Hoffa: TAA Will Offer Little Help to Workers Hit Hard by Trade Huffington Post ...For years, the Teamsters have been strong supporters of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) legislative efforts that have offered support to thousands of workers who have lost their jobs due to bad trade deals. But not this time. As lawmakers get ready to consider TAA legislation in the House in an effort to sweeten the pot and encourage the passage of the fast track trade bill, they too should reconsider their support of the measure...
United Airlines Maintenance Workers Warn Shareholders of Problems at Airline Teamster.org ...United Airlines aviation maintenance technicians and related support personnel rallied outside the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Chicago today to warn investors and customers of problems at the airline. More than 9,000 Teamster aviation maintenance workers are seeking a fair collective bargaining agreement...
Clark County School District Employees To Vote For Teamster Representation Teamster.org ...Today, in a major victory for support staff workers at the Clark County School District (CCSD) in southern Nevada, the Employee-Management Relations Board (EMRB) announced a union election to be held November. The ballots will be mailed on November 2 and counted on December 5 in a simple-majority vote for Teamster representation at the nation’s fifth largest school district...
Teamsters Kick Off Carhaul Negotiations in Chicago Teamster.org ...Six days after the Teamsters exchanged contract proposals with the carhaul employer group, the union kicked off negotiations in Chicago today for a new national contract covering almost 6,000 employees. “Today is the start of a long process to negotiate a strong contract for our carhaul members, and we will not stop until we address our members’ concerns at the bargaining table,” said Kevin Moore, Director of the Teamsters Carhaul Division...
Hoffa: Safety Of Motorists Could Be Jeopardized By Transportation Bill Teamster.org ...Highways across Michigan and the U.S. have become increasingly dangerous for motorists. And that will only get worse if Congress approves a transportation spending bill that effectively keeps the suspension of rules in place that allow truck drivers to work longer hours, that permits larger double-trailers and that prevents the U.S. Department of Transportation from raising minimum insurance standards that have been frozen in place for the last three decades...
United Airlines employees protest at annual meeting Chicago Tribune ...Frustration among United Airlines' 9,000 unionized maintenance technicians, some of whom demonstrated outside the carrier's headquarters in Chicago on Wednesday, spilled over to the corporate annual meeting inside. United and the workers, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, have been working on a joint contract since January 2013 that covers workers of United and Continental, which merged in 2010. Mediated talks are scheduled to continue next week in Las Vegas...
D.C. area Teamsters endorse Donna Edwards for Senate Washington Post ...Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.) has won support from the Washington area Teamsters for her Maryland Senate campaign, two months after her primary rival U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) scored the first union endorsement in the contest. The Teamsters Local #639, which represents about 8,500 workers in Maryland, Virginia and the District and is largest in the region, announced their decision Wednesday...
Global Labor & Trade
House GOP prepares for close 'fast track' vote USA Today ...Seeing momentum for passage, House Republicans are aiming to move forward Friday with an anticipated close vote to renew trade promotion authority. The "fast track" trade bill is a top priority for Republicans and President Obama, but overwhelming opposition from the majority of congressional Democrats has pro-trade lawmakers anticipating a tight vote...
John Boehner set to move ahead on trade Politico ...Speaker John Boehner plans to bring a package of trade bills to the House floor Friday, despite lingering disagreements with Democrats. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), wading into the fast-track trade fight for the first time publicly, spent all week pressing Boehner to change the package, which passed the Senate last month...
Labor chief rebukes Obama in letter The Hill ...AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka this week sent President Obama a five-page letter slamming his push for fast-track trade authority, arguing labor unions have been treated unfairly throughout the process. Trumka railed against Obama in the letter, which was sent on Monday, asserting that he has “repeatedly isolated and marginalized labor and unions as the only opponents of fast track” and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Paul Ryan Seeks to Bar Obama From Tweaking Immigration, Climate-Change Law Wall Street Journal ...Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) is seeking to prevent President Barack Obama from using trade agreements to make changes to U.S. laws on immigration and climate change, a move aimed at reassuring conservatives wary of voting to give Mr. Obama special trade authority...
