U.S. must end endorsement of child, forced labor

Child and forced labor have no place in the U.S. production chain. But a law on the books allows some goods made overseas under such conditions to be imported into this country. And it's got to stop.

Malaysia's inclusion in TPP shows serious problems with deal.

As it stands, some 136 products from 74 countries brought to this nation used workers either not doing the job under their own free will or who are not old enough to consent to such work. It's allowed under a loophole in an 85-year-old measure which was originally intended to help save American jobs in industries such as farming during the Great Depression by placing tariffs on international goods.

According to a Bureau of International Labor Affairs report, goods ranging from alcohol to vanilla are part of the list. India tops the list in the number of goods made by forced or child labor. But every year there are additions, and the most recent document shows that electronics and palm oil made in Malaysia have just been added.

While other nations also produced goods added to this auspicious list last year, the inclusion of the above Pacific Rim nation is significant because it also happens to be one of the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nations. This is a trade pact, mind you, that is supposed to ensure more fair labor standards for workers.

Earlier this year, Malaysia's treatment of workers came under fire because of the practice of human trafficking in the country. Many took issue with a U.S. State Department report that upgraded the nation's status on the issue, saying it was influenced by the country's participation in the TPP.

As the holiday season enters full swing, it is imperative that the U.S. clamp down on the importation of such overseas products. It's not fair nor just to those making them and it's not good for America as a whole to continue purchasing them. Surely it would be better to buy gifts made right here at home.

The U.S. needs to lead on labor issues, not turn a blind eye towards injustice.

Today's Teamster News 11.23.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamster Silicon Valley Drivers Vote Overwhelmingly in Favor of Contract  Teamster.org  ...Shuttle drivers for seven major Silicon Valley companies voted by an overwhelming 95 percent today to approve a first contract that provides for industry-leading wages and benefits. The nearly 200 drivers, who are members of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., work for Compass Transportation, contractor to Apple, eBay, PayPal, Yahoo, Evernote, Genentech and Amtrak...
Labor deal for more Silicon Valley tech shuttle drivers  USA Today  ...Shuttle drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay and several other Silicon Valley companies overwhelmingly voted Sunday to accept a contract that will increase wages and benefits and give them their first paid Thanksgiving holiday. The drivers for those companies, as well as Amtrak, Evernote, Genentech and Paypal, voted to unionize with Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., back in February...
Teamsters, Employer Group Reconvene for Carhaul Negotiations  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) met this week with the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division to begin negotiating a revised national carhaul contract. This week’s negotiations come after carhaulers voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements earlier this year...
Local 727 Reaches Tentative Agreement on New 4-Year Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Contract  Local 727  ...Teamsters Local 727 reached tentative agreement on a new four-year contract for 600 members at Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola. Final negotiations stretched late into the night on Nov. 19 as the Bargaining Committee hammered out final details for strong wage increases, important benefits and fortified rights for drivers, bulk, merchandisers, laborers and all other Reyes Teamsters...
BMWED To Conduct Research On Occupational Risk Reduction  Teamster.org  ...The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes' (BMWED) President Freddie N. Simpson, with the full support of the BMWED National Division Officers, has approved a Brotherhood-wide research study to address the long-standing absence of high quality data reflecting the nature, frequency, severity and socio-economic consequences of occupational risk and its impact on BMWED members. BMWED members are a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference...
Teamsters Join with Business, Community to Host N.Y. Job Fair  Teamster.org  ...Sunset Park is home to some of the last sections of working waterfront in the city, and a job fair held Tuesday night aims to employ neighborhood residents in some of the good jobs on the waterfront. Manhattan Beer Distributors partnered with Teamsters Local 812, City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, and community organization UPROSE...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
The Maquiladora Workers of Juárez Find Their Voice  The Nation  ... After more than a decade of silence, maquiladora workers in Ciudad Juárez have found their voice. The city, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is now the center of a growing rebellion of laborers in the border factories. At the gates to four plants, including a huge 5,000-worker Foxconn complex, they have set up encampments, or plantons, demanding recognition of independent unions, and protesting firings and reprisals...
Lufthansa cabin crew to strike Thursday, Friday  Globe and Mail  ...Lufthansa cabin crew have been called to another round of strikes starting Thursday and Friday, the head of trade union UFO, Nicoley Baublies, told Reuters on Monday. The cabin crew union staged a week of strikes earlier this month, costing the company tens of millions of euros and forcing the cancellation of about 4,700 flights...
U.S. trade czar confident of 2016 Congress vote on TPP  STL Today  ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Thursday he expected Congress to vote on a 12-nation Pacific Rim free-trade deal early next year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which aims to liberalize trade for 40 percent of the global economy, must be ratified by U.S. Congress but opposition from many Democrats and some Republicans could mean a vote is unlikely before President Barack Obama leaves office...
Obama promotes TPP, says it is 'more than just a trade pact'  The Sun Daily  ...United States President Barack Obama, in his strong bid to promote the TPP to Asean member countries, said it is more than just a trade pact as it will build cooperation among nations. Acknowledging that the debates on TPP in many countries and skepticism on previously failed trade deals, Obama admitted that TPP deal is a “tough sell”...
As Obama heads to Malaysia, human trafficking stance questioned  Reuters  ...U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia on Friday for a Southeast Asia leaders’ summit comes amid allegations by U.S. lawmakers and rights groups that his administration ignored Malaysia’s abuse of trafficking victims such as Baser to secure the country’s help sealing a high-profile trade deal and strengthen ties to offset China’s growing political clout...
EFF Joins Broad Coalition of Groups to Protest the TPP in Washington D.C.  (opinion) EFF  ...Contained within these 6,000-plus pages of the completed TPP text are a series of provisions that empower multinational corporations and private interest groups at the expense of the public interest. Civil society groups represent diverse concerns, so while we may disagree on our specific concerns about the TPP, we commonly recognize that this is a toxic, undemocratic deal that must be stopped at all costs...
Trade laws undo local progress on food systems  (opinion) IATP.org  ...Careful examination of the recently released text for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is already revealing new risks for our food system. Those findings also tell us what to watch out for in the other big pending trade deal—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union...
Greek economy stagnates under austerity and capital controls  ABC  ...This is the reality in Greece these days, as the latest austerity cuts a swathe through consumer spending and capital controls — measures to limit withdrawals from banks — stagnate the already downtrodden Greek economy. In what is now a damaging consumer cycle, the damaging of cuts to pensions means grandparents have less money in their wallets and no longer spend up as the dote on their grandchildren — sometimes with handcrafted shoes from France and Italy...
Bangladesh: ‘An Effective Union Can Ensure Fire Safety’  Solidarity Center  ...Bilkish Begum says she and other workers at a garment factory in Bangladesh could not discuss implementing fire safety measures with their employer—even after the deadly blaze at Tazreen Fashions factory killed 112 workers three years ago next week. Only when they formed a union, which provides workers with protection against retaliation for seeking to improve their workplace conditions, could they take steps to help ensure their safety...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Louisiana votes for Medicaid expansion  Daily Kos  ...The monumental David Vitter loss in Louisiana Saturday promises to be a big win for Louisiana. While it was Vitter's past scandals that dominated the election, it's Democratic Governor-elect John Bel Edwards' main policy promise that's the big news, and likely means health care for some 242,000 Louisiana residents in the coming year...
Advocates Dispute Dire Predictions of $15 Minimum Wage Study  Public News Service  ...A report released this week by a business group predicting dire consequences if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour doesn't reflect reality, fair-wage advocates say. According to the report by the Long Island Association, more than 23,000 Long Island jobs would be lost. Advocates for raising the wage say businesses would benefit from the increased spending...
Exposing North Carolina's shell game of electoral apartheid  Daily Kos  ...This fall, Daily Kos community member Bill Busa exposed North Carolina's sneaky new voter suppression tool in which county boards of elections in the state closed almost one-third of the state’s early voting polling places in 2014, replacing them with polls at new locations. The result of moving those early voting locations: African American voters found themselves 350,000 miles farther away from their nearest early voting sites...
Strangers Raise Money For Walmart Worker Fired For Picking Up Cans  Think Progress  ...When a parking lot attendant dared to recycle trash he picked up outside an upstate New York Walmart, the store fired him. Now generous strangers are trying to help cushion his sudden fall. Thomas Smith, 52, had been earning $9 an hour at an upstate New York Walmart for less than three months when his manager terminated him over the cans...
California cities embracing higher minimum wage  SGV Tribune ...Surrounded by city and union officials at a Labor Day rally in South Los Angeles last year, Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed raising the city’s minimum wage to $13.25 per hour by the end of the decade — a plan he said would significantly help low-income workers in Los Angeles while placing minimal burden on employers. Nine months later, Garcetti signed an ordinance that is more progressive than he proposed — a citywide wage hike to $15 an hour by 2021...

