Today's Teamster News 12.08.15

TEAMSTERS
More Facebook Drivers Join Teamsters, Ratify Strong Agreement  Teamster.org  ...Shuttle drivers who transport Facebook employees to and from work have joined Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., and ratified a strong agreement providing for significant wages, benefit improvements and gains mirroring or exceeding the Facebook/Loop Transportation contract already in place. These drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., will supplement the drivers who work for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation...
More Facebook shuttle drivers join Teamsters, get new contract  USA Today  ...The seven drivers with WeDriveU, Inc., a corporate transportation provider based in Burlingame, Calif., shuttle Facebook employees to and from work. They will supplement the 90 or so drivers working for Loop Transportation, which has a contract with Facebook. Back in February, those drivers approved a contract negotiated between Loop and Teamsters Local 853 of San Leandro, Calif...
It's Time to Take a Stand for Workers on TPP  Huffington Post  ...We serve as representatives of American organized workers on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN) and together have stated that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a bum deal we cannot support. By registering our dissent to the ACTPN report that endorses the agreement, the Teamsters, the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers are letting Congress and the public know this deal fails everyday Americans...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Industry Discord Threatens Quick Approval Of TPP Trade Agreement   IBTimes  ...Six years of negotiations on a massive free-trade agreement among Asia-Pacific nations have produced an accord that’s generating lukewarm support from corporate America. Skepticism from industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals and financial services is now dimming the prospects for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office...
WTO Orders Sanctions Unless US Cuts Consumer Labels, Disproving Obama TPP Claims  Huffington Post  ...Yesterday's World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the country-of-origin meat labels (COOL) that Americans rely on to make informed choices about their food provides a glaring example of how trade agreements can undermine U.S. public interest policies. The ruling is a nightmare for the Obama administration's uphill battle to build support for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is Part of Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”  Global Research  ...The TPPA aims to enforce a common regulatory framework structured around the norms of American trade policies that govern rules for tariffs and trade disputes, patents and intellectual property, foreign investment, and other areas. Despite a level of secrecy that barred even elected public representatives of participating countries from access to the deal’s draft, advisors from major multinational corporations played a consistent, key role in forming the deal’s proposed measures...
Scottish Cabinet to Be Handed Petition to Block TTIP Trade Deal With US  Sputnik News ...A petition calling on the SNP-controlled Scottish government to oppose a controversial EU-US trade deal is due to go before the Cabinet on Tuesday, according to the anti-TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) grassroots movement. The TTIP trade deal has faced sharp criticism from activists and policymakers...
There is no EU solution to climate change as long as TTIP exists  (opinion) Independent  ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) now being negotiated between the EU and the USA exemplifies the contradiction between Europe’s rhetoric on free trade and climate change. The European Commission has admitted that TTIP represents a danger to biodiversity, natural resources and the environment...
IBEW and Ontario Northland reach deal  Canadian Press  ... A five-year agreement has been reached between the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Ontario Northland president Corina Moore says the company is pleased that an agreement has been reached with the union, which "has shown tremendous leadership and commitment to the company"...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
3 minimum wages in Oregon? Lawmaker's proposal would do just that  Oregon Live  ...Hoping to avoid a ballot fight in 2016, a Democratic state senator is crafting a proposal for three minimum wages in Oregon. A draft bill by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, would divide the state into three regions — Portland, the Willamette Valley and everywhere else — with different minimums for each. The Portland metro area, including Washington and Clackamas counties, would have the highest...
Lincolnshire considers going 'right to work' in village limits  Chicago Tribune  ...The Lincolnshire Village Board might soon give unionized employees who work at private companies inside village boundaries the choice of whether or not to pay union dues. And a variety of interests from outside their boundaries might gather in Village Hall, either to support or protest the move...
Right-to-Work vote could cause lingering tension in Missouri Senate in 2016  Missourinet  ...The 2016 legislative session could be tense at times in the Senate from the aftermath of Republicans forcing a vote on a right to work bill. The proposal would have prevented workers from having to pay union dues as a requirement for employment.  Democrat Leader Joe Keaveny said some Democrats are still upset with Republicans. "I’ve got some that are still pretty energized and I’ve got some that would like to move on. I would like to see us work our way through this,” said Keaveny...
Civil Rights Commission Committee To Hold Hearing On Kansas Voter ID Law  KCUR  ...The Kansas voter ID law will be the subject of  a U.S. Civil Rights Commission committee hearing next month. The Kansas voter ID law is one of most restrictive in the country. Pushed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, it demands voters not only have photo ID but they prove they are American citizens...
Koch-Funded Special Interest Groups and Utilities Bankrolling ALEC Meeting  Truthout  ...Koch-funded groups and utilities are bankrolling ALEC's closed-door winter meeting and parties for state legislators that are underway in Scottsdale, Arizona, at a luxury resort and spa. The three-day gathering is bringing together lobbyists and legislators to plan their 2016 bill agenda for the upcoming legislative session....

U.S. LABOR
UAW workers picketing outside Nexteer Automotive as strike begins  MLive  ...Workers represented by the UAW at Nexteer Automotive walked off their jobs at midnight Tuesday, Dec. 8, after the union failed to reach a new contract agreement with the company. Some of those workers appeared minutes later outside the gates of the sprawling manufacturing complex...
Unions For Workers At Detroit Casinos Reach Tentative Deal  CBS  ...Unions representing workers at Detroit’s three casinos have reached a tentative contract agreement that would cover about 7,000 workers. The Detroit Free Press reports the Detroit Casino Council, a consortium of four unions, reached the deal Sunday with Greektown Casino, MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity Casino...
Trump Las Vegas Workers Vote For UNITE HERE Union  NH Labor News  ...After two days of voting in a National Labor Relations Board election, a majority of workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas have voted “YES” to be represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 of UNITE HERE. Over 500 employees of the hotel are in the union’s bargaining units and were eligible to vote. Trump Las Vegas workers voted in the NLRB election on December 4 and 5 at their hotel...
UFCW Local 7 Grocery Workers Overwhelmingly Approve New Contracts  UFCW  ...Following three months of intense and challenging negotiations, members of UFCW Local 7 who work at King Soopers, Safeway and Albertsons stores in Denver, Colo., voted overwhelmingly to approve their new collective bargaining agreements. The new 40 month contracts are some of the best in the country...
