Today's Teamster News 01.11.16

TEAMSTERS
Local 727 Members Overwhelmingtly Ratify Coca-Cola Refreshments Contract  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local 727 members voted by a 17-to-1 margin on Sunday, Jan. 10, to overwhelmingly ratify a new three-year contract with Coca-Cola Refreshments in Niles and Alsip, Ill. The agreement provides annual wage increases, retroactivity and improved health and welfare benefits for 319 Coca-Cola production and warehouse workers and transport drivers...
Coca-Cola workers overwhelmingly approve 'strong' contract  Chicago Tribune  ...Coca-Cola workers who went on strike for nearly a month at two Chicago-area production plants approved a new three-year contract Sunday that includes annual wage hikes and better health benefits, bringing an end to contentious negotiations. Members of Teamsters Local 727 voted 170-10 to approve the contract offer from Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Refreshments, the union announced...
BLET members ratify new contract with DM&E  BLE-T.org  ...Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) ratified a new hourly-rate collective bargaining agreement with the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railway (DM&E) on November 30, 2015. The agreement governs rates of pay and work rules for approximately 300 locomotive engineers, assistant engineers, conductors and brakemen. It runs through December 31, 2019...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Brazil unions, Kirchnerite leaders blast ‘austerity measures, repression’  Buenos Aires Herald  ...As anger continued to rise yesterday over the sacking of between 12,000 and 15,000 state workers by President Mauricio Macri’s administration, Kirchnerite lawmakers and union representatives accused the government of deliberate repression and of trying to implement harsh austerity measures.
“The model of austerity and economic concentration can only be implemented with repression and shielding by the media,” Andrés “Cuervo” Larroque...
Portugal's socialist government restores holidays cut during austerity drive  The Guardian  ...The Portuguese government has restored four public holidays cut in the previous administration’s attempt to boost productivity. The new socialist government won parliament’s approval to discard one of the most unpopular legacies of a recent austerity drive and bring back the holidays cut two years ago...
Canada potato chip boss to workers: “Screw you and your f**king union”  People's World  ...On Tuesday morning, half of the employees at the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company walked off the job and hit the picket lines. The workers, who are members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1288P, have had their union certified for more than two years but have yet to conclude a first contract with their employer...
TPP fight kicks off  Politico  ...After the prologue of business endorsements last week, what could be the last big battle over the finalized Trans-Pacific Partnership kicks off this week. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama will make his pitch for the Asia-Pacific pact in his final State of the Union address to the nation, which will be followed by three days of testimony at the U.S. International Trade Commission...
Trans-Pacific Partnership will barely benefit Australia, says World Bank report  Sydney Morning Herald  ...Australia stands to gain almost nothing from the mega trade deal sealed with 11 other nations including United States, Japan, and Singapore, the first comprehensive economic analysis finds. Prepared by staff from the World Bank, the study says the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would boost Australia's economy by just 0.7 per cent by the year 2030. The annual boost to growth would be less than one half of one 10th of 1 per cent...
How Obama is using the world’s biggest tech show as a political opportunity  Washington Post  ...President Obama dispatched his top trade negotiator to Las Vegas on Thursday to talk up the benefits of a major multilateral deal on international business before a number of tech companies, in hopes that the companies will pressure their representatives in Washington to vote for the trade agreement when the time comes. The trade deal, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups...
U.S., EU Look to Conclude TTIP Talks in 2016  BNA  ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations are expected to kick into high gear in 2016, with both sides doubling down on trying to finish talks during the last year of the Obama administration and rejecting the concept of a “TTIP light,” which officials said would be hard to sell to Congress and the European Parliament...
TransCanada the underdog in NAFTA gambit over Keystone XL rejection  Globe and Mail  ...Legal observers say that while TransCanada Corp. appears to have a strong case under the North American free-trade agreement to challenge Washington’s rejection of its Keystone XL pipeline, the Calgary-based company has just embarked on a long-haul process in which it remains an underdog...
In 2016, let's hope for better trade agreements - and the death of TPP  The Guardian  ...The US concluded secret negotiations on what may turn out to be the worst trade agreement in decades, the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and now faces an uphill battle for ratification, as all the leading Democratic presidential candidates and many of the Republicans have weighed in against it. The problem is not so much with the agreement’s trade provisions, but with the “investment” chapter...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
On right-to-work, other bills, W.Va. GOP may overturn vetoes  Times Union  ...Republican lawmakers are pushing to make West Virginia a right-to-work state and repeal its prevailing wage for public construction projects this legislative session. And though those policies don't sit well with Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, it may not matter. It only takes more 'yes' than 'no' votes in the Legislature to cement a policy into law after the governor vetoes a bill...
Voter ID case will go to trial in January  Winston-Salem Journal  ...North Carolina’s photo ID requirement will go on trial late this month in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem, a federal judge said in court papers filed Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder signed an order modifying the deadlines for discovery in the case so a trial on the photo ID requirement can begin Jan. 25. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others sued North Carolina in 2013...
Texas Governor Unveils Plan To Repeal The 20th Century  Think Progress  ...Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) proposed a series of constitutional amendments on Friday that would so fundamentally alter our founding document that it would be akin to throwing out the system of government established by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Abbott would place restrictions on the federal government that are so severe, both national child labor laws and anti-lynching laws would be unconstitutional under his proposals...
Branstad willing to consider Iowa minimum wage increase  WCF Courier  ... Gov. Terry Branstad said Thursday that he would be willing to consider an increase in the state minimum wage if a bill landed on his desk during the 2016 legislative session. In an interview, Branstad noted that a number of states have increased their minimum wages and that he signed the bill in 1989 that created Iowa’s minimum wage...
Giving Workers Paid Family Leave ‘Should Be Up To Employers,’ Kasich Says  Think Progress  ...Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich doesn’t think employers should be required to let their workers take paid time off for a new baby or serious illness. At a town hall on Friday in Hampton, New Hampshire, he was asked what he thinks about paid family leave. Rather than a government mandate ensuring that all Americans can take paid leave, Kasich said instead it should be “up to employers"...
Minimum wage rate likely to dominate NY 2016 session  NCPR  ...The New York State Senate held a hearing on raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Governor Cuomo and Assembly Democrats support the phase-in to a higher wage, but many Senators remain uncommitted. Senate Labor Committee Chair Jack Martins said he wants to broaden the discussion...
What Poor South Carolinians Think About The GOP’s Poverty Summit In South Carolina  Think Progress  ...Jeb Bush has called for the end of food stamps. Chris Christie has vetoed an increase in the minimum wage in his state and Ben Carson believes Obama is purposefully depressing the economy to keep people on welfare. These three presidential candidates, along with Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, and Mike Huckabee, will speak in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday at a summit on poverty...

