OUR LAST NEWS ROUND-UP OF THE YEAR
TEAMSTERS
How did two leaders with Teamsters union shape St. Louis with the ‘total persons’ movement? St. Louis Public Radio ...In the 1950s and ‘60s, two labor leaders were influential in St. Louis through their involvement with a new kind of ideology: the “total persons” movement. Both were involved with Teamsters Local 688, forming a political alliance that would shape public services, civil rights and economic justice in the region. Their names were Harold Gibbons and Ernest Calloway...
Right-to-Work in West Virginia Could be Political War of Words WOWK ...In three weeks, the state legislature will begin considering a bill that could affect thousands of workers in the Mountain State. Senator Cole (R-WV) says his goal is, "Making West Virginia a place where businesses want to locate." Ken Hall of the Teamsters said, "It's all about driving the wages down. I guess they could create a lot of jobs, if they get the wage rates down to a dollar an hour"...
Is D.C.’s Taxicab Complaints System Improving? City Paper ...Royale Simms, the local management chief of the Teamsters-affiliated D.C. Taxi Operators Association, says the real problem that the commission needs to address is a lack of front-end training for taxi drivers. One area to start with is the test for obtaining a taxi license: Simms says potential drivers have three chances to take the test, and the questions are repeated in the same order each time. “So you can learn A, B, C, and pass”...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Strikes at Amazon German warehouses up to Christmas Reuters ...Workers at German warehouses of U.S. online retailer Amazon.com Inc were called out on a new strike by labor union Verdi on Monday as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. Verdi said in a statement that workers at six of the nine Amazon warehouses were joining the strike, which will run until Dec. 24 at four of the centers and for shorter periods at the others...
New Zealand logistics workers strike to disrupt Nike supply chain Scoop ...Approximately 20 workers from Toll Logistics’ Nike distribution centre in Auckland are commencing strike action today. The workers are striking over poor pay and to protest the company’s excessive use of labour hire employees. The company uses approximately 70 labour hire employees who receive minimum wages and no secure hours, said FIRST Union organiser Jared Abbott...
Mexican Border Workers Make A Push To Unionize NPR ...Delgado is among some 70 former workers who've set up a protest camp outside Lemark, located just 10 miles south of the Texas border. They claim they were fired soon after demanding higher pay. They say they're tired of struggling to provide for their families on a salary that, according to government figures, puts them below the poverty line...
‘When We Made Mistakes in Our Sewing, They Slapped Us’ The Nation ... Over two years after one of the worst industrial accidents in recent memory, Bangladesh’s garment workers are “safer” now—or so they’ve been told. So why do they still go to work afraid? Two years after labor and industry groups brokered a hard-won pact to improve factory safety, the Bangladesh Accord, most of the industry appears to be failing basic safety benchmarks....
Japan more than quadruples TPP economic boost estimate: Nikkei Reuters ...Japan's government has estimated the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will boost the economy by 14 trillion yen ($115.5 billion) or about 3 percentage points, over four times more than its initial calculation, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday. In March 2013, the Cabinet Office said joining the TPP would boost gross domestic product by 3.2 trillion yen or 0.66 percentage point based on the assumption that all tariffs would be scrapped immediately after enactment...
Spanish Election Marks Another Rejection of Austerity New York Times ...European leaders and economists are still locked in a heated debate about whether austerity policies have done more to help or hurt people in the region, particularly in Europe’s heavily indebted south. But as the election Sunday in Spain showed, voters seem to have made up their minds...
Hedge Funds vs. Greece: Lobbyists Want "Cheap Ticket" to Speculation Truthout ....This summer, Greece's financial authorities fined 20 hedge funds for speculating against the Greek economy. Now, the main global lobby group for hedge funds is trying to tweak the EU's rules so they can have a free play in the future. Global hedge funds attacked Greek banks in the early part of 2015. These were the months when the Greek economy was particularly fragile...
County commissioners oppose TPP agreement Hibbing Daily Tribune ...St. Louis County commissioners on Tuesday solidified their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. Commissioner Tom Rukavina of Pike Township brought the resolution forward after State Rep. Jason Metsa addressed the board earlier in the year on the TPP’s affect on local business and industry, which was unanimously approved...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Prevailing wage repeal may take longer to affect NWI NWITimes ...The 80-year-old system, which the Indiana General Assembly repealed this year, had been in place to ensure construction wages were in line with the local market, said Dewey Pearman, executive director of Construction Advancement Foundation. It also kept governments from having the power to inflate or depress the wages, he said. Common or prevailing construction wages went away July 1, and it's expected to have a big impact on Northwest Indiana...
Senate Leader: Mo. Right-to-Work Needs More Support in House Ozarks First ...Right-to-work is going to need more backing in the state House for it to receive time in the state Senate in 2016, according to the latter chamber’s leader. After leading an effort to bring that issue to a vote last session, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard (R-Joplin) says it isn’t likely to have the support it needs in the House for the Senate to consider it...
Scott Walker Corruption Case Threatens to Implicate Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices Mother Jones ... For three years, prosecutors in Wisconsin tried to investigate what they believed was illegal campaign coordination between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and conservative outside groups. The investigation has become a political flash point in the state: Walker and conservatives claim it is a witch hunt led by liberal prosecutors, while liberals believe it is about the power of dark money in Wisconsin politics...
Democrats' effort to change N.J. redistricting pushes on despite Republican outcry NJ.com ...Democratic state lawmakers on Monday continued to move forward with a proposal aiming to overhaul the way New Jersey redraws its legislative districts despite an ongoing outcry from Republicans. The state redraws the districts every decade and won't do so again until 2021. But this resolution would put a question on next November's ballot asking voters whether to amend the New Jersey constitution to approve a number of changes to the process...
Business leaders propose alternatives to Long Beach’s minimum wage push Press Telegram ...The question of whether Long Beach employers will be required to pay a higher minimum wage is on pace to be answered in early 2016, and policymakers have competing studies offering labor’s and business group’s perspectives on the issue. Pro-labor and pro-business groups have released their own reports intended to bolster their sides’ arguments in favor of a $15 minimum or a compromise position backed by local business that would raise the minimum wage to $12.50...
Health service professionals seek minimum wage increase WPTZ ...Lori Lobdell has been working at the Advocacy and Resource Center for over 20 years and describes the work they do as amazing. She feels they should get more money. That's why she supporting a bill in the state Senate asking Gov. Andrew Cuomo to raise the starting salary of human services workers to $15 an hour...
U.S. LABOR
UAW Brings Charges Against Volkswagen for Refusal to Bargain ABC ...The United Auto Workers is bringing charges against Volkswagen for refusing to bargain with a group of skilled workers who won a union vote at the German automaker's lone U.S. plant in Tennessee earlier this month. The UAW's Local 42 says in a filing with the National Labor Relations Board that a Volkswagen representative on Monday declined to recognize or bargain with the union...
How Kohler employees' united front won new contract and 'livable wages' The Guardian ...Before the strike began on 15 November, Kohler, with 48 factories and 30,000 employees worldwide, threatened to move many of the production jobs from its headquarters city here, 57 miles north of Milwaukee, if it were forced to end its two-tier contract. Before walking out, the workers voted overwhelmingly – by a 94% majority – to authorize a strike...
Southwest Airlines suspends 100 ramp workers, alleges illegal sickout Star Telegram ...About 100 Southwest Airlines ramp workers are not feeling the love from their employer this holiday season after they were suspended without pay through January. The Transport Workers Union, which represents over 11,000 ground workers and baggage handlers, said the suspensions are in retaliation for some workers using the time off to attend a “strike preparedness” meeting held by the union...
SEIU puts $3M into ballot fight with California hospitals Business Journal ...Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West says it still has an agreement with the California Hospital Association to work on issues like Medi-Cal financing. “We are just preparing for all potential situations,” spokesman Sean Wherley said in an email. One of those options apparently includes moving ahead with a proposed November ballot initiative that would limit CEO pay, regulate charity care and cap hospital prices...
Why The Fed's Rate Hike Will Hit Black Workers Harder Than Whites Huffington Post ...The Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday is bad news for black workers. The move is expected to put downward pressure on job creation by raising borrowing costs throughout the economy. While the rate hike is a modest measure on its own, it sets the stage for a series of additional developments that stand to have a much bigger contractionary effect on the economy...
When the Workers Become the Owners: Taking the Co-op Movement to the Next Level Truthout ...There's a revolution taking place in the US workforce - but you may not have heard about it. Around the country, workers are starting businesses that they democratically control and that financially benefit them. These businesses, called worker cooperatives, are owned and governed by the employees. Every worker is a member of the co-op, which gives them one share and one vote in the company's operations...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The U.S. Food System Has a Race Problem, and the Farm Bill Is the Cause — and Possible Solution Alternet ...The 10 largest mega-corporations generate $450 million annually in food sales. These companies’ CEOs earn, on average, 12 times what their workers make. A new report out of the University of California, Berkeley, draws a direct line from these and other disparities to the the Farm Bill, the hulking, billion-dollar omnibus federal legislation...
‘Schlonged’: Trump’s Astonishingly Sexist Attack On Hillary Think Progress ...Republican frontrunner Donald Trump used a campaign stop in Michigan on Monday to make astonishingly sexist attacks against Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. At one point, Trump told the Grand Rapids crowd that Clinton got “schlonged” by President Obama during their 2008 Democratic primary race. “Schlong” is a well-known reference to a man’s genitals. There are no alternative definitions for the word, according to Merriam-Webster...
Is Trump Channeling Working-Class Anger or Simple Racism? (opinion) Slate ...Trump is channeling class anger into prejudice, and exploiting the result. And Sanders isn’t the only person who thinks this. In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, President Obama offered similar sentiments. “[P]articularly blue-collar men have had a lot of trouble in this new economy, where they are no longer getting the same bargain that they got when they were going to a factory and able to support their families on a single paycheck,” said Obama...
'Outrageous and Totalitarian': Mall of America Sues to Block Black Lives Matter Protest Common Dreams ...Black Lives Matter organizers say they have no plans to back down from a racial justice protest planned for Wednesday. The suit requires that organizers "immediately" post messages on social media and send out a mass text message announcing that the December 23rd event—intended to focus on the November police killing of 24-year-old Minneapolis black man Jamar Clark—is cancelled...
Baltimore Officer’s Rescheduled Freddie Gray Trial Complicates Prosecution of Other Cops Slate ...The judge in the first trial of a Baltimore police officer for the death of Freddie Gray ordered a new trial date Monday, after the initial trial of officer William Porter resulted in a hung jury last week. Prosecutors hopes for a sting of convictions was complicated by the jury’s inability to reach a consensus verdict on Porter, who faces charges of manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office...
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Monday, December 21, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.21.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Support Omnibus Spending Bill That Protects Worker Rights, Health Care Teamster.org ...The Teamsters back a $1.1 trillion spending bill approved today by Congress for fiscal year 2016, saying it ensures workers retain their rights to organize on the job and will continue to receive comprehensive health insurance from their employers without being financially penalized.
“This omnibus package is a step in the right direction for workers,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said...
Teamsters Ken Hall: West Virginians’ lives are better without ‘right to work’ Gazette-Mail ...The people of West Virginia are being told by some elected officials and business leaders that so-called right-to-work legislation will boost jobs and pay in the Mountain State. But what is right-to-work? As the Economic Policy Institute explains, right to work laws have nothing to do with whether people can be forced to join a union or contribute to a political cause they do not support; that is already illegal. Instead, right to work laws weaken a union’s ability to help workers bargain with their employers for better wages, benefits, and working conditions...
Coke Strike in Chicago Heats Up Wall Street Journal ...Coca-Cola Co.’s track record of U.S. labor peace is taking a hit in Chicago, where about 320 unionized workers at two bottling plants are striking over rising health-care premiums and are accusing management of intimidation tactics. The two-week-old strike by a Teamsters local poses a public relations threat after union members began unfurling banners with the slogans “Don’t Drink Coke”...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Chile airport workers end strike that left thousands stranded BBC ...Airport workers in Chile have agreed to end a four-day strike that led to major disruption. Most flights coming out of or landing in Chile's main airports were cancelled or delayed. The airport ground workers' union called the strike after the government rejected their request to join the more generous Chilean military pension plan...
China’s Latest Crackdown on Workers Is Unprecedented The Nation ...In an unprecedented crackdown on some of China’s most effective independent labor organizations, known as worker centers, seven worker-activists have been detained and held virtually incommunicado in detention facilities in Foshan and Guangzhou. The activists are reportedly being detained on grounds of “endangering national security,” according to Amnesty International. It is unclear whether charges have been formally brought...
Union Members Exiled, Jailed as Burundi Violence Rises Solidarity Center ...Hundreds of union leaders and members, including at least 250 teachers, have fled Burundi while dozens more have been jailed, as the east African country roils in widespread violence. In October, a journalist and his family were shot dead at their home by security forces, according to the International Federation of Journalists. Broadcast media workers also were attacked with heavy weapons in May...
Why Amazon Workers in Germany Are on Strike Fortune ...Workers at German warehouses of U.S. online retailer Amazon.com were called out on a new strike by labor union Verdi on Monday as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. Verdi said in a statement that workers at six of the nine Amazon warehouses were joining the strike, which will run until Dec. 24 at four of the centers and for shorter periods at the others...
Obama puts TPP trade deal at top of 2016 agenda The Hill ...President Obama expressed optimism at a Friday press conference that Congress can approve a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal. Obama called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "a big deal" and acknowledged that opponents in both parties make for “an interesting situation." President Obama expressed optimism at a Friday press conference that Congress can approve a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis) said earlier this week that he wants to take a vote as soon as possible...
