, and they'll be starting internally first...
Connecticut attorney general taking layoff ruling to Supreme Court  Middletown Press   ...Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen vowed Thursday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that said former Gov. John G. Rowland's administration violated unionized state employees' constitutional rights when he laid off 2,800 of them in 2003...
School district approves raises  News-Leader   ...The Springfield (Missouri) school board approved four 2013-14 collective bargaining contracts during its study session on Tuesday that includes across-the-board pay hikes for employees, including workers represented by Teamsters Local 245...
Stagehands End Protest, Deal Struck with Brookhaven Amphitheater  Port Jefferson Patch   ...Theatrical Teamsters Local 817 and Long Island Stagehands Local 340 IATSE have reached an agreement for their members after protesting outside Brookhaven, New York's Pennysaver Amphitheater...
Peace Wapiti bus drivers to fight mandatory retirement  Peace Country Sun   ...Senior bus drivers with the Peace Wapiti School Division (PWSD) who are represented by Teamsters Local 362 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, are taking a stand against the division’s controversial retirement policy...
L.A. City Council and film industry again clash over green bike lanes  Los Angeles Times   ...The L.A. City Council and the film industry are once again on a collision course over a green-colored bike lane downtown, which has been a bone of contention with location scouts and filmmakers, who complain that bright green color makes it harder to film movies set in a different era along the street and to continue L.A.'s long tradition of playing other cities....

Today's Teamster News 06.01.13

US Lawmakers Press Obama to Include Currency in Pacific Trade Deal  Reuters   ...Nearly 200 U.S. lawmakers have signed a letter urging President Barack Obama to insist on new rules against currency manipulation in a proposed trade agreement with Japan and 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region...
Walmart’s Shocking Threats And Employee Bullying Detailed In 27-Page Report  Opposing Views   ...Walmart continually asks Americans to consider what’s more important: justice for its workers or low prices for its customers?...
Catalonia firefighters were starting fires rather than putting them out this week during a demonstration held in Barcelona  Metro   ...emergency workers clashed with riot police while protesting over austerity cuts in the recession hit Catalonian capital...
Judge: Coal company can drop retirement benefits for 13,000 workers, Underwood says  MSNBC   ...Bankrupt coal mining company Patriot Coal will be able to void its agreement with the United Mine Workers union (UMWA) and stop funding pensions for retired miners, thanks to a ruling from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Missouri...
Pension bill stuns counties, could force tax increases  Tampa Bay Times   ..."Is that money going to FRS to actually shore it up? Or is it a long-term strategy to pressure those of us at the local level to say we can't sustain these increases?"...
New Jersey Passes Misclassification Bill; Gov. Christie Could Veto  Truckinginfo   ...Though the Teamsters-backed employee misclassification bill was passed Thursday by the New Jersey State Senate, opponents say they will continue to work to make sure the measure does not actually become law...
Kasich frustrating safety unions  Toledo Blade   ...Gov. John Kasich and Republican lawmakers are pursuing tax cuts and banking huge surpluses, according to police and professional firefighters, at the expense of public safety...
UW education dean warns school boards that ALEC seeks to wipe them out  The Cap Times   ...The model legislation disseminated by the pro-free market American Legislative Exchange Council’s national network of corporate members and conservative legislators seeks to privatize education and erode the local control...
Appeals court upholds voter ID law  WISN   ...A Wisconsin law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls is constitutional, a state appeals court ruled Thursday...
How Enterprise Zones Are Killing the California Dream  Truth-Out   ...(Teamsters) John Thomas and Hans Burkhardt  ... are now collecting unemployment, having lost their $22-an-hour jobs after their employers moved to take advantage of California’s enterprise zone plan…
Connecticut State House boosts minimum wage  CT Post   ...More than 106,000 of Connecticut's lowest-earning workers will see the current $8.25-per-hour minimum wage rise to $9 by January 2015...
Perry Vetoes "Buy American" Bill Approved 145-0 By Texas House  Opposing Views   ...Texas Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the “Buy American” bill, despite a unanimous bipartisan vote in the Texas House. The bill, which would have given preference to American-made goods...
Port Truck Drivers Take a Stand  WTOC-TV   ...WTOC-TV in Savannah, Ga., reports on port truck driver misclassification and how it impacts drivers and their families. Visit the Stand Up for Savannah! website for more information...
Teamsters Protect Nine-Hour Workday for CVS Pharmacists  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...CVS pharmacists ratified a new three-year contract yielding raises and improved working conditions after Teamsters Local 727 representatives fought to protect the nine-hour workday from the management that wanted 12-14 hour workdays...
The Union Edge Reports On Durham School Bus Campaign  Union Edge   ...Teamsters Local 570 and Durham School Services drivers in the Baltimore area are standing up for safe school buses, respect and an end to wage theft. Hear what they have to say on The Union Edge radio program...
Dairy Workers in Washington Win With Teamsters  IBT   ...A unit of 30 drivers at Estenson Logistics, who voted to be represented by the Teamsters Local 690 in Spokane in late 2011, recently ratified their first contract...

