TEAMSTERS
Teamsters to vote on contract with SoCal supermarket chains JOC ...Employees at three major West Coast grocery chains will vote this weekend on a tentative contract between their employers and the Teamsters union. The tentative agreement covers more than 8,000 truck drivers and warehouse, dairy and manufacturing workers employed by Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons in Southern California. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the grocery companies reached a tentative pact after three months of negotiations...
Teamsters picket at Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas Review Journal ...Members of the Teamsters Local 986 picketed Wednesday in front of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, saying that valet parking attendants at the hotel-casino have been working without a contract since voting to form a union in 2009. A union spokesman said more than a dozen Hard Rock valet workers would be covered by the contract. The pickets included Teamsters members from other resorts...
Teamsters local pickets Cranston City Hall in contract negotiation issue Providence Journal ...Mayor Allan Fung and Teamsters Local 251, which represents some of the city's full-time workers, came head-to-head over contract negotiations on Wednesday as about 30 people picketed in front of City Hall. The Teamsters’ contract expired June 30, and the city and union began negotiating for a new contract on June 2...
Teamsters Urge Safeway to Keep Good Jobs at Maryland Distribution Facilities DC Labor ...Teamsters are calling for Safeway to keep good jobs in Maryland, after the company unexpectedly issued a notice that it plans to start closing its Upper Marlboro and Landover, MD, grocery distribution facilities 19 days before Christmas, resulting in the layoff of more than 700 workers. The warehouse workers, members of Teamsters Locals 730 and 639, based in Washington, D.C., received a 60-day layoff notice from C&S Wholesale Grocers, which operates the Safeway-owned facilities...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Former US officials urge Congress to pass TPP The Hill ...More than two dozen former top U.S. officials are urging Congress to support a sweeping Pacific trade agreement that could get a vote sometime early next year. The group of 26 former Asia-focused trade, economic, diplomatic, security and intelligence officials sent a letter on Wednesday to House and Senate leadership. But the expansive agreement, completed last week in Atlanta after five years of talks, faces stiff headwinds from congressional lawmakers in both parties...
Don't Hold Your Breath for Cheap Steaks: Here's the TPP Timeline Bloomberg ...businesses seeking to take advantage of the deal -- which could have benefits and fallout for automakers, cattle and dairy farmers and drug manufacturers -- will have to wait for months and possibly even years before they will see its effects. The deal must be ratified by all 12 nations, and in many, that will be a multi-step process...
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown Slams Obama-Backed TPP As 'Massive Sellout of American Workers' IBTimes ...Democratic senators have typically used deferential language when discussing Obama administration initiatives, even ones they don't support. In that, they have emulated Ronald Reagan's (possibly apocryphal) "Eleventh Commandment" about not publicly attacking members of your own party. But that may be changing with the president's push for a 12-nation trade agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Clinton says Pacific trade deal falls short on addressing currency manipulation Reuters ...U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she does not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal because it does not adequately address currency manipulation. Clinton, who announced her opposition to the deal last week, said at a campaign event on Wednesday that she had hoped the agreement would have "enforceable provisions" related to currency manipulation...
RCEP: The next trade deal you need to know about CNBC ...The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement last week could speed up talks on its lesser-known Asia-wide equivalent, trade analysts say. Negotiators working on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are currently in the middle of a week-long meeting. The RCEP was conceived in 2013 and is being negotiated between the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus regional trading partners including Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea...
EU Concerned TTIP Deal to Lower Labor, Eco Standards - Ex-UN Advisor Sputnik ...The TTIP agreement seeks to liberalize trade between the United States and Europe and create the world's largest trade zone, encompassing more than 60 percent of global production. "Many Europeans, including policymakers, fear labor standards will be undermined, not raised by the [TTIP] trade agreement," Aaronson, who is also a professor at the George Washington University Elliot School of International Affairs, said...
Public transport workers strike in Amsterdam and Utrecht Dutch News ...Commuters in Amsterdam and Utrecht face chaos on Thursday morning because of a strike by transport workers. The strike has been called by the FNV transport union to protest at the pay deal for civil servants agreed between three other unions and employers this summer. Qbuzz had gone to court in an effort to have the strike declared illegal...
Half of world's wealth now in hands of 1% of population – report The Guardian ...Global inequality is growing, with half the world’s wealth now in the hands of just 1% of the population, according to a new report. The middle classes have been squeezed at the expense of the very rich, according to research by Credit Suisse. Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of Credit Suisse, said: “Middle class wealth has grown at a slower pace than wealth at the top end. This has reversed the pre-crisis trend"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Low-wage workers rally, march in push for $15 hourly minimum Boston Globe ...Low-wage workers filled the hallways at the [Massachusetts] State House Tuesday as legislators considered a number of bills that would have a major impact on their jobs, from giving hourly employees more predictable schedules to raising the minimum wage at fast-food chains and big-box retailers to $15 an hour...
Group launches hunger strike in Charlotte over immigration legislation Charlotte Observer ...A group of people demanding that Gov. Pat McCrory veto a bill that cracks down on undocumented immigrants in the state is continuing a hunger strike Thursday outside the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center. They began Wednesday afternoon, and participants said they intend to go without food until Friday afternoon. They are demanding that McCrory veto HB 318...
Kansas Voter ID Law Sets Off a New Battle Over Registration New York Times ...This month, under a rule adopted by the Kansas secretary of state’s office, county election officials throughout the state began to cull names from the voters list, removing people who had been on it at least 90 days. Those removed from the list must start the registration process over in order to vote. The move has touched off a new battle over voter registration, pitting the Republican secretary of state, Kris W. Kobach, an ardent supporter of strict voting rules, against Democrats and advocates of voting rights...
Marco Rubio knows you can't live on minimum wage, but he wouldn't raise it Daily Kos ...Rubio thinks it would be awfully nice if businesses would pay wages people could live on, but the policies he's interested in are about making things easier for businesses, not workers. And maybe eventually the policy giveaways to business will trickle down to workers in the form of higher wages. Rubio has "full confidence," in fact, even though he is fully aware that it's not happening now...
It’s Science: Raising Minimum Wage Would Make America a Happier Place The Nation ... Smith is the author of an academic cri de cœur, published in the September 2015 issue of American Psychologist, in which she calls on the psychological profession to take a strong stance in support of raising the minimum wage. [She] asks her colleagues to consider the “mountain of evidence that supports the damaging impact of poverty upon the psychological, social and physical well-being of adults, children and communities”...
Comment sought on new sick leave law rules Statesman Journal ...The Bureau of Labor and Industries is seeking comment on implementing Oregon's new paid sick leave law. A series of public rulemaking hearings will be held in Eugene, Bend and Portland this month. Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said the new law is an important step forward for workplaces. "We want to hear from the public so that our agency can make the new protections work for employees and businesses alike," he said...
Missouri: Judge Strikes Down Law Increasing St. Louis’s Minimum Wage Associated Press ...A state judge has struck down a St. Louis ordinance that sought to raise the city’s minimum wage. Judge Steven Ohmer of St. Louis Circuit Court declared the ordinance invalid and barred the city from enforcing it. His ruling Wednesday came a day before a 60-cent increase was to set the city’s minimum wage at $8.25 an hour...
U.S. LABOR
Thousands of City Janitors Authorize Strike Biz Philly ...The union representing 2,800 janitors who clean 168 Center City office buildings — including the Comcast Center and Cira Centre — has voted to authorize a strike amidst negotiations for a new contract. The 32BJ SEIU union has been negotiating with Building Owners Labor Relations Inc. since September 3 but failed to come to an agreement. Negotiations are ongoing, but the union now has the ability to strike if no deal is reached before the Thursday deadline...
UAW ratifies contract with MMNA Pantagraph ... United Auto Workers Local 2488, representing about 950 workers at the Mitsubishi auto plant, has overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with company. An "official notice" on the UAW's Facebook page Thursday morning states the vote was 697 in favor of the agreement and 103 voting "no"...
Inside Corporate America’s Campaign to Ditch Workers’ Comp ProPublica ...Standing before a giant map in his Dallas office, Bill Minick doesn’t seem like anyone’s idea of a bomb thrower. But backed by some of the biggest names in corporate America, this mild-mannered son of an evangelist is plotting a revolution in how companies take care of injured workers. His idea: Let them opt out of state workers’ compensation laws — and write their own rules...CSU Faculty Fight to Stop ‘University Professor’ From Becoming the New McJob In These Times ...Faculty across the 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU) system will be voting on strike authorization October 19-28. Should the 23,000 workers, mostly instructional employees, organized as the California Faculty Association (CFA) vote in favor of authorization, CFA leaders will be able to call a work stoppage if they cannot reach a settlement with the CSU system’s overseers, the Board of Trustees, over salary negotiations...
Hard Times For Seniors: No Cost of Living Increase for Social Security for 2016 Alternet ...On October 15, the Social Security Administration will announce some news that will be distressing to more than one in four households: there will be no Social Security cost of living adjustment ("COLA") for 2016. This is no small matter. The purpose of the annual adjustments is to ensure that Social Security's benefits don't lose value over time...
The Neverending Workday The Atlantic ...Work cultures of long hours reflect a notion of professionalism based on athleticism, in which one’s pace and accomplishments exist to be bested. Like a marathon, the never-ending office day tests psychological will and bodily capacity in equal measure. But even casual runners know the value of a good night’s sleep. Without adequate rest the body just isn’t up to the challenge...
Chicago Workers Thrive Three Years After Taking Over a Window Factory Truthout ...In 2008, Republic's owners closed the factory and laid off the work force without the required 60-days notice. Workers occupied the factory and refused to leave the premises until they were paid what they were owed. The story went nationwide. The New Era Windows and Doors Cooperative has been in operation since 2013. It hasn't been easy, but the worker-owners have learned together how to operate their own business...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Immigration creates its own wall inside GOP field CNBC ...immigration has divided conservative activists from business-oriented Republicans and the fast-growing Hispanic constituency the GOP needs more votes from to win presidential elections. But Donald Trump widened that divide — and began his rise to the top of Republican polls with hot rhetoric in his presidential announcement speech about who was crossing America's Southern border...
The Democratic Presidential Candidates Declared War on Unfettered Capitalism (opinion) Slate ...Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate revealed much more than the state of the horse race. It didn’t just pit Hillary Clinton against Sen. Bernie Sanders, or affect Vice President Joe Biden’s decision about running, or introduce the other candidates. It framed the whole election. Democrats are putting together a case for jerking the leash on capitalism. It’s moral, pragmatic, and smart. It fits the spirit of the times. Republicans had better come up with an answer...
People's Climate Returns as Communities Converge for Actions Nationwide Common Dreams ...Climate justice activists and community members are coming together throughout the country on Wednesday to demand urgent action from world leaders on the environment, workers rights, social justice, and other issues ahead of next month's United Nations COP21 talks in Paris. Actions are expected in more than 175 communities across 40 states as part of the National Day of Action on Climate, calling for an end to fossil fuels and investment in sustainable energy...
Eric Garner and Tamir Rice among those missing from FBI record of police killings The Guardian ...Killings by police that unleashed a new protest movement around the US in 2014, including those of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and John Crawford, are missing from the federal government’s official record of homicides by officers because most departments refuse to submit data. Only 224 of 18,000 law enforcement agencies around the US reported a fatal shooting by their officers to the FBI last year...