House passes bill to repeal meat labeling rules The Hill ...The House passed legislation late Wednesday that would repeal country-of-origin labeling requirements for beef, pork and chicken products. Passage of the measure came easily on a vote of 300-131. The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled last month against the U.S. appeal to keep its existing country-of-origin labeling regulation for imported cuts of beef and pork...
Leaked trade deal terms prompt fears for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme The Guardian ...The leak of new information on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) shows the mega-trade deal could provide more ways for multinational corporations to influence Australia’s control of its pharmaceutical regulations. Revealed via Wikileaks, the annexe on “transparency and procedural fairness for pharmaceutical products and medical devices” uncovered the draft agreements regarding medicines between the 12 TPPA member countries...
House passes bill to repeal meat labeling rules The Hill ...The House passed legislation late Wednesday that would repeal country-of-origin labeling requirements for beef, pork and chicken products. Passage of the measure came easily on a vote of 300-131. The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled last month against the U.S. appeal to keep its existing country-of-origin labeling regulation for imported cuts of beef and pork...
Leaked trade deal terms prompt fears for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme The Guardian ...The leak of new information on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) shows the mega-trade deal could provide more ways for multinational corporations to influence Australia’s control of its pharmaceutical regulations. Revealed via Wikileaks, the annexe on “transparency and procedural fairness for pharmaceutical products and medical devices” uncovered the draft agreements regarding medicines between the 12 TPPA member countries...
Left wingers stage anti-austerity protest at Greek finance ministry, as bailout talks continue Associated Press ...Greek left-wing demonstrators are staging a sit-in at the finance ministry building in central Athens, in a protest against the radical, left-led government, which they accuse of planning new austerity measures. Thursday's protest came as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is engaged in a diplomatic offensive in Brussels to try to persuade European creditors to pay out the bailout loans the country needs to avoid default...
Jobsite Improvements Can’t Happen without Workers Solidarity Center ...The global economy generally is unregulated and the system encourages multinational corporations to operate or source from countries where wages are low, laws to protect human rights are few or unenforced and workers are impoverished and vulnerable, Shawna Bader-Blau, Solidarity Center executive director, said before the Canadian Parliament late yesterday...
State & Living Wage Battles
Scott Walker Congratulates Himself On His Education Record But Leaves Out Important Facts Think Progress ...In an op-ed for The Des Moines Register, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) talked up his record on education, saying that his decisions to get rid of teacher tenure and seniority and encourage the growth of more charter schools is responsible for better graduation rates and higher third grade reading scores. The data is skewed a little by the fact that the ACT test is largely taken in the Midwest and not on the east coast, and is required in certain states and not in others...
Kansas Waffles On Restriction That Would Only Let People Withdraw A Max Of $25 From Welfare Each Day Think Progress ...Though Kansas has been deadlocked over whether to raise taxes — something that should be unthinkable under its “tea party experiment” of baiting economic growth with lower taxes — it may be rolling back one particularly egregious aspect of restricting benefits on the poor...
California: Raise in Minimum Wage in Los Angeles Is to Be Signed Saturday New York Times ...Officials have given final approval to an ordinance that makes Los Angeles the largest city in the United States to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The City Council on Wednesday voted 12 to 1 for the increase and forwarded it to Mayor Eric Garcetti. His office says he plans to sign it on Saturday...
Could West Virginia Lose Prevailing Wage? WDTV ...Prevailing wage has the potential to disappear temporality come next month. On Monday June 8th, a Republican-led committee voted to not extend the deadline to set a new prevailing wage in our state. The agency met a June 1st deadline to share it's method on how the wage would be reached, but If WorkForce West Virginia doesn’t submit more details on it's plans by July 1st, the state will no longer have a prevailing wage for the time being...
