Teamsters
Hall Joins Thousands Of Teamsters At West Virginia Rally For Workers teamster.org ...Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall delivered a rousing speech to thousands of rallying protesters in his home state of West Virginia on Saturday, urging workers to continue their fight against the legislature’s anti-worker agenda currently being pushed by state lawmakers...
Teamsters Affiliate Endorses Garcia for Mayor NBC Chicago ...Teamsters [Local 743] union affiliate endorsed mayoral candidate Jesus "Chuy" Garcia Saturday. Teamsters Local 743 represents 10,000 workers in the health care, mail order, technical and warehouse industries in the Chicago area, including the University of Chicago Medical Center and Mercy Hospital...
Trade
Labor fires back at Obama on trade The Hill ...Labor unions and other groups opposed to free-trade policies are ramping up a spring offensive against the White House and congressional Republicans with new trade legislation set to emerge in the coming weeks...
Obscure TPP Provision Will Lead to Corporations Replacing Nations As the Rulers of the Planet The Common Sense Show ...An obscure Trans Pacific Partnership provision will serve to threaten the very existence of the nation state and replace governmental authority with the power and the whim of the corporation. This secretive provision promises to supplant all national authority with a “Rollerball” type of world...
State Battles
Assembly sends Wisconsin's right-to-work bill to Scott Walker Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...In a powerful illustration of the state's increasingly polarized politics, the Wisconsin Assembly passed so-called right-to-work legislation Friday on a strictly party-line vote, with two Republicans who had previously sided with unions now lining up against them...
War on Workers
The month that killed the middle class: How October 1973 slammed America Salon ...October 1973 was a rude awakening for the entire United States. It was a watershed month for the American middle class. The Arab Oil Embargo would lead to the downfall of the American auto industry, whose generous wages and benefits set the standard for the entire economy. It was also the month of the Saturday Night Massacre, which made inevitable the downfall of Richard Nixon. The Watergate scandal resulted in changes to the American political system that put more power into the hands of lobbyists, political action committees and wealthy, self-funded candidates...
EPA: Illinois oil train derailment threatens Mississippi River McClatchy ... An oil train derailment and spill in northwest Illinois poses an “imminent and substantial danger” of contaminating the Mississippi River, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Saturday...
Train carrying crude oil derails near Gogama, Ont. CBC News ...Several tanker cars caught fire after a Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil derailed in northern Ontario, prompting officials to advise nearby residents to stay indoors and avoid consuming water from local sources...
A CEO's Real Fiduciary Duty Economic Populist ... profits have been increasingly paid back to shareholders, rather than invested in hiring more people and/or paying their employees better. Instead, companies have been borrowing in order to buy back their own company stock, which not only boosts their company's stock price for investors — but also for company executives, who are paid with stock-option grants as "performance pay"...
Showing posts with label Local 743. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Local 743. Show all posts
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Today's Teamster News 10.18.14
Teamster News
Frontier Airlines President Says Nurse On Flights May Have Been At More Advanced Stage Of Ebola Than Thought Associated Press ...The president of (Teamster-represented) Frontier Airlines says a nurse who was on flights between Dallas and Cleveland and who later tested positive for Ebola may have been at a more advanced stage of the illness than previously thought...
Aramark Workers Negotiate New Contract Chicago Maroon ...The contract was negotiated by Debra Simmons-Peterson, the president of Teamsters Local 743, who represents the dining hall and academic café employees.... “Health insurance is more affordable for members and is now provided through [Teamsters Local’s] health and welfare plan, which includes short term disability and dental insurance,” Catharine Schutzius, a business agent for Teamsters Local 743, said...
Square D Workers Intimidated Into Contract, Union Leader Says Lincoln Journal Star ...A tentative settlement reached early Thursday could end strikes almost two weeks old at two of Schneider's six U.S. factories in Peru, Indiana, and Oxford, Ohio. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, IBEW and International Association of Machinists all represent some of the workers for Schneider...
Golden Gate Bridge Workers Unions, District Reach Tentative Contract Agreement San Francisco Examiner ...The tentative agreement - for which details remain confidential pending votes from all 13 bridge worker unions and the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District - came after both sides met for the first time since Teamsters Locals 856 and 665 announced Oct. 9 a planned bus strike. District spokesman Priya Clemens did reveal that "healthcare is an area where a compromise was reached."...