U.S. LABOR
At the Supreme Court, a Big Threat to Unions  New York Times  ...A case the Supreme Court will hear on Monday morning threatens to undermine a four-decade-old ruling that upheld a key source of funding for public-sector unions, the last major bastion of unionized workers in America. In the 1977 decision Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the justices ruled that public unions may charge all employees — members and nonmembers alike — for the costs of collective bargaining related to their employment...
Conservative group nears big payoff in Supreme Court case  Politico  ...The conservative Bradley Foundation has spent millions over three decades to smash labor unions. Now an investment that could barely buy a house in Washington may bring it closer to that goal than ever before.
The vehicle is a Supreme Court case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, to bar public employee unions from compelling payments from nonmembers...
USW workers to start voting on U.S. Steel contract  NWI Times  ...The United Steelworkers union is now mailing out ballots to U.S. Steel employees, including those at Gary Works, East Chicago Tin and the Midwest Plant in Portage. Steelworkers will get a week or two to cast their votes to ratify or reject a new contract with the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, after getting summaries of all the changes from the 2012 contract in the mail...
Judge grants Gerawan Farming access to labor board documents  Fresno Bee  ...A Sacramento Superior Court judge on Thursday partially granted Gerawan Farming Company’s request for documents related to an unfair labor practice complaint filed against it by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. The ALRB said the employee was fired for his support of the United Farm Workers union...
International Food Workers Show Solidarity with Chicago Nabisco Workers  AFL-CIO  ...The International Union of Food Workers (IUF) and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) have affirmed their solidarity with employees of Mondelēz International, the maker of Nabisco products, around the world. The state of Illinois has given Nabisco/Mondelēz millions of dollars in public assistance and tax breaks. BCTGM represents some 4,000 Mondelēz workers...
Multiple Jobholders Surge To Highest Since August 2008  Zero Hedge  ...The most troubling aspect of today's jobs report, and perhaps the clearest explanation why there was no wage growth in December, is that the number of multiple job holders soared by 324,000 bringing the total to 7.738 million. This was the highest since August 2008, which as a reminder is the month before the great financial crisis started...
The verdict on the “sharing” economy, from the 20% of Americans who’ve worked in it  QZ.com  ...Just how big has the new digital economy—variously called “gig,” “on-demand,” “sharing,” and more—gotten? Big enough that one in five Americans say they’ve worked in it, and two in five say they’ve used services through it, according to a new survey from Burson-Marsteller...

If Most Of Your Income Comes From On-Demand Work, You’re Probably A Racial Minority  BuzzFeed  ...Of survey respondents who earn more than 40% of their income from on-demand work, a whopping 67% identify as racial minorities. (For context, in 2010 the U.S. Census found that only 36.3% of the U.S. population identifies as a racial minority, which means racial minorities are overrepresented among this sector of gig workers by nearly double.)...

Chris Christie goes back to what made him famous: Attacking teachers  Daily Kos  ...Chris Christie went back to his wheelhouse on Saturday. That means attacking teachers, the move that helped gain Christie his early YouTube fame as the kind of bully Republicans can love. “The single most destructive force for public education in this country is the teachers union,” Christie said at a Jack Kemp Foundation panel discussion...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Resistance & Outrage as Obama Administration Rounds Up Central American Refugees  Democracy Now  ...The new year began inauspiciously for many immigrant families. Federal agents have detained at least 121 people, including children, in raids as part of an operation to deport families fleeing violence in Central America. The raids took place mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas...
Postal Banking Worked—Let’s Bring It Back  (opinion) The Nation  ... Postal banking was the most successful experiment in financial inclusion in the United States—a problem in front of us once again. Postal banking brought millions of new immigrants and rural dwellers into the United States banking system. We are again facing the realization that our banking industry is unstable, but also, more crucially, that it is unfair...
Important Reminder in the Flint Crisis: People Still Have No Safe Water  Common Dreams  ...Republican Governor Rick Snyder on Thursday offered a second apology for the crisis, saying it's an "unfortunate situation." That problem, which began as the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, has left 200 children below the age of six with confirmed elevated blood lead levels...
"The National Shame Continues": On Its 14th Anniversary, Will Guantánamo Ever Be Closed?  Democracy Now  ...Today marks the 14th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo, where 107 prisoners are still being held. Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, represented Mohamedou Ould Slahi, one of the men still being held. Last year a book collecting Slahi’s diary writings became a surprise best-seller. "This is a shame that threatens more than ever to mar President Obama’s legacy"...
Small debt is destroying black lives: Institutional racism and the wealth gap America still refuses to acknowledge  Salon  ...It is not unreasonable to attribute these perils to discrimination. But there’s no question that the main reason small financial problems can have such a disproportionate effect on black families is that, for largely historical reasons rooted in racism, they have far smaller financial reserves to fall back on than white families...

The middle class deserves lawmakers' attention

America's middle-class majority is dead. And that's not likely to change unless dramatic economic changes are made, a new Pew Research Center report states.