Walmart Violated Minimum Wage Laws, Federal Judge Rules Huffington Post ...Wal-Mart could be on the hook for more than $100 million in back pay after a federal judge ruled the company failed to pay California minimum wage to truck drivers for activities that included inspecting and washing their trucks, an attorney said Wednesday. The ruling came after the company argued that the drivers are paid for particular activities that include those tasks...
Council Rejects Prevailing Wage Ordinance Woodstock Independent ...The Woodstock City Council refused to pass a state-mandated prevailing wage ordinance at its June 2 meeting, a vote that will likely prove to be symbolic. The vote came after a presentation from Larson detailing the cost to municipalities of Illinois’ prevailing wage laws. Such laws, which exist at the federal level as well as in 32 states, dictate the hourly wage and benefits paid to many government-contracted laborers, workers and mechanics...
U.S. Labor
With Thousands Marching in the Streets, Chicago Teachers Union Declares ‘This Means War!’ In These Times ...Cries of “this means war!” echoed throughout Chicago’s financial district this Tuesday as teachers demonstrated against the Board of Education ahead of union contract negotiations this summer. The rally, which began in front of Chicago’s James R. Thompson center, served as an unofficial kickoff for the CTU’s campaign to bargain a new contract with CPS’s Board of Education, which represents 400,000 students and the country’s third-largest school district. The current contract expires on June 30...
Now interns are unionizing, too Washington Post ...Of all workplace positions, perhaps none is quite so exploitable — at least stereotypically — as the intern. Sometimes paid, but often not, they're asked to perform duties nobody else wants to do in exchange for that essential first line on a resume indicating “experience.” Haley Quinn, a 20-year-old student at New York University, thought life could be a lot better for the nation’s youngest professionals. Last summer, while interning at the American Federation of Teachers in Washington, D.C., she did what seemed natural in that environment: Organizing her co-workers...
Agreement with Cal-OSHA gives UFW bigger role in heat protection enforcement Bakersfield Californian ...Cal-OSHA, the state’s workplace safety agency, has agreed to adjust its approach to heat-illness protections, including stepping up inspections during the warmest weather and targeting repeat offenders, under a lawsuit settlement announced Wednesday by the United Farm Workers labor union. The agreement gives the UFW a bigger role in reporting employers it suspects of violating existing rules, and calls on the union to do more to persuade field workers to cooperate with state inspectors...
Clark County stops pay increases for SEIU members Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Clark County management has informed its largest union that employees won’t receive salary or benefit increases anytime soon, citing a new state law and contending that the contract between the county and Service Employees International Union Local 1107 has expired. The freeze is expected to end in August or early September, when the county expects to have a new contract in place with the union...
Saline UAW workers avoid strike minutes before deadline Click On Detroit ...A Saline auto parts plant avoided a potential United Auto Workers strike. They reached a deal minutes before midnight with auto supplier Faurecia. The union had told its members to prepare for strike assignments at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. UAW Local 892 President Larry Robinson passed out a negotiations update Wednesday, which regarded the end of deadline extensions, concluding that, if there is no deal at midnight, "unless you hear otherwise, you should consider yourself on strike"...
USW to vote Thursday to end lockout at Century Aluminum's Hawesville smelter Platts ...Hundreds of union members would return to work Monday at Century Aluminum's 244,000 mt/year Hawesville smelter in Kentucky if the United Steelworkers union ratifies a tentative agreement with the Chicago-based company to end a monthlong lockout, a USW official said Wednesday. The five-year deal was hammered out Tuesday by negotiators with the assistance of a federal mediator...
Miscellaneous
'Infrastructure? Who Cares,' Says GOP-Led House as it Slashes Amtrak Budget Common Dreams ...The GOP-led U.S. House of Representatives late Tuesday voted to slash $242 million from the Amtrak budget. "Amtrak currently receives $1.3 billion from the government, most of which goes toward capital improvements and debt service," AP reports. "The GOP-drafted measure cuts $242 million from capital accounts but fully funds the $289 million request for operating losses"...
