TEAMSTERS
Arbitrator Rules Parking Employer Created ‘Sham’ Company to Avoid Paying Union Local 727 ...An arbitrator has ordered PAS, LLC to pay Teamsters Local 727 more than $225,000 in back dues, penalties and late fees after the Chicago parking employer created a “sham” company to avoid its financial obligations to the union. In July 2013, VPS of Illinois closed its business without paying thousands of dollars owed to the union...
NY-NJ port authority revises truck-replacement plan JOC ...Environmental groups have insisted that older trucks need to be phased out to reduce unhealthy emissions. Allied with the environmentalists is the Teamsters union, which has tried for years to organize port drivers. A likely side effect of banning older trucks would be to encourage a shift from owner-operators to company employees who would be eligible to unionize...
Teamsters invited to pension session Press Gazette ...The Wisconsin Committees to Protect Pensions will hold an informational meeting for active and retired Teamsters. Dobbs will talk about new developments in the effort to stop the cuts from taking effect this summer, legislative proposals introduced in Congress to try to stop the cuts and other information for Teamsters and retirees who want to take action to oppose the proposed cuts...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Colombian Unions to Protest Paltry Minimum Wage Increase TeleSUR ...Labor leaders in Colombia say the Constitutional Court has previously ruled that wage increase cannot fall below the rate of inflation. Fabio Arias, secretary-general of Colombia's United Workers Trade Union Federation, said Wednesday that his organization will submit a formal complaint before the country's Council of State over a decree raising the minimum wage by only 7 percent...
Delhi's sanitation workers to go on indefinite strike from January 27 Economic Times ...Scores of municipal sanitation workers on Wednesday decided to go on an indefinite strike from January 27 claiming the civic bodies' failure in meeting their demands, including regularization of salary. The workers have been sitting on a relay hunger strike for the past month at the Jantar Mantar under various unions...
Ontario prepares for looming strike by correctional workers Globe and Mail ...This week across Ontario, however, the sudden appearance of construction crews outside jails has prompted weary acceptance that a looming strike could be long and, according to the correctional union, dangerous for the managers forced to operate the institutions. By Thursday, there was ample evidence that the province was preparing for protracted labour action...
Hundreds of advocacy groups ask Congress to block Obama’s Pacific Rim trade pact Washington Post ...A coalition of more than 1,500 interest groups is sending a letter to Congress on Thursday demanding that lawmakers block the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact championed by the Obama administration. Labor unions, environmental groups, consumer advocates and faith groups are among the 1,525 organizations...
Pacific Trade Deal Foes Say Keystone Case Shows Pact's Risk Bloomberg ...A legal dispute over the Keystone XL oil pipeline is giving opponents of a Pacific trade agreement a fresh argument in their effort to get Congress to kill the pact. They say the case announced Wednesday, in which TransCanada Corp. is seeking arbitration to recover $15 billion tied to the Obama administration’s rejection of Keystone, shows how foreign companies could use provisions of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement to challenge U.S. policy on the environment and other matters...
World Bank: TPP Trade Deal to Benefit Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia Most by 2030 Sputnik News ...The US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal is set to provide economic impetus predominantly to Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia among other parties to the agreement by 2030, a Global Economic Prospects report showed...
India set to push for liberalisation of services trade at WTO Geneva talks Economic Times ...Reinstating its stand of continuing with the Doha Development Agenda, India will push for liberalising services trade at the World Trade Organization talks in Geneva. 23 countries of the WTO are separately negotiating the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), which aims at opening up markets and improving rules in areas such as licensing, financial services, telecom, ecommerce, maritime transport and professionals moving abroad temporarily to provide services...
U.S. Says `Tremendous Progress' Made on South Africa Trade Talks Bloomberg ...South Africa and the U.S. made “tremendous progress” on talks to resolve a trade dispute between the two nations, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard said. South Africa has been under pressure to reach agreement with the U.S. to open its market to American chicken and beef products in order to retain preferential trade benefits...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Martinez revives right-to-work debate in New Mexico Las Cruces Sun-News ...Republican Gov. Susana Martinez is reviving the right-to-work debate in New Mexico, saying she’ll include the issue on the agenda for the upcoming legislative session. She made the announcement Thursday during a panel discussion before a crowded room of business leaders...
Minimum wage boost hangs over California budget negotiations SacBee ...They haven’t yet acquired enough signatures to go before voters, but ballot initiatives to bump California’s minimum wage to $15 figured into early discussions of the state budget proposal unveiled Thursday. Organized labor groups across the country have focused their energy on the push for a $15 wage...
Cuomo eyeing plan to give New Yorkers 12 weeks paid family leave NY Post ...Gov. Cuomo is mulling a plan to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to New Yorkers in the coming year after Mayor de Blasio allowed city workers to receive the benefit in 2014. Gubernatorial aides met with advocates Dec. 29 in Manhattan to talk providing paid time off for employees with a new child, an injury or a sick family member...
Paid Family Leave Gets More Attention, but Workers Still Struggle New York Times ...This year is shaping up to be a big one for paid family leave. On Thursday, the Independent Democratic Conference, a breakaway group of New York state senators, plans to introduce 12 weeks of paid leave as part of its legislative agenda; Gov. Andrew Cuomo is reportedly considering similar legislation...
Virginia to use new congressional map this year, benefiting Democrats Daily Kos ...In yet another victory for Democrats, the federal court hearing a lawsuit challenging the state's congressional lines just ruled that elections this year must go forward under a new map proposed by a court-appointed expert, one that all but guarantees that GOP Rep. Randy Forbes' 4th District will turn solidly blue...
Democrats call for redistricting reform AJC ...Three Democratic lawmakers are pushing to create an independent commission to redraw political lines in the future. Sen. Elena Parent (D – Atlanta), Rep. Pat Gardner (D – Atlanta) and Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D – Decatur) said the legislation would be a fairer way to redraw current legislative and congressional district lines in coming years...
"Gov. Snyder Should Be Arrested": Flint Residents Demand Justice over Water Poisoning Democracy Now ...Protests are growing in Flint, Michigan, over the state’s cover-up of the ongoing water contamination crisis. Filmmaker Michael Moore is asking fans to sign a petition on his website calling for the immediate resignation of Governor Rick Snyder. In an open letter to the governor, he writes: "[Y]ou have effectively poisoned, not just some, but apparently ALL of the children in my hometown of Flint"...
U.S. LABOR
One Step Closer To Collective Bargaining, Some Temp Workers Unionize NPR ...Advocates for temporary workers are celebrating a decision by the National Labor Relations Board to broaden the definition of joint employers — a move that could bring many temp workers closer to collective bargaining. One of the first to join a union following the new rule is a group of Guatemalans in New Bedford, Mass...
Strong Job Growth In 2015 Still Couldn’t Give Workers A Raise Think Progress ...The economy added 292,000 jobs in December while the unemployment rate stayed at 5 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Analysts had expected 200,000 jobs to be added. However, gains in wages were weak. Hourly earnings fell 1 cent in December after a 5-cent increase in November, and average hourly earnings have risen just 2.5 percent over the last year...
Company must pay after making workers clock out for bathroom breaks KCCI ...A Pennsylvania company that publishes business newsletters will pay about $1.75 million to thousands of employees who had to clock out while going on short breaks, including for the bathroom. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a federal judge has given the U.S. Department of Labor and the Malvern-based company, American Future Systems Inc., until Thursday to submit proposals on managing payment...
Rauner implements merit pay for some workers; AFSCME opposed NW Herald ...Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration is starting a new compensation system for some state workers that includes merit pay and bonuses for saving taxpayers money, a plan the former businessman says will make government more efficient. It's the latest sticking point in long-running negotiations between Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 36,000 state employees...
When companies hire temp workers by race, black applicants lose out Reveal News ...When its clients wanted to hire temp workers based on race, sex or age, Automation was happy to oblige, according to dozens of former employees. Often, the practice was blatant. A manager at a Georgia manufacturing plant asked Christie Ragland not to send him “any black thugs,” she said...
This Supreme Court Case Could Make All Public Unions ‘Right to Work’ The Nation ...O n January 11, the Supreme Court will hear argument on Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a full-bore attack on public-sector unions. The lead Friedrichs plaintiffs, a group of fiercely anti-union California public-school teachers, seek to reverse Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977) on First Amendment grounds. Abood has provided the bedrock constitutional analysis and recommended administrative structure for public-sector unionism...
Can Millennials Save Organized Labor? Labor 411 ...A new Pew survey reveals how Millennials, the oft-hyped demographic, view key social institutions. It turns out that Millennials have a more positive view of many major social institutions than their elders and that one of the most notable examples is organized labor. Labor unions are viewed more positively today than they were five years ago by all age groups, but the uptick in opinion is especially notable among those born after 1980...
Why Do Americans Work So Much? The Atlantic ...In a new paper, Friedman tries to figure out why increased productivity has not translated into increased leisure time. American inequality means that the gains of increasing productivity are not widely shared. In other words, most Americans are too poor to work less...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
A Rush of Central Americans Compounds Obama’s Immigration Task NY Times ...When mothers and children streamed across the Texas border in 2014, the Obama administration devised a strategy to manage the influx, putting them in detention centers to convince others that illegal crossers would be caught and sent back. But that strategy is now under intense legal and political attack, leaving the administration with limited options...
Bernie Sanders Demands President Obama End ‘Inhumane’ Roundups Of Immigrant Families Think Progress ...Vermont Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote to the White House on Thursday, demanding an end to the stepped up immigration raids and deportations of Central Americans that the Obama Administration announced just before Christmas. Just after the new year, more than 100 people were arrested in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, including many women and children...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Cheers Bernie's Fight to "Hold Big Banks Accountable" Common Dreams ...Sen. Bernie Sanders got a shout-out from big bank critic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday a day after the presidential hopeful gave a policy speech laying out his tough on Wall Street stance. During his speech in New York on Wednesday, Sanders said, "Wall Street and corporate greed is destroying the fabric of our nation." He also vowed to break up too-big-to- fail banks...
Making the World Safe for Predatory Capitalism CounterPunch ...Steve Jobs used old-fashioned anti-raiding agreements to keep competitors from enticing away his workers. Gates and Google have both engaged in anti-competitive practices that likely would have brought antitrust enforcement in prior decades. And Amazon has prospered not only because of low prices and good service, but also by being exempted from the requirement to collect the same sales tax as its brick-and-mortar competitors...
Oregon Sheriff Meets Ammon Bundy, Greets Him With Handshake Not Handcuffs Think Progress ...The treatment of armed militants conducting an illegal occupation in Oregon differs greatly from the response to overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations by unarmed individuals protesting police misconduct. In Ferguson, for example, protesters were met by police with military-style equipment, full riot gear, and tear gas...
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Friday, January 8, 2016
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.15.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters: Seattle Drivers Win a Voice With Historic City Council Vote Teamster.org ...Drivers in Seattle’s for-hire industry won the right to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions through an initiative passed by the City Council today. The Mike O’Brien-sponsored bill will now move to the mayor’s desk for his signature. Drivers and community supporters celebrated the bill’s passage...
Seattle first U.S. city to let Uber drivers unionize Detroit News ...Seattle on Monday became the first city in the nation to allow drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions. Supporters erupted into cheers after the City Council voted 8-0 in favor of the legislation, which is seen as a test case for the changing 21st century workforce. The Teamsters Union Local 117 also celebrated the vote, while the National Right To Work Legal Foundation criticized it as a violation of drivers’ rights...
Teamsters Make Progress at Carhaul Talks, More Negotiations to be Scheduled Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union and carhaul employer representatives continue to discuss and exchange proposals for a new national contract that are responsive to the concerns of the membership. Based on the talks just concluded last week, we can report some tentative progress. Many of the contract proposals have been resolved, but both sides still need to focus on the economic issues. The parties have decided to suspend talks over the holidays...
AFSCME and University reach tentative contract agreement Workday Minnesota ...AFSCME will brief clerical and technical workers this week on a tentative contract settlement with the University of Minnesota that the union said "begins to close the gap between the haves and have-nots at the University." The union credited solidarity among its local unions and with Teamsters Local 320 for leading to a breakthrough in the six-month negotiations...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Hundreds of Myanmar Garment Workers Mark Seventh Day of Labor Strike Radio Free Asia ...More than 200 garment workers in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon Monday marked the seventh day of a strike demanding full salary for November after the owner of the factory that employs them docked their pay for failing to meet production targets. The workers have been protesting since Dec. 7...
Steelworkers union calls on Canada, U.S. to reject TPP Canadian Manufacturing ...The executive board of the United Steelworkers have adopted a formal resolution urging Ottawa and Washington to reject the tentative Trans-Pacific Partnership. The union says the resolution is the precursor for a “fully engaged” TPP rejection campaign that will get underway in both Canada and the U.S. “The TPP will only continue the failed trade policies of the past"...
Major Summit Could Put World's Poorest Inhabitants on Corporate Chopping Block Alternet ...Last week, 453 civil society groups including trade unions, farmers, environmentalists, public interest groups and development advocates from over 150 countries wrote an urgent letter to members of the WTO to “express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO.” The 10th Ministerial meeting of the WTO is occurring against a backdrop of accelerated “mega-regional” comprehensive pro-corporate “trade” deals...
TPP trade agreement undercuts biologic patents Washington Examiner ...An important part of the deal is protection of intellectual property — including copyright, trademarks and patents — which are necessary for commercial and scientific innovation. The biggest obstacle to congressional approval, however, appears to be the deal's inadequate protection of intellectual property in "biologic" medicines...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Takes a Hit Hoosier Ag Today ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal recently suffered a huge setback after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview Congress should not take up the trade deal before the November elections. McConnell told the Washington Post that President Obama would be making a big mistake by pushing for a vote on TPP during the election cycle...
Don’t Be Misled; The TPP Is Still Coming Full Steam (opinion) OurFuture.org ...Recently there have been news reports that Republicans are going to delay TPP until after the 2016 elections. Do not be misled; this is a bargaining ploy. They want the Obama administration to make “side agreements” that give corporations even more. We have to keep up the fight, and keep getting the word out. People opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “trade” agreement have recently had their hopes lifted...
India's October tea output drops 7% as workers strike Economic Times ...India's tea production in key October month dropped 7 per cent from a year earlier to 158.06 million kg, the state-run Tea Board said in a statement, as a strike called by plantation workers in southern India hit plucking. Production in the southern state of Kerala, where plantation workers went on strike demanding higher wages, dropped 60 percent...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-Wing GOP Governor Succeeds in Making More People Go Hungry Alternet ...Maine's Gov. Paul LePage can now claim the proud policy achievement of making more needy people go hungry. David Farmer reports in Daily Bangor News that during LePage's administration, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which administers SNAP benefits, has been so badly mismanaged it risks losing federal funding. The USDA also admonished the organization for failing to process applications in a timely way...
Amid $15 debate, tipped workers call for one minimum wage Times Union ...If state lawmakers approve a raise for all workers during the next legislative session, those earning tips say it’s time to dismantle the state’s two-tiered wage system. In a letter sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Co-Founder and Co-Director Saru Jayaraman called on the governor to move to abolish the separate tipped minimum wage for certain workers in the restaurant and hospitality industries...