The document shows that those making up the upper- and lower-income households overtook those in the middle in 2015, and Pew said it could be a tipping point for the U.S. demographically away from middle-class workers to the nation's most wealthy.

A summary of the survey tells the story:

[T]he nation's aggregate household income has substantially shifted from middle-income to upper-income households, driven by the growing size of the upper-income tier and more rapid gains in income at the top. Fully 49% of U.S. aggregate income went to upper-income households in 2014, up from 29% in 1970. The share accruing to middle-income households was 43% in 2014, down substantially from 62% in 1970.

And middle-income Americans have fallen further behind financially in the new century. In 2014, the median income of these households was 4% less than in 2000. Moreover, because of the housing market crisis and the Great Recession of 2007-09, their median wealth (assets minus debts) fell by 28% from 2001 to 2013.

This shouldn't be news to readers here. But this Pew study does detail the middle class's precipitous fall. In 1971, 61 percent of households made between two-thirds and double the nation's median income for a family of three. Now, it is just short of half.

Two major reasons for the demise of the middle class can be traced to the drop in unionization as well as lousy trade deals like NAFTA and the teed-up Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). As a result, there are fewer skilled labor jobs paying an honest wage that can support a family.

It's all part of the reason the Teamster debuted our "Let's Get America Working" platform back in September -- to push Congress to invest in this country so workers can get paid a good salary and the economy will benefit from the spending that results from increased incomes.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill took the first step last week when it approved a long-term transportation bill. But they have to follow that up by passing more policies that will help all Americans.

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...

Today's Teamster News 09.11.15

Teamsters
Hoffa Joins Congressional Leaders, Retirees at Rally to Stop Pension Cuts  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa joined Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), retiree advocates and hundreds of retirees on Capitol Hill today to call on Congress to protect the earned retirement benefits of millions of American retirees and workers. The “Keep Our Pension Promises Act” (KOPPA), sponsored by Sen. Sanders and Rep. Kaptur, would protect workers and retirees from cuts to their earned retirement benefits...
BMWED/Teamsters Organizes Maintenance of Way Workers On Indiana Railroad  Teamster.org  ...Twenty-four maintenance of way employees with The Indiana Railroad Company are the newest members of the BMWED, a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference, voting in a super-majority Sept. 2 to join our Union. The results of the vote were certified by the National Mediation Board Sept. 3. The new members are now a part of the BMWED's Allied Federation...
First Contract For Teamsters At Engineered Wire Products  Teamster.org  ...After voting to be represented by Teamsters Local 377 in Youngstown, Ohio, in March, more than 25 workers at Engineered Wire Products recently ratified their first collective bargaining agreement. The company produces rebar used in cement construction projects as well as specialty wire products for other uses in the industry...
Fresh from car-hauler talks, Teamsters back UAW  JOC  ...The Teamsters union is lending its horsepower to United Auto Workers Union efforts to secure a contract for more than 140,000 workers employed by the largest U.S. automakers. International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa promised on Labor Day that unionized car-haulers will support the UAW if the union calls a strike against any of Detroit's Big Three car makers...
Building Trades’ Bill to End Wage Disparities for CA Cement Drivers Clears Senate  We Party Patriots  ...By a 24-13 tally the California State Senate voted in favor of Assembly Bill 219, which closes loopholes that previously exempted some drivers of ready-mixed concrete from receiving the prevailing wage on public works projects.  The bill was introduced by Assemblymember Tom Daly (D-Anaheim) and was sponsored by the State Building Trades, the Teamsters, and the California Labor Federation...
Union Pushes for Fair Efficiency Standards at Coca-Cola Warehouses in Chicago, Alsip  Local 727  ...Teamsters Local 727 will continue to fight any discipline Reyes management issues for not complying with efficiency standards until the union’s engineers complete independent testing at the Great Lakes Coca-Cola Division Chicago and Alsip warehouses. Local 727 submitted a request to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters asking for engineers to perform efficiency standards tests at the two locations, and now the union is waiting for the testing dates...

Global Labor & Trade
Senators urge hard line on auto trade talks  The Detroit News  ...Three senators urged the Obama administration to win more concessions for automakers as 12-nation trade talks may be getting closer to a deal. U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, wrote U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman urging the administration to take a hard line on auto issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The three urge him to negotiate an agreement that keeps U.S. tariffs on Japanese cars and trucks...
Trans-Pacific Partnership slammed by Unifor  CBC  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership would kill Canadian auto jobs says Unifor, the union that represents thousands of autoworkers in this country. The TPP is a proposed agreement between not only the 12 Pacific Rim countries at the table, but others who could join later - countries like China, India or the Philippines. In June, the prime minister called the deal "essential" for Canada...
NAFTA risks becoming collateral damage in Obama’s geopolitical plans  Globe and Mail  ...U.S. negotiators recently left their Canadian and Mexican counterparts gobsmacked by a proposal that would allow auto parts with as little as 30-per-cent content from Trans-Pacific Partnership countries to enter North America tariff-free, a development that would reverse two decades of supply-chain integration on this continent and undermine the billions of dollars suppliers have invested in plants in Canada and Mexico...
The TPP Will Finish What Chile’s Dictatorship Started  The Nation  ...The global rentier class that enriches itself off the neoliberal property-rights regime had, a decade ago, hoped to lock-down Latin America under the hemisphere-wide Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). But that scheme fell apart with the return of Latin America’s post-Washington Consensus left. So Washington came back with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country treaty—including Chile, Peru, and Mexico—vigorously promoted by the Obama administration...
Uruguay’s Vazquez Casts Doubt on Services Trade Pact  Herald Tribune  ...President Tabare Vazquez, who pulled Uruguay out of negotiations on the proposed international Trade in Services Agreement, known as TISA, said Thursday the accord may never become a reality. “Let’s try to describe things as they are,” Vazquez said to reporters. “TISA does not exist"...
Anti-Union Violence in Honduras: Sixth Time this Year  Solidarity Center  ...A second Honduran union leader and participant in the Network Against Anti-Union Violence in Honduras has been threatened with death if he does not stop his union-related work, according to the human rights group Aci Participa. Tomás Membreño Pérez, president of the agricultural workers union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria (STAS), received death threats by phone and on Facebook in recent days...
Ford workers strike at Brazil factory to protest job cuts  Automotive News  ...Workers at a Ford Motor Co. plant in Brazil began an open-ended strike on Thursday to protest job cuts, adding to labor tensions that have rattled the country's auto industry in the midst of its worst crisis in nearly two decades. The local metalworkers union said about 4,300 employees at Ford's Sao Bernardo do Campo plant, which makes trucks and compact passenger cars, went on strike...