Today's Teamster News 08.23.11

Proof That States Can Save Money Without Attacking Unions: View  Bloomberg   ...The political lesson here is that a tough stand by elected officials can achieve real gains at the bargaining table without having to limit the collective-bargaining rights of unions, as Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has done and a law passed by Ohio legislators would do...
After Bruising Political Fights, 2 Governors Alter Their Tones  New York Times   ...there are signs that the same Republicans see a need to show, at least publicly, a desire to play well with others...
Organizers Sue Michigan for Anti-Union Law  Courthouse News Service   ...Michigan passed an unconstitutional new law that bans the state from awarding public contracts to any group that uses or even encourages unionized labor, union organizers claim in a federal lawsuit...
NH dumping own minimum wage law Sunday  Associated Press   ...Calling the minimum wage law a job-killing regulation, Republicans overrode Democratic Gov. John Lynch's veto in June and stripped New Hampshire's minimum wage law from the books...
New Jersey against re-election of Gov. Christie in 2013  newjerseynewsroom.com   ... a majority of New Jerseyans questioned in a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll made public on Friday say they would not vote to re-elect him as governor in 2013...
Corporations pushing for job-creation tax breaks shield U.S.-vs.-abroad hiring data  Washington Post   ...Some of the country’s best-known multi­national corporations closely guard a number they don’t want anyone to know: the breakdown between their jobs here and abroad...

Today's Teamster News 06.23.11

Teamsters at odds with BMW  The Press-Enterprise   ...Southern California Teamsters, furious that luxury vehicle manufacturer BMW is firing its unionized workers and turning its Ontario distribution center over to an outside contractor, say they'll fight on national and possibly international levels...
Senate Healthcare and Pension Reform Bill is 'Terrible' for Workers, Says Teamsters VP   Point Pleasant Patch   ...Monday's state Senate vote undermines collective bargaining, says Fred Potter...
New Jersey union sues over pension fund payments  Reuters   ...A New Jersey labor union filed a lawsuit on Wednesday over the failure by Governor Chris Christie to make payments to the state's pension funds, claiming workers' constitutional rights were violated... 
Battle over beer legislation  WISN.com   ...A group of Republican lawmakers is urging Gov. Scott Walker to kill a measure they recently passed. The craft brewer provision...
O'Brien says right-to-work veto override vote can wait until fall  Manchester Union-Leader   ...Speaker of the House William O’Brien said he will wait until the fall to attempt an override of Gov. Lynch’s veto of the right-to-work bill...
Unions: 2nd vote possible if state concessions rejected  Connecticut Post   ...If state unions narrowly reject a $1.6 billion concessions package by week's end, labor leaders may find a way to try to salvage the deal and push forward with a second vote...

Today's Teamster News 05.14.11

Could Scott Walker’s overreach cost GOP a Senate seat they might have won?  Wshington  Post   ...One key takeaway from the news that Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl is set to retire is that the national Republican Party could end up coming to regret Governor Scott Walker’s overreach in a major way...
Live-blogging the 'We Are Wisconsin' rally at the Capitol on May 14  Isthmus   ...Join us here starting early Saturday afternoon for the "We Are Wisconsin" rally on the Capitol Square, marking the 90th day since protests started in downtown Madison over Gov. Scott Walker's agenda for the state...
Connecticut Unions Agree to $1.6 Billion in Givebacks  New York Times   ...
Threatened with nearly 5,000 layoffs, representatives for 45,000 unionized state employees agreed Friday to $1.6 billion in concessions over two years to help balance a budget that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says includes pain for everyone: record tax increases, substantial program cuts and worker givebacks in health care, pension benefits and wages...
Ohio: A New Kind of Battleground  The Nation   ...Although more and better jobs are what Ohio most needs, in mid-March Governor John Kasich introduced a budget that is sure to lead to dramatic job losses, with tens of thousands of public employees set to be laid off...
The Myth of Moderate Mitch  The New Republic   ...Elected with the help of donations from the Koch brothers, (Daniels) signed bills that abolished the right of teachers to bargain for anything other than wages and wage-related benefits and initiated the largest private-school voucher program in the country... he’s also privatized a state highway ... he supports Paul Ryan’s plan to cut taxes for the rich while starving Medicare...
Bill Nemitz: Dill's win unmistakably a message to Augusta  Portland Press-Herald   ..."I have not heard a single person raise any substantive issue other than Governor LePage and the crisis of leadership in Augusta," Dill said. "I mean, not a single person!"...
TN bill to curb teacher bargaining rights advances  Business Week   ...A proposal to curb Tennessee teachers' collective bargaining rights is once again advancing in the House after an amendment was withdrawn Tuesday to do away with negotiations altogether...  

CT Teamsters get something going at May Day rally

Teamsters came out in force for a May Day rally in Hartford.  

UPDATE: Added Locals 677 from Waterbury and Local 191 from Bridgeport.