Failure to Find Consensus in WTO to Re-boost Regional TTIP Deal Sputnik News ...A failure to find consensus between the developed and developing countries at a WTO conference will result in the EU and US reinforced efforts to conclude mega-regional agreements, such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade pact and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), favoring corporate interests, the head of policy and campaigns at a London-based Global Justice Now organization said...
Greek PM Says Austerity Defeated in Spain New York Times ...Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is hailing the result of Spain's election as voter rejection of the unpopular austerity measures that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party invoked during the eurozone's debt crisis.
Tsipras says in a statement that "austerity has been politically defeated in Spain," adding that the results is vindication for those opposed to the tax hikes and spending cuts...
Investors on edge: Brazil to scale back austerity? CNBC ...The resignation of Brazil's pro-austerity finance minister has left markets on edge as amid concerns over whether his replacement will continue with a program of fiscal consolidation. On Friday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff replaced Finance Minister Joaquim Levy, a fiscal conservative appointed just over a year ago, with a close ally...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Union members meet to oppose Ohio Right to Work Times Leader ...Babe Erdos of the United Mine Workers of America was one of the speakers. "We think that the public needs to know the whole story of the so-called Right to Work," he said. According to Erdos, the median household income is $535 less per month in Right to Work states than in free-bargaining states such as Ohio. Information provided by We Are Ohio states that workers are injured and die on the job more often in Right to Work states...
Some local contractors hoping prevailing wage is maintained Gazette Mail ...Steve Ellis and John Strickland don’t want to see West Virginia’s prevailing wage abolished. The two commercial contractors from Charleston believe prevailing wage — the state law setting the minimum pay and benefits for laborers constructing public projects — is an essential part to their business and to the quality of life for the employees they hire...
National labor money gushes into Oregon minimum wage fight Oregon Live ...Oregon will have four ballot measures on the minimum wage out collecting ballot signatures next year. One would raise the state's $9.25 hourly wage to $15 — a number supported by Service Employees International Union in other parts of the country. The others, supported by labor-affiliated coalition Raise the Wage, would set a $13.50 wage and/or lift state restrictions that keep local governments from setting their own wages...
California Leads The Country In Minimum Wage Capital Public Radio ...On Jan. 1 California will have the highest minimum wage in the country. California Workers earning minimum wage will get an extra dollar an hour at the beginning of the year. The state raised the rate from $8 to $9 in July 2014. Soon it will be $10 an hour. Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo of Salinas sponsored the legislation behind the raises...
State reminds of minimum wage hike Daily Star ...State workers will join fast-food workers in a minimum wage increase taking effect Dec. 31, a bulletin from the state reminded employers. The bulletin issued Friday from the state Division of the Budget includes details about implementing phased wage increases that will bring the two groups of workers to a $15 minimum wage by 2021...
Judge Rules Virginia Voter ID Challenge Can Proceed NBC ...A federal judge is allowing an effort aimed at striking down Virginia's voter ID law to continue. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Friday that part of a suit filed by Virginia Democrats challenging the state's voter ID law could proceed while dismissing other related complaints...
U.S. LABOR
NLRB challenges ATI’s lockout as illegal Buffalo News ...Allegheny Technologies Inc.’s four-month lockout of about 2,200 employees, including roughly 40 at its Lockport plant, faces a legal challenge. The National Labor Relations Board’s regional director in Pittsburgh told ATI and the Steelworkers union it will issue a complaint alleging the lockout is illegal...
UAW-Nexteer deal ratified by union members Detroit News ...A majority of United Auto Workers members near Saginaw voted to ratify a new deal with Nexteer Automotive – avoiding a potential strike that could have impacted the Detroit automakers. UAW Local 699, which represents more than 3,200 workers with the auto supplier, reported early Saturday morning via social media that 61.4 percent of members who voted supported the deal...
USW, U.S. Steel announce tentative contract agreement Chicago Tribune ...A tentative agreement between United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel reached Saturday brings to a close more than six months of difficult negotiations between the steelmaker and the unions representing 18,000 workers across the country. Those negotiations continued more than three months after the previous contract between the steelmaker and the union expired Sept.1...
Impending Chicago Teachers' Strike Adds Power to Nationwide Movements Against Inequality and Racism Truthout ...The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) shook up the country and sparked a resurgence in militancy among teachers' unions with its 2012 strike. And now Chicago teachers may be getting ready to do it again. On December 14, CTU announced the result of a strike vote held the previous week, in which 88 percent of its total membership - and a full 96 percent of members who voted - authorized a strike that could begin this March or April...
Ship Builder Settles $5 Million Lawsuit After Forcing Indians To Work And Live in Awful Conditions Think Progress ...A ship building and repair company will pay $5 million to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) race and national origin discrimination lawsuit with 476 Indian guest workers who worked at the company’s facilities after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While Indian workers lived in squalid containers “the size of a double-wide trailer,” non-Indian workers were not subjected to the same conditions...
Employers had a labor wish list for the budget. Almost none of it was granted. Washington Post ...The House and Senate Republican funding proposals contained riders rolling back the implementation of a broad swath of the administration's actions, as well as decisions by the National Labor Relations Board that allowed for the establishment of "micro unions" within workplaces, eased the path toward collective bargaining with a franchiser...
As Public Funding of Universities Dwindles, Faculty Are Unionizing Truthout ...When newly installed University of Washington (UW) President Ana Mari Cauce and Interim Provost Jerry Baldasty got wind that the UW faculty was collecting signatures on union cards, they quickly sent a series of memos and emails to the 6,000 people eligible to vote. Their missives trumpeted their opposition to collective bargaining and denounced the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) effort to organize on campus...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
US Congress to Corporations: Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Common Dreams ...Along with a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep government funded through September, the U.S. Congress is on the verge of passing a Republican-backed, $629 billion package of tax cuts that one group calls "a lobbyist-wrapped Christmas present for our nation's biggest corporations." The package of bills unveiled Wednesday is facing criticism...
Koch Brothers Supersize Higher Education Spending Truthout ...The Koch brothers are supersizing their already hefty investments into college students' hearts and minds. A pair of private foundations led by the billionaire industrialists poured more than $23.4 million into U.S. colleges and universities during 2014, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis...
The Two Big Political Mistakes of Obama's Presidency (opinion) Alternet ...Nothing Obama could have done would have avoided the tsunami of vicious racist and xenophobic hatred that washed over him and the country, aided and abetted by the savagely partisan and vitriolic Fox News. But Obama might well have stunted the emergence of the right-wing populist movement, had he pursued an aggressive populist strategy of his own — one that demonstrated government could effectively challenge giant corporations...
After 28 Years in Prison, Man Falsely Convicted in Botched Investigation to Walk Free Democracy Now ...A Denver, Colorado, man has spent 28 years in prison based on a dream—and it wasn’t his. Now he could soon be free. In 1989, Clarence Moses-EL, who is African-American, was sentenced to 48 years in prison after a woman said she dreamed he was the man who raped and beat her in the dark...
Hundreds Of New Orleans Residents Will Finally Be Able To Go Home Think Progress ...More than 10 years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and decimated the Lower Ninth Ward, community groups and local government have secured funding from the federal government they believe will be enough to get many of the residents home who have been trying to rebuild ever since they were displaced. For Boyd-Cannon, a jazz musician, that should mean she will finally be able to rebuild her family’s house on what became a vacant lot...
Wave of migrant children has Texas towns scrambling to set up housing The Guardian ...As a wave of Central American children are crossing the US border alone fleeing violence and poverty in their countries, new facilities to house these children are popping up with just a few days’ notice in southern border towns. In Rockwall, Texas, hundreds of children arrived Saturday to a hot spaghetti meal...
Teamsters Support Omnibus Spending Bill That Protects Worker Rights, Health Care Teamster.org ...The Teamsters back a $1.1 trillion spending bill approved today by Congress for fiscal year 2016, saying it ensures workers retain their rights to organize on the job and will continue to receive comprehensive health insurance from their employers without being financially penalized.
“This omnibus package is a step in the right direction for workers,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said...
Teamsters Ken Hall: West Virginians’ lives are better without ‘right to work’ Gazette-Mail ...The people of West Virginia are being told by some elected officials and business leaders that so-called right-to-work legislation will boost jobs and pay in the Mountain State. But what is right-to-work? As the Economic Policy Institute explains, right to work laws have nothing to do with whether people can be forced to join a union or contribute to a political cause they do not support; that is already illegal. Instead, right to work laws weaken a union’s ability to help workers bargain with their employers for better wages, benefits, and working conditions...
Coke Strike in Chicago Heats Up Wall Street Journal ...Coca-Cola Co.’s track record of U.S. labor peace is taking a hit in Chicago, where about 320 unionized workers at two bottling plants are striking over rising health-care premiums and are accusing management of intimidation tactics. The two-week-old strike by a Teamsters local poses a public relations threat after union members began unfurling banners with the slogans “Don’t Drink Coke”...
How Unions Could Change the Way Uber and Lyft Work Bloomberg ...Uber Technologies has overcome taxi driver protests, irate government officials, and the occasional self-made controversy. But the next fight for the ride-hailing company and rival Lyft may be with a modern-day Jimmy Hoffa. "When they got more cars, they started taking more advantage of the driver," said Teka, who's on the board of the App-Based Drivers Association, which is working with Seattle Teamsters to form a drivers union...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Chile airport workers end strike that left thousands stranded BBC ...Airport workers in Chile have agreed to end a four-day strike that led to major disruption. Most flights coming out of or landing in Chile's main airports were cancelled or delayed. The airport ground workers' union called the strike after the government rejected their request to join the more generous Chilean military pension plan...
China’s Latest Crackdown on Workers Is Unprecedented The Nation ...In an unprecedented crackdown on some of China’s most effective independent labor organizations, known as worker centers, seven worker-activists have been detained and held virtually incommunicado in detention facilities in Foshan and Guangzhou. The activists are reportedly being detained on grounds of “endangering national security,” according to Amnesty International. It is unclear whether charges have been formally brought...
Union Members Exiled, Jailed as Burundi Violence Rises Solidarity Center ...Hundreds of union leaders and members, including at least 250 teachers, have fled Burundi while dozens more have been jailed, as the east African country roils in widespread violence. In October, a journalist and his family were shot dead at their home by security forces, according to the International Federation of Journalists. Broadcast media workers also were attacked with heavy weapons in May...
Why Amazon Workers in Germany Are on Strike Fortune ...Workers at German warehouses of U.S. online retailer Amazon.com were called out on a new strike by labor union Verdi on Monday as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. Verdi said in a statement that workers at six of the nine Amazon warehouses were joining the strike, which will run until Dec. 24 at four of the centers and for shorter periods at the others...
Obama puts TPP trade deal at top of 2016 agenda The Hill ...President Obama expressed optimism at a Friday press conference that Congress can approve a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal. Obama called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "a big deal" and acknowledged that opponents in both parties make for “an interesting situation." President Obama expressed optimism at a Friday press conference that Congress can approve a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis) said earlier this week that he wants to take a vote as soon as possible...
Failure to Find Consensus in WTO to Re-boost Regional TTIP Deal Sputnik News ...A failure to find consensus between the developed and developing countries at a WTO conference will result in the EU and US reinforced efforts to conclude mega-regional agreements, such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade pact and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), favoring corporate interests, the head of policy and campaigns at a London-based Global Justice Now organization said...
Greek PM Says Austerity Defeated in Spain New York Times ...Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is hailing the result of Spain's election as voter rejection of the unpopular austerity measures that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party invoked during the eurozone's debt crisis.
Tsipras says in a statement that "austerity has been politically defeated in Spain," adding that the results is vindication for those opposed to the tax hikes and spending cuts...
Investors on edge: Brazil to scale back austerity? CNBC ...The resignation of Brazil's pro-austerity finance minister has left markets on edge as amid concerns over whether his replacement will continue with a program of fiscal consolidation. On Friday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff replaced Finance Minister Joaquim Levy, a fiscal conservative appointed just over a year ago, with a close ally...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Union members meet to oppose Ohio Right to Work Times Leader ...Babe Erdos of the United Mine Workers of America was one of the speakers. "We think that the public needs to know the whole story of the so-called Right to Work," he said. According to Erdos, the median household income is $535 less per month in Right to Work states than in free-bargaining states such as Ohio. Information provided by We Are Ohio states that workers are injured and die on the job more often in Right to Work states...
Some local contractors hoping prevailing wage is maintained Gazette Mail ...Steve Ellis and John Strickland don’t want to see West Virginia’s prevailing wage abolished. The two commercial contractors from Charleston believe prevailing wage — the state law setting the minimum pay and benefits for laborers constructing public projects — is an essential part to their business and to the quality of life for the employees they hire...
National labor money gushes into Oregon minimum wage fight Oregon Live ...Oregon will have four ballot measures on the minimum wage out collecting ballot signatures next year. One would raise the state's $9.25 hourly wage to $15 — a number supported by Service Employees International Union in other parts of the country. The others, supported by labor-affiliated coalition Raise the Wage, would set a $13.50 wage and/or lift state restrictions that keep local governments from setting their own wages...
California Leads The Country In Minimum Wage Capital Public Radio ...On Jan. 1 California will have the highest minimum wage in the country. California Workers earning minimum wage will get an extra dollar an hour at the beginning of the year. The state raised the rate from $8 to $9 in July 2014. Soon it will be $10 an hour. Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo of Salinas sponsored the legislation behind the raises...
State reminds of minimum wage hike Daily Star ...State workers will join fast-food workers in a minimum wage increase taking effect Dec. 31, a bulletin from the state reminded employers. The bulletin issued Friday from the state Division of the Budget includes details about implementing phased wage increases that will bring the two groups of workers to a $15 minimum wage by 2021...