Sysco Looks To Divestitures To Nail Down US Foods Deal Reuters ...Food distributor Sysco Corp., fighting to complete a merger with U.S. Foods Inc , is attempting to craft a package of potential asset sales weighty enough to convince U.S. antitrust regulators to approve the deal...
State Says Bridgeton Landfill Owner Must Do More To Contain Fire's Spread St. Louis Public Radio ...Republic Services has confirmed that it agreed on Thursday, in writing, to comply with all of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' requirements ― although the company remains committed to its position that the additional measures are not needed...
First Student Teamsters in Georgia to Take Strike Vote teamster.org ... Employees of First Student, who provide school bus service to Chatham County schools, Georgia will vote Saturday to authorize their union to call a strike over unfair labor practices and the Company’s refusal to meet their demands regarding income security over the summer months...
Teamster Taxi Drivers Protest at Union Station in D.C. teamster.org ...Taxi drivers, represented by the Teamster-affiliated Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, held a protest today outside Union Station in Washington, D.C. to send a strong message to the City Council that drivers demand fairness now...
Business Briefs St. Cloud Times ...The Minnesota Public Transportation Association named Metro Bus driver Jerry Gillman as Minnesota Bus Operator of the Year… He also serves as a driver instructor and Teamsters Local 638 union steward representing Dial-a-Ride bus operators and dispatchers…
Trade
Leaked TPP Chapter Exposes Sweet Deals for Big Pharma and US Bully Tactics RINF ...WikiLeaks on Thursday released a second updated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Rights chapter, charging that it will hinder affordable access to medicines globally, increase online surveillance, and impinge on civil liberties while benefiting Big Pharma and other corporate interests...
The TTIP: A Brief History Of An Agenda For Corporate Plunder CounterCurrents.org ...The public is not allowed to know the positions held by the EU (unlike business interests) in these talks, who is being given access to whom and who is lobbying for what on whose behalf...
State Battles
U.S. Census Migration Report: WI Lost Nearly 2K Residents to MN in Past Year Uppity Wisconsin ...9,352 more people moved out of Wisconsin than moved into Wisconsin and a large share of those leaving-- 1,972 to be exact-- are going to our next door neighbor, Minnesota...
Tax returns show Chris Christie and his wife made $698,838 last year, paid $193,510 in taxes Star-Tribune ...Christie's wife, Mary Pat … works part-time on Wall Street and earned $475,854 for her job as a director at Angelo, Gordon & Co. and $34,698 from Cantor Fitzgerald...
War on Workers
FedEx Ground Says Its Drivers Aren't Employees. The Courts Will Decide Bloomberg Businessweek ...several recent court decisions have rejected FedEx Ground’s arguments that the drivers are contractors, which could stem a broader trend of U.S. companies treating more workers as contractors instead of employees...
Walmart Workers Arrested In New York And Washington Protesting For $15 Minimum Wage UPI ...At least 42 Walmart workers and labor rights activists were arrested Thursday while marching for $15 per hour minimum wage outside of heiress Alice Walton's New York City apartment and in front of the Walton Family Foundation's Washington headquarters...
Construction worker involved in flood repair killed by semi on Lefthand Canyon Drive Daily Camera ...Federal workplace safety investigators are conducting an investigation into the death Friday of a road construction worker who was killed on Lefthand Canyon Drive when a truck involved in flood repair backed over him...
Private donors, including Target and IBM, supply spy gear to cops Pro Publica ...police foundations operate with little transparency or oversight and can be a way for wealthy donors and corporations to influence law enforcement agencies' priorities...
Miscellaneous
Hawk Attacks Man's Quadcopter Drone NBC News ...A hawk attacks a man's quadcopter while he was attempting to film the fall foliage in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
Frontier Airlines President Says Nurse On Flights May Have Been At More Advanced Stage Of Ebola Than Thought Associated Press ...The president of (Teamster-represented) Frontier Airlines says a nurse who was on flights between Dallas and Cleveland and who later tested positive for Ebola may have been at a more advanced stage of the illness than previously thought...
Aramark Workers Negotiate New Contract Chicago Maroon ...The contract was negotiated by Debra Simmons-Peterson, the president of Teamsters Local 743, who represents the dining hall and academic café employees.... “Health insurance is more affordable for members and is now provided through [Teamsters Local’s] health and welfare plan, which includes short term disability and dental insurance,” Catharine Schutzius, a business agent for Teamsters Local 743, said...
