TEAMSTERS
Teamster Silicon Valley Drivers Vote Overwhelmingly in Favor of Contract Teamster.org ...Shuttle drivers for seven major Silicon Valley companies voted by an overwhelming 95 percent today to approve a first contract that provides for industry-leading wages and benefits. The nearly 200 drivers, who are members of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., work for Compass Transportation, contractor to Apple, eBay, PayPal, Yahoo, Evernote, Genentech and Amtrak...
Labor deal for more Silicon Valley tech shuttle drivers USA Today ...Shuttle drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay and several other Silicon Valley companies overwhelmingly voted Sunday to accept a contract that will increase wages and benefits and give them their first paid Thanksgiving holiday. The drivers for those companies, as well as Amtrak, Evernote, Genentech and Paypal, voted to unionize with Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., back in February...
Teamsters, Employer Group Reconvene for Carhaul Negotiations Teamster.org ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) met this week with the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division to begin negotiating a revised national carhaul contract. This week’s negotiations come after carhaulers voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements earlier this year...
Local 727 Reaches Tentative Agreement on New 4-Year Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Contract Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 reached tentative agreement on a new four-year contract for 600 members at Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola. Final negotiations stretched late into the night on Nov. 19 as the Bargaining Committee hammered out final details for strong wage increases, important benefits and fortified rights for drivers, bulk, merchandisers, laborers and all other Reyes Teamsters...
BMWED To Conduct Research On Occupational Risk Reduction Teamster.org ...The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes' (BMWED) President Freddie N. Simpson, with the full support of the BMWED National Division Officers, has approved a Brotherhood-wide research study to address the long-standing absence of high quality data reflecting the nature, frequency, severity and socio-economic consequences of occupational risk and its impact on BMWED members. BMWED members are a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference...
Teamsters Join with Business, Community to Host N.Y. Job Fair Teamster.org ...Sunset Park is home to some of the last sections of working waterfront in the city, and a job fair held Tuesday night aims to employ neighborhood residents in some of the good jobs on the waterfront. Manhattan Beer Distributors partnered with Teamsters Local 812, City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, and community organization UPROSE...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
The Maquiladora Workers of Juárez Find Their Voice The Nation ... After more than a decade of silence, maquiladora workers in Ciudad Juárez have found their voice. The city, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is now the center of a growing rebellion of laborers in the border factories. At the gates to four plants, including a huge 5,000-worker Foxconn complex, they have set up encampments, or plantons, demanding recognition of independent unions, and protesting firings and reprisals...
Lufthansa cabin crew to strike Thursday, Friday Globe and Mail ...Lufthansa cabin crew have been called to another round of strikes starting Thursday and Friday, the head of trade union UFO, Nicoley Baublies, told Reuters on Monday. The cabin crew union staged a week of strikes earlier this month, costing the company tens of millions of euros and forcing the cancellation of about 4,700 flights...
U.S. trade czar confident of 2016 Congress vote on TPP STL Today ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Thursday he expected Congress to vote on a 12-nation Pacific Rim free-trade deal early next year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which aims to liberalize trade for 40 percent of the global economy, must be ratified by U.S. Congress but opposition from many Democrats and some Republicans could mean a vote is unlikely before President Barack Obama leaves office...
Obama promotes TPP, says it is 'more than just a trade pact' The Sun Daily ...United States President Barack Obama, in his strong bid to promote the TPP to Asean member countries, said it is more than just a trade pact as it will build cooperation among nations. Acknowledging that the debates on TPP in many countries and skepticism on previously failed trade deals, Obama admitted that TPP deal is a “tough sell”...
As Obama heads to Malaysia, human trafficking stance questioned Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia on Friday for a Southeast Asia leaders’ summit comes amid allegations by U.S. lawmakers and rights groups that his administration ignored Malaysia’s abuse of trafficking victims such as Baser to secure the country’s help sealing a high-profile trade deal and strengthen ties to offset China’s growing political clout...
EFF Joins Broad Coalition of Groups to Protest the TPP in Washington D.C. (opinion) EFF ...Contained within these 6,000-plus pages of the completed TPP text are a series of provisions that empower multinational corporations and private interest groups at the expense of the public interest. Civil society groups represent diverse concerns, so while we may disagree on our specific concerns about the TPP, we commonly recognize that this is a toxic, undemocratic deal that must be stopped at all costs...
Trade laws undo local progress on food systems (opinion) IATP.org ...Careful examination of the recently released text for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is already revealing new risks for our food system. Those findings also tell us what to watch out for in the other big pending trade deal—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union...
Greek economy stagnates under austerity and capital controls ABC ...This is the reality in Greece these days, as the latest austerity cuts a swathe through consumer spending and capital controls — measures to limit withdrawals from banks — stagnate the already downtrodden Greek economy. In what is now a damaging consumer cycle, the damaging of cuts to pensions means grandparents have less money in their wallets and no longer spend up as the dote on their grandchildren — sometimes with handcrafted shoes from France and Italy...
Bangladesh: ‘An Effective Union Can Ensure Fire Safety’ Solidarity Center ...Bilkish Begum says she and other workers at a garment factory in Bangladesh could not discuss implementing fire safety measures with their employer—even after the deadly blaze at Tazreen Fashions factory killed 112 workers three years ago next week. Only when they formed a union, which provides workers with protection against retaliation for seeking to improve their workplace conditions, could they take steps to help ensure their safety...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Louisiana votes for Medicaid expansion Daily Kos ...The monumental David Vitter loss in Louisiana Saturday promises to be a big win for Louisiana. While it was Vitter's past scandals that dominated the election, it's Democratic Governor-elect John Bel Edwards' main policy promise that's the big news, and likely means health care for some 242,000 Louisiana residents in the coming year...
Advocates Dispute Dire Predictions of $15 Minimum Wage Study Public News Service ...A report released this week by a business group predicting dire consequences if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour doesn't reflect reality, fair-wage advocates say. According to the report by the Long Island Association, more than 23,000 Long Island jobs would be lost. Advocates for raising the wage say businesses would benefit from the increased spending...
Exposing North Carolina's shell game of electoral apartheid Daily Kos ...This fall, Daily Kos community member Bill Busa exposed North Carolina's sneaky new voter suppression tool in which county boards of elections in the state closed almost one-third of the state’s early voting polling places in 2014, replacing them with polls at new locations. The result of moving those early voting locations: African American voters found themselves 350,000 miles farther away from their nearest early voting sites...
Strangers Raise Money For Walmart Worker Fired For Picking Up Cans Think Progress ...When a parking lot attendant dared to recycle trash he picked up outside an upstate New York Walmart, the store fired him. Now generous strangers are trying to help cushion his sudden fall. Thomas Smith, 52, had been earning $9 an hour at an upstate New York Walmart for less than three months when his manager terminated him over the cans...
California cities embracing higher minimum wage SGV Tribune ...Surrounded by city and union officials at a Labor Day rally in South Los Angeles last year, Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed raising the city’s minimum wage to $13.25 per hour by the end of the decade — a plan he said would significantly help low-income workers in Los Angeles while placing minimal burden on employers. Nine months later, Garcetti signed an ordinance that is more progressive than he proposed — a citywide wage hike to $15 an hour by 2021...
U.S. LABOR
UAW reaches end of winding road with Detroit automakers Detroit Free Press ...Detroit’s once-every-four-years ritual of UAW negotiations and ratification is finally over. The final two companies: General Motors and Ford, ratified their agreements late Friday after months of grueling talks. There are as many opinions about who won and who came up short as the 140,000 workers whose pay and benefits for the next four years were set in the contracts...
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, The Case To Push Right To Work Nationally NH Labor News ...The Supreme Court is about to hear a case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association that could overturn a nearly forty-year decision that allows unions to negotiate “fair-share” fees for non-union members who benefit from the union’s contract. “We are disappointed that at a time when big corporations and the wealthy few are rewriting the rules in their favor, the Supreme Court has chosen to take a case that threatens the fundamental promise of America"...
CWA accuses Alcatel-Lucent of stealing Lucent retirees' health care funds Fierce Telecom ...The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union has filed a request with the U.S. District Court in New Jersey to get a temporary restraining order against Alcatel-Lucent over claims that the French company plans to use money for retirees' health care to cover its own pension funding obligations. Under the proposed plan, CWA said that Alcatel-Lucent will move 20,000 retirees and an additional $1.2 billion...
Verizon workers rally for contract Godanriver.com ...Verizon workers across the East Coast, including Danville, rallied over contract negotiations Thursday evening. A small group of regional workers gathered at the 141 Trade St. garage where most of the technicians that service Verizon lines in Danville base their operation. The previous contract expired on Aug. 1. Verizon employees have been working without a contract since then...
The U.S. Is Beaten By 27 Other Countries When It Comes To Women’s Equality Think Progress ...While the world has made progress closing the gap between women and men in health, education, economic participation, and political empowerment over the last decade, the United States is not keeping up. The World Economic Forum (WEF) just released its 2015 Global Gender Gap report, which showed that the gap has dropped by 4 percent in the last ten years...
Heat kills California farmworkers, but the state won't always admit it Daily Kos ...Agricultural workers have fewer job protections than most other workers even as they do physically grueling labor for low pay. It’s a vicious circle—most of the people who work in the fields come from vulnerable groups, and the low wages and lack of protections keep them vulnerable. California’s heat is one significant source of illness and even death for farmworkers. But you might not know that from the state’s official statistics...
When Temp Workers Die While Being Taken to the Job, Who’s Responsible? In These Times ...Since the Great Recession, the temporary staffing industry has boomed, and temp employment has accounted for significant portions of rebounding job growth. Temps—who are employed by agencies and whose labor is simply rented out by third-party businesses—have become seen as some of America’s most vulnerable workers. Labor advocates say that, in treating workers as replaceable units of labor, the temp industry can overlook workers’ most basic human needs...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Many Americans Have Criminal Records as College Diplomas Truthout ...The number of Americans with a criminal history has risen sharply over the past three decades. Today, nearly one-third of the adult working age population has a criminal record. In fact, so many Americans have a criminal record that counting them all is nearly impossible...