Judge Rules Virginia Voter ID Challenge Can Proceed NBC ...A federal judge is allowing an effort aimed at striking down Virginia's voter ID law to continue. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Friday that part of a suit filed by Virginia Democrats challenging the state's voter ID law could proceed while dismissing other related complaints...
U.S. LABOR
NLRB challenges ATI’s lockout as illegal Buffalo News ...Allegheny Technologies Inc.’s four-month lockout of about 2,200 employees, including roughly 40 at its Lockport plant, faces a legal challenge. The National Labor Relations Board’s regional director in Pittsburgh told ATI and the Steelworkers union it will issue a complaint alleging the lockout is illegal...
UAW-Nexteer deal ratified by union members Detroit News ...A majority of United Auto Workers members near Saginaw voted to ratify a new deal with Nexteer Automotive – avoiding a potential strike that could have impacted the Detroit automakers. UAW Local 699, which represents more than 3,200 workers with the auto supplier, reported early Saturday morning via social media that 61.4 percent of members who voted supported the deal...
USW, U.S. Steel announce tentative contract agreement Chicago Tribune ...A tentative agreement between United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel reached Saturday brings to a close more than six months of difficult negotiations between the steelmaker and the unions representing 18,000 workers across the country. Those negotiations continued more than three months after the previous contract between the steelmaker and the union expired Sept.1...
Impending Chicago Teachers' Strike Adds Power to Nationwide Movements Against Inequality and Racism Truthout ...The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) shook up the country and sparked a resurgence in militancy among teachers' unions with its 2012 strike. And now Chicago teachers may be getting ready to do it again. On December 14, CTU announced the result of a strike vote held the previous week, in which 88 percent of its total membership - and a full 96 percent of members who voted - authorized a strike that could begin this March or April...
Ship Builder Settles $5 Million Lawsuit After Forcing Indians To Work And Live in Awful Conditions Think Progress ...A ship building and repair company will pay $5 million to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) race and national origin discrimination lawsuit with 476 Indian guest workers who worked at the company’s facilities after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While Indian workers lived in squalid containers “the size of a double-wide trailer,” non-Indian workers were not subjected to the same conditions...
Employers had a labor wish list for the budget. Almost none of it was granted. Washington Post ...The House and Senate Republican funding proposals contained riders rolling back the implementation of a broad swath of the administration's actions, as well as decisions by the National Labor Relations Board that allowed for the establishment of "micro unions" within workplaces, eased the path toward collective bargaining with a franchiser...
As Public Funding of Universities Dwindles, Faculty Are Unionizing Truthout ...When newly installed University of Washington (UW) President Ana Mari Cauce and Interim Provost Jerry Baldasty got wind that the UW faculty was collecting signatures on union cards, they quickly sent a series of memos and emails to the 6,000 people eligible to vote. Their missives trumpeted their opposition to collective bargaining and denounced the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) effort to organize on campus...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
US Congress to Corporations: Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Common Dreams ...Along with a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep government funded through September, the U.S. Congress is on the verge of passing a Republican-backed, $629 billion package of tax cuts that one group calls "a lobbyist-wrapped Christmas present for our nation's biggest corporations." The package of bills unveiled Wednesday is facing criticism...
Koch Brothers Supersize Higher Education Spending Truthout ...The Koch brothers are supersizing their already hefty investments into college students' hearts and minds. A pair of private foundations led by the billionaire industrialists poured more than $23.4 million into U.S. colleges and universities during 2014, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis...
The Two Big Political Mistakes of Obama's Presidency (opinion) Alternet ...Nothing Obama could have done would have avoided the tsunami of vicious racist and xenophobic hatred that washed over him and the country, aided and abetted by the savagely partisan and vitriolic Fox News. But Obama might well have stunted the emergence of the right-wing populist movement, had he pursued an aggressive populist strategy of his own — one that demonstrated government could effectively challenge giant corporations...
After 28 Years in Prison, Man Falsely Convicted in Botched Investigation to Walk Free Democracy Now ...A Denver, Colorado, man has spent 28 years in prison based on a dream—and it wasn’t his. Now he could soon be free. In 1989, Clarence Moses-EL, who is African-American, was sentenced to 48 years in prison after a woman said she dreamed he was the man who raped and beat her in the dark...
Hundreds Of New Orleans Residents Will Finally Be Able To Go Home Think Progress ...More than 10 years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and decimated the Lower Ninth Ward, community groups and local government have secured funding from the federal government they believe will be enough to get many of the residents home who have been trying to rebuild ever since they were displaced. For Boyd-Cannon, a jazz musician, that should mean she will finally be able to rebuild her family’s house on what became a vacant lot...
Wave of migrant children has Texas towns scrambling to set up housing The Guardian ...As a wave of Central American children are crossing the US border alone fleeing violence and poverty in their countries, new facilities to house these children are popping up with just a few days’ notice in southern border towns. In Rockwall, Texas, hundreds of children arrived Saturday to a hot spaghetti meal...
Monday, November 9, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.09.15
TEAMSTERS
Waste Workers in Tennessee Join Teamsters Local 667 Teamster.org ...Drivers at Waste Management, Inc., in Memphis, Tenn., have voted to join Teamsters Local 667 seeking improved wages and benefits. The 37-worker unit remained strong and united as the company waged a vicious anti-worker campaign. During the campaign, the workers were joined in support by students and campus workers...
Workers Speak Up After Being Told To Go Back To Work After Chemical Spill Think Progress ...A group of immigrant workers and community members rallied on Thursday at Taylor Farms in California, the largest producer of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, asking for safer work conditions nearly one month after managers failed to evacuate the plant after a chemical spill. At the Taylor Farms’ Tracy plant, about 900 workers have been trying to organize a union with the Teamsters over the past two years...
Labor and Climate Groups Blast TPP as Full Text is Released American Prospect ...Within hours of the text’s release, leading environmental, labor, and civil liberties groups blasted the deal for its lackluster provisions on workers rights, climate change, and human rights. On Twitter, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters noted that the TPP includes no penalties for human trafficking...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Lufthansa cabin crew strike affects 113,000 passengers AP ...Some 113,000 Lufthansa passengers were facing domestic and international cancellations Monday due to all-day walkouts at three German airports staged by a cabin crew union protesting cost cuts. The UFO flight attendant union says it will rotate its strike action to different airports as it presses its demands regarding early retirement payments...
Finance chair: Trade deal may need to be renegotiated The Hill ...The top Republican overseeing trade in the Senate on Friday suggested inadequate intellectual property protections may halt the passage of a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he is most concerned about a provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that provides pharmaceutical companies with up to eight years of exclusive rights to their clinical trial data, instead of the 12-year standard set by Congress six years ago...
How the five most contentious issues in Obama’s big trade deal turned out Washington Post ...The full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership became public Thursday, and there's a lot we still don't know about it. This deal isn't really about lowering tariffs, after all — much more importantly, it's the rulebook for trade across a giant region. While advocacy groups acknowledged some improvements from previous drafts, they're still worried that even the best provisions won't be enforced...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Text Released, Waving Green Flag for Debate New York Times ...The release on Thursday of the full text of President Obama’s trade accord with 11 Pacific Rim nations brought out opponents and supporters and officially opened what may be the last big battle of the president’s tenure: winning congressional approval of the largest regional trade deal in history. The opposition mainly came from the left, as an array of unions, environmental groups and public advocacy organizations that typically resist global trade agreements registered their dismay...
Historic Trade Deal Confirms Critics' Worst Fears Huffington Post ...The United States government released the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday, and a wide array of advocacy groups did not like what they saw. Organizations promoting climate change action and global health have long argued that the 12-nation trade deal would undermine participating countries’ freedom to set and preserve their own economic and social policies...
TPP revealed: Pact details ignite debate over privacy, internet freedom, whistleblowers RT ...With the release of the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sharpening of arguments on both sides outline a debate about privacy, corporatism, internet freedom and intellectual property, and even the plight of whistleblowers. The world got its first look at the international agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries on Thursday, exactly one month after it was finalized on October 5...
Chris Hedges: TPP Is the Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History (opinion) Alternet ...The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared. “The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history,” Ralph Nader told me...
Over three million Europeans sign anti-TTIP petition DW.com ...A European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) called "Stop TTIP" on Monday handed over an updated list of 3.28 million signatures from people opposed to the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the US. The list was given to the head of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, in Berlin, with the campaigners demanding a parliamentary hearing...
1 Worker Dies, 18 Faint at Cambodian Garment Factory AP ...One worker died and 18 others fainted at a garment factory in eastern Cambodia that has been closed pending an investigation, authorities said Friday. They were sent to a hospital, where a 21-year-old worker later died, he said. On Friday, 14 more workers fell ill with similar symptoms...
Rising Left Bloc in Portugal Could Threaten Austerity Drive New York Times ...Last month’s elections in Portugal were meant to deliver a clear verdict on the center-right coalition of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose austerity program has been held up as a model by creditors and countries like Germany that have advocated belt-tightening in Europe. Instead, it yielded a vexing muddle, allowing both left and right to claim victory...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-to-Work weighed heavily in Kentucky race for governor PR News ...Right-to-Work may not have been a front-and-center issue in the highly competitive race for governor in Kentucky, but it was a major issue behind the scenes. Those on both sides of the divisive Right-to-Work issue knew that whoever won the governor’s race in Kentucky might play a critical–if not pivotal–role on whether the state becomes the next to fall to Right-to-Work...
Fight for $15 rallies and strikes Tuesday supporting minimum wage hike Cleveland.com ...Demonstrations are planned throughout Ohio, including Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown, according to the labor-backed Fight for $15 movement, which is organizing the day of action. The locations of these rallies and the day on which they are being held is not by happenstance. Fight for $15, intends to send a political message by rallying on the steps of City Halls throughout the country...
Childcare Workers Make 40% Less Than the Nationwide Median Wage The Nation .... Tuesday’s protests in Atlanta and hundreds of other cities will launch the Fight for $15’s yearlong campaign leading up to Election Day. The SEIU-backed movement to press nationwide demands for a living wage and a union, now includes their demand as voters, that politicians commit to raising pay and working conditions. With hourly wages averaging about $10.30, childcare workers earn some 40 percent less than the nationwide median wage...
How Corrupt Is Your State? Mother Jones ...In Missouri, a lawmaker who pushed through a bill that prohibited cities from banning plastic bags in supermarkets also happened to be the director of the state's Grocer's Association. New Mexico lawmakers passed a resolution that exempted their emails from public scrutiny...
Wisconsin Begins Drug Testing Applicants For Food Stamps And Unemployment Benefits Today Think Progress ...On Monday, many Wisconsin residents who apply for food stamps, unemployment benefits, jobs training, or benefits and training from a handful of other state programs will have to be screened and potentially tested for drug use. Applicants will have to fill out a questionnaire about drug use, and depending on their answers, may have to submit to an actual test...
U.S. LABOR
Ford UAW leaders meet to approve proposed agreement Detroit Free Press ...The UAW's top elected Ford leaders from around the country are in Detroit today to review a tentative agreement reached last week between the automaker and the union that would deliver $10,000 in signing bonuses and $9 billion in new U.S. product investments, retaining or creating 8,500 jobs...
UAW deals with Ford, GM enter critical week The Detroit News ...Monday marks the beginning of a critical week for labor negotiations between the United Auto Workers and two of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Labor leaders at Ford Motor Co. will convene at 10 a.m. Monday at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center on Jefferson in downtown Detroit to accept or reject a proposed tentative deal that the union and Dearborn automaker agreed to Friday afternoon...
AFSCME withdraws petition for OU call center union election Athens News ...A major public employees union, citing an alleged “aggressive” campaign undertaken by “hired union busters,” has withdrawn its petition for an election for student workers employed at Ohio University’s call center in Athens. The university and Wilson-Bennett Technology – the subcontractor OU pays to manage the alumni fundraising call center – have denied hiring the alleged union busting group...
Why Childcare Workers Are So Poor, Even Though Childcare Costs So Much The Atlantic ...Childcare is really expensive. In some states the costs can top 15 percent of the median income for a married couple. And when looking at single-family households, that burden can easily pass 40 percent of the median income. One place all that money is not going: the pockets of the workers doing all that childcare...
Rutgers group documents Trump Taj Mahal casino workers' fight for benefits NJ.com ...NJ Spark, a social justice journalism lab at Rutgers University, is chronicling the fight of workers at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotels to have their health insurance and pension benefits restored. The union is demanding the restoration of the workers' health insurance and pension benefits, which were stripped away by the casino's previous owner, Trump Entertainment Resorts, as part of a $14.6 million cost cutting campaign...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
With Mass Civil Disobedience, Young Activists March Against 'Broken System' Common Dreams ...Roughly 1,000 young activists are marching through the streets of Washington, D.C. on Monday in what they hope will be the largest-ever planned civil disobedience action to demand racial, immigration, and climate justice reform for a "broken" political system. Under the banner Our Generation, Our Choice, millenials from a range of grassroots advocacy organizations...
University of Missouri president resigns amid protests Daily Kos ...Today, faculty, students, graduate students, and student-athletes at the University of Missouri will be engaged in protests as the Board of Curators calls a special meeting to address a long-simmering racial tension and protest surrounding racial incidents on campus. The #ConcernedStudent1950 protests center around the hunger strike of Jonathan Butler, a graduate student who began the strike in response to several unaddressed incidents of bigotry...
Paul Krugman just made perfect sense of Donald Trump, Ben Carson and angry white Republican voters Salon ...Some people who feel left behind by the American story turn self-destructive; others turn on the elites they feel have betrayed them. No, deporting immigrants and wearing baseball caps bearing slogans won’t solve their problems, but neither will cutting taxes on capital gains. So you can understand why some voters have rallied around politicians who at least seem to feel their pain...