Square D Workers Intimidated Into Contract, Union Leader Says Lincoln Journal Star ...A tentative settlement reached early Thursday could end strikes almost two weeks old at two of Schneider's six U.S. factories in Peru, Indiana, and Oxford, Ohio. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, IBEW and International Association of Machinists all represent some of the workers for Schneider...
Golden Gate Bridge Workers Unions, District Reach Tentative Contract Agreement San Francisco Examiner ...The tentative agreement - for which details remain confidential pending votes from all 13 bridge worker unions and the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District - came after both sides met for the first time since Teamsters Locals 856 and 665 announced Oct. 9 a planned bus strike. District spokesman Priya Clemens did reveal that "healthcare is an area where a compromise was reached."...
Sysco Looks To Divestitures To Nail Down US Foods Deal Reuters ...Food distributor Sysco Corp., fighting to complete a merger with U.S. Foods Inc , is attempting to craft a package of potential asset sales weighty enough to convince U.S. antitrust regulators to approve the deal...
State Says Bridgeton Landfill Owner Must Do More To Contain Fire's Spread St. Louis Public Radio ...Republic Services has confirmed that it agreed on Thursday, in writing, to comply with all of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' requirements ― although the company remains committed to its position that the additional measures are not needed...
First Student Teamsters in Georgia to Take Strike Vote teamster.org ... Employees of First Student, who provide school bus service to Chatham County schools, Georgia will vote Saturday to authorize their union to call a strike over unfair labor practices and the Company’s refusal to meet their demands regarding income security over the summer months...
Teamster Taxi Drivers Protest at Union Station in D.C. teamster.org ...Taxi drivers, represented by the Teamster-affiliated Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, held a protest today outside Union Station in Washington, D.C. to send a strong message to the City Council that drivers demand fairness now...
Business Briefs St. Cloud Times ...The Minnesota Public Transportation Association named Metro Bus driver Jerry Gillman as Minnesota Bus Operator of the Year… He also serves as a driver instructor and Teamsters Local 638 union steward representing Dial-a-Ride bus operators and dispatchers…
Trade
Leaked TPP Chapter Exposes Sweet Deals for Big Pharma and US Bully Tactics RINF ...WikiLeaks on Thursday released a second updated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Rights chapter, charging that it will hinder affordable access to medicines globally, increase online surveillance, and impinge on civil liberties while benefiting Big Pharma and other corporate interests...
The TTIP: A Brief History Of An Agenda For Corporate Plunder CounterCurrents.org ...The public is not allowed to know the positions held by the EU (unlike business interests) in these talks, who is being given access to whom and who is lobbying for what on whose behalf...
State Battles
U.S. Census Migration Report: WI Lost Nearly 2K Residents to MN in Past Year Uppity Wisconsin ...9,352 more people moved out of Wisconsin than moved into Wisconsin and a large share of those leaving-- 1,972 to be exact-- are going to our next door neighbor, Minnesota...
Tax returns show Chris Christie and his wife made $698,838 last year, paid $193,510 in taxes Star-Tribune ...Christie's wife, Mary Pat … works part-time on Wall Street and earned $475,854 for her job as a director at Angelo, Gordon & Co. and $34,698 from Cantor Fitzgerald...
War on Workers
FedEx Ground Says Its Drivers Aren't Employees. The Courts Will Decide Bloomberg Businessweek ...several recent court decisions have rejected FedEx Ground’s arguments that the drivers are contractors, which could stem a broader trend of U.S. companies treating more workers as contractors instead of employees...
Walmart Workers Arrested In New York And Washington Protesting For $15 Minimum Wage UPI ...At least 42 Walmart workers and labor rights activists were arrested Thursday while marching for $15 per hour minimum wage outside of heiress Alice Walton's New York City apartment and in front of the Walton Family Foundation's Washington headquarters...
Construction worker involved in flood repair killed by semi on Lefthand Canyon Drive Daily Camera ...Federal workplace safety investigators are conducting an investigation into the death Friday of a road construction worker who was killed on Lefthand Canyon Drive when a truck involved in flood repair backed over him...
