Wage hikes are latest sign workers are winning

The movement to raise the minimum wage paid off for workers Jan. 1 in 14 states and numerous cities across the nation. And it is a testament to the thousands of everyday Americans who took to the streets and demanded a higher salary floor in living wage protests across the country.

Workers across the nation have rallied for higher wages.

As a result, workers from Alaska to West Virginia will see a little extra in their paychecks starting this month. The largest gains are in California and Massachusetts, which are bumping the minimum wage up $1, to $10 an hour. It will help families keep food on the table as well as the economic buying power of the entire nation.

As an article in The Atlantic stated:

Efforts to raise the minimum wage paid off in 2015, and as the movement has gained momentum—the current target for many activists and some economists is $15 an hour—the debate over whether raising minimum wage is a good idea will likely become even more heated in 2016. 

On the side for raising minimum wage, labor activists argue that the current minimum wage is not enough to live on. There’s also the argument that raising it might also be beneficial for closing the gender wage gap, as women are more likely to hold minimum-wage jobs.

One instance of government listening to the people and going further on the issue is in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a plan to raise the minimum wage for state university workers to $15 an hour. The increase will effect some 28,000 workers and is designed to include students who use work-study jobs to cover their college costs.

But clearly, more needs to be done. It is beyond unlikely that Congress will take action to raise the federal minimum wage this year. But where action can be taken on the local, state and federal front, it must happen. Hard-working Americans deserve to earn a wage that lets them live a simple but sustainable life.

What does the NLRB ruling on unions for college athletes really mean?

Many questions remain in the wake of last week's historic NLRB decision that Northwestern University scholarship athletes have a right to form a union. The NCAA will no doubt fight the NLRB's ruling that the football players are employees, and the ruling could affect college athletics around the country.

We do know some things, though, about the potential impact of the decision:

The NLRB ruling applies only to private colleges and universities. That's because the National Labor Relations Act only covers private employers. Athletes at public schools would have to proceed under state law. In states like Michigan, public employees have the same rights as private employees but they're governed by the state agency rather than the federal.

Unionizing could give college athletes a say in their working life. Many college athletes are subject to strict rules about where they live, when they work, what they wear and where they go. There are restrictions on their public comments and social media postings. They cannot profit off their image or reputation. Their schedules are tightly controlled, and they can be required to devote as many as 50 hours per week on football activities during the season. Should college athletes organize a union, they could negotiate changes to these restrictions.

Players say they want to negotiate for full cost-of-attendance scholarships and the right to their names, images, and likenesses. They want basic safety standards, protection for the scholarships of injured athletes and an end to the practice of making athletes pay for injuries and sports-related health issues. They want the NCAA to keep athletes from having to shoulder the costs of injuries and sports-related health issues. They want more rights in the NCAA’s disciplinary process, more rights to transfer between schools and better graduation rates. (Read more about their demands here.)

College athletes might be able to apply for workers' compensation. And college athletes might be more likely to win workers' compensation cases following the NLRB's ruling.

If athletes at many colleges organize, multiemployer bargaining might result, with the NCAA bargaining for all the colleges. In that case, the colleges would turn over bargaining duties to the NCAA the way major league baseball teams turn over bargaining to Major League Baseball.

(With thanks to ThinkProgress.)