State & Living Wage Battles
New York OKs $15 minimum wage for fast-food workers  USA Today  ...New York state will gradually raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 an hour — the first time any state has set the minimum that high. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration formally approved the increase Thursday, a move the Democratic governor announced at a labor rally with Vice President Joe Biden. Cuomo said he would work to pass legislation setting a $15 minimum for all industries...
Nixon announces drop in workers compensation rates  St. Louis Public Radio  ...Missouri businesses can expect to pay less for workers compensation insurance. During a visit to Nelson Mulligan Carpenters Training Center in Affton on Thursday, Gov. Jay Nixon announced that a variety of Missouri businesses would see a drop in their workers comp rates. Companies pay for this insurance to avoid paying big costs when a worker gets hurt. he highest decrease will come in the contracting industry, which Nixon attributed to investments in worker safety...
Dozens of workers to strike at Sea-Tac Airport Friday over minimum wage  Seattle Times  ...Dozens of baggage handlers, cabin cleaners and others who work for Menzies Aviation at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are expected to walk off their jobs Friday, protesting what they call unfair labor practices and demanding to be paid a $15 minimum wage. Menzies is a contractor for Alaska Airlines, providing ramp agents, baggage handlers, and other such service workers...
Could a Backroom Political Deal Stop Prevailing Wage Repeal?  CapCon  ...Unions are trying to cut a deal with business groups to prevent a repeal of the state’s prevailing wage law, according to a news account out of Lansing. The idea is that business groups would use their influence on Republican lawmakers to halt a repeal measure that is likely to succeed in exchange for the unions dropping a proposed ballot initiative to nearly double the state’s main business tax...
Puerto Rican government unveils anti-worker austerity plan  WSWS.org  ...On Wednesday September 9, Governor Alejandro Padilla announced his government’s plan to deal with Puerto Rico’s historic debt crisis. The plan is a frontal attack on education, health care, jobs and living standards. The five-year plan, elaborated by Padilla and the Popular Party government, contains an extensive series of budget cuts to deal with the Island’s $72 billion public debt...
Scott Walker's Day One Plan to "Wreak Havoc" Lifted from ALEC  PR Watch  ...If Scott Walker is elected president, he will enact American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) policies on the first day of his presidency. Walker was an ALEC member as a state legislator, and according to outlets like The Guardian, Walker could be "The First ALEC President." In a speech today at Eureka College, Walker pledged to "wreak some havoc on Washington," and promised his first day in office would be "one of the busiest the White House has seen in years"...
John Kasich Was Against Poor People Before He Was for Them  Mother Jones  ...The tax policies Kasich has championed and implemented since he was elected governor in 2010 left Ohio's low-income folks worse off than they were decades ago. His economic policies have led to growing inequality in a state that should be in recovery. Median household incomes began falling in 2007 and continued to drop during Kasich's governorship...

U.S. Labor
Haggen employees' union prepared to fight to keep contract  Bellingham Herald  ...The union representing Haggen’s employees says it will fight to keep its contract as the company reorganizes after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a letter sent to Haggen employees Wednesday night, Sept. 9, UFCW 21 President Todd Crosby said the union is coordinating effors for all the local chapters up and down the West Coast in order to have a focused response and keeping a united front...
'Won't Back Down': Seattle Teacher Strike Continues for Third Day  Common Dreams  ...'The teachers remain on strike. The picket lines are united. And support among parents is strong.' That is the latest message from Seattle Education Association on Friday as classes were cancelled for the third day with the continuation of the strike which is demanding an unfreezing of wages, the end of unreasonable standardized testing for students, a more fair evaluation system for teachers, and new policies to increase equity of opportunity for the student body...
AFSCME, Rauner reach another deal to keep talking  Illinois News Network  ...Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration and the state’s biggest public-employee union have reached their third pact to continue contract talks without threat of strike or lockout. This time, the extension or tolling agreement does not include an end date. Instead, both the administration and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 agree to stay at the table until they reach impasse...
UAW contract negotiations are getting down to the wire  Business Journal  ...The current collective bargaining agreement between the United Automobile Workers and Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Chrysler is set to expire Sept. 14, and the parties appear calm and confident even though there still hasn’t been a lead company named for the negotiations. The UAW typically chooses one of the three automakers to serve as the lead for negotiations...
SEIU jubilant over proposed labor contract with Oregon public universities  Register-Guard  ...Some 1,600 University of Oregon classified employees will receive 2.25 percent pay increases this year and next, and many will also receive annual so-called “step” increases of up to 4.9 percent, under a tentative deal announced Thursday. The deal covers 4,400 classified employees in more than 270 types of jobs at the state’s seven public universities, including the UO...
Union president voices concerns over potential RFTA negotiator  Aspen Daily News  ...The president of a local transit union went before the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority Board on Thursday morning to voice the group’s displeasure with the potential hiring of controversial chief negotiator in upcoming collective bargaining talks. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1774 is seeking quicker wage progression for its members...