Teacher contract dispute deepens, tests state law before union strike vote  Chicago Tribune  ...The school board has rejected the Chicago Teachers Union's demand to move contract talks to a final stage, setting up a new fight as teachers prepare to vote later this week on whether to authorize their leaders to call a strike. The union filed an unfair labor practice on Monday with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, demanding talks proceed to a fact-finding phase...
Day-Care Costs Can Drive a Family Into Poverty Before a Child Reaches Kindergarten  The Nation  ...The cost of daycare can drive a family into poverty before a child reaches kindergarten, but it’s also likely to impoverish her teacher first. While preschool programs are expanding nationwide, somehow, they cost parents everything while paying teachers nothing simultaneously. And childcare providers are so underfunded overall that the system leaves both teachers and families impoverished...
New report finds Americans lack economic mobility, opportunity  PBS  ...A report on poverty published on Thursday found a striking lack of economic mobility in America, that 43 percent of Americans born into families in the bottom fifth of the economic ladder are stuck there as adults, while 40 percent born in the top fifth stay there. The data was part of Opportunity, Responsibility and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Railroads Beat Back New Safety Rules After Derailments  ABC  ...A pair of train derailments in 2012 that killed two people in Maryland and triggered a fiery explosion in Ohio exposed a little-known and unsettling truth about railroads in the U.S. and Canada: No rules govern when rail becomes too worn down to be used for hauling hazardous chemicals, thousands of tons of freight or myriad other products on almost 170,000 miles of track...
Climate Inaction Risks Warming Far Beyond 2°C Threshold: Exxon (Yes, Exxon)  Common Dreams  ..Blink and you'll miss it, but one line in a recent Washington Post interview on climate change with experts from fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil offhandedly suggests a nightmarish, desperate future if global leaders don't act fast—one that centers around a possible average temperature rise of up to 7 or more degrees Celsius. "With no government action, Exxon experts told us during a visit to The Post last week, average temperatures are likely to rise by a catastrophic 5 degrees Celsius...
Trump New Low: Ban All Muslim Immigration to U.S.  Daily Beast  ...After weeks of ramping up rhetoric against worshippers of Islam, the Republican presidential frontrunner says they have a ‘great hatred towards Americans.’ Donald Trump said Monday as president he would halt all Muslim immigration to the United States. His xenophobic rhetoric has intensified in the last week...
'No human being is illegal': linguists argue against mislabeling of immigrants  The Guardian  ...Santa Ana is among many linguists who argue that the phrase “illegal immigrants” is neither “accurate nor neutral”. Other law-breakers are not referred to as illegal, making immigrants an outlier in the naming system, he said...
Trump and the “Low-Skilled” Labor Myth  (opinion) New Republic  ...In an otherwise sensible column about the limitations and possible consequences of dubbing Donald Trump a fascist, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat suggests that one of “the legitimate reasons” Trump’s campaign has endured so long is that conservative voters share a “reasonable skepticism about the bipartisan consensus favoring ever more mass low-skilled immigration”...
Chicago on the Brink After Release of New Police Killing Video  Common Dreams  ...Outraged citizens of Chicago say they are taking to the streets Monday night after the Cook County State's Attorney on Monday announced there will be no charges filed against the police officer who fatally shot Ronald Johnson III, a black man, last year—a decision that was prompted by what Johnson's family attorney described as "a whitewash, a cover-up"...  

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"...

Today's Teamster News 11.02.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters see California as launching pad for drayage organizing efforts  JOC  ...The Teamsters union is eying California, a state with drivers clamoring for representation and a regulatory climate sympathetic to work misclassification, as a launching pad for a national drayage organizing push. The Teamsters union this past week intensified its organizing efforts in Los Angeles-Long Beach because drivers are clamoring for representation and the regulatory climate in California is favorable to champion issues such as worker misclassification, a union spokeswoman said Friday...
Port Driver and Warehouse Worker Strikes End With $3.5 Million In New Wage Theft Claims  AJOT  ...After five days of active picketing that dramatically impacted trucking companies and the marine terminal operators that continued to allow the trucks of struck companies into their yards, misclassified “independent contractor” drivers from XPO Logistics, Intermodal Bridge Transport (IBT), and Gold Point Transportation have ended their strike. Amazon warehouse workers employed by Wilmington-based California Cartage also ended their strike with the support of the Teamsters...
LA City Council backs port truck drivers in their strike action  SPLASH247  ...Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Friday to support the port truck drivers who have been striking since Monday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to Reuters. Council members passed a resolution backing the truckers against certain trucking firms which have allegedly been misclassifying the drivers as “independent contractors” rather than as “employees”. The distinction costs the drivers in earnings and benefits...
Dr Pepper Snapple production workers in Bethlehem vote to join union  Morning Call  ...Production workers at Dr Pepper Snapple Group in Bethlehem, formerly Davis Beverage Group, have voted to unionize. Glenn Fulcher, vice president of Teamsters Local 830 in Philadelphia, said Friday that 34 workers voted 19-15 on Oct. 9 for union representation. The union is now in contact with Dr Pepper Snapple Group's labor attorney and is in the process of setting up dates for contract negotiations, Fulcher said...
Teamsters Back Patrick Murphy for the Senate in 2016  Sunshine State News  ...On Friday, the Florida Teamsters endorsed U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., who is running for the Democratic nomination to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2016. "I'm humbled and excited by the support of the Florida Teamsters,” Murphy said on Friday. “Florida's working families need leadership — from the local level to the U.S. Senate to the White House"...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
US Invites Russia and China to Join TPP Deal - Kerry  Sputnik  ...The United States invites Russia and China to become part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement if they are open for cooperation, US State Secretary John Kerry said Monday. Countries all over the world, including Russia and China, are welcome to join various US-proposed initiatives, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, Kerry stated...
US 'welcomes' Thailand to join TPP  Bangkok Post  ...The United States “would welcome with open arms” Thailand’s ruling junta wanting the country to participate in the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact without waiting for the return of a of a full democratic government to the country, the newly appointed US ambassador to Thailand said on Friday...
German frustration builds over TTIP secrecy from US  DW.com  ...German parliamentarians are demanding access to documents that contain the US position on transatlantic trade negotiations. TTIP supporters in the US argue that Washington shouldn't lay all of its cards on the table. In Germany, the documents are only available in the US embassy in Berlin...