Private donors, including Target and IBM, supply spy gear to cops Pro Publica ...police foundations operate with little transparency or oversight and can be a way for wealthy donors and corporations to influence law enforcement agencies' priorities...
Miscellaneous
Hawk Attacks Man's Quadcopter Drone NBC News ...A hawk attacks a man's quadcopter while he was attempting to film the fall foliage in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
Friday, July 11, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.11.14
Teamster News
Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello Performs, Joins Picketing Truck Drivers At Port Of Los Angeles Terminal Long Beach Press Telegram ...Tom Morello, original member of rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, took to a different stage Wednesday when he performed on the picket line at Evergreen Container Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles...
Retailers Step Up Holiday Imports In Case Of A West Coast Port Strike Forbes Magazine ...The dispute extended to the docks when ILWU workers temporarily honored the Teamster pickets and shut down container terminals at both ports on Tuesday, July 8...
Port Truckers’ Strike Sends Ripples Through Labor World MSNBC ...In terms of sheer numbers, the port truckers’ strike is not a major action. Only about 120 drivers walked off the job on Monday, when the strike began. Yet in terms of significance to the labor movement, this small workplace disruption is a national event...
6 minutes a day for bathroom breaks? Union cries foul Chicago Tribune ...Members of the Teamsters Local 743 who build sink stations at WaterSaver Faucet Co. and its sister company Guardian Equipment Inc. said that workers have been disciplined for exceeding their allotted bathroom time of 30 minutes per week, or 6 minutes per workday...
Trade
You have until July 21 to prevent deception in gov’t trade data Trade Reform ...Under a proposed federal rule, an iPhone made in China and sold to Europe could be falsely considered an American export! This dangerous rule would allow the federal government to magically shrink the trade deficit by claiming foreign manufacturing by foreign companies and workers is really USA-made...
GM says defective ignition switch made in China Trade Reform ...The No. 1 U.S. automaker said in a filing on Tuesday with U.S. safety regulators that the switch used in the Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, Buick LaCrosse and Lucerne, and Cadillac DeVille and DTS cars that were recalled on June 16 was made by China-based Dalian Alps Electronics Co. Ltd. The switch problem is similar to the defect linked to at least 13 deaths...
Despite a Pledge by Samsung, Child Labor Proves Resilient New York Times ...they were part of a “labor dispatch system” that often funnels child laborers to factories during the summer to help meet a surge in orders that comes just ahead of the fall and winter shopping seasons in the United States and Europe. They were hired as temporary workers, they said, and paid through an agency that has recruitment channels in poor regions...
EFF, Reddit And Others Unite To Fight The Trans Pacific Partnership The Inquirer ...Two letters have been sent, and each takes on a related but different issue with the secretive trade agreement. Each letter has different signatures, and shows the broad, diverse opposition to the TPP...
State Battles
Gov. Scott Walker’s Campaign Violations New York Times ... According to state prosecutors, he was at the helm of a broad and illegal fund-raising effort that involved coordinating with outside spending groups and even controlling them...
Tipped Workers Seek Higher Wage Albany Times Union ...Seven other states have raised the tipped wage to the state minimum wage, including some states with the highest minimum wages in the country, such as Washington. Three of the states have indexed their minimum wage to inflation, something advocates also have called for in New York. Jack Temple, a policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project, said those states with some of the highest minimum wages for all workers also have some of the fastest restaurant industry growth...
Comfort the comfortable (opinion) Toledo Blade ...fully half of this year's $400 million tax cut will go to the top 5 percent of Ohio's taxpayers...
War On Workers
Fixing the Highway Trust Fund Isn't Rocket Science, but Stakes Are High AFL-CIO Now ...Unless Congress takes action, the fund will be depleted completely in less than one month...
One Of The NSA's Original Whistleblowers Says The Goal Is 'Total Population Control' The Guardian ...“The NSA is mass-collecting on everyone”, Binney said, “and it’s said to be about terrorism but inside the US it has stopped zero attacks..."
Detroit Residents Face Water Crisis as 36 Detroit Businesses Owe Over $4.2 Million in Back Bills firedoglake ...Over 7,000 residents already had their service cut off in June alone, before a single business faced the threat of collection. An estimated 40% of Detroit residents stand to lose water access by the end of the city’s brutal campaign to close delinquent accounts...
