Today's Teamster News 12.17.15

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

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

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

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

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

Today's Teamster News 12.2.15

TEAMSTERS
San Bernardino County Public Employees Ratify Teamster Contract  Teamster.org  ...San Bernardino County employees, who are members of Teamsters Local 1932, ratified their first collective bargaining agreement yesterday. The agreement, ratified by over 80 percent of the votes cast, supported improvements in wages and benefits for the 11,000 workers who provide critical services to the residents of California’s largest county. “This is another big win for working families in Southern California,” said Randy Cammack, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42...
American Airlines Workers with Teamsters, CWA Ratify Groundbreaking Agreement  Teamster.org  ...Passenger service workers with American Airlines, who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Association, have voted to ratify a groundbreaking five-year agreement.The contract covering nearly 15,000 workers provides for initial average wage increases of 30 percent and improved benefits, among a number of other industry-leading gains...
American Air reservations agents approve contract with pay raises  USA Today  ...American Airlines reservations agents have voted to ratify a 5-year contract that gives pay raises to about 14,500 airline employees. The Communications Workers of America and the Teamsters said Monday that about 9,500 workers voted, with 73% voting to ratify the contract. According to the unions, workers will get immediate raises averaging 30%, putting them above pay levels for comparable workers at Delta Air Lines...
First Transit Agrees to Meet Again After Paratransit Drivers Unanimously Reject Contract Offer  Local 727  ...First Transit management has agreed to meet again with the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee after drivers at the DuPage paratransit facility unanimously rejected the company’s unreasonable last, best and final contract offer on Nov. 24. The offer included meager wages and benefits far below the industry standards. “Over and over, we told the company that this offer was unacceptable and that they needed to do better, but they refused to listen,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727...
Coca-Cola Teamsters Demand Respect as Final Day of New Contract Negotiations Begins  Local 727  ...The Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee and Coca-Cola Refreshments met for more than 14 hours on Nov. 30 to try to come to terms on a new contract. After bargaining late into the night and early morning hours, both sides have returned to the table on Tuesday, Dec. 1 for what is expected to be another marathon session of negotiations. Coca-Cola Teamsters overwhelmingly voted on Sunday to authorize an unfair labor practice strike...
Teamsters oppose longer tractor-trailers on roadways  Tire Business  ...The U.S. Senate on Nov. 18 removed language from a spending bill that would force states to allow an increase in the length of tractor trailers. Previously, the Senate had instructed the chamber’s negotiators on the long-term highway bill to oppose any federal mandate that would require states to accept twin 33-foot trailers on their roadways, according to the Teamsters, which noted that the trailers are currently outlawed in 39 states — with UPS and Fed Ex among companies pushing the policy change...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
In South Korea, a Dictator’s Daughter Cracks Down on Labor  The Nation  ...Following in the footsteps of her dictator father, South Korea’s President, Park Geun-hye, is cracking down on labor and citizens groups opposed to the increasingly authoritarian policies of her ruling “New Frontier” party known as Saenuri. The situation could reach a critical point this weekend, when tens of thousands of workers organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) join forces with farmers, students, and other civic organizations...
At Paris climate summit, environmentalists lobby against Trans-Pacific trade deal  Washington Post  ...Environmental activists are traveling to Paris this week, using the global climate conference as a platform to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal they say undermines the summit’s goals. Representatives and lobbyists for the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade plan to meet with delegates and host strategy sessions and other public events at the Paris conference to voice their opposition to the trade deal...
On World AIDS Day, Here Are 12 Reasons TPP Is Bad for People with AIDS  AFLCIO  ...December 1 is World AIDS Day, a day described as "an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died." The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a complex trade deal that we're still trying to figure out all the ramifications of. Here are 12 ways TPP could be bad for people with AIDS...
The TPP State of Play: How We Defeat the Largest Trade Deal in History  EFF  ...The official release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on November 5 not only confirmed our fears about how it would threaten our rights online and over our digital devices, but also kicked off a 90-day countdown to President Obama signing the deal. A few days later, the White House formally requested the International Trade Commission (ITC) to begin its study of the impacts of the TPP on the U.S. economy...
Vancouver city council considering officially opposing TPP deal  Globe and Mail  ...Vancouver city councilors, concerned about whether the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact will put the city at risk from lawsuits by global corporations, say they’ll decide next month whether to become the first Canadian city to officially oppose the deal. Councillors asked city staff on Tuesday to examine concerns that the TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement provision – also known as ISDS – will compromise the city’s authority...
Greece Media Workers Go on Anti-Austerity Strike – Trade Unions  Sputnik News  ...Greek journalists protest on Wednesday against austerity measures adopted by Athens, several trade unions announced in a joint statement. "Media workers, together with all the working people of the country, call for retaining social security (basic and supplementary pensions), social benefits, health care," the unions stated...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New public-sector ‘right-to-work’ measure filed in Oregon  NW Labor Press  ...On Nov. 20, anti-union attorney Jill Gibson turned in the first batch of 1,432 signatures on a new Oregon ballot measure, aimed at November 2016, that would eliminate any requirement for public employees to pay union dues or “fair share” fees to cover the costs of union representation. Gibson submitted four other versions of the same measure in March, but withdrew them in April and October after she determined that the measures would do poorly among voters...
State Gives Back Government Money To Study Paid Leave, Says Leave Isn’t About Caregiving  Think Progress  ...In September, the federal Department of Labor announced that it had awarded $1.55 million in grant money to help states and cities research the need and design for potential paid family leave programs. Tennessee was one of the five lucky states to win money. But just two months later, the commission abruptly announced it was giving back the money it had itself applied for...
ALEC Invites Politicians to "Plan Your 2016 Agenda" at ALEC Confab in Scottsdale  Truthout  ...ALEC's Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force has been the source of a slew of anti-worker bills including attacks on organized labor, attacks on higher wages, and efforts to limit benefits for workers. In Arizona, legislators will get an update on the success of these efforts to crush the only representative of working families in the workplace entitled: "From Right-to-Work to Paycheck Protection, An Update on State Labor Issues"...
Fight against Voter ID law continues  Daily Tarheel  ...To chants of “Sí, se puede,” people of different ages, races and genders held posters with phrases like “Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears” at an N.C. NAACP press conference Tuesday. The news conference marked exactly 60 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. The conference announced the new “It’s Our Time, It’s Our Vote” campaign, with one of its goals to push voter registration for 80 days until registration cutoff for the spring primary elections...
Judge dismisses attempt to raise state minimum wage  Daily Cardinal  ...A Dane County judge dismissed Tuesday a 2014 lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker’s administration that attempted to raise the state’s minimum wage. The lawsuit, brought by liberal labor group Wisconsin Jobs Now, alleged the state was “failing to secure reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency, and moral well being,” according to the original petition...
Scott Walker Boots 15,000 People Off Food Stamps In Three Months  Think Progress  ...In just three months, 15,000 people in Wisconsin have already lost food stamps thanks to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) decision to enforce full work requirements for the program in Milwaukee despite economic conditions dire enough to trigger a federal reprieve. Walker’s administration made the policy change in April. The 15,000 bumped from the rolls from May to July is only half the number the state predicts will ultimately lose food stamps...
Ohio House Republicans to proceed carefully on 'right-to-work' bill  Cleveland  ...Ohio House Republicans say they expect a lengthy discussion on a so-called "right-to-work" bill, though they hesitate to say whether they will ultimately pass it. A number of Republican leaders say they personally support House Bill 377, which would prohibit private-sector labor union membership as a condition of employment...
Submitting to Wall Street Vultures, Puerto Rico Narrowly Avoids Massive Default  Common Dreams  ...Debt-choked Puerto Rico on Tuesday "narrowly avoided" economic default by scrounging together an 11th-hour payment toward its $354 million debt to Wall Street vulture funds, an unexpected move likely resulting from the island's submission to austerity cuts and other drastic government measures. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), speaking after a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning with Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, said the commonwealth had "narrowly avoided a complete default"...
California Cities Build Momentum on Minimum Wage Boosts  KQED  ...In the last three years, 15 of the 30 cities and counties nationwide that have voted to increase the minimum wage have been in California, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “California is a state that has made it very clear to cities and counties that they have the authority to pass a higher minimum wage,” said Laura Huizar, staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project...
Walmart Threatens City Council For Considering Minimum Wage Increase  Think Progress  ...A California city is experiencing a tactic Walmart has become known for: threats over a minimum wage hike. The city of Desert Hot Springs, California is considering a minimum wage increase to boost residents’ incomes and therefore help attract more retailers. But the proposal has drawn the protests of the country’s largest retailer, Walmart...

