Seattle lawmakers side with Uber, taxi drivers

The Seattle City Council took the first swing at the nation's ballooning freelance "gig" economy, approving a measure that would give app-based drivers and others in the jurisdiction the ability to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions.

Drivers stood up and were counted in Seattle fight.

Under the proposal, drivers would have the ability to come together to choose a nonprofit organization to represent them. Once authorized, the organization could engage in collective bargaining on the drivers’ behalf. The new law would apply to all taxi drivers, for-hire drivers and drivers for app-based dispatch companies, such as Uber and Lyft.

Drivers and community supporters celebrated the bill’s passage, calling it a turning point toward greater protections for workers in a changing economic landscape. Peter Kuel, an Uber driver and member of the leadership council of the App-Based Drivers Association, said:

Since I started driving for Uber, Uber has cut our pay without notice, terminated drivers without giving a reason and blocked our efforts to improve our working conditions. We’re looking for fairness and the ability to earn a living wage. 

Seattle app-based drivers as well as traditional taxi drivers are already aligned with Teamsters Local 117.Taxi drivers formed the Western Washington Taxicab Operators Association in 2012. In 2013, drivers for app-based dispatch companies formed the App-Based Drivers Association.

Because of their disputed status as independent contractors, however, for-hire drivers don't have the ability to unionize through a traditional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process, and they aren't covered under Seattle's wage theft, sick leave or new $15 an hour minimum wage law.

John Scearcy, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 117, is hopeful the legislation -- if signed by the mayor -- will go a long way towards making things more fair:

All workers, no matter where they work or the nature of their work, deserve the opportunity to have a voice. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights identifies the right of workers to bargain collectively as a fundamental human right. Now these workers have that right.

Figuring out the future of organizing as the gig economy continues to grow in the U.S. is a major challenge for workers. The Teamsters' victory earlier this year in the "Browning-Ferris" case decided by the NLRB was seen by many as an opportunity to expand union representation among millions of workers nationwide who previously were misclassified as independent contractors.

Legal challenges to the NLRB ruling have already been filed and are expected if the Seattle measure becomes law. But these rulings are just more proof that when workers are Teamster Strong, America is Stronger!

West Virginia prepares for a 2016 RTW fight

GST Ken Hall talks about so-called RTW in West Virginia last month.

The defeat of so-called right-to-work (RTW) legislation in West Virginia earlier this year was a historic and symbolic victory for union members. Despite the entire state Legislature being run by Republicans for the first time in decades, the opposition from workers proved too overwhelming for a vote on the chamber floor.

Thousands of West Virginia Teamsters joined with their brothers and sisters – a coalition of workers made up of all stripes, trades and union affiliations – in protest of the anti-worker legislation. Their voice grew so loud that RTW proponents in the Legislature grew wary of a floor vote early on in the session; consequently, the bill seeking to turn West Virginia into RTW state died a slow committee death as more than 8,000 workers rallied on the steps of the Statehouse against the measure.

But another push in 2016 was all but certain. Many delegates were openly admitting they would be pushing harder during the next legislative session. Senate President Bill Cole publicly called for RTW to be on next year’s legislative agenda. Cole, a candidate to succeed Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, hopes to frame the narrative early on this time around to catapult him into office. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Fortunately, West Virginia Teamsters, led by Local 175 President and IBT General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall, have been working tirelessly to expose RTW for what it truly is: a corporate-backed effort to strip workers of their rights and cripple the unions. Following the 2014 midterm elections, the American Legislative Exchange Council – a group that has spearheaded the passage of right to work and other anti-worker laws – began hedging their bets on West Virginia, but they had underestimated the resolve of the Mountain State's workers.

As one of leading voices in the West Virginia labor movement, Hall has played a key role in the fight against RTW ever since the Republican takeover. Most recently, during a Nov. 15 Joint Committee meeting, he testified in opposition to new RTW legislation seeking to make West Virginia the 26th RTW-for-less state in the country:

It doesn’t bring jobs here, it only lowers wages, that’s not good for West Virginians. And it’s not just about union members, if you lower the wages of union workers, so will the wages of the other workers in the state be lowered. The fact is if you look at the 14 states that have the highest rate of unemployment, nine of them are right to work states.

Hall will once again play a key role to oppose the anti-worker legislation. He is set to appear on West Virginia television screens this Sunday on Decision Makers with Bray Cary.

As a native son, Hall is passionate in his opposition and will continue working to inform his fellow Mountaineers of what RTW would mean for working families in West Virginia:

Unlike many of the corporations pushing for right-to-work legislation, union workers spend their wages and pay taxes in West Virginia. If this is simply a war on unions, let me make sure you understand who unions are. These are hardworking West Virginians.

With Local 175 on the front lines – and GST Hall front and center – Teamster Nation will continue to report on the latest news in the fight against RTW in West Virginia. Stay tuned!

Twelve ways to make women's lives better

Walmart and other employers aren't treating women well.

On the eve of America's greatest non-denominational holiday, it's a good time to remember there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to make the U.S. live up to the high ideals of its founding fathers. And it begins with improving conditions so the majority gender is on equal footing with males in this country.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a Women's Economic Agenda last week that details 12 measures policymakers can take to improve their lives. They are:

• Raise the minimum wage;
• Eliminate the tipped minimum wage;
• Strengthen collective bargaining rights;
• Strengthen laws against discrimination in hiring, pay and promotion;
• Provide paid family leave;
• Provide paid sick leave;
• Require fair scheduling practices;
• Provide affordable child care and early childhood education;
• Protect and expand Social Security;
• Provide undocumented workers a path towards citizenship;
• Support strong enforcement of labor standards, and;
• Prioritize wage growth and low unemployment when making monetary policy.