Today's Teamster News 08.27.13

Port truck drivers at Carson firm seek union rep, go on strike Los Angeles Times ...Thirty port truck drivers went on strike Monday night at a Carson-based trucking firm, alleging their employer is attempting to thwart their efforts to unionize, organizers said...
Calif port truck drivers go on 24-hour strike Associated Press ...port truck drivers have gone on strike, claiming their company is trying to thwart their efforts to unionize...
LABOR: Trucking firm that supplies Skechers is Teamsters target Press-Enterprise ...Drivers who work for a Los Angeles area trucking company are leading picket lines at Skechers’ distribution center in Moreno Valley, part of an ongoing labor dispute between the trucking company and the Teamsters...
Teamsters, Hernando County trade figures for salary, benefit increases Tampa Bay Times ...The union that negotiates the contract for 400 Hernando County employees traded pay and benefit proposals with the county Monday, the eve of the County Commission's first discussion of the 2013-14 budget...
BLET Scores Organizing Win at Texas Pacifico  teamster.org   ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) scored a short line organizing victory (Thursday) ... as a majority of workers at Texas-Pacifico Transportation Ltd. voted to make the BLET their designated collective bargaining representative...
Trans-Pacific Partnership talks hit roadblock over anti-smoking policies The Globe and Mail ...Fast-moving trade talks aimed at reaching an ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal have hit a major snag over anti-smoking policies, as divisions emerged over a proposal critics say would expose governments to lawsuits from tobacco companies...
We’re All Still Hostages to the Big Banks (opinion)  New York Times   ...NEARLY five years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers touched off a global financial crisis, we are no safer. Huge, complex and opaque banks continue to take enormous risks that endanger the economy. From Washington to Berlin, banking lobbyists have blocked essential reforms at every turn...
The Leveraged Buyout of America  Common Dreams   ...Giant bank holding companies now own airports, toll roads, and ports; control power plants; and store and hoard vast quantities of commodities of all sorts. They are systematically buying up or gaining control of the essential lifelines of the economy...
Pinching Pensions to Keep Wall Street Fat and Happy  truthout   ...Contracts with Wall Street types always seem to draw more respect than contracts with workers...
Set Back by Recession, and Shut Out of Rebound  New York Times   ...a substantial number of older workers who lost jobs — even those lucky enough to be re-employed — are still suffering. Two-thirds in that age group who found work again are making less than they did in their previous job; their median salary loss is 18 percent compared with a 6.7 percent drop for 20- to 24-year-olds...
College Costs Surge 500% in U.S. Since 1985: Chart of the Day  Bloomberg   ...The CHART OF THE DAY shows that tuition expenses have increased 538 percent in the 28-year period, compared with a 286 percent jump in medical costs and a 121 percent gain in the consumer price index...
Indiscriminate surveillance fosters distrust, conformity and mediocrity: research  The Guardian   ...A government that engages in mass surveillance cannot claim to value the wellbeing or productivity of its citizens...
Drone crashes into Virginia bull run crowd  Washington Post   ...A drone crashed into the grandstand at Virginia Motorsports Park during the Great Bull Run, said Major W.B. Knott, of the Dinwiddie County sheriff’s office, reporting what might be described as the dramatic encounter between a controversial piece of hardware and a controversial spectacle...
With Ensign Decision, Court Hands CREW Fourth Victory Against DOJ  CREW   ...Judge Bates found Sen. Ensign’s privacy interests were outweighed by the substantial public interest in records that would shed light on the DOJ investigation and the decision not to bring charges against the senator...
Raleigh police threaten arrest for charity feeding homeless  WTVD   ...A group from a local church has been feeding the homeless in downtown Raleigh virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the past six years, until this weekend...
Nikki Haley Makes Re-Election Bid  Mauldin Patch   ...Gov. Nikki Haley made it official on Monday, announcing her re-election campaign at a rally at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, surrounded by a few hundred supporters, a group of sign-waving protesters, and three fellow Republican governors who might just be planning a run for president...

Today's Teamster News 07.06.13

Yes, the Sequester Is Affecting the Job Market  New York Times   ... in the last few months, the defense-sensitive industries have been shedding jobs, while the rest of the country’s employers have been adding jobs over all...
The Fall of the American Worker  New Yorker   ...Without unions to support them, they are all at the mercy of indifferent employers and the harsh vagaries of the post-industrial economy...
Chinese Officials Ignored Safety Violations, Leading To The Industrial Fire That Killed 121 People Think Progress   ...Dozens of Chinese public officials were charged Friday with dereliction of duty for failing to inspect the site of a fire at the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co. plant that killed 121 in June...
So-called free trade talks should be in the public, not corporate interest (opinion)  The Guardian   ... the goal is a managed trade regime – managed, that is, to serve the special interests that have long dominated trade policy in the west...
Pensioners at ‘breaking point’ because of austerity budgets  Independent.ie   ..."The feedback we received during our national consultation process in March (in Ireland) was shocking, with older people telling us how they were going to bed in the early evening to stay warm, using hot water bottles to stay warm rather than turning on their heating, or seriously considering the option of getting rid of their pet cat because they could no longer afford to feed it..."
Next week's Moral Mondays protest to focus on the numbers  News and Observer  ...Next week’s “Moral Mondays” protest by the NAACP will be about numbers. Each protest has focused on a theme. Monday’s theme will be about the number of people that the organization says have been harmed by Republican legislators’ economic actions, including ending some Medicaid funding and unemployment benefits...
Top Mich. court won't rule early on right-to-work  Associated Press   ...The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday unanimously decided not to step in early to decide the legality of the state's right-to-work law...
How Scott Walker strangled Wisconsin’s jobs recovery  Institute for Wisconsin's Future   ...The only ‘good news’ is that we’re not falling behind the nation quite as rapidly as we once were. But Wisconsin is still missing out on the national recovery. And our governor’s policies are largely to blame...
Alabama voters' photo ID law can now be implemented for 2014 elections  The Clarion   ...The U.S. Supreme Court voted to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an act created to outlaw practices such as literacy tests and other discriminatory means that disenfranchised voters based on race or color...
Delaware Supreme Court weighs whether former Countrywide shareholders can pursue lawsuit Associated Press   ...The Delaware Supreme Court is considering whether former shareholders of Countrywide Financial Corp. should be allowed to pursue a federal lawsuit filed against leaders of the former mortgage lending giant before it was acquired by Bank of America in 2008...
American Airlines fires back against lawsuit to stop merger  Dallas Business Journal   ...American Airlines has returned fired against a lawsuit claiming the Fort Worth-based carrier's planned merger with US Airways Group will harm consumers, calling the suit baseless...
Calif. lawmakers approve bill to extend tax breaks as part of business incentive overhaul  Associated Press   ...The Senate and Assembly voted Wednesday to extend a sales tax exemption for manufacturing and research-and-development equipment to eight years. The credit would have expired for some businesses after 4 1/2 years...
Washington County to get workers comp refund check  Marietta Times   ...About 210,000 employers across the state will see refund checks form the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation in amounts ranging from $5 to more than $3 million...
New Jersey postpones surcharge on unemployment premiums in effort to boost job market  Press of Atlantic City   ...Lawmakers passed a bill that postponed a 10 percent insurance surcharge, which Gov. Chris Christie signed into law June 28. The increase was meant to fill a projected $300 million shortfall in the fund that provides unemployment benefits to the state's laid-off workers...
Rural/Metro union signals its intention to go on strike  Buffalo News   ...Teamsters Local 375 on Friday delivered 10-day notice signaling its intent to strike privately owned Rural/Metro Medical Services if progress is not made to fix a system in which, according to the union, first responders are paid below the city’s living wage...