UK Government austerity programme 'an international embarrassment'  News.STV  ...UK Government austerity measures are an "international embarrassment", according to the SNP. The comments were made as the United Nations launches an investigation into the impact of Conservative policies on "disadvantaged and marginalised individuals and groups" in the UK...
Petrobras Oil Workers Begin Strike, Seek to Block Asset Sales  Bloomberg  ...Brazil’s main oil union began a nationwide strike Sunday to halt asset sales by state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA at a time the company is slashing investments to reduce the biggest debt load in the oil industry.
The Oil Workers Federation, known as FUP, said the nationwide strike started on Nov. 1. Some of the FUP’s regional member unions began work stoppages on Oct. 29...
Egyptian textile workers’ strike enters 10th day  Middle East Monitor  ...The workers’ strike at Egypt’s biggest textile factory has entered its 10th day as the administration threatens to end staff contracts if they do not return to work, Quds Press reported on Friday. In order to return to work, the workers’ have demanded that the company officially agree on payment of a “social allowance” equivalent to a ten per cent addition to their monthly pay...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wisconsin Poised to Gut Its Campaign Finance and Anti-Corruption Laws  Mother Jones  ...Scott Walker's presidential bid may have failed, but the Wisconsin governor and his Republican allies are making a massive push to transform the way the state conducts elections and investigates illegal campaign activity. If they're successful—and by all indications, they will be—by the end of this week, they will have uprooted Wisconsin's anti-public corruption laws and lifted restrictions on the money pouring into state elections...
Koch Brothers Hit the Airwaves in Support of Wisconsin Corruption Measures  Truthout  ...The Koch-backed measures to eviscerate Wisconsin's limits on money in elections and neuter the state's election watchdog hit a stumbling block in the state senate last week, with a handful of Republican senators expressing concern that the measures go too far. So the Kochs are going on the offensive...
Counties experiment with right-to-work laws  Washington Examiner  ...An experiment in Kentucky could have major implications for workers' rights and union organizing: Can counties and other municipalities pass right-to-work laws? Conservative activists have gotten 12 counties in the Bluegrass State to pass right-to-work ordinances...
Group trying to repeal Michigan prevailing wage law starts new petition drive  Detroit Business  ...A ballot committee trying to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage law said Friday it will start a new petition drive after it incorrectly submitted duplicate signatures to state election officials. The committee, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, also said it asked the Board of State Canvassers to reject the petition it submitted last month to the Michigan Bureau of Elections...
Portland to vote on minimum wage increase tomorrow  WCSH  ...Starting January the minimum wage in Portland is set to go up to $10.10 an hour. This does not included tipped employees such as servers and bartenders. However on Tuesday, Portland residents will be able to vote to raise the minimum wage even more. Question number one on Tuesday's ballot is whether or not minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour in the city of Portland...

U.S. LABOR
Steel talks enter 3rd month as USW frustration grows  Chicago Tribune  ...The rally was held as union steelworkers at ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel were about to enter into their third month without a new contract and with no sign of any progress being made at the bargaining table in Pittsburgh. The last contract expired Sept. 1, and negotiators for both sides have been meeting since before that. They returned to the table Monday following a short recess...
SEIU reaches new four-year deal for Pittsburgh-area janitors  Washington Times  ...A union representing more than 1,000 Pittsburgh-area janitors says it has reached a new contract agreement with office building owners. The current contract is set to expire at midnight Saturday. The new, four-year deal runs through Oct. 31, 2019. The Managers, Owners and Contractors Association began negotiating with the janitors’ Service Employees International Union bargaining committee last month...
UAW members in Fairfax, Lansing split on GM contract  The Detroit News  ...Thousands of General Motors Co. hourly workers will vote Monday on a tentative agreement, which financially is richer than the company’s 2011 contract and what Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV employees ratified, but so far has received mixed support from UAW members at two GM assembly plants...
Milwaukie ratifies contract with AFSCME employees  Portland Tribune  ...With a unanimous City Council vote, the city of Milwaukie finalized the contract with its employee union on Thursday after city workers had been working with an expired contract since July 1. Although to Local 350-5 already had been making more than $15 hourly, they are also celebrating Milwaukie City Council’s Oct. 20 passage of a resolution to pay all city employees at least $15 an hour...
After Defending His Own Family Time, Paul Ryan Refuses To Support Paid Family Leave  Think Progress  ...On a number of Sunday shows this weekend, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) responded to recent calls that he support a federal paid family leave program after insisting on preserving his own family. The new speaker of the House made it clear that he won’t back such a policy. In order to consider a run, as many in his party had urged, he had laid out a number of conditions, including the protection of the weekends he flies back to Wisconsin...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Immigrants Launch Hunger Strike At Detention Center With Long History Of Abuse: ‘We Are Humans’  Think Progress  ...At least 20 male immigrants, mainly from Central America, began a hunger strike at an adult immigration detention facility in California on Friday night, according to the advocacy group Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC). The hunger strike at the Adelanto Detention Facility is the fourth one launched by immigrant detainees across the nation...
Robert Reich: Everywhere You Look Huge Cartels Are Jacking Up Prices, Gouging You However They Can   Alternet  ...Much of the national debate about widening inequality focuses on whether and how much to tax the rich and redistribute their income downward. But this debate ignores the upward redistributions going on every day, from the rest of us to the rich. These redistributions are hidden inside the market...
Republicans 'cautious' about confronting Black Lives Matter on campaign trail  The Guardian  ...There are few areas of bipartisan consensus in the 2016 presidential election. Criminal justice has emerged as one. Republicans and Democrats are agreed: reform needs to happen. However, as the Black Lives Matter movement seeks a greater role in shaping the conversation around a justice system that disproportionately affects African Americans, candidates are reacting in decidedly different ways...
More Denial, More Problems: UN Predicts Millions of Climate Refugees to Come  Truthout  ...This year continues on pace to become, by far, the hottest year ever recorded. Thus, it is obvious why the dramatic impacts of anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) are becoming increasingly prevalent and obvious. A recent NASA report reveals that the ice covering Greenland is melting faster than previously thought...
'Absolute Crap' But Brilliant: Corporate America's Plan to 'Misbehave Without Reproach  Common Dreams  ...An independent investigation by journalists featured in the New York Times on Sunday offers an in-depth look at the way American corporations have used the inclusion of "arbitration clauses" within consumer contracts to strategically circumvent judicial review of their behavior and immunize themselves from class action lawsuits –"realistically the only tool citizens have to fight illegal or deceitful business practices"...