How Prison Reform Could Turn the Prison-Industrial Complex Into the Treatment-Industrial Complex The Nation ... many of the dollars expected to be “saved” from shuttering prisons may simply be funneled into privatized “alternatives to incarceration” like parole programs and halfway houses. These operations are often run by the household names of the prison business—they’re simply moving from behind bars to the so-called “treatment-industrial complex”...
Wall Street's Reprieve Expires The Atlantic ...Financial-regulation legislation—or efforts to stop it—ranks among the trickiest political knots that the White House and Congress have to unravel if they want to keep with their October budget compromise and fund the government. Democrats and Republicans in Congress—though not in the country at large—still line up on opposite sides of the fence...
Trump Supporters Punch, Kick Black Lives Matter Protester at Rally Slate ...Several people taking part in a rally for Donald Trump in Birmingham, Alabama pushed down, kicked, and punched a black protester. At least six Trump supporters shoved and tackled the protester, while one man punched the demonstrator and a woman kicked him while he was on the ground, according to CNN. One even attempted to choke the protester...
France Asks UN to Back 'Merciless' Military Response to Paris Attacks Common Dreams ...Just days after French President François Hollande vowed a "merciless" response to the Paris attacks, his government on Thursday submitted a resolution for the United Nations Security Council to "take all necessary measures" against ISIS. The French proposal, which could face a vote as early as Friday, competes with a separate one re-submitted by Russia this week...
Showing posts with label airline strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airline strike. Show all posts
Monday, November 23, 2015
Friday, May 1, 2015
Today's Teamster News 05.01.15
Teamsters
Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital Vote Overwhelmingly to Join Teamsters Local 170 Teamster.org ...Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital have become members of Teamsters Local 170 following an election yesterday in which more than 75 percent of voting workers cast ballots in favor of union representation. The vote count was 130-40 and there are more than 200 technicians in the bargaining unit...
Hoffa Statement on Minimum Wage Legislation Teamster.org ...Hoffa in response to the introduction today of the “Raise the Wage Act” by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), which would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020: “This legislation will offer a hand up to millions of U.S. families who are struggling to make ends meet"...
Osco Drug Pharmacists Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Pharmacists at Osco Drug have voted to become members of Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland, Maine. The newly organized group consists of 20 pharmacists who work for Osco pharmacies located within 16 Shaw’s supermarkets throughout Maine...
Michigan truck drivers, warehouse workers rally for union at Sysco Fight Back News ...Around 50 workers and drivers joined a Teamsters Union Local 406 rally outside the food distribution giant Sysco Corporation on April 29. A huge black and gold Teamster truck was parked just outside the Sysco warehouse, bordering the Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids. Over 160 drivers and warehouse workers are demanding Sysco recognize their union affiliation with Teamsters 406...
Allegiant, Teamsters fighting over executive pay Vegas Inc ...The Teamsters union, already grappling with Allegiant Air in court over a possible pilots strike, is fighting with the carrier in the boardroom, too. The union, which owns a miniscule portion of Allegiant’s stock, is pushing back against the Las Vegas-based discount airline’s $8.5 million payout to former president and chief operating officer Andrew Levy...
Members of Congress Call on the Administration to Address Unfair Middle East Airline Subsidies Teamster.org ...Today 262 Members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urging them to request consultations with the governments of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because those governments have been providing massive, market-distorting subsidies to their state-owned airlines...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Accused Democrats Of Lying About Trade Deal, And They Aren't Having It Huffington Post ...Democrats are not happy about President Barack Obama's accusation that they are being "dishonest" about his trade agenda. Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) responded by pointing out that the pact remains classified, making it a crime for lawmakers to share its details with the public...
New Democrats expect growing support for fast-track Politico ...A small group of House Democrats who back President Barack Obama’s effort to win “fast-track” trade legislation said Thursday they expect more party members to step forward in favor of the bill, but indicated Republicans would still have to provide the bulk of the votes to win its approval...
Obama to push case for trade deal at Nike headquarters in Oregon Reuters ...President Barack Obama will travel to Nike Inc headquarters in Oregon next Friday to argue that a 12-nation Pacific trade deal and the fast-track legislation needed to finalize the pact are good for workers. Obama faces tough opposition from his fellow Democrats in Congress over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which they fear could hurt American jobs and the environment...
Battle rages over key Obama trade policy Washington Post ...For many liberal critics, the problem with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal isn’t simply the worry that it could lead to more job loss by exposing American manufacturing to more import competition. Rather, they assert that the TPP is in many ways not even a trade agreement: Its real offense is in the areas of intellectual property and global dispute settlement, where the deal, they say, could further tilt the playing field towards major corporations...
Chile upbeat on Pacific trade deal, urges Canada to give ground Reuters ...The 12 countries working toward a historic Pacific trade pact could reach a deal at the end of May, though Canada must still show greater willingness to open up its markets, a senior Chilean official said on Thursday. Chile is among the nations in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact that would cover 40 percent of the world economy and includes the United States and Japan...
Fast Track and TPP Bad for Development (opinion) Oxfam America ...“Trade can indeed spur economic growth and poverty reduction, but only if the rules actually benefit those at the lower end of the development ladder,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “Although it is being negotiated in secret, what we currently know about the TPP lines up the trade deal to do exactly the opposite”...
Nepal Quake Galvanizes Local Unions; Felt in Bangladesh Solidarity Center ...The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), which represents mostly blue-collar workers, the Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC), which includes teachers and other white-collar workers and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Center (JTUCC), the umbrella organization of GEFONT and the NTUC, say their employees are safe and now working to provide disaster relief...
Portugal: TAP pilots to begin 10-day strike as talks fail Euronews ...Portugal’s flagship air carrier TAP looks set to be grounded for ten days from now because of a strike by pilots. Last-minute talks between the pilots and management yesterday afternoon failed to produce results...
State & Living Wage Battles
Democrats make minimum wage pitch: $12 by ’20 Washington Post ...Top Democrats laid down their minimum-wage marker on Capitol Hill on Thursday, setting up their party's middle-class-focused economic message heading into the 2016 elections campaigns. Their pitch: "$12 by '20" — a $12 per hour federal minimum wage by 2020, which they say will give a pay raise to nearly 38 million Americans...
Senate committee to hold hearing on ending prevailing wage Channel3000 ...The state Senate's labor committee has scheduled a hearing on a GOP bill that would repeal Wisconsin's prevailing wage law. The committee set the hearing for Tuesday and plans to vote on the bill the following Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. Stephen Nass, is one of the bill's sponsors...
State Sen. Daylin Leach proposes raising state minimum wage to $15 per hour The Mercury News ...A legislative proposal to raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage to $15 per hour has been circulated to the 49 state senators by state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist., who is seeking co-sponsors. The proposal, if it eventually becomes law, would also index the $15 minimum wage amount to inflation in future years and eliminate the current, $2.83-per-hour minimum wage for service workers who work for tips...
San Francisco set to introduce nation’s highest minimum wage Daily Journal ...San Francisco is getting ready to raise its minimum wage to $12.25 an hour, a rate that will have the city joining Oakland as the locales with the nation’s highest legally mandated pay for non-salaried workers. San Francisco’s new minimum is set to go into effect on Friday. It was approved by voters as part of an initiative that will increase the minimum wage to $15 in 2018...
U.S. Labor
On May Day, Longshore Workers Stop Work to Protest Racist Police Brutality In These Times ...This May 1 will see some serious protests against racism and police violence -- be they in Baltimore or Oakland. In fact, because ILWU Local 10 has announced it will stop work, the union may have created the space for thousands of protesters from around the Bay Area to join the marches. Using a provision in its contract, ILWU locals can “stop work” to discuss important matters on and off the waterfront...
Teachers at Four NY Archdiocese Schools on Strike NY1.com ...About 90 teachers are set to take part in today's strike at St. Jean Baptiste High School in Manhattan, Notre Dame Academy High School and Our Lady Queen of Peace School on Staten Island, and St. Thomas Aquinas School in the Bronx. The Federation of Catholic Teachers says it has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Archdiocese's Association of Catholic Schools...
SEIU, Franchisees Form Alliance In Support Of Industry Reforms Progress Illinois ...SEIU and franchisees are joining forces in a push to reform the nation's franchise industry as part of a new alliance announced Thursday being called "We Are Main Street." Those with the campaign "will support efforts to strengthen franchisee rights, share franchisee voices and provide research to fuel efforts for reform," according to the We Are Main Street website launched today by SEIU...
Microsoft’s Unionized Contract Workers Get Aggressive Bloomberg ...For more than two decades, the industry has outsourced an expanding range of jobs to contractors, including coders, chip designers, customer service reps, custodial staff, security guards, and cafeteria workers. “A lot of temps are really used as a permanent tier of second-class workers,” says Erin Hatton, author of The Temp Economy, a history of U.S. contingent labor. In September, 38 bug testers who review Microsoft apps voted to create a union, the Temporary Workers of America...
Wall Street owns our cities: The secret pension travesty threatening American workers Salon ...Currently, about 9 percent — or $270 billion — of America’s $3 trillion public pension fund assets are invested in private equity firms. Public officials are overseeing this massive payout to Wall Street at the very moment many of those same officials are demanding big cuts to retirees’ promised pension benefits...
Miscellaneous
Baltimore’s Economic Devastation Goes Back To Racist Housing Policy Think Progress ...There are many causes of a city’s economic decline, and much of Baltimore’s job loss is tied to the falling fortunes of the manufacturing sector. But the fate of the city’s black population has much to do with deliberate policy choices related to housing...
The Rise of the Machines: It's Happening (opinion) Truthout ...I argued that computers would take over many of the cognitive tasks that we find difficult, but that human beings would continue to be wanted for jobs that require common sense, including many forms of manual labor. Or as one friend described it at the time, my thesis was that we'll always need maids and gardeners. And it's happening...
Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital Vote Overwhelmingly to Join Teamsters Local 170 Teamster.org ...Technicians at Saint Vincent Hospital have become members of Teamsters Local 170 following an election yesterday in which more than 75 percent of voting workers cast ballots in favor of union representation. The vote count was 130-40 and there are more than 200 technicians in the bargaining unit...
Hoffa Statement on Minimum Wage Legislation Teamster.org ...Hoffa in response to the introduction today of the “Raise the Wage Act” by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), which would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020: “This legislation will offer a hand up to millions of U.S. families who are struggling to make ends meet"...
Osco Drug Pharmacists Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Pharmacists at Osco Drug have voted to become members of Teamsters Local 340 in South Portland, Maine. The newly organized group consists of 20 pharmacists who work for Osco pharmacies located within 16 Shaw’s supermarkets throughout Maine...
Michigan truck drivers, warehouse workers rally for union at Sysco Fight Back News ...Around 50 workers and drivers joined a Teamsters Union Local 406 rally outside the food distribution giant Sysco Corporation on April 29. A huge black and gold Teamster truck was parked just outside the Sysco warehouse, bordering the Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids. Over 160 drivers and warehouse workers are demanding Sysco recognize their union affiliation with Teamsters 406...
Allegiant, Teamsters fighting over executive pay Vegas Inc ...The Teamsters union, already grappling with Allegiant Air in court over a possible pilots strike, is fighting with the carrier in the boardroom, too. The union, which owns a miniscule portion of Allegiant’s stock, is pushing back against the Las Vegas-based discount airline’s $8.5 million payout to former president and chief operating officer Andrew Levy...
Members of Congress Call on the Administration to Address Unfair Middle East Airline Subsidies Teamster.org ...Today 262 Members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urging them to request consultations with the governments of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because those governments have been providing massive, market-distorting subsidies to their state-owned airlines...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Accused Democrats Of Lying About Trade Deal, And They Aren't Having It Huffington Post ...Democrats are not happy about President Barack Obama's accusation that they are being "dishonest" about his trade agenda. Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) responded by pointing out that the pact remains classified, making it a crime for lawmakers to share its details with the public...
New Democrats expect growing support for fast-track Politico ...A small group of House Democrats who back President Barack Obama’s effort to win “fast-track” trade legislation said Thursday they expect more party members to step forward in favor of the bill, but indicated Republicans would still have to provide the bulk of the votes to win its approval...
Obama to push case for trade deal at Nike headquarters in Oregon Reuters ...President Barack Obama will travel to Nike Inc headquarters in Oregon next Friday to argue that a 12-nation Pacific trade deal and the fast-track legislation needed to finalize the pact are good for workers. Obama faces tough opposition from his fellow Democrats in Congress over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which they fear could hurt American jobs and the environment...
Battle rages over key Obama trade policy Washington Post ...For many liberal critics, the problem with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal isn’t simply the worry that it could lead to more job loss by exposing American manufacturing to more import competition. Rather, they assert that the TPP is in many ways not even a trade agreement: Its real offense is in the areas of intellectual property and global dispute settlement, where the deal, they say, could further tilt the playing field towards major corporations...
Chile upbeat on Pacific trade deal, urges Canada to give ground Reuters ...The 12 countries working toward a historic Pacific trade pact could reach a deal at the end of May, though Canada must still show greater willingness to open up its markets, a senior Chilean official said on Thursday. Chile is among the nations in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact that would cover 40 percent of the world economy and includes the United States and Japan...
Fast Track and TPP Bad for Development (opinion) Oxfam America ...“Trade can indeed spur economic growth and poverty reduction, but only if the rules actually benefit those at the lower end of the development ladder,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “Although it is being negotiated in secret, what we currently know about the TPP lines up the trade deal to do exactly the opposite”...
Nepal Quake Galvanizes Local Unions; Felt in Bangladesh Solidarity Center ...The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), which represents mostly blue-collar workers, the Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC), which includes teachers and other white-collar workers and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Center (JTUCC), the umbrella organization of GEFONT and the NTUC, say their employees are safe and now working to provide disaster relief...
Portugal: TAP pilots to begin 10-day strike as talks fail Euronews ...Portugal’s flagship air carrier TAP looks set to be grounded for ten days from now because of a strike by pilots. Last-minute talks between the pilots and management yesterday afternoon failed to produce results...
State & Living Wage Battles
Democrats make minimum wage pitch: $12 by ’20 Washington Post ...Top Democrats laid down their minimum-wage marker on Capitol Hill on Thursday, setting up their party's middle-class-focused economic message heading into the 2016 elections campaigns. Their pitch: "$12 by '20" — a $12 per hour federal minimum wage by 2020, which they say will give a pay raise to nearly 38 million Americans...
Senate committee to hold hearing on ending prevailing wage Channel3000 ...The state Senate's labor committee has scheduled a hearing on a GOP bill that would repeal Wisconsin's prevailing wage law. The committee set the hearing for Tuesday and plans to vote on the bill the following Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. Stephen Nass, is one of the bill's sponsors...
State Sen. Daylin Leach proposes raising state minimum wage to $15 per hour The Mercury News ...A legislative proposal to raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage to $15 per hour has been circulated to the 49 state senators by state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist., who is seeking co-sponsors. The proposal, if it eventually becomes law, would also index the $15 minimum wage amount to inflation in future years and eliminate the current, $2.83-per-hour minimum wage for service workers who work for tips...
San Francisco set to introduce nation’s highest minimum wage Daily Journal ...San Francisco is getting ready to raise its minimum wage to $12.25 an hour, a rate that will have the city joining Oakland as the locales with the nation’s highest legally mandated pay for non-salaried workers. San Francisco’s new minimum is set to go into effect on Friday. It was approved by voters as part of an initiative that will increase the minimum wage to $15 in 2018...
U.S. Labor
On May Day, Longshore Workers Stop Work to Protest Racist Police Brutality In These Times ...This May 1 will see some serious protests against racism and police violence -- be they in Baltimore or Oakland. In fact, because ILWU Local 10 has announced it will stop work, the union may have created the space for thousands of protesters from around the Bay Area to join the marches. Using a provision in its contract, ILWU locals can “stop work” to discuss important matters on and off the waterfront...
Teachers at Four NY Archdiocese Schools on Strike NY1.com ...About 90 teachers are set to take part in today's strike at St. Jean Baptiste High School in Manhattan, Notre Dame Academy High School and Our Lady Queen of Peace School on Staten Island, and St. Thomas Aquinas School in the Bronx. The Federation of Catholic Teachers says it has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Archdiocese's Association of Catholic Schools...
SEIU, Franchisees Form Alliance In Support Of Industry Reforms Progress Illinois ...SEIU and franchisees are joining forces in a push to reform the nation's franchise industry as part of a new alliance announced Thursday being called "We Are Main Street." Those with the campaign "will support efforts to strengthen franchisee rights, share franchisee voices and provide research to fuel efforts for reform," according to the We Are Main Street website launched today by SEIU...
Microsoft’s Unionized Contract Workers Get Aggressive Bloomberg ...For more than two decades, the industry has outsourced an expanding range of jobs to contractors, including coders, chip designers, customer service reps, custodial staff, security guards, and cafeteria workers. “A lot of temps are really used as a permanent tier of second-class workers,” says Erin Hatton, author of The Temp Economy, a history of U.S. contingent labor. In September, 38 bug testers who review Microsoft apps voted to create a union, the Temporary Workers of America...
Wall Street owns our cities: The secret pension travesty threatening American workers Salon ...Currently, about 9 percent — or $270 billion — of America’s $3 trillion public pension fund assets are invested in private equity firms. Public officials are overseeing this massive payout to Wall Street at the very moment many of those same officials are demanding big cuts to retirees’ promised pension benefits...
Miscellaneous
Baltimore’s Economic Devastation Goes Back To Racist Housing Policy Think Progress ...There are many causes of a city’s economic decline, and much of Baltimore’s job loss is tied to the falling fortunes of the manufacturing sector. But the fate of the city’s black population has much to do with deliberate policy choices related to housing...
The Rise of the Machines: It's Happening (opinion) Truthout ...I argued that computers would take over many of the cognitive tasks that we find difficult, but that human beings would continue to be wanted for jobs that require common sense, including many forms of manual labor. Or as one friend described it at the time, my thesis was that we'll always need maids and gardeners. And it's happening...
Friday, April 17, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.17.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: Fast Track Is The Wrong Track Teamster.org ...Official statement of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the introduction today in Congress of legislation that would allow Congress to give a quick up-or-down vote to trade agreements: "Leaders in the House and Senate, buoyed by their friends in big business, are moving forward with pushing fast-track trade promotion legislation that would allow secret trade pacts to sail through Congress"...
Congress Is Facing Its Last Call to Stand Up for Fair Trade (Hoffa column) Huffington Post ...The moment has arrived. Worries about Congress allowing secret trade deals to be enacted with little oversight are no longer theoretical. Legislation that would allow agreements like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to slide unscathed through Capitol Hill has been introduced and will soon be considered by the Senate Finance Committee. And the consequences are dangerous for all Americans...
Uber Drivers, Teamsters Protest On National Day Of Action For Higher Wages KUOW.org ...One of the half-dozen protests in the Seattle area focused on the way drivers for Uber and other taxi-like services are paid. The company sets the fares that drivers can charge. Drivers use their own cars and pay their own expenses. Organizers with the Teamsters Local 117 said the drivers often wind up making less than minimum wage. The Teamsters helped drivers form the App-Based Drivers Association last year...
Guam Foremost Workers Back To Work Marianas Variety ...For about two dozen Foremost Foods Inc./Coca Cola Guam employees, it’s back to business and negotiations for fair salaries and benefits are back on the table. On Tuesday, Foremost Foods Inc. management said the 25 strikers who demonstrated along Route 16 on April 2 returned to work. The employees who went on strike were part of the Teamsters 986 union...