Waste Workers in Tennessee Join Teamsters Local 667 Teamster.org ...Drivers at Waste Management, Inc., in Memphis, Tenn., have voted to join Teamsters Local 667 seeking improved wages and benefits. The 37-worker unit remained strong and united as the company waged a vicious anti-worker campaign. During the campaign, the workers were joined in support by students and campus workers...
Workers Speak Up After Being Told To Go Back To Work After Chemical Spill Think Progress ...A group of immigrant workers and community members rallied on Thursday at Taylor Farms in California, the largest producer of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, asking for safer work conditions nearly one month after managers failed to evacuate the plant after a chemical spill. At the Taylor Farms’ Tracy plant, about 900 workers have been trying to organize a union with the Teamsters over the past two years...
Labor and Climate Groups Blast TPP as Full Text is Released American Prospect ...Within hours of the text’s release, leading environmental, labor, and civil liberties groups blasted the deal for its lackluster provisions on workers rights, climate change, and human rights. On Twitter, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters noted that the TPP includes no penalties for human trafficking...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Lufthansa cabin crew strike affects 113,000 passengers AP ...Some 113,000 Lufthansa passengers were facing domestic and international cancellations Monday due to all-day walkouts at three German airports staged by a cabin crew union protesting cost cuts. The UFO flight attendant union says it will rotate its strike action to different airports as it presses its demands regarding early retirement payments...
Finance chair: Trade deal may need to be renegotiated The Hill ...The top Republican overseeing trade in the Senate on Friday suggested inadequate intellectual property protections may halt the passage of a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he is most concerned about a provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that provides pharmaceutical companies with up to eight years of exclusive rights to their clinical trial data, instead of the 12-year standard set by Congress six years ago...
How the five most contentious issues in Obama’s big trade deal turned out Washington Post ...The full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership became public Thursday, and there's a lot we still don't know about it. This deal isn't really about lowering tariffs, after all — much more importantly, it's the rulebook for trade across a giant region. While advocacy groups acknowledged some improvements from previous drafts, they're still worried that even the best provisions won't be enforced...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Text Released, Waving Green Flag for Debate New York Times ...The release on Thursday of the full text of President Obama’s trade accord with 11 Pacific Rim nations brought out opponents and supporters and officially opened what may be the last big battle of the president’s tenure: winning congressional approval of the largest regional trade deal in history. The opposition mainly came from the left, as an array of unions, environmental groups and public advocacy organizations that typically resist global trade agreements registered their dismay...
Historic Trade Deal Confirms Critics' Worst Fears Huffington Post ...The United States government released the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday, and a wide array of advocacy groups did not like what they saw. Organizations promoting climate change action and global health have long argued that the 12-nation trade deal would undermine participating countries’ freedom to set and preserve their own economic and social policies...
TPP revealed: Pact details ignite debate over privacy, internet freedom, whistleblowers RT ...With the release of the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sharpening of arguments on both sides outline a debate about privacy, corporatism, internet freedom and intellectual property, and even the plight of whistleblowers. The world got its first look at the international agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries on Thursday, exactly one month after it was finalized on October 5...
Chris Hedges: TPP Is the Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History (opinion) Alternet ...The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared. “The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history,” Ralph Nader told me...
Over three million Europeans sign anti-TTIP petition DW.com ...A European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) called "Stop TTIP" on Monday handed over an updated list of 3.28 million signatures from people opposed to the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the US. The list was given to the head of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, in Berlin, with the campaigners demanding a parliamentary hearing...
1 Worker Dies, 18 Faint at Cambodian Garment Factory AP ...One worker died and 18 others fainted at a garment factory in eastern Cambodia that has been closed pending an investigation, authorities said Friday. They were sent to a hospital, where a 21-year-old worker later died, he said. On Friday, 14 more workers fell ill with similar symptoms...
Rising Left Bloc in Portugal Could Threaten Austerity Drive New York Times ...Last month’s elections in Portugal were meant to deliver a clear verdict on the center-right coalition of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose austerity program has been held up as a model by creditors and countries like Germany that have advocated belt-tightening in Europe. Instead, it yielded a vexing muddle, allowing both left and right to claim victory...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-to-Work weighed heavily in Kentucky race for governor PR News ...Right-to-Work may not have been a front-and-center issue in the highly competitive race for governor in Kentucky, but it was a major issue behind the scenes. Those on both sides of the divisive Right-to-Work issue knew that whoever won the governor’s race in Kentucky might play a critical–if not pivotal–role on whether the state becomes the next to fall to Right-to-Work...
Fight for $15 rallies and strikes Tuesday supporting minimum wage hike Cleveland.com ...Demonstrations are planned throughout Ohio, including Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown, according to the labor-backed Fight for $15 movement, which is organizing the day of action. The locations of these rallies and the day on which they are being held is not by happenstance. Fight for $15, intends to send a political message by rallying on the steps of City Halls throughout the country...
Childcare Workers Make 40% Less Than the Nationwide Median Wage The Nation .... Tuesday’s protests in Atlanta and hundreds of other cities will launch the Fight for $15’s yearlong campaign leading up to Election Day. The SEIU-backed movement to press nationwide demands for a living wage and a union, now includes their demand as voters, that politicians commit to raising pay and working conditions. With hourly wages averaging about $10.30, childcare workers earn some 40 percent less than the nationwide median wage...
How Corrupt Is Your State? Mother Jones ...In Missouri, a lawmaker who pushed through a bill that prohibited cities from banning plastic bags in supermarkets also happened to be the director of the state's Grocer's Association. New Mexico lawmakers passed a resolution that exempted their emails from public scrutiny...
Wisconsin Begins Drug Testing Applicants For Food Stamps And Unemployment Benefits Today Think Progress ...On Monday, many Wisconsin residents who apply for food stamps, unemployment benefits, jobs training, or benefits and training from a handful of other state programs will have to be screened and potentially tested for drug use. Applicants will have to fill out a questionnaire about drug use, and depending on their answers, may have to submit to an actual test...
U.S. LABOR
Ford UAW leaders meet to approve proposed agreement Detroit Free Press ...The UAW's top elected Ford leaders from around the country are in Detroit today to review a tentative agreement reached last week between the automaker and the union that would deliver $10,000 in signing bonuses and $9 billion in new U.S. product investments, retaining or creating 8,500 jobs...
UAW deals with Ford, GM enter critical week The Detroit News ...Monday marks the beginning of a critical week for labor negotiations between the United Auto Workers and two of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Labor leaders at Ford Motor Co. will convene at 10 a.m. Monday at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center on Jefferson in downtown Detroit to accept or reject a proposed tentative deal that the union and Dearborn automaker agreed to Friday afternoon...
AFSCME withdraws petition for OU call center union election Athens News ...A major public employees union, citing an alleged “aggressive” campaign undertaken by “hired union busters,” has withdrawn its petition for an election for student workers employed at Ohio University’s call center in Athens. The university and Wilson-Bennett Technology – the subcontractor OU pays to manage the alumni fundraising call center – have denied hiring the alleged union busting group...
Why Childcare Workers Are So Poor, Even Though Childcare Costs So Much The Atlantic ...Childcare is really expensive. In some states the costs can top 15 percent of the median income for a married couple. And when looking at single-family households, that burden can easily pass 40 percent of the median income. One place all that money is not going: the pockets of the workers doing all that childcare...
Rutgers group documents Trump Taj Mahal casino workers' fight for benefits NJ.com ...NJ Spark, a social justice journalism lab at Rutgers University, is chronicling the fight of workers at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotels to have their health insurance and pension benefits restored. The union is demanding the restoration of the workers' health insurance and pension benefits, which were stripped away by the casino's previous owner, Trump Entertainment Resorts, as part of a $14.6 million cost cutting campaign...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
With Mass Civil Disobedience, Young Activists March Against 'Broken System' Common Dreams ...Roughly 1,000 young activists are marching through the streets of Washington, D.C. on Monday in what they hope will be the largest-ever planned civil disobedience action to demand racial, immigration, and climate justice reform for a "broken" political system. Under the banner Our Generation, Our Choice, millenials from a range of grassroots advocacy organizations...
University of Missouri president resigns amid protests Daily Kos ...Today, faculty, students, graduate students, and student-athletes at the University of Missouri will be engaged in protests as the Board of Curators calls a special meeting to address a long-simmering racial tension and protest surrounding racial incidents on campus. The #ConcernedStudent1950 protests center around the hunger strike of Jonathan Butler, a graduate student who began the strike in response to several unaddressed incidents of bigotry...
Paul Krugman just made perfect sense of Donald Trump, Ben Carson and angry white Republican voters Salon ...Some people who feel left behind by the American story turn self-destructive; others turn on the elites they feel have betrayed them. No, deporting immigrants and wearing baseball caps bearing slogans won’t solve their problems, but neither will cutting taxes on capital gains. So you can understand why some voters have rallied around politicians who at least seem to feel their pain...
"Racism Isn't Funny": Trump's SNL Gig Draws Outrage, Calls to Disrupt Show Common Dreams ...From civil rights groups to lawmakers to Hollywood A-listers, members of the public are furious that the popular comedy program Saturday Night Live (SNL) has invited 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump—whose rhetoric demonizing immigrants has reportedly inspired hate crimes—to host its November 7th show...
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.15.15
Teamsters
Thousands Of Teamsters March In New York Labor Day Parade Teamster.org ...Thousands of Teamsters in New York participated in the annual Labor Day parade on Saturday. Members from local unions representing a variety of industries including construction, motion picture, theatrical trades, warehouse, public services, sanitation, parking, brewery, soft drink, freight, funeral, moving and printing participated. In each of the local union contingents members held the new "Let's Get America Working - Union Strong, America Stronger" signs...
Atlanta Teamsters Ratify Sysco Contract, First Ever in Georgia Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 528 members, whose fight to win union representation has lasted more than 18 months, ratified a first contract that provides strong union protections for more than 400 workers at Sysco’s Atlanta facility on Saturday. “This has been an uphill struggle, but these workers stood together through it all to negotiate a strong first contract that will protect them for years to come,” said Maurice Cobb, Teamsters Local 528 President...
Port truck drivers enter 10th week of wage-theft protests Press Telegram ...Truck drivers for a transportation company serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports entered their 10th week protesting what they say are more than $6 million in wages and expenses stolen by their employer, a Teamsters official said Monday. The drivers picketing at Pacific 9 Transportation’s Carson truck yard say they should be on the pay roll as employees but are instead misclassified as independent contractors...
Teamsters Vehemently Voice Opposition to Harmful Soda Tax Local 727 ...Teamster representatives and beverage industry members showed their strength and solidarity in vehement opposition of 12th Ward Ald. George Cardenas’ proposed penny-an-ounce soda tax. Dozens of Local 727 members dressed proudly in work shirts displaying Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and other soft drink logos packed Chicago’s City Council chambers for a Health Committee hearing on Sept. 9 as opponents of the harmful tax outnumbered supporters by an estimated 40 to 1...
Local 727 Continues to Raise Hotel Industry’s Working Standards Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727’s campaign to raise wages and working standards at Chicago-area hotels recorded another victory last week when DoubleTree Arlington Heights shuttle bus drivers ratified their first union contract. The five-year agreement includes annual wage increases, paid sick/personal days and crucial job protections such as a grievance and arbitration procedure, seniority and non-discrimination clauses, and roll-off for discipline...
Teamsters Raise $37,500 for Camp Papillon Teamsters Canada ...On Thursday, the Teamsters Union sent the profits from the Teamsters Quebec Omnium to the Director General of the Quebec Society for Disabled Children and Camp Papillon, Ronald Davidson. A total of $37 500 was donated to the camp that that, each year, welcomes close to 700 children with disabilities by giving them a chance to experience outdoor living in a secure environment...
Global Labor & Trade
Labor Will Keep Up Trade Pressure on Democrats National Journal ...Two months after the passage of controversial trade legislation that stirred tensions within the Democratic Party, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said organized labor has no plans to back down when it comes time for Congress to ratify passage of a sweeping Pacific trade deal. Asked if his group would apply pressure to Democrats on the issue—even if it came up close to the election—Trumka replied, “Yes”...
Auto parts differences between Japan, U.S. and others seen clouding prospects for next TPP ministerial talks Japan Times ...The 12 countries taking part in Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations are likely to face difficulties in arranging a ministerial meeting as Japan, the United States and others were unable to narrow the gap over the automotive sector in recent working-level talks. The participating nations are aiming to hold a ministerial session later this month or in early October, after they failed to reach a broad TPP accord at their previous ministerial discussions...
Thailand looks to join US-led TPP Today Online ...Thailand is interested in joining the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact being touted by the United States, but needs to study the terms and conditions of the new trade bloc first, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has said. “We are very interested, but we must weigh the advantages and disadvantages carefully,” Mr Somkid told the Bangkok Post...
Uruguay Pulls Out Of ‘Secret’ Talks On Trade In Services Eurasia Review ...Just a week before the deadline for submitting national offers on liberalisation of services sectors under the on-going “secret” talks for a Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez decided on September 7 to abandon the plurilateral negotiations. The Uruguayan president’s action follows a decision taken on September 5 by a large majority of the Frente Amplio, the governing leftist political coalition, against Uruguay continuing to be part of the TiSA negotiations...
Germany Closes Its Border With Austria, Hoping to Stop the Refugee Flow Mother Jones ...The German government has announced that the country is closing its border with Austria and also suspending train traffic to and from its southern neighbor, the route by which tens of thousands of refugees have entered Germany in recent days. Those borders have been open for nearly 20 years under the Schengen Agreement, which turned most of the European Union into one large free-travel zone with no internal border checks...