As EPI stated in the document:

Over the last several decades, millions of women have joined the workforce and made huge gains in their educational attainment, which exceeds that of men. Yet women are still paid less than men. Indeed, gender wage disparities are present across the wage distribution and within education cohorts, occupations and sectors -- sometimes to a grave degree. Closing the wage gap is essential to helping achieve economic security.

If the U.S. wants a workforce at full employment, policies need to be put in place that allow workers (women and men) the ability to earn a living while also being family friendly. Right now, that's just not the case. It's why the Teamsters rolled out the "Let's Get America Working" platform earlier this year and why other allies have stressed these issues as well.

Congress must value all workers.

Today's Teamster News 06.24.14

Teamster News
Teamsters, Taylor Farms clash  The Packer   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which hopes to represent Taylor Farms employees at two Tracy, Calif., facilities, claims many were denied benefits as a result of prolonged stays in temporary worker status...
With help from Teamsters, LA Uber drivers try to organize  Southern California Public Radio   ...Organizers are expecting up to 500 Uber drivers – supported by Teamsters Local 986 – to hold a demonstration Tuesday morning in front of the Uber offices in Santa Monica...
D.C. Taxicab Drivers Organize Against Ridesharing Services  WAMU   ...local labor groups are focusing on pressuring the D.C. Council to help cabbies stave off competition from the unregulated, on-demand “ridesharing” services UberX, Lyft, and Sidecar. The Teamsters Local 922 is planning to hold a cab driver rally Wednesday at Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington to call on District legislators to level a playing field where the city’s regulated taxi fleet currently feels at a disadvantage to the innovative newcomers...
Arbitration Ruling Renews CN, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Agreement  Progressive Railroading   ...CN on Friday announced it will immediately begin to implement an arbitrator's decision that set the terms and conditions of a new three-year agreement with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference-Conductors, Trainpersons and Yardpersons (TCRC-CTY)...
Trade
Thanks to Wikileaks, public can debate alarming new trade deal  Trade Reform   ...The draft agreement Wikileaks released on June 19 is fresh, written in May. It is a model of secret law, blatant in its disregard for transparency, democratic process and history. Its opening page says the terms are to remain secret for five years after negotiations formally end or the proposed new rules take effect. Talks to refine that agreement were to resume Monday in Geneva...
LIVEBLOG: Minnesota State Reps Demand Washington Act On Unfair Steel Trade  manufacture this   ...Jason Metsa, Tom Anzelc and several others followed Governor Mark Dayton’s powerful demand for federal action on unfair trade in steel ... especially tubular products being produced in South Korea and dumped at below-market prices in the U.S. market...
State Battles
We have a proven formula for success’ (opinion)  FortWayne.com   ...I recently vetoed an ordinance passed by City Council that would end collective bargaining for non-public safety union employees...
Labor Law Repeal To Hit Assembly, Again, On Tuesday  Anchorage Daily News   ...The latest effort to defeat a controversial city labor law will hit the Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night as members consider a complicated array of options from repealing the measure outright to replacing it with a watered-down version to leaving it as a referendum question on the state ballot in November's election...
The Supreme Court Ruled In Favor Of An Alabama Whistle Blower. What Does That Mean For Others Who Expose Corruption?  Birmingham News   ...Edward Lane was the director of a statewide program for Alabama's at-risk youth when he saw State Rep. Sue Schmitz was drawing pay, but doing no work, for the program. Lane fired Schmitz in 2006 and later testified at her public corruption trials regarding the "no-show" job....
Mayors Put Focus On How To Raise Wages For Lowest-Paid Workers In Cities  New York Times   ...Here at the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, which convened over the weekend, the subject of income inequality seemed to be on almost everyone’s lips, and mayors wondered aloud how best to use their powers to help the lowest-paid workers...
War On Workers
Starbucks baristudents should beware the green mermaid bearing gifts (opinion)  Guardian   ...For the first two years of their education, Starbucks students will qualify for a small scholarship from ASU, but the balance of their tuition payments will have to come from loans and students' own financial resources (aka their take-home pay as baristas)...
The CEO Aristocracy: Big Bucks For The Big Boss  Washington Post   ...Any CEO of a major company is virtually guaranteed to become a multimillionaire. In the Equilar survey, the median holding of company stock was $83 million. CEO compensation has vastly outstripped average wage gains...
Miscellaneous
Justices Uphold Emission Limits on Big Industry  New York Times   ...In a big win for environmentalists, the Supreme Court on Monday effectively endorsed the Obama administration’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from sources like power plants, even as it criticized what it called the administration’s overreaching...

Today's Teamster News 06.06.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Caution FTC Sysco-US Foods Merger Could Harm Competition, Consumers, Workers  IBT   ...On Wednesday, the Teamsters cautioned the Federal Trade Commission staff and state attorneys general investigating Sysco's proposed acquisition of US Foods for anti-trust issues that a merger of the top two U.S. food service providers could limit competition...
Trade
Chicken from China? Your Seafood is Already Being Processed There  Trade Reform   ...fish processors in the Northwest, including Seattle-based Trident Seafoods, are sending part of their catch of Alaskan salmon or Dungeness crab to China to be filleted or de-shelled before returning to U.S. tables...
OMB Bureaucratic Fraud: Foreign Goods to Be Classified as U.S. Produced!  Trade Reform   ...…Apple iPhones built by Foxconn in China and sold in Japan will be counted a U.S. export!...
State Battles
R.I. Senate Committee Oks Bill Raising Minimum Wage  Providence Journal   ...Rhode Island's minimum wage moved one step closer to a one-dollar hike Wednesday. By a unanimous vote, the Senate Labor Committee passed a bill that raises the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $9 an hour, effective Jan. 1, 2015...
Ohio Proposal Aimed At Barring College Athletes From Unionizing Heads To Gov In Budget Bill  U.S. News   ...Ohio lawmakers have passed a bill that says college athletes are not public employees under state law. The idea cleared the state legislature Wednesday as part of a broader bill now headed to the governor's desk...
Study finds strong evidence for discriminatory intent behind voter ID laws  Washington Post   ...State legislators who support voter ID laws are motivated in no small part by racial bias, according to a new study from the University of Southern California...
Some states already lashing at climate rule  Politico Pro   ...Kentucky has gone even further, enacting a law this spring that could block the state from complying with EPA’s rule. West Virginia and Kansas have new laws taking aim at the regulation one way or another, and states like Ohio, Louisiana and Missouri are considering similar measures...
War On Workers
Who Is Behind the National Right to Work Committee and Its Anti-Union Crusade?  Truthout   ...If the court follows National Right to Work's lead, every state in the country would essentially turn into an anti-union "right to work" state, which would be a significant blow to public sector unions' collective bargaining efforts and also complicate thousands of existing contracts between organized workers and municipalities, cities, counties, and states across the country...
Well-Paid Workers Strengthen Local Economies  New York Times   ...Orthodox economists and trickle-down dogmatists are sputtering in disbelief over Seattle's new $15 minimum wage, convinced it will destroy our economy. As House Speaker John Boehner is fond of saying, "If you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it." They are wrong...
Three New Ways The Koch Brothers Are Screwing America  Rolling Stone   ...The fourth-richest men in America target low-wage workers, minority voters and unions...
Walmart Workers Strike Today, As Report Says Women Hardest Hit By Retail's Low Wages  Cleveland Plain-Dealer   ...Women are disproportionately impacted by the low wages and often erratic work schedules in the retail industry, says a new report...
Walmart's Executive Tax Bonuses Have Cost Taxpayers $104 Million Since 2009  Think Progress   ...Since 2009, Walmart has ducked $104 million in taxes by exploiting a tax loophole around bonus payments to just eight top executives, according to a report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)...
McDonald's CEO: 'We Will Support' A Minimum Wage Hike  Huffington Post   ...McDonald's CEO Don Thompson recently suggested his company would support a bill, proposed by President Barack Obama, raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25...
Miscellaneous
Unions Set High Goal: Collective Bargaining For All Workers  Wall Street Journal   ...Organized labor has embarked on a project to develop legislation that would expand collective bargaining rights of private sector workers, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said...
UAW Elects Dennis Williams President In A Landslide: 'I Feel The Energy'  Detroit Free Press   ...The UAW elected Dennis Williams its 11th president Wednesday in a landslide, putting him in charge of a union struggling to regain bargaining leverage, rebuild its finances and restore political clout...
The Snowden Effect: 8 Things That Happened Only Because Of The NSA Leaks  Huffington Post   ...Brazil gave a massive fighter jet contract to Saab instead of the American company Boeing...

Today's Teamster News 05.22.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Strike Averted  Pekin Daily Times   ...After about five hours of mediation between the city of Pekin and Teamsters Local 627 officials the two sides reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to keep city services operational...
International Brotherhood Of Teamsters Reports Taylor Farms Workers' Rights Violations  Insurance News Net   ...Taylor Farms workers and Teamster members gathered with state and community leaders at a forum on May 15 evening to investigate workers' rights violations at the company's facilities in Tracy, California, according to a release from International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
ACTR Drivers To Vote On Union  The Eagle   ...Bus drivers of ACTR, Addison County Transit Resources, will vote to unionize June 11, according to driver Craig Bingham. Bingham says the drivers will decide to join the Teamsters Local 597...
Drivers Physicals Must Now Be Performed by Certified Medical Examiners  Trucking Info   ...The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is reminding the trucking industry Wednesday marks the start of new regulations requiring that all U.S. DOT physicals must be performed by a qualified health professional listed on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.
The new program sets baseline training and testing standards for medical professionals who perform commercial driver physicals and for tracking of driver medical certificates...
Teamsters Local 727 Defends Funeral Workers at SCI Shareholders Meeting  Teamsters Local 727   ...Teamsters Local 727 President John Coli Jr. on May 14 publicly denounced funeral giant Service Corporation International at its annual shareholders meeting in Houston for the company’s mistreatment of Chicago-area workers...
Trade
Surprise, US media fails to cover talks on big 'trade' deal with Europe  TeamsterNation   ...The European media came out for a press conference today against TAFTA, the latest power grab by big corporations and the 1%. The American media wasn't interested in the so-called trade deal with Europe...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks To Intensify As Key Players Remain Divided  Raw Story   ...Asia-Pacific trade ministers said Tuesday they would intensify talks on a vast trans-Pacific free trade agreement, but offered no clue on when a final accord would be reached. At the end of a two-day meeting in Singapore, ministers and chief negotiators of the 12 putative member economies of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) remained divided on key issues...
State Battles
Christie's pension payment reduction plan sparks lawsuit from CWA  NJ.com   ...Another prominent labor union, the Communications Workers of America, says it will file a lawsuit in an effort to stop Gov. Chris Christie's plans to grab $2.43 billion meant for the pension system to balance the state budget...
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin, and More  Econbrowser   ... No turnaround for Wisconsin — it continues to lag Minnesota and the Nation...
War On Workers
U.S. Fast Food Protests Go Global  The Hill   ...Last Thursday, fast food workers in over 30 countries participated in protests over poverty wages, a lack of full-time positions, poor working conditions and management retaliation against union activism. U.S. workers protested in over 160 cities...
McDonald's Vacates Headquarters Ahead Of Massive Protest  Business Insider   ...McDonald's executives vacated the company headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, on Wednesday ahead of a massive protest involving thousands of workers and supporters...
Why Is Credit Suisse Still Allowed to Do Business in the United States?  The Atlantic   ...Credit Suisse, the gigantic Swiss bank, is clearly a criminal organization. In its guilty plea yesterday, Credit Suisse admitted that it has been actively helping Americans (and no doubt people from all around the world) evade taxes for years...
Is Credit Suisse Really in Jail?  Baseline Scenario   ...no one will go to jail because of the conviction...
Hubris at the Top: The Imperial and Tone Deaf CEO  Wall Street on Parade   ...Yesterday, at the JPMorgan shareholders’ meeting, which has been held in Tampa, Florida for the past three years, more than 1,000 miles from the JPMorgan headquarters in New York (ostensibly to avoid mass protests), CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay package was rubber stamped by shareholders at $20 million for 2013. Over the past 18 months, the bank has been charged with ever alarming amounts of crimes, including the unprecedented two-felony count charge for aiding and abetting the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme which devastated financial lives across America...
Miscellaneous
TransCanada Considers Keystone XL Pipeline Alternative, Oil By Rail  Reuters   ...TransCanada Corp is in talks with customers about shipping Canadian crude to the United States by rail as an alternative route as its Keystone XL pipeline project that has been mired in political delays, Chief Executive Russ Girling said on Wednesday...
Couple Fined $750, Threatened With Jail for Feeding Homeless People  Alternet   ...A Florida couple who fed more than 100 homeless people each week have been accused of breaking the law for their good deed...
Saudi Arabia: Filipino Maid Disfigured with Boiling Water for not Bringing Coffee on Time  IBT   ...The maid, who is from Pikit, North Cotabato, said she had been working for the Arab family in Riyadh for two months. She was not given her salary or provided with proper meals...

Today's Teamster News 05.15.14

Teamster News
Teamsters and California Hauling Company Reach Settlement through NLRB – Back Wages and New Bargaining Agreement Result  Beeson, Tayer & Bodine   ...Dispatch Transportation, the operating name for Commodity Trucking Acquisition, LLC, is paying $262,000 in back pay to the former employees of the predecessor to Dispatch, Valley Aggregate Transport, Inc.  Even better, perhaps, is that Dispatch has entered into a three-year collective bargaining agreement with Local 137 that includes a generous wage and benefit package in line with what other Union contractors provide in the industry...
Teamsters Take On National Express Group At Annual General Meeting  teamster.org   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa led a powerful delegation of Teamsters, including North American school bus workers, in calling on the National Express Group PLC (NEX: LN) Board of Directors to address the company's poor worker rights record at its North American subsidiaries...
Road Bills Could Lead To Taxpayer Rage  Detroit News   ...Michigan's roads are in dire need of repair. But a House-passed package of bills in Lansing that would allocate upwards of $500 million a year to fix streets and bridges is a far cry from a permanent solution...
Adams County Board Approves Union Contracts  Quincy Journal   ...The Adams County Board unanimously passed three year contracts with most of its bargaining units....
Savannah-Chatham school bus drivers demand year-round pay  Savannah Now   ...Local school bus drivers are demanding new contracts and year-round pay in response to new legislation that bars them from claiming unemployment during the summer break. They protested at the First Student school bus transportation offices Wednesday and last week at the Savannah-Chatham public school board meeting...
Swift Transportation Shareholders Give Mandate: Eliminate Dual Class Structure  teamster.org   ... A Teamster shareholder proposal to address Swift Transportation’s dual class stock structure received 79.2 percent support by shareholders of the company’s Class A, publicly traded shares, based on results disclosed by the company in its 8-K dated May 13, 2014 and filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)...
IBEW, BLET joint statement regarding SEPTA negotiations  teamster.org   ...SEPTA’s decision on May 9 to decline the proffer of binding arbitration from the National Mediation Board (NMB) is regrettable. We continue to maintain that binding arbitration is a reasonable and expeditious method of resolving the dispute between the labor unions and SEPTA...
Teamsters Announce UPS Will Add Thousands Of New Union Package Jobs  teamster.org   ...Hiring has already started, and the new jobs will be in addition to the regular filling of jobs through attrition...
Trade
Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership An Environmental Disaster Waiting To Happen?  TreeHugger   ...President Obama's environmental legacy is in deep trouble and in large part will hinge on a trade deal that his administration is discussing in Vietnam the week of May 12...
State Battles
Governor Brown Signs SB 27 – Sheds Light on Dark Money  Common Cause   ...Today Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 27, reforming the Political Reform Act of 1974 to further regulate campaign financing, adding the requirement that committees disclose donors of $100 or more where those donations were solicited for the purpose of making contributions or expenditures in California. This essential campaign disclosure bill will go a long way toward improving California’s campaign disclosure laws by closing the nonprofit reporting loophole...
War On Workers
Walmart Warehouse Contractor To Pay $21 Million To Settle Wage Theft Allegations  Huffington Post   ...A Walmart contractor that operates many of the retailer's distribution centers has agreed to pay $21 million in back pay to warehouse workers in California who claim they were systematically shorted on pay for years...
Walmart US CEO Gets A $1.5 Million Bonus For Missing Expectations While A Worker Gets $0  Think Progress   ...Walmart US CEO William Simon's contract gave him the opportunity to earn a $1.5 million bonus on top of $10 million in salary and stock awards if the company's American net sales grew by 2 percent...
Nurses Launch New Campaign to Alert Public to Dangers of Medical Technology and Erosion of Care Standards  National Nurses United   ...An unchecked proliferation of unproven medical technology and sharp erosion of care standards are rapidly spreading through the health care system, far outside the media spotlight but frighteningly apparent to nurses and patients, says National Nurses United...
How Student Debt Keeps Young People From Buying Houses  Slate   ...It seems obvious that owing a lot of student debt should make it difficult to buy a house. After all, if you're stuck paying interest on college loans, it's hard to save up for a 20 percent down payment...
Big Tobacco's Secret Workforce: Child Farm Workers  Think Progress   ...Hundreds of children too young to buy cigarettes are working 60 hours a week on tobacco farms across the South, a new report from Human Rights Watch finds...
Spying Is Meant to Crush Citizens’ Dissent, Not Catch Terrorists  Washington's Blog   ...The record is suffused with examples of groups and individuals being placed under government surveillance by virtue of their dissenting views and activism – Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, anti-war activists, environmentalists...

Today's Teamster News 11.14.12

Anti-austerity strikes, protests across Europe  AFP   ...Workers went on strike across southern Europe on Wednesday to battle austerity cuts, some blocking streets or burning tyres at picket lines as they paralysed swathes of industry and transport...
OECD: The balance of economic power is expected to shift dramatically over the next half century  Balkans.com   ...The United States is expected to cede its place as the world's largest economy to China, as early as 2016. India's GDP is also expected to pass that of the United States over the long term. Combined, the two Asian giants will soon surpass the collective economy of the G7 nations...
New report finds manufacturing, China, and outsourcing dominated 2012 political TV advertising  manufacture this   ...The study found that nearly 1 million ad occurrences focused on jobs, trade and outsourcing...
One million veterans would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $9.80  Economic Policy Institute   ...The bill, introduced by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin in the Senate and Calif. Rep. George Miller in the House, would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $9.80 per hour in three increases of 85 cents, and then index it to inflation...
Law enforcement union sues over collective bargaining law  Wisconsin State Journal   ...A Wisconsin law enforcement union sued the state Tuesday over the state's collective bargaining law, alleging that the portions of the law pertaining to teachers and municipal workers that were found unconstitutional by a Dane County judge are also unconstitutional for state workers...
Teamsters strike at Esber Beverage  Canton Repository   ...Eighteen drivers and warehouse workers who are members of Teamsters Local 92 walked out  Monday after talks broke down...
Atlas Air Worldwide Dispatchers Ratify Initial Labor Agreement  Business Wire   ...Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (NAS: AAWW) , a leading global provider of outsourced aircraft and aviation operating services, today announced that dispatchers of its subsidiaries, Atlas Air, Inc. (Atlas) and Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, Inc. (Polar), have ratified a collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 210...

Union-busting bullies officially lose WI senate

The recall dust has finally settled in Wisconsin and union members can celebrate. Frequent liar Job killer Future jailbird Koch manservant Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union pals no longer control the state Senate!

Yesterday Racine GOP State Senator Van Wanggaard announced he will not file a lawsuit challenging the results of the recall election last month. Wanggaard lost by 800 votes to John Lehman who ran against Wanggaard and other Republicans who he said put “the target on the backs of teachers and public employees.”

This officially tips the scales in favor of Democrats who opposed Walker’s attack on collective bargaining rights last year. They now have a 17-16 edge in the senate.

Lehman’s reaction:

"I'm just happy that we're not putting the citizens through that," he said.

He added that now the senate could focus on creating jobs in a state that has lost more than 23,000 jobs under Walker:

“I’m very hopeful that Sen. [Mark] Miller and Sen. [Scott] Fitzgerald can get together with the leadership over in the Assembly and that we can move forward on some of these items that have to do with jobs development immediately, rather than waiting until January,” Lehman said.

As the AP reports:

Lehman said he hadn't heard of plans to try to reconvene the Legislature before the end of the year in an attempt to move on measures while the Democrats hold the Senate majority.

But Democratic Sen. Mark Miller, who will be the new Senate majority leader once Lehman is sworn into office within the next 10 days, suggested he would push for a special session to consider jobs legislation.

It may be a small victory. But for workers, it’s a step closer to reversing Walker’s union-busting policies and rescuing Wisconsin’s middle class.

-- Union Thug

Today's Teamster News 06.21.12

America’s long slope down  Reuters   ...We need to recognize that the tax cutters were snake oil salesmen, the Federal Reserve an enabler of damaging debts and that bilateral trade deals are written of, by and for global financiers, not workers...
Job JOLTS - There are 3.7 Unemployed People Per Job Opening for April 2012  Economic Populist   ...Officially, there are 12.5 million unemployed for April, unofficially the number is more like 27 million...
The failure to explain health reform  Columbia Journalism Review   ...If the Supreme Court rules the health reform law or its central feature—the individual mandate requiring people to have health insurance—is unconstitutional, much of the public won’t shed a tear...
How Midwesterners Feel About Unions  The Midwesterner   ...An overwhelming majority -- 85 to 8 percent -- support collective bargaining rights for unions in general. This support drops to 66 percent for public sector bargaining rights, but is still solid...
A cautionary tale for economic development boosters  Bleeding Heartland   ...no electric cars will roll off assembly lines in Webster City. On the contrary, the city will be lucky to get back money it loaned to a company that never delivered on its owner's promises...
Catholic sisters rally against Ryan budget  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...A group of Catholic sisters broke bread Tuesday with the poor and homeless at Milwaukee's St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church, part of a nine-state bus tour drawing attention to proposed Republican budget cuts and the Catholic charities they say would be harmed by them...

Don't mourn. Organize!

Unlike Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, working families don’t have the luxury of big money to keep their jobs. And now that Walker has held on to office in Wisconsin, his right-wing allies want to use the governor’s victory as proof that attacking workers is somehow an effective way to run the state and the country.

But $30.5 million is a cheap argument.

Here’s a good breakdown of all the money that went into Tuesday’s election.

As Mother Jones’s Andy Kroll wrote:

Walker crushed his Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, in the political money wars. The governor raised $30.5 million while Barrett pulled in $3.9 million.

The dark-money-peddling Republican Governors Association itself spent $9.4 million to keep Walker in office.

Walker can also thank the Supreme Court for his win, writes the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent:

...one way of thinking about tonight’s results is that they say at least as much about Citizens United, and the ways it has empowered opponents of organized labor, as they do about the very real decline in union power. An analysis by the Center for Public Integrity found that Walker outraised his vanquished opponent Tom Barrett by nearly eight to one, and that outside groups supporting Walker vastly outspent unions, thanks to Citizens United.

When the U.S. Supreme removed limits to campaign contributions in the Citizens United case, it told Corporate America that money equals speech. This unleashed the power of the super-rich and their political spokespersons like Walker. Now they can trample on “one person, one vote” democracy.

And in case anyone thinks Tuesday’s recall shows that waging war on American workers is sound economic policy for the middle class, Professor Colin Gordon at the Economic Policy Institute points to a very different historical precedent:

By most estimates, declining unionization accounted for about a third of the increase in inequality in the 1980s and 1990s…In 1979, union stalwarts in the northeast and Rust Belt combined high rates of union coverage and relatively low rates of inequality, while just the opposite held true for the southern “right to work” states.

While Wisconsin reminds us that workers may be easily outgunned in the electoral arena, it also reminds us that we are strongest on our own turf: in the workplace and on the streets.

This video posted today by out brothers and sisters at the Transport Workers Union shows us the meaning of Wisconsin – the inspiration, the hope and the struggle that continues.

Amazing GOTV effort in WI could bring Barrett a win

From the Friends of Teamsters Local 222 Facebook page.

In just a few hours the polls will open in Wisconsin. The energy surrounding the election is reaching a fever pitch in Milwaukee, where We Are Wisconsin knocked on more than 257,000 doors on Saturday alone.

Workers and activists have been canvassing and phone-banking for weeks in a high-stakes struggle to beat back Gov. Scott Walker’s well-financed campaign. Walker that has outspent his opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, 20-to-1.

The flood of out-of-state corporate money that has deluged the Wisconsin recall on Walker’s behalf has reached over $30 million – the most money ever raised by a public candidate in the state’s history.

The Nation’s John Nichols wrote this weekend,

Governor Scott Walker is not trying to win the Wisconsin recall election that will be held June 5. He is trying to buy it. If the embattled governor does prevail, he will provide essential evidence not of his own appeal but of the power of money to define our politics.

But activists and union members have mounted a huge get-out-the-vote operation that relies on people power to defeat the governor.

And as the election comes down to the wire, more news broke today about the governor’s role in the John Doe corruption investigation:

Scott Walker's closest political aide has just been named in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Monday as the source of damaging revelations that undermine Walker's claim that he has cooperated with the John Doe criminal corruption probe into his current and former administrations.

Tim Russell…was said in court Monday to have given Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Dan Bice information that showed that, contrary to Walker's claims, Walker was stonewalling investigators all along.

Ever since Walker rammed through legislation last year that stripped collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, the Badger State has been ground zero for the war on workers. And we’ve learned a lot about Walker over the past year.

Most important, Wisconsin's economy has suffered under his policies. According to the federal government, Wisconsin had the worst job record of any state in the country. To counter that fact, Walker put out his own job numbers that the Bureau of Labor Statistics would not confirm.

Walker is famous for being the only governor in Wisconsin history to set up his own criminal defense fund. The governor was caught detailing his divide-and-conquer strategy against unions in the state. And last week, we learned about Walker’s “deer czar” who has a history of taking public land away from hunters.

So, it’s not surprising that Walker has felt the need to spend enormous sums on ads attacking Tom Barrett.
Despite all the money Walker has spent, the tight race between the governor and Barrett is in a dead heat, according the latest PPP poll.

The outcome tomorrow hinges on turnout. Labor is mobilizing in big numbers to get union members out to the polls in one of the most important elections for workers around the country.

We like what Rev. Jesse Jackson told a crowd of Wisconsinites on Sunday:

Sooner or later the coach has to stop talking. The ball's in your court now. You can go out and vote on Tuesday. Most of you couldn't have been there in August of 1963 on the Mall in Washington, or marching from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, but God keeps giving us chances to change the world in our times. This is one of those times.

Added Esquire’s Charles Pierce:

At the end of the day, which is coming on Tuesday, that's all that's left. The marches and the occupations and the gathering of the signatures, it was all prologue to a couple of million individual decisions. Stay home or go out and vote. Everyone's equal when the curtains close.

On Wisconsin!

Today's Teamster News 08.21 11

Ohio governor, GOP leaders stage event intended to draw anti-union law’s foes to table  Washington Post   ...Kasich and fellow Republicans planted themselves alongside an empty table bearing placards for major unions, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employess, and the Ohio Education Association...
Kasich/SB 5 numbers  Public Policy Polling   ...John Kasich and Senate Bill 5 are both still unpopular: but neither is as unpopular as it was 3 months ago. 50% of Ohioans say they would vote to reject Senate Bill 5 if the election was today, to 39% who would vote to accept it...
Milwaukee, Madison workers seek to overturn collective bargaining law  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Milwaukee sanitation workers and Madison teachers filed a lawsuit late Thursday seeking to strike down Gov. Scott Walker's legislation ending most collective bargaining for public employees...
Stealth ALEC courts Tallahassee Republican lawmakers  Sun-Sentinel   ...THE ISSUE: A special interest group that wields stealthy clout in Tallahassee...
NH hospitals continue to slash workers, programs  Lawrence Eagle-Tribune   ...A third New Hampshire hospital announced yesterday it would lay off employees and cut back on programs as a direct result of state budget changes...
Snyder administration in freak-out mode over legal challenge to the Emergency Manager law  eclectablog   ...If there was any doubt about whether or not the Snyder administration was freaking out about lawsuit by Sugar Law Center challenging the constitutionality of the Emergency Manager law (PA 4), this should remove all doubt...

Today's Teamster News 08.03.11

Appeals court rules in favor of Right to Life  Associated Press   ...A federal appeals court has ruled that the state of Wisconsin cannot enforce a $10,000 limit on donations received by independent political action committees...
Ohio GOP Forgets Its Zero Tolerance Pledge After Three Members Get In Trouble With The Law  Think Progress   ... DeWine, Kasich, and other Republican leaders have not attempted to enforce that zero tolerance policy when it comes to the three members who have had legal problems this year... 
Detroit teachers union to fight cuts in potential test for Michigan's new emergency manager law  Mlive.com   ...The Detroit Federation of Teachers is preparing to fight a 10 percent wage cut imposed by state-appointed emergency manager Roy Roberts, setting up a potential test case for Michigan's newly-strengthened law...
Another bond rating agency takes dim view of state's budget solutions  Minneapolis Star-Tribune   ...On the heels of a "kick the can down the road" budget solution, Moody’s Investor Service placed Minnesota on a negative outlook for its bond rating...
Unions Joining Forces To Counter Christie  Wall Street Journal   ...In an unusual show of collaboration, New Jersey's public worker unions plan to join together to try to upend Gov. Chris Christie's signature accomplishment this year: cuts to their pensions and health-care benefits...
Region's jobless rate rises  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   ...a confluence of factors -- including a rising number of jobs paired with an increase in the number of people interested in working -- may have pulled up the unemployment rate in the seven counties that make up the Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area...

Today's Teamster News 07.24.11

Truth Tour  WLUK  ...local news report on Hopper-King recall election in Wisconsin...
Foes ask high court to halt Ohio jobs board launch  Bloomberg Business Week   ...Their lawsuit claims JobsOhio violates several provisions of Ohio's Constitution, including one prohibiting private entities from controlling public dollars...
Now, it's personal: Individuals pick up freight as businesses shed tax burden  mlive.com   ...This year, business taxes will account for more than $2 billion to support a variety of education, health care and public safety services. Next year, it will be half that much...
Voters hesitant on farmworker proposal, poll finds  Los Angeles Times   ...California voters are split over a proposal to make it easier for farmworkers to unionize, according to a new poll...
Teamsters hit Bud distributor with EPA complaint  Dayton Business Journal   ...The union — which represents more than 100 delivery drivers and warehouse workers at Heidelberg — alleges the company wants to force its employees to work up to seven days a week, eliminate retiree healthcare for longtime employees and take away employees right to take unpaid leave for family medical emergencies...
YRCW Restructuring Plan Completed; More Than 25,000 Teamster Jobs Saved  IBT   ...The plan to restructure YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) aimed at saving more than 25,000 Teamster freight jobs has been successfully completed, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa announced today...

Today's Teamster News 07.15.11

Dayton, Republicans end budget impasse; shutdown to end 'very soon'  St. Cloud Times   ...Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and top Republicans agreed Thursday to end a budget impasse that prompted the longest state government shutdown in recent history, after the Democratic governor surrendered on raising taxes...
Jobless claims fall nationally, but rise in Wisconsin  Biz Times Daily   ...In Wisconsin, initial claims for unemployment surged last week to 13,547, up from 11,973 in the previous week, according to the state Department of Workforce Development...
Ohio GOP repeals online voter database over Secretary of State Jon Husted's objections    Cleveland Plain Dealer  ...Two weeks after passing a sweeping election overhaul package, Ohio lawmakers on Wednesday repealed portions of the new law that had the support of the state's elections chief...
Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger says pension reform is next on K-12 education agenda for lawmakers  mlive.com   ...Bolger and other Republican lawmakers are being vilified in education circles for cutting $700 million from the state’s K-12 budget in fiscal 2012...
'Right to work' on lawmakers' summer calendar  The Franklin Online.com   ...An out-of-session legislative study committee chaired by Sen. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville, will sit down this summer to take a longer look at controversial “right to work” legislation...
There’s Hidden Union Busting in Congressman Issa’s Postal Reform Bill  Center For American Progress   ...Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) recently introduced postal reform bill closely follows the strategy of Republican governors who are using budget problems to attack collective bargaining rights and weaken political opponents... 

Today's Teamster News 07.08.11

Small donors, unions give Democrats cash edge in Wisconsin recall elections  DailyKos   ...this is a very strong showing for the Democratic candidates...
Clock is ticking for counties to validate SB5 signatures  Fox19   ...now it's up to local jurisdictions like Butler County to validate each signature by July 18...
Minnesota Shutdown May Cost State Economy $23 Million Weekly  Bloomberg   ...The economy in Minnesota, whose debt was downgraded today by Fitch Ratings, may lose about $23 million a week in spending power from public and private workers idled by the shutdown of its government...
Gov. Rick Scott’s plutocratic Florida (Opinion)  Miami Herald   ...this guy isn’t so much the governor of Florida as he is one of several interchangeable ideologues elevated to state and federal government in part thanks to the faux grassroots “tea party movement.”...
Law increasing bargaining units in NH takes effect  Associated Press   ... A new law requires a bargaining unit to have at least 10 members...
Teachers union leaders say they'll become active in recall campaigns against state House members  MLive.com   ...State teachers union leaders say they will now be actively involved in recall campaigns, calling the recent tenure reform package “the tipping point.”...

WI swaps Teamsters for convict labor

More distressing news from behind the Cheddar Curtain:

Now that the Koch brothers' favorite lackey destroyed collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin's government workers, Racine's county executive said he'll have prison inmates do work that Teamsters had been paid to do.

Penal servitude, how lovely.

The Cap Times reports:

Racine County Executive Jim Ladwig told several media outlets earlier this week he plans to add shoveling, landscaping and painting to the to-do lists of county inmates. Until recently, inmates were only allowed to cut the grass along highways.

That changed Wednesday when the state's controversial collective bargaining law took effect.

Besides losing their right to negotiate over the percentage of their paycheck that will go toward health care and retirement, unions also lost the ability to claim work as a "union-only" job, opening the door for private workers and evidently even inmates to step in and take their place.

Last June, Racine County tried to use inmates to cut the grass, but Teamsters Local 43 sued because it had a contract with the county. A judge sided with us. Not anymore, thanks to Scotty boy and the six Republican senators who'll be recalled within six weeks.

ThinkProgress notes,

While giving prisoners more work and activity options is generally positive, using free inmate labor to replace public sector workers is a disturbing trend.

Ya think? Here's wikipedia on the "convict lease" system so popular in the South after the Civil War:

Since the impoverished state governments could not afford penitentiaries, they leased out prisoners to work at private firms. Douglas A. Blackmon argues that it was Southern policy to intimidate blacks; tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested and leased to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries and farm plantations.[8] The state governments maximized profits by putting the responsibility on the lessee to provide food, clothing, shelter, and medical care for the prisoners, which resulted in extremely poor conditions, numerous deaths, and perhaps the most inhumane system of labour in the United States.[9] Reformers abolished convict lease in the Progressive Era, stopping the system in Florida in 1919. The last state to abolish the practice was Alabama in 1927.

In not-so-bad news from Wisconsin, a second lawsuit against the collective bargaining rights law has been filed. Courthouse  News Service reports a coalition of unions sued Walker in federal court,

...claiming his "Budget Repair Bill" violates the Municipal Employment Relations Act and the Constitution.

The unions...say the union-busting law illegally amends the Municipal Employment Relations Act and "effectively undermines and substantially eliminates the right of local government employees to bargain with their employers."

The unions say their ability "to maintain themselves and to express the collective viewpoint of their members" is substantially impaired by the bill, also known as Wisconsin Act 10. They say it impairs individuals' right to associate with and support their unions of choice.

Today's Teamster News 07.01.11

Broken deals, bitter words and a state shuts down  Minneapolis Star-Tribune   ...Talks imploded Thursday between DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders in the final hours before a midnight deadline, and Minnesota began a historic government shutdown...
Group pushes for Michigan right-to-work proposal  Associated Press   ...A group is forming to try and advance right-to-work legislation in Michigan, a state with deep union roots...
Lawsuit, Teacher Layoffs Follow Wisconsin Budget Signing  Huffington Post   ...Just days after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed the state's budget with massive cuts to education funding, Wisconsin's teachers are on the chopping block and making their way to court...
Gov. Kasich signs 'new day' budget for Ohio  Columbus Dispatch   ...The budget, which did not receive a single Democratic vote..., includes major changes and cuts to Ohio's schools, local governments, nursing homes, prisons, and development departments...
Governor to try again to exclude some state workers from unions  Galesburg.com   ...Nearly 2,000 state employees could be ejected from unions representing them and another 1,700 would be prevented from joining collective bargaining units under a bill that could be called in the Illinois Senate next week...
Unions file lawsuit over pension plan  Concord Monitor   ...a coalition of the state's biggest unions filed a lawsuit yesterday contesting the constitutionality of an increase in employee contributions to the state's retirement system...

Today's Teamster News 06.29.11

After heated debate, Wis. union law takes effect  Wisconsin State Journal   ...The changes amount to an average 8 percent pay cut. The bill also strips them of almost all their collective bargaining rights, allowing them to negotiate only on wages...
Protesters, and rats, greet Scott Walker in New York  Capitol Confidential   ...“Say it loud! Say it clear! Scott Walker is not welcome here!” chanted a gaggle of union members and supporters...
State Senate passes budget that will change Ohio  Columbus Dispatch   ...Local governments, nursing homes, schools and universities must make do with less...
Christie signs bill reining in employee benefits  Associated Press   ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday signed landmark employee benefits legislation that increases pension and health contributions paid by a half-million teachers, police and other public workers and removes the issue from collective bargaining for four years...
Malloy: With union deal dead, legislature may have to force change  The Connecticut Mirror   ...Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said today he will explore legislative options to curtail what he called state government's unsustainable, long-term health and pension costs, but he refused to say if he will seek a curb on collective-bargaining rights for state employees...
Calif. bill would ease farmworker unionization  Associated Press   ...Gov. Jerry Brown has until midnight Tuesday to act on a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize farmworkers in California, but growers characterize the legislation as a union power-grab...