Seven Union Leaders Urge Congress To Support Opening Consultations With Qatar And The UAE To Address Unfair Subsidies Teamster.org ....The presidents of the Air Line Pilots Association International, the Allied Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Communications Workers of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO sent a letter to Congress urging members to call on the U.S. government to open consultations with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates...
Global Labor & Trade
Fast Track to Hell: Trade Bill Officially Introduced in Congress Common Dreams ...The fight over Fast Track just got real. U.S. House and Senate leaders announced Thursday afternoon that they have reached a deal on legislation aimed at jamming the Trans Pacific Partnership through Congress...
Trade-off: Deal splits Democrats between business, labor Washington Post ...The hardest sell for President Barack Obama will be persuading members of his own party to back a bipartisan agreement on global U.S. trade policy. Longtime divisions in the Democratic ranks broke open Thursday when top congressional lawmakers finally reached a long-sought deal that would pave the way for the broadest trade policy pact in years...
U.S. lawmakers' bill holds key to Pacific trade deal Reuters ...Senior U.S. lawmakers reached agreement on Thursday on a bill to give the White House "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade pact with 11 other Pacific nations that is central to President Barack Obama's strategic shift toward Asia. The agreement, over six months in the making, sets the stage for a tough legislative battle over the rules for Obama's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Democrats’ civil war over free trade Politico ...The most important trade bill in a decade has pitted Harry Reid against President Barack Obama. Liberal Democrat Rosa DeLauro against moderate Democrat Ron Kind. Labor unions against pro-business Democrats. And Elizabeth Warren against virtually everyone who supports a landmark piece of legislation that would allow the president to close what could be the biggest free-trade deal in history...
Fast Track Introduced: Hatch Bill Would Revive Controversial 2002 Mechanism That Faces Broad Congressional, Public Opposition Public Citizen ...The Fast Track bill introduced today would revive the old unacceptable Fast Track process. It would delegate away Congress’ constitutional trade authority and give blank-check powers to whomever may be president during the next three to six years for any agreements he or she may pursue. Instead of establishing a new “exit ramp,” the bill includes the same impossible conditions from past Fast Track bills...
Obama’s Free Trade Deal Lets Corporations Impose Their Will Think Progress ...Progressives who usually make up President Obama’s base supporters are mounting loud protests against his newest proposal on international trade, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as a key Democrat in the Senate reportedly prepares to strike a deal that would send the TPP hurtling toward passage.
“Fast track” bad for America’s manufacturers (opinion) The Hill ...For decades, we’ve heard that so-called “free trade” agreements will lead to higher wages, new jobs and more economic development. Free trade was supposed to be the panacea that will cure our nation’s economic ills. But small business owners like me know better...
French public radio strike winds down after four weeks Reuters ...A strike at France's public radio operation ran out of steam on Wednesday, journalists at the company said, ending four weeks of daily reminders to listeners that the unpopular Socialist government had been unable to stop it...
After Decades of Struggle, Salvadoran Communities Declare Territory Free of Mining Truthout.org ...The Vancouver-based Pacific Rim mining corporation also filed an ICSID lawsuit against El Salvador in 2009, after the permit for operations at its El Dorado gold mining project didn't come through. Both Pacific Rim and Commerce Group Corp cited provisions in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and Salvadoran investment protection legislation as the legal basis for their cases...
State & Living Wage Battles
‘Right-to-work’ laws hold down wages but don’t create jobs Richmond Register ...The effort to promote “right to work” laws with local governments in Kentucky is founded on claims about job and economic growth that are unsupported by the research, according to a new report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. The report looks at the most careful previous studies on RTW that show the law is not associated with an increase in jobs, but with lower wages and benefits for all workers...
Nannies, Aides For Elderly Push For Labor Law Protections Hartford Courant ...Nannies, maids, gardeners, personal chefs, chauffeurs and caregivers for the elderly are asking Connecticut to change labor laws to require that they be paid at least the minimum wage. Currently, domestic workers and farm workers are excluded from federal laws that established the right to a minimum wage and to overtime...
Nebraska Becomes the Thirteenth State to Protect Pregnant Workers' Job Security National Women's Law Center ...Earlier this week, Governor Ricketts signed the Nebraska Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (LB 267) into law that grants pregnant workers the right to reasonable accommodations, so that no woman will have to choose between the health and safety of her pregnancy and her paycheck...
Stop Corporate Welfare Kings And Tax Escapees From Strip-Mining America (opinion) Huffington Post ...In many states, it is a literal race to the bottom for elected officials to offer corporations sweeter tax deals to keep jobs in their locality -- see the 2013 Boeing controversy in the state of Washington, in which the aerospace industry, much of which is made up of Boeing, was awarded $8.7 billion in tax breaks over 16 years to produce the 777X jetliner in-state...
During Fight for 15 Protests, Nearly 50 Chicago Armored Guards Go on Strike In These Times ...The Fight for 15 campaign says that yesterday’s protests in over 200 cities around the country were the biggest yet since the movement began almost three years ago. But they have also expanded in ways that no one, including the campaign’s staffers, thought possible—like when nearly 50 drivers and security guards employed by Brink’s, the global security and logistics company known for its armored bulletproof trucks, suddenly decided to walk off the job early Wednesday morning...
Senate Approves Common Wage Repeal WRTV ...After almost two hours of debate, the Indiana Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the state's common construction wage...
What It Will Take To Revive The Middle Class Washington Post ...This week, the National Employment Law Project reported that fully 42 percent of U.S. workers make less than $15 an hour — a sea of workers that extends beyond such usual suspects as janitors and food servers; even once decently paid employees such as auto assembly-line workers now work for a median hourly wage that has descended to $15.30...
A New Day For The Minimum Wage? (opinion) New York Times ...Real leadership will also require going beyond calling for a robust minimum wage. It also means supporting the protesters’ parallel demand for the right to organize without retaliation, which would lay the groundwork for collective bargaining in service industries...
U.S. Labor
Airline food workers strike at LAX LA Times ...More than 100 workers who prepare food for airlines flying out of Los Angeles International Airport went on strike Tuesday, saying they are overworked and lack the proper equipment to do their jobs, union organizers said...
The Laws That Could Protect Workers From Chaotic Schedules That No One Knows About Think Progress ...New York has a law on the books that requires employers in most industries to pay workers four hours’ worth of pay if they show up to work, even if they’re then sent home due to a lack of demand. Schneiderman is looking into whether these large companies, which include Gap, Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, the owner of T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s, J. Crew, and Sears, are violating the law with on-call shifts...
Unions Still Matter (opinion) Al-Jazeera ...The importance of these studies is clear: Unions are the most important institution in the fight against inequality. But for too long, many liberals seemed happy to watch unions disappear. Part of the problem is that they misunderstood unions as primarily economic institutions, interested in parochially negotiating wages and benefits for their members. In reality, unions are far more important as political actors promoting policies that benefit the working class and middle class as a whole...
Why We've Decided to Organize Gawker ...Some of us on the Gawker Media editorial staff have decided to try to unionize. There is already a great deal of interest in this idea among editorial employees in New York (and they are all more than capable of speaking for themselves, and I'm sure that they will). The final shape that the union might take, and who exactly will be in it, and what specific goals it will pursue all remain to be seen...
The Dystopian Way Employers Are Ruining Their Workers’ Job Prospects Salon.com ...When Emily Brunner and Caitlin Turowski were hired by Jimmy John’s sandwich shop, prominent among their many employee orientation forms were noncompete agreements (NCAs) that they were required to sign. According to court documents, these agreements outlined when, where, how, and by extension, if they could work for "competing food establishments"...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Industrial Production Falters As Oil Sector Weighs Wall Street Journal ...U.S. industrial output fell in March and posted the first quarterly decline since the recession ended, signs that a retrenching domestic oil industry and stronger dollar are limiting production. Industrial production, which measures the output of manufacturers, utilities and mines, decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday...
America’s Over-Criminalization Epidemic: How The Prosecution Of Atlanta Teachers Exposes A Broken System Salon.com ...Whether it’s drug laws, mandatory minimums, the disenfranchisement of former felons, the widespread scourge of overcrowding, the death penalty or the continuing use of the abhorrent form of torture called solitary confinement, the number of serious problems can be overwhelming. As we saw this week when a group of former Atlanta public school educators were sentenced to seven years for standardized test cheating, it’s necessary to throw over-criminalization into the mix...
Seventy Years On, Let Us Renew FDR’s Struggle For An Economic Bill Of Rights The Nation ...Seventy years after this country lost Franklin Roosevelt and the promise of a final term spent advocating for a realization of the “new goals of human happiness and well-being,” those goals have yet to be realized. The historian Havey Kaye has argued that President Obama should recognize Roosevelt’s vision and present it anew...
Hoffa: Fast Track Is The Wrong Track Teamster.org ...Official statement of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the introduction today in Congress of legislation that would allow Congress to give a quick up-or-down vote to trade agreements: "Leaders in the House and Senate, buoyed by their friends in big business, are moving forward with pushing fast-track trade promotion legislation that would allow secret trade pacts to sail through Congress"...
Congress Is Facing Its Last Call to Stand Up for Fair Trade (Hoffa column) Huffington Post ...The moment has arrived. Worries about Congress allowing secret trade deals to be enacted with little oversight are no longer theoretical. Legislation that would allow agreements like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to slide unscathed through Capitol Hill has been introduced and will soon be considered by the Senate Finance Committee. And the consequences are dangerous for all Americans...
Uber Drivers, Teamsters Protest On National Day Of Action For Higher Wages KUOW.org ...One of the half-dozen protests in the Seattle area focused on the way drivers for Uber and other taxi-like services are paid. The company sets the fares that drivers can charge. Drivers use their own cars and pay their own expenses. Organizers with the Teamsters Local 117 said the drivers often wind up making less than minimum wage. The Teamsters helped drivers form the App-Based Drivers Association last year...
Guam Foremost Workers Back To Work Marianas Variety ...For about two dozen Foremost Foods Inc./Coca Cola Guam employees, it’s back to business and negotiations for fair salaries and benefits are back on the table. On Tuesday, Foremost Foods Inc. management said the 25 strikers who demonstrated along Route 16 on April 2 returned to work. The employees who went on strike were part of the Teamsters 986 union...