Mortgage Bankers: ‘Unsustainable Housing Bubble Is Inflating’ Wolf Street ...Six million homeowners in the U.S. are still underwater on their mortgages, with the average negative equity a whopping 33%. Yet with home prices soaring in many cities, total homeowner equity in the U.S. is at its highest level since late 2007. That doesn’t feel like a healthy, sustainable growth situation...
A Devastating Pattern Of Homelessness Among Late Baby Boomers Could Repeat In Millennials Business Insider ...Every decade, the group facing the highest risk of homelessness was born between 1954 and 1963...they came of age in the late 70s and early 80s in a period of depressed wages for unskilled workers, higher youth and young adult unemployment, and rising rental housing costs. At the same time, they faced a proliferation of crack cocaine, leading to social problems and incarceration...
How Inequality Is Hurting Whole Foods Huffington Post ...After popularizing luxury groceries for the well-off, Whole Foods is trying to take the concept to the masses. But amid growing inequality and a sluggish recovery, those masses have gone missing...
Miscellaneous
Report: U.S. Monitored E-mails Of Prominent Muslim Americans, Including Attorneys Washington Post ...A lengthy article published on the Intercept stated that the National Security Agency and the FBI monitored the e-mails of five Muslim Americans under procedures meant to target foreign terrorists and spies...
Fed Sets October End For Bond Buying Wall Street Journal ...Federal Reserve officials agreed at June's policy meeting to end their bond-buying program in October, putting an explicit end date on the experiment for the first time and closing a controversial chapter in central-banking annals with results still the subject of immense debate...
Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello Performs, Joins Picketing Truck Drivers At Port Of Los Angeles Terminal Long Beach Press Telegram ...Tom Morello, original member of rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, took to a different stage Wednesday when he performed on the picket line at Evergreen Container Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles...
Retailers Step Up Holiday Imports In Case Of A West Coast Port Strike Forbes Magazine ...The dispute extended to the docks when ILWU workers temporarily honored the Teamster pickets and shut down container terminals at both ports on Tuesday, July 8...
Port Truckers’ Strike Sends Ripples Through Labor World MSNBC ...In terms of sheer numbers, the port truckers’ strike is not a major action. Only about 120 drivers walked off the job on Monday, when the strike began. Yet in terms of significance to the labor movement, this small workplace disruption is a national event...
6 minutes a day for bathroom breaks? Union cries foul Chicago Tribune ...Members of the Teamsters Local 743 who build sink stations at WaterSaver Faucet Co. and its sister company Guardian Equipment Inc. said that workers have been disciplined for exceeding their allotted bathroom time of 30 minutes per week, or 6 minutes per workday...
Trade
You have until July 21 to prevent deception in gov’t trade data Trade Reform ...Under a proposed federal rule, an iPhone made in China and sold to Europe could be falsely considered an American export! This dangerous rule would allow the federal government to magically shrink the trade deficit by claiming foreign manufacturing by foreign companies and workers is really USA-made...
GM says defective ignition switch made in China Trade Reform ...The No. 1 U.S. automaker said in a filing on Tuesday with U.S. safety regulators that the switch used in the Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, Buick LaCrosse and Lucerne, and Cadillac DeVille and DTS cars that were recalled on June 16 was made by China-based Dalian Alps Electronics Co. Ltd. The switch problem is similar to the defect linked to at least 13 deaths...
Despite a Pledge by Samsung, Child Labor Proves Resilient New York Times ...they were part of a “labor dispatch system” that often funnels child laborers to factories during the summer to help meet a surge in orders that comes just ahead of the fall and winter shopping seasons in the United States and Europe. They were hired as temporary workers, they said, and paid through an agency that has recruitment channels in poor regions...
EFF, Reddit And Others Unite To Fight The Trans Pacific Partnership The Inquirer ...Two letters have been sent, and each takes on a related but different issue with the secretive trade agreement. Each letter has different signatures, and shows the broad, diverse opposition to the TPP...
State Battles
Gov. Scott Walker’s Campaign Violations New York Times ... According to state prosecutors, he was at the helm of a broad and illegal fund-raising effort that involved coordinating with outside spending groups and even controlling them...