Brazil unveils a massive $17 billion austerity package that won't make people happy Business Insider ...Brazil announced a massive $17 billion austerity package Monday in a bid to boost its ailing economy amid a deepening crisis that has already caused a shock downgrade of its credit rating. The package -- announced at a news conference by Planning Minister Nelson Barbosa -- includes freezing public sector salary raises and hiring, entirely eliminating 10 of 39 ministries, cutting 1,000 jobs and slashing housing and health-related social spending...
Forced Labor Rampant in Uzbekistan Fall Cotton Harvest Solidarity Center ...Health care workers in Uzbekistan are toiling in cotton fields and third- and fourth-year university students are now on their way as well, forced by the government to labor in the country’s fall harvest, according to stories compiled by the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights. The nonprofit organization also is highlighting news that minors again may be forced into picking cotton...
State & Living Wage Battles
Missouri GOP governor candidates urge right-to-work override Kansas City Star ...Five likely Republican candidates for Missouri governor have sent a letter to state lawmakers urging them to overturn Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of so-called right to work legislation. The candidates are Eric Greitens, Catherine Hanaway, Peter Kinder, Randy Asbury, and John Brunner. The veto session starts Wednesday. The bill under consideration would prohibit the collection of mandatory union dues. The vote is likely to be close...
Vote postponed on minimum wage bill WIAT ...A vote on legislation to keep municipalities in Alabama from independently raising the minimum wage has been postponed in the state House of Representatives. The bill was introduced last week by Rep. David Faulkner (R – Mountain Brook), not long after the Birmingham City Council voted to raise minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, the federal rate, to $10.10 an hour, to be phased in over two years...
Anti-union group offers petition to end prevailing wage Detroit Free Press ...A group looking to end Michigan's prevailing-wage law turned in enough signatures Monday to put the issue before the Legislature. The 390,959 signatures in 44 boxes still have to go through a review with the Michigan Secretary of State to determine whether there are at least 252,523 valid signatures...
NJ's paid sick leave bill stalls North Jersey ...A bill that would require employers to give workers paid sick time off remains stalled over whether the statewide law should be the final word on what employers must do, or whether it should allow towns to pass their own laws in the future. The bill, which has the backing of committees in the Senate and the Assembly, has gotten bogged down over whether the law should supersede nine municipal paid sick leave laws...
10 Cities Where It’s Most Terrifying To Scrape By On Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...Recently, New York became the first state to approve a $15 minimum wage for the state’s 200,000 fast-food cooks and cashiers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the occasion to announce a campaign to make New York the first state in the nation to adopt the same standard for all of its workers. In fact, workers making minimum wage in New York counties have had it relatively easy, at least compared with the following 10 counties...
U.S. Labor
No deal yet: UAW, Fiat Chrysler pulled an all-nighter Detroit Free Press ...No deal yet as the UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles continued to negotiate through the night after extending the existing collective agreement on an hour-by-hour basis in anticipation of signing a tentative agreement soon. The pace of the talks slowed a bit in the predawn hours but a core group continued to soldier on. Full resumption of bargaining is expected to resume by midday...
The Verizon Standoff and the Future of Labor, Communication and Privacy Counterpunch ...On August 1, 2015, the IBEW and CWA contract with Verizon expired. However, unlike previous years, they decided to not strike, a move meant to undermine the company’s hiring and housing of scabs. This is a labor struggle that will have a major impact on the entire labor movement. “I think the days of the short strike is over. Verizon wants to break the union and is willing to overwork lower levels of management in the process,” said Dan Murphy, a retired member of the union...
ATI declines USW offer to return to bargaining table Times Online ...he United Steelworkers tried to get Allegheny Technologies back to the bargaining table ahead of a scheduled mediation Friday, but the company declined to bargain. USW spokesman Wayne Ranick said the company still stands firm to its “last, best and final” offer made more than a month ago before the company locked out thousands of union members...
This Is How Bad the Sharing Economy Is for Workers The Nation ... The “sharing” or “gig” economy—think Airbnb, Uber, and Taskrabbit—has made massive fortunes reducing labor to disassembled microtasks; unfortunately, it’s shrunk workers’ rights too. But as our jobs are redefined by labor-brokering platforms, some advocates are trying to redefine labor rights for a digital economy. Currently, the gig economy trades labor fluidly across online platforms...
How Cities Can Join the Fight Against Wage Theft Truthout ...Unpaid labor, which is sometimes referred to as wage theft, is a national problem that affects working families and deprives large amounts of money from being circulated in our communities. Estimates on the issue range as high as $30 billion in unpaid wages. The US Department of Labor alone collects hundreds of millions of dollars in wages that were originally not paid, touching only the tip of the iceberg...
Scott Walker wants to destroy what’s left of America’s unions Slate ...On Monday, the Wisconsin governor released his plan to strangle unions, titled “My Plan to Give Power to the People, Not the Union Bosses.” He would end collective bargaining for federal employees, as per his move in 2011; he would require complete disclosure for union expenditures and total compensation of union officers; he would sign a national “right to work law;” he would repeal wage controls for federal infrastructure projects; and he would eliminate the National Labor Relations Board...
Social Justice & Other News
Why Non-Voters Matter The Atlantic ...In 2014, just 41.9 percent of the voting-age citizen population of the United States voted. But the people who voted are not only in the minority, they form an unrepresentative minority. In many salient ways, voters are not like nonvoters: voters are richer, whiter, and older than other Americans. "Why Voting Matters," shows how their votes produce a government that caters to their interests—and how boosting turnout would lead to a more representative democracy...
Colleges Flush With Cash Saddle Poorest Students With Debt Common Dreams ...NYU is not the only university with a billion-dollar endowment to leave its poorest students with heavy debt loads. More than a quarter of the nation’s 60 wealthiest universities leave their low-income students owing an average of more than $20,000 in federal loans. At the University of Southern California, which has a $4.6 billion endowment, low-income students graduate with slightly more debt than NYU’s graduates: $23,375...
Ferguson "People's Report" Unveils Bold Plan To Achieve Racial Equity Common Dreams ...A panel of activists, researchers, community members, and other volunteers on Monday unveiled a new report with 189 "calls to action" to address the scourge of racial inequity in and around St. Louis, Missouri, illuminated by a year of protests following the police shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown last August. Brown's death at the hands of a white police officer galvanized new questions and demands over institutional racism in the U.S...
The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration The Atlantic ...Influenced by the civil-rights movement, Moynihan focused on the black family. He believed that an undue optimism about the pending passage of civil-rights legislation was obscuring a pressing problem: a deficit of employed black men of strong character. “The Negro Family” argued that the federal government was underestimating the damage done to black families by “three centuries of sometimes unimaginable mistreatment” as well as a “racist virus in the American blood stream”...
Thousands Of Teamsters March In New York Labor Day Parade Teamster.org ...Thousands of Teamsters in New York participated in the annual Labor Day parade on Saturday. Members from local unions representing a variety of industries including construction, motion picture, theatrical trades, warehouse, public services, sanitation, parking, brewery, soft drink, freight, funeral, moving and printing participated. In each of the local union contingents members held the new "Let's Get America Working - Union Strong, America Stronger" signs...
Atlanta Teamsters Ratify Sysco Contract, First Ever in Georgia Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 528 members, whose fight to win union representation has lasted more than 18 months, ratified a first contract that provides strong union protections for more than 400 workers at Sysco’s Atlanta facility on Saturday. “This has been an uphill struggle, but these workers stood together through it all to negotiate a strong first contract that will protect them for years to come,” said Maurice Cobb, Teamsters Local 528 President...
Port truck drivers enter 10th week of wage-theft protests Press Telegram ...Truck drivers for a transportation company serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports entered their 10th week protesting what they say are more than $6 million in wages and expenses stolen by their employer, a Teamsters official said Monday. The drivers picketing at Pacific 9 Transportation’s Carson truck yard say they should be on the pay roll as employees but are instead misclassified as independent contractors...
Teamsters Vehemently Voice Opposition to Harmful Soda Tax Local 727 ...Teamster representatives and beverage industry members showed their strength and solidarity in vehement opposition of 12th Ward Ald. George Cardenas’ proposed penny-an-ounce soda tax. Dozens of Local 727 members dressed proudly in work shirts displaying Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and other soft drink logos packed Chicago’s City Council chambers for a Health Committee hearing on Sept. 9 as opponents of the harmful tax outnumbered supporters by an estimated 40 to 1...
Local 727 Continues to Raise Hotel Industry’s Working Standards Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727’s campaign to raise wages and working standards at Chicago-area hotels recorded another victory last week when DoubleTree Arlington Heights shuttle bus drivers ratified their first union contract. The five-year agreement includes annual wage increases, paid sick/personal days and crucial job protections such as a grievance and arbitration procedure, seniority and non-discrimination clauses, and roll-off for discipline...
Teamsters Raise $37,500 for Camp Papillon Teamsters Canada ...On Thursday, the Teamsters Union sent the profits from the Teamsters Quebec Omnium to the Director General of the Quebec Society for Disabled Children and Camp Papillon, Ronald Davidson. A total of $37 500 was donated to the camp that that, each year, welcomes close to 700 children with disabilities by giving them a chance to experience outdoor living in a secure environment...
Global Labor & Trade
Labor Will Keep Up Trade Pressure on Democrats National Journal ...Two months after the passage of controversial trade legislation that stirred tensions within the Democratic Party, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said organized labor has no plans to back down when it comes time for Congress to ratify passage of a sweeping Pacific trade deal. Asked if his group would apply pressure to Democrats on the issue—even if it came up close to the election—Trumka replied, “Yes”...
Auto parts differences between Japan, U.S. and others seen clouding prospects for next TPP ministerial talks Japan Times ...The 12 countries taking part in Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations are likely to face difficulties in arranging a ministerial meeting as Japan, the United States and others were unable to narrow the gap over the automotive sector in recent working-level talks. The participating nations are aiming to hold a ministerial session later this month or in early October, after they failed to reach a broad TPP accord at their previous ministerial discussions...
Thailand looks to join US-led TPP Today Online ...Thailand is interested in joining the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact being touted by the United States, but needs to study the terms and conditions of the new trade bloc first, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has said. “We are very interested, but we must weigh the advantages and disadvantages carefully,” Mr Somkid told the Bangkok Post...
Uruguay Pulls Out Of ‘Secret’ Talks On Trade In Services Eurasia Review ...Just a week before the deadline for submitting national offers on liberalisation of services sectors under the on-going “secret” talks for a Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez decided on September 7 to abandon the plurilateral negotiations. The Uruguayan president’s action follows a decision taken on September 5 by a large majority of the Frente Amplio, the governing leftist political coalition, against Uruguay continuing to be part of the TiSA negotiations...
Germany Closes Its Border With Austria, Hoping to Stop the Refugee Flow Mother Jones ...The German government has announced that the country is closing its border with Austria and also suspending train traffic to and from its southern neighbor, the route by which tens of thousands of refugees have entered Germany in recent days. Those borders have been open for nearly 20 years under the Schengen Agreement, which turned most of the European Union into one large free-travel zone with no internal border checks...
Brazil unveils a massive $17 billion austerity package that won't make people happy Business Insider ...Brazil announced a massive $17 billion austerity package Monday in a bid to boost its ailing economy amid a deepening crisis that has already caused a shock downgrade of its credit rating. The package -- announced at a news conference by Planning Minister Nelson Barbosa -- includes freezing public sector salary raises and hiring, entirely eliminating 10 of 39 ministries, cutting 1,000 jobs and slashing housing and health-related social spending...
Forced Labor Rampant in Uzbekistan Fall Cotton Harvest Solidarity Center ...Health care workers in Uzbekistan are toiling in cotton fields and third- and fourth-year university students are now on their way as well, forced by the government to labor in the country’s fall harvest, according to stories compiled by the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights. The nonprofit organization also is highlighting news that minors again may be forced into picking cotton...
State & Living Wage Battles
Missouri GOP governor candidates urge right-to-work override Kansas City Star ...Five likely Republican candidates for Missouri governor have sent a letter to state lawmakers urging them to overturn Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of so-called right to work legislation. The candidates are Eric Greitens, Catherine Hanaway, Peter Kinder, Randy Asbury, and John Brunner. The veto session starts Wednesday. The bill under consideration would prohibit the collection of mandatory union dues. The vote is likely to be close...
Vote postponed on minimum wage bill WIAT ...A vote on legislation to keep municipalities in Alabama from independently raising the minimum wage has been postponed in the state House of Representatives. The bill was introduced last week by Rep. David Faulkner (R – Mountain Brook), not long after the Birmingham City Council voted to raise minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, the federal rate, to $10.10 an hour, to be phased in over two years...
Anti-union group offers petition to end prevailing wage Detroit Free Press ...A group looking to end Michigan's prevailing-wage law turned in enough signatures Monday to put the issue before the Legislature. The 390,959 signatures in 44 boxes still have to go through a review with the Michigan Secretary of State to determine whether there are at least 252,523 valid signatures...
NJ's paid sick leave bill stalls North Jersey ...A bill that would require employers to give workers paid sick time off remains stalled over whether the statewide law should be the final word on what employers must do, or whether it should allow towns to pass their own laws in the future. The bill, which has the backing of committees in the Senate and the Assembly, has gotten bogged down over whether the law should supersede nine municipal paid sick leave laws...