Seven Union Leaders Urge Congress To Support Opening Consultations With Qatar And The UAE To Address Unfair Subsidies Teamster.org ....The presidents of the Air Line Pilots Association International, the Allied Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Communications Workers of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO sent a letter to Congress urging members to call on the U.S. government to open consultations with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates...
Global Labor & Trade
Fast Track to Hell: Trade Bill Officially Introduced in Congress Common Dreams ...The fight over Fast Track just got real. U.S. House and Senate leaders announced Thursday afternoon that they have reached a deal on legislation aimed at jamming the Trans Pacific Partnership through Congress...
Trade-off: Deal splits Democrats between business, labor Washington Post ...The hardest sell for President Barack Obama will be persuading members of his own party to back a bipartisan agreement on global U.S. trade policy. Longtime divisions in the Democratic ranks broke open Thursday when top congressional lawmakers finally reached a long-sought deal that would pave the way for the broadest trade policy pact in years...
U.S. lawmakers' bill holds key to Pacific trade deal Reuters ...Senior U.S. lawmakers reached agreement on Thursday on a bill to give the White House "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade pact with 11 other Pacific nations that is central to President Barack Obama's strategic shift toward Asia. The agreement, over six months in the making, sets the stage for a tough legislative battle over the rules for Obama's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Democrats’ civil war over free trade Politico ...The most important trade bill in a decade has pitted Harry Reid against President Barack Obama. Liberal Democrat Rosa DeLauro against moderate Democrat Ron Kind. Labor unions against pro-business Democrats. And Elizabeth Warren against virtually everyone who supports a landmark piece of legislation that would allow the president to close what could be the biggest free-trade deal in history...
Fast Track Introduced: Hatch Bill Would Revive Controversial 2002 Mechanism That Faces Broad Congressional, Public Opposition Public Citizen ...The Fast Track bill introduced today would revive the old unacceptable Fast Track process. It would delegate away Congress’ constitutional trade authority and give blank-check powers to whomever may be president during the next three to six years for any agreements he or she may pursue. Instead of establishing a new “exit ramp,” the bill includes the same impossible conditions from past Fast Track bills...
Obama’s Free Trade Deal Lets Corporations Impose Their Will Think Progress ...Progressives who usually make up President Obama’s base supporters are mounting loud protests against his newest proposal on international trade, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as a key Democrat in the Senate reportedly prepares to strike a deal that would send the TPP hurtling toward passage.
“Fast track” bad for America’s manufacturers (opinion) The Hill ...For decades, we’ve heard that so-called “free trade” agreements will lead to higher wages, new jobs and more economic development. Free trade was supposed to be the panacea that will cure our nation’s economic ills. But small business owners like me know better...
French public radio strike winds down after four weeks Reuters ...A strike at France's public radio operation ran out of steam on Wednesday, journalists at the company said, ending four weeks of daily reminders to listeners that the unpopular Socialist government had been unable to stop it...
After Decades of Struggle, Salvadoran Communities Declare Territory Free of Mining Truthout.org ...The Vancouver-based Pacific Rim mining corporation also filed an ICSID lawsuit against El Salvador in 2009, after the permit for operations at its El Dorado gold mining project didn't come through. Both Pacific Rim and Commerce Group Corp cited provisions in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and Salvadoran investment protection legislation as the legal basis for their cases...
‘Right-to-work’ laws hold down wages but don’t create jobs Richmond Register ...The effort to promote “right to work” laws with local governments in Kentucky is founded on claims about job and economic growth that are unsupported by the research, according to a new report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. The report looks at the most careful previous studies on RTW that show the law is not associated with an increase in jobs, but with lower wages and benefits for all workers...
Nannies, Aides For Elderly Push For Labor Law Protections Hartford Courant ...Nannies, maids, gardeners, personal chefs, chauffeurs and caregivers for the elderly are asking Connecticut to change labor laws to require that they be paid at least the minimum wage. Currently, domestic workers and farm workers are excluded from federal laws that established the right to a minimum wage and to overtime...
Nebraska Becomes the Thirteenth State to Protect Pregnant Workers' Job Security National Women's Law Center ...Earlier this week, Governor Ricketts signed the Nebraska Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (LB 267) into law that grants pregnant workers the right to reasonable accommodations, so that no woman will have to choose between the health and safety of her pregnancy and her paycheck...
Stop Corporate Welfare Kings And Tax Escapees From Strip-Mining America (opinion) Huffington Post ...In many states, it is a literal race to the bottom for elected officials to offer corporations sweeter tax deals to keep jobs in their locality -- see the 2013 Boeing controversy in the state of Washington, in which the aerospace industry, much of which is made up of Boeing, was awarded $8.7 billion in tax breaks over 16 years to produce the 777X jetliner in-state...
During Fight for 15 Protests, Nearly 50 Chicago Armored Guards Go on Strike In These Times ...The Fight for 15 campaign says that yesterday’s protests in over 200 cities around the country were the biggest yet since the movement began almost three years ago. But they have also expanded in ways that no one, including the campaign’s staffers, thought possible—like when nearly 50 drivers and security guards employed by Brink’s, the global security and logistics company known for its armored bulletproof trucks, suddenly decided to walk off the job early Wednesday morning...
Senate Approves Common Wage Repeal WRTV ...After almost two hours of debate, the Indiana Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the state's common construction wage...
What It Will Take To Revive The Middle Class Washington Post ...This week, the National Employment Law Project reported that fully 42 percent of U.S. workers make less than $15 an hour — a sea of workers that extends beyond such usual suspects as janitors and food servers; even once decently paid employees such as auto assembly-line workers now work for a median hourly wage that has descended to $15.30...
A New Day For The Minimum Wage? (opinion) New York Times ...Real leadership will also require going beyond calling for a robust minimum wage. It also means supporting the protesters’ parallel demand for the right to organize without retaliation, which would lay the groundwork for collective bargaining in service industries...
U.S. Labor
Airline food workers strike at LAX LA Times ...More than 100 workers who prepare food for airlines flying out of Los Angeles International Airport went on strike Tuesday, saying they are overworked and lack the proper equipment to do their jobs, union organizers said...
The Laws That Could Protect Workers From Chaotic Schedules That No One Knows About Think Progress ...New York has a law on the books that requires employers in most industries to pay workers four hours’ worth of pay if they show up to work, even if they’re then sent home due to a lack of demand. Schneiderman is looking into whether these large companies, which include Gap, Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, the owner of T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s, J. Crew, and Sears, are violating the law with on-call shifts...
Unions Still Matter (opinion) Al-Jazeera ...The importance of these studies is clear: Unions are the most important institution in the fight against inequality. But for too long, many liberals seemed happy to watch unions disappear. Part of the problem is that they misunderstood unions as primarily economic institutions, interested in parochially negotiating wages and benefits for their members. In reality, unions are far more important as political actors promoting policies that benefit the working class and middle class as a whole...
Why We've Decided to Organize Gawker ...Some of us on the Gawker Media editorial staff have decided to try to unionize. There is already a great deal of interest in this idea among editorial employees in New York (and they are all more than capable of speaking for themselves, and I'm sure that they will). The final shape that the union might take, and who exactly will be in it, and what specific goals it will pursue all remain to be seen...
The Dystopian Way Employers Are Ruining Their Workers’ Job Prospects Salon.com ...When Emily Brunner and Caitlin Turowski were hired by Jimmy John’s sandwich shop, prominent among their many employee orientation forms were noncompete agreements (NCAs) that they were required to sign. According to court documents, these agreements outlined when, where, how, and by extension, if they could work for "competing food establishments"...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Industrial Production Falters As Oil Sector Weighs Wall Street Journal ...U.S. industrial output fell in March and posted the first quarterly decline since the recession ended, signs that a retrenching domestic oil industry and stronger dollar are limiting production. Industrial production, which measures the output of manufacturers, utilities and mines, decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday...
America’s Over-Criminalization Epidemic: How The Prosecution Of Atlanta Teachers Exposes A Broken System Salon.com ...Whether it’s drug laws, mandatory minimums, the disenfranchisement of former felons, the widespread scourge of overcrowding, the death penalty or the continuing use of the abhorrent form of torture called solitary confinement, the number of serious problems can be overwhelming. As we saw this week when a group of former Atlanta public school educators were sentenced to seven years for standardized test cheating, it’s necessary to throw over-criminalization into the mix...
Seventy Years On, Let Us Renew FDR’s Struggle For An Economic Bill Of Rights The Nation ...Seventy years after this country lost Franklin Roosevelt and the promise of a final term spent advocating for a realization of the “new goals of human happiness and well-being,” those goals have yet to be realized. The historian Havey Kaye has argued that President Obama should recognize Roosevelt’s vision and present it anew...
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.08.15
Teamsters
St. Vincent technicians to vote on union April 29 Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital who have indicated they want to join a local branch of the Teamsters will vote April 29 on whether to join the union. The vote, which has been agreed upon by the 225 technicians and management at St. Vincent Hospital, will occur during working hours...
NLRB to issue complaint against Sysco, bring justice for fired Teamsters Teamster Nation ...The Federal Government is weighing in on the side of workers at Sysco in Atlanta who were wrongly terminated after their successful campaign to join Teamsters Local 528...
Democrats, Labor Will Work To Block Youth Minimum Wage Law Rapid City Journal ...The South Dakota Democratic Party and at least one union group that successfully pushed for a voter-approved minimum wage hike last year are preparing to join opponents of a lawmaker-approved $7.50 youth minimum wage law who are working to block it from going into effect. The state Democratic Party and the Teamsters are hoping to stop the youth minimum wage measure...
Dire state of U.S. bridges shows need for infrastructure investment Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters have been a persistent advocate for infrastructure investment, saying it is the best way to create good-paying jobs that will sustain families across the nation. And a new report explains why such work is important. In short, it's too dangerous not to act...