For Some Americans, the Housing Crisis Isn't Over  The Atlantic  ...the housing markets in many of the hardest-hit areas have recovered, and cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York are even seeing record real-estate prices. Yet while the national housing market may be well on the way to recovery, the markets in some areas of the country are actually getting worse...

Today's Teamster News 10.22.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters: Highway Safety Should Come Before Higher Trucking Industry Profits  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa today joined a bipartisan collection of lawmakers and truck safety advocates at a Capitol Hill press conference to denounce efforts to extend the length of tractor trailers nationwide, saying the move jeopardizes highway safety. Allowing trucks to pull 33-foot trailers would add an additional 10 feet to the length of existing double trailers...
Teamsters join chorus of opposition to proposition to allow 33-foot doubles  CCJ  ...The Teamsters Union voiced its opposition Wednesday, Oct. 21,  to increasing the allowed length of tractor-trailers, saying simply that bigger trucks would make U.S. highways less safe. Specifically, the Teamsters announced their opposition to upping the maximum twin-trailer length to 33-feet from the current 28-foot maximum...
Longer Tractor-Trailers Are A Safety Hazard, Teamsters Say  Law360  ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters opposes a proposal that would raise the nationwide cap on the length of double tractor-trailers, saying Wednesday that the proposal endangers truck drivers and other highway motorists. Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa appeared at a news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, seeking to derail legislation that would mandate that states allow 33-foot double trailers...
Teamsters Ratify New Contract at Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters Union announced today that a majority of its members working as drivers, warehouse workers and in dairy and manufacturing at grocery companies Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons in Southern California have ratified a new five-year agreement.  The new agreement raises work standards and compensation for the more than 2,000 employees represented by the Teamsters...
Proposed SFMTA restrictions to enhance commuter program  SF Examiner  ...An 18-month commuter shuttle pilot program in San Francisco is set to expire on Jan. 31 but an ongoing program has been proposed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Rome Aloise, president of Teamsters Joint Council 7, which represents some Bay Area shuttle bus drivers and is seeking to represent others, said he is “pleased to see the SFMTA designing a program that recognizes the efforts of these shuttle bus drivers to organize for better wages and working conditions with our union”...
Teamsters Vow To Stand With UPS Pilots On Picket Lines If The Independent Pilots Association Strikes United Parcel Service  PR Newswire  ...In an unqualified show of support, James Hoffa, General President and Ken Hall, General Secretary-Treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, pledged to the Independent Pilots Association that "if a strike is necessary, we will not cross your lines, but will stand with you on them." This commitment from Hoffa and Hall came in a letter to IPA President, Captain Robert Travis...
Labor, pension managers square off over benefits  The Hill  ...The Department of the Treasury is facing mounting pressure over a proposal to cut retirement benefits for hundreds of thousands of union workers. Hurtling toward insolvency, the Central States Pension Fund is looking to slash benefits by an average of one-third in order to prevent the program from running out of money in the coming years. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, whose members make up the largest chunk of Central States’ more than 400,000 participants, is fighting the benefit reductions...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Transatlantic trade talks underway in Miami  Miami Herald  ...U.S. and European Union officials are in Miami this week for the 11th round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a proposed U.S.-EU agreement that would govern about one-third of the goods and services traded in the world. This round of TTIP negotiations, which are being held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Miami, began Monday and concludes Friday...
Obama woos TPA Dems on TPP  Politico  ...President Barack Obama turned on the charm Wednesday night to build support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, telling about 35 House and Senate Democrats who stood with him on trade promotion authority they're going to like what's in the pact when it comes to issues like labor, tobacco, the environment and investor-state dispute settlement...
Obama Does Damage Control After Hillary Defects on TPP  US News  ...President Barack Obama was scheduled to meet with congressional Democrats at the White House on Wednesday evening in an effort to convince them to rescue his landmark Pacific Rim trade pact as it faces increasingly long odds. Obama is expected to send formal notification to Congress as soon as this week that he intends to sign the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal eight years in the making that would establish trade rules among countries that comprise 40 percent of the global economy...
TTIP Trade Talks Continue Under Veil of Secrecy in Miami - Official  Sputnik News  ...Chief negotiators of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement persisted to show contempt for transparency in Miami this week by failing to provide any meaningful details to the deal’s most critical stakeholders, a trade official from America’s largest labor union told Sputnik. On Monday, the week-long eleventh round of TTIP talks got underway in Miami...
Labor Voices: Trade deal will hurt auto industry, jobs  (opinion) The Detroit News  ...The last thing Michigan needs is another bad trade deal. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the recently-announced Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) represents. This new trade agreement will be up for debate in Congress soon, and it’s a perfect example of what not to do when it comes to crafting trade policies that are good for Michigan families, and our auto industry...
Debt inspectors review Greek bailout progress  Business Insider  ...Greece's left-wing government said Wednesday it was in a "tough battle" with its bailout creditors over their demand to reduce protections for distressed mortgage holders. Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and several other Cabinet members met with representatives of the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Stability Mechanism. They discussed the spending cuts, tax hikes and economic reforms that Greece has passed...
Greek ports face two days of stoppages from towage union strike  JOC  ...Two days of strike action by towage workers will bring ship movements in Greek ports to a standstill Thursday and Friday, Inchcape Shipping Services has warned. The maritime and cargo services company said in an advisory to customers that work stoppages announced by the Crew Union of Towage Companies in Greece would affect vessel movements at all Greek ports and terminals...
Canada and the Anti-Austerity Movement  The New Yorker  ...From a global economic perspective, much of the interest in Trudeau’s success lies in his rejection of Harper’s balanced-budgets pitch, and his promotion of an economic plan that would have the federal government borrow money at low interest rates and invest it in infrastructure. While the absolute numbers in Trudeau’s proposal appear to be small they would virtually double infrastructure spending over the next decade...
South African students, police clash as protests against fee hikes grow  CNN  ...Throngs of students stormed the South African parliament in Cape Town and trapped lawmakers inside to protest fee increases set to take effect next year. University of Cape Town youth groups rallied students for Wednesday's protest, which started on campus and snaked toward parliament, about a mile away. Police at the scene "started throwing grenades and firing tear gas"...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Welcome to the Wholly Owned Koch Subsidiary Formerly Known as Wisconsin  Huffington Post  ...Starting today, three bills are being rammed through the Wisconsin legislature that will put the final nails in the coffin of our state's long history of clean elections and accountable governance. The same group of GOP leaders who attempted to gut the state's open records law over the 4th of July weekend are now calling for secrecy in campaign spending and for dismantling the two major avenues for investigating political corruption...