Here little lady, let me tell you how banking works: Jamie Dimon mansplains to Elizabeth Warren Salon ...Jamie Dimon, the billionaire CEO of JP Morgan Chase and face of Wall Street bankers, doesn’t think Senator Elizabeth Warren “fully understands the global banking system” but he’s reportedly offered to meet with her and explain a few things. Dimon told a group of bankers at a luncheon for The Executives’ Club of Chicago today that although he agrees with some of the concerns expressed by America’s most vocal critic of Wall Street, he just doesn’t think that Warren actually gets how the whole global banking thing works...
Police Kill Black Women Too—and We Don't Talk About It Enough Mother Jones ...During protests that shook Baltimore in April, Freddie Gray's name became a rallying cry in calls for criminal justice reform nationwide. But how many of us have heard of Rekia Boyd, the 22-year-old unarmed black woman who was fatally shot by a police detective in Chicago back in 2012? Just five days before demonstrations erupted for Gray in Maryland and then across the country, a judge acquitted the Chicago detective who killed Boyd, despite finding that he had acted in a manner that was "beyond reckless"...
Jobsite Improvements Can’t Happen without Workers Solidarity Center ...The global economy generally is unregulated and the system encourages multinational corporations to operate or source from countries where wages are low, laws to protect human rights are few or unenforced and workers are impoverished and vulnerable, Shawna Bader-Blau, Solidarity Center executive director, said before the Canadian Parliament late yesterday...
State & Living Wage Battles
Scott Walker Congratulates Himself On His Education Record But Leaves Out Important Facts Think Progress ...In an op-ed for The Des Moines Register, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) talked up his record on education, saying that his decisions to get rid of teacher tenure and seniority and encourage the growth of more charter schools is responsible for better graduation rates and higher third grade reading scores. The data is skewed a little by the fact that the ACT test is largely taken in the Midwest and not on the east coast, and is required in certain states and not in others...
Kansas Waffles On Restriction That Would Only Let People Withdraw A Max Of $25 From Welfare Each Day Think Progress ...Though Kansas has been deadlocked over whether to raise taxes — something that should be unthinkable under its “tea party experiment” of baiting economic growth with lower taxes — it may be rolling back one particularly egregious aspect of restricting benefits on the poor...
California: Raise in Minimum Wage in Los Angeles Is to Be Signed Saturday New York Times ...Officials have given final approval to an ordinance that makes Los Angeles the largest city in the United States to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The City Council on Wednesday voted 12 to 1 for the increase and forwarded it to Mayor Eric Garcetti. His office says he plans to sign it on Saturday...
Could West Virginia Lose Prevailing Wage? WDTV ...Prevailing wage has the potential to disappear temporality come next month. On Monday June 8th, a Republican-led committee voted to not extend the deadline to set a new prevailing wage in our state. The agency met a June 1st deadline to share it's method on how the wage would be reached, but If WorkForce West Virginia doesn’t submit more details on it's plans by July 1st, the state will no longer have a prevailing wage for the time being...
Walmart Violated Minimum Wage Laws, Federal Judge Rules Huffington Post ...Wal-Mart could be on the hook for more than $100 million in back pay after a federal judge ruled the company failed to pay California minimum wage to truck drivers for activities that included inspecting and washing their trucks, an attorney said Wednesday. The ruling came after the company argued that the drivers are paid for particular activities that include those tasks...
Council Rejects Prevailing Wage Ordinance Woodstock Independent ...The Woodstock City Council refused to pass a state-mandated prevailing wage ordinance at its June 2 meeting, a vote that will likely prove to be symbolic. The vote came after a presentation from Larson detailing the cost to municipalities of Illinois’ prevailing wage laws. Such laws, which exist at the federal level as well as in 32 states, dictate the hourly wage and benefits paid to many government-contracted laborers, workers and mechanics...
U.S. Labor
With Thousands Marching in the Streets, Chicago Teachers Union Declares ‘This Means War!’ In These Times ...Cries of “this means war!” echoed throughout Chicago’s financial district this Tuesday as teachers demonstrated against the Board of Education ahead of union contract negotiations this summer. The rally, which began in front of Chicago’s James R. Thompson center, served as an unofficial kickoff for the CTU’s campaign to bargain a new contract with CPS’s Board of Education, which represents 400,000 students and the country’s third-largest school district. The current contract expires on June 30...