Global Labor & Trade
Fact-Checking the Fact-Checker: Washington Post Gets It Wrong on Bogus Trade-Pact Jobs Claims Public Citizen ...As the Obama administration seeks to Fast Track the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress over public and congressional opposition, it has resorted to a familiar tactic – promising job gains from the deal on the basis of unfounded assumptions.
Activists in Blimp, RV Target Sen. Ron Wyden Over Trade Deal Wall Street Journal ...When Sen. Ron Wyden goes home to Oregon, he faces an unusual entourage: activists manning a blimp and a recreational vehicle who are set on pressuring the senator to say no to a trade deal...
Push for Controversial Trade Deal Continues With Pitch From Defense Secretary Common Dreams ...U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Monday trumpeted the administration's so-called Pacific pivot and urged passage of legislative power that critics say will allow a massive corporate-friendly trade deal to be rammed through Congress...
How America Became an Oligarchy Counterpunch ...The most glaring example today is the secret twelve-country trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If it goes through, the TPP will dramatically expand the power of multinational corporations to use closed-door tribunals to challenge and supersede domestic laws, including environmental, labor, health and other protections...
French strikes cancel flights across Europe Deutsche Welle ...Authorities in France said air traffic could be reduced by as much as 40 percent on Wednesday, with the strike expected to continue into Thursday. The union has called for talks regarding working practices and the workers' retirement age...
State & Living Wage Battles
With State Control, North Carolina Republicans Pursue Smaller Prizes New York Times ...This session, bills introduced by Republican lawmakers would reconfigure a number of local government bodies around the state, prompting allegations that Republicans are gerrymandering and changing election rules at the city council and county commission levels...
Senator Rand Paul Has No Idea Why The USPS Appears To Be Failing, But He Blames Unions NH Labor News ...Paul never strays from being a front man for the wealthy with his extreme anti-union beliefs. For Postal workers his message is clear as he advocates an end to collective bargaining rights for postal workers when their current contracts expire. He says he is not “opposed to all unions”–he just believes unions are inappropriate for public service workers...
Democratic reformers increasingly irked over SEC's delay in implementing CEO-worker pay-gap rule Daily Kos ...One of the mandates of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act was for the Security and Exchange Commission to require all publicly held companies to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to the median pay of all other employees. Thanks to heavy corporate opposition, it took more than three years from when Dodd-Franks became law for the SEC to propose such a rule...
House Democrats Push Minimum Wage Hike Texas Tribune ...The minimum wage would go up to $10.10 an hour under proposals by state Reps. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, and Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. A separate measure by Martinez Fischer would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment setting the minimum wage at $10.10...
Fast-food workers rally across the country for higher wages AOL.com ...Fast-food workers are joining forces with home health care aids and Wal-Mart workers on April 15 to rally for higher wages. Rallies will be taking place across the country as protesters strive to increase wages up to a 15 dollar per hour rate...
In Illinois, A Pre-Emptive Strike Against Unions (opinion) St. Louis Post Dispatch ...In Illinois, the right-to-work zones are part of Mr. Rauner’s anti-union efforts. He’s also called for banning political donations by unions (even though the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision says unions and corporations are “citizens”). Mr. Rauner wants taxpayers to have a say in negotiations with public employee unions. He wants to end “prevailing wage” laws that require union wages to be paid on state and local construction projects...
U.S. Labor
Signs Of Hope For American Workers (opinion) Washington Post ...Last week’s jobs report was mostly disappointing, as it revealed that the nation’s employers broke their year-long streak of adding at least 200,000 jobs per month. Buried in the report, though, was some encouraging news about earnings. In March, average hourly earnings for private employees rose 7 cents, or about 0.3 percent, to $24.86. Sure, it’s not much, but it’s more than analysts forecast. Other recent Labor Department releases have also shown compensation quietly rising...
Victor Gotbaum, Influential New York Labor Leader, Dies At 93 Washington Post ...As leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ District Council 37 in New York, Mr. Gotbaum was the voice of the nation’s biggest municipal union when the city faced the threat of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s...
Kris Bryant, The Baseball Players’ Union And A Lesson For Labor New York Times ...The Cubs sent Bryant down to the minor leagues last week, setting off a 21st-century-style labor dispute. To the Major League Baseball Players Association, the move looked to be less about baseball aptitude than money and control...
Miscellaneous
Republic Finishes Sewer Line From Bridgeton Landfill St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Republic Services announced Friday it has completed a new sewer line connecting the Bridgeton Landfill to two Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District treatment plants, cutting down on truck traffic hauling liquid waste from the smoldering landfill...
Could Heinz-Kraft merger face opposition from the Federal Trade Commission? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...The Federal Trade Commission is actively trying to block the merger of food service distributors Sysco and US Foods, citing antitrust concerns, but the deal that would combine Pittsburgh’s H.J. Heinz Co. and Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Group is unlikely to face similar opposition...
St. Vincent technicians to vote on union April 29 Telegram ...Technicians at St. Vincent Hospital who have indicated they want to join a local branch of the Teamsters will vote April 29 on whether to join the union. The vote, which has been agreed upon by the 225 technicians and management at St. Vincent Hospital, will occur during working hours...
NLRB to issue complaint against Sysco, bring justice for fired Teamsters Teamster Nation ...The Federal Government is weighing in on the side of workers at Sysco in Atlanta who were wrongly terminated after their successful campaign to join Teamsters Local 528...
Democrats, Labor Will Work To Block Youth Minimum Wage Law Rapid City Journal ...The South Dakota Democratic Party and at least one union group that successfully pushed for a voter-approved minimum wage hike last year are preparing to join opponents of a lawmaker-approved $7.50 youth minimum wage law who are working to block it from going into effect. The state Democratic Party and the Teamsters are hoping to stop the youth minimum wage measure...
Dire state of U.S. bridges shows need for infrastructure investment Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters have been a persistent advocate for infrastructure investment, saying it is the best way to create good-paying jobs that will sustain families across the nation. And a new report explains why such work is important. In short, it's too dangerous not to act...
Global Labor & Trade
Fact-Checking the Fact-Checker: Washington Post Gets It Wrong on Bogus Trade-Pact Jobs Claims Public Citizen ...As the Obama administration seeks to Fast Track the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress over public and congressional opposition, it has resorted to a familiar tactic – promising job gains from the deal on the basis of unfounded assumptions.
Activists in Blimp, RV Target Sen. Ron Wyden Over Trade Deal Wall Street Journal ...When Sen. Ron Wyden goes home to Oregon, he faces an unusual entourage: activists manning a blimp and a recreational vehicle who are set on pressuring the senator to say no to a trade deal...
Push for Controversial Trade Deal Continues With Pitch From Defense Secretary Common Dreams ...U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Monday trumpeted the administration's so-called Pacific pivot and urged passage of legislative power that critics say will allow a massive corporate-friendly trade deal to be rammed through Congress...
How America Became an Oligarchy Counterpunch ...The most glaring example today is the secret twelve-country trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If it goes through, the TPP will dramatically expand the power of multinational corporations to use closed-door tribunals to challenge and supersede domestic laws, including environmental, labor, health and other protections...
French strikes cancel flights across Europe Deutsche Welle ...Authorities in France said air traffic could be reduced by as much as 40 percent on Wednesday, with the strike expected to continue into Thursday. The union has called for talks regarding working practices and the workers' retirement age...
State & Living Wage Battles
With State Control, North Carolina Republicans Pursue Smaller Prizes New York Times ...This session, bills introduced by Republican lawmakers would reconfigure a number of local government bodies around the state, prompting allegations that Republicans are gerrymandering and changing election rules at the city council and county commission levels...
Senator Rand Paul Has No Idea Why The USPS Appears To Be Failing, But He Blames Unions NH Labor News ...Paul never strays from being a front man for the wealthy with his extreme anti-union beliefs. For Postal workers his message is clear as he advocates an end to collective bargaining rights for postal workers when their current contracts expire. He says he is not “opposed to all unions”–he just believes unions are inappropriate for public service workers...
Democratic reformers increasingly irked over SEC's delay in implementing CEO-worker pay-gap rule Daily Kos ...One of the mandates of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act was for the Security and Exchange Commission to require all publicly held companies to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to the median pay of all other employees. Thanks to heavy corporate opposition, it took more than three years from when Dodd-Franks became law for the SEC to propose such a rule...
House Democrats Push Minimum Wage Hike Texas Tribune ...The minimum wage would go up to $10.10 an hour under proposals by state Reps. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, and Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. A separate measure by Martinez Fischer would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment setting the minimum wage at $10.10...
Fast-food workers rally across the country for higher wages AOL.com ...Fast-food workers are joining forces with home health care aids and Wal-Mart workers on April 15 to rally for higher wages. Rallies will be taking place across the country as protesters strive to increase wages up to a 15 dollar per hour rate...
In Illinois, A Pre-Emptive Strike Against Unions (opinion) St. Louis Post Dispatch ...In Illinois, the right-to-work zones are part of Mr. Rauner’s anti-union efforts. He’s also called for banning political donations by unions (even though the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision says unions and corporations are “citizens”). Mr. Rauner wants taxpayers to have a say in negotiations with public employee unions. He wants to end “prevailing wage” laws that require union wages to be paid on state and local construction projects...
U.S. Labor
Signs Of Hope For American Workers (opinion) Washington Post ...Last week’s jobs report was mostly disappointing, as it revealed that the nation’s employers broke their year-long streak of adding at least 200,000 jobs per month. Buried in the report, though, was some encouraging news about earnings. In March, average hourly earnings for private employees rose 7 cents, or about 0.3 percent, to $24.86. Sure, it’s not much, but it’s more than analysts forecast. Other recent Labor Department releases have also shown compensation quietly rising...
Victor Gotbaum, Influential New York Labor Leader, Dies At 93 Washington Post ...As leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ District Council 37 in New York, Mr. Gotbaum was the voice of the nation’s biggest municipal union when the city faced the threat of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s...
