Today's Teamster News 12.17.15

TEAMSTERS
NC Legislators, Community Turn Up Heat on Miller/Coors  Teamster.org  ...Hundreds of community members joined Teamsters and state legislators at a rally yesterday to protest Miller/Coors plan to close their Eden, NC, facility. "Our rally yesterday brought state legislators and community members together with our members and retirees to show support for the workers here at the Miller/Coors facility," said Vernon Gammon, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 391...
Seattle Teamsters local to organize Uber, Lyft drivers after city council vote  People's World  ... Teamsters Local 117 in Seattle will step up its efforts to unionize Uber and Lyft drivers - who are already working with it on an organizing campaign - after the city council's unanimous vote to give those drivers workers' rights. The ordinance, passed 8-0 on Dec. 14, says the drivers, whom the ride-sharing services call "independent contractors" are, in Seattle, have the right to organize...
Lockport Town Board ratifies agreements with Teamsters, CSEA  Buffalo News  ...The Town Board on Wednesday ratified a seven-year contract with the Teamsters union, as well as a health insurance agreement with the Civil Service Employees Association. The deal with the 18 Teamsters members is retroactive to the start of 2014 and offers annual raises of 2 to 2.5 percent, depending on a worker’s job title and position on the pay scale...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Spain's rail workers to stage 23-hour strike on Friday  The Local  ...People making their way home for Christmas on Friday could be facing serious delays as workers stage an all-day strike to protest privitization plans. The strike, called by the CGT union, will take place from midnight to 11pm on Friday, December 18th, assuring a day of travel chaos for people heading home for Christmas...
Bangladesh tea workers strike against land acquisition  USA News  ...For the fourth consecutive day, about 15,000 Bangladeshi tea workers have continued an indefinite strike against a government plan to acquire hundreds of hectares of land that would adversely affect their lives and livelihood. Workers and family members from four tea estates in Habiganj district of northeastern Sylhet division are demanding the government scrap plans for a special 207-hectare economic zone...
Canada taking its time to ratify TPP deal  Globe and Mail  ...Canada is set to hold back on ratifying a key Asia-Pacific trade treaty, a move that would assuage critics but might hamper Washington’s bid to build domestic support for the deal, according to sources close to the talks. Canada is one of 12 countries that initialled the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in early October, agreeing in principle to create a trade zone covering 40 per cent of the world’s economy...
The GOP’s Growing Rift on Trade  National Journal  ...The Republican Party has split anew on one of its core tenets—free trade—and the question is how long the war will last. While the GOP has largely supported free trade for over three decades, its top-tier presidential candidates are split on the recently-struck Pacific trade accord, the most significant in a generation. And Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, has been labeled by The Wall Street Journal as potentially the most protectionist nominee since Herbert Hoover...
And Just Like That, "Free Trade" Pact Trounces US Law  Common Dreams   ...Claims that trade pacts like the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will not trump public health and environmental policies were revealed to be fiction on Tuesday after Congress, bending to the will of the World Trade Organization, killed the popular country-of-origin label (COOL) law...
Trade deal will lock in high drug prices, hurt seniors  (opinion) The Hill  ... If implemented, TPP will maintain high drug prices for America’s seniors and undermine the sustainability of public health programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The TPP would enact unprecedented protections for Big Pharma. It would lock in patent exclusivity for biologics - specialty drugs used to treat diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis...
Saginaw County Board calls on Congress to oppose Trans-Pacific Partnership  MLive  ...Saginaw County's elected officials are asking members of the U.S. Congress to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement involving 12 Pacific Rim countries including the United States. The county's Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Dec. 15, approved a resolution in opposition of the deal "and any similar trade deals if they fail to restructure the misguided and failed policies of the past"...
Does Lexmark Strike Signal New Labor Rights Movement in Mexico?  Common Dreams  ...Support is growing for over a hundred workers who were fired en masse after asking for pay raises and organizing rights at a Juarez plant operated by U.S.-based Fortune 500 company Lexmark International. Some 700 workers launched a strike last week at their Juarez plant calling for the company to increase pay for long-term employees from 114 to 120 pesos a day—a raise of roughly 35 cents—while others attempted to unionize...
Greece approves new austerity bill changing loan rules  Yahoo  ...Greek lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation granting the right to sell bad business loans from local banks to overseas funds as part of a new austerity bill demanded by bailout lenders from the rest of the eurozone. Labor unions, which oppose the reforms, staged two separate, peaceful protest marches in central Athens late Tuesday...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Owner of Arciuolo’s Shoe Store in Milford touts benefits of offering employees paid sick leave  NH Register  ...Connecticut became one of the first states to pass a Family and Medical Leave Bill, ensuring workers can’t be fired for taking leave, but she said it fails to cover many workers and because it doesn’t require them to be paid, many can’t afford the leave. The new bill establishes a paid family and medical leave compensation program administered by the state’s Labor Department...
New media campaign against House Republicans who opposed "right to work"  STLToday  ...A new ad campaign was unleashed this week targeting 20 Missouri House Republicans who helped defeat a "right-to-work" measure barring companies from requiring union membership or dues. The Committee for Accountable Government in Missouri, funded by more than $1 million in donations from the Joplin-based Humphreys family, announced a series of radio, television, digital and billboard ads...
Business group files suit challenging minimum wage initiative  Review-Journal  ...A coalition of business groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an initiative that seeks to gradually raise Nevada's minimum wage. The suit filed by the Committee to Preserve Nevada Jobs, a coalition of three chambers of commerce, argues the proposed constitutional amendment goes beyond changing the minimum wage and will impose new regulations and penalties harmful to employers...
Hedge Funds Deepen Puerto Rico's Debt, Ravaging Island and Impoverishing People  Alternet  ...“This is a distress call from a ship of 3.5 million American citizens that have been lost at sea,” Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla said on December 1, begging the Senate Judiciary Committee to help protect his homeland from an unspooling disaster. After issuing bonds for over a decade on everything not nailed down, Puerto Rico now carries $73 billion in debt...
Florida gave about $70 million to charter schools that later closed; state recouped little  Miami Herald  ...Charter schools, which are public schools run by private groups, have received more than $760 million from state taxpayers since 2000 according to an Associated Press analysis of state Department of Education records. Schools can use the money for construction costs, rent payments, buses and even property insurance. Yet charter schools in 30 districts have wound up closing after receiving as much as $70 million...

U.S. LABOR
Kohler employees OK new contract, end 32-day strike  Journal Sentinel  ...Kohler Co. workers overwhelmingly approved a new labor contract Wednesday evening, ending a 32-day strike and returning to their jobs with what they and their leaders said is a significantly better deal. With 91% of the vote, members of United Auto Workers Local 833 ratified a four-year pact that boosts wages, minimizes rising health care costs and improves pension benefits...
SEIU 32BJ Raucous Rally Packs Essex Gym as Union Leader Brown Heads to Negotiations  PolitickerNJ  ...Janitor members of SEIU 32BJ – 7,000 strong, who clean office buildings in more than 500 office buildings around New1216151659a Jersey – tonight voted to strike if they can’t reach an agreement before Dec. 31st. As he heads back into negotiations tomorrow with the New Jersey Contractors Association, 32BJ Vice President and NJ State Director Kevin Brown wants everyone at $15 an hour...
UAW contract vote at Nexteer latest chapter in company's century-old story  MLive  ...As United Auto Workers Local 699 members begin voting on a new labor contract with Nexteer Automotive, it marks the latest chapter for a Saginaw County company that dates back more than a century. UAW members began casting ballots Thursday, Dec. 17, and voting continues through 10 p.m. Friday. They are voting on a new labor contract stretching to 2020...
Sanders wins Communications Workers of America endorsement  CNN  ...The Communications Workers of America will endorse Bernie Sanders in Washington on Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the endorsement. Despite a long record of supporting unions and marching on picket lines, Sanders has struggled to lock down national union endorsements. With 700,000 members, the Communications Workers of America is the largest union to endorse the Vermont senator...
What It’s Like To Fight For A Union When Your Boss Is Donald Trump  Think Progress  ...When the management at the Trump hotel caught wind of the union drive last year, they hired the “union avoidance” consulting firm Lupe Cruz and Associates. That company, which has busted union campaigns at American Apparel, the trucking company Conway, and some Hilton hotels, boasts on its website that it can help clients in “preserving a union free work place”...
U.S. To Increase Worker Protection From Deadly Silica Dust for First Time in More Than 40 Years  In These Times  ...For the first time in 45 years, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is poised to increase safety standards for worker exposure to the silica dust that can cause deadly and incurable lung disease. A rule that would cut in half the amount of silica dust to which most workers could be exposed—and limit levels further for construction and maritime workers—is expected to be finalized in February...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Fed Raises Interest Rates  The Atlantic  ...On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The committee’s two-day meeting concluded with Fed officials voting unanimously in favor of the raise; the target range for the federal funds rate will move from between 0 percent and 0.25 percent to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent. Although this is “lift-off” from near-zero rates, these interest rates are still low by historical standards...
Villainous Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Has Been Arrested for Securities Fraud  Slate  ...Martin Shkreli, the widely loathed young pharma executive known for drastically hiking the price of a life-saving medication used by AIDS and cancer patients earlier this year, was arrested by federal authorities on charges of securities fraud Thursday morning, according to Bloomberg. Shkreli is currently the chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which this Summer purchased the rights to Daraprim...
Hung Jury Results in Declaration of Mistrial in Freddie Gray Case  Common Dreams  ...A judge in Baltimore on Wednesday declared a mistrial after jurors said they could not agree on the guilt or innocence of Baltimore Police Officer William G. Porter, charged on four separate counts related to the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. The jury deliberated the case for three days before coming to the conclusion they were hopelessly deadlocked and would not be able to reach an unanimous verdict...
How Flint, Michigan, Saved Money and Poisoned Its Children: City Declares Water Emergency  Democracy Now  ...The mayor of Flint, Michigan, has declared a state of emergency to address lead poisoning in the city’s water supply. Last year, the city’s unelected emergency manager switched the city’s water source from the Detroit system to the long-polluted Flint River in an attempt to save money...
The Market Has Spoken: Funders Flee "Free-Market" Climate Denial Group  Truthout  ...Funding for climate change denial is drying up. The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a US climate change denial group that espouses the "free-market," has lost more than two thirds of its funding in the past two years, according to tax filings reviewed by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD)...
Observers Slam CNN for Aiding and Abetting Hate Speech in GOP Debate  Common Dreams  ...From calls to ban non-American Muslims to pledges to carpet bomb densely-populated cities, the rise of hateful rhetoric among 2016 presidential candidates—and the real, violent consequences for those communities targeted—has raised widespread concern. But also on display during the fifth GOP debate on "national security" was the role of corporate media outlets such as CNN in stoking racist and dangerous rhetoric...

Today's Teamster News 12.16.15

TEAMSTERS
Flexjet and Flight Options Pilots Vote to Join Teamsters  Teamster.org  ...Pilots at luxury on-demand air travel companies Flexjet and Flight Options voted today to join the Teamsters Union. Following the vote tallied by the National Mediation Board, the 670 pilots in the class will join Teamsters Local 1108, in Richmond Heights, Ohio. On Sept. 30, 2015, the NMB determined that Flexjet and Flight Options are operating as a single transportation system for representation purposes under the Railway Labor Act...
Teamsters Protest Closure of MillerCoors Plant in Eden  TWC News  ...Teamsters from Local 391 rallied Tuesday in support of the more than 500 employees from the MillersCoors plant that will be losing their jobs in the new year. The plant in Eden is set to close in late 2016 because of what company officials say is "logistics." Facilities in Virgina and Florida will take over Eden's responsibilities. Teamsters say there is no reason for the plant to close...
In Memoriam: Ralph Taurone, Teamster Leader  Teamster.org  ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is saddened to announce the passing of Ralph J. Taurone, a beloved member of the Teamster family, on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015. Taurone began his Teamster career in 1964 when he was initiated into Local 282, New York, while employed as a construction driver. In 1965 he moved to Chicago and became a member of Local 710...
Mediation to Resume Tuesday, But Coca-Cola Trashes Retroactivity, Adds Pitiful Health Care Increases in Latest Proposal  Local 727  ...Coca-Cola Refreshments abruptly broke off negotiations on Monday night with Local 727 and asked to resume mediation on Tuesday, December 15. After the union had already told the company it was willing to negotiate into the night, Local 727 agreed to return Tuesday. Coca-Cola wasted another six hours engaging in delay tactics...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
New Zealand Bunnings workers go on strike, union warns Christmas shoppers will be disrupted  Stuff.co.nz  ...As many as 850 Bunnings staff will go on strike on Wednesday afternoon, with more industrial action planned as the dispute continues. Workers from 21 stores, mostly across the North Island, voted to strike for the day after a morning meeting. Staff from a further seven stores will meet on Friday and decide whether to take similar action...
Speaker Ryan: House vote ‘very possible’ in 2016 on Obama’s trade bill  Washington Post  ...Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that it is "very possible" that the House could vote on President Obama's Pacific Rim trade accord next year, providing hope for the administration after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested last week that the pact should be delayed until a new president takes office. Ryan (R-Wis.) did not specify a timetable...
White House says optimistic Congress will back TPP trade pact  Reuters  ...The White House said on Tuesday it was optimistic Congress would back the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact "in timely fashion" and that it will work with Republican congressional leaders to that end. "We continue to be optimistic that this is something that Congress can and should do in a timely fashion," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a White House briefing...
Pena Nieto Pushes Labor Reforms, But Unions Still See Shortcomings  MyInforms  ...Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has newly pledged to carry out labor rights reforms in two areas identified as critical by House Democrats and U.S. labor unions in the context of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) debate, but labor advocates are already questioning the extent to which the promised steps will really represent meaningful change...
8 Terrible Things About the Trans-Pacific Partnership  In These Times  ...Progressive public-interest organizations say that the final text, the fruit of seven years of secretive trade talks between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, dashed even their low expectations. The deal not only continues most of the troubling features of trade agreements since NAFTA but also breaks worrisome new ground. Like most recent international economic agreements, the TPP only glancingly resembles a classic trade deal...
How the GOP Is Diverting Our Attention Away from the TPP  (opinion) Alternet  ...GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump stokes the fire by urging Americans to blame anyone but corporations and corporate honchos like himself. One-percenter Trump and his fellow GOP candidates exhort average Americans to hate and fear Muslims, Syrian refugees, Black Lives Matter activists and undocumented immigrants. Division and diversion help the one percent secure policies like trickle-down economics and job-destroying trade deals...
Hopes of a global trade deal remain low as WTO meets in Nairobi  The Guardian  ...Fourteen years of tortuous global trade talks will end in failure this week unless there is a sudden and unexpected end to the impasse between developed and developing countries that has bedevilled negotiations. Hopes are low of a breakthrough at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting that begins in Nairobi on Tuesday, with the US openly calling for time to be called on the Doha round of talks that began in the Qatari capital in November 2001...
Global Trade Faces Fragmentation Risks From TPP, TTIP, TiSA  Sputnik News  ...The United States and the European Union launched secretive trade and services deregulation talks with other countries, outside the framework of the WTO, as the Doha Development Agenda stalled in 2008 amid disagreement between advanced and developing nations over agriculture, services and tariffs...
Portugal's New Govt Starts Reversing Austerity Measures  ABC  ...Portugal's new anti-austerity government is making good on its promise to put more money in people's pockets, reducing or eliminating for most families a 3.5 percent super tax on monthly pay introduced during the country's financial crisis. Fernando Rocha Andrade, secretary of state for fiscal affairs, said Tuesday the tax will be eliminated next year for households with income below 7,000 euros...
Slave-peeled shrimp tied to major retailers, restaurants  CNBC  ...Poor migrant workers and children are being sold to factories in Thailand and forced to peel shrimp that ends up in global supply chains, including those of Wal-Mart and Red Lobster, the world's largest retailer and the world's largest seafood restaurant chain, an Associated Press investigation found. At the Gig Peeling Factory, nearly 100 Burmese laborers were trapped, most working for almost nothing...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
After LePage’s Anti-Poor Crusade, Maine Could Face Giant Fine Over Food Stamp Gridlock  Think Progress  ...Maine’s efficiency at processing food stamps applications has gotten so bad that the United States Department of Agriculture is warning Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) team to fix things fast or get hit with significant penalties. Maine ranked 36th out of 53 administrative units in processing speed for food stamps back in 2014, but has now slipped all the way down to last...
California lawmaker sets up debate over next big issue in the 'gig' economy  Business Journal  ...Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez offered a glimpse Monday of what could be the next chapter in a battle involving workers in the so-called gig economy. Upcoming legislation would allow those workers to collectively bargain for rights like health care – even if they aren’t unionized...
California’s Medicaid Program May Be Failing 7.3 Million Latinos  Think Progress  ...California is failing its low-income residents by declining to attract doctors who can treat people enrolled in its Medicaid program, according to a civil rights complaint filed with the federal government this week.
Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid health program for low-income residents, provides free medical care for about 30 percent of the state’s population, including nearly 7.3 million Latinos...
Paid Sick Leave Set To Go Statewide In Oregon  KPLU  ...More Oregon employees will be able to take sick leave in the coming year. It's because of a new law taking effect in January. If you already get sick leave in Oregon this law probably won't affect you. But advocates for the bill, which narrowly passed both legislative chambers in June, said many low-wage workers have to choose between taking unpaid time off or going to work sick...
Trial over redistricting in NC gets underway  WNCN  ...A trial over redistricting in North Carolina began Wednesday morning in federal court. A federal judge will decide if General Assembly drawn maps are constitutional. The trial has been about four years in the making, which is when the maps were drawn. Democrats say Republicans used race as a reason to draw the maps and have been fighting to have them overturned...
Airport employers seek new hearing on SeaTac minimum wage  Seattle Times  ...There’s some good news and bad news for workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport who’ve been looking for a bump up to $15 in minimum wage for the last two years. The good news: Most, since August, have been getting paid $15.24 an hour, according to an attorney for the group that backed the minimum-wage law. The bad news: The legal wrangling over whether the minimum-wage law should apply at the airport has gained new life...
Missouri Lawmaker Wants To Revoke Scholarships If Athletes Protest  Huffington Post  ...Legislation introduced in Missouri would strip college athletes of their scholarships if they refuse to play for any reason "unrelated to health." The proposal, filed Friday by state Rep. Rick Brattin, comes a month after the University of Missouri was roiled by protests in which 30 black football players refused to show up unless President Tim Wolfe resigned...
Ill. Village Becomes State’s First ‘Right to Work’ Zone  CBS  ...Illinois has its first “right to work zone” after a vote  by trustees in a Chicago suburb. But a legal challenge is expected to follow. The village board of Lincolnshire passed an ordinance Monday to prevent local private sector employers from requiring workers to join a union or pay dues through payroll deductions...

U.S. LABOR
Trump’s Vegas Hotel Refuses To Recognize Its Workers’ Union  Think Progress  ...Just 24 hours before billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump took the stage for the fifth GOP debate, the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas launched a legal challenge to its 500-odd workers’ effort to form a union. After a year of organizing, much of it in secret, a narrow majority of the workers voted earlier this month to join the Culinary Workers Union and Bartenders Union, which are part of the national hospitality workers union Unite Here...
In Landslide Election, University of Chicago Adjuncts Vote to Form Union  In These Times  ...In a landslide election, University of Chicago non-tenure track faculty voted to form a union last week—becoming the first faculty to unionize in the Faculty Forward Chicago movement that has seen growing support at universities across the city. On December 9, contingent faculty, largely representing the Humanities Division, voted 96-22 in favor of a bargaining unit that will be represented by Service Employees International Union's Local 73...
Kohler Co., UAW reach tentative deal  Sheboygan Press  ...Kohler Co. and the United Auto Workers Local 833 jointly released a press release Tuesday at 10:34 p.m. to announce they have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract that would resolve the more than month-long labor dispute. In the press release, the two sides say the new agreement "features increased wages and benefits"...
Suburban building owners & custodians reach new contract  Business Journal  ...Suburban office building landlords and the union representing roughly 1,400 janitors reached a new contract Tuesday night that puts workers' wages just shy of their desired rate. Members of the 32BJ Service Employees International Union and the Building Operators Labor Relations group, which represents the owners of about 170 suburban Philadelphia properties, agreed to raise wages...
AFSCME local OKs contract with UI  News Gazette  ...Members of a large employee union at the University of Illinois have approved a new three-year contract with the Urbana campus after 16 months of negotiations. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3700 voted overwhelmingly to accept the terms of the tentative agreement reached last month, union officials said...
Democrats resist provision blocking NLRB's joint employer ruling  Reuters  ...U.S. congressional Democrats are beating back a Republican push to defang a National Labor Relations Board decision that could give unions greater bargaining power with large companies that rely on franchisees or contractors, a Senate Democratic aide said on Tuesday. The aide, who asked not to be identified, said that for now, a government funding and tax policy bill was unlikely to contain a provision that would basically strike down the "Browning-Ferris Industries" NLRB ruling from earlier this year...
King Soopers reaches deal with 10,000 union workers  9 News  ...The King Soopers grocery chain said it's reached a new labor deal with 10,000 union employees in Colorado. Kroger Co., parent of the Denver-based grocery chain, said the 10,000 UFCW Local 7 workers at 103 King Soopers and City Market stores in the state have ratified new labor agreements...
Senate workers win raise in new contract — but not quite ‘$15 and a union’  Washington Post  ...The blue-collar workers who serve meals to U.S. senators, their staff and Capitol visitors have won a significant increase in wages under a new contract that took effect Monday. The agreement with Restaurant Associates, the private contractor that operates the Senate’s cafeteria, private dining room and other facilities, stands to help raise the living standards for dozens of workers...
Ashland's Largest Employer to Lay Off 620 Just Before Christmas  The Levisa Lazer  ...Layoffs at AK Steel’s manufacturing plant in Ashland, Ky., are being called devastating for the community by the president of the union representing hourly steel workers. As of now, the union leader says plans are moving forward to temporarily idle the blast furnace and related steelmaking operations at Ashland Works. Company leaders blame cuts on rising levels of unfairly traded steel imports to the United States...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Congress reaches deal on spending bill to fund federal government  Daily Kos  ...Congressional leaders released their long-negotiated omnibus spending bill Tuesday evening, with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan touting Republican wins that seem less than great victories. What's out—any restrictions on the implementation of net neutrality, along with Planned Parenthood defunding and the Iraqi and Syrian refugee ban...
Defending immigration, Obama says Muslim refugees are like Catholics in 1900  USA Today  ... President Obama delivered a full-throated defense of a liberal immigration policy Tuesday, saying, America betrays its history and its values when it fails to welcome those fleeing poverty, hunger, war and persecution from all over the world. Speaking at a naturalization ceremony for 31 new American citizens at the National Archives, Obama compared the current wave of immigrants to the waves of German, Scottish, Irish and German immigrants of the past...
GOP Debate: Trump Defends Muslim Ban, Other Candidates Debate How to Restrict Rights & Go to War  Democracy Now  ...The nine leading Republican presidential candidates squared off last night in the first debate since Donald Trump shook up the race by proposing to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Much of the debate focused on national security, with several candidates pushing for increasing the size of the U.S. military, escalating the wars in the Middle East and expanding the power of the National Security Agency...
Donald Trump Details Plan To Close ‘Areas’ Of The Internet  Think Progress  ...Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump followed up on his promise to close parts of the internet in order to fight ISIS radicalization, offering his most specific idea yet in the GOP debate Tuesday night.
When explicitly asked if he would take similar steps as repressive governments in China and North Korea to censor the internet, Trump said he would seal off the internet from places at war with America, since the internet was “our idea”...
Lawmakers 'Fail the Internet,' Sneak Cyber Bill Into Must-Pass Omnibus  Common Dreams  ...A controversial cyber bill is included in the final text of the must-pass "omnibus" spending deal to be voted on in U.S. Congress this week, even as civil liberties advocates warn it is nothing more than an expansion of government surveillance powers in disguise. This means the bill is likely to pass "without meaningful debate or transparency on the final text," digital rights group Fight for the Future said Wednesday...
The Kochs’ kind of welfare: “Outreach” to the poor is just another power grab for the billionaire brothers  Salon  ...Not content with having built their own parallel economy and their own parallel political party, the Koch brothers have also started to build their own parallel welfare state, Politico’s Ken Vogel reports. According to Vogel, the Kochs’ new beneficence is inspired, at least in part, by a desire to present “a more compassionate side of the brothers’ politics to new audiences, while fighting the perception that their groups are merely fronts for rich Republicans...

Today's Teamster News 12.10.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamster Pilots at Kalitta Air Authorize Strike  Teamster.org  ...Pilots employed by Kalitta Air, LLC, have voted overwhelmingly, 213-7, to authorize a strike against the Ypsilanti, Mich.-based cargo airline.  Kalitta Air operates a fleet of Boeing 747 aircraft in support of the global network of DHL Express, a division of the German logistics company, Deutsche Post DHL.  Ninety-two percent of eligible pilots voted...
Decision to Close N.C. MillerCoors Brewery Draws Scrutiny at Senate Antitrust Hearing  Teamster.org  ...At a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing yesterday, concerns were raised about the recent decision by MillerCoors to close its Eden, N.C., brewery by the end of 2016. The decision to close the Eden brewery, which would eliminate roughly 10 percent of MillerCoors’ total production capacity and destroy about 450 Teamster jobs, was announced on Sept.14, 2015...
Teamsters Announce Fund to Assist San Bernardino Victims, Families  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Joint Council 42 has created a support fund for the victims and families impacted by the San Bernardino shooting. Three Teamster members were killed and two were wounded in the shooting. “This is a tragic loss for the families of the victims and for our union family. Our Teamster brothers and sisters and their families need our support and we are here to help them,” said Randy Cammack...
Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Outside Workers Reject Contract Offer  Local 727  ...Outside workers at Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Distribution rejected the company’s four-year contract offer while inside workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify their new contract on Sunday, Dec. 6. Before the outside workers take a strike vote, the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee will ask the company to return to the bargaining table in good faith in order to avoid a labor dispute...
University Teamsters voting on tentative contract  Workday Minnesota  ...Members of Teamsters Local 320 (link is external) employed at the University of Minnesota are voting on a tentative contract settlement that includes a 2 percent wage increase and six weeks of paid maternity leave. Members are voting by mail, with ballots to be counted Dec. 21, the union said. The Local 320 contract covers some 1,100 custodial, food service, animal and land care workers...
Significant Wage And Benefit Gains For Facebook Drivers In Teamsters Contract  Labor Press  ...Silicon Valley drivers who shuttle Facebook employees have joined Teamsters Local 853, ratifying what the union says is a strong labor contract. The Teamsters contract includes significant wage and benefits improvements. Teamsters International Vice President and Local 853 Secretary Treasurer says the Teamsters are moving "to bring drivers in the entire shuttle bus industry into the Teamsters Union"...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Canada: Cabdrivers Stage Uber Protest  NYTimes  ...Cabdrivers seeking a legal crackdown against Uber, the ride-sharing service, snarled traffic on expressways and downtown streets in Toronto on Wednesday. The disruption began during the morning rush hour with slow-moving convoys of taxis. Later, cabdrivers blocked a major downtown intersection. A police officer on a bicycle suffered minor injuries...
“No one has ever tried this before”: Mexican, U.S. Workers Bring Employer Charges Under NAFTA  In These Times  ...A transnational coalition of labor unions and community groups in the United States and Mexico charged multinational retail corporation Chedraui Commercial Group with violations of municipal, federal, and international labor law on November 12, filing unprecedented dual claims under compliant mechanisms embedded within the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)...
Lawmakers strike deal on key trade legislation  The Hill  ...House and Senate lawmakers on Wednesday announced a deal that would bolster U.S. customs enforcement, among the key trade items on President Obama’s legislative agenda. After months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, top lawmakers said they had reconciled their differences on the measure that funds the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency...
Levin urges Dems to oppose customs bill deal  The Hill  ...A top House Democrat is urging his colleagues to oppose a deal on a customs enforcement measure, according to a letter obtained by The Hill. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, expressed serious concerns about climate, human trafficking, immigration and currency provisions in the final House-Senate conference report released Wednesday...
Laid-off Newberg paper mill workers protest trade deal  Business Journal  ...Roughly 250 workers lost their jobs when a Newberg paper mill closed Nov. 17. On Tuesday, many returned to the mill to protest the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which they said would move U.S. jobs overseas. We don’t want other hard-working Oregon families to suffer the same hardships we have," said John Haslett, in a news release...
Three ways TTIP will violate your human rights  Independent  ...TTIP is promoted as being focused on the “shared values” of the USA and EU, including “upholding and promoting human rights”. However, the USA and EU prefer to protect corporations from human rights law; they were the strongest opponents of a UN move to create a binding mechanism for holding corporations accountable to international human rights law...
TTIP is a disaster for the Left. But Brexit would be worse  (opinion) New Statesmen  ...Combined with this trade agenda Cameron wants to cut the ‘burden’ of regulation. We should not be under any illusions: a UK outside the EU and governed by the Tories would lead to even further trade liberalisation, even more damaging trade deals and a deregulated corporate free-for-all...
'Austerity is hitting poorest children hardest', Welsh researchers claim  Wales Online  ...Austerity policies across Europe are hitting the poorest children hardest and local councils should do more to protect their rights, say researchers in Wales. The Wales Observatory on Human Rights of Children and Young People, which is based at Swansea University, has compiled a report on the effects of austerity polices based on evidence drawn from across Europe...
Ghana: Port Drivers' Union Want Burkinabe Counterparts Out  All Africa  ...According to the drivers, an illegal document called 'Bond de Chargement' has been imposed on them and failure to pay usually results in them being assaulted at the Burkinabe border. The chairman of the Joint Association of Port Transport Union, Husein Isahak said if the authorities fail to come to their aid, they will be forced to retaliate...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
NY Board Upholds $15 Minimum Wage for Fast-Food Workers  ABC  ...A state oversight board on Wednesday upheld the decision by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration to gradually raise the hourly minimum wage for many fast-food workers to $15. The New York Industrial Board of Appeals rejected the National Restaurant Association's arguments that that the wage order was unconstitutional, arbitrary, unsupported by the evidence and focused improperly on fast-food chains with more than 30 locations...
The public doesn’t support restrictive voter ID laws, but many new ones will be in force in 2016  Reuters  ...Defenders of photo ID laws regularly cite public opinion polls that show widespread support for their arguments. Yet these polls reveal no such support, and they prove nothing about this new restrictive legislation because the polls’ questions cover a far broader range of IDs than the actual laws accept as proof of identity. The Texas photo ID law and recent polls in Texas offer a telling example of the disparity between the laws’ actual content and what poll respondents can assume are in them...
Michigan Senate delays bill that would impact minimum wage for people under 20  WSBT  ...The minimum wage in the state is $8.15 an hour right now. It will increase to $8.50 in January. Right now 16 and 17-year-olds can be paid 85 percent of the current minimum wage. The bill being considered would allow employers to put 18 and 19-year-olds in that same category. Supporters say fewer 16 and 17-year-olds are applying for jobs...
Puerto Rico Legislature Approves Bill to Expand Paid Sick Leave Use  Lexology  ...Seeking to allow non-exempt employees to use paid sick leave for the illnesses of their family members and others, the Puerto Rico Legislature has sent a bill to Governor Alejandro García-Padilla to so amend the Commonwealth’s existing paid sick leave law. If House Bill 695 is approved, the amendments would become effective immediately. The Governor has 30 days to approve or veto HB 695...
Massachusetts’ Plan To Force State Prisoners To Pay Room And Board Will Do Far More Harm Than Good  Think Progress  ...Massachusetts currently spends at least $53,000 a year on every inmate — $1.2 billion in total. On Tuesday, the senate minority leader proposed a bill that would make 10,000 prisoners bear some of that financial burden. Under Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr’s (R-Gloucester) latest proposal, inmates would have to pay $2 a day for their food and housing...