U.S. LABOR
UAW reaches end of winding road with Detroit automakers  Detroit Free Press  ...Detroit’s once-every-four-years ritual of UAW negotiations and ratification is finally over. The final two companies: General Motors and Ford, ratified their agreements late Friday after months of grueling talks. There are as many opinions about who won and who came up short as the 140,000 workers whose pay and benefits for the next four years were set in the contracts...
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, The Case To Push Right To Work Nationally  NH Labor News  ...The Supreme Court is about to hear a case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association that could overturn a nearly forty-year decision that allows unions to negotiate “fair-share” fees for non-union members who benefit from the union’s contract. “We are disappointed that at a time when big corporations and the wealthy few are rewriting the rules in their favor, the Supreme Court has chosen to take a case that threatens the fundamental promise of America"...
CWA accuses Alcatel-Lucent of stealing Lucent retirees' health care funds  Fierce Telecom  ...The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union has filed a request with the U.S. District Court in New Jersey to get a temporary restraining order against Alcatel-Lucent over claims that the French company plans to use money for retirees' health care to cover its own pension funding obligations. Under the proposed plan, CWA said that Alcatel-Lucent will move 20,000 retirees and an additional $1.2 billion...
Verizon workers rally for contract  Godanriver.com  ...Verizon workers across the East Coast, including Danville, rallied over contract negotiations Thursday evening. A small group of regional workers gathered at the 141 Trade St. garage where most of the technicians that service Verizon lines in Danville base their operation. The previous contract expired on Aug. 1. Verizon employees have been working without a contract since then...
The U.S. Is Beaten By 27 Other Countries When It Comes To Women’s Equality  Think Progress  ...While the world has made progress closing the gap between women and men in health, education, economic participation, and political empowerment over the last decade, the United States is not keeping up. The World Economic Forum (WEF) just released its 2015 Global Gender Gap report, which showed that the gap has dropped by 4 percent in the last ten years...
Heat kills California farmworkers, but the state won't always admit it  Daily Kos  ...Agricultural workers have fewer job protections than most other workers even as they do physically grueling labor for low pay. It’s a vicious circle—most of the people who work in the fields come from vulnerable groups, and the low wages and lack of protections keep them vulnerable. California’s heat is one significant source of illness and even death for farmworkers. But you might not know that from the state’s official statistics...
When Temp Workers Die While Being Taken to the Job, Who’s Responsible?  In These Times ...Since the Great Recession, the temporary staffing industry has boomed, and temp employment has accounted for significant portions of rebounding job growth. Temps—who are employed by agencies and whose labor is simply rented out by third-party businesses—have become seen as some of America’s most vulnerable workers. Labor advocates say that, in treating workers as replaceable units of labor, the temp industry can overlook workers’ most basic human needs...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Many Americans Have Criminal Records as College Diplomas  Truthout  ...The number of Americans with a criminal history has risen sharply over the past three decades. Today, nearly one-third of the adult working age population has a criminal record. In fact, so many Americans have a criminal record that counting them all is nearly impossible...
How Prison Reform Could Turn the Prison-Industrial Complex Into the Treatment-Industrial Complex  The Nation   ... many of the dollars expected to be “saved” from shuttering prisons may simply be funneled into privatized “alternatives to incarceration” like parole programs and halfway houses. These operations are often run by the household names of the prison business—they’re simply moving from behind bars to the so-called “treatment-industrial complex”...
Wall Street's Reprieve Expires  The Atlantic  ...Financial-regulation legislation—or efforts to stop it—ranks among the trickiest political knots that the White House and Congress have to unravel if they want to keep with their October budget compromise and fund the government. Democrats and Republicans in Congress—though not in the country at large—still line up on opposite sides of the fence...
Trump Supporters Punch, Kick Black Lives Matter Protester at Rally  Slate  ...Several people taking part in a rally for Donald Trump in Birmingham, Alabama pushed down, kicked, and punched a black protester. At least six Trump supporters shoved and tackled the protester, while one man punched the demonstrator and a woman kicked him while he was on the ground, according to CNN. One even attempted to choke the protester...
France Asks UN to Back 'Merciless' Military Response to Paris Attacks  Common Dreams  ...Just days after French President François Hollande vowed a "merciless" response to the Paris attacks, his government on Thursday submitted a resolution for the United Nations Security Council to "take all necessary measures" against ISIS. The French proposal, which could face a vote as early as Friday, competes with a separate one re-submitted by Russia this week...

Today's Teamster News 08.03.15

Teamsters
Silicon Valley Drivers Vote Unanimously in Favor of Contract Proposal  Teamster.org  ...Shuttle drivers for seven big Silicon Valley companies voted overwhelmingly today to approve a union proposal for a first contract that includes industry-leading wages and benefits. The drivers employed by contractor Compass Transportation/Transdev voted 75-0 in favor. The drivers are members of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif. The proposal is the result of nearly five months of negotiations with the company...
Fort Riley Veterans Graduate From Military Job Training Program  Teamster.org  ...Today, Teamster representatives were joined by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in a ceremony recognizing the graduates of a program that helps active military personnel transition to a career in transportation. The ceremony was held at the Army’s installation in Fort Riley, Kan. The innovative six-week program is the result of a partnership between the Teamsters Military Assistance Program, the U.S. Army, Fort Sill, ABF Freight, Soldier For Life, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command...
Strike threat looms in anticipation of Sun Tran, Labor Union contract renewal  Tucson News Now  ...The threat of a bus strike looms again in Tucson, as talks continue between Sun Tran bus drivers and management over a new contract. The dangers bus drivers face, the risk on the road and their paycheck are all items that are up for negotiation. Sun Tran officials have provided the Teamsters Local Union with a final offer, and union members will vote on it during three meetings scheduled to take place on Saturday, Aug 1...
Apple, Yahoo shuttle drivers unanimously approve union wage package  USA Today  ...Shuttle drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay and several other Silicon Valley companies voted Saturday to approve a union wage and benefits package. The drivers who transport workers to and from those tech firms, as well as to Zynga, Amtrak, Evernote and Genentech, are employed by Compass Transportation. Back in February, the 160 drivers voted for representation by Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif...
ABF Freight, Teamsters Graduate New Class Of Military Drivers  Times Record  ...A truck driver training program class jointly operated by ABF Freight, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the U.S. Army will graduate this week. ABF Freight is a subsidiary of Fort Smith-based ArcBest Corp. Known as the Teamsters Military Assistance Program, the program was created to help soldiers transition to civilian careers...