Kris Bryant, The Baseball Players’ Union And A Lesson For Labor New York Times ...The Cubs sent Bryant down to the minor leagues last week, setting off a 21st-century-style labor dispute. To the Major League Baseball Players Association, the move looked to be less about baseball aptitude than money and control...
Miscellaneous
Republic Finishes Sewer Line From Bridgeton Landfill St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Republic Services announced Friday it has completed a new sewer line connecting the Bridgeton Landfill to two Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District treatment plants, cutting down on truck traffic hauling liquid waste from the smoldering landfill...
Could Heinz-Kraft merger face opposition from the Federal Trade Commission? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...The Federal Trade Commission is actively trying to block the merger of food service distributors Sysco and US Foods, citing antitrust concerns, but the deal that would combine Pittsburgh’s H.J. Heinz Co. and Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Group is unlikely to face similar opposition...
Friday, January 16, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.16.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: Teamsters Put Corruption In Its Past USA Today ...The Teamsters Union and the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York filed an application with Chief Judge Loretta Preska requesting that she approve an agreement to end decades of government oversight of our union. We anticipate that the court will approve the agreement...
Allegiant Airline Pilots Picket For Better Pay WKMG ...Teamsters Local 1224, which represents roughly 500 pilots for Allegiant Airlines, said it's been in negotiations with the company since 2012, but those talks have yielded little to no progress. "We seek average wages and job protections, which are standard in the airline industry," said Teamsters Local 1224 President Dan Wells...
Hunts Point Workers Postpone Strike Until Sunday at Request of Federal Mediator Teamsters Joint Council 16 ...Teamsters Local 202 has postponed its strike at Hunts Point Market until 4 p.m. Sunday, at the request of the Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service...
Bronx Produce Company Workers Threaten Strike Over Daily $5 Raise Request New York Daily News ...The Hunts Point Produce Market workers are threatening to go on strike unless a deal is reached by after midnight Friday — raising the specter of New Yorkers having to forego their kale salads and blueberry smoothies. “This is a story about people that work really hard and want to be compensated for it,” said Daniel Kane, president of Teamsters Local 202...
Teamsters To Meet With Producers In Hope of Averting Commercials Strike Deadline Hollywood ...Teamster leaders say that the new meeting, set for January 24, is being called “in anticipation of a revised offer” from producers. The first offer was rejected overwhelmingly by the local’s members on January 11, which put the union on a strike footing...
Teamsters Blast Green Light Allowing Mexican Trucks Roll Nationwide People's World ...An "outraged" union President James Hoffa called DOT's ruling "rash" and in defiance of facts about un-inspected and unsafe Mexican trucks and lack of U.S. inspectors that the agency's own Inspector General uncovered...
Trade
Japan TPP negotiator: felt US intends to wrap up talks in few months Reuters ...But Oe also said more work needed to be done and it was not yet a situation in which a "political decision" could be arranged...
State Battles
Labor Groups File Suit To Stop Kentucky County Right-To-Work Law Reuters ...Nine labor unions filed suit in a Kentucky federal court late on Wednesday to stop a county from enacting right-to-work legislation they say violates the National Labor Relations Act...
Barren County Fiscal Court magistrates tackle ‘right-to-work’ Glasgow Daily Times ...A committee of the Barren County Fiscal Court will be considering Tuesday whether to take a “right-to-work” ordinance to the full court...
Michigan Republicans making new push for prevailing wage repeal in state Legislature Michigan Live ...Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof on Thursday announced plans to sponsor Senate Bill 1, which will seek repeal the 50-year old law that requires union wages and benefits for workers on government-funded construction projects...
Thrasher nixes meeting with students on Koch funding Tallahassee Democrat ...Florida State University President John Thrasher abruptly canceled a meeting Wednesday with students who believe FSU sold its academic integrity for funding of some economics teaching positions by the conservative Koch brothers...
The Koch Foundation funds a lecture series at Penn Daily Pennsylvanian ...The industrialist siblings contributed more than $12.7 million to 163 colleges and universities in 2012. According to the Koch Family Foundations website, Penn is one of those recipient schools, having received a one-time grant of $5,000...
Sinquefield Is Top Missouri Campaign Donor in 2014; McCaskill Leads Democrats St. Louis Public Radio ...During 2014, wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield cemented his place as Missouri’s top political donor — by far — by distributing close to $10 million to candidates and political groups...
N.J. unions back in court today fighting Christie's pension cuts NJ.com ...Seven months after a state Superior Court judge excused Gov. Chris Christie from making a full pension contribution in the last fiscal year, New Jersey unions return to court this morning to fight for the $1.57 billion still in play...
War on Workers
Judge Overturns Home Health Care Wage, Overtime Rules Associated Press ...A federal judge on Wednesday overturned Labor Department regulations requiring overtime and minimum wage protection for 2 million home health care workers...
Trying To Solve The Great Wage Slowdown New York Times ...While wages and incomes have stagnated in the United States (as well as in Japan and large parts of Europe), they have not done so everywhere. In Canada, a broad measure of incomes has risen about 10 percent since 2000, even as it’s fallen here. In Australia, it’s up 30 percent...
What your bank owes you: clarity opinion Los Angeles Times ...many who attend college do not understand their student loans, and 14% of students with federal loans believe they have no student loan debt at all...
Republicans should join in scuttling Citizens United (opinion) The Hill ...Poll after poll shows that the majority of voters of all political stripes are alarmed at the record amounts of money pouring into elections. Voters feel they are being drowned out...
Woman, EMS Worker Killed In Separate Accidents As Wrecks Reported On Icy Patches On NC Roads The Republic ...An emergency worker and a 22-year-old woman were killed in separate accidents Wednesday related to the icy weather that struck portions of North Carolina...
Super Bowl Setup Worker Killed In Fall From Tower KPHO ...A worker on a Super Bowl setup crew died after falling from a tower outside University of Phoenix Stadium. It happened Wednesday shortly after noon in a parking lot where the NFL Tailgate Party will take place...
Georgia Factory Worker Killed By Falling Tons Of Marble New York Daily News ...Falling tons of marble crushed a Georgia factory worker to death Tuesday, authorities said...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Reflect Consumer Caution Despite Lower Gas Prices Wall Street Journal ...Steady job growth and relatively strong confidence supported an upward trend in consumer spending through most of 2014, before the December easing. Most economists expect those factors, beyond just lower energy prices, to support household spending—and overall economic growth—this year despite headwinds from small wage gains and overseas turmoil...
Hoffa: Teamsters Put Corruption In Its Past USA Today ...The Teamsters Union and the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York filed an application with Chief Judge Loretta Preska requesting that she approve an agreement to end decades of government oversight of our union. We anticipate that the court will approve the agreement...
Allegiant Airline Pilots Picket For Better Pay WKMG ...Teamsters Local 1224, which represents roughly 500 pilots for Allegiant Airlines, said it's been in negotiations with the company since 2012, but those talks have yielded little to no progress. "We seek average wages and job protections, which are standard in the airline industry," said Teamsters Local 1224 President Dan Wells...
Hunts Point Workers Postpone Strike Until Sunday at Request of Federal Mediator Teamsters Joint Council 16 ...Teamsters Local 202 has postponed its strike at Hunts Point Market until 4 p.m. Sunday, at the request of the Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service...
Bronx Produce Company Workers Threaten Strike Over Daily $5 Raise Request New York Daily News ...The Hunts Point Produce Market workers are threatening to go on strike unless a deal is reached by after midnight Friday — raising the specter of New Yorkers having to forego their kale salads and blueberry smoothies. “This is a story about people that work really hard and want to be compensated for it,” said Daniel Kane, president of Teamsters Local 202...
Teamsters To Meet With Producers In Hope of Averting Commercials Strike Deadline Hollywood ...Teamster leaders say that the new meeting, set for January 24, is being called “in anticipation of a revised offer” from producers. The first offer was rejected overwhelmingly by the local’s members on January 11, which put the union on a strike footing...
Teamsters Blast Green Light Allowing Mexican Trucks Roll Nationwide People's World ...An "outraged" union President James Hoffa called DOT's ruling "rash" and in defiance of facts about un-inspected and unsafe Mexican trucks and lack of U.S. inspectors that the agency's own Inspector General uncovered...
Trade
Japan TPP negotiator: felt US intends to wrap up talks in few months Reuters ...But Oe also said more work needed to be done and it was not yet a situation in which a "political decision" could be arranged...
State Battles
Labor Groups File Suit To Stop Kentucky County Right-To-Work Law Reuters ...Nine labor unions filed suit in a Kentucky federal court late on Wednesday to stop a county from enacting right-to-work legislation they say violates the National Labor Relations Act...
Barren County Fiscal Court magistrates tackle ‘right-to-work’ Glasgow Daily Times ...A committee of the Barren County Fiscal Court will be considering Tuesday whether to take a “right-to-work” ordinance to the full court...
Michigan Republicans making new push for prevailing wage repeal in state Legislature Michigan Live ...Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof on Thursday announced plans to sponsor Senate Bill 1, which will seek repeal the 50-year old law that requires union wages and benefits for workers on government-funded construction projects...
Thrasher nixes meeting with students on Koch funding Tallahassee Democrat ...Florida State University President John Thrasher abruptly canceled a meeting Wednesday with students who believe FSU sold its academic integrity for funding of some economics teaching positions by the conservative Koch brothers...
The Koch Foundation funds a lecture series at Penn Daily Pennsylvanian ...The industrialist siblings contributed more than $12.7 million to 163 colleges and universities in 2012. According to the Koch Family Foundations website, Penn is one of those recipient schools, having received a one-time grant of $5,000...
Sinquefield Is Top Missouri Campaign Donor in 2014; McCaskill Leads Democrats St. Louis Public Radio ...During 2014, wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield cemented his place as Missouri’s top political donor — by far — by distributing close to $10 million to candidates and political groups...
N.J. unions back in court today fighting Christie's pension cuts NJ.com ...Seven months after a state Superior Court judge excused Gov. Chris Christie from making a full pension contribution in the last fiscal year, New Jersey unions return to court this morning to fight for the $1.57 billion still in play...
