Today's Teamster News 05.31.14

Teamster News
Future Of Bus Driver's Union Up In The Air In Bennington  Daily Reporter   ...The outcome of a vote on whether employees of the Green Mountain Express company in Vermont will join the Teamsters Union is up in the air...
Bill de Blasio takes on Teamsters and Liam Neeson as he tries to ban New York's horse carriages  Guardian   ...The city's major newspapers have come out against the proposed ban and the powerful Teamsters union has mobilised in support of the carriage drivers, stable owners and stable hands...
Trade
153 Democratic Lawmakers Push U.S. To Toughen Up Trans-Pacific Partnership Rules  Raw Story   ...U.S. trade negotiators must insist on tough standards on human and workers' rights in a Pacific trading deal spanning 12 countries, more than 150 Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to the Obama administration on Thursday...
Rip Up The TTIP opinion  The Scottish Farmer   ...It may sound like just another annoying agri-politics acronym, but European milk industry leaders should be very concerned about the TTIP--the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership...
State Battles
Scott Walker Is Falling Apart: The Little Corruption Problem He Just Can't Shake  Salon.com   ...Walker has a corruption problem he just can't seem to shake. In brief, the governor is being investigated by prosecutors for illegally coordinating with conservative groups, an investigation that sprang from an earlier one investigating Walker's previous tenure as Milwaukee County executive...
Scott Walker says he won't back away from allies in Doe probe  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Walker also expressed surprise with a recent Wall Street Journal editorial that criticized alleged settlement talks between the Walker campaign and special prosecutor Francis Schmitz...
War On Workers
What McDonald's Owes Its Workers  CNN Money   ...Thompson's pay for one day (based on 365 days a year) in 2013 was 1.4 times the average annual rate of a full-time fast food worker. McDonald's did not respond to a request for a comment on worker pay issues...
Walmart defends ‘overpaid’ executives  New York Post   ...Walmart is refusing to budge an inch after critics bashed the retail giant for overpaying its executives while they mishandled a probe into charges that it systematically bribed officials in Mexico...
Chicopee Walmart site of new skirmish over wages and work conditions  MassLive   ...At the customer service desk, she presented her boss with a letter outlining the reasons for her strike, including unreasonable scheduling, lack of benefits and other practices...
Will The Supreme Court Undermine Public-Sector Labor Rights?  The Hill   ...Before late June, the Supreme Court will rule on Harris v. Quinn, perhaps the most important labor case to come before it in several decades. If the court sides with the extremist National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW) which appealed the case after losing before the Seventh Circuit and lower courts, it could inflict a major blow on unions that represent public sector employees...
House GOP Votes Down Measure Aimed At Curbing Wage Theft  Huffington Post   ...Early Friday morning, House Republicans voted down a measure that would have discouraged the government from giving contracts to companies that have committed wage theft...
Big Money, The Koch Brothers And Me  Politico   ...The richest Americans have always used their fortunes to try and tilt America's political landscape to their liking. The robber barons spent unknown millions financing William McKinley's 1896 Presidential election...
Shinseki Resigns Amid Veterans' Health Care Issues  Christian Science Monitor   ... Lawmakers are now calling for a complete overhaul of the VA system, including Sen. Charles Schumer...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Ranks Alongside Indonesia And Thailand On Workers Rights  Think Progress   ...The United States ranks in the bottom half of the world when it comes to labor rights, according to a new global comparison from an international labor coalition that represents 176 million workers from 161 different nations...
Justice Department Seeks More Than $10 Billion From PNB Paribas  Wall Street Journal   ...U.S. authorities are pushing BNP Paribas to pay more than $10 billion to end a criminal probe into allegations the bank evaded U.S. sanctions...