U.S. LABOR
UAW circulates 'scab' list in Kohler strike  Sheboygan Press  ...United Auto Workers Local 833 leaders have begun circulating a list of union members who have crossed picket lines in the now 2-week-old Kohler Co. strike, though they insist the individuals will be left alone. The list, which was obtained by the Sheboygan Press and verified by UAW Local 833 leaders, includes 13 circled names with the heading, “No longer our union brothers or sisters.” It goes on to state, “A scab is a scab”...
NLRB could impound VW ballots after Chattanooga union vote  Times Free Press  ...The National Labor Relations Board could impound ballots cast Thursday and Friday after the union election at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant pending a review of an appeal by the automaker. Jessica Kahanek, an NLRB spokeswoman, said Tuesday she couldn't say for sure that will be the case after the VW election in which 164 maintenance workers will vote on whether they want the United Auto Workers to represent them for collective bargaining purposes...
Cool Job: For IBEW official, Circle of Lights is a labor of love  IndyStar  ...Around Thanksgiving, many Central Indiana families look forward to another beloved local holiday tradition when the Circle of Lights, presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and Electrical Workers of IBEW No. 481, illuminates Monument Circle. Steve Menser, the business manager/financial secretary of the union local, has assisted with installing the Circle of Lights decorations for the past 26 years...
Dead, White, and Blue: The Great Die-Off of America's Blue Collar Whites  Alternet  ...While the lifespan of affluent whites continues to lengthen, the lifespan of poor whites has been shrinking. As a result, in just the last four years, the gap between poor white men and wealthier ones has widened by up to four years. The New York Times summed up the Deaton and Case study with this headline: “Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap”...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Congress reaches deal on 5-year highway bill  Politico  ...Lawmakers are on track to clear a massive transportation infrastructure bill as soon as this week, a legislative coup a decade in the making that will give new House Speaker Paul Ryan something to crow about. Negotiators from both chambers of Congress tasked with hashing out a final deal are set to announce an agreement Tuesday afternoon after a majority of conferees signed off on the package...
Supreme Court timetable gives President Obama an opening on immigration  USA Today  ...The Supreme Court moved President Obama a step closer Tuesday to getting a final verdict before leaving office on his plan to protect more than 4 million undocumented immigrants from threatened deportation. The justices turned down Texas' request for an additional month to respond to the Justice Department's request for a high court hearing, leaving open the chance for a spring showdown over the controversial executive action...
The Deadliest County for Police Killings in America  The Atlantic  ...While attempting to track every police killing in the United States during 2015, journalists at The Guardian discovered that cops in Kern County aren’t just the deadliest force in the state relative to the population, they are the deadliest in the nation. “In all, 13 people have been killed so far this year by law enforcement officers in Kern County, which has a population of just under 875,000”...
Police Officer Who Killed Tamir Rice Says He Shouted Warnings Before Shooting  Slate  ...The police officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland just over a year ago said he “continuously” shouted “show me your hands” in the moments before he decided to fire at Rice. Security footage of the park where Rice was shot on Nov. 22, 2014, showed that Officer Timothy Loehmann opened fire about 1.7 seconds after jumping out of the police cruise...