Global Labor & Trade
Talks for Pacific trade deal stall at a critical step  New York Times  ...Trade negotiators from the United States and 11 other Pacific nations were headed toward failure Friday, with difficult talks on the largest regional trade agreement ever breaking down over protections for pharmaceutical companies and access to agriculture markets on both sides of the Pacific. Negotiators will return to their home countries to obtain high-level sign-offs for a small number of final sticking points on the agreement...
Ministers fail to cinch major trade pact  Politico  ...Top trade officials from the United States, Canada and 10 other Pacific rim nations fell short of concluding the biggest trade pact in history on Friday because of differences over agricultural, autos and pharmaceuticals, but said significant progress had been made. “We’re confident that TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] is within reach,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Friday...
U.S. Bends on Patent Data as Dairy Vexes Pacific Trade Talks  Bloomberg   ...The U.S. on Thursday abandoned its longstanding position on the confidentiality of some patent data as officials immersed themselves in the minutiae of Asia-Pacific dairy markets in a bid to clinch a landmark trade deal. A day marked by widespread frustration with the slow pace at which Canada took up talks on opening its dairy sector gave way to grinding, all-night talks on the quotas and tariffs that would be applied to products such as whey protein, cheese and milk powder...
Trans-Pacific Partnership delegates fail to reach final deal; pharmaceuticals, cars, dairy key sticking points  ABC  ...Delegates negotiating a Pacific free trade agreement have failed to reach a final deal after several days of intense talks in Hawaii. The talks were halted after a dispute flared between Japan and North America over autos, New Zealand dug in over dairy trade and no agreement was reached on monopoly periods for next-generation drugs...
McConnell warns Obama against tobacco carve-out in trade deal  The Hill  ...Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is warning U.S. officials negotiating a massive trans-Pacific trade agreement for President Obama not to target tobacco growers in a final deal. McConnell said singling out the tobacco industry would set a dangerous precedent for future trade deals, in a letter to Obama’s top trade representative...

Obama Administration Ignores Malaysia’s Trafficking Record   (opinion) New York Times  ...After one year on the State Department’s list of countries that are failing to combat modern-day slavery, Malaysia has been upgraded to a higher category. That judgment, part of an annual evaluation of how 188 countries deal with human trafficking, strains credulity, given how little Malaysia has done to address the problem. The decision has raised suspicions that Malaysia’s status was changed to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Getting the TPP right: What needs to happen in Hawaii  (opinion) The Hill  ...When done right, on a level playing field, trade can be a powerful tool for global growth and rising living standards. But too often, past trade deals have not lived up to this standard. Instead, they’ve created a massively tilted playing field that has incentivized a global race to the bottom on labor practices, environmental protections and human rights...
Stocks Plunge in Greece as Athens Exchange Reopens  New York Times  ...Investors issued a vote of no confidence in Greece’s economy on Monday, dumping Greek stocks as trading on the Athens stock exchange resumed for the first time in five weeks. Shares on the exchange initially dropped by 22.8 percent as trading began, with bank stocks falling 30 percent. Banks have been among the hardest-hit sectors of the Greek economy, and they are dependent on emergency cash from the European Central Bank to stay afloat...
Black Unionists Try to Save South Africa From Becoming a Failed State  Truthout  ...Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the largest union in South Africa, and Zwelinzima Vavi, the former general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) visited Washington, DC, this month to discuss the crisis within South African trade unions. They spoke of the betrayal by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in failing to implement the 1955 Freedom Charter and the deleterious impact of neoliberal economic policies...
Plane passengers face delays as Melbourne Airport workers strike  Herald Sun  ...The Community and Public Sector Union has warned of significant disruptions and delays at all Australian international air and shipping ports ahead of its latest round of industrial action. The union has detailed four-hour rolling stoppages in protest of the Federal Government’s approach to working rights, conditions and pay. Union members from the Depart of Immigration and Border Protection, Department of Agriculture, including quarantine, and Australian Border Force Marine Union will observe stoppages...
Oaxaca, Mexico, Faces Police Militarization as Governor Acts to Preempt Education Protests  Truthout  ...Thousands of federal and state police troops were dispatched in mid-July to the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico to guard strategic buildings, patrol the skies and ensure that protesters cannot take over local radio stations. The aim of this heightened police militarization? To prevent protesting teachers from exerting pressure on the administration of Gabino Cué Monteagudo, the current governor of Oaxaca, in their efforts to resist nationally imposed education reforms...

State & Living Wage Battles
A $15 Minimum Wage Would Increase The Price Of A Big Mac By Less Than 20 Cents  Think Progress  ...If the minimum wage were increased to $15 an hour, prices at fast food restaurants would rise by an estimated 4.3 percent, according to a new study. That would mean a McDonald’s Big Mac, which currently goes for $3.99, would cost about 17 cents more, or $4.16. The price increases would be a good deal larger if the minimum wage were raised to $22 an hour, or average private sector pay: the authors found they would increase by 25 percent, raising the price of a Big Mac by about a dollar...
Scott Walker Stresses Importance Of Education Days After Cutting Education Funding By $250 Million  Think Progress  ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) went on Fox & Friends Thursday to discuss his entry into the 2016 presidential race. But the governor who recently earned negative headlines for cutting hundreds of millions from the state’s top-tier university system made a curious claim: that the key to boosting wages wasn’t the minimum wage, but education...
How Childcare Actually Causes Poverty in America  The Nation  ....Activists are pushing for a $15 hourly base wage for preschool teachers and childcare workers. Many are currently college grads earning poverty wages, which have basically stagnated for nearly twenty years. The raise would be a major step toward providing livable wages for the service working families can’t live without. As the Fight for 15 movement gains momentum for fast food and retail workers, advocates are asking, if the people who prepare your lunch deserve a living wage, surely so do the people preparing our toddlers for school?...
Chris Christie’s violent fantasies: National teachers union deserves a “punch in the face”  Salon  ...Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said during a television interview Sunday that the national teachers union deserves a “punch in the face.” While campaigning for re-election in 2013, the New Jersey Governor scolded a local teacher after she challenged him on his claims that the state’s schools were failing. “I am tired of you people,” Christie yelled at the teacher, “What do you want?”...
Report: About 40% of workers in Ariz., U.S. have no paid sick leave  Yuma Sun  ...Close to half of Arizona’s private-sector workers, more than 934,000 people, do not have access to paid sick leave, according to a report Wednesday by a group pushing for such laws. But the National Partnership for Women and Families said Arizona is not alone: More than 43 million people, accounting for about 39 percent of private-sector workers in the country, currently don’t have the ability to earn paid sick leave, it said...
Without prevailing wage, pay will plummet, leader says  The Times  ...Without the state's prevailing wage law, construction workers would see their wages drop dramatically, a local labor leader says. "You'll see minimum wage within a couple of years," said Kevin Dale, business manager for Laborers International Union Local 393 in Marseilles. "You'll be making the same amount as the person flipping hamburgers at McDonald's when there's no prevailing wage." Earlier this year, Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed repealing the prevailing wage law...
Hedge Funds Helped Wreck Puerto Rico’s Economy, And The Poor Are Paying The Price  Think Progress  ...Depending who you ask in Puerto Rico, the debt crisis was caused by neo-colonial and imperialist policies from the U.S., the Puerto Rican government’s wasteful overspending and corruption, or the cadre of hedge funds that are currently profiting from the island’s woes. Add to that toxic mix a series of free-trade agreements that triggered mass outsourcing, and a population in rapid decline due to out-migration...

U.S. Labor
Verizon Workers to Stay on Job Without New Contract  New York Times  ...Verizon and unions representing workers in nine states said employees will work without a contract as more negotiations are scheduled. The wireless carrier and leaders of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers announced the decision early Sunday, shortly after a contract covering 39,000 workers expired...
Bankruptcy Judge Gives Go-Ahead for Mass Firings of Unionized A&P Grocery Workers  In These Times  ...The mass firings of workers at the A&P supermarket chain is set to begin in mid-September, following action this week by a federal bankruptcy court approving a plan to quickly shed some 2,500 jobs at the ailing grocery retailer. The job cuts are a first step in a broader plan to dismember the entire 300-store chain, with expected job losses of 15,000 or more...
Negotiations begin for AT&T, Communications Workers of America  Local 10  ...AT&T has begun negotiations on contracts with 27,000 of its employees in the Southeast territory. Southeast region employees, who are represented by the Communications Workers of America, include employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The CWA issued a news release Sunday saying that representatives from both sides met Saturday. However, AT&T regional spokeswoman Kelly Starling said negotiations have been ongoing since June...
Why Unions Aren't Uniting Behind Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders  Bloomberg  ...In the failed fight to stop fast track, organized labor spoke—largely—with one voice. The main U.S. union federation, the AFL-CIO, announced a temporary freeze on PAC contributions, and its affiliate unions mostly complied. Unions across the industry spectrum warned Democrats against siding with Obama on trade. Some big unions were quieter than others, but none defected to shield the president. The same can’t be said for labor’s presidential endorsement process...

