Today's Teamster News 04.20.14

Teamster News
SeaTac airport workers fight exclusion from $15 minimum wage  PBS News Hour   ...Tracey Thompson, Teamsters Local 117: It’s not just the represented workers that matter. It’s the non-represented workers, and women and persons of color are the ones who are suffering most by having such low minimum wage and poverty level wages here...
Animal rights protesters march outside Liam Neeson's home in support of horse ban  New York Daily News   ...About 60 activists gathered in front of Neeson’s building on Saturday, criticizing the actor for his support of the carriage horse industry...
Mayor Bill de Blasio's horse sense (opinion)  Crain's New York Business   ...when the mayor changed his mind last week, saying he'd postpone the industry ban until the end of the year, we welcomed the reprieve. Still, Mr. de Blasio's capricious approach to one industry continues to leave us concerned for every law-abiding business in this town. Apparently, following the rules and paying taxes is no longer sufficient for the privilege to try to earn a living in New York...
Trade
U.S.-Japan Talks Said Unable to Overcome Deal Obstacles  Bloomberg   ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Japanese Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Akira Amari yesterday concluded talks in Washington on the Trans-Pacific Partnership without striking a deal on some of the most contentious issues...
State Battles
Local Media Fooled By Discredited Economic Competitiveness Report  Media Matters   ...Despite the uncritical, often glowing, pick-up by local media outlets, ALEC's competitiveness report has received scrutiny in the past, mostly due to evidence showing that economic data does not comport with the results of their study...
Column: Some fear Charles Koch's influence damages FSU's integrity  Tampa Bay Tribune   ...Koch's foundation has been funneling money to the economics department at FSU since 2008. This would be the same Koch who funds ultraconservative think tanks and preaches less government regulation...
Christina Bullins: Are our prisons safe in Florida?  Florida Public Employees Partnership   ...the inmate population had no significant changes.  Despite the addition of 245 positions last year, the number of officers reported in DOC’s budget request is 727 officers less than the year before...
War on Workers
Jon Stewart Demolishes the NCAA's Case Against Student-Athlete Unions  The Wire   ...players are forbidden from accepting nearly any gifts, including food – just ask the Oklahoma players punished for being served "pasta in excess."...
Student debt holds back many would-be home buyers  Los Angeles Times   ...Of the many factors holding back young home buyers — rising prices, tougher lending standards, a still-shaky job market — none looms larger than the recent explosion of college debt...
UConn’s 2,135 graduate assistants unionize  CT Mirror   ...The governing board of the state's flagship university unanimously voted in a "special meeting" last week to approve an agreement between the newly formed union -- UConn GEU-UAW -- and the university...
Miscellaneous
Senator Holds Commuter Safety Presser, Almost Gets Hit By Train  Gawker   ...Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal received an unexpected lesson in practicing what you preach at a press conference yesterday. Standing on the platform at the Milford Metro-North station, Blumenthal and his easel narrowly dodged an oncoming train as Milford Mayor Ben Blake spoke about commuter safety...

Today's Teamster News 10.05.12

Monetary Mystification  Project Syndicate   ...The current downturn, already a half-decade long, will not end any time soon...
Leaders at Work on Plan to Avert Mandatory Cuts  New York Times   ...in January...senators would come to an agreement on a deficit reduction target — likely to be around $4 trillion over 10 years — to be reached through revenue raised by an overhaul of the tax code, savings from changes to social programs like Medicare and Social Security, and cuts to federal programs...
Religious Leaders Slam Bankers  The Big Picture   ...religious and spiritual traditions worldwide demand a reform to the banking system … so that it stops serving the handful of banking executives and starts to serve the community and the well-being of all people...
Sea-Tac jet fuelers threaten strike over safety, worker's suspension  Seattle Times   ...Workers for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's largest aircraft-fueling contractor marched with supporters to the company's office Wednesday and threatened to strike over the suspension of a co-worker and safety concerns...
The US middle class families without enough to eat  BBC News  ...At a basement food pantry in suburban Pennsylvania, 2,000lb (907kg) of food are given to roughly 160 families a week. The majority of families come from the Levittown neighbourhoods - an iconic planned suburb that once ushered in the era of a post-World War II American dream...
California Gas Stations Shut as Oil Refiners Ration Supplies  Bloomberg   ...Gasoline station owners in the Los Angeles area including Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) are beginning to shut pumps as the state’s oil refiners started rationing supplies and spot prices surged to a record...