10 Cities Where It’s Most Terrifying To Scrape By On Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...Recently, New York became the first state to approve a $15 minimum wage for the state’s 200,000 fast-food cooks and cashiers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the occasion to announce a campaign to make New York the first state in the nation to adopt the same standard for all of its workers. In fact, workers making minimum wage in New York counties have had it relatively easy, at least compared with the following 10 counties...
U.S. Labor
No deal yet: UAW, Fiat Chrysler pulled an all-nighter Detroit Free Press ...No deal yet as the UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles continued to negotiate through the night after extending the existing collective agreement on an hour-by-hour basis in anticipation of signing a tentative agreement soon. The pace of the talks slowed a bit in the predawn hours but a core group continued to soldier on. Full resumption of bargaining is expected to resume by midday...
The Verizon Standoff and the Future of Labor, Communication and Privacy Counterpunch ...On August 1, 2015, the IBEW and CWA contract with Verizon expired. However, unlike previous years, they decided to not strike, a move meant to undermine the company’s hiring and housing of scabs. This is a labor struggle that will have a major impact on the entire labor movement. “I think the days of the short strike is over. Verizon wants to break the union and is willing to overwork lower levels of management in the process,” said Dan Murphy, a retired member of the union...
ATI declines USW offer to return to bargaining table Times Online ...he United Steelworkers tried to get Allegheny Technologies back to the bargaining table ahead of a scheduled mediation Friday, but the company declined to bargain. USW spokesman Wayne Ranick said the company still stands firm to its “last, best and final” offer made more than a month ago before the company locked out thousands of union members...
This Is How Bad the Sharing Economy Is for Workers The Nation ... The “sharing” or “gig” economy—think Airbnb, Uber, and Taskrabbit—has made massive fortunes reducing labor to disassembled microtasks; unfortunately, it’s shrunk workers’ rights too. But as our jobs are redefined by labor-brokering platforms, some advocates are trying to redefine labor rights for a digital economy. Currently, the gig economy trades labor fluidly across online platforms...
How Cities Can Join the Fight Against Wage Theft Truthout ...Unpaid labor, which is sometimes referred to as wage theft, is a national problem that affects working families and deprives large amounts of money from being circulated in our communities. Estimates on the issue range as high as $30 billion in unpaid wages. The US Department of Labor alone collects hundreds of millions of dollars in wages that were originally not paid, touching only the tip of the iceberg...
Scott Walker wants to destroy what’s left of America’s unions Slate ...On Monday, the Wisconsin governor released his plan to strangle unions, titled “My Plan to Give Power to the People, Not the Union Bosses.” He would end collective bargaining for federal employees, as per his move in 2011; he would require complete disclosure for union expenditures and total compensation of union officers; he would sign a national “right to work law;” he would repeal wage controls for federal infrastructure projects; and he would eliminate the National Labor Relations Board...
Social Justice & Other News
Why Non-Voters Matter The Atlantic ...In 2014, just 41.9 percent of the voting-age citizen population of the United States voted. But the people who voted are not only in the minority, they form an unrepresentative minority. In many salient ways, voters are not like nonvoters: voters are richer, whiter, and older than other Americans. "Why Voting Matters," shows how their votes produce a government that caters to their interests—and how boosting turnout would lead to a more representative democracy...
Colleges Flush With Cash Saddle Poorest Students With Debt Common Dreams ...NYU is not the only university with a billion-dollar endowment to leave its poorest students with heavy debt loads. More than a quarter of the nation’s 60 wealthiest universities leave their low-income students owing an average of more than $20,000 in federal loans. At the University of Southern California, which has a $4.6 billion endowment, low-income students graduate with slightly more debt than NYU’s graduates: $23,375...
Ferguson "People's Report" Unveils Bold Plan To Achieve Racial Equity Common Dreams ...A panel of activists, researchers, community members, and other volunteers on Monday unveiled a new report with 189 "calls to action" to address the scourge of racial inequity in and around St. Louis, Missouri, illuminated by a year of protests following the police shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown last August. Brown's death at the hands of a white police officer galvanized new questions and demands over institutional racism in the U.S...
The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration The Atlantic ...Influenced by the civil-rights movement, Moynihan focused on the black family. He believed that an undue optimism about the pending passage of civil-rights legislation was obscuring a pressing problem: a deficit of employed black men of strong character. “The Negro Family” argued that the federal government was underestimating the damage done to black families by “three centuries of sometimes unimaginable mistreatment” as well as a “racist virus in the American blood stream”...
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.01.15
Teamsters
EVSC Board and Teamsters working toward agreement, schedule more meetings Courier & Press ...Despite still lacking official agreements, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey believes the union and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. School Board are making progress in negotiating contracts for the five EVSC employee groups represented by Local 215. Whobrey said the employee groups — bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, special education assistants and bus aides — have issues in common and issues specific to their units...
Bipartisan Panel Including DOT Secretary Foxx, Teamsters President Hoffa and Mississippi Governor Barbour to Tackle Infrastructure Issues, Announce New Funding Campaign PR Newswire ...Infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, and funds to fix it are disappearing. It's time to address the immediate need to fund infrastructure building, maintenance and repair. That's the message to be presented by Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour at a National Press Club newsmaker press conference on September 9...
This Labor Ruling Could Give a Big Boost to the Fight For 15 The Nation ...The Teamsters had sought to organize a union election for Leadpoint workers—comprised of “part-time, and on-call sorters, screen cleaners, and housekeepers” on a short-term contract at a BFI recycling plant. The effort was thwarted by a regional labor-relations board and then appealed. The Teamsters argued that the narrow definition of joint employer allowed a company to act like a regular boss without upholding traditional employers’ responsibilities...
Teamsters Local 357 Prepares Counter-Proposal to Republic Airways (RJET) Recent Offer Street Insider ...Teamsters Local 357 prepared a counter-proposal to Republic Airways latest offer. The announcement follows news that Local 357 would not put Republic Airways' recent so-called 'LBFO' offer to a vote, which sent shares of the carrier sharply lower. "As you know, on Tuesday the Local 357 EBoard announced their position that the Company's August 20th, 2015 offer should not be sent out for a vote. There are many reasons in support of their decision"...
Global Labor & Trade
As TPP Grinds To A Halt, Asian Countries Start Focusing On Rival Trade Agreement RCEP TechDirt ...that final breakthrough and completion never happened. Instead, we had the "Maui meltdown", when a whole bunch of old and new problems raised their heads, with the result that TPP may have missed a key deadline that means it won't be happening soon, if ever...
Poster woman for the war against the U.S.-led TPP Japan Times ...For Yoko Inoue, art is like a bomb: Throw it into a crowded street and the truth just might explode out of it. The Japanese-born, New York-based multimedia and performance artist takes aim at society’s assumptions about commerce and culture using works rooted in intensive research. This time, her target is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The promised ‘transparency’ around TTIP has been a sham (opinion) The Guardian ...Beyond the lack of transparency, the real trouble with TTIP and the EU’s multitude of bilateral trade deals is not in the method, but in substance. Europe should put its weight behind a multilateral trading system based on open markets, fairness, sustainability and democracy. An equitable reform of the World Trade Organisation rules is clearly better for business...
Germany bullied France into policy of austerity, says Stiglitz BDLive ...France has been intimidated by Germany into pursuing an economic policy that is not working, Nobel prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz said on Monday. "There is a kind of intimidation," Mr Stiglitz, an outspoken opponent of austerity policy, said of the influence of Germany over the policies pursued by President Francois Hollande...
Indian unions to hold one-day national strike WSWS.org ...Tens of millions of Indian workers will join a one-day national strike this Wednesday, September 2, in protest against the pro-investor policies of the 15-month-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. Ten labor federations are sponsoring Wednesday’s strike. Prominent among them are the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)...
Airline Agrees To Stop Firing Flight Attendants For Getting Married, But Only After UN Investigation Think Progress ...Flight attendants who work for Qatar Airways will no longer risk losing their jobs if they decide to get married or pregnant. The International Labour Organisation, the labor agency at the United Nations, concluded a yearlong investigation in June, finding that the airline’s policies required workers to notify the company when they became pregnant and were often fired once they did...
State & Living Wage Battles
Religious leaders in Puerto Rico condemn austerity, ask Fed for help Reuters ...Religious leaders in Puerto Rico called on Monday for the island's government and its lenders to avoid austerity measures and for the Federal Reserve to step in with assistance. The religious leaders on the mostly Catholic island, working with Jubilee USA Network, a religious development organization in Washington, D.C., want a solution to Puerto Rico's debt crisis that invests in the island's economy, does not hurt the poor and brings about more budget transparency...
Scott to head to Kentucky to lure businesses next month Orlando Sentinel ...Gov. Rick Scott has a message for business owners in the Bluegrass State: the sun shines brighter in Florida than on your old Kentucky home. “Florida’s business climate is better than Kentucky’s in almost every way. Kentucky leaders continue blocking Kentucky counties from becoming right-to-work areas," Scott stated. Scott has targeted businesses in other states with Democratic governors in the past...
Minimum-wage debate heats up in Pennsylvania Times Online ...Nineteen U.S. cities and counties experienced mandated wage increases this year; 29 states and Washington, D.C., already require employers to pay workers more than $7.25. Pennsylvania isn’t part of this group – yet. There are five bills pending in the state Legislature proposing to raise the minimum wage...
Sen. Bill Nelson calls for independent redistricting commission for Florida Bradenton Herald ...The repeated failures of the Florida Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional districts is a sure sign that Florida needs to create an independent commission to do the work, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said during a stop in Tallahassee on Monday. “Seems to me we need an independent commission for future reapportionment so that you stop this self-serving process of drawing districts for your own self interest,” said Nelson, a Democrat...
U.S. Labor
Workers at Trump Taj Mahal Begin Preparations for Strike In These Times ...While Donald Trump's push for the Republican nomination for president is showing no signs of slowing, worker unrest at a hotel and casino that bear his name appears near the boiling point. Strike preparations have begun for over 1,100 non-gaming casino employees at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 54, gathered near their local headquarters last Tuesday...
USW to keep negotiating to avoid work stoppage NWI Times ...The United Steelworkers union wants more time to negotiate rather than go on strike at Northwest Indiana's largest steel mills. The union reached a "continue to work agreement" with ArcelorMittal, meaning steelworkers won't hit the picket line when the contract expires Tuesday with no new bargain in place. The USW also told U.S. Steel it would extend talks to avoid a work stoppage...
The People Who Rebuilt New Orleans Are Still Waiting to Get Paid Alternet ...During a decade of fast-paced and rough-and-tumble post-Katrina reconstruction, contractors have stolen an estimated aggregate fortune worth millions of dollars from migrant workers like Vasquez. Accounts by him, other migrant workers, employment lawyers, workers’ advocates, and others paint a picture of systematic and multifaceted exploitation...
UAW-GM workers approve strike authorization Detroit News ...General Motors Co. union members have passed a strike authorization by 97 percent, UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a letter Monday. Local unions representing GM’s about 50,800 hourly workers held strike authorization votes within the past few weeks. The votes are procedural and give the union the ability to call for a strike if necessary. It does not mean there will be a strike...
Social Justice & Other News
Overruling 'God's Authority,' Supreme Court Affirms Gay Marriage Ruling Common Dreams ...Backing up this year's landmark equality ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Kentucky county clerk's request to deny issuing same-sex marriage certificates on the grounds of religious preference. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis could not 'opt out' of her duties as a public official because of her personal objections...
How Katrina Sparked Reform in a Troubled Police Department The Atlantic ...The New Orleans Police Department had a reputation for corruption long before Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the summer of 2005. For decades, the department was infected by a culture of discrimination, abuse, and lawlessness. That culture spilled out into the open in the week after the storm. During that brief period, police officers shot and killed three unarmed civilians...
People Are Quicker to Shoot a Black Target Than a White Target Mother Jones ...According to a new report from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, racial bias can affect the likelihood of people pulling the trigger of a gun—even if shooters don't realize they were biased to begin with. Researchers found that, in studies conducted over the past decade, participants were more likely to shoot targets depicting black people than those depicting white people...
Fear Canada? Slate ...Continuing to grope his way toward a semi-coherent immigration policy, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker suggested Sunday that the idea of building a fence along America’s 5,525-mile border with Canada is a “legitimate issue.” Walker has stuck with his ridiculous position, saying he’s responding to concerns he’s heard from law enforcement. The border fence idea may be Trump-inspired lunacy, but Walker is hardly the first U.S. politician to draw attention to the threat emanating from America’s neighbor to the north...
EVSC Board and Teamsters working toward agreement, schedule more meetings Courier & Press ...Despite still lacking official agreements, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey believes the union and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. School Board are making progress in negotiating contracts for the five EVSC employee groups represented by Local 215. Whobrey said the employee groups — bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, special education assistants and bus aides — have issues in common and issues specific to their units...
Bipartisan Panel Including DOT Secretary Foxx, Teamsters President Hoffa and Mississippi Governor Barbour to Tackle Infrastructure Issues, Announce New Funding Campaign PR Newswire ...Infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, and funds to fix it are disappearing. It's time to address the immediate need to fund infrastructure building, maintenance and repair. That's the message to be presented by Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour at a National Press Club newsmaker press conference on September 9...
This Labor Ruling Could Give a Big Boost to the Fight For 15 The Nation ...The Teamsters had sought to organize a union election for Leadpoint workers—comprised of “part-time, and on-call sorters, screen cleaners, and housekeepers” on a short-term contract at a BFI recycling plant. The effort was thwarted by a regional labor-relations board and then appealed. The Teamsters argued that the narrow definition of joint employer allowed a company to act like a regular boss without upholding traditional employers’ responsibilities...