Showing posts with label contract. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contract. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
West Coast innovations in improving workers' lives
Two recent developments that promise to improve workers' lives caught our attention, and both have to do with the West Coast high-tech industry, including Microsoft, Apple, Genentech and Facebook.
In Seattle, Microsoft announced Thursday that it would require many of its 2,000 contractors and vendors to give 15 paid days off for sick days and vacation time for their employees who work for Microsoft. The New York Times notes,
As the economy has become more dependent on contract workers, workers’ rights advocates have voiced concern about their working conditions, especially for low-skilled jobs.
The situation is particularly acute in the tech industry, where average full-time employees earn more than $115,000 a year, along with generous benefits like child care, gourmet cafeterias and luxury shuttle rides to work. Many of the contracted service workers — who take care of the children, cook the food or drive the shuttles — earn near poverty-level wages and often do not receive basic benefits like sick leave.Of course, there's another way for contract employees to win paid time off: Organize. And that's what San Francisco shuttle drivers are doing with the Teamsters.
The city's Board of Supervisor on Tuesday may have made it easier. It passed a resolution urging the city’s transit agency to consider labor harmony when approving commuter shuttles to high-tech firms.
Recently, Facebook shuttle drivers who work for Loop Transportation were organized under the leadership of Rome Aloise, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 853. In February they worked out a contract that raised the drivers into the middle class. According to the local,
Under the contract, drivers now making $15-20/hr. will see their wages increase to $21-29/hr. They will enjoy fully paid family health insurance, paid vacation, holidays, sick days, retirement, and more.Local 853 went on to organize drivers for Compass Transportation, which makes up some of the fleets for Ebay, Genentech, Apple, Yahoo, and Zynga. They have yet to reach an agreement.
Said Brother Doug Bloch, Political Director for Teamsters Joint Council 7,
There are a couple organizing campaigns happening as we speak, and the workers are afraid of retaliation. But that’s what the board addresses with this resolution.Teamsters Local 665 is organizing shuttle drivers at Bauer Transportation, but not without difficulty. NBC Bay Area reported on Tuesday,
The Teamsters filed an unfair labor relations complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Bauer, citing Bauer’s surveillance of employees and efforts to prevent employee union elections. That complaint is currently under review. Bauer is one of the eight major shuttle contractors for large, and typically high-tech, Bay Area companies.
When Teamsters began talking to Bauer’s shuttle drivers, the union felt that company management turned hostile. During outreach in the last month, Mark Gleason, principal officer for Teamsters 665, said that management at Bauer followed and confronted the Teamsters who were meeting with drivers in San Francisco. He wouldn't disclose the details of this supposed confrontation.
Let's hope San Francisco's transit agency heeds the Board of Supervisors.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Teamsters at the University of Minnesota need a raise (VIDEO)
More than 1,400 University of Minnesota workers are Teamsters, and half of them don't earn a wage that sustains a family, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development 2014 annual report.
Of those, more than 400 Teamsters at the university make less than $15 per hour. Most of the lowest paid jobs are held by women and people of color.
The UM Teamsters work in building and grounds, food service, research assistance, maintenance, parking services, and waste and recycling disposal. They are finding their collective voice for the first time -- and their message is "We're fed up!"
They are fed up with the meager pay and benefits they receive for their dedication and hard work. They are fed up with the mistreatment and disrespect they have been subjected to by supervisors and human resource personnel. They are fed up with being ignored by the board of regents and the university administration.
Teamsters Local 320 Secretary-Treasurer Brian Aldes faults the university's administration for following a corporate model. Wrote Aldes:
For too long Teamsters, workers and faculty have not had any relationship with the board of regents and many workers cannot even name a single regent. The governance structure of the university and its land grant mission are losing touch with the people of Minnesota. The corporate model of higher education is not consistent with university’s mission of serving all Minnesotans.
Teamsters want their wages, treatment and voice to be a priority for regents, administration and the state legislators who oversee university operations. They are asking for a 5 percent cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) to bring pay up to a living wage. A 5 percent COLA will cost the university $1,013,859, but pays for itself in nearly $3 million in economic output. The economic output from Teamsters will create 22 permanent jobs statewide. Teamsters will spend their money in their communities and ensure shared prosperity for all Minnesotans.Please share the video to support the University of Minnesota Teamsters.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.05.15
Teamsters
Teamsters and Labor Allies Urge Congress to Oppose Fast Track teamster.org …Teamsters from around the country joined their union brothers and sisters on Capitol Hill today to meet with members of Congress to discuss their continued opposition to fast-track trade promotion authority, which would have a damaging impact on American workers...
First Student, Teamsters Strike Summer Pay Deal Savannah Morning News ...Negotiations between Savannah-Chatham Public Schools transportation provider First Student and Teamsters Local 728 have resulted in a summer pay contract for about 500 bus drivers, monitors and technicians...
Apple To Make Many Security Guards Full-Time Employees San Jose Mercury News ...Under a contract approved last month, Facebook drivers working full-time will receive about $33,000 more in wages and benefits than they received before, the Teamsters said...
Lawmakers resume debate over Sunday growler sales MPR News …Edward Reynoso, the legislative director for Teamsters Union Joint Council 32, said changing the law to allow growlers to be sold on Sundays could reopen the labor contracts for 850 of his members who work in the liquor industry...
CN Rail reaches collective deal with Teamsters plans to buy back shares via private agreement MENAFN …Canadian National Railway Co. (TSE:CNR) the country's largest railroad and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union have renewed their collective agreement...
Stericycle Inc. and Teamsters reach a collective agreement Canada NewsWire …Stericycle Inc. is a trucking company offering waste disposal services and product destruction, including medical and pharmaceutical waste disposal. The collective agreement covering approximately 114 employees working in Brampton and Scarborough, Ontario, expired on December 31, 2014...
Trade
Fate of Obama’s Trade Agenda May Rest on Oregon Senator New York Times …From his position in the driver’s seat, Mr. Wyden is putting demands on the fast-track bill that Republicans are not sure they can accept — most important, a shut-off valve that Congress could turn if the details of the Pacific or European accords did not live up to their promise...
White House counts on Sen. Wyden to deliver on a trade deal Washington Post …Obama was calling to thank Wyden for his support of the president’s sweeping trade agenda which, in a reflection of the topsy-turvy politics of the issue, has drawn support from Republican leaders and staunch objections from many Democrats...
Japan, U.S. resume TPP talks but pact’s future very much in doubt Japan Times …Japanese and U.S. officials resumed talks Thursday in Tokyo on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, but the outcome of the negotiations remains unclear with political difficulties mounting for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and indications of growing opposition to the deal in the U.S…
Business Rallies Against Secretive TPP Trade Talks (opinion) Macro Business ...It is also lamentable that the TPP negotiations have been opened to some large corporations, which are free to lobby for their interests, but barred to individuals and industry groups. This all but ensures that the final deal will not be in the public’s best interests...
State Battles
Assembly debates right-to-work bill today Associated Press …With Wisconsin positioned to become the third Midwestern state in as many years to enact a right-to-work law, the Assembly begins debate Thursday on a plan Republican Gov. Scott Walker has promised to quickly sign and Democrats lack the votes to stop...
Assembly Plans 24-Hour Right-To-Work Debate Green Bay Press Gazette ...The Wisconsin state Assembly plans to start debate of the right-to-work bill at 9 a.m. Thursday and end no later than 9 a.m. Friday...
Boost In Minimum Wage To $12 Wins Backing In State House Seattle Times ...The Washington state House voted along party lines Tuesday to raise the state’s minimum wage — already the nation’s highest — to $12 an hour over the next four years...
Missouri House Passes Voter ID Bills Northwest Missourian ...The bill says approved forms of identification would include a current Missouri driver’s license or a current Missouri non-driver’s license, a document issued by the United States of the State of Missouri containing the person’s name and photograph or any armed services identification containing a photograph that is not expired...
Oakland New Minimum Wage Law Now In Effect Contra Costa Times ...The law raises the minimum hourly wage from $9 as set by the state to $12.25. Workers also are now entitled to paid sick days under the law that was approved by 82 percent of voters last November...
Governor Wants $10.50 Minimum Wage For NYS WKBW ...$10.50 - that's what Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to make the minimum wage in New York State. The Governor made the announcement Tuesday at the Boys & Girls Club on Bailey Avenue alongside Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown...
Thousands expected at Capitol for Saturday labor rally West Virginia Gazette …The “Mountaineers Workers Rising Rally” will protest “legislative attacks on our working families,” according to a news release from the state AFL-CIO. The leaders of the national AFL-CIO, the United Mine Workers of America, the Teamsters, both national teachers unions, the United Utility Workers Union and United Steelworkers are all scheduled to speak...
War on Workers
Injured Workers Suffer As 'Reforms' Limit Workers' Compensation Benefits NPR ...Until recently, America's workers could rely on a compact struck at the dawn of the Industrial Age: They'd give up their right to sue. In exchange, if they were injured on the job, their employers would pay their medical bills and enough of their wages to help them get by while they recovered. No longer...
American Airlines Mechanic Killed In Accident At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport KXAS ...A mechanic who had worked for American Airlines for 30 years died Monday after falling from a jet bridge at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
Family of Oregon Worker Killed in Blender Sues Meat Distributor Insurance Journal …The Oregonian reported that the lawsuit filed last week in Clackamas County Circuit Court accused Interstate Meat Distributors of failing to follow safety procedures...
First Student, Teamsters Strike Summer Pay Deal Savannah Morning News ...Negotiations between Savannah-Chatham Public Schools transportation provider First Student and Teamsters Local 728 have resulted in a summer pay contract for about 500 bus drivers, monitors and technicians...
Apple To Make Many Security Guards Full-Time Employees San Jose Mercury News ...Under a contract approved last month, Facebook drivers working full-time will receive about $33,000 more in wages and benefits than they received before, the Teamsters said...
Lawmakers resume debate over Sunday growler sales MPR News …Edward Reynoso, the legislative director for Teamsters Union Joint Council 32, said changing the law to allow growlers to be sold on Sundays could reopen the labor contracts for 850 of his members who work in the liquor industry...
CN Rail reaches collective deal with Teamsters plans to buy back shares via private agreement MENAFN …Canadian National Railway Co. (TSE:CNR) the country's largest railroad and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union have renewed their collective agreement...
Stericycle Inc. and Teamsters reach a collective agreement Canada NewsWire …Stericycle Inc. is a trucking company offering waste disposal services and product destruction, including medical and pharmaceutical waste disposal. The collective agreement covering approximately 114 employees working in Brampton and Scarborough, Ontario, expired on December 31, 2014...
Trade
Fate of Obama’s Trade Agenda May Rest on Oregon Senator New York Times …From his position in the driver’s seat, Mr. Wyden is putting demands on the fast-track bill that Republicans are not sure they can accept — most important, a shut-off valve that Congress could turn if the details of the Pacific or European accords did not live up to their promise...
White House counts on Sen. Wyden to deliver on a trade deal Washington Post …Obama was calling to thank Wyden for his support of the president’s sweeping trade agenda which, in a reflection of the topsy-turvy politics of the issue, has drawn support from Republican leaders and staunch objections from many Democrats...