New state laws address gender pay gap, child care, disability leave SF Chronicle ...About three dozen employment laws take effect in California next year, including ones that bolster equal-pay protections, help workers with chronic health conditions and give parents unpaid time off to research schools and deal with child care emergencies. The most significant law on an annual list put out by the California Chamber of Commerce is SB358, the widely publicized Fair Pay Act...
Senate’s Motives At Issue As Redistricting Trial Starts CBS ...The decisions prompting state Senate leaders to choose a redistricting plan they recommended to a Leon County judge took center stage Monday, the first day of a trial to determine whether that map should go to the Florida Supreme Court. Circuit Judge George Reynolds has the task of recommending to the Supreme Court either the Senate’s redistricting proposal or one of several plans offered by a coalition of voting-rights groups...
Lincolnshire creates right-to-work zone that unions oppose Daily Herald ...Lincolnshire has become the first town in the Chicago area to establish itself as a right-to-work zone, a move critics have assailed as anti-union. t's also a move experts say is sure to face a legal challenge. To create the zone, the village board approved an ordinance preventing local employers from requiring workers to pay union dues with payroll deductions...
U.S. LABOR
Detroit casino workers ratify new contract Detroit Free Press ...Workers at Detroit's three casinos ratified a new five-year contract Sunday — ending months of contentious and complicated negotiations and providing relief to thousands of workers. Joe Daugherty, president of Unite Here Local 24 and head of the bargaining committee for a group of unions, said in an e-mail that a majority of workers at all three casinos approved the contract...
UAW-Nexteer workers to vote on second deal Detroit News ...UAW Local 699 President Rick Burzynski believes a second tentative agreement reached with Nexteer Automotive addresses concerns that led to a 20-hour strike and 97 percent of membership rejecting a first deal. “We pretty much addressed everything that our workers wanted,” he said Monday morning, a week after workers walked off their jobs and picketed the Chinese-owned auto supplier...
NLRB certifies VW Chattanooga election results Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board has certified the results of the United Auto Workers election held at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant on Dec. 3 and 4. Maintenance, or skilled trades, workers at the plant agreed to be represented by the UAW for collective bargaining purposes by a margin of 108 to 44...
Progress made in UAW, Kohler talks Sheboygan Press ...The Kohler Co. strike has entered its fifth week, with more talks scheduled for today between the company and the United Auto Workers Local 833. Union officials weren’t immediately available for comment Monday morning but posted on the UAW Local 833 Facebook page on Friday, Dec. 11, that there was “good movement in talks with the company today”...
IBEW 125 members ratify contract at Pacificorp NW Labor Press ...In votes counted Dec. 14, members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125 approved a new four-year contract with Pacific Power by a 72 percent margin. Local 125’s previous collective bargaining agreement with Pacific Power expired Jan. 26, 2015. In June and again in August, members voted down company proposals by overwhelming margins, and on Sept. 1, 2015, they authorized the union to call a strike...
Chicago Teachers Union’s Overwhelming Approval of Strike Shows Power of Bottom-up Organizing In These Times ...The numbers are in from the Chicago Teachers Union's strike authorization vote, and it's not even close. After three days of voting last week, 22,678 of the union's 24,752 eligible members cast ballots, and 96.05 percent of them voted “yes”—88 percent of all CTU members. The nation's third-largest — and arguably most important — teachers union has sent a clear message that they are willing to walk off the job amid their current round of contract negotiations...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New rule: Truck drivers must electronically record hours Newsday ...An estimated 3 million commercial truck and bus drivers must electronically record their hours behind the wheel under a new government rule aimed at enforcing regulations designed to prevent fatigue. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released the long-awaited rule on Thursday. Drivers have been required to keep paper logs of their hours dating back to 1938...
After Paris, There Is Some Room for Hope The Nation ... it will undoubtedly be many years before renewable forms of energy—wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and others still in development—replace fossil fuels as the world’s leading energy providers. Nonetheless, 2015 can be viewed as the year in which the epochal transition from one set of fuels to another took off, with renewables making such significant strides...
On policing, the national mood turns toward reform Washington Post ...In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired his police chief and faces a growing clamor for his resignation. In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired her police chief and abandoned plans to seek reelection. And in San Francisco, protesters are demanding the head of yet another police chief, prompting Mayor Edwin Lee to vow last week to overhaul police procedures regarding deadly force...
A Tense Baltimore Braces for A Verdict The Atlantic ...As the jury prepares to deliver a verdict in the trial of the first of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore police department is taking pains to reach out to the community and signal that it is ready to respond to any outcome, including protest. Community activists, meanwhile, say that distrust of the police still runs deep...
Robert Reich: Why the Middle Class Is in Revolt and Susceptible to a Dangerous 'Strongman' Alternet ...Now someone comes along who’s even more of a bully than those who for years have bullied them economically, politically, and even violently. The attraction is understandable, even though misguided. If not Donald Trump, then it will be someone else posing as a strongman. If not this election cycle, it will be the next one. The revolt of the anxious class has just begun...
Flood of Anti-Muslim Violence Driving Record Year for Crimes of Hate Common Dreams ...2015 is shaping up to be "one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history," according to reports, as increasing xenophobia and hateful rhetoric has propelled a record number of attacks on mosques and Islamic centers across the U.S...
Teamsters: Seattle Drivers Win a Voice With Historic City Council Vote Teamster.org ...Drivers in Seattle’s for-hire industry won the right to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions through an initiative passed by the City Council today. The Mike O’Brien-sponsored bill will now move to the mayor’s desk for his signature. Drivers and community supporters celebrated the bill’s passage...
Seattle first U.S. city to let Uber drivers unionize Detroit News ...Seattle on Monday became the first city in the nation to allow drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions. Supporters erupted into cheers after the City Council voted 8-0 in favor of the legislation, which is seen as a test case for the changing 21st century workforce. The Teamsters Union Local 117 also celebrated the vote, while the National Right To Work Legal Foundation criticized it as a violation of drivers’ rights...
Teamsters Make Progress at Carhaul Talks, More Negotiations to be Scheduled Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union and carhaul employer representatives continue to discuss and exchange proposals for a new national contract that are responsive to the concerns of the membership. Based on the talks just concluded last week, we can report some tentative progress. Many of the contract proposals have been resolved, but both sides still need to focus on the economic issues. The parties have decided to suspend talks over the holidays...
AFSCME and University reach tentative contract agreement Workday Minnesota ...AFSCME will brief clerical and technical workers this week on a tentative contract settlement with the University of Minnesota that the union said "begins to close the gap between the haves and have-nots at the University." The union credited solidarity among its local unions and with Teamsters Local 320 for leading to a breakthrough in the six-month negotiations...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Hundreds of Myanmar Garment Workers Mark Seventh Day of Labor Strike Radio Free Asia ...More than 200 garment workers in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon Monday marked the seventh day of a strike demanding full salary for November after the owner of the factory that employs them docked their pay for failing to meet production targets. The workers have been protesting since Dec. 7...
Steelworkers union calls on Canada, U.S. to reject TPP Canadian Manufacturing ...The executive board of the United Steelworkers have adopted a formal resolution urging Ottawa and Washington to reject the tentative Trans-Pacific Partnership. The union says the resolution is the precursor for a “fully engaged” TPP rejection campaign that will get underway in both Canada and the U.S. “The TPP will only continue the failed trade policies of the past"...
Major Summit Could Put World's Poorest Inhabitants on Corporate Chopping Block Alternet ...Last week, 453 civil society groups including trade unions, farmers, environmentalists, public interest groups and development advocates from over 150 countries wrote an urgent letter to members of the WTO to “express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO.” The 10th Ministerial meeting of the WTO is occurring against a backdrop of accelerated “mega-regional” comprehensive pro-corporate “trade” deals...
TPP trade agreement undercuts biologic patents Washington Examiner ...An important part of the deal is protection of intellectual property — including copyright, trademarks and patents — which are necessary for commercial and scientific innovation. The biggest obstacle to congressional approval, however, appears to be the deal's inadequate protection of intellectual property in "biologic" medicines...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Takes a Hit Hoosier Ag Today ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal recently suffered a huge setback after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview Congress should not take up the trade deal before the November elections. McConnell told the Washington Post that President Obama would be making a big mistake by pushing for a vote on TPP during the election cycle...
Don’t Be Misled; The TPP Is Still Coming Full Steam (opinion) OurFuture.org ...Recently there have been news reports that Republicans are going to delay TPP until after the 2016 elections. Do not be misled; this is a bargaining ploy. They want the Obama administration to make “side agreements” that give corporations even more. We have to keep up the fight, and keep getting the word out. People opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “trade” agreement have recently had their hopes lifted...
India's October tea output drops 7% as workers strike Economic Times ...India's tea production in key October month dropped 7 per cent from a year earlier to 158.06 million kg, the state-run Tea Board said in a statement, as a strike called by plantation workers in southern India hit plucking. Production in the southern state of Kerala, where plantation workers went on strike demanding higher wages, dropped 60 percent...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-Wing GOP Governor Succeeds in Making More People Go Hungry Alternet ...Maine's Gov. Paul LePage can now claim the proud policy achievement of making more needy people go hungry. David Farmer reports in Daily Bangor News that during LePage's administration, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which administers SNAP benefits, has been so badly mismanaged it risks losing federal funding. The USDA also admonished the organization for failing to process applications in a timely way...
Amid $15 debate, tipped workers call for one minimum wage Times Union ...If state lawmakers approve a raise for all workers during the next legislative session, those earning tips say it’s time to dismantle the state’s two-tiered wage system. In a letter sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Co-Founder and Co-Director Saru Jayaraman called on the governor to move to abolish the separate tipped minimum wage for certain workers in the restaurant and hospitality industries...
New state laws address gender pay gap, child care, disability leave SF Chronicle ...About three dozen employment laws take effect in California next year, including ones that bolster equal-pay protections, help workers with chronic health conditions and give parents unpaid time off to research schools and deal with child care emergencies. The most significant law on an annual list put out by the California Chamber of Commerce is SB358, the widely publicized Fair Pay Act...
Senate’s Motives At Issue As Redistricting Trial Starts CBS ...The decisions prompting state Senate leaders to choose a redistricting plan they recommended to a Leon County judge took center stage Monday, the first day of a trial to determine whether that map should go to the Florida Supreme Court. Circuit Judge George Reynolds has the task of recommending to the Supreme Court either the Senate’s redistricting proposal or one of several plans offered by a coalition of voting-rights groups...
Lincolnshire creates right-to-work zone that unions oppose Daily Herald ...Lincolnshire has become the first town in the Chicago area to establish itself as a right-to-work zone, a move critics have assailed as anti-union. t's also a move experts say is sure to face a legal challenge. To create the zone, the village board approved an ordinance preventing local employers from requiring workers to pay union dues with payroll deductions...
U.S. LABOR
Detroit casino workers ratify new contract Detroit Free Press ...Workers at Detroit's three casinos ratified a new five-year contract Sunday — ending months of contentious and complicated negotiations and providing relief to thousands of workers. Joe Daugherty, president of Unite Here Local 24 and head of the bargaining committee for a group of unions, said in an e-mail that a majority of workers at all three casinos approved the contract...
UAW-Nexteer workers to vote on second deal Detroit News ...UAW Local 699 President Rick Burzynski believes a second tentative agreement reached with Nexteer Automotive addresses concerns that led to a 20-hour strike and 97 percent of membership rejecting a first deal. “We pretty much addressed everything that our workers wanted,” he said Monday morning, a week after workers walked off their jobs and picketed the Chinese-owned auto supplier...
NLRB certifies VW Chattanooga election results Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board has certified the results of the United Auto Workers election held at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant on Dec. 3 and 4. Maintenance, or skilled trades, workers at the plant agreed to be represented by the UAW for collective bargaining purposes by a margin of 108 to 44...
Progress made in UAW, Kohler talks Sheboygan Press ...The Kohler Co. strike has entered its fifth week, with more talks scheduled for today between the company and the United Auto Workers Local 833. Union officials weren’t immediately available for comment Monday morning but posted on the UAW Local 833 Facebook page on Friday, Dec. 11, that there was “good movement in talks with the company today”...
IBEW 125 members ratify contract at Pacificorp NW Labor Press ...In votes counted Dec. 14, members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125 approved a new four-year contract with Pacific Power by a 72 percent margin. Local 125’s previous collective bargaining agreement with Pacific Power expired Jan. 26, 2015. In June and again in August, members voted down company proposals by overwhelming margins, and on Sept. 1, 2015, they authorized the union to call a strike...
Chicago Teachers Union’s Overwhelming Approval of Strike Shows Power of Bottom-up Organizing In These Times ...The numbers are in from the Chicago Teachers Union's strike authorization vote, and it's not even close. After three days of voting last week, 22,678 of the union's 24,752 eligible members cast ballots, and 96.05 percent of them voted “yes”—88 percent of all CTU members. The nation's third-largest — and arguably most important — teachers union has sent a clear message that they are willing to walk off the job amid their current round of contract negotiations...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New rule: Truck drivers must electronically record hours Newsday ...An estimated 3 million commercial truck and bus drivers must electronically record their hours behind the wheel under a new government rule aimed at enforcing regulations designed to prevent fatigue. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released the long-awaited rule on Thursday. Drivers have been required to keep paper logs of their hours dating back to 1938...
After Paris, There Is Some Room for Hope The Nation ... it will undoubtedly be many years before renewable forms of energy—wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and others still in development—replace fossil fuels as the world’s leading energy providers. Nonetheless, 2015 can be viewed as the year in which the epochal transition from one set of fuels to another took off, with renewables making such significant strides...
On policing, the national mood turns toward reform Washington Post ...In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired his police chief and faces a growing clamor for his resignation. In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired her police chief and abandoned plans to seek reelection. And in San Francisco, protesters are demanding the head of yet another police chief, prompting Mayor Edwin Lee to vow last week to overhaul police procedures regarding deadly force...
A Tense Baltimore Braces for A Verdict The Atlantic ...As the jury prepares to deliver a verdict in the trial of the first of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore police department is taking pains to reach out to the community and signal that it is ready to respond to any outcome, including protest. Community activists, meanwhile, say that distrust of the police still runs deep...
Robert Reich: Why the Middle Class Is in Revolt and Susceptible to a Dangerous 'Strongman' Alternet ...Now someone comes along who’s even more of a bully than those who for years have bullied them economically, politically, and even violently. The attraction is understandable, even though misguided. If not Donald Trump, then it will be someone else posing as a strongman. If not this election cycle, it will be the next one. The revolt of the anxious class has just begun...
Flood of Anti-Muslim Violence Driving Record Year for Crimes of Hate Common Dreams ...2015 is shaping up to be "one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history," according to reports, as increasing xenophobia and hateful rhetoric has propelled a record number of attacks on mosques and Islamic centers across the U.S...
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.09.15
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Transportation bill loosens political gridlock Detroit News ...For more than a decade, Congress’s failure to approve a long-term transportation spending bill placed infrastructure improvements on the back burner in Michigan and all across the country. That ended last week, however, when members of the House and Senate united behind a five-year, $305 billion plan to pay for road, rail and mass transit upgrades...