Teamsters Local 357 Prepares Counter-Proposal to Republic Airways (RJET) Recent Offer Street Insider ...Teamsters Local 357 prepared a counter-proposal to Republic Airways latest offer. The announcement follows news that Local 357 would not put Republic Airways' recent so-called 'LBFO' offer to a vote, which sent shares of the carrier sharply lower. "As you know, on Tuesday the Local 357 EBoard announced their position that the Company's August 20th, 2015 offer should not be sent out for a vote. There are many reasons in support of their decision"...
Global Labor & Trade
As TPP Grinds To A Halt, Asian Countries Start Focusing On Rival Trade Agreement RCEP TechDirt ...that final breakthrough and completion never happened. Instead, we had the "Maui meltdown", when a whole bunch of old and new problems raised their heads, with the result that TPP may have missed a key deadline that means it won't be happening soon, if ever...
Poster woman for the war against the U.S.-led TPP Japan Times ...For Yoko Inoue, art is like a bomb: Throw it into a crowded street and the truth just might explode out of it. The Japanese-born, New York-based multimedia and performance artist takes aim at society’s assumptions about commerce and culture using works rooted in intensive research. This time, her target is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The promised ‘transparency’ around TTIP has been a sham (opinion) The Guardian ...Beyond the lack of transparency, the real trouble with TTIP and the EU’s multitude of bilateral trade deals is not in the method, but in substance. Europe should put its weight behind a multilateral trading system based on open markets, fairness, sustainability and democracy. An equitable reform of the World Trade Organisation rules is clearly better for business...
Germany bullied France into policy of austerity, says Stiglitz BDLive ...France has been intimidated by Germany into pursuing an economic policy that is not working, Nobel prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz said on Monday. "There is a kind of intimidation," Mr Stiglitz, an outspoken opponent of austerity policy, said of the influence of Germany over the policies pursued by President Francois Hollande...
Indian unions to hold one-day national strike WSWS.org ...Tens of millions of Indian workers will join a one-day national strike this Wednesday, September 2, in protest against the pro-investor policies of the 15-month-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. Ten labor federations are sponsoring Wednesday’s strike. Prominent among them are the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)...
Airline Agrees To Stop Firing Flight Attendants For Getting Married, But Only After UN Investigation Think Progress ...Flight attendants who work for Qatar Airways will no longer risk losing their jobs if they decide to get married or pregnant. The International Labour Organisation, the labor agency at the United Nations, concluded a yearlong investigation in June, finding that the airline’s policies required workers to notify the company when they became pregnant and were often fired once they did...
State & Living Wage Battles
Religious leaders in Puerto Rico condemn austerity, ask Fed for help Reuters ...Religious leaders in Puerto Rico called on Monday for the island's government and its lenders to avoid austerity measures and for the Federal Reserve to step in with assistance. The religious leaders on the mostly Catholic island, working with Jubilee USA Network, a religious development organization in Washington, D.C., want a solution to Puerto Rico's debt crisis that invests in the island's economy, does not hurt the poor and brings about more budget transparency...
Scott to head to Kentucky to lure businesses next month Orlando Sentinel ...Gov. Rick Scott has a message for business owners in the Bluegrass State: the sun shines brighter in Florida than on your old Kentucky home. “Florida’s business climate is better than Kentucky’s in almost every way. Kentucky leaders continue blocking Kentucky counties from becoming right-to-work areas," Scott stated. Scott has targeted businesses in other states with Democratic governors in the past...
Minimum-wage debate heats up in Pennsylvania Times Online ...Nineteen U.S. cities and counties experienced mandated wage increases this year; 29 states and Washington, D.C., already require employers to pay workers more than $7.25. Pennsylvania isn’t part of this group – yet. There are five bills pending in the state Legislature proposing to raise the minimum wage...
Sen. Bill Nelson calls for independent redistricting commission for Florida Bradenton Herald ...The repeated failures of the Florida Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional districts is a sure sign that Florida needs to create an independent commission to do the work, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said during a stop in Tallahassee on Monday. “Seems to me we need an independent commission for future reapportionment so that you stop this self-serving process of drawing districts for your own self interest,” said Nelson, a Democrat...
U.S. Labor
Workers at Trump Taj Mahal Begin Preparations for Strike In These Times ...While Donald Trump's push for the Republican nomination for president is showing no signs of slowing, worker unrest at a hotel and casino that bear his name appears near the boiling point. Strike preparations have begun for over 1,100 non-gaming casino employees at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 54, gathered near their local headquarters last Tuesday...
USW to keep negotiating to avoid work stoppage NWI Times ...The United Steelworkers union wants more time to negotiate rather than go on strike at Northwest Indiana's largest steel mills. The union reached a "continue to work agreement" with ArcelorMittal, meaning steelworkers won't hit the picket line when the contract expires Tuesday with no new bargain in place. The USW also told U.S. Steel it would extend talks to avoid a work stoppage...
The People Who Rebuilt New Orleans Are Still Waiting to Get Paid Alternet ...During a decade of fast-paced and rough-and-tumble post-Katrina reconstruction, contractors have stolen an estimated aggregate fortune worth millions of dollars from migrant workers like Vasquez. Accounts by him, other migrant workers, employment lawyers, workers’ advocates, and others paint a picture of systematic and multifaceted exploitation...
UAW-GM workers approve strike authorization Detroit News ...General Motors Co. union members have passed a strike authorization by 97 percent, UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a letter Monday. Local unions representing GM’s about 50,800 hourly workers held strike authorization votes within the past few weeks. The votes are procedural and give the union the ability to call for a strike if necessary. It does not mean there will be a strike...
Social Justice & Other News
Overruling 'God's Authority,' Supreme Court Affirms Gay Marriage Ruling Common Dreams ...Backing up this year's landmark equality ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Kentucky county clerk's request to deny issuing same-sex marriage certificates on the grounds of religious preference. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis could not 'opt out' of her duties as a public official because of her personal objections...
How Katrina Sparked Reform in a Troubled Police Department The Atlantic ...The New Orleans Police Department had a reputation for corruption long before Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the summer of 2005. For decades, the department was infected by a culture of discrimination, abuse, and lawlessness. That culture spilled out into the open in the week after the storm. During that brief period, police officers shot and killed three unarmed civilians...
People Are Quicker to Shoot a Black Target Than a White Target Mother Jones ...According to a new report from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, racial bias can affect the likelihood of people pulling the trigger of a gun—even if shooters don't realize they were biased to begin with. Researchers found that, in studies conducted over the past decade, participants were more likely to shoot targets depicting black people than those depicting white people...
Fear Canada? Slate ...Continuing to grope his way toward a semi-coherent immigration policy, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker suggested Sunday that the idea of building a fence along America’s 5,525-mile border with Canada is a “legitimate issue.” Walker has stuck with his ridiculous position, saying he’s responding to concerns he’s heard from law enforcement. The border fence idea may be Trump-inspired lunacy, but Walker is hardly the first U.S. politician to draw attention to the threat emanating from America’s neighbor to the north...
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Today's Teamster News 06.09.15
Teamsters
Local 200 Welcomes Super Aggregate Drivers Teamster.org ...On Saturday May 30, 2015 truck drivers from Super Aggregate voted to become members of Teamsters Local 200 in Milwaukee.
“In an environment of a right to work state there are still employers that see the benefit of a Unionized workforce and employees that know the benefits of being a Teamster,” said Teamsters Local 200 Secretary-Treasurer Tom Millonzi...
In Memoriam: Walter Shea Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is saddened to announce the passing of Walter Shea, a longtime Teamster leader and former International Vice President. Shea had a rich life within the union and kept busy with political appointments. He was not only an International Vice President from 1982 to 1992, he served as an Executive Assistant to four General Presidents of the Teamsters Union...
Teamsters, US car-haulers start national contract talks JOC ...The Teamsters union and U.S. car-hauling trucking companies are preparing to negotiate a new multi-year contract at a time when the automotive business, and car-hauling, is booming. The union and management group exchanged proposals last week and will start negotiations on the National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement June 10, the Teamsters said...
L.A.-Based Location Managers Reach 3-Year Deal With Producers Variety ...The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and Teamsters Local 399 have reached a tentative agreement on a successor contract covering location managers. The tentative deal — which covers several hundred members in the Los Angeles area — was reached two weeks after Hollywood Teamsters and four other Basic Crafts Unions reached a tentative agreement with producers on a three-year successor deal...
Disney World characters complain after park warns not to reveal identities The Guardian ...The union representing actors who portray Mickey, Goofy and other characters at Walt Disney World filed a complaint on Friday with a national labor board, challenging a policy that it says prevents the performers from revealing which animated figures they portray. Teamsters Local 385 filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging Disney was committing an unfair labor practice...
NLRB Says Federal Labor Law Doesn't Apply To Indian-Owned Casino Protected by Treaty Bloomberg ...The National Labor Relations Board ruled June 4 that the Chickasaw Nation's tribal sovereignty blocks the board from asserting jurisdiction over unfair labor practice charges against a tribe-controlled casino. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 886 alleged that the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla., violated the National Labor Relations Act by telling workers they weren't protected by the federal labor law...
Global Labor & Trade
Week ahead: House trade fight heats up The Hill ...The fight over fast-track trade authority is coming to a head, with a House vote possible as early as Thursday. President Obama and Republican leaders are edging closer to securing the votes needed to pass trade promotion authority. The legislation would help Obama close the deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation economic pact...
Obama's Trade Quest In Congress Trails Him Across Atlantic Associated Press ...President Barack Obama's politically fraught trade quest in Washington trailed him across the Atlantic Sunday, as he met with world leaders anxiously watching a debate on Capitol Hill that could impact the status of economic pacts with the Asia-Pacific and Europe. The leaders spent more than an hour privately discussing trade issues as they opened a two-day meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations...
Labor runs ads slamming Rep. Kathleen Rice for backing trade bill Politico ...Big Labor is taking aim at another Democrat for supporting a contentious trade bill. The AFL-CIO has made a six-figure ad buy in New York against Rep. Kathleen Rice, slamming the freshman lawmaker for pledging to vote for legislation giving President Barack Obama the power to “fast track” trade deals through Congress. Rice initially said she opposed the controversial measure, but over the weekend, she announced she would support the bill...
Will TPP Kill the Post Office? Huffington Post ...As if we needed yet another reason for the public to see the text of TPP before Congress pre approves it with fast track, here is a question: Does the TPP contain provisions that corporations can use to force us to privatize "public" things like our Post Office, public schools, public roads etc., so they can replace them with profit-making enterprises that provide a return only to the wealthy few?...
Peru’s story haunts the TPP The Hill ...From the tragic massacre on “Devil’s Curve” six years ago to the surge in illegal logging to growing violence and threats against environmental defenders to the recent rollback of environmental and labor protections to the ISDS attacks on our environmental policies, Peru’s story suggests that it is time to rethink how we approach trade agreements before “Fast Tracking” more of the same via the TPP...
10 Reasons the TPP Is Not a 'Progressive' Trade Agreement (opinion) Huffington Post ...One must seriously question what President Obama and his corporate allies believe to be the definition of "progressive." History shows the very opposite of progress when it comes to these democratic sovereignty-shredding and job-exporting corporate-driven trade treaties -- unless progress is referring to fulfilling the deepest wishes of runaway global corporations...
Local 200 Welcomes Super Aggregate Drivers Teamster.org ...On Saturday May 30, 2015 truck drivers from Super Aggregate voted to become members of Teamsters Local 200 in Milwaukee.
“In an environment of a right to work state there are still employers that see the benefit of a Unionized workforce and employees that know the benefits of being a Teamster,” said Teamsters Local 200 Secretary-Treasurer Tom Millonzi...
In Memoriam: Walter Shea Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is saddened to announce the passing of Walter Shea, a longtime Teamster leader and former International Vice President. Shea had a rich life within the union and kept busy with political appointments. He was not only an International Vice President from 1982 to 1992, he served as an Executive Assistant to four General Presidents of the Teamsters Union...
Teamsters, US car-haulers start national contract talks JOC ...The Teamsters union and U.S. car-hauling trucking companies are preparing to negotiate a new multi-year contract at a time when the automotive business, and car-hauling, is booming. The union and management group exchanged proposals last week and will start negotiations on the National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement June 10, the Teamsters said...
L.A.-Based Location Managers Reach 3-Year Deal With Producers Variety ...The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and Teamsters Local 399 have reached a tentative agreement on a successor contract covering location managers. The tentative deal — which covers several hundred members in the Los Angeles area — was reached two weeks after Hollywood Teamsters and four other Basic Crafts Unions reached a tentative agreement with producers on a three-year successor deal...
Disney World characters complain after park warns not to reveal identities The Guardian ...The union representing actors who portray Mickey, Goofy and other characters at Walt Disney World filed a complaint on Friday with a national labor board, challenging a policy that it says prevents the performers from revealing which animated figures they portray. Teamsters Local 385 filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging Disney was committing an unfair labor practice...
NLRB Says Federal Labor Law Doesn't Apply To Indian-Owned Casino Protected by Treaty Bloomberg ...The National Labor Relations Board ruled June 4 that the Chickasaw Nation's tribal sovereignty blocks the board from asserting jurisdiction over unfair labor practice charges against a tribe-controlled casino. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 886 alleged that the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla., violated the National Labor Relations Act by telling workers they weren't protected by the federal labor law...
Global Labor & Trade
Week ahead: House trade fight heats up The Hill ...The fight over fast-track trade authority is coming to a head, with a House vote possible as early as Thursday. President Obama and Republican leaders are edging closer to securing the votes needed to pass trade promotion authority. The legislation would help Obama close the deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation economic pact...