Today's Teamster News 09.07.12

Payrolls in U.S. Rose 96,000 Jobless Rate Declined  Bloomberg   ...Payrolls rose less than projected in August and the unemployment rate declined as more Americans left the labor force, indicating the U.S. labor market is stagnating...
U.S.-China Trade Deficit Cost More than 2.1 Million Manufacturing Jobs  Trade Reform   ...Between 2001 and 2011, the trade deficit with China eliminated or displaced more than 2.7 million U.S. jobs, over 2.1 million of which (76.9 percent) were in manufacturing...
Judge's Ruling Stops Wisconsin Capitol Police From Arresting Sign Holders  DailyKos   ...Yesterday a judge issued a decision in a first amendment suit brought by some protesters regarding an incident that happened last year...
Teamsters General President Hoffa Appoints Warehouse Director  IBT   ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa announced today the appointment of Steve Vairma to Director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division...
Surrogates Then—And Defenders Now  Wall Street Journal   ..."People remember, oh yeah, you're the guy out there promoting Obama, and people seek you out," according to Roy Gross, a former trucker and recording secretary of Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit...
For arena supporters, conflict over Port CEO’s board position is nothing but net  Seattle Times   ...A letter last week from 13 state Legislators questioning Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani’s new board position at Expeditors International was drafted by Heather Weiner, the state political director for the Teamsters...

Longshoremen back to work in WA (video)

The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports:

Longshoremen returned to work in Seattle and Tacoma on Friday morning, ending a one-day walkout that closed the ports in both cities.

The closure followed on an incident in Longview, where hundreds of International Longshore and Warehouse Union members storm a grain terminal Thursday morning.

Longshoremen in Longview have had a long and bitter dispute about whether they should be doing the work at the grain terminal.

A federal judge on Thursday issued an injunction against the union's tactics in Longview and warned union members not to violate the order.

gatekeeper1950 has an excellent history of the year-long dispute here. He tells us what happened yesterday:

The confrontation between West Coast longshore workers and an anti-union exporter exploded as pickets massed on railroad tracks by the hundreds yesterday to block grain shipments.Police used clubs and pepper spray on protesters in Longview, Washington, as they made 19 arrests.Early this morning a terminal there was invaded and hoppers holding about 10,000 tons of grain were opened onto railroad tracks.Ports in Washington shut down completely Thursday as hundreds of longshore workers rushed to Longview, in the state’s southwestern corner.Bill Proctor, a Longshore Union (ILWU) retiree, was with fellow retirees and active workers on an early morning picket line at a Seattle grain terminal. He said, “If that facility is allowed to go non-ILWU, other facilities will be tempted to follow suit. And the grain terminals on the coast are all going into contract bargaining next month.”A foreman came out to politely assure the picketers that no one would do their work.

EGT Development, a consortium of three companies, wants to operate its new $200 million grain terminal in Longview using non-ILWU labor, despite a contract with the port requiring it to do so. When the ILWU protested, the company signed up with an Operating Engineers local.

Every other major grain terminal on the West Coast is operated by ILWU labor, and the union asserts that EGT’s goal is to go non-union altogether, ending generations of good jobs. 

Here's the caption to the video above:

August 29, 2011: This disturbing video shows an unidentified driver plowing a large vehicle through a nonviolent worker demonstration at the EGT grain facility at the Port of Longview, Washington. The car appears to speed up as it strikes two of the workers. One of the workers is pushed several feet as the car continues moving, and the driver doesn't slow down or render aid. The driver of the vehicle has not been arrested for assaulting the workers, for failing to render aid or for leaving the scene of an accident.

And here's some context for the assault on workers at other parts of Sea-Tac, thanks to Teamsters Local 117.

Instead of generating good, family-wage jobs for our region, the Port has allowed too many companies that do business at the airport and the seaport to pollute our environment and take advantage of workers...

Many airport workers are simply unable to make ends meet. These baggage handlers, skycaps, concession workers, janitors, and wheelchair pushers struggle to support their families by working multiple jobs with poverty wages, no health care, and in a hostile work environment. At the seaport, independent truck drivers work for near minimum wage delivering the goods that drive our economy.

Read the whole thing here.