Coca-Cola, union agree to federal mediation as strike continues Chicago Tribune ...The union representing striking Coca-Cola workers accepted the company's offer for federal mediation, even as it shot back at a letter the beverage giant mailed to employees defending the company's behavior during contract negotiations. Members of Teamsters Local 727, the union representing 319 production and warehouse workers at facilities in Niles and Alsip, took to the picket lines Thursday to protest what the union calls unfair labor practices...
Teamsters, Activists To Deliver Nearly 50,000 Signed Petitions Calling On UPS To Withdraw From ALEC PR Newswire ...On Thurs., Dec. 10, Teamsters Union representatives in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Ga. will be joined by environmental and community activists as they deliver nearly 50,000 signed petitions to UPS offices in both cities. The petitions call on the corporation to withdraw its membership in the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
U.S. Representatives Call on Treasury to Reject CSPF Application for Cuts Teamster.org ...Members of Congress have submitted letters to Treasury Department appointee Ken Feinberg asking him to deny the massive pension cuts proposed in the Teamsters Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan application. The representatives denounced the plan for the burden it would place on middle class workers and retirees and called for a more equitable solution...
Unions mourn members killed in San Bernardino shooting Workday Minnesota ...Twelve of the 15 people killed – and several of those injured – in the San Bernardino terrorist shooting were members of the Service Employees International Union or the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Both organizations are holding vigils and fundraisers for all the victims. Teamsters (link is external) General President Jim Hoffa said, “Today is a sad day, as we join the San Bernardino community with a heavy heart in mourning this tragic loss"...
Teamsters members at Fieldbrook Foods ratify union contract Observer Today ...The drivers, warehouse and production personnel employed by Fieldbrook Foods on One Ice Cream Drive, Dunkirk, have overwhelmingly ratified a successor collective bargaining agreement. The members approved the new four-year contract by a margin of two to one...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Sudan: Central Darfur State Workers On Strike All Africa ...The Central Darfur state employees and workers embarked on a brief strike on Tuesday in protest against the non-payment of their November salaries. They gave the authorities 48 hours to pay them their salaries. Otherwise, they will start an open-ended strike on Thursday, the head of the Central Darfur Workers' Union, Tajir Zakaria Idris, told Radio Dabanga...
India not seeking membership in TPP, TTIP Economic Times ...India has not sought membership in either of the two mega trade deals, Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic, the government informed Parliament today. "The government has not sought for membership of either the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)"...
Customs bill could reach finish line this week The Hill ...House and Senate lawmakers are nearing an agreement on a customs enforcement measure, even amid some Democratic dissent, which would wrap up another key piece of President Obama’s legislative trade agenda. Levin said that he is concerned a conference report will retain what he called “very troubling changes to the negotiating objectives in TPA [trade promotion authority]...
How the TPP Will Affect You and Your Digital Rights EFF ...By excluding a large sector of communities—like security researchers, artists, libraries, and user rights groups—trade negotiators skewed the priorities of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) towards major tech companies and copyright industries that have a strong interest in maintaining and expanding their monopolies of digital services and content...
TiSA: A Framework for Reregulating the Global Trade in Services? (opinion) Huffington Post ...The EU is negotiating on behalf of its 28 member states, and with 23 other countries including the USA, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia alongside the WTO, for a 'plurilateral' Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). TiSA's main purpose is to set out new rules to make the global trade in services fit for the internet era...
Superbug Apocalypse: How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Harms Public Health Truthout ...If you thought the only reason to be concerned was eight years of government secrecy surrounding the trade deal, its relation to the growing likelihood of antibacterial-resistant strains of bacteria from unchecked antibiotics in our food may give you nightmares...
Anti-austerity protesters march in Dublin city centre Irish Times ...There was a strong Garda presence outside Leinster House today as protestors demonstrated against austerity. Kildare Street and Molesworth Street were closed as up to 200 of people gathered outside Leinster House for a National Demonstration against Austerity. The action was in opposition to the water charges, the property taxes and to austerity imposed by the Government...
Pakistan Journalists Assert Human Rights, Worker Rights Solidarity Center ...The recent murders of three Pakistani journalists in separate incidents highlight the dangers media professionals in that country face daily on the job. ollowing the launch of a recent series of Solidarity Center workshops that covered safety as well as gender equality, more than 60 journalists from around 15 local unions in Pakistan came away with the resources and information they need to better protect themselves...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Ohio Democrats rethink strategy against right-to-work, unemployment legislation Cleveland.com ...As Ohio's Republican lawmakers pick up a new battle to reduce unemployment benefits and reduce the power of unions in the state, Democrats say they have a more difficult case against them. The last Republican-lead attempt to limit union power, Senate Bill 5 in 2011, was rebuffed and overturned by outraged voters...
Michigan prevailing wage repeal group preparing to launch second petition drive MLive ...A committee seeking to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law plans to begin collecting a second round of petition signatures within the month. Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, regrouping after a failed petition drive marred by duplicate signatures, has hired National Petition Management of Brighton...
BIC to push right-to-work during 2016 Legislative Session Metro News ...Supporting right-to-work legislation is one of the top priorities for the West Virginia Business and Industry Council heading into the 2016 Legislative Session, according to chairman Chris Hamilton. The right-to-work bill would allow workers to choose whether to pay labor unions. Meetings will be held throughout the state this month. Hamilton said this is to ensure they are fully prepared for the upcoming session...
The Supreme Court Looks Poised To Blow Up Everything You Think You Know About Redistricting Think Progress ...There is little reason to think that the Roberts Court will take a modest approach to redistricting. To the contrary, Evenwel now seems likely to upset the racial balance of many states’ congressional delegations and throw many states’ redistricting processes into chaos...
Justices appear split in Texas redistricting challenge Washington Post ...The phrase has come to symbolize American democracy: “One person, one vote.” But there was considerable disagreement Tuesday among the justices of the Supreme Court about exactly what it means. When electoral districts are drawn by the states and localities, should they be derived from the total population of a place, as is done in all 50 states? Or, as the challengers to Texas’s redistricting plan propose, should only those eligible to vote be counted?...
Bellingham tells state lawmakers to pass paid sick leave Bellingham Herald ...City Council will ask the state Legislature to require paid sick and safe leave rather than look to pass a rule locally. By a 5-2 vote Monday night, Dec. 7, the council passed a resolution calling on state legislators to require employers to provide their workers paid sick and safe leave...
Christie: Union 'pigs will be charging' to Statehouse if Democrat succeeds him NJ.com ...Warning that "pigs will be charging down State Street" in Trenton if voters elect a Democratic governor after he leaves office, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday urged New Jersey's business community to join his fight against public employee unions. Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, responded Tuesday afternoon, saying "Gov. Christie's tired strategy of finger pointing, blame and scare tactics is a smokescreen, not a solution"...
U.S LABOR
UAW reaches 2nd tentative deal with supplier Nexteer Detroit Free Press ...The UAW said late Tuesday that it has reached a new tentative agreement with Nexteer Automotive, an automotive supplier just outside of Saginaw, that ends a strike that began earlier in the day. More than 3,200 UAW members who work at Nexteer went on strike Tuesday, one day after 97% of workers who voted rejected the first contract...
Striking Capitol Workers Take Their Fight To Ted Cruz Think Progress ...The contractors, who work in the cafeterias and clean the buildings, say they were shut out of talks between Republican Senators and federal contractor organizations handling the renewal process. The new contract went into effect on Monday, according to their group’s press release, and failed to include the living wage of $15 an hour or union rights that they have been demanding for years...
Citrus workers go on strike in San Luis Yuma Sun ...Workers from two agriculture companies in the area, Bravo Harvesting and Pacific Avenue Growers, went on strike for a second day Tuesday, demanding higher pay and better working conditions. The strike began on Monday as workers gathered in the entrance and exits of parking lots for both companies...
Company threatens managers: If workers unionize, we'll cut your pay 60 percent Daily Kos ...Bosses have lots of strategies to block their workers from unionizing. Midwestern hardware chain Menards (owned by a huge Scott Walker supporter) really, really doesn’t want unions, it’s safe to say. So much so that the contract that managers sign threatens them with a big pay cut if workers join a union on their watch...
This is what the social safety net could look like for on-demand workers Washington Post ...Less than seven years after the founding of the largest company in the space, Uber, Washington is buzzing with talk of how to overhaul labor law to fit the new category of workers it claims to have created. That might seem like a long time. But the main corpus of regulations governing the work experience hasn’t changed substantially for more than 60 years...
Working Families Party Endorses Bernie Sanders for President NYTimes ...The Working Families Party, the labor-aligned third party that originated in New York and has sought to become a national force, endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for president on Tuesday, handing him a symbolic boost from the state that twice elected Hillary Clinton to the Senate...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Unaccompanied Children Are Crossing The Southern Border Again Think Progress ...Federal officials will open three shelters in response to a resurgent flow of unaccompanied children through the southern U.S. border. Senior Obama administration officials said on Monday that the shelters, set to open in Texas and California, will add at least 1,400 more beds, according to the New York Times. In recent years, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have fled violence and poverty in the Central America...
Chicago police inquiry triggers long-awaited change but hard choices ahead The Guardian ...Just hours after the US Justice Department announced this week that it would investigate the Chicago police department for civil rights violations, local elected officials went on the offensive. During an often-tense press conference, embattled Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who previously called a federal civil rights investigation “misguided”, pledged his full support...
Trump Isn't the Problem. It's the Bigotry of the GOP Base. Slate ...Fifty-seven percent say Islamic values are at odds with American values. As for Trump’s proposal to bar Muslim refugees, when the question is presented without cues, 5 of every 6 Republicans agree with him. The problem is the base—and by many measures, the majority—of the Republican Party. If you think we can’t elect a government in 2016 that would target a religious minority, you’re underestimating Trump. And you’re overestimating America...
With Anti-Muslim Bombast, Trump Doubles Down on 'Fascist Demagoguery' Common Dreams ...GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is doubling down on his xenophobic remarks about Muslims, even as they provoke widespread outrage and condemnation across the political spectrum. On Tuesday, Trump defended his fascist plan for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" by comparing it with President Franklin Roosevelt's decision to inter Japanese Americans during World War II...
What Do Survivors of War Have to Do to Live in Peace?: Voices from France's Largest Refugee Camp Democracy Now ...Residents of the largest refugee camp in France, situated outside the northern port city of Calais, often call it "The Jungle." It is a maze of wind-swept, ripped tents and muddy walkways where people informally live in sections according to their home countries. Walking through the camp is like walking through a map of the targets of U.S. bombing campaigns...
Hoffa: Transportation bill loosens political gridlock Detroit News ...For more than a decade, Congress’s failure to approve a long-term transportation spending bill placed infrastructure improvements on the back burner in Michigan and all across the country. That ended last week, however, when members of the House and Senate united behind a five-year, $305 billion plan to pay for road, rail and mass transit upgrades...
Coca-Cola, union agree to federal mediation as strike continues Chicago Tribune ...The union representing striking Coca-Cola workers accepted the company's offer for federal mediation, even as it shot back at a letter the beverage giant mailed to employees defending the company's behavior during contract negotiations. Members of Teamsters Local 727, the union representing 319 production and warehouse workers at facilities in Niles and Alsip, took to the picket lines Thursday to protest what the union calls unfair labor practices...
Teamsters, Activists To Deliver Nearly 50,000 Signed Petitions Calling On UPS To Withdraw From ALEC PR Newswire ...On Thurs., Dec. 10, Teamsters Union representatives in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Ga. will be joined by environmental and community activists as they deliver nearly 50,000 signed petitions to UPS offices in both cities. The petitions call on the corporation to withdraw its membership in the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
U.S. Representatives Call on Treasury to Reject CSPF Application for Cuts Teamster.org ...Members of Congress have submitted letters to Treasury Department appointee Ken Feinberg asking him to deny the massive pension cuts proposed in the Teamsters Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan application. The representatives denounced the plan for the burden it would place on middle class workers and retirees and called for a more equitable solution...
Unions mourn members killed in San Bernardino shooting Workday Minnesota ...Twelve of the 15 people killed – and several of those injured – in the San Bernardino terrorist shooting were members of the Service Employees International Union or the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Both organizations are holding vigils and fundraisers for all the victims. Teamsters (link is external) General President Jim Hoffa said, “Today is a sad day, as we join the San Bernardino community with a heavy heart in mourning this tragic loss"...
Teamsters members at Fieldbrook Foods ratify union contract Observer Today ...The drivers, warehouse and production personnel employed by Fieldbrook Foods on One Ice Cream Drive, Dunkirk, have overwhelmingly ratified a successor collective bargaining agreement. The members approved the new four-year contract by a margin of two to one...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Sudan: Central Darfur State Workers On Strike All Africa ...The Central Darfur state employees and workers embarked on a brief strike on Tuesday in protest against the non-payment of their November salaries. They gave the authorities 48 hours to pay them their salaries. Otherwise, they will start an open-ended strike on Thursday, the head of the Central Darfur Workers' Union, Tajir Zakaria Idris, told Radio Dabanga...
India not seeking membership in TPP, TTIP Economic Times ...India has not sought membership in either of the two mega trade deals, Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic, the government informed Parliament today. "The government has not sought for membership of either the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)"...
Customs bill could reach finish line this week The Hill ...House and Senate lawmakers are nearing an agreement on a customs enforcement measure, even amid some Democratic dissent, which would wrap up another key piece of President Obama’s legislative trade agenda. Levin said that he is concerned a conference report will retain what he called “very troubling changes to the negotiating objectives in TPA [trade promotion authority]...
How the TPP Will Affect You and Your Digital Rights EFF ...By excluding a large sector of communities—like security researchers, artists, libraries, and user rights groups—trade negotiators skewed the priorities of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) towards major tech companies and copyright industries that have a strong interest in maintaining and expanding their monopolies of digital services and content...
TiSA: A Framework for Reregulating the Global Trade in Services? (opinion) Huffington Post ...The EU is negotiating on behalf of its 28 member states, and with 23 other countries including the USA, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia alongside the WTO, for a 'plurilateral' Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). TiSA's main purpose is to set out new rules to make the global trade in services fit for the internet era...
Superbug Apocalypse: How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Harms Public Health Truthout ...If you thought the only reason to be concerned was eight years of government secrecy surrounding the trade deal, its relation to the growing likelihood of antibacterial-resistant strains of bacteria from unchecked antibiotics in our food may give you nightmares...
Anti-austerity protesters march in Dublin city centre Irish Times ...There was a strong Garda presence outside Leinster House today as protestors demonstrated against austerity. Kildare Street and Molesworth Street were closed as up to 200 of people gathered outside Leinster House for a National Demonstration against Austerity. The action was in opposition to the water charges, the property taxes and to austerity imposed by the Government...
Pakistan Journalists Assert Human Rights, Worker Rights Solidarity Center ...The recent murders of three Pakistani journalists in separate incidents highlight the dangers media professionals in that country face daily on the job. ollowing the launch of a recent series of Solidarity Center workshops that covered safety as well as gender equality, more than 60 journalists from around 15 local unions in Pakistan came away with the resources and information they need to better protect themselves...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Ohio Democrats rethink strategy against right-to-work, unemployment legislation Cleveland.com ...As Ohio's Republican lawmakers pick up a new battle to reduce unemployment benefits and reduce the power of unions in the state, Democrats say they have a more difficult case against them. The last Republican-lead attempt to limit union power, Senate Bill 5 in 2011, was rebuffed and overturned by outraged voters...