Social Justice & Other News
Border Jails Facing Bond Defaults as Immigration Boom Goes Bust  Bloomberg  ...ails built to profit from an illegal immigration boom are weighing down the finances of rural counties in the U.S. Sunbelt as border apprehensions slow and the federal government orders the release of more migrants. In Texas, the heart of a jail-building boom over the past decade, nine of 21 counties that created agencies to issue about $1.3 billion in municipal bonds to build privately run correctional facilities largely for migrants have defaulted on their debt...
In St. Louis, Black Youths Bear Brunt of Dysfunctional Justice System  Common Dreams  ...Black kids in St. Louis, Missouri are being disproportionately impacted by unconstitutional and discriminatory miscarriages of justice within the Family Court system, according to a two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. "In short, Black children are subjected to harsher treatment because of their race," the findings report reads...

Today's Teamster News 07.28.15

Teamsters
Hoffa Statement on New State Department Report That Upgrades Malaysia on Trafficking List  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to a new State Department document that improves the Malaysian government’s standing in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report: "The welfare of workers is at risk, and we must continue to push Malaysia to improve its anti-trafficking efforts rather than paving the way for it to participate in TPP"...
Google Express Workers File for Representation by Teamsters Union  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local Union 853 announced today that workers at Palo Alto-based Google Express Services filed for a representation election. The more than 140 warehouse and shipping workers sought out the Teamsters for help with improving working conditions, treatment on the job and compensation...
Workers at Google Express Bay Area Warehouse Take Step to Unionize  Wall Street Journal   ...A group of 140 warehouse workers at a Google Express facility in the San Francisco Bay-area have taken the first step toward unionizing. In a statement Monday, Local 853 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said workers who fill and ship orders at the Palo Alto, Calif., warehouse—all of whom were brought on by staffing agency Adecco—had filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board...
Google's Low-Wage Contract Workers Are Poised to Unionize  Mother Jones  ...Labor organizers with the Teamsters union announced Monday that they're holding an election to unionize workers for Google Express, the shopping service that delivers everything from toothpaste to televisions purchased by online consumers. The union is seeking to represent about 140 Google Express warehouse workers employed by Adecco, a temp agency that provides much of the delivery service's Bay Area staff...
Teamsters picket on behalf of Gold Cross employees  Good 4 Utah  ...Gold Cross employees joined together Monday to picket at the Gold Cross corporate office in Salt Lake City. Gold Cross paramedics say they've been negotiating with the company for 10 months, but the company has refused to budge. The paramedics say they won't strike because that could hurt the citizens. The Teamsters Union has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board...
EVSC Board, Teamsters plan to resume collective bargaining  Courier & Press  ...Evansville Vanderburgh School Board President Mike Duckworth said the seven-member board is ready to resume collective bargaining negotiations with Teamsters Local 215. After an executive session “training” on Saturday, where all board members were present, Duckworth said the members discussed many issues that are currently on the table with Local 215...

Global Labor & Trade
US human trafficking report under fire as Cuba and Malaysia are upgraded  The Guardian  ...The United States is facing criticism after it removed Cuba and Malaysia from the US State Department’s list of the countries categorically failing to respond to widespread human trafficking. Malaysia was also given an upgrade to the tier 2 watch list after a year on tier 3. It comes as President Obama works to smooth the way for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a huge US-led free trade deal with Malaysia and 11 other countries across south-east Asia...
Key Shift on Malaysia Before Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal  New York Times  ...With the Obama administration pushing to conclude a vast Asian trade pact, the State Department on Monday upgraded its assessment of Malaysia’s efforts to combat human trafficking, a move that could ease the country’s inclusion in the trade deal. Though the human trafficking report from the State Department is released annually, this year it carries added weight because of the administration’s desire to make final the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Feds face blowback over Malaysia human trafficking upgrade  The Hill  ...The State Department’s upgrade of Malaysia’s human trafficking status is setting up another clash between Congress and the White House on global trade. The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report released Monday gave Malaysia a boost to the Tier 2 Watch List from Tier 3, the lowest level, a move that could further complicate congressional approval of a massive Trans-Pacific trade pact...
Issues Mount as Negotiators Gather to Wrap Up Trans-Pacific Trade Pact  New York Times  ...The top trade negotiators of the United States and 11 other Pacific nations are gathering this week at a luxury resort in Maui for one last push to complete the largest regional trade accord in history, roping together 40 percent of the world’s economic output. But even though it is billed as the “final round” of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, trade representatives from the United States, Japan and Pacific nations from Canada and Chile to Australia and Vietnam have high hurdles to clear...
Canadian dairy farmers head to Maui in last ditch effort against TPP  Global and Mail  ...Led by the United States, a group of 12 countries including Japan, Canada, Chile and Malaysia are trying to create a Pacific Rim trading bloc with North American-calibre commercial rules – a counterweight to Chinese influence in the region. The price of entry for Canada to a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal is expected to include opening up this country’s heavily sheltered dairy and poultry sectors to further foreign competition...
US Decision on People Trafficking in Malaysia “Manipulated”  ITUC-CSI.org  ...The unwarranted upgrade is presumed to be result of political interference by the administration to ensure that Malaysia remains eligible to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which has been under negotiation since 2008. The recently adopted Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) provides that Tier 3 countries cannot be parties to trade agreements with the United States. The status upgrade comes just two months after the discovery in Malaysia of mass graves containing 139 bodies of migrant workers...
Up to 6,000 Zimbabwe Workers Fired After Court Ruling  Solidarity Center  ...Up to 6,000 workers have been terminated over the past week in Zimbabwe, following a Supreme Court decision stating that companies can now unilaterally end workers’ contracts at any time, without offering them layoff benefits, by giving them three months’ notice. The mass job cuts “are part of a scramble by companies to fire workers without benefits as they capitalize on last Friday’s Supreme Court ruling,” according to one news source...
Greece Moves Forward In Bailout Talks As Government Comes Under Fire  Huffington Post  ...Greece pushed ahead with talks on a new rescue loan Tuesday, but its government came under increasing pressure over claims it had a top-secret plan to prepare for a euro exit that involved accessing citizens' personal tax data. Emissaries from Greece's international creditors held a second day of preparatory talks with Greek officials, ahead of higher-level negotiations later this week on the country's new multi-billion euro lifeline...

State & Living Wage Battles
Minnesota's minimum wage rises to $9 per hour Saturday  Star Tribune  ...Minnesota will vault past Illinois, Michigan and South Dakota this week to gain the highest minimum wage in the Midwestern region at $9 an hour, which also will rank among the most-generous state wage floors in the country. The $1-per-hour bump takes effect Saturday for some 288,000 of Minnesota’s lowest-paid workers...
Repealing prevailing wage law would create work force shortage, says Saginaw's Herb Spence  MLive  ...At least one Saginaw business owner is not happy about the prospect that Michigan's prevailing wage law could be repealed. Those pushing for a repeal of the law, which mandates union-scale wages on state-funded construction projects, argue eliminating the prevailing wage would provide significant savings. Herb Spence III, the owner of Spence Brothers, said he thinks removing the law would hurt Michigan's construction industry and the state's economy in general...
Florida bill would more than double minimum wage to $15  Bay News 9  ...Florida Democrats have filed legislation to more than double the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour, an eye-popping figure they hope will spark an outpouring of activism aimed at pressuring the Republican-controlled Legislature to act. The legislation, SB 6, is sponsored by Sen. Dwight Bullard (D-Miami), who for years has tried unsuccessfully to raise Florida's minimum wage of $8.05...
Legal maneuvers continue in redistricting cases  News 4 Jax  ...As a Leon County judge finalized the dates for a hearing on a third draft of Florida's congressional districts, a key lawmaker Monday refused to rule out the possibility of continuing the legal fight over the map, this time in federal court. Meanwhile, attorneys for the Legislature and critics of the 2012 redistricting process declined to discuss whether settlement talks were underway in a separate case dealing with a state Senate map that opponents also say was tainted by political considerations...
Hedge funds tell Puerto Rico: lay off teachers and close schools to pay us back  The Guardian  ...Billionaire hedge fund managers have called on Puerto Rico to lay off teachers and close schools so that the island can pay them back the billions it owes. The hedge funds called for Puerto Rico to avoid financial default – and repay its debts – by collecting more taxes, selling $4bn worth of public buildings and drastically cutting public spending, particularly on education. The group of 34 hedge funds hired former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists to come up with a solution to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis...