Japan, U.S. resume TPP talks but pact’s future very much in doubt Japan Times …Japanese and U.S. officials resumed talks Thursday in Tokyo on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, but the outcome of the negotiations remains unclear with political difficulties mounting for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and indications of growing opposition to the deal in the U.S…
Business Rallies Against Secretive TPP Trade Talks (opinion) Macro Business ...It is also lamentable that the TPP negotiations have been opened to some large corporations, which are free to lobby for their interests, but barred to individuals and industry groups. This all but ensures that the final deal will not be in the public’s best interests...
State Battles
Assembly debates right-to-work bill today Associated Press …With Wisconsin positioned to become the third Midwestern state in as many years to enact a right-to-work law, the Assembly begins debate Thursday on a plan Republican Gov. Scott Walker has promised to quickly sign and Democrats lack the votes to stop...
Assembly Plans 24-Hour Right-To-Work Debate Green Bay Press Gazette ...The Wisconsin state Assembly plans to start debate of the right-to-work bill at 9 a.m. Thursday and end no later than 9 a.m. Friday...
Boost In Minimum Wage To $12 Wins Backing In State House Seattle Times ...The Washington state House voted along party lines Tuesday to raise the state’s minimum wage — already the nation’s highest — to $12 an hour over the next four years...
Missouri House Passes Voter ID Bills Northwest Missourian ...The bill says approved forms of identification would include a current Missouri driver’s license or a current Missouri non-driver’s license, a document issued by the United States of the State of Missouri containing the person’s name and photograph or any armed services identification containing a photograph that is not expired...
Oakland New Minimum Wage Law Now In Effect Contra Costa Times ...The law raises the minimum hourly wage from $9 as set by the state to $12.25. Workers also are now entitled to paid sick days under the law that was approved by 82 percent of voters last November...
Governor Wants $10.50 Minimum Wage For NYS WKBW ...$10.50 - that's what Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to make the minimum wage in New York State. The Governor made the announcement Tuesday at the Boys & Girls Club on Bailey Avenue alongside Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown...
Thousands expected at Capitol for Saturday labor rally West Virginia Gazette …The “Mountaineers Workers Rising Rally” will protest “legislative attacks on our working families,” according to a news release from the state AFL-CIO. The leaders of the national AFL-CIO, the United Mine Workers of America, the Teamsters, both national teachers unions, the United Utility Workers Union and United Steelworkers are all scheduled to speak...
War on Workers
Injured Workers Suffer As 'Reforms' Limit Workers' Compensation Benefits NPR ...Until recently, America's workers could rely on a compact struck at the dawn of the Industrial Age: They'd give up their right to sue. In exchange, if they were injured on the job, their employers would pay their medical bills and enough of their wages to help them get by while they recovered. No longer...
American Airlines Mechanic Killed In Accident At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport KXAS ...A mechanic who had worked for American Airlines for 30 years died Monday after falling from a jet bridge at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
Family of Oregon Worker Killed in Blender Sues Meat Distributor Insurance Journal …The Oregonian reported that the lawsuit filed last week in Clackamas County Circuit Court accused Interstate Meat Distributors of failing to follow safety procedures...
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.04.15
Teamsters
Teamsters ratify four-year contract at AMR nwLaborPress.org …Members of Teamsters Portland Local 223 and Vancouver Local 58 ratified a new four-year collective bargaining agreement at American Medical Response (AMR). The 450-member bargaining unit provides ambulance service to Multnomah and Clackamas counties in Oregon, and Clark and Cowlitz counties in Washington...
Bus Drivers Ratify New Contract With First Student WTOC ...After several long months of negotiations, Savannah First Student employees represented by Teamsters have overwhelmingly ratified their new contract, 117 to four, according to a spokesperson from Teamsters 728...
Teamsters Want Mexican Trucking Row Revisited In TPP Law360 …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Monday publicly called on U.S. trade officials to use the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks to reopen deliberations on Mexico's cross-border trucking services, blasting the administration's move to open the border to Mexican truckers earlier this year...
Teamsters To Protest Republic Services Teamsters Local 728 ...On Wed., March 4 at 12 p.m., sanitation workers who work for Republic Services, Inc. [NYSE: RSG] will hold an informational picket to educate the public on the company's human rights violations. Workers at Republic allege that Republic has broken federal laws that protect workers' rights, by unilaterally changing pay and working conditions without negotiating with their union...
S.F. politician calls for labor peace at bus stops USA Today …With labor unions in negotiations with the transportation companies that ferry Silicon Valley tech workers, a San Francisco legislator is calling on the city to consider "labor harmony" when granting permits to corporate shuttles...
Coming detraction: Tax credit ax? Boston Herald …Sean O’Brien, president of Teamsters Local 25, drivers for the movie biz, [said] “Through the tax credit, we have created an industry where people can make a good living and provide for their families,” he said...
Miller, State Attorneys General Join FTC In Challenging Sysco-US Foods Merger Storm Lake Pilot Tribune ...Attorney General Tom Miller and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general today joined the Federal Trade Commission's administrative complaint challenging a proposed merger between food distribution giants Sysco and US Foods...
Canadian National Railway and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, representing rail traffic controllers, reach a collective agreement Yahoo! News ...The collective agreement covering about 185 rail traffic controllers expired on December 31, 2014...
Trade
Japanese official: Adding currency rules would kill Pacific trade pact Reuters …Any effort to add rules against currency cheating in a 12-nation Pacific trade pact would mean the end of negotiations, a senior Japanese negotiator said on Tuesday...
TPP Free Trade Agreement Would Increase Cost of Medicine In Mexico, Peru, Chile, And Other Countries Latin Times …TPP -- the Trans-PacificPartnership -- is making waves from Peru to Australia, concerning public health officials and consumer advocates. TPP, which would expand trade in 11 Pacific Rim countries, includes draft provisions for unprecedented expansion of pharmaceutical patent protection that could drive up the cost of medicine...
Let's Debate The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- History's Largest Trade Deal -- Before OKing It (opinion) Los Angeles Times ...If you haven't heard much about the TPP, that's part of the problem. It would be the largest trade deal in history — involving countries stretching from Chile to Japan, representing 792 million people and about 40% of the world economy. Yet it's been devised in secret, with a disproportionate amount of advice coming from corporations and Wall Street. This secrecy is the norm since NAFTA...
State Battles
Gov. Rauner asks community to back right to work in 'voter empowerment agenda' address Chicago Sun Times ...Rauner, who has in recent weeks focused on an agenda to allow “right to work” zones in targeted areas of the state, spent much of his address selling that point. It had one Illinois union saying Rauner held a “political obsession with crushing the unions that advocate for the middle class.”...
What a Right-to-Work Law Could Mean For Wisconsin Unions WUWM ...nion membership would likely fall in Wisconsin, if the state enacts such a measure It’s the trend, according to Cheryl Maranto. She’s a management professor at Marquette University. Maranto says union numbers tend to drop in right-to-work states, partly because many unions think it’s futile to expand into new workplaces there...
Minnesota Jobs Committee chair working to bring businesses from Wisconsin to Minnesota State Representative Pat Garofalo ...In light of legislation passed by the Wisconsin State Senate and being debated in the Wisconsin State Assembly that would make Wisconsin a "Right To Work" state, Job Growth and Energy Affordability Committee Chairman Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, has extended an invitation to two Wisconsin businesses offering assistance relocating their headquarters to Minnesota...
Right To Work For Less: Gov. Scott Walker Wants To Lower Worker Pay In Wisconsin (opinion) Washington Post ...Look, there are no perfect institutions in America, and unions are no exception. But they exist for a critically important reason: to balance out the inherent power of employers over workers and, thus, to enforce a more equitable distribution of the fruits of growth. In this regard, it is not a coincidence that as unions have diminished in numbers and power, the earnings of the middle class have stagnated...
Bill restricting union dues collection fails but not dead yet in Pa. Senate PennLive ...An attempt to pass a controversial amendment to a bill that would restrict union dues collection from state and school employees' paychecks narrowly failed in the state Senate on Monday. But most likely, we haven't seen the last of this amendment to this so-called paycheck protection bill...
Common Construction Repeal May Require Further Study Indiana Public Media ...The Indiana House easily approved legislation repealing the state’s common construction wage, and the bill’s support in the Senate looks strong. That means pushing the issue to summer study committee could be opponents’ best hope...
Bill Would Reestablish N.H. Minimum Wage, Raise It To $10 An Hour By 2018 NHPR ...Under the bill backed by seven Democratic state Senators, the increased minimum wage would take effect at the beginning of 2016. The bill calls for further increases to $9 an hour in 2017 and $10 an hour in 2018...
War on Workers
NLRB Election Rules Near Test in Congress; Changes Said to ‘Streamline' Board Process Bloomberg BNA ...Congress is about to take up proposals to block the National Labor Relations Board from implementing changes in its representation case rules and procedures set to take effect April 14...
Being a poor corporate citizen is hurting McDonald’s Washington Post …McDonald’s, that once-great American symbol of ingenuity and ruthless efficiency, is having some major difficulties, as its plummeting profits and recent C-suite shake up can attest…
Accident In The Zoo Interchange: 33-Year-Old Construction Worker Killed; Investigation Underway WITI ...A construction worker was killed while working on the Zoo Interchange project near 91st Street in Milwaukee on Saturday morning, February 28th...
Worker Killed At Natchitoches Parish Paper Mill KSLA ...Natchitoches Parish authorities have confirmed with KSLA News 12 that a man was killed in a paper mill accident...
Miscellaneous
Maine Bill Takes On NSA Spying With Transpartisan Support Tenth Amendment Center ...A bill filed in the Maine Senate late last week represents a transpartisan effort taking on the surveillance state. The legislation would not only support efforts to turn off NSA’s water in states where a physical NSA facility is located, but would also have immediate practical effects on how surveillance is used in some situations...
Teamsters ratify four-year contract at AMR nwLaborPress.org …Members of Teamsters Portland Local 223 and Vancouver Local 58 ratified a new four-year collective bargaining agreement at American Medical Response (AMR). The 450-member bargaining unit provides ambulance service to Multnomah and Clackamas counties in Oregon, and Clark and Cowlitz counties in Washington...
Bus Drivers Ratify New Contract With First Student WTOC ...After several long months of negotiations, Savannah First Student employees represented by Teamsters have overwhelmingly ratified their new contract, 117 to four, according to a spokesperson from Teamsters 728...
Teamsters Want Mexican Trucking Row Revisited In TPP Law360 …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Monday publicly called on U.S. trade officials to use the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks to reopen deliberations on Mexico's cross-border trucking services, blasting the administration's move to open the border to Mexican truckers earlier this year...
Teamsters To Protest Republic Services Teamsters Local 728 ...On Wed., March 4 at 12 p.m., sanitation workers who work for Republic Services, Inc. [NYSE: RSG] will hold an informational picket to educate the public on the company's human rights violations. Workers at Republic allege that Republic has broken federal laws that protect workers' rights, by unilaterally changing pay and working conditions without negotiating with their union...
S.F. politician calls for labor peace at bus stops USA Today …With labor unions in negotiations with the transportation companies that ferry Silicon Valley tech workers, a San Francisco legislator is calling on the city to consider "labor harmony" when granting permits to corporate shuttles...