From the Better Late than Never Department:

We've just learned details about a terrific May Day rally in Hartford, Ct., that got people educated and fired up about the War on Workers.

Teamsters were by far the largest contingent at the rally, which drew 2,000 people near the Statehouse on a beautiful spring day.

Connecticut workers haven’t endured the kind of assaults experienced by workers in Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin and elsewhere. But Dave Lucas, Teamsters Local 671’s principal officer, told the crowd that they’d better be ready.

Dave Lucas, principal officer, Local 671

Said Lucas,

It can come up on you any time. We gotta be ready for it and send a message: “Don't bring that crap here.”

Connecticut Teamsters came from Locals 493 in New London, Local 1150 in Stratford, Local 677 in Waterbury, Local 191 in Bridgeport and Local 671 in Bloomfield. Joint Council 10 from New England brought four or five carloads of Teamsters (along with the Teamsters truck). Teamsters drove all the way from Local 633 in Manchester, N.H., Local 10 in Boston and Local 40 from Mansfield, Ohio.

T-shirts sold like hotcakes.

Local 671 gave “Stop the War on Workers’ t-shirts to members and sold them to others at cost. The t-shirts were gone by the end of the day.

Lucas said he was pleased to see members from his local that he never expected to see.

We really beat the bushes to get them to go, to get them aware, and it really worked. This took on a meaning. We got something going.

It really built the people up.

The Day reported on the rally, noting that budget shortfalls in Connecticut meant government workers were being asked to make concessions.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was invited to attend but was out-of-state.

The first-term Democrat governor is on the opposite side of the bargaining table with unions representing more than 40,0000 state employees. The Malloy administration is seeking $1 billion in annual savings and givebacks from state employees to help plug a $3.4 billion budget hole in the next fiscal year...

James Findley, a state union worker, held aloft a sign asking “Sacrifice Shared by Whom?” The message was a reference to Malloy’s calls for “Shared Sacrifice” among Connecticut residents in mending the state’s finances.

The 47-year-old Storrs resident said that because the wealthy experienced greater gains than the middle class in recent years, the state needs a more progressive tax structure than what is in Malloy’s budget, which would raise the top income tax rate to 6.7 percent.

“He’s asking for an extraordinarily large contribution to be made by the unions and I would just like there to be a little more shared sacrifice from those who have benefitted over the past 10 years,” he said.

WOW rally recap: Almost too many to keep track of

If it hasn’t come to your state, it is going to be coming to your state real soon. You need to stand proud. You need to stand strong. There are a lot of Governor Walkers out there. There’s probably one in your state right now.

Those are the words of Sen. Jon Erpenbach, one of the 14 Wisconsin Democratic state senators who left the state in an attempt to block Koch whore Gov. Scott Walker’s bill. He was speaking to the IAFF legislative conference on Monday, according to The Hill.

It has come to Tennessee, where people protested the Legislature's attempt to strip teachers of their collective bargaining rights.

Troopers forcibly carried out seven union supporters from the Tennessee's legislative office complex on Tuesday after their protest disrupted a Senate committee hearing

The disruption occurred after hundreds of labor supporters gathered for a midday protest near the Capitol to denounce a bill to strip teachers of their collective bargaining rights. The seven arrested were among those who stood up during the hearing and began chants about "union busting" by the Legislature.

Most demonstrators left the hearing room after a half-hour, but a small group tried to lock arms to keep from being removed.

Rally Girl tells us where else it has arrived:

In Eugene, Ore. on Friday, hundreds of residents took to the streets in the name of justice. Protesting against corporate greed, both public and private sector employees marched in solidarity with Wisconsin.

Two thousand miles away in Medina, Ohio, more than 500 people gathered to protest Senate Bill 5, which, if passed, would rewrite collective bargaining laws for public employees.

U.S. Rep. (and Teamster good friend) Betty Sutton, (D-Copley Township), spoke to attendees, calling the bill an attack on workers and the middle class.

It is the middle class that makes this country strong. We have to say "enough is enough."

In New Haven, Conn., Al Sharpton greeted protestors rallying against Mayor John DeStefano, who, in the name of budget cuts laid off dozens of city employees including 16 police officers.

And Democracy Now has more:

In South Carolina, thousands of teachers, religious leaders and state workers gathered at the capitol building on Sunday in opposition to cuts targeted at education, healthcare and other state services. In Austin, Texas, more than 10,000 protesters swarmed the grounds of the capitol Saturday to denounce Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to fire educators, increase class sizes and cut programs. On Friday, protesters in Maine filled the capitol building to take a stand against Gov. Paul LePage’s plan to strip $18 million from the state’s Fund for a Healthy Maine. Also on Friday, concerned parents and citizens in Maryland’s Prince George’s County gathered at a local school to protest budget cuts that could leave hundreds of low-income, magnet high school students without school buses. Meanwhile, protests in response to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to tax the public and private pensions of senior citizens are scheduled for Tuesday in Lansing.