Today's Teamster News 06.13.13

Inequality In U.S. Is Scarily High, Rising (INFOGRAPHIC)  Huffington Post   ...Half of the U.S. population is now considered poor or low-income...
The Trade Deal Scam  Truthout   ...There are two key facts people should know about these proposed trade deals. First, they are mostly not about trade. Second they are not intended to boost the economy in a way that will help most of us...
How Costco saves taxpayers money  CNNMoney   ...The discount retail chain has remained steadfast on giving decent pay and benefits for its rank and file, saving the company--and U.S. taxpayers--plenty of money in the process...
How Spy Agency Contractors Have Already Abused Their Power  The Nation   ...Two years ago, a batch of stolen e-mails revealed a plot by a set of three defense contractors (Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and HBGary Federal) to target activists, reporters, labor unions and political organizations...
Behind Cry for Help From China Labor Camp  New York Times   ...In interviews with more than a dozen people who were imprisoned at Masanjia and other camps around the country, they described a catalog of horrific abuse, including frequent beatings, days of sleep deprivation and prisoners chained up in painful positions for weeks on end...
Darrell Issa joins Democrats’ push on foreclosure review  Politico   ... Democrats and consumer advocates pushing federal banking regulators to release more details about an abandoned review of past foreclosure abuses have a new ally: Darrell Issa...
Greek state TV, radio broadcasts going off the air  Associated Press   ...Greek state TV and radio have begun going off the air, hours after the government said it would temporarily close all state-run broadcasts, with the loss of about 2,500 job, due to austerity cuts...
North Carolina Is the New Wisconsin  The Nation   ...Republicans have imported a slew of ALEC-inspired policies in an attempt to turn the New South back into the Old Confederacy...
City Council grapples with looming budget shortfall, union concerns  Fort Wayne News-Sentinel   ...Fort Wayne City Council on Tuesday decided to hold for another week an ordinance that, if passed as currently written, would strip the ability of unions to collectively bargain aspects of health insurance coverage with the city...
Montana attorney general forms coalition to oppose Internet sales tax bill in Congress  Great Falls Tribune   ...Montana Attorney General Tim Fox on Wednesday announced the formation of a multi-state coalition opposed to a proposed federal Internet sales tax bill that would force businesses to collect sales tax for other states, counties and cities...
Iowa law closes sales tax loophole for online sellers  Sioux City Journal   ...Gov. Terry Branstad signed legislation to close a loophole that lets out-of-state online retailers offer customers a purchase price without collecting the state’s sales tax...
Massachusetts Minimum Wage Hearing Draws Crowd  WTIC 1080   ...Advocates for a higher Massachusetts minimum wage packed a Statehouse hearing Tuesday, saying an increase is a matter of fairness and would boost the economy...
Hoffa: Congress Needs to Take Action to Keep College Affordable  IBT   ...Working people struggle and fight to form unions so their children can have better lives than they do. For many, that means sending their sons and daughters to college. Higher education has long been the stepping stone to a better life. But that stone is being swept away by a tide of student debt...
Leslie Marshall Show Discusses Our Victory Against Knives on Planes  IBT  ...The Teamsters Airline Division, as part of the Coalition of Flight Attendant Unions, claimed a big victory last week with the TSA’s decision to disallow knives on planes...
Teamsters, Community Leaders Speak Before Rhinebeck School Board  IBT   ...School bus drivers and monitors, along with Teamsters Local 445 and New York State United Teachers (NYSUT)leaders, spoke out at Tuesday night’s Rhinebeck School Board meeting about their ongoing fight for a fair contract from Durham School Services...
Teamsters Complaint Results In $600,000 Settlement For Correctional Officers  IBT   ...The U.S. Department of Labor is overseeing the award of a $603,237 settlement to current and retired employees of the State Prison Facility in Raiford after finding that more than 700 corrections officers were not being properly compensated...