U.S. Labor
Down to the wire: Verizon strike looms Aug. 1  CBS  ...With a contract deadline of midnight August 1, Verizon (VZ) and representatives of its 39,000-member union work force have four business days to reach a deal and avert a strike, which would hit consumers from Massachusetts to Virginia. The bargaining units involved serve the telecom provider's legacy landline and FiOS Internet and cable operations. Back in 2011, the same bargaining units went on a strike that lasted for two weeks...
Steelworkers, Asarco file NLRB charges  Arizona Daily Star  ...Unions representing workers at Tucson-based copper producer Asarco LLC have filed charges of unfair labor practices against the company with the National Labor Relations Board, as they continue working without a contract. The company in turn has filed NLRB charges against the unions, according to a member update posted on the website of the United Steelworkers, the lead union in the negotiations...
500 Lehigh Valley Verizon workers ready to strike  Morning Call   ... At least 500 Verizon union workers in the Lehigh Valley and Berks County could strike this weekend if a new labor deal is not reached. Ed Mooney, international vice president for Communications Workers of America District 2-13 in Philadelphia, said Monday the affected workers are technicians and customer-support employees in Verizon's wireline unit, which provides traditional phone services to homes and businesses, as well as high-speed FiOS Internet and television...
Zero Waste Remains a Dirty Business  The Nation  ...In an age of global warming, two global capitals, Los Angeles and New York, are going “zero waste.” Following a nationwide trend, the cities have launched new plans to aggressively reform their waste-management and recycling systems to nearly eliminate dumping in landfills. A policy analysis by the advocacy group LAANE and its associated national coalition Partnership for Working Families, lays out a “blueprint” for zero waste in cities. But according to LAANE, many municipal governments are modernizing their waste systems using regressive labor standards...
USW: Concessions at heart of U.S. Steel contract offer  Chicago Tribune  ...The United Steelworkers union said the concessions U.S. Steel has asked for would erode decades of contractual improvements and benefits. United Steelworkers said it has received an outline of an initial new contract proposal from U.S. Steel that includes dozens of demands for concessions. The union said the concessions would erode decades of contractual improvements and benefits won for members and their families...
AFSCME raises concerns about National Guard use  Herald & Review  ...A former top commander of the Illinois National Guard voiced concern Monday about a possible plan to use soldiers to help operate state government if there is a labor strike. State Rep. David Harris, an Arlington Heights Republican who served as adjutant general from 1999 to 2003, said he would advise Gov. Bruce Rauner against such a move...
Defending Backpage, Sex Workers Say Removing Online Ads Does Them More Harm  Truthout  ...Sex workers across the country have rallied in defense of the website, taking to social media and launching petitions to demand that Healey stop her "attack" on the website, and that Visa and MasterCard reinstate their credit services. Advocates argue that cutting web services like Backpage will not stop trafficking. In fact, it has the opposite effect of driving sex workers who can't afford more expensive web services out into the streets and sometimes, into the hands of traffickers...
Univ. of California Academic Workers’ Union Calls on AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Union’s Membership  In These Times  ...United Auto Workers Local 2865, the union representing 13,000 teaching assistants and other student workers throughout the University of California, called on the AFL-CIO to end its affiliation with the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA). The resolution came in the wake of a letter written by the UAW’s Black Interests Coordinating Committee (BICC). The group formed in December 2014 in response to the acquittals of police officers in the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner...

Social Justice & Other News
Immigrants' attorneys say they were 'locked out' of detention centers after raising concerns  LA Times  ...Pro bono attorneys working at the country’s two largest immigrant family detention centers in Texas said Monday that they have been "locked out" after they raised concerns last week that officials were forcing the immigrant mothers they represent to sign legal papers without consulting them. The complaint comes as the Congressional Progressive Caucus and members of the House Judiciary Committee are preparing to hold a forum on family detention...
The Majority Of GOP Voters Want Mass Deportation, But It’ll Cost Them  Think Progress  ...Sixty-three percent of Republican voters would support deporting the population of 11 million undocumented immigrants, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The center-right organization American Action Forum (AAF) found that it would cost between $400 billion and $600 billion to apprehend, detain, legally process, and transport every undocumented immigrant back to their countries of origin. A a Center of American Progress report found that it would cost an average of about $10,070 to deport each individual...
Between the World and Me: Black American Motherhood  (opinion) The Atlantic  ...There was a time when some of us believed our daughters were safe. “At least you have girls,” a white colleague said to me after Trayvon Martin was murdered. Her flippant comment ignited a rage mingled with guilt and shame I felt at having soothed myself with the same thought. This was before Renisha McBride, Sandra Bland, before all of the videos, before the writers, witnesses, and recorders in this Age of Ferguson, as I like to call it, left us no place to hide...
Sandra Bland Laid to Rest; First Black Judge in Waller County Demands Sheriff Resign over Her Death  Democracy Now  ...Hundreds gathered Saturday to remember Sandra Bland at the suburban Chicago church she attended for decades before moving to Waller County, Texas, where she was set to begin a new job but was then discovered dead in her jail cell after a traffic stop escalated into an arrest. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Congressman Bill Foster have sent letters to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch calling for a federal investigation into Bland’s death...
For-Profit Prison Accused of Subjecting Juveniles to 'Disgraceful' Conditions  Common Dreams  ...A for-profit British private security firm whose human rights abuses have been documented around the world, from Israel to South Africa to the United Kingdom, stands accused by a grand jury of operating a horrific juvenile detention center in Florida where conditions are so poor, and hygiene so bad, that the prison "should cease to exist." The firm G4S operates the Highlands Youth Academy in Avon Park, Florida, where young men and boys from 16 to 19 years old are incarcerated. A riot at the prison two years ago prompted the investigation...

Human rights before huge profits from TPP

Putting people before the powerful. It's a statement the Teamsters firmly believe in, and one that U.S. democracy supports by having a one-person, one-vote system in place. But a report released today by the State Department raises some concerns about whether American policy is following the same path.

Workers shouldn't have to pay for TPP corporate profits.

As part of the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) document, the U.S. upgraded the standing of Malaysia despite concerns raised by human rights activists here and abroad about the nation's forced labor practices. Its new ranking would allow it to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is currently being discussed in Hawaii.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said the welfare of workers must be considered before any trade agreement:

While negotiators are trying to finish up discussions on the TPP this week, America should not lose focus on what is truly important. Malaysia must come into compliance with international labor standards that ban forced labor before it is allowed to participate in this Pacific Rim trade agreement. Our standing in the world demands the U.S. to take such a position for those being exploited around the world.

This is just the latest, of course, in a litany of potential problems involving the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal. This agreement will ship thousands of jobs overseas, weaken labor standards (as the Malaysia action shows), and allow unsafe food and products to flood American shores. It will also balloon the U.S. trade deficit by doing nothing to curtail currency manipulation by other countries, which will lower the price of imported goods into the U.S. while raising the price of products we export.

There are many hurdles that still need to be worked out as part of TPP. Nations have a litany of concerns, as Politico points out, that trade leaders need to solve going forward:

Canada wants to protect its dairy and poultry producers and Japan, its rice farmers. American drug companies want other countries to adopt strong U.S. protections on a blockbuster new class of medicines called biologics, and U.S. automakers oppose giving Japan more market access. Canada and Malaysia are particular concerns because of difficult domestic politics that could make it more difficult for them to close in Maui, even if other countries are ready.

At the end of the day, the Teamsters' concerns about Malaysia and trade are the same -- people need to count more than corporations. Elected officials need to remember that too.