Today's Teamster News 11.04.15

TEAMSTERS
Union Resubmits Proposals, Seeks Strong Comprehensive Agreement With Great Lakes Coca-Cola  Local 727  ...Bargaining continued for a third day on Monday, November 2, as the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee resubmitted its non-economic proposals to Great Lake Coca-Cola Distribution management. Although GLCCD representatives have not yet offered any substantive movement on initial proposals, the union is making significant organizational progress throughout negotiations...
Drivers at three Port of Long Beach, Los Angeles carriers end strike  Landline  ...A strike by port drivers working for three port motor carriers at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has ended. Labor organizers, however, say a dispute over the classification of drivers as independent contractors rolls on. A five-day driver strike and picket at XPO Logistics, Intermodal Bridge Transport and Gold Pint Transportation ended late last week according to Justice for Port Drivers organization, which is backed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Indian capital a mess as sanitation workers strike  USA Today  ...Delhi is a mess, and a worse one than usual. Since late last month sanitation workers here have been on strike, refusing to pick up garbage and even dumping piles of trash in the streets. Sanitation workers have one key demand: their salaries...
Petrobras Oil Output Cut as Workers Protest Austerity  Bloomberg  ...Petroleo Brasileiro SA said its oil and natural-gas production has been cut because of a strike by workers protesting job losses, spending reductions and asset sales at Brazil’s state-controlled producer. The biggest output cuts came on Monday, the second day of the strike, when production fell 273,000 barrels a day...
Policy fights await release of trade deal  The Hill  ...The Obama administration is preparing to release the text of the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, setting the stage for a host of policy fights that could threaten congressional approval of the president’s prized trade deal. Obama has little margin for error as his administration and supporters of the deal press lawmakers to back a 12-nation pact...
TPPA deal will be made public in 2 weeks, says minister  Malaysian Insider  ...The contents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will be made public in two weeks' time, Second International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said. He said as the government had concluded the TPP with the parties involved, the next step is to present the details to the people. It will then be brought before a special parliamentary session in January next year for debate and a vote by the 222 lawmakers...
Text Still Secret One Month After TPP Deal  (opinion) Huffington Post  ...Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12 nation agreement seven years in the making, were finally concluded a month ago. Yet the Obama administration still has not released the text of the agreement. Not even to Congress, much less the public. But this has not stopped the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the office responsible for the negotiations, from making outlandish claims about how great the TPP is...
Political Expert Calls US-Initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership ‘Nonsense’  Sputnik  ...The US invited Russia and China to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). According to political expert Alexei Skopin, the United States pursues its own goals creating such partnerships and does not always declare them openly. The Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes 12 countries so far, was reached on October 5 and is designed to create a free trade area (FTA) in the Asia-Pacific region...
An Urgent Warning Of What TTIP Has In Store  Morning Star  ...Canada is the most sued country in the “developed” world, and that should sound alarm bells in Britain. Several weeks ago hundreds of thousands of people across Europe and Britain marched to protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a massive planned new trade deal between Europe and the US...
Canada presses pause on austerity after Justin Trudeau’s election win  The Guardian  ...While Canada is hitting the pause button on austerity, the UK chancellor, is on fast-forward. George Osborne’s 2015 spending review will see a further £20bn cut from public spending to achieve balance by 2019, a move which follows a halving of the deficit over the course of the last parliament...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Kentucky elects right-to-work governor  Politico  ...Tea Party Republican Matt Bevin beat Democrat Jack Conway for Kentucky’s governorship Tuesday night, an upset victory in one of the last strongholds for Democrats in the right-to-work South. Activists on both side of the right-to-work debate led aggressive outreach in the run-up to the election, and this loss surely stings for the AFL-CIO and its affiliate Working America...
GOP candidates for governor talk right-to-work, rural issues in first forum  Columbia Missourian  ...It didn't take Republican gubernatorial candidates long to hit their party's bread and butter Tuesday night. A full choir of supporters and GOP lawmakers at Missouri Farm Bureau headquarters applauded promises to ban mandatory union fees with a right-to-work law and resist Medicaid expansion...
Thanks To Virginia Reforms, These People Are Voting For The First Time In Decades  Think Progress  ...Before McAuliffe’s reforms, felons in Virginia had a particularly hard time becoming full citizens after their convictions. In most states, voting rights are automatically restored once a felon is released from prison. But in Virginia, felons were required to first get off parole or probation, then file a voting rights restoration application with the governor’s office, a process that was supposed to take 45 to 60 days but often took much longer...
Leading Fight Against Money in Politics, Maine Voters Back Clean Elections  Common Dreams  ...Maine voters on Tuesday reaffirmed their desire to keep the influence of big money out of politics by passing the Clean Elections Initiative, a move that campaigners say serves as a "flare to a nation" desperate to "reclaim control of our democracy" in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. According to the Bangor Daily News, the Initiative passed 55 to 45 percent...
Scandal, Explicit Emails, Behind The Most Expensive Supreme Court Race In American History  Think Progress  ...$15,850,297. That’s how much candidates and interested groups have spent to influence the race for three seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, according to Justice At Stake, a watchdog group which tracks state judicial races. And that number is only likely to grow as it is based on records that have already been filed in this election...
SEIU starts competing effort to put minimum wage on California ballot  SacBee  ...California’s largest labor union on Tuesday unveiled its own bid to increase the statewide minimum wage, setting up dueling pay measures aimed for next year’s ballot amid persistent concerns over income inequality. The proposed initiative, supported by the Service Employees International Union’s state council, would boost the base wage to $15 per hour by 2020...
Portland, Maine, Rejects $15 Minimum Wage  Huffington Post  ...In a rare setback for living wage activists, voters in Portland, Maine, shot down a $15 minimum wage proposal on Tuesday, voting against a ballot measure that would have doubled the wage floor in just four years. Under the proposal, all employers with 500 or more workers would have had to pay at least $15 per hour by 2017...
The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis: Tax Breaks Offered to Rich While Austerity Measures Imposed on Poor  Democracy Now  ...The Obama administration recently warned Puerto Rico faces a humanitarian crisis unless Congress takes steps to address its crushing debt. The White House wants lawmakers to approve bankruptcy protection for the U.S. territory, expand Medicaid and impose a control board to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances...