Supporters Predict Right-To-Work Swell If Court Rules In Hardin County’s Favor  WFPL  ...A ruling is imminent in a federal lawsuit that will determine whether Kentucky counties are allowed to pass local right-to-work laws. Right-to-work supporters say scores of counties in Kentucky and across the country are poised to pass local right-to-work laws if Hardin County’s law is upheld. Jim Waters, president of the conservative think tank Bluegrass Institute, said 50 counties have requested a copy of a model right-to-work law...
Alabama Addresses Voter Suppression Accusations By Keeping Rural DMVs Open One Day A Month  Think Progress  ...After national outcry from civil groups and politicians, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley announced he is somewhat reversing his decision to shut down 31 DMV offices in rural, majority-black counties across his state. Under the new plan, the offices will remain open just one day a month, beginning this November. Critics of the closures, including Selma, Alabama native Rep. Terri Sewell (D), say it’s not enough...
Minimum Wage Fight Just Got a Powerful New Ally  Alternet  ...The nationwide effort for a $15 minimum wage has made significant gains in the past year, with victories in major cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, and, partially, New York state. But, for much of the country, the idea of a $15 minimum wage remains elusive. One large California-based service union aims to change this by launching a fund to campaign for higher minimum wage ballot measures in several states...
Garcetti is reluctant to back bid for a statewide $15 an hour minimum wage  LA Times  ...After Los Angeles passed legislation this summer that will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, Mayor Eric Garcetti positioned himself as a leading advocate for higher pay for the working poor, in Southern California and beyond. But in the latest and most active front in the fight to raise pay for low-wage workers, those watching for Garcetti to get involved may have to be patient...

U.S. LABOR
Done deal: UAW confirms ratification of FCA contract  Detroit Free Press  ...The UAW said today its members overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, giving the union its first new contract with the Detroit Three since formal negotiations began in July. The overwhelming support -- 77% voted yes -- comes almost six weeks after the old contract was set to expire...
NLRB Returns to Grad Student Unions  Inside Higher Ed  ...The National Labor Relations Board -- voting 3 to 1 -- agreed Wednesday to reconsider whether graduate teaching assistants at private universities are entitled to collective bargaining. The board accepted a case involving a bid by the United Auto Workers at the New School to unionize...
EPA chief, farmworkers praise new pesticide rules  ModBee  ...The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency visited a Stockton-area farm Tuesday to celebrate new federal rules for protecting workers from pesticides. Administrator Gina McCarthy, joined by United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez, said the changes could reduce the 3,000-plus cases of pesticide exposure each year. The rules, enacted last month, are similar to what California already required...
81% in favor: Transit union members approve three-year contract  Fox6  ...Leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 say members on Wednesday, October 21st voted to approve a three-year contract agreement with Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS). According to union leaders, transit workers voted 81% in favor of the contract agreement...
Bank's Severance Deal Requires IT Workers to Be on Call for Two Years — Without Pay  Alternet  ...A severance deal that SunTrust Banks has reportedly provided to as many as 100 laid off technology workers would require the employees to continue providing assistance to the company for a period of two years without additional compensation. Computerworld reported this week that a number of employees who had received layoff notices from the Atlanta-based company provided a copy of the severance deal, “which gives the bank a way to tap their expertise long after their departure”...
Paul Ryan Wants To Preserve His Work/Family Balance While Making It Harder For Poor Parents  Think Progress  ...After Republicans in the House have spent weeks scrambling to find a new speaker to unite behind, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is finally saying he might run, but under a number of conditions. One of those conditions is that the time he currently spends with his wife and children be preserved even if he assumes a more demanding job. But while Ryan seeks to preserve his own balance between his work and his family, he’s pushed policies that would make doing so more difficult for others, particularly poor parents...
Survey: Half Of Food Workers Go To Work Sick Because They Have To  NPR  ...Flu season is here. And when the flu strikes, the luckier victims may call in sick without getting punished or losing pay. But many American workers, including those who handle our food, aren't so fortunate. Fifty-one percent of food workers — who do everything from grow and process food to cook and serve it — said they "always" or "frequently" go to work when they're sick, according to the results of a survey released Monday...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
How Immigration Detention Centers Retraumatize Women And Children Fleeing From Violence  Think Progress  ...Yanira, a 41-year-old Guatemalan national, left her home country with her three children because their lives were in danger from gang violence. She and her family arrived in Texas in February — but they were soon put in an immigration detention center. Yanira’s experience mirrors what many Central American mothers and children go through as they attempt to make the journey to this country, according to a new report...
'New Era of American Prosperity': Sanders Calls for Free Higher Ed for All  Common Dreams  ..."It is time to build on the progressive movement of the past and make public colleges and universities tuition-free in the United States," presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote in an op-ed on Thursday. In his call to make higher education free for all, Sen. Sanders (I-Vt.), noted that public colleges and universities are tuition-free in countries including Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Mexico...
Who's Burning Black Churches in St. Louis?  The Atlantic  ...For the second time in six months, black churches are burning. There have been six fires since October 8, all within a few miles of each other around St. Louis. Five have been at predominantly black churches, while the sixth was at a mixed church. The situation is not unlike the arsons that followed the massacre at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston this summer. As The Atlantic pointed out at the time, there’s a long history of terrorism against black churches in America...
Republicans Want to Hold the Debt Ceiling Hostage Without Looking Completely Insane. Good Luck With That.  Slate  ...The U.S. government is set to hit its borrowing limit in about two weeks, and hard-line conservatives in Congress have yet again decided that they would like to threaten a catastrophic national default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. The first time the GOP tried this kamikaze tactic in 2011, it worked fairly well, as the White House eventually agreed to major spending cuts to avoid a crisis. But when the party tried in 2013, the effort ended in acrimonious failure...

Today's Teamster News 10.20.15

TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Congress Should Rebuild Roads, Not Lengthen Trailers  Huffington Post  ...America's highways can be a dangerous place for motorists. That's why it makes no sense that some in Congress want to cave to trucking industry interests and approve the use of even longer double trailers on over-congested highways. Such a move further hampers highway safety and could potentially cause an uptick of deaths on the nation's thoroughfares...