Today's Teamster News 07.27.15

Teamsters
Allentown Healthcare Workers Vote For Teamster Representation  Teamster.org   ...A majority of janitorial workers working for Crothall Healthcare at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Penn., have recently voted to be represented by Teamsters Local 773. There are 233 total employees in the group which consists of staff members assigned in the cleaning crews, room preparation and as floor technicians...
Chicago Teamsters at Translogix Ratify New Three-Year Contract  Joint Council 25  ...Approximately 180 members of Teamsters Local 710 ratified a new three-year contract with Translogix by a two-to-one margin on June 10. Teamsters who work out of two Chicago facilities will receive either a pay raise or yearly bonus — respective to their location — as part of the new contract. In addition, language regarding pushback scheduling has been improved...

Global Labor & Trade
Despite criticism from Congress, Malaysia, Cuba taken off US human trafficking blacklist  US News & World Report  ...The State Department has taken Malaysia and Cuba off its blacklist of countries failing to combat modern-day slavery. That could leave the U.S. open to criticism that politics is swaying the often-contentious rankings in its annual human trafficking report. Critics contend that Malaysia's upgrade is related to its participation in a U.S.-backed trade agreement among Pacific Rim countries...
Rice, milk and cars among the stumbling blocks in historic trade pact  Politico  ...The Obama administration is closer than ever on a breakthrough on the biggest trade deal in world history. But years of delicate negotiating could be undone by Canadian milk. Or Japanese rice. Or U.S. pharmaceutical patents. Top trade officials from 12 countries scattered around the Asia-Pacific region descended on the island of Maui on Friday for a week of meetings...
The Trans-Pacific Partnership issues in-depth  Politico  ...There are hundreds if not thousands of issues to resolve within the nearly 30 chapters of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, which would cover more than 40 percent of world economic output. A complicated four-way dance is going on in the dairy negotiations, and right now everyone is waiting for Canada to make its move. U.S. dairy producers were opposed to the agreement when it only included New Zealand...
Corporate lobbying expense jumps as U.S. trade debate rages  Reuters  ...Washington lobbying by companies and groups involved in global trade boomed in the past nine months, records show, as Congress debated a landmark trade pact proposed by President Barack Obama, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Lobbying expenditures by members of a pro-TPP coalition increased to $135 million in the second quarter of 2015, up from $126 million in the first quarter and $118 million in the fourth quarter of 2014...
TPP enters final negotiations  NZ Herald  ...A controversial trade deal between New Zealand and other Pacific Rim countries including the United States enters final negotiations this week. Prime Minister John Key said there would be "give and take" in the final negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), but he remained confident in the deal...
Wyden: Canada must open door to dairy for trade deal  KTVZ  ...Canada must agree to significantly expand market access for dairy products from the United States in any Trans Pacific Partnership deal, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wrote to Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer on Friday. Wyden and Hatch said their support for a final TPP agreement that includes Canada is contingent on Canada’s ability to meet TPP’s high standards...
TPP meeting 'will reveal changes to dairy markets'  Radio NZ  ...New Zealand's special agricultural trade envoy is expecting a crucial meeting on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) this week will reveal how far key countries will go to open up their protected dairy markets. Mike Petersen is on his way to Hawaii for ministerial talks on the Pacific-wide trade pact. Trade Minister Tim Groser is still waiting for a further offer on opening up the dairy markets of Japan, Canada and the United States...
Peru: Construction Union Leaders Murdered  Solidarity Center  ...One construction union leader was killed and another injured as the men left a union organizing meeting in Casma, Peru, this week. Miguel Cotelo Villanueva, a member of the Federación de Trabajadores en Construcción Civil de Perú (Federation of Civil Construction Workers of Peru, FTCCP)­­, Peru’s largest construction union, is the most recent of 14 construction union leaders murdered in the past five years. Victor Rodas, another FTCCP union leader, was murdered on July 10 in similar circumstances...
Greek Austerity and Its Resemblance to African Debt Peonage  Global Research   ...The current situation in Greece resembles the debt peonage that many African countries have been subjected to for decades. They suffered the consequences of the so-called structural adjustment under the supervision of the international finance institutions and the result was economic and social devastation. In the post-Independence Zimbabwe, for example, the Mugabe government abandoned its ‘growth with equity’ strategy and went for the economic model designed by the World Bank and the IMF...

State & Living Wage Battles
Push for $15 minimum wage gathers steam  Dallas Morning News  ...The federal minimum wage has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009, but labor unions and anti-poverty advocates are pushing a rate more than twice that amount as the new standard needed to afford hourly earners a decent living. The movement to make $15-per-hour the mandatory minimum over the next several years has seen success in a number of cities and is starting to spill over to statehouses and public universities...
Prevailing wage debate continues among WV officials  State Journal  ...Republican lawmakers said their intention with the 2015 legislation was not to eliminate the wage, but to come up with a better way of determining it. As a result of Senate Bill 361, WorkForce West Virginia, a division of the state Department of Commerce tasked with making sure West Virginians can be put to work, was asked by the West Virginia Legislature to come up with what the prevailing hourly wage for public improvement projects should be...
Dunkin' Donuts CEO Who Earns $10 Million Claims to Be Outraged by $15 Minimum Wage  Alternet  ...This week, the New York Wage Board recommended that the state's fast food workers should make $15 per hour, which has been the rallying cry for the labor movement across the country. Dunkin Donuts CEO Nigel Travis – who previously held senior positions at Papa John's and Burger King, other low-wage employers – appeared on CNN and decried the $15 minimum wage as “absolutely outrageous.” He went on to claim that the move will prevent his company from hiring more people...
Is There A Subliminal Message In Walmart’s Minimum Wage TV Ad?  Buzzfeed  ...It has been a good week for the Fight for 15, the national movement to raise pay for low wage workers to $15 an hour. From New York to California and D.C., cities and public institutions have moved closer to pay hikes that center around the number, more than twice the current federal minimum. Today, a union-backed campaign is calling for a Federal Trade Commission investigation into a Walmart commercial it claims is “unfairly implying that workers are paid enough to support themselves and their families”...
Uber Wins a Battle With New York, Now It’s War  The Nation  ...When New York Mayor Bill De Blasio talked of a Tale of Two Cities on the campaign trail, promising to address an epidemic of social inequality, he probably wasn’t expecting a viral app to drive a multibillion-dollar wedge through Gotham’s fault-lines of race and class. But now De Blasio and city lawmakers have been blindsided by Uber’s corporate surge, forced to stall an attempt to cap the company’s expansion...

U.S. Labor
Verizon Communications (VZ) Workers Vote To Strike Amid Tense Contract Talks  International Business Times   ...Many of the almost 40,000 workers at Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireline unit voted to strike amid negotiations over a new labor agreement. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union announced the results of the vote -- 86 percent of the workers who cast ballots approved the strike -- during a rally in New York Saturday. The move does not necessarily mean workers will go on strike...
Mitsubishi, UAW partnering to ID buyer for plant  Pantagraph  ...Workers returned to the Mitsubishi auto plant on Monday with both the company and the United Auto Workers pledging to "work collaboratively to identify a suitable buyer to assume operations of the facility." In a statement, the company repeated that production at the Normal plant will stop at the end of November...
USW takes aim at new contract proposals  Chicago Tribune  ...United Steelworkers said Friday it has received more proposals from ArcelorMittal seeking additional concessions from its workers as the two sides continued to meet to hammer out a new three-year contract. The union said the new proposals came as its committee was still working on a response to the steel giant's initial proposal made earlier this week...
The New American Slavery: Invited to the U.S., Foreign Workers Find A Nightmare  Buzzfeed   ...The H-2 visa program invites foreign workers to do some of the most menial labor in America. Then it leaves them at the mercy of their employers. Thousands of these workers have been abused — deprived of their fair pay, imprisoned, starved, beaten, raped, and threatened with deportation if they dare complain. And the government says it can do little to help...
Did ICE Violate Its Own Deportation Guidelines in Arresting Chicago-Area Unionized Meatpackers?  In These Times  ...On Friday, June 26, workers from the Ruprecht Company’s meatpacking factory in Mundelein, Illinois, walked off the job in a spontaneous strike against a pending immigration audit. Several weeks later, eight Ruprecht workers, three of whom are members of UNITE HERE Local 1, have been apprehended by immigration authorities. In a statement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the eight workers were picked up after the department discovered the workers had records that fall within its priorities for arrest during a routine immigration audit...
D.C. Circuit Backs NLRB on Hospital Discipline Cases  Bloomberg  ...The National Labor Relations Board properly held that a Virginia hospital violated federal labor law when it discharged, disciplined or failed to promote three nurses because they engaged in protected concerted activity, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held July 24. The court also approved the board's decision that a second nurse was given a final written warning for protesting INOVA's treatment of Miller and a third nurse was denied a promotion, both in violation of the National Labor Relations Act...
Why Women Shouldn’t Have to Act Like Dudes at Work  The Atlantic  ...When it comes to gender equality in the workplace, the research on its economic benefits is clear: Equality can boost profits and enhance reputation. But the progress of women in the workplace is so far inadequate: Women are woefully underrepresented in executive positions, the pay gap persists, and the motherhood penalty is very real...