U.S. LABOR
NLRB hearing to delay UAW election at Chattanooga's VW plant  Times Free Press ...A union election planned for later this week at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant is expected to be delayed due to a hearing over whether the 164 maintenance workers slated to vote are too small of a unit. Attorneys for VW and the United Auto Workers argued today at a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Chattanooga that will continue into Wednesday...
Slight majority support GM-UAW deal so far  The Detroit News  ...With about one-third of ballots cast, voting on General Motors Co.’s tentative agreement with the UAW is close, with a slight majority of workers supporting the deal. Voting results at some larger facilities have been tight and roughly two-thirds of the 52,600 hourly workers have not had the opportunity to vote yet. The union is expected to release final results as early as this weekend...
USW files additional unfair labor charges against ATI  Business Times  ...The United Steelworkers have filed a total of 18 unfair labor practice charges against Allegheny Technologies Inc., the union said in an update to its members Monday. The pending charges cover ATI's decision to lock out more than 2,000 union employees in August as well as the company's conduct at the bargaining table, according to the union...
The Uphill Battle For Strippers’ Rights  Think Progress  ...Some dancers flock to the industry in part because of perceived scheduling flexibility, but they often end up just as binding as many other jobs. Most clubs require a dancer to come in a minimum number of days a week and assign them to either a day or night shift. Some also tell dancers what time to show up – even charging them a fine if they’re late...
Wages for top earners soared in 2014: Fly top 0.1 percent, fly  EPI  ...After dipping slightly in 2013, annual earnings of the top 1.0 percent of wages earners grew 4.9 percent in 2014, and the top 0.1 percent’s earnings grew 8.9 percent, according to our analysis of the latest Social Security Administration wage data. This analysis provides the first look at the likely trend of the household incomes of the top 1.0 percent...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS 
How Bathroom Fears Conquered Transgender Rights in Houston  The Atlantic  ...After a hard-fought campaign that drew national attention from Hollywood celebrities and presidential. candidates, voters rejected the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or Proposition 1, handing a victory to conservative critics who argued that its expansive protections for transgender people could endanger women and children...
Republicans Demonize Disabled Social Security Recipients in Latest Budget  Alternet  ...Having failed in numerous frontal assaults on Social Security, the Republican congressional leadership several years ago adopted a new strategy for dismantling the program: attack and demonize Disability Insurance, which they consider to be its soft underbelly. With last week’s passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, they drew blood...
New Study Shows Antarctic Melting Approaching 'Unstoppable' Tipping Point  Common Dreams  ...A new study published Monday warns that "unstoppable" melting in West Antarctica could make a three-meter increase in sea level "unavoidable." According to researchers at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the vulnerable Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica "has most likely been destabilized." They point to recent studies indicating that this area of the ice continent is "the first element in the climate system about to tip"...
How GOP & HMOs Undercut Obamacare's Nonprofit Option, Leaving 500K Uninsured  Democracy Now  ...As the Obamacare open enrollment period begins, it’s the end for many healthcare co-ops, leaving hundreds of thousands of people scrambling to find coverage. The co-ops were founded to offer a cheaper alternative on insurance exchanges after Democrats stopped demanding a public option. But since going live three years ago, the co-ops have faced major cutbacks from the Republican-controlled Congress...

Today's Teamster News 10.26.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamster Aviation Maintenance Technicians to Vote on United Contract  Teamster.org  ...The International Brotherhood Teamsters today announced an agreement to put a proposed joint contract out for ratification for members working at United Airlines. The deal, if approved, would cover the company’s aviation maintenance technicians and related workers. The proposed contract would combine the subsidiary groups of workers formerly associated with Continental and Continental Micronesia with United...
United agrees to tentative deal with Teamsters  Chicago Tribune   ...United Airlines said Friday morning that it has agreed to a deal with the Teamsters to put the carrier's 8,600 technicians and related employees under a single contract. The proposed deal — which has yet to be ratified by rank-and-file members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — is United's first major deal since recently appointed CEO Oscar Munoz went on medical leave...
Port Truck Drivers Strike Over Wage Theft  Capital & Main  ...Truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will begin a strike at 6 a.m. today against local subsidiaries of XPO Logistics, a Connecticut-headquartered freight transportation company. Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa will bring a national spotlight to the fight later this week as he joins local union forces in support of the drivers...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
TPP deal is bad for the auto sector, Ford Canada chief says  Globe and Mail  ...Key automotive provisions of the Trans-Pacific trade agreement are bad for Canada, so the new Liberal government needs to take a careful look at the deal before approving it, says Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. chief executive officer Dianne Craig. “We see [the Trans-Pacific Partnership] as a setback,” Ms. Craig said...
Indonesia to Decide on Joining Transpacific Partnership  New York Times  ...The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, said he would decide whether Southeast Asia's largest economy would join the United States-led Pacific trade agreement after his meeting with President Obama at the White House on Monday. In an interview before a four-day visit to the United States this week, Mr. Joko also said that his government was rapidly stripping away cumbersome protectionist trade regulations that foreign businesses had long chafed at...
PM’s inaction on TTIP ‘means NHS at risk’  The National  ...Party leaders from throughout the UK have signed to pledge to make sure the NHS is protected from TTIP, but there is one notable name missing: David Cameron. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could put the future of the health service at risk, union leaders have claimed, with the nature of the trade deal opening the door for US investment in public services...
Monster march in Berlin says no to the bosses’ TTIP treaty  Socialist Worker  ...Up to 250,000 people marched through Berlin last Saturday against the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It was Germany’s biggest demonstration since protests against the Iraq war in 2003. TTIP is a planned treaty to create the world’s biggest free trade area, involving the European Union (EU) and the US...
Canadian election rejects austerity: Paul Krugman  Oregon Live  ...On Monday, Canadian voters swept the ruling Conservatives out of power, delivering a stunning victory to the center-left Liberals. And while there are many interesting things about the Liberal platform, what strikes me most is its clear rejection of the deficit-obsessed austerity orthodoxy that has dominated political discourse across the Western world. The Liberals ran on a frankly, openly Keynesian vision, and won big...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Both Sides of Right-To-Work Mobilize For Governor’s Race  WFPL  ...Kentucky’s next governor will face a bevy of issues, ranging from a declining coal industry to a struggling pension system. Then there’s right-to-work. Right-to-work laws — which prohibit union dues as a condition of employment — have been adopted in 25 states. Proponents want to make Kentucky the 26th...
Labor Dept. To Set New 'Prevailing Wages' For Construction Projects In New Hampshire  New Hampshire Public Radio  ...The U.S. Department of Labor is looking to gather wage data for New Hampshire’s building and construction industries.  The department is surveying firms about wages and benefits on a range of projects in order to set so-called prevailing wage rates for federal projects in the state...
Colorado Pushes for Universal Health Care That's Governed by the People  Truthout  ...First pot, now health. In November 2012, Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative that made recreational use of marijunana legal, despite a federal ban. In November of next year, the state will have the opportunity to lead the way again - this time, by opting out of Obamacare and replacing it with ColoradoCare, a universal health care system governed by those who rely on it...
Washington-area airport workers join fight for $15-an-hour minimum wage  Washington Post  ...A push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for the lowest-paid airport workers across the United States has landed in Washington. Workers at Reagan National and Dulles International airports have joined a growing national campaign for better pay and benefits, bringing attention to hourly wages that are as low as $6.75...
Judge refuses to dismiss NC voter ID challenge  Charlotte Observer  ...A federal judge on Friday refused a request from state lawmakers to dismiss a challenge to the N.C. voter ID law. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder set the issue for a trial, tentatively in January. Attorneys for state lawmakers argued that a 2015 change to the ID provision of an election law overhaul made the 2013 legal challenge moot...
Elizabeth Warren Rips the Obama Administration on Puerto Rico  Mother Jones  ...After months of facing indifference from Congress, the people of Puerto Rico might finally be making progress on getting some help with the island's massive debt crisis from both the Obama administration and Congress. Last Wednesday, the Obama administration outlined a proposal that would allow the island's entities to restructure debts. After Obama finally rolled out a plan, Sen. Warren calls on the government to do more for the US colony...
Walmart’s Wage Increase Is Hurting Its Stock Price—and That’s OK  The Nation  ...The company created some real waves when it announced earlier this year that it planned to raise its starting wages to $9 an hour by April and $10 an hour by February of next year.  A few months later, it reported that it had already reduced turnover. But it also just released its financial results forecasting a drop in annual profit in the near term...