Tipped Workers Seek Higher Wage Albany Times Union ...Seven other states have raised the tipped wage to the state minimum wage, including some states with the highest minimum wages in the country, such as Washington. Three of the states have indexed their minimum wage to inflation, something advocates also have called for in New York. Jack Temple, a policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project, said those states with some of the highest minimum wages for all workers also have some of the fastest restaurant industry growth...
Comfort the comfortable (opinion) Toledo Blade ...fully half of this year's $400 million tax cut will go to the top 5 percent of Ohio's taxpayers...
War On Workers
Fixing the Highway Trust Fund Isn't Rocket Science, but Stakes Are High AFL-CIO Now ...Unless Congress takes action, the fund will be depleted completely in less than one month...
One Of The NSA's Original Whistleblowers Says The Goal Is 'Total Population Control' The Guardian ...“The NSA is mass-collecting on everyone”, Binney said, “and it’s said to be about terrorism but inside the US it has stopped zero attacks..."
Detroit Residents Face Water Crisis as 36 Detroit Businesses Owe Over $4.2 Million in Back Bills firedoglake ...Over 7,000 residents already had their service cut off in June alone, before a single business faced the threat of collection. An estimated 40% of Detroit residents stand to lose water access by the end of the city’s brutal campaign to close delinquent accounts...
Mortgage Bankers: ‘Unsustainable Housing Bubble Is Inflating’ Wolf Street ...Six million homeowners in the U.S. are still underwater on their mortgages, with the average negative equity a whopping 33%. Yet with home prices soaring in many cities, total homeowner equity in the U.S. is at its highest level since late 2007. That doesn’t feel like a healthy, sustainable growth situation...
A Devastating Pattern Of Homelessness Among Late Baby Boomers Could Repeat In Millennials Business Insider ...Every decade, the group facing the highest risk of homelessness was born between 1954 and 1963...they came of age in the late 70s and early 80s in a period of depressed wages for unskilled workers, higher youth and young adult unemployment, and rising rental housing costs. At the same time, they faced a proliferation of crack cocaine, leading to social problems and incarceration...
How Inequality Is Hurting Whole Foods Huffington Post ...After popularizing luxury groceries for the well-off, Whole Foods is trying to take the concept to the masses. But amid growing inequality and a sluggish recovery, those masses have gone missing...
Miscellaneous
Report: U.S. Monitored E-mails Of Prominent Muslim Americans, Including Attorneys Washington Post ...A lengthy article published on the Intercept stated that the National Security Agency and the FBI monitored the e-mails of five Muslim Americans under procedures meant to target foreign terrorists and spies...
Fed Sets October End For Bond Buying Wall Street Journal ...Federal Reserve officials agreed at June's policy meeting to end their bond-buying program in October, putting an explicit end date on the experiment for the first time and closing a controversial chapter in central-banking annals with results still the subject of immense debate...
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Teamsters join thousands at DC rally
About 150 Teamsters joined more than 2,000 other union members today in a rally in front of the Wisconsin Governor’s Washington, D.C. office, sending a loud, clear message that they will not tolerate attempts to destroy workers’ rights anywhere in the United States.
Teachers, nurses, construction workers, laborers and others joined the “We Are One” rally outside the Hall of States Building. The crowd was so large it spilled on to North Capitol Street near the U.S. Capitol, forcing police to shut down the busy street. Workers chanted slogans, including “Workers rights in every state,” “Kill the bill,” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, union busting’s got to go.” There were colorful signs, including “Mubarak for Wisconsin governor, Koch CEO,” “Don’t blame workers for Wall Street greed,” and “Stop the war on workers.”
“It’s time for labor to come together with a strong, collective voice,” said Fernando Harms, a business agent/recording secretary with Local 696 in Topeka, Kansas. “These attacks in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana and elsewhere are direct attacks on labor, so we need to stand up and fight.”
Harms was in Washington to attend a Teamsters Leadership Academy at the International Union’s Headquarters.Eliseo Mesarina, Secretary-Treasurer of GCC/IBT Local 415-S in Chicago, said attempts to harm unions will hurt not only workers, but the nation as a whole.
Without union members having the decent wages they receive, we’re not going to get this country back on track.
Debra Simmons, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 743 in Chicago, said all union members need to speak out against the coordinated attack on unions and working people.
I’m proud to be a Teamster, I’ve been a Teamster since I was 17 years old. I think it’s important for people to have the right to be in a union, and we need to fight for that right.
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