Coming detraction: Tax credit ax? Boston Herald …Sean O’Brien, president of Teamsters Local 25, drivers for the movie biz, [said] “Through the tax credit, we have created an industry where people can make a good living and provide for their families,” he said...
Miller, State Attorneys General Join FTC In Challenging Sysco-US Foods Merger Storm Lake Pilot Tribune ...Attorney General Tom Miller and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general today joined the Federal Trade Commission's administrative complaint challenging a proposed merger between food distribution giants Sysco and US Foods...
Canadian National Railway and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, representing rail traffic controllers, reach a collective agreement Yahoo! News ...The collective agreement covering about 185 rail traffic controllers expired on December 31, 2014...
Trade
Japanese official: Adding currency rules would kill Pacific trade pact Reuters …Any effort to add rules against currency cheating in a 12-nation Pacific trade pact would mean the end of negotiations, a senior Japanese negotiator said on Tuesday...
TPP Free Trade Agreement Would Increase Cost of Medicine In Mexico, Peru, Chile, And Other Countries Latin Times …TPP -- the Trans-PacificPartnership -- is making waves from Peru to Australia, concerning public health officials and consumer advocates. TPP, which would expand trade in 11 Pacific Rim countries, includes draft provisions for unprecedented expansion of pharmaceutical patent protection that could drive up the cost of medicine...
Let's Debate The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- History's Largest Trade Deal -- Before OKing It (opinion) Los Angeles Times ...If you haven't heard much about the TPP, that's part of the problem. It would be the largest trade deal in history — involving countries stretching from Chile to Japan, representing 792 million people and about 40% of the world economy. Yet it's been devised in secret, with a disproportionate amount of advice coming from corporations and Wall Street. This secrecy is the norm since NAFTA...
State Battles
Gov. Rauner asks community to back right to work in 'voter empowerment agenda' address Chicago Sun Times ...Rauner, who has in recent weeks focused on an agenda to allow “right to work” zones in targeted areas of the state, spent much of his address selling that point. It had one Illinois union saying Rauner held a “political obsession with crushing the unions that advocate for the middle class.”...
What a Right-to-Work Law Could Mean For Wisconsin Unions WUWM ...nion membership would likely fall in Wisconsin, if the state enacts such a measure It’s the trend, according to Cheryl Maranto. She’s a management professor at Marquette University. Maranto says union numbers tend to drop in right-to-work states, partly because many unions think it’s futile to expand into new workplaces there...
Minnesota Jobs Committee chair working to bring businesses from Wisconsin to Minnesota State Representative Pat Garofalo ...In light of legislation passed by the Wisconsin State Senate and being debated in the Wisconsin State Assembly that would make Wisconsin a "Right To Work" state, Job Growth and Energy Affordability Committee Chairman Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, has extended an invitation to two Wisconsin businesses offering assistance relocating their headquarters to Minnesota...
Right To Work For Less: Gov. Scott Walker Wants To Lower Worker Pay In Wisconsin (opinion) Washington Post ...Look, there are no perfect institutions in America, and unions are no exception. But they exist for a critically important reason: to balance out the inherent power of employers over workers and, thus, to enforce a more equitable distribution of the fruits of growth. In this regard, it is not a coincidence that as unions have diminished in numbers and power, the earnings of the middle class have stagnated...
Bill restricting union dues collection fails but not dead yet in Pa. Senate PennLive ...An attempt to pass a controversial amendment to a bill that would restrict union dues collection from state and school employees' paychecks narrowly failed in the state Senate on Monday. But most likely, we haven't seen the last of this amendment to this so-called paycheck protection bill...
Common Construction Repeal May Require Further Study Indiana Public Media ...The Indiana House easily approved legislation repealing the state’s common construction wage, and the bill’s support in the Senate looks strong. That means pushing the issue to summer study committee could be opponents’ best hope...
Bill Would Reestablish N.H. Minimum Wage, Raise It To $10 An Hour By 2018 NHPR ...Under the bill backed by seven Democratic state Senators, the increased minimum wage would take effect at the beginning of 2016. The bill calls for further increases to $9 an hour in 2017 and $10 an hour in 2018...
War on Workers
NLRB Election Rules Near Test in Congress; Changes Said to ‘Streamline' Board Process Bloomberg BNA ...Congress is about to take up proposals to block the National Labor Relations Board from implementing changes in its representation case rules and procedures set to take effect April 14...
Being a poor corporate citizen is hurting McDonald’s Washington Post …McDonald’s, that once-great American symbol of ingenuity and ruthless efficiency, is having some major difficulties, as its plummeting profits and recent C-suite shake up can attest…
Accident In The Zoo Interchange: 33-Year-Old Construction Worker Killed; Investigation Underway WITI ...A construction worker was killed while working on the Zoo Interchange project near 91st Street in Milwaukee on Saturday morning, February 28th...
Worker Killed At Natchitoches Parish Paper Mill KSLA ...Natchitoches Parish authorities have confirmed with KSLA News 12 that a man was killed in a paper mill accident...
Miscellaneous
Maine Bill Takes On NSA Spying With Transpartisan Support Tenth Amendment Center ...A bill filed in the Maine Senate late last week represents a transpartisan effort taking on the surveillance state. The legislation would not only support efforts to turn off NSA’s water in states where a physical NSA facility is located, but would also have immediate practical effects on how surveillance is used in some situations...
Monday, February 23, 2015
Today's Teamster News 02.23.15
Teamsters
Facebook shuttle drivers ratify new Teamsters contract: WSJ Reuters … Loop Transportation, the contractor that employs the drivers and negotiated with Teamsters Local 853, cautioned that the agreement was not finalized and must be approved by Facebook...
Canadian Pacific and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference agree to binding arbitration Transport Intelligence …Canadian Pacific and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have agreed to enter into binding arbitration to put an end to the work stoppage by CP's locomotive engineers and conductors...
Trade
Obama to make TPP free trade sales pitch to American people Big News Network …US President Barack Obama on Saturday began a major sales pitch to the US public to bring them round to the merits of free trade deals, an area in which he faces stiff resistance from many in his own Democratic party...
Europeans Want TTIP Trade-Deal, though Obama Blocks Making Its Terms Public RINF Alternative News …TTIP is a secretly negotiated trade deal between the U.S. and the EU, and all indications are that it will replace each nation’s drug-safety, product-safety, food-safety, environmental, and worker-protection, regulations and laws, placing them into the hands of panels composed of appointees of large international corporations, no longer in the hands of publicly elected officials, no longer in the hands of elected politicians, who need to face voters periodically in order to stay in power...
State Battles
Wisconsin Could Be Right-To-Work In A Matter Of Days Huffington Post …It's been more than two decades since Gov. Scott Walker (R) first pushed right-to-work legislation as a state lawmaker in Wisconsin. Now, all these years later, the famously anti-union governor may finally be getting his wish -- whether he likes it or not...
Second fight over union rights comes to Wisconsin as right-to-work debate looms Associated Press …The first step is a public hearing Tuesday before the state Senate's Labor Committee before the Senate takes it up for debate on Wednesday...
War on Workers
Trend in Temp Workers may not be Temporary Economic Populist …America's third largest job creator is a temp agency called Kelly Services, which provided employment to 555,000 employees in 2014...
Ex-Im critics pounce after bank yanks data The Hill …Critics of the Export-Import Bank are seething over the removal from a government Web site of previously public data earlier they say helps them detect cronyism…
Amid controversy, oil trains quietly rerouted through Virginia towns Reuters …CSX Corp is temporarily rerouting up to five oil trains through this small riverside town to bypass the site of an explosive oil train derailment that occurred 90 miles north in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, on Monday...
Rent walkouts point to strains in U.S. farm economy Reuters …Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed...
Will America's Shale Boomtowns Bust? A Report From the Heart of North Dakota's Fracking Country Fortune …After reaching a 12-month high of $108 last summer, U.S. benchmark petroleum prices have dramatically declined, to a price now hovering near $50 per barrel. That has shaken global markets and energy companies alike, causing oil producers to slash their capital expenditure budgets and announce layoffs...
Worker dies in Canton's second fatal snow-related fall in 5 days WCVB …A worker fell 40 feet to his death Sunday while checking the roof of a building for snow removal...
Facebook shuttle drivers ratify new Teamsters contract: WSJ Reuters … Loop Transportation, the contractor that employs the drivers and negotiated with Teamsters Local 853, cautioned that the agreement was not finalized and must be approved by Facebook...
Canadian Pacific and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference agree to binding arbitration Transport Intelligence …Canadian Pacific and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have agreed to enter into binding arbitration to put an end to the work stoppage by CP's locomotive engineers and conductors...
Trade
Obama to make TPP free trade sales pitch to American people Big News Network …US President Barack Obama on Saturday began a major sales pitch to the US public to bring them round to the merits of free trade deals, an area in which he faces stiff resistance from many in his own Democratic party...
Europeans Want TTIP Trade-Deal, though Obama Blocks Making Its Terms Public RINF Alternative News …TTIP is a secretly negotiated trade deal between the U.S. and the EU, and all indications are that it will replace each nation’s drug-safety, product-safety, food-safety, environmental, and worker-protection, regulations and laws, placing them into the hands of panels composed of appointees of large international corporations, no longer in the hands of publicly elected officials, no longer in the hands of elected politicians, who need to face voters periodically in order to stay in power...
State Battles
Wisconsin Could Be Right-To-Work In A Matter Of Days Huffington Post …It's been more than two decades since Gov. Scott Walker (R) first pushed right-to-work legislation as a state lawmaker in Wisconsin. Now, all these years later, the famously anti-union governor may finally be getting his wish -- whether he likes it or not...
Second fight over union rights comes to Wisconsin as right-to-work debate looms Associated Press …The first step is a public hearing Tuesday before the state Senate's Labor Committee before the Senate takes it up for debate on Wednesday...
War on Workers
Trend in Temp Workers may not be Temporary Economic Populist …America's third largest job creator is a temp agency called Kelly Services, which provided employment to 555,000 employees in 2014...
Ex-Im critics pounce after bank yanks data The Hill …Critics of the Export-Import Bank are seething over the removal from a government Web site of previously public data earlier they say helps them detect cronyism…
Amid controversy, oil trains quietly rerouted through Virginia towns Reuters …CSX Corp is temporarily rerouting up to five oil trains through this small riverside town to bypass the site of an explosive oil train derailment that occurred 90 miles north in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, on Monday...
Rent walkouts point to strains in U.S. farm economy Reuters …Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed...
Will America's Shale Boomtowns Bust? A Report From the Heart of North Dakota's Fracking Country Fortune …After reaching a 12-month high of $108 last summer, U.S. benchmark petroleum prices have dramatically declined, to a price now hovering near $50 per barrel. That has shaken global markets and energy companies alike, causing oil producers to slash their capital expenditure budgets and announce layoffs...
Worker dies in Canton's second fatal snow-related fall in 5 days WCVB …A worker fell 40 feet to his death Sunday while checking the roof of a building for snow removal...