Social Justice & Other News
Body Cams Are The Next Step In The Over-Policing Of Schools  Think Progress  ...Burlington Community School District in Burlington, Iowa may be the first school district in the nation to ensure that all of its 13 administrators, principals and associate principals, wear body cameras. Administrators have compared the need for body cameras in schools to the need for body cameras on police officers. But as with police officers, the argument against body cameras for administrators is that the administrators still hold the power since they hold the camera...
Vowing to #SayHerName and More, Hundreds Gather to Honor Life and Death of Sandra Bland  Common Dreams  ...Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Sandra Bland on Saturday at the DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lisle, Illinois outside of Chicago to commemorate the woman whose untimely death in Texas jail cell on July 13 has further galvanized a national call demanding something be done about the extreme levels of police violence and the pervasive mistreatment of black women, men, and other minorities across the country...
Paul Krugman: The GOP has never “abandoned its dream” of destroying the social safety net  Salon  ...In his Monday column at the New York Times, economist Paul Krugman went after GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush for claiming that Medicare ought to be “phased out,” claiming that such talk is emblematic an ideologically motivated desire on the part of the Republican Party to destroy the social safety net — especially if there’s evidence that it’s working...
“Collective Healing” at Nat’l Black Lives Matter Convergence Ends with Police Pepper-Spraying Teen  Democracy Now  ...More than a thousand Black Lives Matter supporters converged in Cleveland, Ohio, this weekend for a historic conference to raise national attention about police brutality and other pressing issues, including immigration rights, economic justice and LGBTQ rights. During the opening ceremony, family members of more than 20 African Americans killed by police took to the stage to speak about why they continue to fight for justice...
Taking a road trip this summer? Enjoy America's crumbling infrastructure  The Guardian  ...The US’s once gleaming interstate highway system is in crisis. The federal program that funds maintenance and improvements – the Highway Trust Fund – is set to expire on 31 July. Congress passed a five-week funding “patch” to extend the deadline, one of 34 it has passed in the last nine years. But if lawmakers don’t settle upon a more permanent solution, the US Department of Transportation says the fund will become insolvent before year’s end...
The disingenuous ways Uber hides behind its algorithm  Slate  ...In June, the California Labor Commission ruled in favor of classifying Uber driver Barbara Ann Berwick as an employee and not as an independent contractor. But the battle over ride-hailing apps continues to rage as companies, governments, activists, and incumbent businesses all seek to shape how a new generation of companies will be regulated. A class-action suit with potentially even bigger implications continues to wind its way through the federal courts, with Uber resisting every step of the way...
Judge rules U.S. government should not hold immigrant children  Reuters  ...The U.S. government is violating a 1997 settlement by detaining unauthorized immigrant children, and an order may be forthcoming to require the release of the minors and parents detained with them, a judge in California has ruled. The ruling on Friday by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee follows an influx across the U.S.-Mexico border of immigrants from Central America...
Aging Infrastructure Plagues Nation’s Busiest Rail Corridor  New York Times  ...In Maryland, a century-old rail tunnel needed emergency repairs this winter because of soil erosion from leaks, causing widespread train delays. In Connecticut, an aging swing bridge failed to close twice last summer, stopping train service and stranding passengers. And last week, New Jersey Transit riders had a truly torturous experience. There were major delays on four days because of problems with overhead electrical wires and a power substation, leaving thousands of commuters stalled for hours...

Today's Teamster News 07.14.15

Teamsters
McKesson Executive Compensation Under Fire, Again  Teamster.org  ...The country’s leading proxy voting advisor, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), recommends that McKesson shareholders vote for Item #7 on the company’s ballot -- a  Teamster-sponsored shareholder proposal to address the automatic accelerated vesting of equity awards for top executives in the event of a change of control...
Teamsters Union Files Lawsuit Against Republic Airways Calling On Fair Contracts  AvStop.com  ...Teamsters Local 357 in Plainfield, Ind., filed a lawsuit against Republic Airways for unilaterally changing pilots’ working conditions regarding “open time” flying without first agreeing with the union about those changes. More than 2,200 Republic pilots are members of Local 357 and have been seeking a fair contract from the company since 2007...

Global Labor & Trade
Obama Urged To Toss Canada Out Of TPP Trade Talks Over Dairy Supply Management  Huffington Post  ...U.S. politicians are pressuring the Obama administration to leave Canada out of a major and controversial trade deal, if Canada doesn't agree to deregulate its dairy and poultry industries and open them up to foreign competition. Reuters news service cites “two sources” close to the issue as saying the U.S. may go forward with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without Canada...
New trade fight brews for Obama, Dems  The Hill  ...A new trade fight is brewing between the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress. Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) and other Democrats opposed to President Obama’s trade agenda are worried the State Department will upgrade Malaysia’s ranking in a human trafficking report to be released this week to ensure the country can be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal...
Canada Trade Minister Says Supply Management Won’t Kill TPP Deal  Bloomberg  ...“I am confident that at the end of the day Canada will be part of the TPP,” Fast said. “We have some market access issues left to resolve. They’re always the toughest ones that remain to the end. This is no different than any other negotiation.” Fast will join other negotiators and ministers in Hawaii later this month as TPP talks reach the final stage. The 12 countries involved are entering “the end-game in these negotiations”...
US lawmakers, activists alarmed at upgrade in Malaysia’s human trafficking rating  Malaysia Insider  ...The New York Times (NYT) newspaper and Huffington Post website reported that US Senator Robert Menendez will call for an investigation if the US government upgrades Malaysia’s rating. A Reuters report on July 8 quoted sources as saying that the US government was upgrading Malaysia’s status, thus paving the way for it to sign on to the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)...
Has US desire for Asia trade deal trumped slavery with Malaysia's ranking?  Christian Science Monitor  ...President Obama says he wants the United States at the forefront of efforts to end the global scourge of slavery and human trafficking. But at the same time, Mr. Obama is keen to advance international trade and America’s leadership role in the global trading system – particularly by concluding as early as this year a vast free-trade agreement with Asian-Pacific countries known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Premier of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, Accepts Creditors’ Austerity Deal  New York Times  ...Forced by his nation’s creditors into broad new concessions to avert financial collapse, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece returned home on Monday with just days to sell the deal to fractured lawmakers and a dazed electorate. The agreement he struck with other European leaders early Monday after a contentious all-night bargaining session would give Greece the chance to receive its third international bailout...
Greek Debt Crisis: European Ministers Want Greece To Limit Ability Of Workers To Strike  International Business Times   ...For Greek workers, it’s a painful cornerstone of the first two bailouts: Labor market reform. Now it’s part of a third rescue package, according to the most recent last-ditch agreement to keep Greece in the eurozone. The text released by European leaders on Monday is vague, but it suggests the following: Greece will keep in place existing restrictions on workers’ bargaining rights that creditors have successfully demanded in the past...
#ThisIsACoup: Greeks Denounce Bailout Deal That Calls for New Round of Austerity  Democracy Now  ...Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is facing protests from members of his own Syriza party after accepting harsh austerity measures in exchange for a new international bailout. In order for the deal to move forward, the Greek Parliament must accept pension cuts and other reforms by Wednesday, 10 days after voters rejected similar reforms in a referendum...
Osun Workers End Strike as Govt Commences Payment of Salaries  This Day Live  ...Osun State workers monday ended their six weeks strike after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the state government to put an end to the industrial crisis in the state. Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),  Joint Public Service Negotiating Councils (JPSNC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state have dissociated the unions from the protests embarked upon by a ‘group of people’ in the state which the group claimed was over unpaid salaries...