Now interns are unionizing, too Washington Post ...Of all workplace positions, perhaps none is quite so exploitable — at least stereotypically — as the intern. Sometimes paid, but often not, they're asked to perform duties nobody else wants to do in exchange for that essential first line on a resume indicating “experience.” Haley Quinn, a 20-year-old student at New York University, thought life could be a lot better for the nation’s youngest professionals. Last summer, while interning at the American Federation of Teachers in Washington, D.C., she did what seemed natural in that environment: Organizing her co-workers...
Agreement with Cal-OSHA gives UFW bigger role in heat protection enforcement Bakersfield Californian ...Cal-OSHA, the state’s workplace safety agency, has agreed to adjust its approach to heat-illness protections, including stepping up inspections during the warmest weather and targeting repeat offenders, under a lawsuit settlement announced Wednesday by the United Farm Workers labor union. The agreement gives the UFW a bigger role in reporting employers it suspects of violating existing rules, and calls on the union to do more to persuade field workers to cooperate with state inspectors...
Clark County stops pay increases for SEIU members Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Clark County management has informed its largest union that employees won’t receive salary or benefit increases anytime soon, citing a new state law and contending that the contract between the county and Service Employees International Union Local 1107 has expired. The freeze is expected to end in August or early September, when the county expects to have a new contract in place with the union...
Saline UAW workers avoid strike minutes before deadline Click On Detroit ...A Saline auto parts plant avoided a potential United Auto Workers strike. They reached a deal minutes before midnight with auto supplier Faurecia. The union had told its members to prepare for strike assignments at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. UAW Local 892 President Larry Robinson passed out a negotiations update Wednesday, which regarded the end of deadline extensions, concluding that, if there is no deal at midnight, "unless you hear otherwise, you should consider yourself on strike"...
USW to vote Thursday to end lockout at Century Aluminum's Hawesville smelter Platts ...Hundreds of union members would return to work Monday at Century Aluminum's 244,000 mt/year Hawesville smelter in Kentucky if the United Steelworkers union ratifies a tentative agreement with the Chicago-based company to end a monthlong lockout, a USW official said Wednesday. The five-year deal was hammered out Tuesday by negotiators with the assistance of a federal mediator...
Miscellaneous
'Infrastructure? Who Cares,' Says GOP-Led House as it Slashes Amtrak Budget Common Dreams ...The GOP-led U.S. House of Representatives late Tuesday voted to slash $242 million from the Amtrak budget. "Amtrak currently receives $1.3 billion from the government, most of which goes toward capital improvements and debt service," AP reports. "The GOP-drafted measure cuts $242 million from capital accounts but fully funds the $289 million request for operating losses"...
Here little lady, let me tell you how banking works: Jamie Dimon mansplains to Elizabeth Warren Salon ...Jamie Dimon, the billionaire CEO of JP Morgan Chase and face of Wall Street bankers, doesn’t think Senator Elizabeth Warren “fully understands the global banking system” but he’s reportedly offered to meet with her and explain a few things. Dimon told a group of bankers at a luncheon for The Executives’ Club of Chicago today that although he agrees with some of the concerns expressed by America’s most vocal critic of Wall Street, he just doesn’t think that Warren actually gets how the whole global banking thing works...
Police Kill Black Women Too—and We Don't Talk About It Enough Mother Jones ...During protests that shook Baltimore in April, Freddie Gray's name became a rallying cry in calls for criminal justice reform nationwide. But how many of us have heard of Rekia Boyd, the 22-year-old unarmed black woman who was fatally shot by a police detective in Chicago back in 2012? Just five days before demonstrations erupted for Gray in Maryland and then across the country, a judge acquitted the Chicago detective who killed Boyd, despite finding that he had acted in a manner that was "beyond reckless"...