U.S. LABOR
Deadline looms for auto workers' strike threat against GM  Business Insider  ...The United Auto Workers union and General Motors Co. have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract, avoiding a strike for now. The UAW said the agreement was reached at 11:43 p.m. Sunday, 16 minutes before the deadline it had set to either reach an agreement or call a strike at GM's U.S. plants. Details of the proposed contract weren't immediately available...
GM Reaches Tentative Deal With UAW Workers, Avoiding Strike  Bloomberg  ...General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative four-year agreement that is expected to provide raises across the board, averting a potential strike. The union announced the deal in an e-mailed statement without giving details. Local union leaders at Detroit-based GM are set to vote on Wednesday whether to send the accord to rank-and-file members for ratification...
U.S. lawmakers call for more oversight of workers’ comp  Salon  ...Ten prominent Democratic lawmakers, including presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, are urging the U.S. secretary of labor to come up with a plan to ensure that state workers’ compensation programs are properly caring for injured workers. The lawmakers’ letter, sent Tuesday, was prompted by an investigation by ProPublica and NPR...
'Good' Jobs Aren't Coming Back  The Atlantic  ...Outsourcing decimated American manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s, erasing nearly six million jobs between 1989 and 2009. But the number of manufacturing jobs has started to slowly grow again, and about 700,000 jobs have been added since 2010. “Onshoring,” as it’s called, is at this stage delivering just a trickle of new jobs, but states such as Tennessee are offering companies generous incentives to try and speed up the process...
Teaching While Poor: Adjunct Professors and the Fight for Fair Wages  The Nation  ...If  there’s one area that isn’t contributing to our historic levels of student debt, it’s adjunct professor’s pay. More than half of all college professors in the United States are adjuncts, working only “part-time.” One out of three of them live near or below the poverty line, and one out of four is on some form of public assistance...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Debt Ceiling Is Coming!  Slate  ...The debt ceiling deadline has been moved up two days to Nov. 3, according to the most recent estimate from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. That is 11 days from now and considerably fewer legislative days. So far the House hasn’t moved a bill, and neither has the Senate. There’s another problem emerging in the House of Representatives, too, if you can believe it: The votes supposedly aren’t there...
Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Joins Chorus Questioning Legality of Drone Killing Program  Common Dreams  ...Sparked by an exposé on the Obama administration's drone war, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has echoed human rights groups and called into question the legality of the killing program. Based on documents leaked to The Intercept by an anonymous intelligence source, The Drone Papers offers an unprecedented look at the global killing program...
Voices of Rise Up October: Victims' Families Decry Police Violence  Truthout  ...On Saturday, thousands rallied in New York City against police brutality as part of three days of protest called "Rise Up October." Some 40 families across the country impacted by police violence participated in the event alongside scholars such as Dr. Cornel West and Chris Hedges, as well as celebrities including playwright Eve Ensler and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino...
Pro-Immigration Protester Violently Dragged Out Of Trump Rally  Huffington Post  ...Pro-immigration protesters and Donald Trump supporters clashed at a rally in Miami on Friday, leading to one protester being forcefully dragged out by his collar to chants of "USA! USA!" At least three separate protest groups showed up to the Republican presidential candidate's rally at his Trump National Doral Miami resort, with some bearing signs reading "Dignity" and "Equality"... 