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Today's Teamster News 02.22.15
Teamsters
Union and company reach contract for Facebook shuttle drivers USA Today …Facebook shuttle bus drivers can expect higher wages and better working conditions as part of a new contract agreement reached today. More than two-thirds of about 90 drivers voted unanimously Saturday to accept a contract negotiated by the Teamsters and South San Francisco-based Loop Transportation…
Trade
TPP accord no longer expected before April Japan Times …Japan and the United States had hoped the 12-member TPP talks would conclude as early as March, assuming the two countries could clinch an accord at a bilateral meeting in late February or early March. The delay reflects slow progress in U.S. congressional procedures to grant President Barack Obama trade promotion authority...
State Battles
Right-to-work effort winds around Great Lakes into Wisconsin Milwaukee Journal Sentinel …This week, the right-to-work debate moves front and center in Wisconsin...
NEW INFORMATION: Wisconsin Senate leader lays out timeline for right-to-work Associated Press …Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Friday that a public hearing will be held Tuesday on the measure by the Senate Labor Committee. Debate will begin Wednesday in the Senate and continue until there's a vote...
Can Labor Survive Nevada's Republican Party? The Atlantic …For the first time in decades, the GOP controls the state's assembly, the senate, and the governor's mansion—and they're targeting unions...
Udall speaks against right-to-work, urges more funds for early ed Santa Fe New Mexican …U.S. Sen. Tom Udall used his pulpit during a joint session of the New Mexico Legislature on Friday to weigh in on two of the most divisive issues facing state lawmakers this session...
War on Workers
America, Land of Low Pay -- The Numbers Will Surprise You Alternet …Each American produced an average of $140,000 in goods in 2013, but median wages were less than $28,000. Who's getting that money?...
U.S. Oil Workers' Union Expands Biggest Plant Strike Since 1980 Bloomberg News …The United Steelworkers, which represents 30,000 U.S. oil workers, called on four more plants to join the biggest strike since 1980 as talks dragged on with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, negotiating a labor contract for oil companies...
This is the scariest chart in the American economy today Vox …The unemployment rate has come down a lot, but the share of unemployed workers who've been unemployed a long time is still at historic levels...
Inmates riot at Willacy County prison Valley Star …Complaints over medical service led about 2,000 prisoners to riot Friday at the so-called tent-city prison here, setting fire to a tent-like dome while guards fired tear gas to try to control what Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence called the prison’s worst disturbance since it opened nearly 10 years ago.Two officers and a prisoner suffered minor injuries before officials tried to settle the uprising late Friday afternoon at the Willacy County Correctional Center, said Issa Arnita, spokesman for Management & Training Corp., the Utah company that operates the low security-level prison for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons…
The Rich Benefit the Most From Tax Breaks Designed to Help People Build Wealth Bloomberg …The federal government spent $384 billion in 2013 on tax incentives that encourage savings, linked mainly to home ownership and retirement plans. Most of that money went to the rich...
Investment Charges When Mexico Privatized Social Security Conversable Economist …"Fund managers charged an average load (a fee taken as a share of account contributions at the time of contribution) of 23 percent and an annual fee on assets under management of 0.63 percent, implying that a 100-peso deposit earning a 5 percent annual real return would only be worth 95.4 pesos after five years."...
Big tech companies cause income inequality — but not in the ways you think Pando Daily … these companies invest huge portions of their annual revenues into buying back stock to line the pockets of shareholders, not to mention keep the bulk of global profits safely offshore and out of the reach of US tax collectors. And because stock performance is often used as a key factor in determining executive compensation, buyback schemes may also boost a CEO’s take-home pay...
Coroner: Worker dies when rock falls in Pennsylvania mine WPXI …ndiana County Coroner Jerry L. Overman Jr. says in a news release that the man — 29-year-old Todd Trimble of Gallitzin — was installing roof bolts at Rosebud Heilwood mine on Friday afternoon when the rock fell and he was trapped underneath...
Union and company reach contract for Facebook shuttle drivers USA Today …Facebook shuttle bus drivers can expect higher wages and better working conditions as part of a new contract agreement reached today. More than two-thirds of about 90 drivers voted unanimously Saturday to accept a contract negotiated by the Teamsters and South San Francisco-based Loop Transportation…
Trade
TPP accord no longer expected before April Japan Times …Japan and the United States had hoped the 12-member TPP talks would conclude as early as March, assuming the two countries could clinch an accord at a bilateral meeting in late February or early March. The delay reflects slow progress in U.S. congressional procedures to grant President Barack Obama trade promotion authority...
State Battles
Right-to-work effort winds around Great Lakes into Wisconsin Milwaukee Journal Sentinel …This week, the right-to-work debate moves front and center in Wisconsin...
NEW INFORMATION: Wisconsin Senate leader lays out timeline for right-to-work Associated Press …Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Friday that a public hearing will be held Tuesday on the measure by the Senate Labor Committee. Debate will begin Wednesday in the Senate and continue until there's a vote...
Can Labor Survive Nevada's Republican Party? The Atlantic …For the first time in decades, the GOP controls the state's assembly, the senate, and the governor's mansion—and they're targeting unions...
Udall speaks against right-to-work, urges more funds for early ed Santa Fe New Mexican …U.S. Sen. Tom Udall used his pulpit during a joint session of the New Mexico Legislature on Friday to weigh in on two of the most divisive issues facing state lawmakers this session...
War on Workers
America, Land of Low Pay -- The Numbers Will Surprise You Alternet …Each American produced an average of $140,000 in goods in 2013, but median wages were less than $28,000. Who's getting that money?...
U.S. Oil Workers' Union Expands Biggest Plant Strike Since 1980 Bloomberg News …The United Steelworkers, which represents 30,000 U.S. oil workers, called on four more plants to join the biggest strike since 1980 as talks dragged on with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, negotiating a labor contract for oil companies...
This is the scariest chart in the American economy today Vox …The unemployment rate has come down a lot, but the share of unemployed workers who've been unemployed a long time is still at historic levels...
Inmates riot at Willacy County prison Valley Star …Complaints over medical service led about 2,000 prisoners to riot Friday at the so-called tent-city prison here, setting fire to a tent-like dome while guards fired tear gas to try to control what Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence called the prison’s worst disturbance since it opened nearly 10 years ago.Two officers and a prisoner suffered minor injuries before officials tried to settle the uprising late Friday afternoon at the Willacy County Correctional Center, said Issa Arnita, spokesman for Management & Training Corp., the Utah company that operates the low security-level prison for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons…
The Rich Benefit the Most From Tax Breaks Designed to Help People Build Wealth Bloomberg …The federal government spent $384 billion in 2013 on tax incentives that encourage savings, linked mainly to home ownership and retirement plans. Most of that money went to the rich...
Investment Charges When Mexico Privatized Social Security Conversable Economist …"Fund managers charged an average load (a fee taken as a share of account contributions at the time of contribution) of 23 percent and an annual fee on assets under management of 0.63 percent, implying that a 100-peso deposit earning a 5 percent annual real return would only be worth 95.4 pesos after five years."...
Big tech companies cause income inequality — but not in the ways you think Pando Daily … these companies invest huge portions of their annual revenues into buying back stock to line the pockets of shareholders, not to mention keep the bulk of global profits safely offshore and out of the reach of US tax collectors. And because stock performance is often used as a key factor in determining executive compensation, buyback schemes may also boost a CEO’s take-home pay...
Coroner: Worker dies when rock falls in Pennsylvania mine WPXI …ndiana County Coroner Jerry L. Overman Jr. says in a news release that the man — 29-year-old Todd Trimble of Gallitzin — was installing roof bolts at Rosebud Heilwood mine on Friday afternoon when the rock fell and he was trapped underneath...
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.25.15
Teamsters
Teamsters approve new commercials contract Los Angeles Times …Members of Teamsters Local 399 have approved a new contract, avoiding a strike that would have shut down commercial production in Los Angeles...
Ernie Banks, the Eternally Hopeful Mr. Cub, Dies at 83 New York Times …Ernie Banks, the greatest power-hitting shortstop of the 20th century and an unconquerable optimist whose sunny disposition never dimmed in 19 seasons with the perennially stumbling Chicago Cubs, died Friday in Chicago. [He was also a Teamster.]...
Trade
The President Vs. TPP: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back daily kos …It's pretty simple: you can't advance a progressive agenda, or even one you call "liberal", that claims to want to combat inequality AND go all out to ram through the Trans Pacific Partnership using the odious "Fast track" authority. Here are the contradictions...
STOP TPP, EMERGENCY RALLY: Confront the Negotiators New York City, MONDAY!!! daily kos …On Monday, the TPP negotiators are gathering in New York City. A coalition of activists is working to pull off a huge rally, in a short amount of time. MONDAY, NOON, Sheraton Times Square at 7th Ave and 53rd St…
Opinion: TTIP: a taxpayer funded safety net for the super-rich Liberal Democrat Voice …Few things are more complicated and opaque than the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a trade deal being hammered out between the EU and the USA...
TTIP – more “foreign” judges criticising “our” laws? UK Human Rights Blob …one part of the concern is that it will confer on investors (think multi-nationals) the right to sue governments for regulatory regimes causing loss of profits to those investors...
State Battles
Wisconsin set to finish fiscal year in $283M hole Channel 3000 …New nonpartisan projections show Wisconsin is on track to finish the current fiscal year with a larger shortfall than Gov. Scott Walker's administration anticipated...
To Make Up For His Massive Tax Cuts, Kansas Governor Proposes Cutting Schools ThinkProgress …Rather than retreat from the massive tax cuts that are crippling his state’s finances, Gov. Sam Brownback (R) wants to cut classroom funding for Kansas schools by $127 million and push pension fund payments off into the future...
War on Workers
The Manufacturing Footprint and the Importance of U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Alliance for American Manufacturing …The United States lost 5.7 manufacturing jobs between March 1998 and December 2013...
Serious Ethical Questions Arising From Journalist’s Participation In Koch Event ThinkProgress …ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl will moderate a forum featuring three prominent GOP Senators on Sunday at an event hosted by a conservative political organization that has been called “the Koch Brothers’ secret bank.” While the event will be closed to media and the public — though streamed online — ThinkProgress has learned that ABC News will be paying for Karl’s travel and lodging for the Palm Springs, CA event...
Billions in Lost 401(k) Savings, Abusive Brokers Under White House Scrutiny Blomberg …One of President Barack Obama’s top economic advisers said abusive trading practices are costing workers billions of dollars in retirement savings each year and called for stricter rules on Wall Street brokers...
What You Can Learn from Oakland's Raw ALPR Data Electronic Frontier Foundation …Police cars mounted with automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) wind their way through the streets of Oakland like a “Snake” game on an old cell phone. Instead of eating up pixels of food, these cameras gobble down thousands of license plates each day. And instead of growing a longer tail, ALPRs feed into a giant database of locational data as they conduct surveillance on every driver within the city limits, and sometimes beyond...
The Davos oligarchs are right to fear the world they’ve made (opinion) …The big exception to the tide of inequality in recent years has been Latin America. Progressive governments across the region turned their back on a disastrous economic model, took back resources from corporate control and slashed inequality. The numbers living on less than $2 a day have fallen from 108 million to 53 million in little over a decade...
International Paper worker killed Press Republican …A worker at International Paper’s Ticonderoga mill who suffered severe burns Friday morning has died...
Teamsters approve new commercials contract Los Angeles Times …Members of Teamsters Local 399 have approved a new contract, avoiding a strike that would have shut down commercial production in Los Angeles...