Social Justice & Other News
Most Americans differ with Trump on immigration, poll shows  NJ.com  ...Does illegal immigration lead to more violent crime? Should the U.S. build a wall to keep unauthorized immigrants out? While GOP front-runner Donald Trump has argued both questions get a resounding "yes," a new poll by Monmouth University finds most Americans see it differently than the real estate tycoon...
Dems filibuster Iran vote  The Hill  ...Senate Democrats held ranks Thursday and blocked a resolution disapproving the Iran nuclear deal, handing President Obama a major political victory. Only a few months earlier, some Senate opponents of the deal predicted they would be able to muster 67 votes to override a presidential veto...
As Refugee Aid Falters, European Leaders Pursue Military Action at Sea  Common Dreams  ...As their humanitarian response to the ongoing refugee crisis falters, European leaders are pressing the United Nations Security Council to authorized an escalated military force to pursue so-called "human smugglers" in the Mediterranean Sea's international waters. The effort to advance the draft resolution is, according to Foreign Policy, being led by Britain, whose government has come under fire for "turning its back" on people seeking refuge...
California Police Ransacked Public Apartments Without Warrants Under ‘Neighborhood Blitz’ Program  Think Progress  ...In an invasive, war-like operation known as the Neighborhood Blitz, police officers in Stockton, California illegally searched the apartments of poor minorities and physically disabled people, according to a class action lawsuit filed Wednesday. Under the guise of standard housing inspections, armed officers routinely burst into homes with little to no warning, ransacked the premises without warrants...
Robert Reich: Americans Obsess Over the Sex Lives of Strangers While CEOs Rob the Country Blind  Alternet  ...At a time many Republican presidential candidates and state legislators are furiously focusing on private morality – what people do in their bedrooms, contraception, abortion, gay marriage – America is experiencing a far more significant crisis in public morality. CEOs of large corporations now earn 300 times the wages of average workers. Insider trading is endemic on Wall Street, where hedge-fund and private-equity moguls are taking home hundreds of millions...
The Government Might Finally Get Tough on Wall Street Fraud   The Atlantic  ...On Wednesday, the Justice Department issued a new policy regarding the prosecution of white-collar criminals. Amid post-recession complaints from the public that the Wall Street executives responsible for the crash escaped criminal charges and jail time—and that in these seven years Wall Street hasn’t cleaned up its act—the new policy prioritizes the prosecution of executives involved in fraud...

Who's that country making Oreo cookies?

Here's a not-so-tasty reminder of the damage bad trade deals can bring to the U.S. -- the production of Oreos are moving south of the border.

Starting soon, as a result of the firm’s drive for higher profits and lower wages, your Oreo Cookies will be made in Mexico, not Chicago. And it’s all thanks to NAFTA.

That’s the unpleasant news -- minus the NAFTA reference, of course --  that Mondelez, Inc., delivered to workers at its Southwest Side plant on Aug. 24. Bakery Confectionery and Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) President David Durkee says approximately 600 workers -- the Oreo production line there -- would lose their jobs. Some other product lines for Mondelez, which used to be Kraft Foods, would stay open at the Chicago plant, its largest in the U.S.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, Durkee said Mondelez demanded $46 million in annual savings from the union workers. It was an “offer,” Durkee added, calculated to be rejected.

Mondelez basically wanted the Chicago cuts to not only boost its profits “but pay for the Mexican workers’ wages, too,” the union says. And it could demand the cuts and make the move, Durkee said, thanks to NAFTA, the 20-year-old controversial U.S.-Canada-Mexico “free trade” pact that has become a model for other such agreements.

BCTGM calculated that $46 million would equal wage and benefit cuts of $22-$29 an hour for the workers at the plant, where BCTGM Local 300 represents all 1,000-plus workers. That compares to $2 an hour Mondelez plans to pay workers in Salinas, Mexico, to produce Oreo cookies. The firm announced it will invest $130 million in what it calls “more efficient” production lines in Salinas.

NAFTA and other succeeding trade pacts, including the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), trash U.S. workers, Durkee told Obama. The pacts promote “a pernicious corporate business model predicated on the maximization of profits and executive compensation through elimination of good middle-class jobs at U.S. factories concurrent with expansion of production in unregulated factories in very low-wage countries.”

Mondelez, Durkee noted, is a profitable $35 billion worldwide firm whose CEO earned $21 million in total compensation last year. Durkee asked Obama “to reach out to Mondelez” corporate leaders and “ask them to rescind their decision and create, not cut, U.S. middle-class jobs.”

It's because of business decisions like these that workers need to be wary of deals like the TPP. More jobs are sure the flee overseas if the pact is ultimately approved.

• Press Associates contributed to this report.

Today's Teamster New 09.09.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Let’s get America working again  The Detroit News  ...Everyday Americans are facing increased challenges at work and at home. The outsourcing of millions of good-paying jobs overseas has led to lower paychecks here in the U.S. That, in turn, has made it more difficult for many workers to provide for their families. The Teamsters, however, have a plan to help turn the tide. Called “Let’s Get America Working,” it will encourage both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to endorse a pro-worker platform. At the center of the campaign is the need for this country to invest in infrastructure...
Possible bus strike looms in Middle Country district  Long Island News 12  ...A potential bus strike in the Middle Country School District has parents worrying about possible transportation disruptions this week. Timothy Lynch, the president of the Teamsters union that represents bus company workers, says they have been trying for months to come to an agreement with the Baumann and Sons bus company, which includes ACME buses...
School bus strike could affect dozens of LI districts  Newsday  ...A labor dispute between one of Long Island's largest school bus operators and its drivers has some parents worried about a potential strike if the parties fail to reach a resolution at a federal mediation meeting Wednesday. Timothy Lynch is president of Teamsters Local 1205, which represents bus drivers who work for Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, ACME Buses...
Strike update: Sun Tran and Teamsters resume talks  Arizona Daily Star  ...The Teamsters and Professional Transit Management, which operates Sun Tran, met with a federal mediator Tuesday. Neither side would discuss the talks. They did not meet for three days during the Labor Day weekend. The Tucson City Council will get a report on the strike and Sun Tran management and operations at its 1:30 p.m. meeting Wednesday at City Hall, 255 W. Alameda...
Alton Agreements with AFSCME, Teamsters Pending  RiverBender.com  ...New agreements between the City of Alton and two of its collective bargaining units will be up for final approval at tonight’s City Council meeting.  The Alton City Council Committee of the Whole gave preliminary approval to contracts with the Teamsters and AFSCME last night.  Both bargaining units have already ratified the contracts...