Today's Teamsters News 09.10.15

Teamsters
Hoffa Calls for Bipartisan Approach to Infrastructure Investment  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa stressed the need for a commitment by Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisan agendas and move forward to find a long-term solution to surface transportation funding. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour joined Hoffa at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference today to discuss infrastructure investment...
The Teamsters Want Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Unity To “Get America Working”  WIN  ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has launched their “Get America Working Campaign” calling for massive new investments in infrastructure, transportation and clean energy. The American Society Of Civil Engineers estimates that America needs to spend $3.6 trillion to modernize and repair roads, bridges, ports, airports, railroads and water systems. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says making these investments would create jobs...
Hoffa: Teamsters Urging Bipartisan Effort to Fix Roads, Bridges  Newsmax  ...The Teamsters union is pushing a bipartisan effort to repair America's crumbling infrastructure and get the country back on top, the group's president James P. Hoffa, tells Newsmax TV. "There's no Republican bridge, there's no Democratic bridge, there's an American bridge," Hoffa said Wednesday on "The Hard Line"...
Baumann and Sons Buses Inc., Acme Buses, Teamsters Local 1205 to resume school bus labor talks Thursday, union chief says  Newsday  ...Federal mediation was put on hold early Thursday morning between a major Long Island school bus contractor and its drivers -- a situation closely watched by school districts and parents whose children ride the company's vehicles to get to and from school. Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, Acme Buses, plan to reconvene at 4 p.m. Thursday to continue negotiations, union president Timothy Lynch said...
Council sends message to Sun Tran: resolve strike  Arizona Daily News  ...The Tucson City Council made a political statement Wednesday in the ongoing Sun Tran strike, telling the management to “make every effort to resolve the labor dispute immediately.” Thursday marks the 36th day of the strike. They told Professional Transit Management to meet its obligation to negotiate in good faith with the Teamsters...

Global Labor & Trade
Auto parts makers make plea to save sector as TPP talks resume  CBC  ...Auto parts makers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have urged their governments not to give in to demands from Japan for less NAFTA-made content in vehicles at new talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canadian and Mexican negotiators are in Washington today trying to work out terms for automotive issues in the trade deal which would open up freer trade among 12 Pacific nations...
US Aims for Next TPP Meeting in Late September  MarketPulse  ...The United States has sounded out some of the other countries involved in Pacific Rim free trade negotiations about holding the next ministerial gathering in late September on the margins of a session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, negotiation sources said Tuesday. Separately, Japan and the United States will resume bilateral talks on auto trade issues under the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative in Washington from Wednesday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said...
USTR offers update on TPP following Maui meeting  Farm Futures  ...Following a meeting of the 12 countries represented in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative this week briefed members of the House Ag Committee on TPP movement and released an updated progress report on the anticipated deal. According to the report, USTR says "substantial progress" was specifically made on market access for goods and services as well as environmental issues...
TPP up by year’s end, says US envoy John Berry  The Australian  ...The US ambassador to Australia says the President and Secretary of State are confident they will be able to sign the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership by the end of the year, facilitating trade through the Asia-Pacific. In Adelaide to attend an innovation roundtable yesterday, John Berry talked up the benefits of the $200 billion TPP, along with international trade partnerships, at an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia forum...
South Africa FAWU Workers Strike Turns Violent  Eyewitness News  ...Police are keeping a watchful eye on hundreds of Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) members on strike in Ceres. The demonstrators are demanding a 12% increase from Ceres Fruit Growers which has been offering six percent. The striking employees have braved the chilly and wet weather to demonstrate outside the company’s gates...
Hyundai Motor S.Korea union authorises strike; talks continue  Reuters  ...Hyundai Motor's union workers in South Korea have voted to authorise a strike after failing to reach a deal in annual wage talks and on reforms to its pay structure. Workers could go on strike as early as Sept. 14, although the union and company management agreed to resume negotiations later on Thursday, union spokesman Hwang Ki-tae said...
Peru: 20,000 Public Health Care Workers Strike  TeleSUR  ...The strike of public health care workers is the latest sign that Peru’s underfunded system is in trouble. Public health care workers have launched a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to pressure Peru’s government into implementing agreements reached in 2014. Last year, after workers held an 18-day strike, the government signed an agreement, which addressed various issues...

State & Living Wage Battles
New York Could Be The First State With A $15 Minimum Wage  Think Progress  ...On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will become the first governor to call for a $15 minimum wage across his entire state. A wage hike would need to be passed by the state legislature, where the state senate is Republican-controlled. But if his proposal were to become reality, that would give New York the country’s highest state minimum wage...
Tennessee Higher Education Talks Big, Acts Cheap  The Nation  ... Under a plan recently issued by the administration of Governor Bill Haslam—who won national accolades for making Tennessee the first state to offer comprehensive “free community college for all”—workers at public facilities across the state, including higher-education institutions, will see their jobs outsourced, potentially at the expense of wages and benefits...
California Governor signs two-person crew law  BLET  ...California Governor Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown signed a two-person crew bill into law on September 8, signifying a significant boost to railroad safety. The bill reads in part: “This bill would prohibit, on and after February 1, 2016, a train or light engine used in connection with the movement of freight, as specified, from being operated unless it has a crew consisting of at least 2 individuals”...
Paid sick leave movement is alive and kicking  CBS  ...And about 39 percent of U.S. private sector workers lack access to any sick paid leave, according to a joint study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research and the National Partnership for Women & Families. hat has led several local municipalities and at least four states -- California, Connecticut, Oregon and Massachusetts -- to establish their own paid sick leave laws to ensure that workers don't have to chose between working sick, losing part of their pay or, in some cases, losing their jobs altogether...
Puerto Rico Proposes Harsh Austerity To Solve The Debt Crisis  Think Progress  ...The government of Puerto Rico put forward an official plan on Wednesday to tackle its looming $72 billion debt crisis. In exchange for demanding some concessions from the island’s hedge fund creditors, the government is promising to pay workers less than the minimum wage, slash retirement benefits, limit collective bargaining, cut funding to universities, and shut down more K-12 schools...
Sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of Missouri anti-union bill  (editorial) Kansas City Star  ...A controversial “right to work” bill, which is expected to take center stage in the Missouri General Assembly’s veto session next week, is part of a long-term effort by right-wing interests to cripple union strength around the nation. It bodes poorly for Missouri workers and the state’s economy and must not be passed over Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto...