Ernie Banks, the Eternally Hopeful Mr. Cub, Dies at 83 New York Times …Ernie Banks, the greatest power-hitting shortstop of the 20th century and an unconquerable optimist whose sunny disposition never dimmed in 19 seasons with the perennially stumbling Chicago Cubs, died Friday in Chicago. [He was also a Teamster.]...
Trade
The President Vs. TPP: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back daily kos …It's pretty simple: you can't advance a progressive agenda, or even one you call "liberal", that claims to want to combat inequality AND go all out to ram through the Trans Pacific Partnership using the odious "Fast track" authority. Here are the contradictions...
STOP TPP, EMERGENCY RALLY: Confront the Negotiators New York City, MONDAY!!! daily kos …On Monday, the TPP negotiators are gathering in New York City. A coalition of activists is working to pull off a huge rally, in a short amount of time. MONDAY, NOON, Sheraton Times Square at 7th Ave and 53rd St…
Opinion: TTIP: a taxpayer funded safety net for the super-rich Liberal Democrat Voice …Few things are more complicated and opaque than the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a trade deal being hammered out between the EU and the USA...
TTIP – more “foreign” judges criticising “our” laws? UK Human Rights Blob …one part of the concern is that it will confer on investors (think multi-nationals) the right to sue governments for regulatory regimes causing loss of profits to those investors...
State Battles
Wisconsin set to finish fiscal year in $283M hole Channel 3000 …New nonpartisan projections show Wisconsin is on track to finish the current fiscal year with a larger shortfall than Gov. Scott Walker's administration anticipated...
To Make Up For His Massive Tax Cuts, Kansas Governor Proposes Cutting Schools ThinkProgress …Rather than retreat from the massive tax cuts that are crippling his state’s finances, Gov. Sam Brownback (R) wants to cut classroom funding for Kansas schools by $127 million and push pension fund payments off into the future...
War on Workers
The Manufacturing Footprint and the Importance of U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Alliance for American Manufacturing …The United States lost 5.7 manufacturing jobs between March 1998 and December 2013...
Serious Ethical Questions Arising From Journalist’s Participation In Koch Event ThinkProgress …ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl will moderate a forum featuring three prominent GOP Senators on Sunday at an event hosted by a conservative political organization that has been called “the Koch Brothers’ secret bank.” While the event will be closed to media and the public — though streamed online — ThinkProgress has learned that ABC News will be paying for Karl’s travel and lodging for the Palm Springs, CA event...
Billions in Lost 401(k) Savings, Abusive Brokers Under White House Scrutiny Blomberg …One of President Barack Obama’s top economic advisers said abusive trading practices are costing workers billions of dollars in retirement savings each year and called for stricter rules on Wall Street brokers...
What You Can Learn from Oakland's Raw ALPR Data Electronic Frontier Foundation …Police cars mounted with automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) wind their way through the streets of Oakland like a “Snake” game on an old cell phone. Instead of eating up pixels of food, these cameras gobble down thousands of license plates each day. And instead of growing a longer tail, ALPRs feed into a giant database of locational data as they conduct surveillance on every driver within the city limits, and sometimes beyond...
The Davos oligarchs are right to fear the world they’ve made (opinion) …The big exception to the tide of inequality in recent years has been Latin America. Progressive governments across the region turned their back on a disastrous economic model, took back resources from corporate control and slashed inequality. The numbers living on less than $2 a day have fallen from 108 million to 53 million in little over a decade...
International Paper worker killed Press Republican …A worker at International Paper’s Ticonderoga mill who suffered severe burns Friday morning has died...
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.03.15
Teamsters
Dunkin' Donuts Delivery Drivers in Chicago Join the Teamsters Teamsters Joint Council 25 ...By a 2-to-1 margin, approximately 30 drivers who make deliveries to Chicago-area Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants recently voted to join Teamsters Local 734...
Dunkin' Donuts Delivery Drivers in Chicago Join the Teamsters Teamsters Joint Council 25 ...By a 2-to-1 margin, approximately 30 drivers who make deliveries to Chicago-area Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants recently voted to join Teamsters Local 734...
BLET reaches tentative agreement with Norfolk Southern BLET ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) has reached a tentative contract agreement with Norfolk Southern (NS) governing rates of pay and work rules for more than 4,500 locomotive engineers...
Inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest is a hit The Blade ...Toledo firefighter Jenny Hill fist-bumps Mark Sobczak, vice president of Teamsters Local 20, as she dispenses beer during the inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest...
McGrain to head Ingham Board of Commissioners Lansing State Journal ...In other business, the board … Approved a 2015 wage reopener that calls for a 2.5 percent boost to the current salary schedule of members of Teamsters Local 580, the Potter Park Zoo supervisory unit...
Trade
Obama’s Trade Chief, Undaunted by Odds, Pushes for Trans-Pacific Partnership New York Times ...the deal’s completion is certainly not guaranteed. Republicans inclined to give the president trade-negotiating authority are still seething at his executive action deferring deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Many conservatives are in no mood to give Mr. Obama anything, said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and a former United States trade representative in the George W. Bush administration...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Trade's big breakout Politico ...Republicans and President Barack Obama are both eager to act on a massive Asia-Pacific deal, an even bigger agreement with the European Union and legislation that would fast-track their approval by Congress — all of which have a shot of moving next year...
TTIP: Chemical corporations against safety protections Ecologist ...Under the TTIP US-EU trade agreement, the world's largest chemical corporations would be able to attack US states' attempts to regulate for chemical safety, writes Patrick Gleeson. In both the US and the EU, corporate rights - asserted in secret courts - would trump democracy and attempts to raise health, safety and welfare standards...
State Battles
EBay parts ways with controversial political group ALEC Reuters ...Critics fault ALEC, a coalition of state lawmakers and companies, for promoting measures to deny the existence of climate change, defund public services, oppose Internet neutrality and limit workers' protections...
Sweatshops in California Guilty of Wage Theft Law Firm Newswire ...lothing made in California for outlets such as Macy’s, JC Penney and Kohl’s, actually comes from local sweatshops where some employers routinely unplug the clock intended to keep track of worker’s hours...
War on Workers
Koch-Funded News Outlet Defends Dark-Money Organizations Media Matters for America ...Conservative news outlet Watchdog.org released a six-part series defending dark-money organizations -- politically focused groups that conceal the identities of their donors -- but failed to disclose its own funding from the Koch brothers and other conservative dark-money players...
Pay-disclosure advocates chafe at SEC rule delays MarketWatch ...Supporters of a rule that would require public companies to disclose the ratio between executive and median employee pay say the Securities and Exchange Commission should move soon to enact the regulation....
Worker dies after falling into well WESH.com ...Thomas Wood, 41, was working at a gas station under construction on U.S. 1 and Beville Road when he fell into the 6-foot fuel tank well...
Refinery worker dies in accident in Gibbstown Associated Press ...An air compressor line broke and struck 63-year-old Gary Grimming, who was sandblasting a tank at the time. Grimming was employed by a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based company...
Miscellaneous
U.S. slaps new sanctions on North Korea after Sony hack CNN ...The United States is hitting North Korea with a new set of economic sanctions after determining the country was behind last month's computer hack at Sony...
Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer The New Yorker ...In 2013, the major airlines combined made about $31.5 billion in income from fees, as well as other ancillaries, such as redeeming credit-card points...
Falling oil prices both good and bad for manufacturers Fortune ...On one hand, a steep decline in the cost of oil leads to lower expenses. But on the other, business may suffer because of lower spending by oil and chemical companies on big-ticket items like computers and new machinery...
Inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest is a hit The Blade ...Toledo firefighter Jenny Hill fist-bumps Mark Sobczak, vice president of Teamsters Local 20, as she dispenses beer during the inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest...
McGrain to head Ingham Board of Commissioners Lansing State Journal ...In other business, the board … Approved a 2015 wage reopener that calls for a 2.5 percent boost to the current salary schedule of members of Teamsters Local 580, the Potter Park Zoo supervisory unit...
Trade
Obama’s Trade Chief, Undaunted by Odds, Pushes for Trans-Pacific Partnership New York Times ...the deal’s completion is certainly not guaranteed. Republicans inclined to give the president trade-negotiating authority are still seething at his executive action deferring deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Many conservatives are in no mood to give Mr. Obama anything, said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and a former United States trade representative in the George W. Bush administration...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Trade's big breakout Politico ...Republicans and President Barack Obama are both eager to act on a massive Asia-Pacific deal, an even bigger agreement with the European Union and legislation that would fast-track their approval by Congress — all of which have a shot of moving next year...
TTIP: Chemical corporations against safety protections Ecologist ...Under the TTIP US-EU trade agreement, the world's largest chemical corporations would be able to attack US states' attempts to regulate for chemical safety, writes Patrick Gleeson. In both the US and the EU, corporate rights - asserted in secret courts - would trump democracy and attempts to raise health, safety and welfare standards...
State Battles
EBay parts ways with controversial political group ALEC Reuters ...Critics fault ALEC, a coalition of state lawmakers and companies, for promoting measures to deny the existence of climate change, defund public services, oppose Internet neutrality and limit workers' protections...
Sweatshops in California Guilty of Wage Theft Law Firm Newswire ...lothing made in California for outlets such as Macy’s, JC Penney and Kohl’s, actually comes from local sweatshops where some employers routinely unplug the clock intended to keep track of worker’s hours...
War on Workers
Koch-Funded News Outlet Defends Dark-Money Organizations Media Matters for America ...Conservative news outlet Watchdog.org released a six-part series defending dark-money organizations -- politically focused groups that conceal the identities of their donors -- but failed to disclose its own funding from the Koch brothers and other conservative dark-money players...
Pay-disclosure advocates chafe at SEC rule delays MarketWatch ...Supporters of a rule that would require public companies to disclose the ratio between executive and median employee pay say the Securities and Exchange Commission should move soon to enact the regulation....
Worker dies after falling into well WESH.com ...Thomas Wood, 41, was working at a gas station under construction on U.S. 1 and Beville Road when he fell into the 6-foot fuel tank well...
Refinery worker dies in accident in Gibbstown Associated Press ...An air compressor line broke and struck 63-year-old Gary Grimming, who was sandblasting a tank at the time. Grimming was employed by a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based company...
Miscellaneous
U.S. slaps new sanctions on North Korea after Sony hack CNN ...The United States is hitting North Korea with a new set of economic sanctions after determining the country was behind last month's computer hack at Sony...
Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer The New Yorker ...In 2013, the major airlines combined made about $31.5 billion in income from fees, as well as other ancillaries, such as redeeming credit-card points...
Falling oil prices both good and bad for manufacturers Fortune ...On one hand, a steep decline in the cost of oil leads to lower expenses. But on the other, business may suffer because of lower spending by oil and chemical companies on big-ticket items like computers and new machinery...
Friday, January 2, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.02.15
Teamster News
First Student School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Local 570 Representation teamster.org ...First Student school bus drivers and monitors who transport children attending Baltimore City Public Schools have voted to join Teamsters Local 570 in Baltimore. The 113 school bus workers work out of First Student yards in Baltimore and Severn, Md., and joined the union seeking respect, fair pay and dignity at work...