Global Labor & Trade
Japan PM: One more round of TPP ministers' talks to lead to agreement  Reuters  ...Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nations are at a stage where one more round of ministerial talks will lead to an agreement on remaining issues, according to the text of a message presented at an event organized by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. Japan and the United States will hold working-level bilateral talks on auto issues from Wednesday in Washington. Japan also plans to meet negotiators from Canada and Mexico...
Mitch McConnell Fights For Tobacco Interests In Trans-Pacific Trade Deal  Forbes  ...There is nothing good about tobacco. It’s addictive, poisonous and lethal. And it can damage the health of people who don’t use it. For those reasons, governments worldwide treat tobacco differently from other agricultural commodities. For example, the 12 governments negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership don’t want the agreement to give the American tobacco industry the same privileges it gives other industries...
Dem pans Obama's new trade liaison  The Hill  ...A House Democrat is calling on the Obama administration to provide more details about global trade agreements and dismissing efforts to create a special liaison to Congress. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Friday called Tim Reif’s appointment as the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) chief transparency officer this week "a meaningless response to my demands for greater congressional and public access”...
NAFTA auto parts makers mount drive to sweeten terms of TPP deal  Globe and Mail  ...The North American auto industry is increasing the pressure on Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to extract a better deal for NAFTA car makers from a proposed Pacific Rim trade pact. For the first time, auto parts makers in all three countries are speaking publicly with a united voice on the matter – with industry leaders urging Ottawa, Washington and Mexico City to resist Japan’s efforts to water down domestic content rules...
EC President Juncker Calls for Maximum Transparency in TTIP Deal  Sputnik  ...Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States, criticized for their confidentiality, should be transparent to the limit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday. TIP’s stated goal is to ease the flow of goods and services across the Atlantic. The pact seeks to create the world's largest free trade zone...
Melbourne tram workers to go on strike on Thursday as pay negotiations stall  The Guardian  ...Melbourne’s tram workers will go on strike again on Thursday, with neither the public transport union nor Yarra Trams willing to compromise over a pay dispute that has dragged on for months.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) is holding a four-hour stoppage between 10am and 2pm.
Yarra Trams held unsuccessful eleventh-hour talks with the union on Wednesday aimed at averting the industrial action...

State & Living Wage Battles
Ballot measure could rekindle right-to-work debate  Argus Leader  ...A proposed constitutional amendment could reignite a decades-cooled debate over South Dakota’s right-to-work law, a union representative said Tuesday. The measure, if signed by enough South Dakotans and approved by a majority of voters in 2016, could “give certain organizations the right to charge fees,” despite the state’s nearly 70-year-old right-to-work law...
Paid Sick Leave Is Fast Becoming A Right -- Not A Privilege  Huffington Post  ...It’s getting harder for your boss to get away with not offering paid sick leave. That’s of course good news for the many workers, mostly hourly and low-paid, who either lose money when they’re ill or wind up coming to work sick. On Labor Day, President Barack Obama announced that starting in 2017, federal contractors must provide workers with paid sick time. Three states and 15 municipalities passed sick leave laws this year and last year, including Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Philadelphia and Newark...
Can Scott Walker Save Himself?  The Atlantic  ...Scott Walker was in Wisconsin for one day last week, but—curiously for a governor who’s been criticized for being away from his home state—he did not show his face publicly. The Wisconsin governor’s presidential campaign is in free fall—a development that puzzles the state he has dominated...
It’s officially impossible to afford NYC rents on the minimum wage  Daily News  ...New York City has closed the door on minimum-wage workers. A study found there is not one Big Apple neighborhood where a worker earning the state minimum can afford the median rent. In fact, a New Yorker would need to make at least $38.80 an hour — or more than four times the $8.75 minimum wage — to afford the city’s median asking rent of $2,690...
More unions ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear pension payment case  NJ.com  ...Another 16 New Jersey public worker unions are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the state's highest court erred by declaring a pension funding agreement between the state and employees unenforceable. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers for 16 labor groups argued that the New Jersey Supreme Court should have applied the protections of the federal Contract Clause to the deal...

U.S. Labor
The Six-State Steelworker Fight Back Against Corporate Lockouts and Exploitation  In These Times  ...Instead of picnicking, Steelworkers in six states spent this Labor Day picketing the gates of a dozen Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) specialty mills. These 2,200 Steelworkers are not on strike. They never even took a strike vote to threaten a walkout. ATI locked them out of their jobs. ATI threw them out of the mills on Aug. 15...
UAW VPs stress patience as contract deadline looms  The Detroit News  ...The United Auto Workers will not release details of contract discussions with the Detroit automakers until tentative agreements are reached. That’s according to two separate messages directed at union workers Tuesday from UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who is overseeing talks with Fiat Chrysler, and UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, head of the union’s General Motors department...
A Teacher's Strike in Seattle  The Atlantic  ...Seattle teachers voted to go on strike Wednesday, the first day of school, over stalled contract negotiations with the city’s school district. “After bargaining until midnight Monday and for most of the day Tuesday, it was clear that a settlement wasn’t close,” the Seattle Education Association, the union that represents about 5,000 teachers, said in a statement...
UAW workers for Ford approve strike authorization  MLive  ...UAW workers for Ford became the last of the Big Three auto workers to give leadership permission to strike. The UAW's National Ford Department said more than 98 percent of its members approved the strike authorization, according to a statement. "I am pleased with both the high margin of support and high turnout as nearly 80 percent of our membership took part in the voting process," said Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president...
The Unionization of Digital Media  The Nation  ...The digital news team at Al Jazeera America announced last week that it wants to go union, following a string of similar campaigns in recent weeks by web-based journalists who have moved toward or formally voted to establish unions at The Guardian US, Vice, Salon, and Gawker. The organizing bump suggests that, while journalism faces a troubled future, on the labor front, there’s good news to tell...