War on Workers
Judge Overturns Home Health Care Wage, Overtime Rules Associated Press ...A federal judge on Wednesday overturned Labor Department regulations requiring overtime and minimum wage protection for 2 million home health care workers...
Trying To Solve The Great Wage Slowdown New York Times ...While wages and incomes have stagnated in the United States (as well as in Japan and large parts of Europe), they have not done so everywhere. In Canada, a broad measure of incomes has risen about 10 percent since 2000, even as it’s fallen here. In Australia, it’s up 30 percent...
What your bank owes you: clarity opinion Los Angeles Times ...many who attend college do not understand their student loans, and 14% of students with federal loans believe they have no student loan debt at all...
Republicans should join in scuttling Citizens United (opinion) The Hill ...Poll after poll shows that the majority of voters of all political stripes are alarmed at the record amounts of money pouring into elections. Voters feel they are being drowned out...
Woman, EMS Worker Killed In Separate Accidents As Wrecks Reported On Icy Patches On NC Roads The Republic ...An emergency worker and a 22-year-old woman were killed in separate accidents Wednesday related to the icy weather that struck portions of North Carolina...
Super Bowl Setup Worker Killed In Fall From Tower KPHO ...A worker on a Super Bowl setup crew died after falling from a tower outside University of Phoenix Stadium. It happened Wednesday shortly after noon in a parking lot where the NFL Tailgate Party will take place...
Georgia Factory Worker Killed By Falling Tons Of Marble New York Daily News ...Falling tons of marble crushed a Georgia factory worker to death Tuesday, authorities said...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Reflect Consumer Caution Despite Lower Gas Prices Wall Street Journal ...Steady job growth and relatively strong confidence supported an upward trend in consumer spending through most of 2014, before the December easing. Most economists expect those factors, beyond just lower energy prices, to support household spending—and overall economic growth—this year despite headwinds from small wage gains and overseas turmoil...
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Today's Teamster News 03.06.13
Dow Hits New High While Most of America Suffers Economic Populist ...Work in America has become so exploitive, many are working for free...
Sequester Cuts 'Will Impact Food Inspection,' Reducing Meat Supply, Agriculture Secretary Says Huffington Post ...the budget cuts mandated by the sequester would force the USDA to furlough meat inspectors for up to 15 days. Federal law prohibits meat plants from operating without a federal inspector, so this suggested the entire industry would have to shut for more than two weeks, leading to higher prices and shortages...
U.S. “Stalling” Could Force Acceptance of Onerous TPP Inter Press Service ...That broad geographical sweep, together with the simultaneous negotiation of a lengthy but highly secretive list of contentious issues not necessarily related to trade, is leading critics to warn that the scope of any pending agreement could negatively impact on nearly half the globe....
Striking Iberia workers protest against job cuts Reuters ...Thousands of workers facing pay and job cuts at loss-making Spanish airline Iberia on Monday staged a second wave of protests that could ground nearly 1,300 flights this week. Iberia, part of International Airlines Group , is battling competition from low-cost airlines and high-speed trains as well as a deep recession in Spain, where one in four workers is without a job...
Mo AFL-CIO urges action to stop ‘RTW,’ paycheck deception measures Labor Tribune ...Hugh McVey, president of the Missouri AFL-CIO, say extremists are “set to strike in the General Assembly” and is urging union members to call their senators now to voice their opposition to “right-to-work” (for less) and paycheck deception measures...
'Right to Work' and Other Betrayals Are Killing Snyder, Republican Brand in Michigan Huffington Post ...The party that keeps promising lower taxes is raising taxes on retirees, slapping a new health care tax on ordinary citizens and jacking up the overall tax burden of families who are already struggling to make ends meet...
House Sides With Business On Labor Laws Associated Press ...(Georgia) House Bill 361 would allow workers to opt out at any time from automatic payroll deductions for union dues. Current law says workers must have only an annual option to opt out. House Bill 362 would prohibit any state or local government entity in Georgia from requiring that bidders for public works contracts use unionized labor for a project...
Grand Rapids teachers say paycheck cuts qualify them for food stamps Michigan Live ...Since Feb. 15 when the district began deducting back health insurance premiums over what it’s allowed to pay under the state’s Publicly Funded Health Insurance Contribution Act of 2011 ... morale among teachers has suffered dramatically and a sort of depression has set in. Some are losing $300 per pay check...
Corbett, wife accepted thousands in gifts from biz execs, lobbyists philly.com ...Corbett and his wife, Susan, accepted $11,343 in gifts from business executives, lobbyists or lobbying firms in 2010 … and in 2011, his first year in office. (They) were feted by business interests with Steelers playoffs tickets, private jet travel, seats at a swank gala for the Philadelphia Orchestra, a Rhode Island summer vacation aboard a businessman's yacht - even money to help pay for the first lady's inauguration gown...
Teamsters Applaud Council Decision To Keep Borough Law Enforcement Local IBT ...West York Council members voted last night to reverse a decision made earlier this year to accept bids from neighboring police departments to outsource the borough's law enforcement to the lowest bidder and close the West York Police Department. The council also announced its intention to move forward with negotiations with Teamsters Local Union 776 in Harrisburg, Pa...
3 approved labor union pacts await signatures Toledo Blade ...Signatures are the only thing needed after a collective bargaining deal between the three Waterville city labor unions was ratified and approved...“The Teamster contract will provide for insurance coverage for their union members, the four public works technicians,” said Dale Knepper, the city’s chief of finance and administration...
Progress on ABF-Teamsters talks may lead to extension Kansas City Business Journal ...ABF Freight System Inc. is anticipating that negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters could last past the March 31 expiration date of the current labor agreement between the two parties...
Flight Attendants Union Coalition Blasts TSA Decision To Allow Dangerous Items Onto Aircraft AFA ...The Flight Attendants Union Coalition issued the following statement blasting today's announcement..."Today's announcement to permit knives back into the aircraft cabin is a poor and shortsighted decision by the TSA. Continued prohibition of these items is an integral layer in making our aviation system secure and must remain in place...
Sequester Cuts 'Will Impact Food Inspection,' Reducing Meat Supply, Agriculture Secretary Says Huffington Post ...the budget cuts mandated by the sequester would force the USDA to furlough meat inspectors for up to 15 days. Federal law prohibits meat plants from operating without a federal inspector, so this suggested the entire industry would have to shut for more than two weeks, leading to higher prices and shortages...
U.S. “Stalling” Could Force Acceptance of Onerous TPP Inter Press Service ...That broad geographical sweep, together with the simultaneous negotiation of a lengthy but highly secretive list of contentious issues not necessarily related to trade, is leading critics to warn that the scope of any pending agreement could negatively impact on nearly half the globe....
Striking Iberia workers protest against job cuts Reuters ...Thousands of workers facing pay and job cuts at loss-making Spanish airline Iberia on Monday staged a second wave of protests that could ground nearly 1,300 flights this week. Iberia, part of International Airlines Group , is battling competition from low-cost airlines and high-speed trains as well as a deep recession in Spain, where one in four workers is without a job...
Mo AFL-CIO urges action to stop ‘RTW,’ paycheck deception measures Labor Tribune ...Hugh McVey, president of the Missouri AFL-CIO, say extremists are “set to strike in the General Assembly” and is urging union members to call their senators now to voice their opposition to “right-to-work” (for less) and paycheck deception measures...
'Right to Work' and Other Betrayals Are Killing Snyder, Republican Brand in Michigan Huffington Post ...The party that keeps promising lower taxes is raising taxes on retirees, slapping a new health care tax on ordinary citizens and jacking up the overall tax burden of families who are already struggling to make ends meet...
House Sides With Business On Labor Laws Associated Press ...(Georgia) House Bill 361 would allow workers to opt out at any time from automatic payroll deductions for union dues. Current law says workers must have only an annual option to opt out. House Bill 362 would prohibit any state or local government entity in Georgia from requiring that bidders for public works contracts use unionized labor for a project...
Grand Rapids teachers say paycheck cuts qualify them for food stamps Michigan Live ...Since Feb. 15 when the district began deducting back health insurance premiums over what it’s allowed to pay under the state’s Publicly Funded Health Insurance Contribution Act of 2011 ... morale among teachers has suffered dramatically and a sort of depression has set in. Some are losing $300 per pay check...
Corbett, wife accepted thousands in gifts from biz execs, lobbyists philly.com ...Corbett and his wife, Susan, accepted $11,343 in gifts from business executives, lobbyists or lobbying firms in 2010 … and in 2011, his first year in office. (They) were feted by business interests with Steelers playoffs tickets, private jet travel, seats at a swank gala for the Philadelphia Orchestra, a Rhode Island summer vacation aboard a businessman's yacht - even money to help pay for the first lady's inauguration gown...
Teamsters Applaud Council Decision To Keep Borough Law Enforcement Local IBT ...West York Council members voted last night to reverse a decision made earlier this year to accept bids from neighboring police departments to outsource the borough's law enforcement to the lowest bidder and close the West York Police Department. The council also announced its intention to move forward with negotiations with Teamsters Local Union 776 in Harrisburg, Pa...
3 approved labor union pacts await signatures Toledo Blade ...Signatures are the only thing needed after a collective bargaining deal between the three Waterville city labor unions was ratified and approved...“The Teamster contract will provide for insurance coverage for their union members, the four public works technicians,” said Dale Knepper, the city’s chief of finance and administration...
Progress on ABF-Teamsters talks may lead to extension Kansas City Business Journal ...ABF Freight System Inc. is anticipating that negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters could last past the March 31 expiration date of the current labor agreement between the two parties...
Flight Attendants Union Coalition Blasts TSA Decision To Allow Dangerous Items Onto Aircraft AFA ...The Flight Attendants Union Coalition issued the following statement blasting today's announcement..."Today's announcement to permit knives back into the aircraft cabin is a poor and shortsighted decision by the TSA. Continued prohibition of these items is an integral layer in making our aviation system secure and must remain in place...
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