Travel Management Company Pilots Vote To Join Teamsters teamster.org ...Pilots with Travel Management Company (TMC) voted overwhelmingly, 120-57, today in favor of Teamster representation. After the National Mediation Board (NMB) certifies the election, about 200 TMC pilots will become members of Teamsters Local 1108 in Richmond Heights, Ohio, and join the more than 75,000 airline industry workers currently represented by the Teamsters Airline Division...
Teamsters help Catholic Charities haul huge donation of furniture from Ogunquit inn to sell for food Bangor Daily News ...“Teamsters Local 340 is again sending their Joint Council 10 truck up for three truckload trips to Aroostook County to help out Catholic Charities’ food bank and their ‘Feed the County’ efforts this holiday season,” said Traci Place, a business agent for the union...
Teamsters rail conference calls for limited access to locomotive recordings Progressive Railroading ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) is not opposed to the installation of locomotive voice and video recorders (LVVRs), but all recordings should be used pursuant to the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, union officials announced last week...
Union decries decrease in railroad maintenance crews Bismarck Tribune ...Reductions in maintenance workers on Canadian Pacific tracks could cause more delays, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Snyder County owes $90G to two guards Daily Item ...Snyder County still owes several thousand dollars to two Snyder County Jail guards who won their jobs back in April after being terminated two years earlier for sexual harassment...
Teamsters, Medina Council approve contract Medina Gazette ... Medina City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement Tuesday with Teamsters Local 436, which represents city service department employees...
Trade
Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance UK Progressive ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
Obama executive actions put Asia free trade deal at risk Washington Times ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...The United States failed to achieve a doubling of exports between 2009 and 2014, as promised in President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI). It wasn’t even close. Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Say Goodbye to 'Made in China' Bloomberg ...In November, Hebei Iron & Steel Co Ltd, a provincial-owned company and China’s largest steelmaker by production, announced that it was moving 5 million tons of its annual production -- roughly 11 percent of the 45 million tons of steel it makes every year -- to South Africa. According to press reports, it won’t be going abroad alone...
War on Workers
Map: Where Workers' Pay Has Risen the Most in Past Decade Wall Street Journal ...while the one-third of all counties have seen a decline in annual average pay, those counties hold about 46% of U.S. population. That shows you how densely populated some of those counties are...
Wage stagnation puts the squeeze on ordinary workers (Opinion) Los Angeles Times ...The median net worth of upper-income families reached $639,400 last year. That's nearly seven times as much as for those in the middle and almost 70 times what people at the lower end of the economic spectrum are making...
The Story Behind Wage Fixing in Hollywood Real News ...Wage theft stories aren't only happening at fast food companies like McDonald's, but the computer animation industry is also being accused of fixing employee wages. Major players like Disney, Sony, and many more have been entangled in a conspiracy called Techtopus...
Labor's big comeback Politico ...In a chain of end-of-the-year rulemakings, filings and decisions, the NLRB is exercising more muscle on labor’s behalf than Obama achieved during his previous six years in office...
Epidemic of Violence against Health-Care Workers Plagues Hospitals Scientific American ...Health-care workers are hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spat on, threatened and harassed by patients with surprising regularity. In a 2014 survey, almost 80 percent of nurses reported being attacked on the job within the past year...
Worker killed in accident at Ford Claycomo Assembly Plant KMBC ...A contract worker died on the job at Ford's Claycomo plant early Tuesday. Investigators said a beam fell on the man as he worked to help build a new assembly line...
Highway 68 construction worker killed by drunk driver Better Roads ...Jesus Fernandez, 51, was just doing his job on Highway 68 in California when a suspected drunk driver took his life...
Racers Mourn for Track Worker Killed in Raceway Accident New Times ...The racing world suffered a loss this past Sunday when an experienced track worker at the Palm Beach International Raceway died during a race when an unmanned, out-of-control motorcycle crashed into him...
Rest stop worker hit and killed on I-40 Fox8 ...A rest stop worker was hit by a car and killed along Interstate 40 near Benson Monday morning...
Miscellaneous
Low Oil Prices Drive US Rig Count Down Oil Prices ...Onshore US drilling rigs fell by 37 to 1,499 in the week ending Dec. 26. Ten rigs were dropped in the previous week and 29 went out of service the week before that...
Q3 2014 GDP Revised Up to a Whopping 5.0% Economic Populist ...This is the highest quarterly GDP since Q3 2003, a full eleven years ago. The reason for the revision blow out was consumer spending and investment...
First Student School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Local 570 Representation teamster.org ...First Student school bus drivers and monitors who transport children attending Baltimore City Public Schools have voted to join Teamsters Local 570 in Baltimore. The 113 school bus workers work out of First Student yards in Baltimore and Severn, Md., and joined the union seeking respect, fair pay and dignity at work...
Travel Management Company Pilots Vote To Join Teamsters teamster.org ...Pilots with Travel Management Company (TMC) voted overwhelmingly, 120-57, today in favor of Teamster representation. After the National Mediation Board (NMB) certifies the election, about 200 TMC pilots will become members of Teamsters Local 1108 in Richmond Heights, Ohio, and join the more than 75,000 airline industry workers currently represented by the Teamsters Airline Division...
Teamsters help Catholic Charities haul huge donation of furniture from Ogunquit inn to sell for food Bangor Daily News ...“Teamsters Local 340 is again sending their Joint Council 10 truck up for three truckload trips to Aroostook County to help out Catholic Charities’ food bank and their ‘Feed the County’ efforts this holiday season,” said Traci Place, a business agent for the union...
Teamsters rail conference calls for limited access to locomotive recordings Progressive Railroading ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) is not opposed to the installation of locomotive voice and video recorders (LVVRs), but all recordings should be used pursuant to the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, union officials announced last week...
Union decries decrease in railroad maintenance crews Bismarck Tribune ...Reductions in maintenance workers on Canadian Pacific tracks could cause more delays, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Snyder County owes $90G to two guards Daily Item ...Snyder County still owes several thousand dollars to two Snyder County Jail guards who won their jobs back in April after being terminated two years earlier for sexual harassment...
Teamsters, Medina Council approve contract Medina Gazette ... Medina City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement Tuesday with Teamsters Local 436, which represents city service department employees...
Trade
Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance UK Progressive ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
Obama executive actions put Asia free trade deal at risk Washington Times ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...The United States failed to achieve a doubling of exports between 2009 and 2014, as promised in President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI). It wasn’t even close. Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Say Goodbye to 'Made in China' Bloomberg ...In November, Hebei Iron & Steel Co Ltd, a provincial-owned company and China’s largest steelmaker by production, announced that it was moving 5 million tons of its annual production -- roughly 11 percent of the 45 million tons of steel it makes every year -- to South Africa. According to press reports, it won’t be going abroad alone...
War on Workers
Map: Where Workers' Pay Has Risen the Most in Past Decade Wall Street Journal ...while the one-third of all counties have seen a decline in annual average pay, those counties hold about 46% of U.S. population. That shows you how densely populated some of those counties are...
Wage stagnation puts the squeeze on ordinary workers (Opinion) Los Angeles Times ...The median net worth of upper-income families reached $639,400 last year. That's nearly seven times as much as for those in the middle and almost 70 times what people at the lower end of the economic spectrum are making...
The Story Behind Wage Fixing in Hollywood Real News ...Wage theft stories aren't only happening at fast food companies like McDonald's, but the computer animation industry is also being accused of fixing employee wages. Major players like Disney, Sony, and many more have been entangled in a conspiracy called Techtopus...
Labor's big comeback Politico ...In a chain of end-of-the-year rulemakings, filings and decisions, the NLRB is exercising more muscle on labor’s behalf than Obama achieved during his previous six years in office...
Epidemic of Violence against Health-Care Workers Plagues Hospitals Scientific American ...Health-care workers are hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spat on, threatened and harassed by patients with surprising regularity. In a 2014 survey, almost 80 percent of nurses reported being attacked on the job within the past year...
Worker killed in accident at Ford Claycomo Assembly Plant KMBC ...A contract worker died on the job at Ford's Claycomo plant early Tuesday. Investigators said a beam fell on the man as he worked to help build a new assembly line...
Highway 68 construction worker killed by drunk driver Better Roads ...Jesus Fernandez, 51, was just doing his job on Highway 68 in California when a suspected drunk driver took his life...
Racers Mourn for Track Worker Killed in Raceway Accident New Times ...The racing world suffered a loss this past Sunday when an experienced track worker at the Palm Beach International Raceway died during a race when an unmanned, out-of-control motorcycle crashed into him...
Rest stop worker hit and killed on I-40 Fox8 ...A rest stop worker was hit by a car and killed along Interstate 40 near Benson Monday morning...
Miscellaneous
Low Oil Prices Drive US Rig Count Down Oil Prices ...Onshore US drilling rigs fell by 37 to 1,499 in the week ending Dec. 26. Ten rigs were dropped in the previous week and 29 went out of service the week before that...
Q3 2014 GDP Revised Up to a Whopping 5.0% Economic Populist ...This is the highest quarterly GDP since Q3 2003, a full eleven years ago. The reason for the revision blow out was consumer spending and investment...
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.16.14
Teamster News
What the Cromnibus Law Means for Multiemployer Pension Plans International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans ...The law states that plans in "critical and declining status" can temporarily or permanently suspend current and future benefits...
Congress Rolls Back Trucker Rest Requirements CBS12 …Fatigue is often a major factor in many crashes. So why are federal lawmakers saying its okay for big rig haulers to drive more and sleep less?...
CRomnibus Heads to Oval Office U.S. News and World Report ...the bill now heads to the Oval Office for approval...
Maine Senator Is Again Friend to Trucking as Rule Eased Bloomberg ...Susan Collins...got a rider attached to the spending bill approved over the weekend so truckers will no longer have to get two nights sleep in a row before starting a work week. Suspending year-old federal regulations means truckers will be allowed to work as many as 82 hours over eight days -- upending what safety advocates said was a key component of a 15-year effort to reduce deaths caused by drowsy long-haul drivers...
Two N.Y. State Senators Oppose Horse-Carriage Ban, Warn Of 'Real Battle' New York Daily News ...Two Democratic state senators are the latest to come out in opposition to Mayor de Blasio’s push to ban horse carriages in the city. Sens. Diane Savino, chairwoman of the Senate Labor Committee, and Jose Peralta, the panel’s ranking minority party member, have drafted a letter to de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito vehemently opposing to the Council bill on the mayor’s plan...
Entergy,Teamsters Union Agree On Contract For Indian Point Security Workers Daily Voice ... Entergy and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 456 have agreed on a new contract for the union’s approximately 186 security workers at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan...
Keystone XL pipeline may no longer make economic sense, experts say Los Angeles Times ...plunging oil prices have analysts questioning whether the plan to link Canadian tar sands with Gulf Coast refineries still makes economic sense...
Trade
Hatch says trade an area where GOP, Obama can work together The Hill ...Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is expected to take the helm of the Senate Finance Committee, said passing trade promotion authority (TPA) is not only an avenue to completing two massive trade deals — the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) — but is a place where Republicans can work with President Obama...
New Trade Agreements will Take Center Stage in 2015. So Will Bad Arguments Made on their Behalf. Economic Policy Institute ...while these trade-induced losses (which I estimated to be roughly $1,800 annually for a full-time worker without a college degree) do not explain all, or even the majority, of the rise in inequality over the past generation, they’re not trivial...