Today's Teamster News 06.12.13

NSA Leaker's Six-Figure Pay Should Spark Debate: Why Are Federal Workers Being Replaced With Pricier Contractors?  Forbes   ...Why is a 29-year-old high school drop-out making more as a low-level contractor than any senior manager in the federal government short of the President himself, and a very few other special category employees?...
Edward Snowden: Exhibit A for How Washington Blows Money on Contractors  The Atlantic   ...the government has outsourced huge chunks of its operations wholesale to private contractors like Booz Allen, particularly in the realm of intelligence gathering. And it's costing Washington untold billions every year...
Obama Hosts Peru’s Humala in Push for Pacific Trade Deal  Bloomberg   ...President Barack Obama called Peru one of the most reliable partners of the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere and said a Pacific region trade pact being negotiated will enhance the economic relationship...
Overdrafts accounted for 61% of bank fees in 2011, report finds  New York Times   ...Overdrafts accounted for 61 percent of the fees banking customers paid in 2011, according to a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bureau conservatively estimates that the banking industry made $12.6 billion in such fees...
Banks Seen as Aid in Fraud Against Older Consumers  New York Times   ...The pitch arrived, as so many do, with a friendly cold call. Bruno Koch, 83, told the telemarketer on the line that, yes, of course he would like to update his health insurance card. Then Mr. Koch, of Newport News, Va., slipped up: he divulged his bank account information. What happened next is all too familiar...
Federal agencies turning to UPS, Fed Ex instead of USPS for delivery needs  Washington Free Beacon   ...The U.S. Postal Service’s bottom line has been hit as the federal government has increased its contracts with publicly traded companies, and spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year for these services. The lion’s share of contracts has gone to  the United Parcel Service (UPS)...
Employers: Pay your interns. Labor Department: Bust them if they don’t!  Economic Policy Institute   ...At a time when the real value of the minimum wage is well below the levels of the 1960’s (making entry-level workers quite affordable), when the weak labor market is forcing college graduates in record numbers to take jobs that don’t require a college degree and entry level wages for college grads are already substantially below the levels of 10 years ago, the exploitation involved in not paying employees anything at all is shameful and economically dangerous...
When it comes to open records, ALEC needs to be put in its place  Cap Times   ...Communications with Wisconsin legislators are open records under the state's long-standing openness laws and for good reason. Citizens have a right to know who is influencing the conduct and actions of their elected representatives...
Walmart CEO Mike Duke, Other Execs Face Dissent In Shareholder Vote  Huffington Post   ...Wal-Mart's final shareholder vote for its board of directors showed another year of dissent against key executives and directors, including its CEO Mike Duke, as the company deals with the fallout from overseas bribery allegations...
Residents shut out of packed Detroit emergency manager meeting; Reporters tossed out  Michigan Live   ...(Emergency Manager Kevyn) Orr ... spoke in the meeting about making full use of either his broad powers under the state emergency manager law or Chapter 9 bankruptcy to address the city’s finances...
Bill would give Michigan college grads tax credits for student loans  Central Michigan Life   ...A new bill working its way through the state Legislature in Lansing would give college graduates an income tax credit if they continue to live in Michigan...
OSHA targets industrial truck safety  FleetOwner   ...OSHA is launching a new program in Idaho that will emphasize safety when working with industrial trucks like forklifts and lift trucks. Investigations will begin this month identifying and evaluating hazards associated with using these trucks...
Foreclosure abuse victims in Virginia to get checks  Associated Press  ...Checks are going out this week to more than 22,500 Virginians participating in the national mortgage foreclosure settlement, said Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli...
Davidson County judge blocks Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam's plan to lay off state workers Chattanooga Times Free Press ...Gov. Bill Haslam's plan to lay off more than 200 state workers this month struck a pothole late Monday afternoon when a Davidson County judge issued a temporary restraining order after state employees filed suit...
Record Temperatures Bring Reminders of Heat-Related Illness from Cal/OSHA  EHS Today   ...With parts of California experiencing record-breaking temperatures, with some highs in in the triple digits, California’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is reminding employers and employees of ways to beat the heat...
Teamsters Lead The Charge On Behalf Of Women  Teamsters Canada   ...The Teamsters Union has decided to lead the charge on behalf of pregnant women whose jobs are governed by the Canada Labour Code. The union wants to ensure that these women continue to be paid if they have to take a preventive withdrawal...

Today's Teamster News 02.20.13

Speculators driving gas prices up, up, up  McClatchy   ...gasoline prices are soaring again and eating away at the purchasing power of ordinary Americans. And again, financial speculators appear to be a big part of the story. The national average pump price hit $3.74 for a gallon of unleaded gasoline Tuesday, up a sharp 44 cents per gallon from just a month ago...
It Takes a B.A. to Find a Job as a File Clerk  New York Times   ...Across industries and geographic areas, many other jobs that didn’t used to require a diploma — positions like dental hygienists, cargo agents, clerks and claims adjusters — are increasingly requiring one, according to Burning Glass, a company that analyzes job ads from more than 20,000 online sources, including major job boards and small- to midsize-employer sites...
Greeks Hold First General Strike as Samaras Implements Austerity  Bloomberg   ...The strike is the latest challenge from unions to Samaras, who has used emergency decrees twice in the past month to end walkouts prompted by the spending cuts and tax increases required to keep funds flowing to the country...The new pension and wage cuts and tax hikes follow a wave of austerity measures that has led the country to a sixth year of recession and unemployment to a record 27 percent...
Iberia strikers clash with police  Irish Times   ...Striking union workers clashed with police at Madrid’s Barajas airport yesterday on the first day of a week-long strike over more than 3,800 pending job cuts at Spain’s flagship airline Iberia. More than 80 Iberia flights were cancelled as workers at the carrier began a series of five-day walkouts...
Republican Bill Targets Private Sector Unions  The Wheeler Report   ...A bill being rushed through the Republican-controlled State Legislature is an attack on private sector
union bargaining rights, three legislators charged today. The proposal, sponsored by State Senator Paul Farrow (R-Pewaukee) and Representative Ed Brooks (RReedsburg), would allow employers to reduce the hours of their union-represented employees without the union’s approval...
Liquor privatization bill to be introduced  The Patriot-News   ...(Pennsylvania) State House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, a leading advocate for privatization, has begun circulating a memo asking lawmakers to sponsor a bill. The bill, House Bill 790, will be introduced March 4...Democrats have fought efforts to sell the state stores, siding with unions representing state store workers...
Florida House speaker's plan for pension reform hits a snag  Bradenton Herald   ...A report released Friday was supposed to provide an estimate of how much the change would cost to pay out benefits to the employees currently in the system while switching new state employees into 401(k)-style retirement plans. Instead, the report was deemed incomplete...
Controversy over teachers' union email continues in Lansing  Livingston Daily Press & Argus   ...State House Bill 4201, introduced this month, would prohibit a public employee from using public email for political campaigning, union activities, union recruitment, or fundraising...
Bills target public-sector unions  Arizona Republic   ...Republicans at the Arizona Legislature are continuing efforts to restrict public-employee unions. Three bills to restrict unions passed a Senate committee on Monday. Another is scheduled for a House committee vote today. Several other bills are at various stages in the legislative process...
New Boeing contract splits engineers, tech workers  Associated Press   ...Boeing Co.'s engineers have accepted a new four-year contract while technical workers rejected their offer and voted to authorize a future strike...
School Bus Drivers End Strike, in Win for New York Mayor  New York Times   ...The main union for New York City’s school bus drivers ended its monthlong strike Friday, handing a victory to the Bloomberg administration, which had refused to give in to the union’s demands for job protections...
Costco Teamsters Ratify Three-year Contract  IBT   ...Teamster members at Costco have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new three-year contract that includes a 9 percent wage increase over the term of the agreement, stronger job protections and an improved grievance procedure for the 15,000 workers. Costco Teamsters, who are the highest-paid retail employees in the country with the best benefits, voted 77 percent in favor of the new contract...