U.S. Labor
UPS pilots' union to vote on potential strike  The Hill  ...The union that represents UPS pilots is calling a vote on a potential strike against one of the nation's largest parcel delivery companies. The Louisville, Ky.-based Independent Pilots Association (IPA), which has more than 2,600 members, said Wednesday that it would hold a vote on a potential strike against UPS beginning on Oct. 1. Union leaders said the vote is an effort to win concessions from UPS after multiple years of protracted labor talks...
'Fighting for Incredible List of Educational Reforms,' Seattle Teachers Go on Historic Strike  Common Dreams  ...For the first time in 30 years, Seattle teachers are hitting the picket lines on Wednesday after the teachers union and the school board failed to negotiate a tentative agreement. The Tuesday decision to strike—made with what the union describes as "an unprecedented, thunderous unanimous vote," closes schools on what would have been the first day of school for roughly 50,000 students...
Analysts: GM likely UAW target, small strike probable  The Detroit News  ...General Motors Co. likely will be selected as the lead for UAW negotiations as contracts expire with the Detroit’s Big Three next week, according to Buckingham Research Group auto analysts, who also believe there is a high probability of a small strike. “We view GM as a probable target, given new CEO Mary Barra is likely more labor friendly vs. Mark Fields and Sergio Marchionne,” analysts from the research firm said...
US Unemployment Benefit Applications Dropped to 275,000  AP  ...Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, keeping this key indicator of labor market health near historic lows. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 275,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 500 to 275,750...
Republicans take aim at NLRB's 'joint employer' ruling  The Hill  ...The GOP is girding for another fight with the Obama administration over a controversial labor policy. The Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, introduced Wednesday by Republicans, would roll back a policy that holds companies liable for labor violations committed by their business partners...
Unions 30 Years Ago Are Somehow Making People Richer Today  The Atlantic  ...According to the study, people between the ages of 26 and 37 who are working full time and whose parents did not go to college and were not in a union earn an average of $39,000 today. But a very similar group of people—everything the same except that they had one parent who was in a union—those people are earning $46,000...
Labor vs. Silicon Valley, David vs. Goliath?  (video) MSNBC  ...Unions are spreading like wildfire through tech’s low-wage workforce and Derecka Mehrens, Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA says, ‘we’re winning’. Temple Law Professor Brishen Rogers and MSNBC’s Zack Roth discuss what’s next for innovative labor campaigns...

Social Justice & Other News
Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan Is Mostly A Giveaway To The Rich  Think Progress  ...In a speech on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush will unveil his tax plan. He also previewed the plan in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Tuesday evening. While the plan is still just an outline of what Bush would do and therefore doesn’t include many details, many of the changes he wants to make would benefit the wealthiest Americans...
Why Europe’s Trains Are So Much Better Than America's  The Atlantic  ...California is the only place in the U.S. where high-speed rail (HSR) plans are really moving forward, albeit not that quickly or smoothly. The state is currently building a 520-mile high-speed line from San Francisco to L.A., which will eventually extend to Sacramento to the north and San Diego to the south. The German Marshall Fund put out a report in June on the lessons California could draw from the well-developed HSR systems in Germany and France...
Zero Tolerance for Childhood  Slate  ...“Kids for cash” is emblematic of a larger problem: the tendency to criminalize so much of what young people do, the tendency to hit them with draconian punishments that are out of proportion to the crime itself, and the ways the system itself profits financially from those impulses...
German Lawmaker: At the Root of Refugee Crisis are Wars Led by the U.S. in the Middle East  Democracy Now  ...The United Nations is now estimating at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and next, seeking refuge in Europe to escape violence and unrest in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Already 366,000 people have arrived in Europe this year. Annette Groth, member of the German Parliament and spokeswoman for human rights for the Left Party, asks "What is the root for this massive migration?It is war, it is terror, and it is the former U.S. government who is accountable for it"...

Today's Teamster News 09.01.15

Teamsters
EVSC Board and Teamsters working toward agreement, schedule more meetings  Courier & Press  ...Despite still lacking official agreements, Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey believes the union and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. School Board are making progress in negotiating contracts for the five EVSC employee groups represented by Local 215. Whobrey said the employee groups — bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, special education assistants and bus aides — have issues in common and issues specific to their units...
Bipartisan Panel Including DOT Secretary Foxx, Teamsters President Hoffa and Mississippi Governor Barbour to Tackle Infrastructure Issues, Announce New Funding Campaign  PR Newswire  ...Infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, and funds to fix it are disappearing. It's time to address the immediate need to fund infrastructure building, maintenance and repair. That's the message to be presented by Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour at a National Press Club newsmaker press conference on September 9...
This Labor Ruling Could Give a Big Boost to the Fight For 15  The Nation  ...The Teamsters had sought to organize a union election for Leadpoint workers—comprised of “part-time, and on-call sorters, screen cleaners, and housekeepers” on a short-term contract at a BFI recycling plant. The effort was thwarted by a regional labor-relations board and then appealed. The Teamsters argued that the narrow definition of joint employer allowed a company to act like a regular boss without upholding traditional employers’ responsibilities...
Teamsters Local 357 Prepares Counter-Proposal to Republic Airways (RJET) Recent Offer  Street Insider  ...Teamsters Local 357 prepared a counter-proposal to Republic Airways latest offer. The announcement follows news that Local 357 would not put Republic Airways' recent so-called 'LBFO' offer to a vote, which sent shares of the carrier sharply lower. "As you know, on Tuesday the Local 357 EBoard announced their position that the Company's August 20th, 2015 offer should not be sent out for a vote. There are many reasons in support of their decision"...