State & Living Wage Battles
The Austerity Candidate? Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Launches Presidential Bid on Anti-Union Record  Democracy Now  ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has become the 15th Republican candidate to formally announce he’s running for president. On Monday, Walker launched his campaign by touting his successful efforts to eviscerate public employee unions in his home state and later defeat a recall effort against him. He also extolled his record reducing taxes, cutting the size of the federal government and passing voter restrictions...
Wisconsin’s Construction Industry Is In For A Rough Ride — And So Are Its Taxpayers  Think Progress  ...About 24 hours before announcing his official White House candidacy, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) made life a lot harder for people who sweat for a living. “We may end up having to lay some people off,” Chris Martinez, owner of Dairyland Energy Solutions in Butler, WI, told ThinkProgress. Martinez was referring to Walker’s repeal of the state’s 80-year-old prevailing wage law...
Scott Walker Campaigns Against Unions, Wages, and Weekends  The Nation  ...Scott Walker has gone Bush one better. The governor of Wisconsin and Bush rival for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination just codified the concept. The state budget that Walker signed on Sunday as Wisconsin’s governor includes a provision that eliminates a historic guarantee that factory and retail employees “must get at least 24 consecutive hours of rest for every seven-day stretch” of work...
Missouri 'Right to Work' legislation hopes to gain supporters  Heartland Connection  ...Missouri lawmakers may be on summer break, but that hasn't stopped one grassroots organization from traveling around the state and educating citizens on 'Right to Work' legislation. That legislation would have allowed workers who choose not to join a labor union to avoid paying the equivalent of dues...
Paid sick days would be mandatory under ballot initiative  MLive  ...Michiganders soon may be asked to sign for sick days as a new group pushes for all workers to have access to that benefit. The Time to Care Coalition will lead a legislative ballot initiative and plans to collect more than 300,000 signatures. The group's proposal would allow workers to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked...
Oklahoma GOP Makes Case Against Food Stamps: ‘Don’t Feed The Animals’  Think Progress  ...The Oklahoma Republican Party is making the case against food stamps by comparing poor people to animals, reviving a stereotype that’s often deployed against Americans who rely on government benefits to feed their families. In a Facebook post published Monday night, the Oklahoma GOP suggested that the millions of Americans receiving food stamps this year should not be enrolled in the program because “the animals will grow dependent"...
States Battle Cities Over Minimum Wage  Huffington Post  ...Kansas City is caught in the middle of a national fight that pits labor against business and increasingly, cities against states. As city after city has voted to give low-wage workers a raise in recent years, state after state has passed laws limiting local governments’ power to do so...
Scott Walker calls minimum wage one of many ‘lame idea’ from Democrats  Washington Post  ...Scott Walker appeared to take aim at the national minimum wage on Monday evening, referring to it as one of many "lame ideas" pushed by Democrats. Walker's comment came in a lengthy interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity immediately following a speech formally announcing his entrance into the 2016 presidential race...
Protests greet start of voter ID trial in Winston-Salem  WNCN  ...The outcome of a trial that began Monday could have a major impact on voting rights in North Carolina, and the start of the trial drew a large protest in Winston-Salem. The issue is whether voting law changes approved by the Republican-led General Assembly weakens the ability of minor voters to influence elections. That question is now being debated before a federal judge...
If This Amendment Passes, Several States Would Lose Millions in Federal Education Funding  Think Progress  ...Today the U.S. Senate will convene to debate amendments to the bipartisan No Child Left Behind rewrite. The House passed its rewrite to No Child Left Behind, or the Student Success Act, last week in a 218 to 213 vote. Democrats and civil rights groups opposed it, arguing that the bill would hurt low-income students, disabled students and students of color. The president has threatened to veto it...

U.S. Labor
Congress Is Debating Whether or Not To Make It Easier for Bosses to Cheat Guestworkers  In These Times  ...In June, In These Times reported that industry groups have filed a lawsuit against new government-issued worker protections for H-2B guestworkers. That’s not their only strategy, however: new proposed riders on a Senate appropriations bill could block some of the new protections—and some old ones—no matter the outcome of the lawsuit. Many employers were outraged when the Obama administration passed new rules regulating the H-2B visa program...
Facing 'Retirement Crisis,' Sanders Leads Charge for Social Security Expansion  Common Dreams  ...On the eve of a once-in-a-decade White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA)—and in the face of what they describe as the "impending retirement savings crisis facing this nation"—a group of 70 Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) on Sunday called on President Barack Obama to expand Social Security benefits...
Richard Trumka on Gov. Scott Walker’s Presidential Run: “Walker is a national disgrace”  In These Times  ...“Scott Walker is a national disgrace,” says Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the United States’ largest union alliance, in response to Governor Scott Walker’s announcement of his presidential ambitions. His statement, composed of only six words, was released shortly before Walker’s announcement. Trumka’s expression of disgust should come as no surprise to those familiar with Walker’s union-busting policies...
UAW president: Contract talks with GM will not be easy  USA Today  ...Top officials from the UAW and General Motors were all smiles Monday as they kicked off contract talks and promised to work together even as sharp differences percolate just beneath the surface. This year, the union wants to win wage increases for autoworkers after years of rising sales and profits among U.S. automakers while the manufacturers will want to hold down labor costs...
KapStone millworkers to vote on 'unfair labor practice strike'  TDN.com  ...KapStone’s millworkers will be back to the polls this week to decide whether to go on an unfair labor practice strike, even as company and union officials continue federal mediation. Union members overwhelming approved of a measure in December that lends their bargaining board the power to call a strike if necessary. It’s been a month since Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 153 provided the company with a 10-day strike notice...
Council approves 3-year pact with AFSCME   Coshocton Tribune  ...City Council has unanimously approved a new three-year contract with non-uniformed workers that matches the 2.5 percent annual raises granted firefighters last month. Mayor Steve Mercer said the new pact with Local 2551 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will take effect Aug. 1. The current contract expires July 31...
Food Cart Vendors Are Getting Kicked to the Curb  The Nation  ...One of the strongest pillars of Los Angeles’s retail landscape isn’t a mom-and-pop storefront or a strip mall; in fact, it doesn’t even have a fixed address. The city is peppered with about 50,000 mobile food vendors, Old World startups on wheels, catering to high- and low-brow tastes ranging from grandma’s tamales to fresh tropical fruits to rolling shaved ice pops. But this vital layer of the urban foodie firmament has long operated essentially outside the law. And now controversy is swirling over a proposal to provide a formal permitting scheme to legalize their “microbusinesses”...

Miscellaneous
Wall Street’s sinister disappearing act: How it still endangers America — while Washington looks the other way  Salon  ...A common denominator bridges this gaping partisan chasm: Both sides ignore the role of Wall Street as a driver of inequality. In one sense, this is curious. If there is one group that is consistently among the least trusted and most disliked, it is the banks. Linking the core economic issue, inequality, to Wall Street makes for obvious populist appeal...
Hillary Clinton Lays Out Unexpectedly Tough Agenda On Wall Street  Think Progress  ...In the first major economic policy speech of her campaign, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton outlined her plan to crack down on major financial institutions and other players on Wall Street that have benefited from rising corporate profits while the middle class lags behind. “Over the course of this campaign, I will offer plans to reign in excessive risks on Wall Street and ensure that stock markets work for everyday investors, not just high-frequency traders or those with the best or fastest connections"...
Migrant Mothers and Children Being Freed From Detention  Truthout  ...Federal officials have begun releasing hundreds of detained mothers and children from the nation's family detention centers as part of plans to end long-term detention of migrant families. Nearly two hundred detained parents and children were released over the weekend, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials...
Opening Historic 'Possibility of Peace,' World Powers Clinch Iran Deal  Common Dreams  ...Following years of arduous negotiations, and decades of hostile relations, Iran and world powers on Tuesday announced a nuclear agreement that proponents say provides a historic opening for military deescalation, relief from devastating sanctions, and ultimately, peace. "This deal is a huge victory for diplomacy over war," Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies...