Today's Teamster News 05.20.15

Teamsters
L.A. Board of Supervisors Taking Closer Look at Port Drivers' Plight  Eagle Rock Patch  ...The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted May 20 to take a closer look at allegations of “wage theft” by truck drivers serving the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. A representative for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said drivers were frequently issued “negative paychecks” because companies illegally charge for fuel, truck leases, repairs and insurance, calling the drayage companies “sweatshops on wheels”...
De Blasio Cuts Contract Deal With NYCHA Teamsters Union for Raises, Cost Cuts  New York Observer  ...Mr. de Blasio and Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, announced a preliminary deal—pending a union vote—that would grant 5,500 workers their first new contract since 2008 and 10 percent in retroactive and prospective raise over the next seven and a half years...

Global Labor & Trade
Rising skepticism among Democrats about Obama’s big trade deal  Washington Post  ...After meeting with Froman, Levin says he is not reassured. While Members of Congress have had access to much of the TPP, Levin says they have not yet been shown the portions fortifying labor standards. Levin’s primary concern is whether they will meaningfully hew to International Labor Standards on freedom of association, collective bargaining, protections against child labor, and other safeguards for workers, particularly when it comes to Vietnam and Mexico, a concern that is now being raised by Elizabeth Warren...
U.S. lawmakers compromise on 'poison-pill' Pacific trade rules  Reuters  ...U.S. lawmakers reached a compromise on Tuesday on rules that threatened to derail a proposed Pacific trade partnership by agreeing to soften tough provisions against human trafficking. An amendment to legislation allowing trade deals a rapid run through Congress had been dubbed a "poison pill" for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
McConnell moves to end debate on trade bill  The Hill  ...Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) moved to end debate on "fast-track" trade legislation, after Democrats objected to allowing additional amendment votes. McConnell said he hopes Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) will continue to try to find a way forward on amendments to the legislation, after talks appeared to hit a hurdle Tuesday...
Clinton finds problems with Obama TPP trade proposal  CNN  ...Hillary Clinton took aim Tuesday at two core components of a massive free trade pact that President Barack Obama is negotiating — signaling some agreement with the deal's liberal critics. The Democratic front-runner in the 2016 presidential race said she wants to see rules included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would penalize countries for driving down the value of their currencies...
Broad Coalition Rallies to Defeat Obama on Trade Deal  Bloomberg  ...Unions remain a backbone of the opposition to the TPP. The United Steelworkers and United Auto Workers unions are among those who've organized plant demonstrations, and the UAW is mobilizing retired auto workers. The AFL-CIO has been leafletting, including in the states and districts of lawmakers like those of Senator Ron Wyden, the chief Democratic negotiator on trade...
Barack Obama’s shocking TPP paradox: Why the gargantuan trade deal undermines everything he says he cares about  (opinion) Salon  ...After four decades of intense globalization, the results are in: America used to make things, often in unionized and well-paid sectors, but cheap labor abroad — accessed by corporations when free trade agreements hammer down tariff barriers — have steered the U.S. toward a low-wage, non-unionized service economy. And yet the president, so readily vocal about the phenomenon, has made advocacy for a trade deal that challenges American jobs with dirt-cheap labor in Vietnam, Indonesia, and elsewhere his job lately...
Why Fast Track Is a Dangerous Gift to Corporate Lobbies  (opinion) Huff Post  ...including Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in the two draft treaties. ISDS is a dangerous policy that undermines the case for TPP and TTIP. The ISDS framework is an unjustified grant of exceptional power to multinational companies above and beyond the legal system in which the companies operate...
ILO: Precarious Work Rises, Incomes Fall around the World  Solidarity Center  ...More than 60 percent of workers worldwide, predominantly women, are in temporary, part-time or short-term jobs in which wages are falling, a growing trend that is fueling global income inequality and poverty, according to an International Labor Organization (ILO) report released today. Although the incomes of permanent workers are relatively stable, the percentage of such workers is declining globally...
Ford halts production in Turkey due to Renault, Fiat labor strikes  BGN News  ...Laborers have been on strike in Fiat and Renault factories in Bursa province since last week over employment conditions. Protests began on late Thursday at Turkey's largest car factory, run by Oyak Renault, a joint venture between the French automaker and the Turkish army pension fund Oyak, in the northwest city of Bursa...

France teachers strike over government reforms  BBC   ...Teachers across France are going on strike against government reforms to the education system. Trade unions representing 80% of teachers at French middle schools are leading the action against the plans...

State & Living Wage Battles
Will Mo. Lawmakers Attempt Right to Work Override?  Ozarks First  ...Gov. Jay Nixon has vowed to veto Right to Work legislation, telling KOLR 10 he thinks it's an "attack" on working people, while backers in the legislature are finding out whether enough support exists to override the governor's impending decision. About 25 other states have Right to Work laws. The issue has been talked about in Missouri for decades, but this legislative session was the first to put it on the governor's desk...
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has 'serious problems' with prevailing wage repeal bills  MLive ...Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday he has "serious problems" with prevailing wage repeal bills approved last week by the GOP-led Michigan Senate. Michigan law currently requires contractors to provide union wages and benefits on government-funded construction projects...
Thousands of Fast Food Workers to Protest McDonald’s Shareholder Meeting Today  In These Times  ...When McDonald’s stockholders meet on the leafy corporate campus in suburban Chicago today and tomorrow, thousands of protestors will be ready to greet them, according to organizers of the fast-growing Fight for $15 movement. Last year, in the first such confrontation, a few hundred people marched on and then blocked roads leading on to the company property before police arrested them...
Los Angeles Becomes The Largest City With a $15 Minimum Wage  Think Progress  ...On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to draft legislation that would set the city’s minimum wage at $15 per hour by 2020 for businesses with more than 25 employees and by 2021 for smaller ones.
The council voted in favor of the move 14 to 1. The legislation will set the wage to $10.50 an hour for large businesses next year before gradually rising to $15...
McDonald's employees are swarming headquarters to protest low wages during the company's annual meeting   Business Insider  ...Thousands of McDonald's workers seeking a minimum wage of $15 per hour and the right to unionize are expected to swarm the fast-food giant's headquarters for two days of protests that will coincide with the fast-food chain's annual meeting on Thursday. Protests by low-wage fast-food and retail workers have helped fuel a national debate about pay levels...

U.S. Labor
Marathon Galveston Bay refinery workers vote to continue strike  Reuters  ...Hourly workers at Marathon Petroleum Corp's Galveston Bay, Texas, refinery voted on Monday to continue a strike, rejecting a contract proposal developed by a federal mediator aimed at ending a stoppage that has lasted three-and-a-half months. Officials of United Steelworkers union Local 13-1, which represents the strikers, said nearly 900 striking workers had voted and the proposal was overwhelmingly rejected...
Bid to unionize Detroit charter school system in limbo  Detroit News   ...An effort to unionize a local charter school system remained unresolved Friday with no official results from an election held a day earlier. "While there were 19 more no votes from those who did not want the union, Detroit 90/90 challenged the voting rights of Teachers for America teachers and long-term substitutes, claiming the teachers they hired to stand in front of students are not actually professionals," said Nate Walker, K-12 organizer and policy analyst with AFT Michigan...
NLRB blocks union election at Stetson Charter School  Philly.com   ...The National Labor Relations Board yesterday blocked a union vote set for later this week at John B. Stetson Charter School after the union behind the organizing efforts filed an unfair-labor-practice charge. The Alliance of Charter School Employees union claims that Stetson, which is managed by charter operator ASPIRA Inc. of Pennsylvania, has violated federal law...
County OKs AFSCME Contract; Salary Hikes Average 2.3%  Cape May County Herald  ...Cape May County government’s 686 members of local 3596 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have a new contract that will remain through Dec. 31, 2018. The former contract expired July 1, 2013. Negotiations had been ongoing since that time. The contract was unanimously approved by freeholders May 12 without comment...
Farm-labor case appears headed to Supreme Court  Ag Alert  ...A sweeping state appellate court decision, ruling part of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act unconstitutional, sets the stage for an eventual state Supreme Court decision on the act's mandatory mediation and conciliation provisions. the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the case, Gerawan Farming of Fresno, that it should have been given an opportunity to prove that the United Farm Workers union had "abandoned" Gerawan employees...

Miscellaneous
Why We Should Spend Billions More On Trains  Think Progress  ...In the same way that the U.S. subsidized cars, other countries are subsidizing trains. China is currently undertaking a huge public investment in rail. And while the system has experienced problems, ridership was nearly 900 million in 2014, compared to a paltry 30 million in the U.S. And the United Kingdom, with a far smaller area and population than the U.S., spends billions more than in public money to maintain its world-class system that regularly sees 1.2 billion passengers a year...
Progressive Groups Rally Behind Sanders' Plan to Tax 1% and Fund Higher Ed  Common Dreams  ...A broad coalition of nurses, students, religious and civil rights groups, environmentalists, labor and housing advocates on Tuesday praised Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) plan to use a so-called Robin Hood tax on stock transactions to fund tuition at four-year public colleges and universities...

Today's Teamster News 05.19.15

Teamsters
City Hall strikes contract deal with Teamsters Local 237  Capital New York  ...The de Blasio administration on Monday announced a tentative contract agreement with Teamsters Local 237, one of the only remaining municipal unions working under an expired contract. The agreement covering more than 5,500 New York City Housing Authority employees follows the pattern of wage increases every other civilian union has received during de Blasio's 17-month tenure...
BLET/SMART–TD statement on Positive Train Control, crew size following fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia  BLE-T.org  ...Members of BLET’s Safety Task Force and SMART Transportation Division’s National Safety Team, in addition to representatives from the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the Teamsters Rail Conference (BMWED), are working with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to assist in the investigation of the catastrophic May 12 derailment of Amtrak Train 188...

Global Labor & Trade
Congress plots to pay for a trade deal by raiding Medicare  Los Angeles Times  ...The plan on Capitol Hill is to move the Trade Assistance Program expansion in tandem with fast-track approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, possibly as early as this week. Congressional Democrats demanded the expansion of the Trade Assistance Program, Congressional Republicans apparently found the money in Medicare, and the Obama White House, which should be howling in protest, has remained silent...
Warren Expands Criticism of Obama’s Trade Agenda to Labor Rights  Bloomberg   ...Senator Elizabeth Warren expanded her criticism of President Barack Obama’s trade agenda, arguing on Monday that the U.S. has consistently failed to enforce rules promoting labor rights abroad. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, released a staff memo outlining “decades of failure” by U.S. administrations to ensure that American trading partners live up to promises in free-trade agreements...
McConnell: Senate to finish trade this week  The Hill  ...Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned senators on Monday that they will finish "fast track" trade legislation this week. McConnell wants to pass the "fast-track" bill, which would allow the president to get his trade deals passed through Congress by a simple majority vote, before senators leave at the end of the week for the Memorial Day recess...
GOP: Business lobby blowing it on trade  Politico  ...Top House Republicans believe the business community is blowing its chance to clinch a trade deal. Unlike unions, they say, Big Business advocates aren’t flooding Capitol phone lines. They’re not winning over skeptical Republicans. And they haven’t made much headway with business-friendly Democrats who are considering voting for the package, either...
Republicans claim enough votes to pass fast-track trade bill   Reuters  ...Top Republicans predicted on Sunday that both chambers of Congress would muster the votes to pass the "fast-track" authority sought by President Barack Obama to negotiate major trade deals, despite opposition from Obama's fellow Democrats. "Yes, we’ll pass it. We'll pass it later this week," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview with ABC...
Perils of Globalization When Factories Close and Towns Struggle  New York Times  ...The benefits are not distributed evenly. Trade increases overall prosperity by eliminating less productive jobs. In theory, the workers find new jobs. In practice, studies by Mr. Hanson and other economists show that in cities like Galesburg, global competition is increasing unemployment and reducing wages. Josh Bivens, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, estimates that increased globalization, aided by a strong dollar that led to a persistent trade deficit, reduced the annual earnings of the roughly 70 percent of American workers...
German train drivers to strike again  BBC  ...Drivers for Germany's Deutsche Bahn have declared a fresh strike, marking the ninth walkout in just 11 months. GDL union leader Claus Weselsky gave no end date for the strike, but said it would "last a little longer" than the previous five-day stoppage.
GDL wants a 5% pay rise for 20,000 drivers and a shorter working week...
Guatemalan Domestic Workers Reveal a Dirty Business  Truthout  ...186,000 domestic workers are in Guatemala and more than 50 percent have emigrated to Guatemala City from impoverished rural areas. [Some] work up to 14 hours a day and are usually paid $150 a month, half of the national minimum monthly wage, which is currently $304.68. What makes Castellanos unique is her determination to fight for better working conditions in Guatemala, where labor unionism is weak after the repression of workers' movements under the country's recent history of military dictatorships...
Bolivian army step in as bakers go on strike  BBC   ...Bolivian soldiers have begun producing tens of thousands of bread rolls because of a bakers strike. The government called in the troops when there were reports of shortages in several neighbourhoods. Bolivian bakers went on a 48-hour strike in protest against a government decision to scrap subsidies for wheat flour...

State & Living Wage Battles
Kansas’ Governor Destroyed The State Budget With Massive Tax Cuts And Now Kansans Are Paying The Price  Think Progress  ...On one side, die-hard conservatives in the legislature are resisting efforts to unwind a key piece of Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) signature tax cuts. On the other, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are saying it’s time to admit the governor’s approach is unworkable. While they quarrel, Kansas faces a two-year deficit projected to be well over a billion dollars – a piddling amount in Congress, but equal to nearly 17 percent of the state’s $6 billion annual spending...
Speaker: Missouri 'Right To Work' Veto Override Uncertain  Ozarks First  ...Governor Jay Nixon (D) says he will veto that bill, but House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) says it's too early to be thinking about whether supporters in the legislature can muster the votes to overturn him. "We'll talk with our members and see if there's a will to override and obviously see if there is not a will to override," said Richardson...
Amid Protest Plans, McDonald's to Ban Media from Shareholder Meeting  Common Dreams  ...With thousands of workers planning to descend on McDonald's annual shareholder meeting on May 21 to demand higher wages and fairer treatment, the fast food giant has announced it will ban all media from the corporate event—a move that union leaders called "extremely shocking and troubling"...
Bosses Are Turning Poverty-Wage Workers Into ‘Managers’—and Barring Them From Overtime in the Process  The Nation  ...Welcome to the promotion from hell: Federal law says time-and-a-half is for ordinary laborers, and management is exempt from overtime provisions. So congratulations, as a shop “manager,” you no longer qualify for overtime—but still end up doing basically the same work for less. In the precarious low-wage economy, advocates say employers are hyper-exploiting the system to skirt fair labor laws...
SEIU seeks federal investigation of franchise industry  Chicago Tribune  ...The Service Employees International Union on Monday said it has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the franchise industry, seeking information on how some of the world's biggest franchise operators, including McDonald's, set the terms of their business models. The union, which has been pushing to boost the pay of low-wage fast-food workers, said the current structure gives too much power to franchisers...
Prevailing wage, local hiring mandates sidelined at Milwaukee County for more discussion  Milwaukee Business Journal   ...A proposal to enact local hiring and wage requirements on projects that receive Milwaukee County subsidies was sidelined Monday to create more time for discussion and potential revisions. The proposal builds off earlier “community benefits” laws, including one affecting Milwaukee County’s land in the Park East corridor...
City Council To Consider $15 Minimum Wage Increase Proposal  CBS Los Angeles  ...The City Council will consider a proposal Tuesday to increase Los Angeles’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next five years. The council, which will meet at 10 a.m., was expected to discuss the proposal that was unanimously approved on May 13 by its Economic Development Committee...

U.S. Labor
Contract ending for NC postal workers  The Charlotte Post  ...North Carolina postal workers have more on their minds this morning than the heavy load of Monday mail. The American Postal Workers Union contract is set to expire on Wednesday. Postal worker Deborah Smith says it's a tough time for postal employees...
GOP lawmaker proposes defunding NLRB  The Hill ...Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) has introduced legislation to do away with funding for the National Labor Relations Board. Salmon claimed the NLRB, which was created in 1935 to conduct labor elections and manage labor policy, is biased toward labor unions. The Arizona Republican argued that the Justice Department could instead be solely tasked with enforcing labor laws...
UAW seeks to grow skilled trades apprentice programs  Detroit News  ...Ford, General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles run jointly administered apprentice programs with the UAW. The union hopes to expand the programs, which were dormant for several years leading up to and immediately following the economic downturn. Securing and growing the programs, as well as skilled trades positions that have shrunk following the recession, will be part of upcoming contract negotiations...
UFW set to protest at Mesa Verde Immigration Detention Center  ABC Bakersfield  ...Members of the local United Farm Workers will be protesting at the new Mesa Verde Immigration Detention Center in Bakersfield as part of a national push calling for immigration reform. The detention center houses close to 200 foreign nationals who are either waiting for deportation or are appealing the process...

Miscellaneous
Ignoring Businesses, Baltimore Shuts Off Water to 1,600 Homes  Common Dreams  ...However, community advocates say that in a city with skyrocketing unemployment and poverty, the rising cost of water and sewage is unaffordable to a large sector of the population. Further, in Detroit, where the local government has cut off water to over 17,000 residential households, the policy has been widely criticized by the United Nations as well as other watchdog groups as a violation of the human right to water...

Today's Teamster News 04.29.15

Teamsters
Hoffa Statement on Repealing Health Benefits Tax   Teamster.org  ...“Rep. Courtney’s bill stands up for working Americans. The health care excise tax set to take effect in 2018 is an onerous charge that will hit many middle-class families hard in the pocketbook, all because their health insurance is considered too good. It is unconscionable that some hardworking Americans will have to pay a 40 percent penalty on benefits they’ve fought hard to receive"...
Atlanta Sysco Workers Reinstated, Receive Full Back Pay  Teamster.org  ...Fourteen union activists terminated by Sysco during a Teamster organizing campaign in Atlanta, Ga. will be returned to their jobs with full back pay after the company issued unconditional offers to return to work on Monday, April 27. Additionally, two workers unfairly disciplined will also have their records cleared...
Teamsters at Coca-Cola Ratify Contracts Covering 1,400 Workers  Teamster.org  ...Coca-Cola workers in Southern California have ratified two contracts covering about 1,400 Teamsters that increase wages and pension benefits. One contract covers bottling and warehouse workers represented by Local 896 in Los Angeles, and the second contract covers warehouse and truck drivers represented by Local 848 in Glendora, Local 952 in Orange and Local 986 in South El Monte...
Alleging Millions in Wage Theft, West Coast Port Truckers Strike  In These Times  ...The union states that independent contractor misclassification makes truckers ineligible for unionization and victims of wage theft, stemming from lack unemployment benefits, employer-provided health-care and hourly or overtime pay. Despite working under much of the same rules and conditions as full-time employees, port truckers operating as independent contractors have truck leasing fees and expenses related to gas and maintenance deducted from their paychecks...
Railroad unions urge tougher rules on tracks  Philly.com  ..."The key to reducing track-caused derailments is maintaining the tracks to a higher safety standard," said Freddie N. Simpson, president of the Maintenance of Way Brotherhood, the union that represents about 35,000 workers who inspect and maintain railroads. Unfortunately, the railroads' own statistics speak for themselves, and track-caused derailments - including those involving highly volatile crude oil - continue to be a threat to the nation"...

Global Labor & Trade
Which Countries Get the Best Deals Out Of the Trans-Pacific Partnership?  National Journal   ...The chart below breaks down just how the proposed partnership would impact the countries involved, based on estimates from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Vietnam is in the best position of the 12 nations, poised to see a $46 billion bump in GDP by 2025, an additional 13.6 percent of the baseline GDP projected for that year without the TPP...
Business group launches six-figure ad blitz for Obama's trade agenda  The Hill  ...The Trade Benefits America Coalition — which is backed by the Business Roundtable — will begin airing the ads on national cable networks and in targeted media markets across the country this week. The ad — dubbed "One Thing" — urges lawmakers to pass trade promotion authority (TPA)...
Labor Makes Trade a Line in the Sand for 2016. But What If Hillary Clinton Crosses It?  National Journal  ...One of America's most influential labor organizations is trying to ensure that the political candidates it would support will oppose free-trade deals. But if Hillary Clinton comes out in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, labor doesn't have many other options...
New York City Joins Growing Numbers of Cities Opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership  CWA-Union  ...On the heels of Mayor Bill de Blasio criticizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a “raw deal” and "huge mistake,” the New York City Council voted to pass a resolution declaring the city a “TPP-free zone” and urging Congress to reject “Fast Track” legislation for the trade deal...
Obama to meet New Democrat Coalition  Politico   ...President Barack Obama will meet with moderate Democrats to discuss his economic agenda, a meeting that will likely include discussion of a contentious trade bill Congress is set to consider. The four dozen members of the New Democrat Coalition were invited to a Thursday afternoon meeting at the White House...
New Front Opens in ‘Fast-Track’ Trade Fight  Roll Call   ...Sen. Rob Portman intends to bring an amendment to the floor as part of the “fast-track” debate that would make it a “principal negotiating objective” under TPA to create enforceable rules to combat unfair currency practices. It was voted down at the committee level, 11-15...
A progressive’s lament about the Trans-Pacific Partnership  (opinion) Washington Post   ...It has come to this. To sell his trade treaty — specifically the fast-track trade authority that would grease the skids for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP), President Obama is mobilizing a coalition anchored by corporate lobbies, the Chamber of Commerce and Republican congressional leadership. He is opposed by the majority of Democratic legislators, the labor movement and a broad array of mainstream environmental, consumer and citizen organizations...

State & Living Wage Battles
Wisconsin rep. introduces bill for $15 minimum wage  Wisconsin Gazette  ...Wisconsin state Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, on April 28 introduced a measure to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Sargent’s bill comes less than two weeks after workers around on the country protested in solidarity for a minimum wage increase to $15...
Aldermen voice opposition to right-to-work zones  Chicago Tribune   ...Union officials lodged their opposition Tuesday to Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed right-to-work zones as part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's effort to send a message to state lawmakers that City Hall opposes the idea...
Judge sides with Red Robin servers in minimum wage lawsuit  Morning Call   ...In a first-of-its-kind decision on Pennsylvania's Minimum Wage Act, the judge ruled the degree to which a restaurant worker interacts directly with customers is key to determining whether he or she is eligible to share tips. The decision scuttles Red Robin franchise owner Lehigh Valley Restaurant Group's preliminary bid to dismiss the case...
Court raises tough questions on Texas voter ID law  Dallas News  ...The U.S. Justice Department and others oppose the law as an unconstitutional burden on minority voters. The state of Texas says the law was aimed at preventing fraud. The state is appealing a federal district judge’s ruling in October that struck down the law...
Legal fight continues over Wisconsin's voter ID law  Wisconsin Gazette  ...With two special elections looming next month and one to fill a vacancy in the state Senate coming later this year, opponents of Wisconsin's new voter identification law want a federal court to expand the number of IDs that voters can show at the polls...

U.S. Labor
SEIU caregivers implore supervisors for 'livable wage'  The Californian   ...County-employed caregivers provide in-home services to about 5,000 elderly and disabled patients. The service maintains the clients' dignity, rather than forcing them to live in a health-care facility, said David Werlin, the northern California director for United Long Term Care Workers. ULTCW is under the Service Employees International Union...
Richard Trumka, A.F.L.-C.I.O. Chief, Warns Candidates on Inequality  New York Times  ...Richard Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., vowed Tuesday that organized labor would no longer accept “cautious half-measures” from presidential candidates about how to address economic fairness, an implicit but unmistakable attempt to nudge Hillary Rodham Clinton toward embracing a liberal agenda during her presidential run...
UAW reports 55 percent membership at VW plant in Tennessee   U-T San Diego   ...The filing comes as the UAW works toward gaining collective bargaining rights at its first foreign-owned plant in the South. And the union's case for recognition could be bolstered by leadership shakeup at the German automaker that has left a former union chief, Berthold Huber, as the interim chairman of the world's No. 2 automaker...
Profits Are Up, But Wages Are Stagnant. This Senator Has A Plan.  Think Progress   ...Last week, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) sent a letter to the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the growing trend of companies giving money to investors through stock buybacks, rather than investing in workers or equipment. Workers’ wages are currently growing at the slowest pace since the 1960s, despite healthy corporate profits and increasing productivity...

Miscellaneous
The Economic Devastation Fueling The Anger In Baltimore  Think Progress  ...The protesters’ anger was fueled, at least in large part, by the Baltimore police department’s long history of ugly violence against the city’s residents and a pattern of officers facing few, if any, repercussions. But the protests also take place in the context of a city that has been ravaged economically, most recently by the foreclosure crisis and predatory lending...
Service Sector Surges, Manufacturers Learn to Do More With Less  US News & World Report  ...The report shows service sector employment reached a peak last month at 121.6 million workers, nearly 10 times the amount of people employed in manufacturing jobs. Service employment includes a relatively broad swath of the domestic workforce that includes most retail, information technology and health care industries, among others...
Apartheid Games: Baltimore, Urban America, and Camden Yards  The Nation  ...All of these cities were at one time synonymous with industry and multiracial labor power. Now they have boarded up factories—or factories that have been transformed into postmodern coffee shops or bars—and baseball stadiums. A publicly funded stadium is not the root cause of what plagues our cities, but it’s a flashing, blaring sign of a set of economic priorities that like sports has created a country that defines people as winners or losers...

Help save New York City's horse carriage industry!

Teamster Brother Steve Malone

Our Teamster brothers and sisters in New York City are fighting to save 300 good Teamster jobs and the iconic horse carriage industry.

The horse carriages in New York are highly regulated, and Central Park horses are treated humanely and respectfully. The horses work no more than nine hours a day, are protected from working in extreme weather conditions, receive five weeks of vacation a year, must pass bi-annual physicals by veterinarians, and also receive retirement.

Not only are the horses well cared for, but this industry also supports hundreds of New York City workers who are employed as drivers, stable workers, and blacksmiths, as well as their families.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to ban the horse carriages, so we need your help to save them. A huge majority of New Yorkers oppose banning the carriage horses, along with the New York Times, the Daily News, the New York Post, and Liam Neeson. It seems like the only person in New York who wants to ban the horses from Central Park is Bill de Blasio.

Please tell your Council Member to defend our Teamster brothers and sisters. Click here to find your Council Member. 

On almost every other issue, the Teamsters support Mayor de Blasio - but we can't stand by while 300 workers, who have done nothing wrong, lose their jobs. 

Please contact your Council Member and tell him/her to support good Teamster jobs in New York City and oppose the Mayor’s plan to shut down the famous Central Park horse carriage industry. Click here to find your Council Member and send a message today. 

Thank you for standing with them.

Teamsters in NYC ask for intervention in pay discrimination suit

Teamsters Local 237 wants a pay discrimination lawsuit settled before it goes to court. They're asking the mayor to intervene in the case.  

More than 5,000 Teamster school safety agents are bringing the pay discrimination suit -- the largest in the United States -- against the City of New York.

The school safety agents, mostly women, receive $7,000 less pay a year than male-dominated peace officers in the city. Members of Teamsters Local 237 want deBlasio to intervene in the class action suit and fix the problem.

The agents are put in harm's way every day.  They have to confiscate five firearms, patrol New York City's schools and make arrests. They are authorized to use deadly force while protecting children, teachers and staff.

Another great win for the Teamsters in New York City!

Teamsters and artists during last year's actions

New York City workers scored a victory this week as the Frieze Art Fair agreed to hire Teamsters and IATSE members after protests erupted last year over Frieze's use of non-union labor -- on city-owned property. 

ArtFCity explains what happened:

For a week during the month of May, the British company descends on Randall’s Island and rolls out a tent, under which wealthy dealers and collectors come from the world over to trade money for art. The residents of Randall’s Island don’t reap much monetary benefit from this form of art tourism—and the city’s labor force doesn’t either. Over the years, Frieze exhibition organizers have been accused of hiring event staff and art handlers from as far away as Wisconsin in order to avoid hiring New Yorkers, particularly union workers. All that’s about to change. After months of meetings with local union leaders, Frieze New York has decided to commit to union labor.

Many people worked to bring the London-based art fair together with the unions.  Teamsters Joint Council 16 is grateful to the Randall's Island Park Alliance for getting Frieze and the Teamsters together. They're thankful for the involvement of Melissa Mark-Viverito, speaker of the New York City Council and former chair of the Parks department.

Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda called it 'a great win.' The New York Observer reported:

Frieze has agreed to incorporate partial union labor in the upcoming fair, running May 9 through 12 on Randall’s Island, and to only use union labor for the 2015 edition of the fair. 

“It was a great win,” said George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16, who chaired the talks. “We’re satisfied with it. Our goal all along was to make sure it was 100 percent union labor, and that’s what we accomplished.”

New York City Teamsters are also very appreciative of the Arts & Labor group, which stood in solidarity with union members from the get-go. Arts & Labor put out a statement on the agreement:

Our tactics have included a series of direct actions both inside and outside the fair, a letter writing campaign, and the raising of awareness via social media. We also want to acknowledge the vital support of artists Suzanne Lacy and Andrea Bowers, curator Nato Thompson, and many others. We thank everyone who put their reputation on the line to create room for discussion when there was none and who created a platform for workers to speak up. We celebrate this victory as a step in the right direction toward a more just art industry and see it as an effective demonstration of the impact of solidarity networks.

Crain's New York Business reported the news about the deal yesterday with a tremendous headline:

After protests, Teamsters take over an art fair

Art in America also gave a shout-out to Lacy, Bowers and Thompson. 

Today's Teamster News 03.15.14

Teamster News
Donora OKs four-year Teamster contract for police  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review   ...The Donora, Penn. council unanimously approved a tentative four-year contract with Teamsters Local 205 that includes a wage increase and one-time bonuses for four full-time officers and several part-time officers...
Teamsters Secure New Contract with Richland Township  Penn Live   ...Richland Township employees will receive a raise of at least 75 cents per hour for this year, approved March 5, the same night that township supervisors endorsed a new five-year contract with Teamsters Local 205, based in White Oak, Penn., which represents six full-time public-works employees...
Food contracts cycle underway again for Southern Calif. Teamsters, UFCW  People's World   ...A historic core industry of the two major unions (Teamsters and UFCW) in Southern California, retail food, has begun its every-five-years-or-so cycle of bare-knuckle contract negotiations...
3 Labor Organizations Endorse Deb Goldberg for MA Treasurer  GoLocalWorchester   ...Deb Goldberg's campaign for Massachusetts Treasurer received a boost Thursday after receiving endorsements from Teamsters Local 25, Painters DC #35 and Brookline Fire Fighters Local 950, citing her dedication to wage equality and respect for workers...
Time for Congress to Move on Income Inequality  teamster.org ...A Senate committee took up discussion of income inequality during a hearing this week focused on how to improve the lives of working families. But unfortunately, not everyone agreed that Capitol Hill needed to lend a hand to lift wages...
Trade
Teamsters: U.S.-Korea Trade Deal Marks Two Years of Failure  teamster.org   ...On the two-year anniversary of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), the Teamsters Union denounces the pact as another failed trade deal that enriches global corporations while eliminating middle-class jobs in the United States...
REPORT: NAFTA’s Deadly Legacy: Corporate Profits Over People And Planet  MintPress News   ...Ahead of Transatlantic and Transpacific trade deals, report authors warn: 'Remember NAFTA'...
State News
Attack on Labor  The Tribune-Review   ...In Harrisburg, legislation has been proposed to prevent the automatic withholding of union dues from public employees' paychecks...This legislation serves only to undermine the timely, efficient payment of monies that are rightfully due to unions. Automatic withholding is routinely used by employers to collect money owed for charitable contributions, for insurance premiums, for child support and for taxes...
Alabama House approves payday loan database  Associated Press   ...The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday voted to create a state database to enforce an existing $500 limit on how much people can borrow at one time from the short-term lenders...
Bill targeting predatory lending sent to Maine governor  Associated Press   ...The Democratic-controlled House and Senate gave final approval to the bill this week that aims to protect Mainers from unlicensed online lenders who offer illegitimate short-term loans that can drain consumers' bank accounts with high interest rates and fees...
New York union membership grows 8% from 2012 to 2013  Long Island Newsday ...Unions in New York State added 145,000 members last year, the first increase since 2007, new federal data show. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that the ranks of private-sector and government unions in the state totaled nearly 2 million in 2013, a gain of 8 percent from a year earlier...
War on Workers
Wall Street and Multinationals Get Theirs While America Suffers  Economic Populist   ...corporations are stockpiling cash, tax free, abroad and added $206 billion to their coffers in 2013.  The offshore cash holdings now are $1.95 trillion.  Three of the biggest labor arbitragers and offshore outsourcers of them all, Microsoft, IBM and Apple, account for 18.2% of the 2013 offshore cash holdings increase.  All of these companies have fired top tier Scientists and Engineers and replaced them with cheaper foreign guest workers as well as moved R&D jobs offshore...
Obama: If You 'Work More, You Should Get Paid More'  WBNI   ...President Obama signed a memo directing his labor secretary to rewrite the rules governing overtime in the country...
People Think We’re in a Recession. Don’t Blame Them.  New York Times   ... 57 percent still think the economy is in recession... for much of America, despite years of modest gross domestic product growth and strong stock market gains, the economy isn’t good...
A Relentless Widening of Disparity in Wealth  New York Times   ...the economic forces concentrating more and more wealth into the hands of the fortunate few are almost sure to prevail for a very long time...
Greek unemployment rises to 27.5 percent  Associated Press   ...Official figures show the unemployment rate in Greece increased to 27.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 as the economy struggled to emerge from a protracted recession...
New York City transit workers have personal info exposed  Associated Press ...The Social Security numbers and other personal information of about 15,000 New York City transit workers has been found on a CD inside a refurbished computer sold by a retailer, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press...
Bank of America back in court over $2.1 billion fraud penalties  Reuters   ...A U.S. judge wrestled on Thursday with a U.S. Justice Department request that Bank of America Corp pay $2.1 billion in penalties after being found liable for fraud over defective mortgages sold by its Countrywide unit...
Debt Collectors Go After Service Members Despite Protections  Truthout ...Debt collectors are targeting members of the Armed Services by calling their superior officers, threatening reduction in rank and even courts-martial, despite stepped-up efforts to protect them from abuse, according to a government report issued last week...
More Than 900 Workers Have Already Died Building Qatar’s World Cup Facilities  Smithsonian   ...400 Nepalese migrant workers had already died at building sites. Between 2010 and 2012 more than 700 workers from India lost their lives working on construction sites in Qatar, too...
For the first time in years, contract talks between city and unions show both sides want a deal  New York Daily News ...Talks began this week between the de Blasio administration and city unions over labor contracts for 300,000 municipal workers. It was night and day compared to the Bloomberg era...

Whoa! New poll says New Yorkers overwhelmingly approve of horse-drawn carriages

New York voters by an overwhelming margin of 63 percent to 28 percent oppose a proposed ban on horse-drawn carriages, according to the well-respected Quinnipiac University poll:

Don't ban horse-drawn carriages from New York City, voters say 61 - 28 percent, with support for the horses from every group. There is almost no gender gap as women oppose a ban 60 - 28 percent while men support carriage horses 63 - 28 percent.

Our brother and sister Teamster carriage drivers are fighting to keep their jobs and their livelihoods as the city's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, says he wants to ban the beloved horse-drawn carriages. This poll should help them in a big way.

Keep on fighting!

Teamster horse carriage drivers take their case to the public

Our brothers and sister Teamsters who drive horse carriages through New York City's Central Park are fighting hard to keep their livelihoods. The city's new mayor, Bill deBlasio, wants to ban the horse carriages because -- he says -- they're inhumane.

First of all, the horses are contented and well-cared for.

Second of all, what's humane about depriving 130 people of their livelihoods?

The drivers are taking their case to the public, demonstrating how well they treat the horses. They're also suggesting the real reason for the proposed ban is a key deBlasio supporter is a real estate developer with an eye on the horses' stables.

People are paying attention.

Most recently, the Wall Street Journal, of all newspapers, puts the carriage drivers' plight into perspective, pointing out their transition to new careers would be difficult. Career counselors suggested they could go into sales, or become hotel concierges.

The city has its own plan for the drivers, of course. A proposal kicking around City Hall would have operators trading their carriage medallions for permits to drive antique replica cars around the park. 

The response? Scorn and derision. "It's ridiculous," said driver Ian McKeever, watching a crowd of girls crowding around Molly, his patient Percheron. "These kids can't pet a mechanical car or give it carrots. The horse and carriage are like the gondolas in Venice."

Teamster horse carriage drivers carry on the fight for their jobs

Teamsters -- and horses -- have been doing this for a loooong time. 

New York City's new mayor Bill deBlasio may have stepped in it with his crusade to eliminate the good Teamster jobs of horse-carriage drivers.

Irish actor Liam Neeson, a friend of some of the carriage drivers, called right-wing New York Daily News columnist Andrea Peyser to make a case for keeping their jobs:

The 61-year-old heartthrob interrupted his hectic A-list acting schedule to call me Thursday night, alarmed by de Blasio’s treachery. 

“It’s criminal!’’ cried Liam. “This is an iconic, historic part of New York. 

“The horses are incredibly well-treated. They’re regulated up the wazoo. They get five weeks’ holiday every year.’’ (How many people get that much down time?) “Tourists love them.” 

He speculated that efforts to ban the carriage trade resulted from a land grab by greedy developers eager to get hold of horse stables on Manhattan’s West Side: 

“I think it’s about real estate. I’m not the kind of person to use my celebrity’’ to promote causes, he said. But, ‘‘the horses are happy.

Our Teamster brothers and sisters -- members of Local 553 -- are not happy with deBlasio's proposal. Brother Steve Malone explained to msnbc how the mayor's proposal to replace the hoses with replica antique cars won't fly:

...each carriage driver with a medallion would have the option to operate one of the cars–but with a catch: the 68 drivers who own a medallion to operate a carriage have already purchased them, but they would have to buy a new medallion to run an electric car. 

According to Stephen Malone, spokesman for the Horse Carriage, that could cost up to $175,000. The medallion he uses for his horse and carriage has been in his family since his father began driving in 1964.   

“They are going to saddle me with an unfounded, untested business and stick me with the debt for it,” Malone told msnbc.  

You can help our equestrian brothers and sisters in New York by clicking here.

Today's Teamster News 01.04.14

Mayor De Blasio’s Horse Policy Is a Pile of Manure (opinion) Daily Beast   ...Bill de Blasio’s first priority as New York City’s leader is to ban horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. Are you kidding?...
US economy losing 'up to a $1bn a week' after jobless benefits cut  The Guardian   ...The US economy is losing up to a billion dollars a week because of the “fiscally irresponsible” decision to end long-term unemployment benefits, a Harvard economist said on Friday...
Worrisome Spike in Student Loan Write-Offs  American Banker   ...Between January and August of last year, lenders wrote off $13.6 billion in student loan debt, a 46 percent increase from the same period of 2012 and the highest amount for this period in any of the last eight years, according to the data from Equifax (See chart 2)...
Beanie Baby Billionaire Seeks to Avoid Jail for Tax Crime  Bloomberg   ...H. Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Baby plush toys, asked a judge to give him probation, not prison, for evading taxes on secret Swiss accounts that held as much as $107 million...
Is the NSA Spying on Congress?  Sen. Bernie Sanders   ...U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today asked the National Security Agency director whether the agency has monitored the phone calls, emails and Internet traffic of members of Congress and other elected officials...
Secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Revealed  Eugene Weekly   ...The TPP talks about a trade deal will govern 40 percent of U.S. imports and exports as well as affect copyrights, pharmaceuticals and more. They are being conducted in secret, and only a few portions of the agreement and memos about it have been leaked...
The secret trade deal that threatens Maine’s frail economy  Portland Phoenix   ...Dozens of shoe factories once employed 30,000 workers in Maine, making it the top shoe-producing state. What’s left of that workforce — several hundred New Balance employees — could soon be gone too, thanks to a massive free trade agreement that’s expected to eliminate a series of tariffs on imported footwear. And jobs may not be all the state has to lose...
Idaho to take over privately-run state prison  Associated Press   ...Idaho's governor says the corrections department will take over operation of the largest privately-run prison in the state after more than a decade of mismanagement and other problems at the facility. Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America has contracted with the state to run the prison since it was built in 1997...
Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin GOP Senator, Fights For A Seven-Day Workweek  Huffington Post   ...Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R) is attempting to roll back one of the state's progressive labor laws, arguing that workers should be allowed to work without a day off if they so choose...
Video shows businesses lobbying Rebecca Kleefisch for more tax breaks in closed-door meeting  Wisconsin State Journal   ...A recently released video of the Dec. 9 session at Beloit College shows Kleefisch and state Revenue Department Secretary Rick Chandler extolling state efforts to reduce taxes since Republicans took over state government in 2011, and saying they wanted private-sector ideas for another round of cuts...
Pot sales exceed $1 million on first day  9News.com   ...Pot shops did record sales compared to the "medical marijuana days" on Wednesday when recreational marijuana opened. Pot shop owners across Colorado believe they collectively made more than $1 million statewide...
Fun with Numbers  Sheila Kennedy   ...the folks who opposed Right to Work were right when they characterized the measure as “Right to Work for Less.”...

How to reverse Bloomberg-era inequality in NYC

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's wealth grew to $31 billion during his three terms, while poor people's lives grew more miserable. Al Jazeera reports:

After 12 years of Michael Bloomberg, family homelessness has increased dramatically, rents skyrocketed and the minimum wage froze for the past six years – all while the city's controverisal"stop-and-frisk" policy has been criticized for being disproportionatly applied on minorities and the poor.

New York Teamsters often disagreed with Bloomberg's efforts to increase inequality. They fought his job-killing contract provisions with school bus monitors, his ban on 16-oz. sodas, his tolerance for unequal pay for school safety agents, and his veto of mandatory paid sick leave. Teamster snowplow drivers bore the brunt of a smear campaign (until members of the Screen Actors Guild stood up for them) after Bloomberg botched the city's emergency response to a blizzard. And Teamster art handlers at Sotheby's were incensed by his girlfriend's high-handed treatment of them during a months-long lockout.

The new mayor, Bill de Blasio, has a chance to change the worship of Wall Street at the expense of ordinary New Yorkers. The Wall Street on Parade blog has some suggestions where he can start. We'll share a few with you here: 

• Remove Wall Street personnel from the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center. This high tech spy center, monitoring the comings and goings of law abiding citizens in the streets of Manhattan via over 4,000 street cameras is questionable in itself. Allowing staff from Wall Street firms under Federal criminal investigation to sit side by side with law enforcement is an outrage to a democratic society.
• The jailing of peaceful protestors must end and a new era of protecting and enshrining the right to peaceful assembly and protest must begin. This will require a careful and thoughtful vetting of the next Police Commissioner.
• Wall Street’s back-door money coming into the NYPD through its Foundation must end. No more lavish expense accounts for the Police Commissioner; no more $5 million grants from JPMorgan; no more gilded age balls with the social jet set. The NYPD serves the people of New York and its funding must come from all taxpayers with cronyism removed from the equation. The Foundation needs to die a quick death.

All good ideas. Read the whole thing here.

NYC union construction workers twice as likely to be African-American

A New York City construction worker who is union is twice as likely to be African-American as a New York City construction worker who is nonunion. 

That's the conclusion of the Economic Policy Institute in a recent study by Larry Mishel. The study shows the pattern is similar for the workforce living in the larger New York City metropolitan area.  

Conversely, New York City Latinos are less likely to belong to unions -- and more likely to be killed on the job. The Center for Popular Democracy studied OSHA statistics for New York City and discovered Latinos accounted for three-fourths of construction site deaths from 2003-11. According to Fox News Latino,

Construction safety advocates and a study by the New York State Trial Lawyers Association cited safety violations on job sites run by smaller, non-union contractors and an unwillingness by some undocumented workers to report violations as main reasons for the high number of deaths among Latino workers.

The two studies paint a picture of unions as beneficial to the safety and prosperity of New Yorkers (something we all knew already, right?).

An alliance of unions --including Teamsters Local 282 -- called Build Up NYC is advocating for a stronger and more vibrant middle-class in New York City. Build Up NYC is promoting development that pays workers good wages and maintains safe work sites. EPI's conclusions are welcome news for the alliance and for New York's middle class.

NYC Teamsters make splash with campaign to fix commercial waste industry

Teamsters JC 16 President George Miranda and Teamster brothers and sisters

New York City welcomed the news yesterday of the Teamsters' new coalition to reform the commercial waste industry, an alliance that includes small businesses fed up with shakedowns and environmentalists fed up with fighting air pollution.

Sean Campbell, president of Teamsters Local 813, told a news conference yesterday what union members are fed up with. The Epoch Times reported on his remarks:

Growing up, jobs in the sanitation industry were good paying jobs with good pension plans. Now the majority of private owners pay very low wages and little in benefits. Many break the most basic health and safety regulations.

At the same news conference, Teamsters International Vice President George Miranda (and Teamsters Joint Council 16 president) called on the city to work with unions and community groups to tackle commercial waste in New York City.

It's time we open a new phase of recycling with New York's commercial carters.

Errol Louis with Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs
New York, which endorsed the coalition's report.

New York City's beloved Daily News columnist Errol Louis wholeheartedly endorsed the plan by what he called "an unlikely environmental activists and neighborhood groups." Louis explained what's wrong with New York's commercial waste industry:

...the commercial trash removal system has been an environmental and economic scandal for decades. In 1996, prosecutors indicted dozens of carting company executives, accusing them of running the garbage firms as branches of the Genovese and Gambino crime organizations. The mayor at the time, Rudy Giuliani, created a government agency, the Trade Waste Commission (now called the Business Integrity Commission), to weed out the crooks. 

But Rudy didn’t kill the beast. This year, federal prosecutors arrested 30 waste haulers, calling them members of the Gambino, Genovese and Luchese crime families and accusing them of racketeering — everything from loansharking to shaking down legitimate businesses and dividing up the New York area into territories controlled by different mobsters. 

To make matters worse, according to Transform Don’t Trash, a large number of commercial waste companies compete in the same neighborhoods, with multiple diesel-powered trucks running up and down the same streets, spewing soot and leaving potholes and chewed-up pavement in their wake. A lack of oversight leaves low-level waste workers badly underpaid and exposed to poisons, disease and accidents, making trash collection and removal one of the 10 deadliest occupations in America. 

And most of the garbage finally arrives in low-income, outer-borough neighborhoods. Manhattan, which generates 41% of the city’s commercial waste, has only 2% of the city’s solid waste transfer stations and 3% of the recycling facilities, according to the coalition.

Today's Teamster News 09.11.13

Bankruptcy Court Judge Reopens Auction To Sell Allied  teamster.org   ...A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge on Monday, September 9 granted the company’srequest to reopen the auction to sell the assets of Allied Systems Holdings and related companies. The ruling gives Teamster-represented Jack Cooper Transport the chance to show it is best suited to keep Allied operating into the future...
Coalition for Healthy Ports: NJ Governor Christie Vetoes Pro-Worker Legislation  teamster.org   ...It’s a shame that the Governor allows the pervasive practice of worker misclassification to go on unchecked in New Jersey when so many workers, and the state, are being cheated...
Teamsters say Ottumwa bus strike possible  KTVO   ...Local union officials say a disruption in bus service that provides transportation to Ottumwa school students may be coming in the near future...
JOLTS Shows Jobs Static Again - 3.1 Unemployed Per Opening in July 2013  Economic Populist   ...If one takes the official broader definition of unemployment, or U-6, the ratio becomes 6* unemployed people per each job opening...
Good Help Isn't Hard to Find  Center for Economic and Policy Research   ...people with college educations are increasingly turning to fast food restaurants for employment...
Republicans Try to Cut Food Stamps as 15% of U.S. Households Face Hunger  The Atlantic   ...A  GOP plan would yank federal food help from some 6 million people. Meanwhile, 49 million Americans live in households that have trouble putting meals on the table...
The Cost of Cash, for the Rich and the Poor  The New Yorker   ...In the U.S., the poorest individuals surveyed spend an average of more than three times as much as the wealthiest ones to access cash—specifically, about eighty-one cents a month for those earning under twenty-one thousand dollars annually, compared with twenty-five cents for those earning more than a hundred thousand dollars...
Banks Seen at Risk Five Years After Lehman Collapse  Bloomberg   ...While the amount of capital at the six largest U.S. lenders has almost doubled since 2008, policy makers and some Wall Street veterans say that’s not enough. They see a system still too leveraged, complicated and interconnected to withstand a panic, and regulators ill-equipped to head one off -- the same conditions that led to the last crisis...
Student loan bubble ready to burst  Daily Kos   ... JP Morgan pulling out of a bubble market after several years of parabolic increases in debt has caused many people to recall the smart money leaving the subprime housing market in 2006-2007 just before the entire financial system imploded...
In Mexico, self-defense groups battle a cartel  Washington Post   ...An audacious band of citizen militias battling a brutal drug cartel in the hills of central Mexico is becoming increasingly well-armed and coordinated in an attempt to end years of violence, extortion and humiliation...
French unions hold pension protests  The Guardian   ...Let by the hardline CGT union, demonstrations will take place in 180 locations across France - as workers show their anger against Hollande's proposal to make them pay larger contributions and wait longer to collect their pensions...
MURPHY’S LAW The Debtor Governor  Urban Milwaukee   ...Figures from non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau figures show Walker’s debt level the worst since 1970...
De Blasio First in Mayoral Primary; Unclear if He Avoids Runoff  New York Times   ...Bill de Blasio, whose campaign for mayor of New York tapped into a city’s deepening unease with income inequality and aggressive police practices, captured far more votes than any of his rivals in the Democratic primary on Tuesday...
Bikers denied no-stop permit for 9/11 rally through D.C. but will ride anyway  Washington Times   ...The group said in a statement Sunday that D.C. officials denied their request for a special nonstop ride through town with a waiver for red lights, stop signs and other traffic signals. “What could have been a one or two hour ride through will now likely be an all day event,” the group said...

Today's Teamster News 04.22.13

Teamsters to Help Stop Protest of Campbell Funeral  Medford Patch   ...Teamsters Local 25 has encouraged off-duty members to go to Medford Monday morning to prevent the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church from picketing the funeral of Krystle Campbell...
Texas Fertilizer Company Didn't Heed Disclosure Rules Before Blast  Reuters   ...The fertilizer plant that exploded on Wednesday, obliterating part of a small Texas town and killing at least 14 people and injuring 200, had last year been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security...
Victims Leader Assassinated in Colombia  Justice for Colombia   ...Ana Isabel Gomez Perez, the leader of the Committee of Victims of Violence in Cordoba (COMFAVIC), was killed in a rural region of Cordoba by two men on motorcycles. Her daughter, who was with her at the time of her murder, escaped the April 15th attack unhurt...
Rail Traffic Continues To Trend Lower  Business Insider   ...Recent rail trends have weakened substantially from very strong levels earlier this year...
Americans Can't Stop Talking About Income Inequality, But No One Is Doing Anything About It   Business Insider   ...The US has the highest level of income gap of any of the advanced countries, with the top 1% capturing over 90% of the income growth, with the continual “hollowing out of the middle and increasing poverty at the bottom”…
Keeping Jobs in Colorado  Trade Reform   ...A measure to make sure more Colorado taxpayer dollars stay in Colorado, supporting Colorado businesses and putting Coloradans to work, passed its first legislative test today...
City Report Shows More Were Near Poverty in 2011  New York Times   ...The rise in New York City’s poverty rate as a result of the recession has apparently eased, but not before pushing nearly half of the city’s population into the ranks of the poor or near-poor in 2011, according to an analysis by the Bloomberg administration...
Update from the midwest subsidiary of Koch Industries, formerly known as the state of Wisconsin  Wisconsin State Journal   ...WI Republicans were supposed to turn over state computerized redistricting files to Democrats for review, but thousands of files were deleted before the handover. Democrats are suing... 
Florida sues BP, Halliburton over 2010 oil spill  CNN   ...The state of Florida on Saturday filed a lawsuit against BP and Halliburton over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The suit argues that Florida is entitled to the revenues it lost because of the spill...
Teamsters Participate in Rally to Stop Right-to-Work Legislation in Pennsylvania  Chambersburg Public Opinion Online   …Members of Teamsters Local 776 in Harrisburg were among the marchers who sang, chanted and displayed their handmade signs at a rally in Chambersburg Saturday to raise awareness for what right-to-work legislation would do (or not) for union and non-union people...

Today's Teamster News 01.25.13

U.S. business urges Obama to pursue new trade negotiating power  Reuters  ...A leading U.S. business group urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to build on trade successes of the past two years by seeking legislation that would allow him to submit trade deals to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without amendments...
Senate Leaders Finalize Scaled-Back Filibuster Deal  Talking Points Memo  ...The final details of the deal struck by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), which make only minor changes to the filibuster rules in the Senate, show why leading reformers are so disappointed in the outcome...
U.S.weekly jobless claims drop to 5-year low of 330,000  AP  ...The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest level in five years, evidence that employers are cutting fewer jobs and may step up hiring…
Data Points to Slow Recovery in Euro Zone   New York Times  ...The euro zone economy took a step closer to recovery this month as the rate of decline in the bloc’s private sector eased more than expected, a business survey showed on Thursday...
Spanish Jobless Rate Hits Record  Bloomberg  ...Spanish unemployment rose to a record in the final quarter of 2012 as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government imposed the deepest budget cuts in the country’s democratic history. The number of jobless approached 6 million people, or 26.02 percent, from 25.01 percent in the previous three months...
GOP senators seek constitutional amendment on union elections  Northwest Indiana Times ...Having prevailed last year in putting right-to-work into state law, some Republican senators now want to amend the Indiana Constitution to make it even more difficult for labor unions to organize...On a party-line vote Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate Pensions and Labor Committee approved a proposed constitutional amendment requiring secret ballots be used for any union representation decision...
Virginia Republicans move forward on plan to give GOP more electoral votes  The Hill  ...Republicans in the Virginia state Senate are moving forward with a plan that would give the GOP presidential nominee a big boost at winning most of the state's electoral votes even if the Democratic candidate won the statewide vote...
California unions grow, bucking U.S. trend  LA Times  ...The latest snapshot of the U.S. working class shows that unions are in trouble...But California and a few nearby states in the Southwest are showing a vastly different picture - labor's ranks are on an upswing...
Union leader: We don’t like the Republic Airlines deal, but we expected it  Dallas Morning News  ...Tony Gutierrez, who heads the Air Line Pilots Association unit at American Eagle, criticized American Airlines’ deal to send commuter-airline flying to Republic Airlines. But, the chairman of ALPA’s Eagle master executive council, told ALPA members that the deal like this was expected...
New York City school bus strike continues as feds investigate  Queens Chronicle  ...Washington may soon intervene in the school bus strike that has left parents of about 150,000 New York City school children scrambling for alternative transportation since last week...
Teamsters forced to authorize bus driver strike  People's World  ...The unyielding bargaining stance of a private school bus company in South Carolina forced two groups of Charleston-area school bus drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 509, into unanimous strike authorization votes...
SC Board of Education Authorizes Strikebreaking Bus Drivers  North Charleston Patch  ...The State Board of Education has unanimously authorized an emergency measure to aid in student transportation in two districts with privatized school bus workforces that are threatening to strike. The districts have contracted with private company Durham School Services to provide transportation services. Durham's employees are unionized under Teamsters 509 and authorized a strike last week and this week as negotiations with the company stalled...