Michigan prevailing wage repeal group preparing to launch second petition drive MLive ...A committee seeking to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law plans to begin collecting a second round of petition signatures within the month. Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, regrouping after a failed petition drive marred by duplicate signatures, has hired National Petition Management of Brighton...
BIC to push right-to-work during 2016 Legislative Session Metro News ...Supporting right-to-work legislation is one of the top priorities for the West Virginia Business and Industry Council heading into the 2016 Legislative Session, according to chairman Chris Hamilton. The right-to-work bill would allow workers to choose whether to pay labor unions. Meetings will be held throughout the state this month. Hamilton said this is to ensure they are fully prepared for the upcoming session...
The Supreme Court Looks Poised To Blow Up Everything You Think You Know About Redistricting Think Progress ...There is little reason to think that the Roberts Court will take a modest approach to redistricting. To the contrary, Evenwel now seems likely to upset the racial balance of many states’ congressional delegations and throw many states’ redistricting processes into chaos...
Justices appear split in Texas redistricting challenge Washington Post ...The phrase has come to symbolize American democracy: “One person, one vote.” But there was considerable disagreement Tuesday among the justices of the Supreme Court about exactly what it means. When electoral districts are drawn by the states and localities, should they be derived from the total population of a place, as is done in all 50 states? Or, as the challengers to Texas’s redistricting plan propose, should only those eligible to vote be counted?...
Bellingham tells state lawmakers to pass paid sick leave Bellingham Herald ...City Council will ask the state Legislature to require paid sick and safe leave rather than look to pass a rule locally. By a 5-2 vote Monday night, Dec. 7, the council passed a resolution calling on state legislators to require employers to provide their workers paid sick and safe leave...
Christie: Union 'pigs will be charging' to Statehouse if Democrat succeeds him NJ.com ...Warning that "pigs will be charging down State Street" in Trenton if voters elect a Democratic governor after he leaves office, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday urged New Jersey's business community to join his fight against public employee unions. Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, responded Tuesday afternoon, saying "Gov. Christie's tired strategy of finger pointing, blame and scare tactics is a smokescreen, not a solution"...
U.S LABOR
UAW reaches 2nd tentative deal with supplier Nexteer Detroit Free Press ...The UAW said late Tuesday that it has reached a new tentative agreement with Nexteer Automotive, an automotive supplier just outside of Saginaw, that ends a strike that began earlier in the day. More than 3,200 UAW members who work at Nexteer went on strike Tuesday, one day after 97% of workers who voted rejected the first contract...
Striking Capitol Workers Take Their Fight To Ted Cruz Think Progress ...The contractors, who work in the cafeterias and clean the buildings, say they were shut out of talks between Republican Senators and federal contractor organizations handling the renewal process. The new contract went into effect on Monday, according to their group’s press release, and failed to include the living wage of $15 an hour or union rights that they have been demanding for years...
Citrus workers go on strike in San Luis Yuma Sun ...Workers from two agriculture companies in the area, Bravo Harvesting and Pacific Avenue Growers, went on strike for a second day Tuesday, demanding higher pay and better working conditions. The strike began on Monday as workers gathered in the entrance and exits of parking lots for both companies...
Company threatens managers: If workers unionize, we'll cut your pay 60 percent Daily Kos ...Bosses have lots of strategies to block their workers from unionizing. Midwestern hardware chain Menards (owned by a huge Scott Walker supporter) really, really doesn’t want unions, it’s safe to say. So much so that the contract that managers sign threatens them with a big pay cut if workers join a union on their watch...
This is what the social safety net could look like for on-demand workers Washington Post ...Less than seven years after the founding of the largest company in the space, Uber, Washington is buzzing with talk of how to overhaul labor law to fit the new category of workers it claims to have created. That might seem like a long time. But the main corpus of regulations governing the work experience hasn’t changed substantially for more than 60 years...
Working Families Party Endorses Bernie Sanders for President NYTimes ...The Working Families Party, the labor-aligned third party that originated in New York and has sought to become a national force, endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for president on Tuesday, handing him a symbolic boost from the state that twice elected Hillary Clinton to the Senate...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Unaccompanied Children Are Crossing The Southern Border Again Think Progress ...Federal officials will open three shelters in response to a resurgent flow of unaccompanied children through the southern U.S. border. Senior Obama administration officials said on Monday that the shelters, set to open in Texas and California, will add at least 1,400 more beds, according to the New York Times. In recent years, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have fled violence and poverty in the Central America...
Chicago police inquiry triggers long-awaited change but hard choices ahead The Guardian ...Just hours after the US Justice Department announced this week that it would investigate the Chicago police department for civil rights violations, local elected officials went on the offensive. During an often-tense press conference, embattled Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who previously called a federal civil rights investigation “misguided”, pledged his full support...
Trump Isn't the Problem. It's the Bigotry of the GOP Base. Slate ...Fifty-seven percent say Islamic values are at odds with American values. As for Trump’s proposal to bar Muslim refugees, when the question is presented without cues, 5 of every 6 Republicans agree with him. The problem is the base—and by many measures, the majority—of the Republican Party. If you think we can’t elect a government in 2016 that would target a religious minority, you’re underestimating Trump. And you’re overestimating America...
With Anti-Muslim Bombast, Trump Doubles Down on 'Fascist Demagoguery' Common Dreams ...GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is doubling down on his xenophobic remarks about Muslims, even as they provoke widespread outrage and condemnation across the political spectrum. On Tuesday, Trump defended his fascist plan for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" by comparing it with President Franklin Roosevelt's decision to inter Japanese Americans during World War II...
What Do Survivors of War Have to Do to Live in Peace?: Voices from France's Largest Refugee Camp Democracy Now ...Residents of the largest refugee camp in France, situated outside the northern port city of Calais, often call it "The Jungle." It is a maze of wind-swept, ripped tents and muddy walkways where people informally live in sections according to their home countries. Walking through the camp is like walking through a map of the targets of U.S. bombing campaigns...
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.01.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters at Coca-Cola Refreshments Authorize Unfair Labor Practice Strike Teamster.org ...More than 225 Coca-Cola Refreshments workers represented by Teamsters Local 727 voted Sun., Nov. 29, to authorize an unfair labor practice strike against the beverage industry behemoth. The Teamsters voted by a 10-to-1 margin to authorize the strike after Local 727 filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against the company in a fight for a new contract...
Coca-Cola workers authorize strike at plants in Niles, Alsip Chicago Tribune ...Workers at two Chicago-area Coca-Cola plants have voted to authorize a strike against the beverage giant to protest unfair labor practices in the final days of negotiations for a new three-year contract. Members of Teamsters Local 727 could head to the picket line as early as Wednesday morning after their contract with Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Refreshments expires at midnight Tuesday...
Portland’s General Distributors Inc., at Odds with Teamsters Union Brewbound ...A federal mediator is slated to oversee negotiations this Wednesday between Portland, Oregon’s Teamsters Local 162 and General Distributors, Inc (GDI), a beer wholesaler responsible for getting brands like Corona, Coors, Sierra Nevada and a number of craft products to market. The strike left some local craft brewers without a route to market as replacement workers struggled to distribute beer in time for the Thanksgiving holiday...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
More Than 30 Trade Unionists Have Been Killed in Honduras Since 2009 The Nation ...Honduras’s products and people are entangled in a social crisis driving international pressure for an independent investigation into our Central American “trade partner’s” Banana Republic–style anti-labor tactics. Several trade unionists have reportedly faced death threats in recent months amid rising labor and political tumult...
Truckers to picket container company, but inks contract with six others Vancouver Sun ...Container truck drivers put strike plans into gear Sunday to pressure a company they allege is shorting its drivers on retroactive pay. The truckers planned to picket Harbour Link’s main yard in Delta early Monday to spur it into honouring the terms of the deal that ended last year’s one-month port strike, said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s B.C. area director...
Furnace workers of imitation jewellery units on strike Times of India ...Around 500 furnace workers of the city's famed imitation jewellery business have gone on a strike to demand better wages. This is the first time that the imitation jewellery market of Rajkot, one of the biggest in India, has witnessed a strike...
Big Oil, TTIP and the Scramble for Europe Counterpunch ...If sanctioned, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would be the biggest trade deal ever seen. Yet the public continue to be kept in the dark about it. Large corporations have been granted privileged access to officials and have been allowed to shape the talks agenda from the outset. Throughout the process, organisations representing the public and civil society have been sidelined...
Domestic Manufacturers Launch New Anti-TPP Currency Ad Blitz on Capitol Hill American Economic Alert ...The U.S. Business and Industry Council (USBIC) announced today the start of a media campaign to highlight the lack of enforceable currency provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The group, which represents domestic manufacturers, many seriously hurt by currency cheating, has initiated a series of print ads appearing in major media serving Capitol Hill...
Wisconsin lawmakers split — not on party lines — on Trans-Pacific Partnership Wisconsin State Journal ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal seven years in the making before it was unveiled this month, has quickly moved into the sights of some on Capitol Hill — including a vocal cadre of Wisconsin Democrats. The partnership is a proposed free-trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 other nations bordering the Pacific Ocean. After being negotiated in secret, the deal was finalized last month...
Portugal divided by austerity FT.com ...The real-life repercussions of the austerity debate that has gripped the west in the wake of the global financial crisis are experienced daily in Portuguese homes, hospitals, schools, job centres, companies and cafés, with almost every aspect of people’s lives having been affected by severe cuts and tough reforms. For the past four years the country has been held up by EU commissioners and international creditors as a model of how to behave in the face of a sovereign debt crisis...
2 arrested at anti-austerity march CBC News ...Two people were arrested following a protest Monday night that turned violent and involved rocks being thrown at police cars and officers. The anti-austerity and anti-capitalist march, organized by students at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, began at 8 p.m. at Philipps Square. No itinerary was given to police, and the march was declared illegal. Police say mischief was reported shortly after the march began...
Economist Has Convincing Theory on How Extreme Inequality Creates Extremist Violence Common Dreams ...Influential French economist Thomas Piketty is raising important questions this week after positing a theory that the rise of the Islamic State (or ISIS) can be attributed, at least in part, to extreme regional inequality in the Middle East fueled largely by oil wealth. Piketty argues in a column published Le Monde last week and translated by the Washington Post on Monday that the concentration of wealth in the hands of just a few petro-monarchies has made the region the "most unequal on the planet"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Ohio House panel to hear testimony on right-to-work bill WOWK ...A state legislative panel in Ohio plans to hear testimony on a proposal that would bar private employers from requiring workers to join or pay dues to a labor organization. Such right-to-work laws have been enacted in 25 states. Ohio's bill is slated to get its first hearing Tuesday afternoon before the House Commerce and Labor Committee. Right-to-work proposals have not gained traction in the Ohio Legislature...
A Wealthy Governor and His Friends Are Remaking Illinois New York Times ...The rich families remaking Illinois are among a small group around the country who have channeled their extraordinary wealth into political power, taking advantage of regulatory, legal and cultural shifts that have carved new paths for infusing money into campaigns. Economic winners in an age of rising inequality, operating largely out of public view, they are reshaping government with fortunes so large as to defy the ordinary financial scale of politics...
Tennessee seeks to dismiss voter ID lawsuit The Tennessean ...A lawsuit that contends age discrimination was written into Tennessee's voter identification law because it does not allow use of student IDs has stalled as a federal judge considers whether it is a valid case. Lawyers for a group of students and those for the state disagree on how to interpret the 44-year-old constitutional amendment...
Teamsters at Coca-Cola Refreshments Authorize Unfair Labor Practice Strike Teamster.org ...More than 225 Coca-Cola Refreshments workers represented by Teamsters Local 727 voted Sun., Nov. 29, to authorize an unfair labor practice strike against the beverage industry behemoth. The Teamsters voted by a 10-to-1 margin to authorize the strike after Local 727 filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against the company in a fight for a new contract...
Coca-Cola workers authorize strike at plants in Niles, Alsip Chicago Tribune ...Workers at two Chicago-area Coca-Cola plants have voted to authorize a strike against the beverage giant to protest unfair labor practices in the final days of negotiations for a new three-year contract. Members of Teamsters Local 727 could head to the picket line as early as Wednesday morning after their contract with Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Refreshments expires at midnight Tuesday...
Portland’s General Distributors Inc., at Odds with Teamsters Union Brewbound ...A federal mediator is slated to oversee negotiations this Wednesday between Portland, Oregon’s Teamsters Local 162 and General Distributors, Inc (GDI), a beer wholesaler responsible for getting brands like Corona, Coors, Sierra Nevada and a number of craft products to market. The strike left some local craft brewers without a route to market as replacement workers struggled to distribute beer in time for the Thanksgiving holiday...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
More Than 30 Trade Unionists Have Been Killed in Honduras Since 2009 The Nation ...Honduras’s products and people are entangled in a social crisis driving international pressure for an independent investigation into our Central American “trade partner’s” Banana Republic–style anti-labor tactics. Several trade unionists have reportedly faced death threats in recent months amid rising labor and political tumult...
Truckers to picket container company, but inks contract with six others Vancouver Sun ...Container truck drivers put strike plans into gear Sunday to pressure a company they allege is shorting its drivers on retroactive pay. The truckers planned to picket Harbour Link’s main yard in Delta early Monday to spur it into honouring the terms of the deal that ended last year’s one-month port strike, said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s B.C. area director...
Furnace workers of imitation jewellery units on strike Times of India ...Around 500 furnace workers of the city's famed imitation jewellery business have gone on a strike to demand better wages. This is the first time that the imitation jewellery market of Rajkot, one of the biggest in India, has witnessed a strike...
Big Oil, TTIP and the Scramble for Europe Counterpunch ...If sanctioned, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would be the biggest trade deal ever seen. Yet the public continue to be kept in the dark about it. Large corporations have been granted privileged access to officials and have been allowed to shape the talks agenda from the outset. Throughout the process, organisations representing the public and civil society have been sidelined...
Domestic Manufacturers Launch New Anti-TPP Currency Ad Blitz on Capitol Hill American Economic Alert ...The U.S. Business and Industry Council (USBIC) announced today the start of a media campaign to highlight the lack of enforceable currency provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The group, which represents domestic manufacturers, many seriously hurt by currency cheating, has initiated a series of print ads appearing in major media serving Capitol Hill...
Wisconsin lawmakers split — not on party lines — on Trans-Pacific Partnership Wisconsin State Journal ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal seven years in the making before it was unveiled this month, has quickly moved into the sights of some on Capitol Hill — including a vocal cadre of Wisconsin Democrats. The partnership is a proposed free-trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 other nations bordering the Pacific Ocean. After being negotiated in secret, the deal was finalized last month...
Portugal divided by austerity FT.com ...The real-life repercussions of the austerity debate that has gripped the west in the wake of the global financial crisis are experienced daily in Portuguese homes, hospitals, schools, job centres, companies and cafés, with almost every aspect of people’s lives having been affected by severe cuts and tough reforms. For the past four years the country has been held up by EU commissioners and international creditors as a model of how to behave in the face of a sovereign debt crisis...
2 arrested at anti-austerity march CBC News ...Two people were arrested following a protest Monday night that turned violent and involved rocks being thrown at police cars and officers. The anti-austerity and anti-capitalist march, organized by students at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, began at 8 p.m. at Philipps Square. No itinerary was given to police, and the march was declared illegal. Police say mischief was reported shortly after the march began...
Economist Has Convincing Theory on How Extreme Inequality Creates Extremist Violence Common Dreams ...Influential French economist Thomas Piketty is raising important questions this week after positing a theory that the rise of the Islamic State (or ISIS) can be attributed, at least in part, to extreme regional inequality in the Middle East fueled largely by oil wealth. Piketty argues in a column published Le Monde last week and translated by the Washington Post on Monday that the concentration of wealth in the hands of just a few petro-monarchies has made the region the "most unequal on the planet"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Ohio House panel to hear testimony on right-to-work bill WOWK ...A state legislative panel in Ohio plans to hear testimony on a proposal that would bar private employers from requiring workers to join or pay dues to a labor organization. Such right-to-work laws have been enacted in 25 states. Ohio's bill is slated to get its first hearing Tuesday afternoon before the House Commerce and Labor Committee. Right-to-work proposals have not gained traction in the Ohio Legislature...
A Wealthy Governor and His Friends Are Remaking Illinois New York Times ...The rich families remaking Illinois are among a small group around the country who have channeled their extraordinary wealth into political power, taking advantage of regulatory, legal and cultural shifts that have carved new paths for infusing money into campaigns. Economic winners in an age of rising inequality, operating largely out of public view, they are reshaping government with fortunes so large as to defy the ordinary financial scale of politics...
Tennessee seeks to dismiss voter ID lawsuit The Tennessean ...A lawsuit that contends age discrimination was written into Tennessee's voter identification law because it does not allow use of student IDs has stalled as a federal judge considers whether it is a valid case. Lawyers for a group of students and those for the state disagree on how to interpret the 44-year-old constitutional amendment...
Del. lawmaker calls for $15 / hour minimum wage Delaware 105.9 ...Delaware's minimum wage would rise to $15.05 an hour by 2023, under an amendment to legislation filed in the General Assembly. State Senator Robert Marshall, D- Wilmington West, cites the increasing numbers of people with low-wage jobs as well as a rising rate of poverty as the reasons for his measure. The minimum wage increase would be phased in on June 1st of each year...
How One City Is Making Sure Bosses Comply With Wage Theft and Paid Sick Leave Laws In These Times ...Over the past five years, Seattle has implemented sweeping labor laws, instituting paid sick leave, discouraging discrimination against those with prison records, incrementally raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2017 and strengthening wage-theft protections. But these new laws can’t enforce themselves...
Bangor’s minimum wage debate could be decided in two weeks Bangor ...The City Council could finally bring closure to the months-long debate over whether the city should raise the local minimum wage during a meeting in two weeks. Councilors and city officials met Monday night for a workshop to hash through some of the concerns that have made this an issue of contention for months...
U.S. LABOR
American Passenger-Service Workers Approve 5-Year Contract Bloomberg ...American Airlines Group Inc. said a union representing 14,500 reservation agents and airport passenger-service workers approved a five-year contract that included “significant” pay raises. The agreement provides an average initial increase of 30 percent, 2 percent raises at the end of the first and second years and 2.5 percent in each of the following two years, according to a statement on the Communications Workers of America website...
Health care remains sticking point in USW contract talks NWI.com ...Negotiations with steelmakers broke off for the Thanksgiving holiday but resumed Monday. The United Steelworkers union is fighting efforts by ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel to slash health care insurance benefits, which the union says could cost steelworkers and retirees as much as $6,300 more a year in out-of-pocket expenses. Steelworkers would suffer an effective pay cut as a result...
Kohler Strike Continues, Union Seeking Donations WHBL ...United Auto Workers Local 833 have now spent two full weeks on the picket line after they and the Kohler Company failed to reach an agreement on a new contract earlier this month. With the strike now entering its third week, the union is focusing some attention on helping its members get through the impact of being on strike...
NLRB strikes down two more companies' class action waivers Reuters ...The U.S. National Labor Relations Board last week continued to expand its rule prohibiting class and collective action waivers in employment agreements, upholding rulings by two administrative judges who struck down such provisions, including one that was voluntary. The board rejected a bid by California grocery store chain Bristol Farms to approve a proposed settlement with an NLRB regional director that would have allowed its workers to opt out of signing the waivers...
SEIU claims court victory on health insurance Capitol Fax ...The St. Clair County Circuit Court has ruled in favor of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, which was granted a temporary restraining order against Gov. Bruce Rauner and Comptroller Leslie Munger. The ruling issued late Wednesday protects health insurance for nearly 5,000 low-wage home healthcare workers in Illinois. The home healthcare workers serve adults with disabilities in Illinois’ Home Services Program...
Stronger Together: Envoy Agents Vote for CWA Representation CWA-union.org ...Nearly 5,000 Envoy Air agents (formerly American Eagle) joined together and overwhelmingly voted for representation by the Communications Workers of America in an election conducted by the National Mediation Board. The agents work at 102 stations nationwide and have a broad range of responsibilities for passenger service and fleet service work. Envoy is owned by American Airlines Group...
Collective Action Stops Retaliation Against Cal Cartage Warehouse Workers Labor Press ...Warehouse Workers at California Cartage in the Los Angeles port neighborhood of Wilmington faced retaliation from their employer after temporary workers joined direct hires in a pair of three-day strikes in September and October. The strikers were calling for 15$ an hour minimum wage, a safe work environment, a lunch area free of rats and cockroaches and an end to wage theft...
Robert Reich: Why the High-Tech 'Sharing Economy' Is All About Impoverishing Workers Alternet ...The so-called “share economy” includes independent contractors, temporary workers, the self-employed, part-timers, freelancers, and free agents. Most file 1099s rather than W2s, for tax purposes. It’s estimated that in five years over 40 percent of the American labor force will be in such uncertain work; in a decade, most of us. This trend shifts all economic risks onto workers.
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Behind Hillary Clinton’s $250 Billion Infrastructure Plan Think Progress ...Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced on Monday her plan to spend $250 billion over five years to improve the nation’s infrastructure. The plan — which includes proposals to improve roads and bridges, transit systems, energy systems, and electric grids — is the first phase of Clinton’s month-long focus on jobs. In March, Senate Republicans defeated a Democratic amendment to the proposed 2016 budget which was offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders and called for $478 billion in new spending. Sanders has proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan...
Hillary Clinton's Modest Infrastructure Proposal The Atlantic ...It’s hard to call a plan that spends $275 billion in taxpayer dollars over five years “modest” and keep a straight face. But that may be the best way to describe the proposal Hillary Clinton unveiled on Monday to upgrade the nation’s ailing infrastructure. The reaction from advocates of more robust infrastructure spending has been less than enthusiastic, a nod to the fact that the size of the Clinton plan falls well short of what studies have shown the country needs...
Why Do Former Goldman Sachs Bankers Keep Landing Top Slots at the Federal Reserve? The Nation ...During the last year, three vacancies have opened up to head regional Federal Reserve banks around the country. One by one, all three of the spots have gone to former insiders from Goldman Sachs. First, Goldman Sachs trustee Patrick Harker essentially picked himself to lead the Philadelphia Fed, stepping down as chair of the Philadelphia Fed Board of Directors to allow for his own selection...
White Collar Whistleblower Sentenced To Prison While The Criminals He Exposed Are Free Think Progress ...Over the holiday weekend, the man who’s done more to expose the financial crimes of the rich and powerful than almost anyone else in the 21st century was sentenced to five years in a Swiss prison. The harsh punishment to protect bank secrecy comes amid a comparatively lax pursuit of justice for in cases where the public has been wronged by banking industry actors...
Defying the 'Shock Doctrine' in Paris as Thousands March Despite Protest Ban Common Dreams ...It was people power versus "shock doctrine" on the streets of Paris on Sunday as thousands dared to defy the French government's ban on protests during the much-anticipated global climate summit. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators linked arms in a human chain along the 3 kilometer cancelled march route—joining the millions worldwide who took to the streets to demand that the assembled world leaders commit to bold action to confront the growing threat of climate change...
Two Expert Reports Slam Cleveland Cops for "Reckless" Killing of Tamir Rice Mother Jones ...On Saturday, attorneys for the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy who was shot to death by a Cleveland cop last November, released two new reports concluding that the actions of the two officers involved, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, were "reckless" and "objectively unreasonable" by legal and professional standards. The reports were authored by Roger Clark, a former Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, and by Jeffrey Noble, a former deputy police chief for Irvine, California...
How One City Is Making Sure Bosses Comply With Wage Theft and Paid Sick Leave Laws In These Times ...Over the past five years, Seattle has implemented sweeping labor laws, instituting paid sick leave, discouraging discrimination against those with prison records, incrementally raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2017 and strengthening wage-theft protections. But these new laws can’t enforce themselves...
Bangor’s minimum wage debate could be decided in two weeks Bangor ...The City Council could finally bring closure to the months-long debate over whether the city should raise the local minimum wage during a meeting in two weeks. Councilors and city officials met Monday night for a workshop to hash through some of the concerns that have made this an issue of contention for months...
U.S. LABOR
American Passenger-Service Workers Approve 5-Year Contract Bloomberg ...American Airlines Group Inc. said a union representing 14,500 reservation agents and airport passenger-service workers approved a five-year contract that included “significant” pay raises. The agreement provides an average initial increase of 30 percent, 2 percent raises at the end of the first and second years and 2.5 percent in each of the following two years, according to a statement on the Communications Workers of America website...
Health care remains sticking point in USW contract talks NWI.com ...Negotiations with steelmakers broke off for the Thanksgiving holiday but resumed Monday. The United Steelworkers union is fighting efforts by ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel to slash health care insurance benefits, which the union says could cost steelworkers and retirees as much as $6,300 more a year in out-of-pocket expenses. Steelworkers would suffer an effective pay cut as a result...
Kohler Strike Continues, Union Seeking Donations WHBL ...United Auto Workers Local 833 have now spent two full weeks on the picket line after they and the Kohler Company failed to reach an agreement on a new contract earlier this month. With the strike now entering its third week, the union is focusing some attention on helping its members get through the impact of being on strike...
NLRB strikes down two more companies' class action waivers Reuters ...The U.S. National Labor Relations Board last week continued to expand its rule prohibiting class and collective action waivers in employment agreements, upholding rulings by two administrative judges who struck down such provisions, including one that was voluntary. The board rejected a bid by California grocery store chain Bristol Farms to approve a proposed settlement with an NLRB regional director that would have allowed its workers to opt out of signing the waivers...
SEIU claims court victory on health insurance Capitol Fax ...The St. Clair County Circuit Court has ruled in favor of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, which was granted a temporary restraining order against Gov. Bruce Rauner and Comptroller Leslie Munger. The ruling issued late Wednesday protects health insurance for nearly 5,000 low-wage home healthcare workers in Illinois. The home healthcare workers serve adults with disabilities in Illinois’ Home Services Program...
Stronger Together: Envoy Agents Vote for CWA Representation CWA-union.org ...Nearly 5,000 Envoy Air agents (formerly American Eagle) joined together and overwhelmingly voted for representation by the Communications Workers of America in an election conducted by the National Mediation Board. The agents work at 102 stations nationwide and have a broad range of responsibilities for passenger service and fleet service work. Envoy is owned by American Airlines Group...
Collective Action Stops Retaliation Against Cal Cartage Warehouse Workers Labor Press ...Warehouse Workers at California Cartage in the Los Angeles port neighborhood of Wilmington faced retaliation from their employer after temporary workers joined direct hires in a pair of three-day strikes in September and October. The strikers were calling for 15$ an hour minimum wage, a safe work environment, a lunch area free of rats and cockroaches and an end to wage theft...
Robert Reich: Why the High-Tech 'Sharing Economy' Is All About Impoverishing Workers Alternet ...The so-called “share economy” includes independent contractors, temporary workers, the self-employed, part-timers, freelancers, and free agents. Most file 1099s rather than W2s, for tax purposes. It’s estimated that in five years over 40 percent of the American labor force will be in such uncertain work; in a decade, most of us. This trend shifts all economic risks onto workers.
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Behind Hillary Clinton’s $250 Billion Infrastructure Plan Think Progress ...Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced on Monday her plan to spend $250 billion over five years to improve the nation’s infrastructure. The plan — which includes proposals to improve roads and bridges, transit systems, energy systems, and electric grids — is the first phase of Clinton’s month-long focus on jobs. In March, Senate Republicans defeated a Democratic amendment to the proposed 2016 budget which was offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders and called for $478 billion in new spending. Sanders has proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan...
Hillary Clinton's Modest Infrastructure Proposal The Atlantic ...It’s hard to call a plan that spends $275 billion in taxpayer dollars over five years “modest” and keep a straight face. But that may be the best way to describe the proposal Hillary Clinton unveiled on Monday to upgrade the nation’s ailing infrastructure. The reaction from advocates of more robust infrastructure spending has been less than enthusiastic, a nod to the fact that the size of the Clinton plan falls well short of what studies have shown the country needs...
Why Do Former Goldman Sachs Bankers Keep Landing Top Slots at the Federal Reserve? The Nation ...During the last year, three vacancies have opened up to head regional Federal Reserve banks around the country. One by one, all three of the spots have gone to former insiders from Goldman Sachs. First, Goldman Sachs trustee Patrick Harker essentially picked himself to lead the Philadelphia Fed, stepping down as chair of the Philadelphia Fed Board of Directors to allow for his own selection...
White Collar Whistleblower Sentenced To Prison While The Criminals He Exposed Are Free Think Progress ...Over the holiday weekend, the man who’s done more to expose the financial crimes of the rich and powerful than almost anyone else in the 21st century was sentenced to five years in a Swiss prison. The harsh punishment to protect bank secrecy comes amid a comparatively lax pursuit of justice for in cases where the public has been wronged by banking industry actors...
Defying the 'Shock Doctrine' in Paris as Thousands March Despite Protest Ban Common Dreams ...It was people power versus "shock doctrine" on the streets of Paris on Sunday as thousands dared to defy the French government's ban on protests during the much-anticipated global climate summit. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators linked arms in a human chain along the 3 kilometer cancelled march route—joining the millions worldwide who took to the streets to demand that the assembled world leaders commit to bold action to confront the growing threat of climate change...
Two Expert Reports Slam Cleveland Cops for "Reckless" Killing of Tamir Rice Mother Jones ...On Saturday, attorneys for the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy who was shot to death by a Cleveland cop last November, released two new reports concluding that the actions of the two officers involved, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, were "reckless" and "objectively unreasonable" by legal and professional standards. The reports were authored by Roger Clark, a former Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, and by Jeffrey Noble, a former deputy police chief for Irvine, California...
Friday, November 20, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.20.15
TEAMSTERS
Senate Takes Another Step Towards Keeping Double 33-Foot Trailers Off the Road Teamster.org ...Lawmakers took another stand for highway safety yesterday when the Senate removed language from a spending bill that would force states to allow an increase in the length of tractor trailers. “The Teamsters are encouraged by this latest bipartisan action to prioritize highway safety over greater corporate profits,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said...
Members At Albany's Time-Union Ratify Contract Teamster.org ...Members of Teamsters Local 126 working at the Albany Times-Union newspaper have ratified, by a majority vote, a new three-year contract. The 63 members all work in the mailing department of the newspaper and fought back against the company’s desire to cut costs and threats of wage reductions. “They played hardball with us,” said Stefan Krueger, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 126 and an employee in the mailing department unit for the past 27 years...
Drivers Rally at City Call, Call on Council to Pass O'Brien Legislation Local 117 ...Drivers in Seattle's for-hire industry joined with dozens of community supporters to call on the City Council to pass Mike O'Brien's a Voice for Drivers legislation, which would give drivers the right to collectively bargain over their pay and working conditions. One driver said she had been recently deactivated by Lyft after helping to organize the day's event. "Last week they sent me an email saying that I was a platinum driver," she said. "Monday I attended a meeting at the Teamsters, and Tuesday I got an email saying I was deactivated"...
Seattle Lyft Driver Wants to Know Why She Was Deactivated After Attending a Teamsters Organizing Meeting The Stranger ..."I was at the Teamsters office," Kim says. "That's the only reason that [Lyft] deactivated me. I'm not stupid." Kim attended an organizing meeting for drivers at the Teamsters Local 117 office on Monday. By Tuesday at 1:43 p.m., Kim had been deactivated. Kim isn't the only app-based driver to claim that an account had been deactivated because of organizing activity. Last year, Will Anderson, a former Uber driver in Seattle, reported that he had been deactivated the morning after attending a meeting with the Teamsters Local 117...
Picketing at U focuses on parental leave Workday Minnesota ...Lack of parental leave was one focus of informational picketing Tuesday by workers at the University of Minnesota. Members of AFSCME and the Teamsters have been in negotiations with the University since June. The unions are seeking: Six weeks of parental leave, comparable to that given to P&A staff and faculty...
Cummins Teamsters Ratify new 3 Year Contract Local 769 ...On Tuesday November 17, 2015 Teamsters Local 769 members at Cummins in Miami unanimously ratified a new 3 year agreement. The bargaining unit, which consists of diesel mechanics, the parts department and warehouse workers, have long been members of Teamsters Local 769 The diesel mechanics service engines for Miami-Dade Transit and public school buses and their marine division provides yacht service throughout the Caribbean...
Coca-Cola Stubbornly Sticks to Unreasonable Proposals, Stalls With One Day Left to Negotiate Local 727 ...For the seventh consecutive bargaining session, Coca-Cola has wasted the time of the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee by refusing to budge from its unreasonable contract proposals. During another marathon 13-hour meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 18, Local 727 watched as management sat on its hands and resubmitted contract offers that members have explicitly made clear are unpalatable...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
India's central bank employees strike over pensions BBC ...Most of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) 17,000 employees went on strike on Thursday in what the central bank described as "mass casual leave". The walk out resulted in "some interruptions" to clearing and settlement operations at the central bank, but it said that its systems were largely operational. Four unions had called for the strike to demand better pension benefits...
Tazreen Fire Survivors: ‘Our Suffering Has Just Started’ Solidarity Center ...Survivors of the November 24, 2012, Tazreen fire who recently talked with Solidarity Center staff in Bangladesh say they endure daily physical and emotional pain and in many cases, have little or no means of financial support because they cannot work. Some, like Anju, who is unable to work, have never received compensation for their injuries...
Demerara Timbers workers strike for wage increase Stabroek News ...Under the umbrella of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), seventy workers from Demerara Timbers Limited (DTL) went on strike on November 19 at the company’s Mabura Hill operations. According to a GAWU press release, the strike resulted from a failure of the company to arrive at a consensus with the union since June 22, 2015...
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Offers Helping Hand, Companies Give Cash To Support Democrats Backing Trade Pact IBTimes ...House Democrats have enjoyed the warm, friendly embrace of the chief executive and a steady flow of cold, hard cash from the companies that are backing a massive agreement with Asia-Pacific nations. Obama, in a display of political acumen that often has eluded him in dealing with Congress, never stopped wooing members who supported him as he eyeballed the prize -- ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Obama defends TPP secrecy, says now is chance for debate Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama launched a defense on Friday of a signature Pacific trade pact kept largely under wraps and said the public would get its say before legislators in each country debate the full details. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a "mega-regional accord" covering four-tenths of global GDP...
Mexican Immigration Declining; More Are Returning Than Arriving NPR ...A new study of immigration to the United States shows that more Mexicans have returned home than have arrived here since 2009. The report from the Washington, DC-based Pew Research Center also finds that the overall flow of Mexicans between the two countries is the smallest since the 1990s. The conclusions are based on government data here and in Mexico...
Police tear-gas farmers at anti-cuts rally in Greek capital RT ...Clashes erupted between riot police and protesting farmers in front of the Hellenic Parliament in Athens, on Wednesday after some 4,000 agricultural workers rallied from across the country to condemn planned tax reforms and austerity measures. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters as they moved closer to the parliament building and threw oranges and other objects at officers...
Québec Fights Back Against Austerity Counterpunch ...We are supposed to accept austerity as being as natural as ocean tides. Or be demoralized by the power of the forces that continually press down on working people around the world. But there is an ongoing, organized fightback going on — in Québec. A series of rolling strikes by public-sector employees and students throughout 2015 appear to be headed toward a provincial general strike in December...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Why Missouri might be the next big battleground in the right-to-work debate Washington Post ...Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidates are using their anti-union stance to set up a fight with likely Democratic nominee Attorney General Chris Koster, who is funded in large part by labor groups and has vowed to block the policy, insisting it hurts wages. An August primary will decide who faces off in the race. Two days after Republicans failed to override the governor’s most recent veto on right to work, Koster’s campaign received a $20,00 campaign donation from a group representing carpenters...
Labor secretary: Wisconsin needs to raise its minimum wage Journal Sentinel ...The U.S. secretary of labor is calling on Wisconsin to raise its minimum wage. Thomas Perez, head of the Department of Labor, visited Milwaukee on Thursday to meet with workers and advocates for raising the minimum wage. The event, organized by Wisconsin Jobs Now, was focused on the "Fight for 15" movement, which aims to boost the pay for low-wage workers to $15 an hour...
Absentee ballots are expected to increase with new voter ID requirements Shelby Star ...In anticipation of next year’s requirement that voters have a photo ID, election workers across North Carolina asked voters this year if they had proper identification. Out of the more than 9,200 people who voted in Cleveland County's November municipal elections, fewer than 10 did not have an ID...
Lexington to boost minimum wage to $10.10 CNN ...Minimum wage workers in Lexington, Kentucky are about to get a raise. The Lexington Urban County Council voted Thursday to boost the city's minimum wage from the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour over the next three years. The county will see a preliminary increase to $8.20 per hour on July 1, 2016...
Los Angeles Allegedly Forces The Mentally Ill Through Bureaucratic Nightmare For Welfare Think Progress ...A new lawsuit accuses Los Angeles County of making it too difficult for people with mental health issues to apply for a program called General Relief (GR), which is supposed to provide a $221 monthly stipend to all eligible Californians. In practice, the suit says, even that meager subsistence benefit is far out of reach for tens of thousands of people who need it most...
U.S. LABOR
U.S. airport workers stage one-day strike USA Today ...Baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, ramp workers, wheelchair attendants, janitors and other workers struck airports in Boston, Chicago O’Hare, New York’s John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, New Jersey’s Newark, Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. American, Delta, United and JetBlue airlines told Reuters the strike didn't disrupt flights. But workers and labor experts said the protests drew attention in the industry and among travelers a week before Thanksgiving...
United Auto Workers' new contract with Ford at risk of rejection USA Today ...Union workers at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant are the latest to soundly vote against a national contract with the automaker, casting further doubt about the United Auto Workers' ability to convince a majority of workers nationwide to ratify the agreement. About 53% of the more than 31,000 workers who have voted so far have voted against the contract...
Nursing home must bargain with union that lost election - NLRB judge Reuters ...A New York nursing home that called the police on labor organizers, fired a vocal union supporter and offered workers free jeans if they wore anti-union shirts on the job must bargain with a unit of the Service Employees International Union that lost an election, a National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled...
Solano County, SEIU reach tentative pact in labor dispute Daily Republic ...A late-night tentative agreement with the Service Employees International Union was reached Thursday after a 10-hour session with a state mediator, Solano County officials said – and a union spokeswoman said its bargaining team will recommend members approve the agreement...
Germany's largest trade union opens shop in Tennessee Politico ...The largest trade union in Germany is opening shop in the Nashville suburbs to help out the UAW in its bid to organize the South. IG Metall will announce this afternoon that it’s launching a joint office with UAW in Spring Hill, Tenn. as part of a “Transnational Partnership Initiative.” "IG Metall believes some German manufacturers are exploiting low-wage environments in the U.S. South...
Not all employers hate unions. These ones are trying to save them. Washington Post ...Unions are supposed to be a pain for employers. Especially strong, well-funded ones that are able to thwart their plans for change. not according to a host of government entities that have come to the defense of public sector unions at a moment when they could be wounded by a Supreme Court ruling on whether they're allowed to collect dues from nonmembers...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
France Cancels Major Climate March, But Groups Say They Won't Be Silenced Common Dreams ...The Prefecture of Police of Paris has reportedly cancelled a march planned for November 29 that organizers expected to draw at least 200,000 people, citing security concerns. Activists noted that other actions planned worldwide will still move forward. Nicolas Haeringer, French campaigner for climate advocacy group 350.org, said in response, "The government can prohibit these demonstrations, but our voices will not be silenced"...
Kochs' Freedom Partners Spent $129M in 2014, Invested Massively in Voter Data Lists PR Watch ...The Koch network's secret bank, "Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce," spent big during the 2014 midterm elections, including doubling its investment in voter data collection efforts and secretly backing U.S. Senate candidates associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Freedom Partners is also vastly expanding surveillance and intelligence gathering on the Kochs' perceived opponents, Politico reports today...
Anti-Transparency Bill Implies Pennsylvania Police Have 'Something to Hide' Common Dreams ...The Pennsylvania State House on Tuesday passed a controversial bill that would hide the identities of police officers who use force or fire their guns while on duty, at least until an investigation is completed—a move the state ACLU chapter said would only serve to harm community relations...
Trump: ‘Absolutely’ Register All Muslims In A Database Think Progress ...On Thursday night, the billionaire Republican presidential candidate told an NBC reporter that all American Muslims “have to be” required to registered in a database in the wake of deadly terror attacks in Paris and Beirut. The attacks were carried out by ISIS, a group that proclaims itself to be Islamic — though many Muslims and religious scholars disagree that the group can be credibly considered part of the religion...
America Needs George W. Bush to Speak to His Party Slate ...What Bush did, successfully, was keep anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric out of national politics. He made clear that the United States was fighting a war against terrorists—not Muslims—and reminded Americans that “the majority of the victims of the terrorists have been innocent Muslims”...
Glenn Greenwald on "Submissive" Media's Drumbeat for War and "Despicable" Anti-Muslim Scapegoating Democracy Now ...In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, media coverage has seen familiar patterns: uncritically repeat government claims, defend expansive state power, and blame the Muslim community for the acts of a few. "Every time there’s a terrorist attack, Western leaders exploit that attack to do more wars," Greenwald says. "Which in turn means they transfer huge amounts of taxpayer money to these corporations that sell arms"...
Senate Takes Another Step Towards Keeping Double 33-Foot Trailers Off the Road Teamster.org ...Lawmakers took another stand for highway safety yesterday when the Senate removed language from a spending bill that would force states to allow an increase in the length of tractor trailers. “The Teamsters are encouraged by this latest bipartisan action to prioritize highway safety over greater corporate profits,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said...
Members At Albany's Time-Union Ratify Contract Teamster.org ...Members of Teamsters Local 126 working at the Albany Times-Union newspaper have ratified, by a majority vote, a new three-year contract. The 63 members all work in the mailing department of the newspaper and fought back against the company’s desire to cut costs and threats of wage reductions. “They played hardball with us,” said Stefan Krueger, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 126 and an employee in the mailing department unit for the past 27 years...
Drivers Rally at City Call, Call on Council to Pass O'Brien Legislation Local 117 ...Drivers in Seattle's for-hire industry joined with dozens of community supporters to call on the City Council to pass Mike O'Brien's a Voice for Drivers legislation, which would give drivers the right to collectively bargain over their pay and working conditions. One driver said she had been recently deactivated by Lyft after helping to organize the day's event. "Last week they sent me an email saying that I was a platinum driver," she said. "Monday I attended a meeting at the Teamsters, and Tuesday I got an email saying I was deactivated"...
Seattle Lyft Driver Wants to Know Why She Was Deactivated After Attending a Teamsters Organizing Meeting The Stranger ..."I was at the Teamsters office," Kim says. "That's the only reason that [Lyft] deactivated me. I'm not stupid." Kim attended an organizing meeting for drivers at the Teamsters Local 117 office on Monday. By Tuesday at 1:43 p.m., Kim had been deactivated. Kim isn't the only app-based driver to claim that an account had been deactivated because of organizing activity. Last year, Will Anderson, a former Uber driver in Seattle, reported that he had been deactivated the morning after attending a meeting with the Teamsters Local 117...
Picketing at U focuses on parental leave Workday Minnesota ...Lack of parental leave was one focus of informational picketing Tuesday by workers at the University of Minnesota. Members of AFSCME and the Teamsters have been in negotiations with the University since June. The unions are seeking: Six weeks of parental leave, comparable to that given to P&A staff and faculty...
Cummins Teamsters Ratify new 3 Year Contract Local 769 ...On Tuesday November 17, 2015 Teamsters Local 769 members at Cummins in Miami unanimously ratified a new 3 year agreement. The bargaining unit, which consists of diesel mechanics, the parts department and warehouse workers, have long been members of Teamsters Local 769 The diesel mechanics service engines for Miami-Dade Transit and public school buses and their marine division provides yacht service throughout the Caribbean...
Coca-Cola Stubbornly Sticks to Unreasonable Proposals, Stalls With One Day Left to Negotiate Local 727 ...For the seventh consecutive bargaining session, Coca-Cola has wasted the time of the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee by refusing to budge from its unreasonable contract proposals. During another marathon 13-hour meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 18, Local 727 watched as management sat on its hands and resubmitted contract offers that members have explicitly made clear are unpalatable...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
India's central bank employees strike over pensions BBC ...Most of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) 17,000 employees went on strike on Thursday in what the central bank described as "mass casual leave". The walk out resulted in "some interruptions" to clearing and settlement operations at the central bank, but it said that its systems were largely operational. Four unions had called for the strike to demand better pension benefits...
Tazreen Fire Survivors: ‘Our Suffering Has Just Started’ Solidarity Center ...Survivors of the November 24, 2012, Tazreen fire who recently talked with Solidarity Center staff in Bangladesh say they endure daily physical and emotional pain and in many cases, have little or no means of financial support because they cannot work. Some, like Anju, who is unable to work, have never received compensation for their injuries...
Demerara Timbers workers strike for wage increase Stabroek News ...Under the umbrella of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), seventy workers from Demerara Timbers Limited (DTL) went on strike on November 19 at the company’s Mabura Hill operations. According to a GAWU press release, the strike resulted from a failure of the company to arrive at a consensus with the union since June 22, 2015...
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Offers Helping Hand, Companies Give Cash To Support Democrats Backing Trade Pact IBTimes ...House Democrats have enjoyed the warm, friendly embrace of the chief executive and a steady flow of cold, hard cash from the companies that are backing a massive agreement with Asia-Pacific nations. Obama, in a display of political acumen that often has eluded him in dealing with Congress, never stopped wooing members who supported him as he eyeballed the prize -- ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Obama defends TPP secrecy, says now is chance for debate Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama launched a defense on Friday of a signature Pacific trade pact kept largely under wraps and said the public would get its say before legislators in each country debate the full details. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a "mega-regional accord" covering four-tenths of global GDP...
Mexican Immigration Declining; More Are Returning Than Arriving NPR ...A new study of immigration to the United States shows that more Mexicans have returned home than have arrived here since 2009. The report from the Washington, DC-based Pew Research Center also finds that the overall flow of Mexicans between the two countries is the smallest since the 1990s. The conclusions are based on government data here and in Mexico...
Police tear-gas farmers at anti-cuts rally in Greek capital RT ...Clashes erupted between riot police and protesting farmers in front of the Hellenic Parliament in Athens, on Wednesday after some 4,000 agricultural workers rallied from across the country to condemn planned tax reforms and austerity measures. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters as they moved closer to the parliament building and threw oranges and other objects at officers...
Québec Fights Back Against Austerity Counterpunch ...We are supposed to accept austerity as being as natural as ocean tides. Or be demoralized by the power of the forces that continually press down on working people around the world. But there is an ongoing, organized fightback going on — in Québec. A series of rolling strikes by public-sector employees and students throughout 2015 appear to be headed toward a provincial general strike in December...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Why Missouri might be the next big battleground in the right-to-work debate Washington Post ...Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidates are using their anti-union stance to set up a fight with likely Democratic nominee Attorney General Chris Koster, who is funded in large part by labor groups and has vowed to block the policy, insisting it hurts wages. An August primary will decide who faces off in the race. Two days after Republicans failed to override the governor’s most recent veto on right to work, Koster’s campaign received a $20,00 campaign donation from a group representing carpenters...
Labor secretary: Wisconsin needs to raise its minimum wage Journal Sentinel ...The U.S. secretary of labor is calling on Wisconsin to raise its minimum wage. Thomas Perez, head of the Department of Labor, visited Milwaukee on Thursday to meet with workers and advocates for raising the minimum wage. The event, organized by Wisconsin Jobs Now, was focused on the "Fight for 15" movement, which aims to boost the pay for low-wage workers to $15 an hour...
Absentee ballots are expected to increase with new voter ID requirements Shelby Star ...In anticipation of next year’s requirement that voters have a photo ID, election workers across North Carolina asked voters this year if they had proper identification. Out of the more than 9,200 people who voted in Cleveland County's November municipal elections, fewer than 10 did not have an ID...
Lexington to boost minimum wage to $10.10 CNN ...Minimum wage workers in Lexington, Kentucky are about to get a raise. The Lexington Urban County Council voted Thursday to boost the city's minimum wage from the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour over the next three years. The county will see a preliminary increase to $8.20 per hour on July 1, 2016...
Los Angeles Allegedly Forces The Mentally Ill Through Bureaucratic Nightmare For Welfare Think Progress ...A new lawsuit accuses Los Angeles County of making it too difficult for people with mental health issues to apply for a program called General Relief (GR), which is supposed to provide a $221 monthly stipend to all eligible Californians. In practice, the suit says, even that meager subsistence benefit is far out of reach for tens of thousands of people who need it most...
U.S. LABOR
U.S. airport workers stage one-day strike USA Today ...Baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, ramp workers, wheelchair attendants, janitors and other workers struck airports in Boston, Chicago O’Hare, New York’s John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, New Jersey’s Newark, Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. American, Delta, United and JetBlue airlines told Reuters the strike didn't disrupt flights. But workers and labor experts said the protests drew attention in the industry and among travelers a week before Thanksgiving...
United Auto Workers' new contract with Ford at risk of rejection USA Today ...Union workers at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant are the latest to soundly vote against a national contract with the automaker, casting further doubt about the United Auto Workers' ability to convince a majority of workers nationwide to ratify the agreement. About 53% of the more than 31,000 workers who have voted so far have voted against the contract...
Nursing home must bargain with union that lost election - NLRB judge Reuters ...A New York nursing home that called the police on labor organizers, fired a vocal union supporter and offered workers free jeans if they wore anti-union shirts on the job must bargain with a unit of the Service Employees International Union that lost an election, a National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled...
Solano County, SEIU reach tentative pact in labor dispute Daily Republic ...A late-night tentative agreement with the Service Employees International Union was reached Thursday after a 10-hour session with a state mediator, Solano County officials said – and a union spokeswoman said its bargaining team will recommend members approve the agreement...
Germany's largest trade union opens shop in Tennessee Politico ...The largest trade union in Germany is opening shop in the Nashville suburbs to help out the UAW in its bid to organize the South. IG Metall will announce this afternoon that it’s launching a joint office with UAW in Spring Hill, Tenn. as part of a “Transnational Partnership Initiative.” "IG Metall believes some German manufacturers are exploiting low-wage environments in the U.S. South...
Not all employers hate unions. These ones are trying to save them. Washington Post ...Unions are supposed to be a pain for employers. Especially strong, well-funded ones that are able to thwart their plans for change. not according to a host of government entities that have come to the defense of public sector unions at a moment when they could be wounded by a Supreme Court ruling on whether they're allowed to collect dues from nonmembers...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
France Cancels Major Climate March, But Groups Say They Won't Be Silenced Common Dreams ...The Prefecture of Police of Paris has reportedly cancelled a march planned for November 29 that organizers expected to draw at least 200,000 people, citing security concerns. Activists noted that other actions planned worldwide will still move forward. Nicolas Haeringer, French campaigner for climate advocacy group 350.org, said in response, "The government can prohibit these demonstrations, but our voices will not be silenced"...
Kochs' Freedom Partners Spent $129M in 2014, Invested Massively in Voter Data Lists PR Watch ...The Koch network's secret bank, "Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce," spent big during the 2014 midterm elections, including doubling its investment in voter data collection efforts and secretly backing U.S. Senate candidates associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Freedom Partners is also vastly expanding surveillance and intelligence gathering on the Kochs' perceived opponents, Politico reports today...
Anti-Transparency Bill Implies Pennsylvania Police Have 'Something to Hide' Common Dreams ...The Pennsylvania State House on Tuesday passed a controversial bill that would hide the identities of police officers who use force or fire their guns while on duty, at least until an investigation is completed—a move the state ACLU chapter said would only serve to harm community relations...
Trump: ‘Absolutely’ Register All Muslims In A Database Think Progress ...On Thursday night, the billionaire Republican presidential candidate told an NBC reporter that all American Muslims “have to be” required to registered in a database in the wake of deadly terror attacks in Paris and Beirut. The attacks were carried out by ISIS, a group that proclaims itself to be Islamic — though many Muslims and religious scholars disagree that the group can be credibly considered part of the religion...
America Needs George W. Bush to Speak to His Party Slate ...What Bush did, successfully, was keep anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric out of national politics. He made clear that the United States was fighting a war against terrorists—not Muslims—and reminded Americans that “the majority of the victims of the terrorists have been innocent Muslims”...
Glenn Greenwald on "Submissive" Media's Drumbeat for War and "Despicable" Anti-Muslim Scapegoating Democracy Now ...In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, media coverage has seen familiar patterns: uncritically repeat government claims, defend expansive state power, and blame the Muslim community for the acts of a few. "Every time there’s a terrorist attack, Western leaders exploit that attack to do more wars," Greenwald says. "Which in turn means they transfer huge amounts of taxpayer money to these corporations that sell arms"...
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.18.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Support House Introduction of Pension Accountability Act Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union expressed its support today of the introduction of the House companion bill for Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-Ohio) Pension Accountability Act. The bill (HR 4029), which was introduced in the House by Reps. David Joyce (R-Ohio) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), would guarantee that the votes of thousands of retirees and participants would not be nullified as part of the process included in the Multi-employer Pension Reform Act (MPRA)...
Teamsters Applaud SFMTA Vote Ensuring Labor Harmony for Commuter Shuttles Teamster.org ...Today, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) voted to make the city’s commuter shuttle pilot program permanent, while also ensuring labor harmony for workers employed by commuter shuttle operators. The commuter shuttle program pertains to buses primarily serving Silicon Valley’s high tech industry, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and others. Consistent efforts by commuter shuttle drivers, Teamsters and community members to keep public attention on the critical labor harmony resolution resulted in final passage...
Miami Transfer Ratifies New 3 Year Contract Local 769 ...On Monday November 16, 2015, Teamsters Local 769 members from Miami Transfer ratified a new 3 year contract. Miami Transfer has been in business since 1896 and along with Florida Rigging they do a lot of work for Florida Power and Light. They also do a lot of rigging work for Pike and other utility pole companies throughout the Miami, Broward, and Palm Beach county areas...
Teamsters, Carhaul Employer Group to Reconvene Teamster.org ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) will reconvene with the carhaul employer group this week to negotiate on the members’ behalf after carhaulers overwhelmingly voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements. The negotiations come after local unions held meetings over the past few weeks with the carhaul members to discuss the recently rejected tentative agreement...
Workers protest poverty wages at the U of MN Fight Back News ...More than 350 workers on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses of the University of Minnesota braved the rain, Nov. 17, to rally and picket for raises and respect for unionized staff at the U of MN. Members of U of MN AFSCME and Teamsters Local 320, which collectively represent over 4000 university workers, are currently in contract negotiations...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Obama presses Canada for quick TPP approval Globe and Mail ...U.S. President Barack Obama is pressuring Canada and the other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to approve the trade deal as quickly as possible. The 12 leaders of TPP nations met Wednesday for the first time since they announced the deal in October and released the text on Nov. 5. The closed-door meeting was also the first opportunity for Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with TPP leaders...
Protests Continue as Obama Praises TPP at APEC Summit TeleSUR ...Activists protesting against the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Manila, Philippines, clashed with police on Wednesday in attempts to take their demonstration to the site of the the APEC meetings, where world leaders also met to discuss the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership. Social movements including labor unions, women’s groups, students, Indigenous people, farmer organizations, and international activists have protested the negative impacts of APEC’s free trade model...
TPP activists storm Morgan Stanley office in Washington RT ...Activists united against the Trans Pacific Partnership deal disrupted the Washington, DC offices of investment firm Morgan Stanley. Protesters pushed by the company’s security as they charged their way into the building. Morgan Stanley is one of many US companies supporting the TPP and has spent almost $10m on lobbying over the past three years...
The Trans-Pacific Partnership could end US-made clothing New York Post ...The deal would eliminate tariffs between the US, Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. A key NYC industry, clothing and apparel, is more divided in its take on TPP. “They’re not encouraging the consumer to buy more American-made products,” says Ramdat Harihar, CEO of R&C Apparel. “If they’re cutting tariffs, they will manufacture more overseas”...
Greece, Lenders Reach Deal over Austerity Reforms; Aid Unlocked TeleSUR ...The Greek Finance Ministry said a payment of 2 billion euros will be made by creditors on Friday after reforms are ratified by parliament. Greece has reached an agreement with its European creditors Tuesday over financial reforms and austerity measures, allowing the country to receive bailout loans that were blocked because of disagreements over the reforms...
Honduran Union Leader, Family Leave Home after Threats Solidarity Center ...Honduran union leader Nelson Geovanni Nuñez Chavez was forced to leave his home with his family last week after repeatedly being followed and harassed, according to the Honduras-based nonprofit ACI-Participa. Nuñez Chavez is technical adviser to the Honduran agricultural workers’ union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria y Similares (STAS), and host of the radio program, “The Unionist, Live”...
India cbank workers' strike on Thursday likely to disrupt settlements Reuters ...Nov 18 About 17,000 employees of the Reserve Bank of India are set to go on strike on Thursday for better retirement benefits and to oppose reforms to the central bank, raising the prospect of disruptions to banks and markets. The four unions that have called the strike say the reforms will reduce the RBI's regulatory powers and take away debt management operations away from the central bank...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right To Work Is Debated in West Virginia The Intelligencer ...West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole said it is time to join the 25 other states that have passed right-to-work laws, but labor leaders Mike Caputo and Kenny Perdue said this is merely a Republican attempt to reduce wages for workers in an already poor state. State law currently allows companies to require membership in a union as a condition of employment. That practice is forbidden in right-to-work states...
Is "Right to Work" Right for W.Va.? WV Public ...Dozens of union members attended a joint committee meeting Sunday making their opposition for Right to Work legislation clear. For two hours, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary met to discuss possible Right to Work legislation and how it might affect West Virginia. Right to Work laws prohibit certain types of agreements between labor unions and employers...
Bills introduced by Simon address sexual orientation, campaign funds, paid sick leave WTVR ...HB07 wants full time employees to get a reasonable number of sick days. “Hard working Virginians shouldn’t have to choose between getting paid and going to work with a fever, the flu or worse,” Simon said. “It is essential to the health of Virginia’s workplaces that we provide a reasonable number of paid sick days for full time employees"...
L.A. County sets up wage enforcement program to police new minimum wage rules LA Times ...In the wake of this summer's decision to hike the minimum wage in unincorporated areas to $15 by 2020, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to set up a new division to go after employers who violate the wage law. Details of how the enforcement program will work and what penalties will apply to offending employers remain to be worked out...
U.S. LABOR
Sonoma County SEIU workers strike amid contract talks Press Democrat ...About 1,500 Sonoma County government employees joined picket lines Tuesday for the first day of a planned three-day strike by the county’s largest group of unionized workers. The demonstrations, clustered mainly outside county offices in Santa Rosa, escalated a standoff between local government officials and rank-and-file employees about the rising cost of health care and other living expenses...
Ford-UAW contract passage in doubt as voting nears end Reuters ...Workers at two large Ford Motor Co (F.N) plants in Louisville, Kentucky, rejected a proposed four-year labor contract by 2-to-1 margin, putting its passage in doubt as voting at Ford plants factories nears an end. Of 7,408 votes cast at Louisville Assembly and Kentucky Truck plants, 65.5 percent voted against the contract, according to a UAW official...
Papa John's Franchisee Gets Jail Time For Failing To Pay Full Wages Huffington Post ...The owner of several Papa John's franchises in New York City will serve 60 days in jail for failing to pay his workers the minimum wage and overtime, New York's attorney general announced Monday. Two months isn't a particularly long time in the hoosegow, but any jail time at all is notable in a wage theft case...