U.S. LABOR
Talks continue between UAW, Kohler  Sheboygan Press  ...Talks are continuing between the Kohler Co. and the union representing about 2,100 striking production workers, company officials confirmed Wednesday, though neither side has indicated whether progress has been made toward a new labor pact. The talks come as United Auto Workers Local 833 members continue their more than 3-week-old strike, which has surpassed the duration of the union's last strike in 1983...
Chicago Teachers Union plans to vote on potential strike  Washington Post ...Chicago Teachers Union members plan to begin voting Wednesday on whether to authorize a strike, setting in motion the latest in a series of political challenges for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The teachers’ contract expired in June, and efforts to reach a one-year contract agreement with Chicago Public Schools fell apart during the summer...
Coalinga hospital workers join SEIU-UHW  Business Journal  ...Health care workers at Coalinga Regional Medical Center recently voted to join SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. Approximately 200 hundred health care workers voted to join the union, lending their support to SEIU-UHW’s campaign to fully fund Medi-Cal as well as the statewide ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021...
Capitol Food Workers Escalate Protests in Senate  Roll Call  ...Dozens of Capitol food workers went on strike Tuesday, demanding to negotiate higher wages with their management and taking their message to other Senate workspace, specifically calling on Sen. Ted Cruz, who sits on the committee that oversees their contract, to support their push for better pay and union representation. The workers flooded the Texas Republican’s office, and the hallway outside, to award Cruz the “Golden Grinch” award...
AFSCME Plans Rally As Contract Talks Drag On  Northern Public Radio  ...The state's largest public employee union remains at odds with Governor Bruce Rauner's administration on a new contract. Negotiators for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees have been meeting with the governor's staff about twice a month since the summer. But AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall says there's been little movement toward a deal...
Walmart’s Imports From China Displaced 400,000 Jobs, a Study Says  NYTimes  ...Imports from China by Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and biggest importer, eliminated or displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart’s policies. The jobs, mostly in manufacturing, represent about 13 percent of the 3.2 million jobs displaced...
Here's How Much the U.S. Middle Class Has Changed in 45 Years  Bloomberg  ...In the age of rising income inequality, the task of preserving America’s middle class has been taken on by politicians across the ideological spectrum. A new report from Pew Research Center shows just how much the economic fortunes of this group have changed since the 1970s. In every decade since then, the percentage of adults living in middle-income households has fallen...
Unwarranted Outcry: NLRB Browning-Ferris Decision Re-establishes Employer Responsibility  CAP Action  ...A recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, that attempts to more clearly define who is a joint employer—and therefore responsible for bargaining and respecting workers’ rights—has triggered the predictable conservative backlash. However, a closer look at the facts indicates just how unwarranted this backlash is. Unfortunately, these latest criticisms are merely the continuation of conservative attacks on the NLRB and its efforts to uphold workers’ rights...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Showing How US Can Stand Up to Wall Street, Europe Advances 'Robin Hood Tax'  Common Dreams  ...Ten European Union countries agreed on Tuesday to some aspects of a so-called "Robin Hood Tax" on financial transactions, offering a model for U.S. politicians who have thus far showed little resolve on standing up to Wall Street high-rollers. As Reuters explains, a financial transaction tax (FTT) "is intended to recover some of the public money used to support banks [and] to curb speculative trading"...
Immigrants Say They Suffered Abuse And Neglect At This California Detention Center  Think Progress  ...Ten men filed a complaint against an immigration detention center in California this week, alleging physical abuse, medical neglect, and retaliatory transfers while they were detainees. The complaint, filed on behalf of the ten former and current immigrant detainees by the immigrant advocacy group Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), alleges multiple incidents of physical assault...
"It's Going to Burn Our Planet": Hundreds Protest "Unacceptable" Draft Climate Accord Inside COP21  Democracy Now  ...It’s the final stretch of negotiations at the United Nations climate change summit, COP21, as representatives from nearly 200 countries attempt to reach a final deal before the weekend. A draft text released Wednesday has nearly 100 outstanding points of disagreement that still need to be resolved, including the role that wealthy and more advanced developing countries should play in helping vulnerable nations cope with the impacts of climate change...
The Psychology of the Affirmative-Action Backlash  The Nation  ...The Supreme Court re-hears Abigail Fisher’s case against the University of Texas today.  If the High Court rules in her favor, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin will shake affirmative-action policy to its core.  According to court documents, 49 students with lower scores and grades than Fisher were offered provisional admission to UT through the summer program. Only five of those arguably under-qualified students were black or Hispanic; the other 42 were white...