Coca-Cola Workers Vote Teamsters Yes In Pennsylvania  Teamster.org  ...By a majority vote, production workers at the Coca Cola manufacturing facility in Allentown, PA have voted to join Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown. There are 90 employees in the union bargaining unit, all of which work in the syrup production facility, the key ingredient in Coca-Cola beverages...
Teamsters Local 745 Wins Two Organizing Campaigns  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas recently won two organizing campaigns, with more than 20 workers on their way to more secure futures. In the first victory, on October 7, 2015 workers at Exel, a distribution center in Socorro, Texas, near El Paso, voted 8 to 4 to join Local 745. There are 12 warehouse workers in the bargaining unit. On October 9, workers at Darling International in Dallas, a grease recycling company, voted 6 to 2 to join Local 745...
Teamsters Say Union Buster C&S Wholesale Grocers Aims To Kill Jobs at Safeway  In These Times  ...Teamster members and their supporters are mobilizing to block a union busting effort at two huge warehouses controlled by the Safeway supermarket chain, one of several food retailers recently combined into national grocery store colossus by Wall Street private equity firm Cerberus Capital. The two warehouses are located in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and currently employ about 700 workers, most of them represented by the Teamsters...
EVSC, Teamsters Optimistic of Reaching Deal  TriState Homepage  ...The Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation and a local union remain at odds and without a contract, but leaders from both sides still have hope. At Monday night's EVSC School Board meeting, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey expressed optimism about reaching a deal. The school board matched the sentiment. However, nothing beyond that was discussed...
3 senators set news conference to state opposition to 33-foot trailers  The Trucker  ...Three senators - two Democrats and one Republican - say they will hold a news conference in front of the Capitol Wednesday to discuss their bipartisan opposition to a federal mandate that would allow large trucks to pull double 33-foot trailers on the nation’s highways. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., say they will be joined by representatives from the trucking industry, Teamsters, law enforcement and a safety advocacy group...
Teamsters: Canadians Choose Change  Teamsters Canada  ...Canadians made their choice. They sent a clear message by electing a Liberal majority. Canadians are eager for change and expressed it eloquently. The challenges ahead are great, but this new generation of politicians was brought to power with a strong mandate. The drawn-out election campaign allowed Justin Trudeau to speak out on several issues that are important not only for the workers we represent, but for all citizens of this country...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Opposition's Trudeau wins, raising doubts on TPP  Nikkei  ...Canada's opposition Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, defeated Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party in Monday's snap election, ending nine years of Conservative rule. The shift in power to the center-left party casts uncertainty on whether Canada will ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Trudeau, 43, has been critical of the TPP...
Public Services Under Attack through TTIP and CETA Atlantic Trade Deals  Global Research  ...Public services in the European Union (EU) are under threat from international trade negotiations that endanger governments’ ability to regulate and citizens’ rights to access basic services. The EU’s CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) agreement with Canada, the ratification of which could begin in 2016, and the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) treaty under negotiation with the United States are the latest culmination in such efforts...
TTIP Already 'Rewriting the Rule Book' for EU Food Standards, New Report Finds  Common Dreams  ...The pending Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will likely spark a "race to the bottom" for national policies that regulate everything from the air we breath to the food we eat and, according to a new report, the controversial pact is already pushing European governments to loosen key food safety standards. Put forth by the UK-based social justice organization Global Justice now, the report, published Sunday, highlights a component of the pact known as "regulatory cooperation" or "regulatory coherence"...
The TPP: Priority #1 of US Multinational Corporations  TeleSUR  ...Although the full TPP document is still being kept secret — to all but the representatives of multinational corporations who chaired the 30 committees and told the government trade representatives what to negotiate, some details of the super-secret deal have been leaking out. And if the leaks are any indication of what’s to come when full details are released, consumers, workers, and everyone concerned about the growing global “corporatization” of democracy, are in for a big shock...
Obama takes to op-ed pages to push Trans-Pacific Partnership  CNN  ...President Barack Obama is taking to the op-ed pages of several local newspapers to make his case for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. On Saturday, the Concord Monitor of New Hampshire published an op-ed under Obama's byline advocating for the deal and why it stands to benefit New Hampshire. The day before, the Tampa Bay Times published virtually the same op-ed by Obama...
Canadians hit at politics of austerity  Financial Times  ...The politics of austerity took a beating in the Canadian federal election on Monday, as the Liberal party of Justin Trudeau swept to victory on a platform of increasing the budget deficit to fund infrastructure projects and thereby stimulate the economy. Under Mr Trudeau, the Liberals tacked to the left this year, arguing that Canada should take advantage of the current low level of interest rates to increase borrowing and bolster an economy left reeling by lower prices for oil and other commodities...
Greece eyes new reforms as workers call strike, farmers mobilize  Reuters  ...Greece's international lenders will start assessing its economic reforms this week as the debt-riddled nation braced for more economic pain and its largest union called for a nationwide strike on Nov. 12. The Greek parliament last week approved a first raft of reforms to the pension and tax systems, sought by lenders as a condition for up to 86 billion euros in aid. The retirement age will incrementally rise to 67...
MBIE workers to go on strike  3News  ...Staff at the controversy-plagued Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment are going on strike. More than 1000 workers have voted to take industrial action on November 5 and November 23. Their union, the Public Service Association, says MBIE is refusing to offer any pay increases and management continue to contribute to poor workplace culture. "These people help keep to set the standard for all New Zealand workers"...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
The Kochs Want to End WI's Era of Clean Government  PR Watch  ...Following the bipartisan "John Doe" investigation into campaign finance violations by Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin Republicans are out for revenge. And the Kochs have their back. This week, the Wisconsin state legislature will take up a trifecta of bills that will undermine the state's long traditions of clean and transparent government. One bill will gut the state's campaign finance laws...
Judge Refuses To Expand Wisconsin Voter ID Law To Help Students And Veterans Vote  Think Progress  ...On Monday, a federal district court in Wisconsin rejected demands from local students, veterans, and low-income residents to allow them to use alternative forms of voter ID or have the ability to sign a sworn affadavit at the ballot box. A lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the strict voter ID law Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed in 2011 placed “an unjustified burden” on their ability to vote...
Judge to rule on Kentucky county's right-to-work law  Reuters  ...A federal judge is poised to rule on a union challenge to a Kentucky county's right-to-work ordinance, in a closely watched case testing the legality of local bans on union security agreements. Twenty-five states have right-to-work laws prohibiting provisions in collective bargaining agreements calling on workers to pay money to labor unions as a condition of employment. But Kentucky, which has no statewide right-to-work law, became a testing ground for local laws...
Veterans Don't Want Lawmakers to Repeal Prevailing Wage  WILX  ...Some veterans who work in the construction industry are trying to convince state lawmakers not to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law. Around 9% of construction workers are veterans, compared to 6% of the rest of the workforce. The prevailing wage law requires contractors to pay union-scale salaries for all taxpayer-funded projects...
Right to Work lawmakers impose their own 'union dues'  MLive  ...When Republican legislators pushed through a contentious Right To Work law two years ago, they said they were freeing unionized workers from a system that "confiscated" a portion of employee paychecks through union dues. Yet those GOP lawmakers hypocritically engage in their own rigid employment system. The leadership of both parties essentially charges legislative aides dues by instructing them to contribute hundreds of dollars for their respective party's campaign activities...
Robert Reich: Working Full Time and Living in Abject Poverty - That's What Today's Minimum Wage Will Get You  Alternet  ...Have you noticed how often conservatives who disagree with a policy proposal call it a “job killer?” They’re especially incensed about proposals to raise the federal minimum wage. They claim it will force employers to lay off workers. But as Princeton University economist Alan Krueger pointed outrecently in the New York Times, “research suggests that a minimum wage set as high as $12 an hour will do more good than harm for low-wage workers”...
Can Drought-Ridden California Keep Growing?  The Atlantic  ...As the population of the San Joaquin Valley swells despite city-planning and water-system crises, it’s the poor, rural communities that tend to be worst off. Emissions from transportation, mostly from trucks, are what primarily make the region’s air quality among the worst in the nation. The zip codes with the highest rate of respiratory risk have poor and predominantly Hispanic populations. And lately, the drought has made air even more unbreathable...

U.S. LABOR
Grocery workers ratify new contract with Safeway  Business Journal  ...Grocery-store workers at Safeway and Vons stores in Northern and Central California have ratified a new contract, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union announced Friday afternoon. The four-year contract between Local UFCW 8-Golden State ­covers about 9,000 workers at 130 Safeway stores, including about 15 in the Sacramento region...
UAW members to begin voting on new FCA contract  The Detroit News  ...As 40,000 United Auto Workers members begin voting Tuesday on the latest tentative agreement between the union and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, hostility that fueled an overwhelmingly majority of workers to reject the first four-year deal appears to have been dialed down to a simmer. Since the new deal was reached just prior to a strike deadline on Oct. 7, there have been no large protests planned, social media chatter has cooled and talk on many factory floors is that the deal is far improved...
Steelmakers still ask for layoffs, concessions  NWI Times  ...The United Steelworkers union is fighting U.S. Steel on layoffs, and taking a break from negotiations with ArcelorMittal. The USW won't resume talks with ArcelorMittal until Oct. 25. The union told its members little progress has been made in talks over the past week with the Luxembourg-based steelmaker...
AT&T, Communications Workers of America Reach Tentative Agreements In AT&T Southeast Wireline Contract Negotiations  MarketWatch  ...AT&T today announced that AT&T southeast wireline operations have reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America in southeast wireline contract negotiations. Additionally, the Company reached tentative agreements with the CWA on two southeast regional contracts. They cover about 24,000 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee...
Union workers picket to get better deal with AT&T  Robesonian  ...Thirteen members of Local 3609 of the Communications Workers of America joined fellow-union members in nine states Friday on informational picket lines to build public support in their effort to get a better contract with AT&T. “We want to reach a fair contract. We want to provide the quality service our customers deserve,” said Local President Nathan Mason...
Why We Need to Take Care of the Workers Behind Home Healthcare  The Nation  ... Since home-based healthcare services is one of the fastest growing sectors, home care jobs are being redefined largely by market trends. But a program developed through the SEIU home care union in Washington sees the sector’s expansion as a platform to systematically transform one of the lowest-paid jobs into a career of the future...
No Haitians need apply: Horribly racist help wanted ad sparks outrage, investigation  Salon  ...An outrageous help-wanted ad in a New York newspaper has sparked a torrent of outrage. The ad in the New City (N.Y.) Pennysaver, filled with spelling errors, seeks a “Laid back nurse, no haitians, must have strong respiratory mngt” for in-home nursing positions in West Haverstraw, Rockland County. After the ad sparked a torrent of public outrage on social media, New York State Sen. David Carlucci posted on Twitter that he would call an investigation...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
What happened to the president's immigration programs?  LA Times  ...Demonstrators are fasting this week in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, protesting a suit brought by 26 states that seeks an end to the temporary protection from deportation granted to immigrants by executive action. A panel of three appeals court judges heard arguments July 10 but has delayed ruling nearly a month beyond its self-imposed 60-day deadline...
Ferguson Traffic Fines Reform Is Having A Surprising Side Effect  Think Progress  ...A tiny Missouri town disbanded its police department last week, acknowledging that its old way of operating was untenable under a new state law restricting towns in St. Louis County from using cops, courts, and speed traps as a money mill. The law was prompted by federal investigations in the wake of Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson’s killing of unarmed teenager. Those inquiries revealed systematic exploitation of the traffic court system to ensnare drivers – predominantly people of color and low means...

Today's Teamster News 02.20.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Congratulate Walmart Workers Who Stood Strong For A Raise And Better Hours  teamster.org   …Today, Walmart workers who spoke out and took action won a raise for 500,000 Walmart workers nationwide. The workers and their families need better pay and regular hours from Walmart, a company that can afford it. Walmart last year earned $16 billion in profits, and it is run by a family with $150 billion in wealth…
Members Of Parliament Join Teamsters At Memphis School Bus Community Forum  teamster.org   ...Teamster school bus drivers and monitors with Durham School Services were joined by members of the British Parliament, labor and faith leaders, community members and Teamsters representatives Wednesday night at a community forum on the state of Shelby County, Tenn., student transportation...