Social Justice & Other News
ICE Program Focused On ‘National Security’ Detains Immigrants With Zero Criminal Convictions  Think Progress  ...Even as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Jeh Johnson has pledged to focus on undocumented immigrants who pose a “demonstrable risk to national security,” a new report shows that federal immigration officials continue to detain people with no criminal record at all. At least two-thirds of targets detained in April by local or state police departments on behalf of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency “had no criminal conviction of any type”... 
Scaring Up the Vote  Slate  ...GOP presidential contenders are blaming Black Lives Matter for crime. It’s a desperate attempt to frighten white voters into supporting them. National rates of violent crime are down to their lowest levels in a generation, with steep drops in gun homicide among all groups. And while violence is still a problem for isolated, low-income black Americans, the overall portrait is good...

Today's Teamster News 06.18.15

Teamsters
Drivers and Monitors with North River Collaborative Join Teamsters Local 653  Teamster.org  ...Drivers and monitors with Massachusetts’s North River Collaborative have joined Teamsters Local 653 in South Easton, Mass. The 74 workers transport students with special needs and are based in Abington and Rockland, Mass. The workers’ election at North River Collaborative was conducted through card-check...
Walmart still has a ways to go to help workers  Teamster Nation  ...The world's largest retailer still has a long way to go to bring its workforce practices up to an acceptable level. Walmart workers and those in its food supply chain are forced to put up with a number labor issues. Teamsters are familiar with several of these situations. For instance, the union has and continues to fight the practices of salad producer Taylor Farms and organic food supplier United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI)...

Global Labor & Trade
Trade pact proponents claim new momentum  Politico  ...the Democratic president and the two Republican leaders embarked on their most intense bipartisan negotiating spree in recent memory. The back channeling, combined with some complex procedural machinations, might allow the House and Senate to clear both Trade Promotion Authority and Trade Adjustment Assistance before the Fourth of July recess...
Obama, GOP set to jam House Dems on trade  CNN  ... President Barack Obama and top Republican congressional leaders joined together Wednesday to make an all-out push to convince pro-trade Democrats in the House and Senate to resurrect his trade agenda. Legislation to help pave the way for a major trade deal with roughly a dozen countries was left in limbo after a massive block of House Democrats ignored a personal appeal from the President and voted down the trade package last Friday...
Fast-track trade bill to get another vote in Congress on Thursday  LA Times  ...Trying to salvage President Obama's trade agenda, Republican leaders in Congress plan to vote again Thursday on legislation giving the president fast-track negotiating authority, sidestepping House Democrats’ opposition and leaving the future of a worker-assistance program uncertain...
House to vote for a second time on fast-track for Obama  The Hill  ...The House will vote Thursday on a stand-alone measure to grant President Obama fast-track trade authority. The decision follows a flurry of activity at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, as the White House and congressional Republicans rally around a strategy for moving forward with the trade package...
Karen Bass And Keith Ellison Just Threw A Wrench Into The Republican Trade Strategy  Huffington Post  ...Key Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), sent a letter on Wednesday to Senate leaders saying they do not support a new House Republican plan designed to ease the passage of President Barack Obama's trade agenda. Wednesday's letter, from Reps. Bass, G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), makes that goal harder to achieve...
TPP Versus NAFTA  (opinion) New York Times  ...Many people — myself included — thought that TPP would, in the end, follow the model of NAFTA: a Democratic president would push the agreement through Congress, but the bulk of the votes would be Republican. But it doesn’t seem to be going that way. Why?...
Greek government supporters rally in Athens against austerity  Reuters  ...A few thousand demonstrators rallied in front of the parliament in Athens on Wednesday to protest against austerity and back the leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in its standoff with Greece's international creditors. The demonstration, which appeared to be made up mainly of supporters of the ruling Syriza party, came as pressure piled on Tsipras' government to accept creditors' demands...
An anti-austerity rebellion ramps up in the UK  Aljazeera America  ...On Saturday tens of thousands of people will march through London and Glasgow to demand an end to austerity and increases in spending and investment. The protest in London has been organized by the People’s Assembly, a left-wing campaign group that eschews formal political party ties...
Dominicans of Haitian Descent About to Be Deported  Solidarity Center  ...Hundreds of thousands of workers in the Dominican Republic without official identification papers have until today to register with the government or face deportation. The move—condemned widely as a violation of human rights—could leave as many as 120,000 Dominican-born and -raised women and men stateless, their future and their ability to earn a living jeopardized...

State & Living Wage Battles
Conservative lobbying group ALEC sets sights on local lawmakers  Aljazeera-America  ...State-level pre-emption laws like HB 40 that limit the authority of city and county governments in their dealings with private industry, while not new, have become more common in recent years. Seventeen states prohibit city and county governments from raising the minimum wage. Eleven states have barred local governments from mandating paid sick leave. Critics of these pre-emption laws say their rise can be traced to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
Young adults in Michigan would have a lower minimum wage under bill  MLive  ...Youth under 20 years old could make less than Michigan's minimum wage under a bill that's headed to the full Senate for consideration. Under current law, employers can pay people under 18 either 85 percent of Michigan's minimum wage, or the federal minimum wage, whichever is greater. The bill would change that to include all employees under 20...
Brown inks bill to protect immigrants  San Diego Union-Tribune  ...Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed legislation further cracking down on people offering fraudulent immigration services. The bill, AB 60, carried by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, won unanimous support in the Assembly and Senate. The new law closes an loophole in a 2013 law she authored, which created protections for immigrants who were seeking immigration reform-related services...
Gov. signs bill increasing minimum wage  WPRI  ..Gov. Gina Raimondo has signed legislation to raise Rhode Island’s minimum wage. The Democratic governor says she’s proud to raise the state’s minimum hourly rate from $9 to $9.60 on Jan. 1. She plans to mark the change in a signing ceremony soon. Both legislative chambers approved the raise...
New York State Legislators Have Just One More Day to Pass a Bill Protecting Nail Salon Workers  In These Times  ...New York State lawmakers have just one day left in this year's legislative session to answer that question as two bills introduced by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo remain on the table. After the exploitation of nail salon workers in New York came to public attention with a New York Times investigation of 150 nail salons over 13 months, Gov. Cuomo announced on May 18 legislation, emergency regulations and a public outreach program to protect these workers...
“Right-to-work” goes down the drain in Maine  People's World  ...Following effective worker lobbying, meetings, phone calls and 10,000 post cards, so-called right-to-work legislation went down the drain in Maine, by a 90-52 margin in the state House. Other anti-worker bills also hit the legislative garbage can. But the fight isn't over yet...
What Fast-Food Workers Are Fighting For  The Nation  ...Not long ago, $15 an hour for a “burger-flipping” gig would have sounded impossible too. But now, pressed by a nationwide grassroots labor movement, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Wage Board is potentially poised to nearly double the base wage for a fast-food labor force of nearly 165,000 people statewide. Following a groundbreaking $15 minimum-wage law that just passed in Los Angeles, a pay raise couldn’t come soon enough for New York’s fast-food workers, who earn on average under $16,000 a year...
How Walmart Spun an 'Extensive and Secretive Web' of Overseas Tax Havens  Common Dreams  ...Walmart has built a vast, undisclosed network of overseas tax havens—accounting for more than $76 billion of assets—that allows the multinational corporation to shirk public disclosure laws as well as its fair share of both foreign and U.S. taxes, according to a groundbreaking report published Wednesday by Americans for Tax Fairness. All told, the retail behemoth has established at least 78 subsidiaries in 15 offshore tax havens...

U.S Labor
FedEx Ground to pay $228 million to settle driver classification claims in California  DC Velocity  ...The ground delivery unit of FedEx Corp. has tentatively agreed to pay $228 million to settle claims by about 2,300 drivers in California that the company improperly classified them as independent contractors and not company employees while they drove for the unit from 2000 to 2007. The settlement, disclosed Friday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, must still be approved by a federal district court in California...
In California, Uber driver is employee, not contractor  Reuters  ...A driver for Uber is an employee, not a contractor, according to a California ruling that eventually could push up costs for the smartphone-based ride hailing service and hurt the closely watched start-up's valuation. The California Labor Commission's decision could ripple through the burgeoning industry of providing services via smartphones...
Striking airport workers rally outside the State House  WWLP  ...orkers who move baggage, help passengers and clean planes at Logan Airport went on a 24-hour strike Wednesday, alleging that airport contractors don’t pay enough and trample on their rights. Over 100 workers at G2 Secure Staff and Ready Jet went on strike, according to Roxana Rivera, an organizer with SEIU 32BJ, which has been stymied in attempting to organize the companies where she said a couple hundred people work...
House Republicans look to block union election rules, slash NLRB budget  Reuters  ...Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday renewed attempts to block new rules governing union elections and proposed cutting the budgets of the U.S. Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board. The House Appropriations Committee unveiled a budget bill for fiscal year 2016 that would also prohibit the NLRB from issuing a new standard on joint employment...
California Court Ruling Could Make It Nearly Impossible for Farmworkers to Win Union Contracts  In These Times  ...On May 18 in Fresno, California, the state's Court of Appeals for the 5th District ruled that a key provision of the state's unique labor law for field workers is unconstitutional. Should it be upheld by the state's supreme court, this decision will profoundly affect the ability of California farm workers to gain union contracts. At issue is the “mandatory mediation” provision of the state's Agricultural Labor Relations Act...
Tempers flare as D.C. nurse ratio bill returns — rebranded  Washington Business Journal  ...Councilman Vincent Orange finally appeared to pin D.C. Department of Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt down on what would might make an acceptable minimum number of nurses per patient for local hospitals. “She finally had to acknowledge there are numbers that make sense,” said Ken Zinn, the D.C.-based political director for nurses union National Nurses United...

Miscellaneous
Applications for US jobless aid fall to nearly 15-year low  News & Observer  ...he number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week, evidence that layoffs remain at unusually low levels and the job market is moving closer to full health. Weekly applications for jobless aid dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000, the Labor Department said Thursday...
Fed Holds Off on Interest Rate Hike, Downgrades Economic Forecast  TruthOut  ...Federal Reserve policymakers on Wednesday kept the central bank's benchmark short-term interest rate near zero, opting against the first increase since 2006 after determining the economy still isn't strong enough to handle it. Fed officials sharply downgraded their economic forecast for this year. They projected the economy would grow between 1.8% and 2% this year...
How big banks and racist policies helped shape segregation, police brutality  Salon  ...Housing equity is Americans’ most important source of wealth. Average black family income is now about 60 percent of white family income, but black household wealth is only about 5 percent of white household wealth. This disparity is almost entirely attributable to federal policy that prohibited black families from accumulating equity during the suburban boom and thus from bequeathing that wealth to children, as whites have done...