Today's Teamster News 05.30.14

Teamster News
MORENO VALLEY: Union vote nixed at food company  Press Enterprise   ...An Inland-based Teamsters local attempting to organize workers at a Moreno Valley food distribution center has canceled an election that had been scheduled for today, claiming that the company continues to threaten and intimidate employees...
Teamsters target Florida West International Airways  teamster.org   ... Today, the Teamsters Airline Division announced the start of a new initiative to organize pilots at Florida West International Airways (FWIA), a cargo airline based out of Miami International Airport. The pilots fly routes throughout the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean...
Teamsters ratify 4 contracts with Pekin  Journal Star   ...The Teamsters represent four units that work for the city — the street department, the wastewater plant workers, solid waste department workers and a general unit that represents bus drivers, mechanics, secretaries, clerks and others...
Trade
EU Elections Pose New Threat To Trade Deal  Financial Times   ...EU and US officials are increasingly concerned about the impact on transatlantic trade talks of a surge in support for anti-establishment parties in European elections, raising the prospect for delays as they adapt to a new political reality...
State Battles
Fort Wayne Moves To End Collective Bargaining  WSBT   ...Indiana's second-largest city is poised to end collective bargaining with all city employees except police and firefighters under a measure a union official said is being pushed by "far-right politicians" to the detriment of hundreds of hard-working public employees...
Why Is The Wall Street Journal Livid That Scott Walker Wants A John Doe Settlement  PR Watch   ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's campaign is reportedly negotiating a settlement with prosecutors in the long-running "John Doe" criminal campaign finance probe -- and the editorial board, which for months has attacked prosecutors and portrayed the investigation as baseless, is livid...
Seattle City Council panel OKs $15 minimum wage  Associated Press   ... City Council members approved a delay to the implementation of the ordinance, from Jan. 1, 2015 to April 1, 2015...
An End to Sweatshop-Made City Workers’ Uniforms in Chicago?  In These Times   ...the people who make those same uniforms are unlikely to have any protections from the wage theft, locked fire exit doors and precarious buildings they could be facing on the job. A new ordinance introduced in the Chicago City Council on May 28 aims to fix that inconsistency. If the ordinance is passed, Chicago will join Los Angeles, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Boston and Seattle in attempting to enforce labor rights for factory workers…
War On Workers
U.S. Economy Shrinks For The First Time In 3 Years  Huffington Post   ...The U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years as it buckled under the weight of a severe winter, but there are signs activity has since rebounded...
Walmart Moms’ Walkout Starts Friday  In These Times   ... hundreds of mothers who work at Walmart stores throughout the country will begin walking off the job on Friday, a week before the company's shareholders meet in Bentonville, Arkansas. The action will culminate in a nationwide strike on Wednesday, June 4...
Few workers confident of easy retirement  USA Today   ...Only 28% of U.S. workers are "very" or "extremely" confident that they'll one day fully retire with a comfortable lifestyle; a third are somewhat confident...
In New Orleans, Major School District Closes Traditional Public Schools For Good  Washington Post   ...The second-graders paraded to the Dumpster in the rear parking lot, where they chucked boxes of old work sheets, notebooks and other detritus into the trash, emptying their school for good. Benjamin Banneker Elementary closed Wednesday as New Orleans’s Recovery School District permanently shuttered its last five traditional public schools this week...
Northwestern And Its Football Players May Have To Wait For Clarity About Unionizing  Chicago Business Journal   ...When the Northwestern football team starts practice for the 2014 season in early August, will there be clarity about whether the team has the right to unionize? Frankly, it's unclear at this point. But here is what is known about where things stand right now...
Here's What Corporate America Really Thinks About You  Huffington Post   ...If you are an American human being today, ... what you really are is a sadly predictable agglomeration of demographic traits and buying habits. This is just how the world works, according to our many "data brokers," who pretty much know everything. These are companies that tirelessly scour the Internet, government records and anyplace else we might leave a mark on this mortal coil and then use the information they glean to help companies sell crap to you...
Miscellaneous
Harry Reid's Attacks On Koch Brothers Send GOP Donors Into The Shadows  Washington Post   ...Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid's relentless attacks on the billionaire Koch brothers are having an unforeseen impact--spurring other wealthy GOP donors to give more money to groups that keep their supporters' names secret...
The Wal-Mart Free City  The New Yorker   ...In October, the city council of Portland, Oregon, ... adopted a resolution banning Walmart—and Walmart alone— from the city’s investment portfolio. The resolution, unanimously approved, cited an anonymous executive who was quoted in Charles Fishman’s 2006 book, “The Wal-Mart Effect,” saying, “They have killed free-market capitalism in America.”...

Fast-tracking trade deals is the last thing workers need right now

Be very afraid. Corporate CEOs are lobbying Congress for a renewal of fast-track authority.

That means they want lawmakers to quickly approve trade deals negotiated in secret -- without any amendments and limited debate.

The last thing we need is for Congress to fast-track a trade deal with secret provisions that help their corporate benefactors but screw working and middle class families.

While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable rolled out a new coalition this week falsely touting the benefits of fast-track for regular Americans, Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, gave the real low down:

With a powerful gang of corporations eager to use massive agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now under negotiation, or the looming U.S.-EU Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) to steamroll policies supported by the public and enacted by Congress, the threats posed by such an extreme procedure are severe.

Like what? A rollback of Congress' recent Wall Street reforms, says Sen. Elizabeth Warren. An undermining of the medicine cost savings of Obamacare, says a groups of state legislators trying to implement that policy. Plans to expand extreme investor privileges that offshore thousands of jobs. A ban on Buy American provisions that create thousands of jobs. Gutting of critical food safety improvements, says Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Congress' greatest food safety champion. And, then there is a backdoor sneak-in of draconian copyright rules reminiscent of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Wallach said fast track authority limits the public's ability to comment on trade agreements and allows bad policy to be put in place. Most Americans would feel the fallout from the use of fast track because the agreements they push through would affect job security, food safety, and environmental protections. It also gives unelected trade representatives the authority to set policy.

So why would the Obama administration want fast-track authority? A big reason is the TPP. The 17th round of secret TPP talks just concluded in Lima, Perus.

Wallach notes the White House will need all the help it can get to have the trade agreement approved. That's why opponents need to work hard to sack the idea:

Getting U.S. trade negotiators under the control of Congress and the public could not be more urgent, given the TPP and TAFTA negotiations and the vast implications of those looming agreements. In fact, as my new book shows, about every two decades Congress has come up with a new mechanism to manage trade pact negotiations and approval as the scope of agreements changed. Until now.

The Teamsters believe U.S. citizens, not unelected trade negotiators, need more say in the process. Join us in opposing the granting of fast-track trade authority. Contact your congressional representatives and tell them to say no to corporate interests and yes to American workers.