Durham Bus Services Under Fire From British Parliament  localmemphis.com   …Durham is owned by a British company that operates a bus system in the UK called National Express Group. Two members of parliament are here in the United States this week to talk with parents, bus drivers and union leaders about the ongoing issues with Durham…
Tech Shuttle Driver Unionization Effort Heats Up  Silicon Beat   ...The Teamsters have asked tech companies chief executives to speak up to stop what they are calling “union busting.” The workers are planning a Feb. 27 unionization vote, as Julia Love reported in the Mercury News.  Compass has contracts with Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo, Zynga as well as Amtrak...
County Board Approves Contract With Sheriff’s Employees  Ogle County News   ...Ogle County Sheriff’s Department employees will be getting raises thanks to a new four-year contract approved Tuesday by the county board...
British Pols Demand Union Protection For Durham School Bus Drivers  WMC   ...Ian Lavery and Jim Sheridan, both current or former union leaders and members of Britain's House of Commons, said they have investigated Durham School Services' on-going problems in Shelby County. They've concluded most of them are to blame on a hostile work environment, in which drivers are discouraged from filing grievances or from expressing their concerns about multiple routes...
CN Plans Unilateral Contacts Modifications After Talks With Unifor Fail  Toronto Star   ...The company’s last offer on Sunday, rejected by Unifor, called for a three-year agreement with three per cent wage increases in each year. It also contained benefit improvements the company said were in line with what it negotiated recently with the United Steelworkers, which represents 3,000 maintenance-of-way employees; as well as the 1,800-member Teamsters Canada locomotive engineers and the 180-member Teamsters Canada-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers...
Fire Official Says Bridgeton Landfill Hotspots Are Close To Radioactive Waste  St. Louis Post Dispatch   ...A Pattonville Fire District official says new infrared footage of the Bridgeton Landfill shows higher heat readings beyond the base of an ongoing fire, raising questions about whether the fire is contained...
Trade
Fast track trade authority a 'close call' in U.S. Congress -Vilsack  Reuters   …Fast track trade authority a 'close call' in U.S. Congress -Vilsack…  Reuters   …Lawmakers' approval of a bill to streamline the passage of trade deals through the U.S. Congress will be a "close call," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday...
U.S. lawmaker sees fast-track trade power soon in step towards trade pact  Reuters   …The chairman of a U.S. congressional committee responsible for trade said on Thursday he expects passage of legislation to fast-track trade deals soon, a vital step towards a Pacific trade pact covering a large chunk of the global economy...
Obama's Trade Deal Rewards A Brutally Anti-Gay Dictator -- And LGBT Lawmakers Are Not Pleased  Huffington Post   … Prominent LGBT members of Congress assailed the Obama administration on Wednesday for including Brunei and Malaysia -- two nations deeply hostile to gay communities -- in major trade talks...
Democrats Introduce Legislation to Ban Investor-State Provisions in Trade Agreements  U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan   … U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and 12 House Democrats today introduced H.R. 967: Protecting America’s Sovereignty Act, legislation to prohibit investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in foreign trade agreements...
Intellectual Property Provisions in the Leaked Japanese RCEP Proposal that Threaten the Availability of Generic Medicines  infojustice.org   …Japan’s proposed intellectual property text, which was leaked and has been posted online by KEI, includes numerous TRIPS Plus provisions.  (South Korea is reported to be advocating for TRIPS-Plus provisions too.) Many of the provisions would be especially harmful to the Indian generic industry, which supplies the majority of medicines used by people in developing countries...
State Battles
GOP readies new wave of voting restrictions  MSNBC   …A roundup this month by the Brennan Center found that at least 40 restrictive voting bills have been introduced in state legislatures just since the start of the year...
Conservative Dem Senators Publicly Say They Won't Blast Right to Work Bill  Santa Fe New Mexican   … if any Senate Committee votes to table House Bill 75, it'll be dead for the session...
Koch Group Claims California Endangers Donors by Demanding Names  Bloomberg News   …A Koch brothers advocacy group contends California Attorney General Kamala Harris has no business demanding the names and addresses of its donors, who might face “grotesque threats” if identified…
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder Says He's Experienced "Gradual Impoverishment" with $86k Salary, Asks for More Money  AFSCME Council 72   ...[Missouri] Lt. Governor Peter Kinder has been pushing hard for so-called Right to Work and Paycheck Deception legislation which would force wages down, but now he has the gall to ask for a raise for himself - even though Missouri state workers are the lowest paid in the country - saying $86,000 per year is leading him into "gradual impoverishment."...
Vote Delayed On Right-To-Work Bill  Albuquerque Journal   ...A vote on a high-profile right-to-work bill was put off Wednesday in the New Mexico House as some Republican lawmakers balked at a plan to tie a minimum wage increase of 50 cents per hour to the proposed change in state labor laws...
Boone County Tackles Right-To-Work Issue  Cincinnati.com   ..."We believe the time has come to put it on the agenda for a first reading to explore if it should or should not be passed in Boone County," said Judge-executive Gary Moore. ...
Scott Walker Is King Of Kochworld  Bloomberg Politics   ...The relationship between the Kochs and Walker was cemented during Walker's bitter war against public unions that led to a recall election in 2012. During the tense weeks of standoff at the capitol in Madison, it was the Kochs' Tea Party troops who provided the main counterforce to the tens of thousands of union activists protesting the governor, in a battle Walker eventually won...
Common Wage Repeal Advances In House On Party-Line Vote  Indianapolis Star   ...The GOP-controlled House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 8-4 Tuesday afternoon, along party lines, to recommend repealing the law that allows a board of contractors and taxpayers to set baseline wages for public construction projects worth more than $350,000...
War on Workers
Walmart Gives 500,000 Workers A Raise  Huffington Post   ...In a move that could alter the minimum wage debate and improve the image of the world's largest retailer, Walmart announced it will raise the baseline wage of its current store employees to $10 per hour, bringing pay hikes to an estimated 500,000 workers...
Are We Becoming a Part-Time Economy?  Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta   …Compared with 2007, the U.S. labor market now has about 2.5 million more people working part-time and about 2.2 million fewer people working full-time. In this sense, U.S. businesses are more reliant on part-time workers now than in the past...
Corporate Welfare Queens – Shocking “Development Program” Failure Rate in North Carolina  naked capitalism   …Picking Losers shows that the state’s flagship development program, the Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG), has seen 62 of its 102 projects fail in the period from its inception in 2002 until 2013. That is, 60% of the projects failed to meet either their job, investment, or wage goals, and had to have their awards canceled...