McDonald's franchises must comply with NLRB subpoenas, judge says Reuters ...A U.S. judge has ordered 10 McDonald's franchisees in New York City to comply with subpoenas from the National Labor Relations Board seeking information on their relationship with McDonald's Corp, as the agency tries to prove that the fast food giant is a joint employer of franchise workers...
Airlines Do Fixes on the Cheap by Sending Planes Abroad to Unlicensed Mechanics Alternet ...Like outsourcing in every other industry, aviation outsourcing comes down to money. After 9/11, when America’s airline industry found itself in financial dire straits, commercial fliers introduced a number of cost-cutting measures. We’re now far too familiar with these practices, most of which remain with us. Less widely known is the fact that airlines also looked for ways to slash repair costs, a solution that required looking abroad...
The Lowest End Of The Income Spectrum Is A Dangerous Place For Mothers To Be Think Progress ...In a new research paper from Kristin S. Seefeldt and Heather Sandstrom published by the Russell Sage Foundation, the authors note that about 12 percent of all low-income mothers had neither a job nor welfare benefits in 2004, which jumped to about 20 percent by 2008. “The number of families with children who are without work and without cash welfare benefits has been growing over time since the implementation of welfare reform in 1996,” said Seefeldt...
U.S. Economy Increasingly Dominated by Monopolies as 2015 Corporate Mergers Continue Alternet ...There’s more evidence that corporate America is becoming ever more monopolistic and that’s not good for small businesses or consumers. This year is on track to see the most corporate mergers and takeovers since the Great Recession of 2008, according to many business page reports that said October was the fifth biggest month ever for mergers...
SEIU endorses Clinton Politico ...The powerful union behind the fast food workers' wage movement endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Tuesday. The 2-million-member Service Employees International Union approved the endorsement through a vote by its executive board. “Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families,” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry in a statement...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Poll shows support for reversing highway bill safety changes The Hill ...Safety advocates are touting a poll showing public support for reversing a host of regulatory changes that are included in a highway funding bill that is being negotiated by lawmakers. 77 percent of U.S. residents oppose a controversial proposal to increase a current limit on the length of double-trailer truck rigs from 28 feet to 33 feet. Only 22 percent of the poll's respondents said they support the longer truck proposal...
Koch brothers hijack historic criminal justice reform to make it tougher to go after corporate criminals Salon ...Not one Wall Street executive was criminally charged following the 2008 global financial collapse, and if the Koch brothers and House Republicans have their way, it’ll be harder to hold white collar criminals accountable for their future malfeasance. In an age when even acts of terror fail to lessen the tense political divisions in Washington, D.C. a rare beacon of bipartisanship comprise has taken root among elected federal officials working on criminal justice reform...
Paris attacks reshape U.S. debate on immigration, security Reuters ...U.S. lawmakers called on Tuesday for even tighter scrutiny of Syrian refugees fleeing to the United States as last week's deadly Paris attacks recast America's debate over immigration and national security, prompting a sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama, who said attempts to block entry were "offensive and contrary to American values"...
France Rejects Fear, Renews Commitment To Take In 30,000 Syrian Refugees Think Progress ...French President Francois Hollande promised to honor his commitment to take in tens of thousands of refugees on Wednesday. He said France would do so despite concerns raised by ultra-right nationalist leaders that refugees might pose a security threat to the country. Many immigration experts and political leaders noted that such humanitarian measures undermine ISIS’ argument that the West is at odds with Muslims...
"A Disturbing Increase in Islamophobia": U.S. Mosques Threatened, Canadian Mosque Set on Fire Democracy Now ...There are growing reports of Islamophobic attacks since Friday’s massacre in Paris. Just hours after the Paris assault, a caller left a voicemail laced with racial slurs for the Islamic Society of Pinellas County in St. Petersburg, Florida. The caller left his full name and threatened to "firebomb you, shoot whoever’s there on sight in the head." Meanwhile in Pflugerville, Texas, residents found a torn Qur’an covered in feces...
Latest Incidents Show Police Brutality Persists Despite Elevated Awareness Common Dreams ...Separate incidents in two U.S. cities over recent days reveal that tensions remain elevated over police brutality and use of excessive force in the United States. Captured last week on tape, the beating of a man in San Francisco has been likened to the infamous assault on Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991...
Teamsters Support House Introduction of Pension Accountability Act Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union expressed its support today of the introduction of the House companion bill for Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-Ohio) Pension Accountability Act. The bill (HR 4029), which was introduced in the House by Reps. David Joyce (R-Ohio) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), would guarantee that the votes of thousands of retirees and participants would not be nullified as part of the process included in the Multi-employer Pension Reform Act (MPRA)...
Teamsters Applaud SFMTA Vote Ensuring Labor Harmony for Commuter Shuttles Teamster.org ...Today, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) voted to make the city’s commuter shuttle pilot program permanent, while also ensuring labor harmony for workers employed by commuter shuttle operators. The commuter shuttle program pertains to buses primarily serving Silicon Valley’s high tech industry, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and others. Consistent efforts by commuter shuttle drivers, Teamsters and community members to keep public attention on the critical labor harmony resolution resulted in final passage...
Miami Transfer Ratifies New 3 Year Contract Local 769 ...On Monday November 16, 2015, Teamsters Local 769 members from Miami Transfer ratified a new 3 year contract. Miami Transfer has been in business since 1896 and along with Florida Rigging they do a lot of work for Florida Power and Light. They also do a lot of rigging work for Pike and other utility pole companies throughout the Miami, Broward, and Palm Beach county areas...
Teamsters, Carhaul Employer Group to Reconvene Teamster.org ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) will reconvene with the carhaul employer group this week to negotiate on the members’ behalf after carhaulers overwhelmingly voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements. The negotiations come after local unions held meetings over the past few weeks with the carhaul members to discuss the recently rejected tentative agreement...
Workers protest poverty wages at the U of MN Fight Back News ...More than 350 workers on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses of the University of Minnesota braved the rain, Nov. 17, to rally and picket for raises and respect for unionized staff at the U of MN. Members of U of MN AFSCME and Teamsters Local 320, which collectively represent over 4000 university workers, are currently in contract negotiations...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Obama presses Canada for quick TPP approval Globe and Mail ...U.S. President Barack Obama is pressuring Canada and the other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to approve the trade deal as quickly as possible. The 12 leaders of TPP nations met Wednesday for the first time since they announced the deal in October and released the text on Nov. 5. The closed-door meeting was also the first opportunity for Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with TPP leaders...
Protests Continue as Obama Praises TPP at APEC Summit TeleSUR ...Activists protesting against the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Manila, Philippines, clashed with police on Wednesday in attempts to take their demonstration to the site of the the APEC meetings, where world leaders also met to discuss the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership. Social movements including labor unions, women’s groups, students, Indigenous people, farmer organizations, and international activists have protested the negative impacts of APEC’s free trade model...
TPP activists storm Morgan Stanley office in Washington RT ...Activists united against the Trans Pacific Partnership deal disrupted the Washington, DC offices of investment firm Morgan Stanley. Protesters pushed by the company’s security as they charged their way into the building. Morgan Stanley is one of many US companies supporting the TPP and has spent almost $10m on lobbying over the past three years...
The Trans-Pacific Partnership could end US-made clothing New York Post ...The deal would eliminate tariffs between the US, Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. A key NYC industry, clothing and apparel, is more divided in its take on TPP. “They’re not encouraging the consumer to buy more American-made products,” says Ramdat Harihar, CEO of R&C Apparel. “If they’re cutting tariffs, they will manufacture more overseas”...
Greece, Lenders Reach Deal over Austerity Reforms; Aid Unlocked TeleSUR ...The Greek Finance Ministry said a payment of 2 billion euros will be made by creditors on Friday after reforms are ratified by parliament. Greece has reached an agreement with its European creditors Tuesday over financial reforms and austerity measures, allowing the country to receive bailout loans that were blocked because of disagreements over the reforms...
Honduran Union Leader, Family Leave Home after Threats Solidarity Center ...Honduran union leader Nelson Geovanni Nuñez Chavez was forced to leave his home with his family last week after repeatedly being followed and harassed, according to the Honduras-based nonprofit ACI-Participa. Nuñez Chavez is technical adviser to the Honduran agricultural workers’ union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria y Similares (STAS), and host of the radio program, “The Unionist, Live”...
India cbank workers' strike on Thursday likely to disrupt settlements Reuters ...Nov 18 About 17,000 employees of the Reserve Bank of India are set to go on strike on Thursday for better retirement benefits and to oppose reforms to the central bank, raising the prospect of disruptions to banks and markets. The four unions that have called the strike say the reforms will reduce the RBI's regulatory powers and take away debt management operations away from the central bank...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right To Work Is Debated in West Virginia The Intelligencer ...West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole said it is time to join the 25 other states that have passed right-to-work laws, but labor leaders Mike Caputo and Kenny Perdue said this is merely a Republican attempt to reduce wages for workers in an already poor state. State law currently allows companies to require membership in a union as a condition of employment. That practice is forbidden in right-to-work states...
Is "Right to Work" Right for W.Va.? WV Public ...Dozens of union members attended a joint committee meeting Sunday making their opposition for Right to Work legislation clear. For two hours, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary met to discuss possible Right to Work legislation and how it might affect West Virginia. Right to Work laws prohibit certain types of agreements between labor unions and employers...
Bills introduced by Simon address sexual orientation, campaign funds, paid sick leave WTVR ...HB07 wants full time employees to get a reasonable number of sick days. “Hard working Virginians shouldn’t have to choose between getting paid and going to work with a fever, the flu or worse,” Simon said. “It is essential to the health of Virginia’s workplaces that we provide a reasonable number of paid sick days for full time employees"...
L.A. County sets up wage enforcement program to police new minimum wage rules LA Times ...In the wake of this summer's decision to hike the minimum wage in unincorporated areas to $15 by 2020, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to set up a new division to go after employers who violate the wage law. Details of how the enforcement program will work and what penalties will apply to offending employers remain to be worked out...
U.S. LABOR
Sonoma County SEIU workers strike amid contract talks Press Democrat ...About 1,500 Sonoma County government employees joined picket lines Tuesday for the first day of a planned three-day strike by the county’s largest group of unionized workers. The demonstrations, clustered mainly outside county offices in Santa Rosa, escalated a standoff between local government officials and rank-and-file employees about the rising cost of health care and other living expenses...
Ford-UAW contract passage in doubt as voting nears end Reuters ...Workers at two large Ford Motor Co (F.N) plants in Louisville, Kentucky, rejected a proposed four-year labor contract by 2-to-1 margin, putting its passage in doubt as voting at Ford plants factories nears an end. Of 7,408 votes cast at Louisville Assembly and Kentucky Truck plants, 65.5 percent voted against the contract, according to a UAW official...
Papa John's Franchisee Gets Jail Time For Failing To Pay Full Wages Huffington Post ...The owner of several Papa John's franchises in New York City will serve 60 days in jail for failing to pay his workers the minimum wage and overtime, New York's attorney general announced Monday. Two months isn't a particularly long time in the hoosegow, but any jail time at all is notable in a wage theft case...
McDonald's franchises must comply with NLRB subpoenas, judge says Reuters ...A U.S. judge has ordered 10 McDonald's franchisees in New York City to comply with subpoenas from the National Labor Relations Board seeking information on their relationship with McDonald's Corp, as the agency tries to prove that the fast food giant is a joint employer of franchise workers...
Airlines Do Fixes on the Cheap by Sending Planes Abroad to Unlicensed Mechanics Alternet ...Like outsourcing in every other industry, aviation outsourcing comes down to money. After 9/11, when America’s airline industry found itself in financial dire straits, commercial fliers introduced a number of cost-cutting measures. We’re now far too familiar with these practices, most of which remain with us. Less widely known is the fact that airlines also looked for ways to slash repair costs, a solution that required looking abroad...
The Lowest End Of The Income Spectrum Is A Dangerous Place For Mothers To Be Think Progress ...In a new research paper from Kristin S. Seefeldt and Heather Sandstrom published by the Russell Sage Foundation, the authors note that about 12 percent of all low-income mothers had neither a job nor welfare benefits in 2004, which jumped to about 20 percent by 2008. “The number of families with children who are without work and without cash welfare benefits has been growing over time since the implementation of welfare reform in 1996,” said Seefeldt...
U.S. Economy Increasingly Dominated by Monopolies as 2015 Corporate Mergers Continue Alternet ...There’s more evidence that corporate America is becoming ever more monopolistic and that’s not good for small businesses or consumers. This year is on track to see the most corporate mergers and takeovers since the Great Recession of 2008, according to many business page reports that said October was the fifth biggest month ever for mergers...
SEIU endorses Clinton Politico ...The powerful union behind the fast food workers' wage movement endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Tuesday. The 2-million-member Service Employees International Union approved the endorsement through a vote by its executive board. “Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families,” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry in a statement...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Poll shows support for reversing highway bill safety changes The Hill ...Safety advocates are touting a poll showing public support for reversing a host of regulatory changes that are included in a highway funding bill that is being negotiated by lawmakers. 77 percent of U.S. residents oppose a controversial proposal to increase a current limit on the length of double-trailer truck rigs from 28 feet to 33 feet. Only 22 percent of the poll's respondents said they support the longer truck proposal...
Koch brothers hijack historic criminal justice reform to make it tougher to go after corporate criminals Salon ...Not one Wall Street executive was criminally charged following the 2008 global financial collapse, and if the Koch brothers and House Republicans have their way, it’ll be harder to hold white collar criminals accountable for their future malfeasance. In an age when even acts of terror fail to lessen the tense political divisions in Washington, D.C. a rare beacon of bipartisanship comprise has taken root among elected federal officials working on criminal justice reform...
Paris attacks reshape U.S. debate on immigration, security Reuters ...U.S. lawmakers called on Tuesday for even tighter scrutiny of Syrian refugees fleeing to the United States as last week's deadly Paris attacks recast America's debate over immigration and national security, prompting a sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama, who said attempts to block entry were "offensive and contrary to American values"...
France Rejects Fear, Renews Commitment To Take In 30,000 Syrian Refugees Think Progress ...French President Francois Hollande promised to honor his commitment to take in tens of thousands of refugees on Wednesday. He said France would do so despite concerns raised by ultra-right nationalist leaders that refugees might pose a security threat to the country. Many immigration experts and political leaders noted that such humanitarian measures undermine ISIS’ argument that the West is at odds with Muslims...
"A Disturbing Increase in Islamophobia": U.S. Mosques Threatened, Canadian Mosque Set on Fire Democracy Now ...There are growing reports of Islamophobic attacks since Friday’s massacre in Paris. Just hours after the Paris assault, a caller left a voicemail laced with racial slurs for the Islamic Society of Pinellas County in St. Petersburg, Florida. The caller left his full name and threatened to "firebomb you, shoot whoever’s there on sight in the head." Meanwhile in Pflugerville, Texas, residents found a torn Qur’an covered in feces...
Latest Incidents Show Police Brutality Persists Despite Elevated Awareness Common Dreams ...Separate incidents in two U.S. cities over recent days reveal that tensions remain elevated over police brutality and use of excessive force in the United States. Captured last week on tape, the beating of a man in San Francisco has been likened to the infamous assault on Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991...
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