Obama's Trade Quest In Congress Trails Him Across Atlantic Associated Press ...President Barack Obama's politically fraught trade quest in Washington trailed him across the Atlantic Sunday, as he met with world leaders anxiously watching a debate on Capitol Hill that could impact the status of economic pacts with the Asia-Pacific and Europe. The leaders spent more than an hour privately discussing trade issues as they opened a two-day meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations...
Labor runs ads slamming Rep. Kathleen Rice for backing trade bill Politico ...Big Labor is taking aim at another Democrat for supporting a contentious trade bill. The AFL-CIO has made a six-figure ad buy in New York against Rep. Kathleen Rice, slamming the freshman lawmaker for pledging to vote for legislation giving President Barack Obama the power to “fast track” trade deals through Congress. Rice initially said she opposed the controversial measure, but over the weekend, she announced she would support the bill...
Will TPP Kill the Post Office? Huffington Post ...As if we needed yet another reason for the public to see the text of TPP before Congress pre approves it with fast track, here is a question: Does the TPP contain provisions that corporations can use to force us to privatize "public" things like our Post Office, public schools, public roads etc., so they can replace them with profit-making enterprises that provide a return only to the wealthy few?...
Peru’s story haunts the TPP The Hill ...From the tragic massacre on “Devil’s Curve” six years ago to the surge in illegal logging to growing violence and threats against environmental defenders to the recent rollback of environmental and labor protections to the ISDS attacks on our environmental policies, Peru’s story suggests that it is time to rethink how we approach trade agreements before “Fast Tracking” more of the same via the TPP...
10 Reasons the TPP Is Not a 'Progressive' Trade Agreement (opinion) Huffington Post ...One must seriously question what President Obama and his corporate allies believe to be the definition of "progressive." History shows the very opposite of progress when it comes to these democratic sovereignty-shredding and job-exporting corporate-driven trade treaties -- unless progress is referring to fulfilling the deepest wishes of runaway global corporations...
Sherritt Workers in Madagascar Mull Strike Action Over Job Cuts Bloomberg ...Workers at Sherritt International Corp.’s Ambatovy nickel project in Madagascar may go on strike after job cuts at the mine, a labor-union official said. The company, based in Toronto, said on June 4 the joint venture cut about 12 percent of its workforce, resulting in about 1,100 employees and contractors having their employment contracts suspended or being demobilized...
German Child Care Workers’ Strike Brings Debate on Priorities New York Times ...The strike by child care workers is the latest in a series of work actions that is putting Germany on track to have the most days lost to labor action in nearly a decade. By economists’ calculations, 350,000 work days have been lost in 2015 — a record that would seem more likely in France than in Germany. The number of days missed because of walkouts is already more than twice the number for all of 2014, according to the Cologne Institute for Economic Research...
State & Living Wage Battles
Lawmakers kill bill requiring predictable work hours Sacramento Business Journal ...Legislation that would have penalized large food and retail employers for making late changes to employee work schedules was held in the Assembly on Thursday and is finished for the year. Assemblyman David Chiu said in a statement that he would bring back Assembly Bill 357 next year...
Kentucky Governor Raises Minimum Wage With Executive Order New York Times ...Gov. Steven L. Beshear of Kentucky signed an executive order on Monday raising the hourly minimum wage for certain state employees to $10.10. The change, which angered state Republicans and drew praise from the governor’s fellow Democrats, affects almost 800 employees, including those making the current hourly minimum of $7.25...
Oregon Democrats to propose minimum wage increase this week Oregon Live ...emocrats will put forth a long-anticipated proposal this week to raise Oregon's minimum wage, House Speaker Tina Kotek said Monday. Kotek, D-Portland, told reporters she plans to introduce a bill that would incrementally raise the minimum wage over the next few years. She declined to provide specifics, including how high the new minimum wage would be under the proposal...
Prevailing wage calculation riles lawmakers Bluefield Daily Telegraph ...Prevailing wage once again raised lawmakers’ hackles, on Monday, as the method to calculate the wage developed by Workforce West Virginia was roundly criticized by Republicans on the Joint Committee on Government and Finance. Democrats on the committee said it was a matter of sour grapes since the method may not give Republicans the result they wanted - lower prevailing wages on public projects...
Barack Obama poised to hike wages for millions Politico ...The Obama administration is on the verge of possibly doubling the salary levels that would require employers to pay overtime in the most ambitious government intervention on wages in a decade. And it doesn’t need Congress’s permission. As early as this week, the Labor Department could propose a rule that would raise the current overtime threshold — $23,660 – to as much as $52,000...
Proposal for $15 minimum wage qualifies for Tacoma ballot Seattle Times ...An initiative to raise Tacoma’s minimum wage to $15 an hour has qualified for the November ballot. The Pierce County auditor’s staff has verified that petitions submitted by the 15 Now group contained 3,231 valid signatures of registered Tacoma voters, The News Tribune newspaper reported...
U.S. Labor
Federal contract workers strike outside U.S. courthouse in downtown Dallas Dallas Morning News ...A group of federal contract workers who handle security inside the Earle Cabell courthouse in downtown Dallas are on strike, complaining of unfair labor practices that have led to inflexible work schedules. The strike by the Local 293 branch of the United Government Security Officers of America (UGSOA) union began with a picket line outside the federal courthouse on May 26...
Verizon’s Biggest Union Claims Carrier Isn’t Fixing Broken Landlines Wall Street Journal ...Verizon Communications Inc.’s largest union says the company is refusing to fix broken landlines. The Communications Workers of America, which represents about 35,000 Verizon employees, says Verizon isn’t repairing copper lines in some areas in the Northeast. Instead, the union says, the carrier is steering customers to buy a wireless home phone service called Voice Link...
Black-White Unemployment Gap Widens In U.S. Chicago Defender ...he Black unemployment rate last month was nearly twice the national average and more than double the unemployment rate for Whites, according to jobs figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The statistics show the unemployment rate for Blacks at 10.2 percent in May, up from 9.6 percent in April. The unemployment rate for Whites has been at 4.7 percent since February...
Miscellaneous
Obama administration stops work on immigrant program Washington Post ...A series of legal setbacks have halted the government’s intensive preparations to move forward with President Obama’s executive actions shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, even as community organizations continue a rapid push to get ready for the programs, according to U.S. officials and immigrant advocacy groups...
Community Condemns Pool Prejudice in McKinney, Texas Common Dreams ...More than a thousand outraged community members took to the streets of McKinney, Texas on Monday night, two days after a local police officer assaulted a number of black and brown teenagers attending a pool party. Unlike other recent acts of police violence in Baltimore and Ferguson, this occurred at a private pool, in a gated community within an affluent suburb of Dallas, Texas—raising particular questions about wealth and race...
GM Has Not Paid for Its Crimes Truthout ...Last year, GM officials reluctantly estimated that faulty ignition switches could be linked to some 13 deaths from crashes involving several of their smaller car models. A year later, that number has reached 104, according to an announcement by the company compensation fund on May 18 - leaving family members of those killed and injured in crashes involving GM cars to ask just how many more deaths were the result of corporate negligence...
Student Debt Strikers Call Fed's Loan Forgiveness Plan a Bureaucratic Sham Common Dreams ...Despite a new announcement by the U.S. Department of Education that it will begin a process of debt-forgiveness for students cheated into high-priced loans by predatory for-profit colleges, one of the groups most responsible for lobbying to have the debts erased is reacting bitterly, saying the plan is more complicated than it needs to be and that those already victimized by one government-backed scheme should not be put through the ringer for a second time...
German Child Care Workers’ Strike Brings Debate on Priorities New York Times ...The strike by child care workers is the latest in a series of work actions that is putting Germany on track to have the most days lost to labor action in nearly a decade. By economists’ calculations, 350,000 work days have been lost in 2015 — a record that would seem more likely in France than in Germany. The number of days missed because of walkouts is already more than twice the number for all of 2014, according to the Cologne Institute for Economic Research...
State & Living Wage Battles
Lawmakers kill bill requiring predictable work hours Sacramento Business Journal ...Legislation that would have penalized large food and retail employers for making late changes to employee work schedules was held in the Assembly on Thursday and is finished for the year. Assemblyman David Chiu said in a statement that he would bring back Assembly Bill 357 next year...
Kentucky Governor Raises Minimum Wage With Executive Order New York Times ...Gov. Steven L. Beshear of Kentucky signed an executive order on Monday raising the hourly minimum wage for certain state employees to $10.10. The change, which angered state Republicans and drew praise from the governor’s fellow Democrats, affects almost 800 employees, including those making the current hourly minimum of $7.25...
Oregon Democrats to propose minimum wage increase this week Oregon Live ...emocrats will put forth a long-anticipated proposal this week to raise Oregon's minimum wage, House Speaker Tina Kotek said Monday. Kotek, D-Portland, told reporters she plans to introduce a bill that would incrementally raise the minimum wage over the next few years. She declined to provide specifics, including how high the new minimum wage would be under the proposal...
Prevailing wage calculation riles lawmakers Bluefield Daily Telegraph ...Prevailing wage once again raised lawmakers’ hackles, on Monday, as the method to calculate the wage developed by Workforce West Virginia was roundly criticized by Republicans on the Joint Committee on Government and Finance. Democrats on the committee said it was a matter of sour grapes since the method may not give Republicans the result they wanted - lower prevailing wages on public projects...
Barack Obama poised to hike wages for millions Politico ...The Obama administration is on the verge of possibly doubling the salary levels that would require employers to pay overtime in the most ambitious government intervention on wages in a decade. And it doesn’t need Congress’s permission. As early as this week, the Labor Department could propose a rule that would raise the current overtime threshold — $23,660 – to as much as $52,000...
Proposal for $15 minimum wage qualifies for Tacoma ballot Seattle Times ...An initiative to raise Tacoma’s minimum wage to $15 an hour has qualified for the November ballot. The Pierce County auditor’s staff has verified that petitions submitted by the 15 Now group contained 3,231 valid signatures of registered Tacoma voters, The News Tribune newspaper reported...
States Confront Wide Budget Gaps Even After Years of Recovery New York Times ...Though the national economy is in its sixth year of recovery from the recession, many states are still facing major funding gaps that have locked legislatures in protracted battles with governors. In some states, lawmakers have gone into overtime with unresolved budgets...
Speakers cite burdens of new voter ID law Charlotte Observer ...The N.C. General Assembly in 2013 passed the law, requiring voters to present certain types of photo ID issued by the government or by a federally recognized tribe in order to vote. It takes effect in January 2016 and has been challenged in state and federal courts. One speaker, Mary Riordan, said her last name has changed three times since she’s been eligible to vote, and she didn’t always submit proof of the change to the Board of Elections in a timely manner...
Speakers cite burdens of new voter ID law Charlotte Observer ...The N.C. General Assembly in 2013 passed the law, requiring voters to present certain types of photo ID issued by the government or by a federally recognized tribe in order to vote. It takes effect in January 2016 and has been challenged in state and federal courts. One speaker, Mary Riordan, said her last name has changed three times since she’s been eligible to vote, and she didn’t always submit proof of the change to the Board of Elections in a timely manner...
U.S. Labor
Federal contract workers strike outside U.S. courthouse in downtown Dallas Dallas Morning News ...A group of federal contract workers who handle security inside the Earle Cabell courthouse in downtown Dallas are on strike, complaining of unfair labor practices that have led to inflexible work schedules. The strike by the Local 293 branch of the United Government Security Officers of America (UGSOA) union began with a picket line outside the federal courthouse on May 26...
Verizon’s Biggest Union Claims Carrier Isn’t Fixing Broken Landlines Wall Street Journal ...Verizon Communications Inc.’s largest union says the company is refusing to fix broken landlines. The Communications Workers of America, which represents about 35,000 Verizon employees, says Verizon isn’t repairing copper lines in some areas in the Northeast. Instead, the union says, the carrier is steering customers to buy a wireless home phone service called Voice Link...
Black-White Unemployment Gap Widens In U.S. Chicago Defender ...he Black unemployment rate last month was nearly twice the national average and more than double the unemployment rate for Whites, according to jobs figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The statistics show the unemployment rate for Blacks at 10.2 percent in May, up from 9.6 percent in April. The unemployment rate for Whites has been at 4.7 percent since February...
Miscellaneous
Obama administration stops work on immigrant program Washington Post ...A series of legal setbacks have halted the government’s intensive preparations to move forward with President Obama’s executive actions shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, even as community organizations continue a rapid push to get ready for the programs, according to U.S. officials and immigrant advocacy groups...
Community Condemns Pool Prejudice in McKinney, Texas Common Dreams ...More than a thousand outraged community members took to the streets of McKinney, Texas on Monday night, two days after a local police officer assaulted a number of black and brown teenagers attending a pool party. Unlike other recent acts of police violence in Baltimore and Ferguson, this occurred at a private pool, in a gated community within an affluent suburb of Dallas, Texas—raising particular questions about wealth and race...
GM Has Not Paid for Its Crimes Truthout ...Last year, GM officials reluctantly estimated that faulty ignition switches could be linked to some 13 deaths from crashes involving several of their smaller car models. A year later, that number has reached 104, according to an announcement by the company compensation fund on May 18 - leaving family members of those killed and injured in crashes involving GM cars to ask just how many more deaths were the result of corporate negligence...
Student Debt Strikers Call Fed's Loan Forgiveness Plan a Bureaucratic Sham Common Dreams ...Despite a new announcement by the U.S. Department of Education that it will begin a process of debt-forgiveness for students cheated into high-priced loans by predatory for-profit colleges, one of the groups most responsible for lobbying to have the debts erased is reacting bitterly, saying the plan is more complicated than it needs to be and that those already victimized by one government-backed scheme should not be put through the ringer for a second time...
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