Global Labor & Trade
As TPP Grinds To A Halt, Asian Countries Start Focusing On Rival Trade Agreement RCEP  TechDirt  ...that final breakthrough and completion never happened. Instead, we had the "Maui meltdown", when a whole bunch of old and new problems raised their heads, with the result that TPP may have missed a key deadline that means it won't be happening soon, if ever...
Poster woman for the war against the U.S.-led TPP  Japan Times  ...For Yoko Inoue, art is like a bomb: Throw it into a crowded street and the truth just might explode out of it. The Japanese-born, New York-based multimedia and performance artist takes aim at society’s assumptions about commerce and culture using works rooted in intensive research. This time, her target is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The promised ‘transparency’ around TTIP has been a sham  (opinion) The Guardian  ...Beyond the lack of transparency, the real trouble with TTIP and the EU’s multitude of bilateral trade deals is not in the method, but in substance. Europe should put its weight behind a multilateral trading system based on open markets, fairness, sustainability and democracy. An equitable reform of the World Trade Organisation rules is clearly better for business...
Germany bullied France into policy of austerity, says Stiglitz  BDLive  ...France has been intimidated by Germany into pursuing an economic policy that is not working, Nobel prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz said on Monday. "There is a kind of intimidation," Mr Stiglitz, an outspoken opponent of austerity policy, said of the influence of Germany over the policies pursued by President Francois Hollande...
Indian unions to hold one-day national strike  WSWS.org  ...Tens of millions of Indian workers will join a one-day national strike this Wednesday, September 2, in protest against the pro-investor policies of the 15-month-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. Ten labor federations are sponsoring Wednesday’s strike. Prominent among them are the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)...
Airline Agrees To Stop Firing Flight Attendants For Getting Married, But Only After UN Investigation  Think Progress  ...Flight attendants who work for Qatar Airways will no longer risk losing their jobs if they decide to get married or pregnant. The International Labour Organisation, the labor agency at the United Nations, concluded a yearlong investigation in June, finding that the airline’s policies required workers to notify the company when they became pregnant and were often fired once they did...

State & Living Wage Battles
Religious leaders in Puerto Rico condemn austerity, ask Fed for help  Reuters  ...Religious leaders in Puerto Rico called on Monday for the island's government and its lenders to avoid austerity measures and for the Federal Reserve to step in with assistance. The religious leaders on the mostly Catholic island, working with Jubilee USA Network, a religious development organization in Washington, D.C., want a solution to Puerto Rico's debt crisis that invests in the island's economy, does not hurt the poor and brings about more budget transparency...
Scott to head to Kentucky to lure businesses next month  Orlando Sentinel  ...Gov. Rick Scott has a message for business owners in the Bluegrass State: the sun shines brighter in Florida than on your old Kentucky home. “Florida’s business climate is better than Kentucky’s in almost every way. Kentucky leaders continue blocking Kentucky counties from becoming right-to-work areas," Scott stated. Scott has targeted businesses in other states with Democratic governors in the past...
Minimum-wage debate heats up in Pennsylvania  Times Online  ...Nineteen U.S. cities and counties experienced mandated wage increases this year; 29 states and Washington, D.C., already require employers to pay workers more than $7.25. Pennsylvania isn’t part of this group – yet. There are five bills pending in the state Legislature proposing to raise the minimum wage...
Sen. Bill Nelson calls for independent redistricting commission for Florida  Bradenton Herald  ...The repeated failures of the Florida Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional districts is a sure sign that Florida needs to create an independent commission to do the work, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said during a stop in Tallahassee on Monday. “Seems to me we need an independent commission for future reapportionment so that you stop this self-serving process of drawing districts for your own self interest,” said Nelson, a Democrat...

U.S. Labor
Workers at Trump Taj Mahal Begin Preparations for Strike   In These Times  ...While Donald Trump's push for the Republican nomination for president is showing no signs of slowing, worker unrest at a hotel and casino that bear his name appears near the boiling point. Strike preparations have begun for over 1,100 non-gaming casino employees at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 54, gathered near their local headquarters last Tuesday...
USW to keep negotiating to avoid work stoppage  NWI Times  ...The United Steelworkers union wants more time to negotiate rather than go on strike at Northwest Indiana's largest steel mills. The union reached a "continue to work agreement" with ArcelorMittal, meaning steelworkers won't hit the picket line when the contract expires Tuesday with no new bargain in place. The USW also told U.S. Steel it would extend talks to avoid a work stoppage...
The People Who Rebuilt New Orleans Are Still Waiting to Get Paid  Alternet  ...During a decade of fast-paced and rough-and-tumble post-Katrina reconstruction, contractors have stolen an estimated aggregate fortune worth millions of dollars from migrant workers like Vasquez. Accounts by him, other migrant workers, employment lawyers, workers’ advocates, and others paint a picture of systematic and multifaceted exploitation...
UAW-GM workers approve strike authorization   Detroit News  ...General Motors Co. union members have passed a strike authorization by 97 percent, UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a letter Monday. Local unions representing GM’s about 50,800 hourly workers held strike authorization votes within the past few weeks. The votes are procedural and give the union the ability to call for a strike if necessary. It does not mean there will be a strike...

Social Justice & Other News
Overruling 'God's Authority,' Supreme Court Affirms Gay Marriage Ruling  Common Dreams  ...Backing up this year's landmark equality ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Kentucky county clerk's request to deny issuing same-sex marriage certificates on the grounds of religious preference. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis could not 'opt out' of her duties as a public official because of her personal objections...
How Katrina Sparked Reform in a Troubled Police Department  The Atlantic  ...The New Orleans Police Department had a reputation for corruption long before Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the summer of 2005. For decades, the department was infected by a culture of discrimination, abuse, and lawlessness. That culture spilled out into the open in the week after the storm. During that brief period, police officers shot and killed three unarmed civilians...
People Are Quicker to Shoot a Black Target Than a White Target  Mother Jones  ...According to a new report from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, racial bias can affect the likelihood of people pulling the trigger of a gun—even if shooters don't realize they were biased to begin with. Researchers found that, in studies conducted over the past decade, participants were more likely to shoot targets depicting black people than those depicting white people...
Fear Canada?  Slate ...Continuing to grope his way toward a semi-coherent immigration policy, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker suggested Sunday that the idea of building a fence along America’s 5,525-mile border with Canada is a “legitimate issue.” Walker has stuck with his ridiculous position, saying he’s responding to concerns he’s heard from law enforcement. The border fence idea may be Trump-inspired lunacy, but Walker is hardly the first U.S. politician to draw attention to the threat emanating from America’s neighbor to the north...