State Battles
Right-to-work would trim union clout, but broader economic impact unclear Wisconsin State Journal ...“We’re not purporting to prove that right-to-work produces superior economic performance,” Greer said. The more important argument, he said, is that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to pay union dues or not...
Florida senators relaunch bill to overhaul local pension plans Tampa Bay Times ...The measure would allow cities with faltering pension funds to use additional insurance premium tax revenues to shore up their accounts...
Public money for schools buys private property Detroit Free Press ...National Heritage Academies, Michigan's largest charter management company, has an unusual arrangement with its schools. The for-profit company — and not the schools — owns the contents of its school buildings, even though those desks, computers, books and supplies may have been purchased with taxpayer money...
What the Cromnibus Law Means for Multiemployer Pension Plans International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans ...The law states that plans in "critical and declining status" can temporarily or permanently suspend current and future benefits...
Congress Rolls Back Trucker Rest Requirements CBS12 …Fatigue is often a major factor in many crashes. So why are federal lawmakers saying its okay for big rig haulers to drive more and sleep less?...
CRomnibus Heads to Oval Office U.S. News and World Report ...the bill now heads to the Oval Office for approval...
Maine Senator Is Again Friend to Trucking as Rule Eased Bloomberg ...Susan Collins...got a rider attached to the spending bill approved over the weekend so truckers will no longer have to get two nights sleep in a row before starting a work week. Suspending year-old federal regulations means truckers will be allowed to work as many as 82 hours over eight days -- upending what safety advocates said was a key component of a 15-year effort to reduce deaths caused by drowsy long-haul drivers...
Two N.Y. State Senators Oppose Horse-Carriage Ban, Warn Of 'Real Battle' New York Daily News ...Two Democratic state senators are the latest to come out in opposition to Mayor de Blasio’s push to ban horse carriages in the city. Sens. Diane Savino, chairwoman of the Senate Labor Committee, and Jose Peralta, the panel’s ranking minority party member, have drafted a letter to de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito vehemently opposing to the Council bill on the mayor’s plan...
Entergy,Teamsters Union Agree On Contract For Indian Point Security Workers Daily Voice ... Entergy and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 456 have agreed on a new contract for the union’s approximately 186 security workers at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan...
Keystone XL pipeline may no longer make economic sense, experts say Los Angeles Times ...plunging oil prices have analysts questioning whether the plan to link Canadian tar sands with Gulf Coast refineries still makes economic sense...
Trade
Hatch says trade an area where GOP, Obama can work together The Hill ...Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is expected to take the helm of the Senate Finance Committee, said passing trade promotion authority (TPA) is not only an avenue to completing two massive trade deals — the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) — but is a place where Republicans can work with President Obama...
New Trade Agreements will Take Center Stage in 2015. So Will Bad Arguments Made on their Behalf. Economic Policy Institute ...while these trade-induced losses (which I estimated to be roughly $1,800 annually for a full-time worker without a college degree) do not explain all, or even the majority, of the rise in inequality over the past generation, they’re not trivial...
State Battles
Right-to-work would trim union clout, but broader economic impact unclear Wisconsin State Journal ...“We’re not purporting to prove that right-to-work produces superior economic performance,” Greer said. The more important argument, he said, is that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to pay union dues or not...
Florida senators relaunch bill to overhaul local pension plans Tampa Bay Times ...The measure would allow cities with faltering pension funds to use additional insurance premium tax revenues to shore up their accounts...
Public money for schools buys private property Detroit Free Press ...National Heritage Academies, Michigan's largest charter management company, has an unusual arrangement with its schools. The for-profit company — and not the schools — owns the contents of its school buildings, even though those desks, computers, books and supplies may have been purchased with taxpayer money...
Kansas Governor Proposes Using Pension Money to Cover Budget Gaps Created By His Tax Cuts International Business Times ...In 2012, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a landmark bill that delivered big tax cuts to high income earners and businesses. Less than two years after that tax cut, the state's income tax revenues plummeted by a quarter-billion dollars -- and now Brownback is pushing to use money for public employees’ pensions to instead cover the state's ensuing budget shortfalls...
Inside The Koch-Backed History Lessons North Carolina Wants To Teach High School Students ThinkProgress ...Public high school students in North Carolina will be taught from a lesson plans and worksheets prepared by a organization closely tied to the billionaire Koch brothers, if the state’s Department of Public Instruction gets its way...
W.Va. Minimum Wage Rising In 2015 And 2016 WSAZ ...Back in April, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill raising minimum wage by 75 cents, which means it will soon rise to $8 an hour. The raise goes into effect January 1st. As part of the bill, minimum wage will go up another 75 cents in 2016...
Councilors Put Off Vote On Mayor’s Plan To Raise Portland’s Minimum Wage Portland Press Herald ...The Portland City Council’s Finance Committee listened to more than two hours of testimony Thursday on a measure that would raise the city’s minimum wage to a level above the state minimum, but postponed making a final recommendation until next year...
War on Workers
Pension Bill Seen as Model for Further Cuts Wall Street Journal ...A measure included in Congress’s mammoth spending bill permits benefit cuts for retirees in one type of pension plan, a big shift that lawmakers and others believe could set a precedent for other troubled retirement programs...
Kevin Yoder MIA After Tucking Wall Street Bailout Into Government Spending Bill Huffington Post ...For all the anger among progressives about a Wall Street bailout provision that made its way into the just-passed $1.1 trillion government spending bill, there's been little attention on the person who put it in there. Meet Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas). Yoder, a second-term congressman whose largest contributors are in the finance industry, introduced the provision last summer. It was literally written by Citigroup executives...
U.S. taxpayers help fund oil-train boom amid safety concerns Reuters ...States and the federal government have handed out tens of millions in public dollars to rail companies and government agencies to expand crude oil rail transportation across the country, a Reuters analysis has found...
Strikes across Belgium cause transport chaos BBC News ...The widespread industrial action is the latest in a series of strikes protesting against the new centre-right coalition's austerity policies. The government plans to save €11bn (£8.7bn) in the next five years. The 24-hour strike is the largest to have taken place in Belgium for many years. It has forced government offices and schools to close, and the country's ports have been blockaded...
Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession Pew Research Center …The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Likewise, the wealth of white households is now more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households, compared with nine times the wealth in 2010...
The Devalued American Worker Washington Post ...Green once held a middle-class job. Now, to make enough money to send his children to college, he works the equivalent of two full-time jobs: one maintaining highways for the state of North Carolina and one ushering fans and collecting trash for a variety of sports teams around Winston-Salem...
It's Going To Get A Little Easier For Workers To Unionize Huffington Post ...Federal officials unveiled new rules on Friday that will streamline and simplify the union election process, a reform long sought by labor unions and fiercely opposed by businesses...
Uber Backtracks After Jacking Up Prices During Sydney Hostage Crisis Washington Post ...After an armed gunman took patrons of a Sydney chocolate shop hostage during rush hour Monday morning, the transportation company Uber quadrupled its fares for panic-stricken customers fleeing the central business district...
MLGW worker dies after explosion WREG.com …A crew was trying to repair a gas line on the 4600 block of Winter Park Drive when there was a spark and an explosion…
Miscellaneous
The Supreme Court just made it easier for police to search your car Vox ...The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police officers can sometimes conduct a search and seizure of a car even if that search is the result of an unlawful stop...
Councilors Put Off Vote On Mayor’s Plan To Raise Portland’s Minimum Wage Portland Press Herald ...The Portland City Council’s Finance Committee listened to more than two hours of testimony Thursday on a measure that would raise the city’s minimum wage to a level above the state minimum, but postponed making a final recommendation until next year...
War on Workers
Pension Bill Seen as Model for Further Cuts Wall Street Journal ...A measure included in Congress’s mammoth spending bill permits benefit cuts for retirees in one type of pension plan, a big shift that lawmakers and others believe could set a precedent for other troubled retirement programs...
Kevin Yoder MIA After Tucking Wall Street Bailout Into Government Spending Bill Huffington Post ...For all the anger among progressives about a Wall Street bailout provision that made its way into the just-passed $1.1 trillion government spending bill, there's been little attention on the person who put it in there. Meet Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas). Yoder, a second-term congressman whose largest contributors are in the finance industry, introduced the provision last summer. It was literally written by Citigroup executives...
U.S. taxpayers help fund oil-train boom amid safety concerns Reuters ...States and the federal government have handed out tens of millions in public dollars to rail companies and government agencies to expand crude oil rail transportation across the country, a Reuters analysis has found...
Strikes across Belgium cause transport chaos BBC News ...The widespread industrial action is the latest in a series of strikes protesting against the new centre-right coalition's austerity policies. The government plans to save €11bn (£8.7bn) in the next five years. The 24-hour strike is the largest to have taken place in Belgium for many years. It has forced government offices and schools to close, and the country's ports have been blockaded...
Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession Pew Research Center …The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Likewise, the wealth of white households is now more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households, compared with nine times the wealth in 2010...
The Devalued American Worker Washington Post ...Green once held a middle-class job. Now, to make enough money to send his children to college, he works the equivalent of two full-time jobs: one maintaining highways for the state of North Carolina and one ushering fans and collecting trash for a variety of sports teams around Winston-Salem...
It's Going To Get A Little Easier For Workers To Unionize Huffington Post ...Federal officials unveiled new rules on Friday that will streamline and simplify the union election process, a reform long sought by labor unions and fiercely opposed by businesses...
Uber Backtracks After Jacking Up Prices During Sydney Hostage Crisis Washington Post ...After an armed gunman took patrons of a Sydney chocolate shop hostage during rush hour Monday morning, the transportation company Uber quadrupled its fares for panic-stricken customers fleeing the central business district...
MLGW worker dies after explosion WREG.com …A crew was trying to repair a gas line on the 4600 block of Winter Park Drive when there was a spark and an explosion…
Miscellaneous
The Supreme Court just made it easier for police to search your car Vox ...The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police officers can sometimes conduct a search and seizure of a car even if that search is the result of an unlawful stop...
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.09.14
Teamster News
Horse carriage ban introduced in City Council, sparks dueling rallies New York Daily News ...Supporters and opponents of banning the city’s horse drawn carriages battled at dueling rallies Monday as the bill was finally introduced in the City Council - and more Council members came out against the controversial ban. A dozen unions joined horse carriage drivers on the City Hall steps to blast the proposal they say will kill the livelihoods of 300 drivers...
City Councilman Who Previously Agreed To Support Ban On Horse Carriages Flips Sides New York Daily News ...A city councilman who was endorsed by the animal rights group NYCLASS and agreed to back a ban on horse-drawn carriages under certain conditions has come out against Mayor de Blasio’s bill to outlaw the carriage industry...
Horse Nonsense From City Hall (opinion) New York Times ...Why wipe out a well-loved, well-regulated, law-abiding part of the tourist economy? So many tough questions. One simple answer: Dump the bill. Keep the horses...
Franklin Park Public Works Employees Ratify First Teamsters Contract teamster.org …Public works employees in the Village of Franklin Park, Ill., ratified their first Teamsters contract after unanimously voting to join the Teamsters...
Cook DuPage Transport Puts Paratransit Services, Teamsters Local 727 Members at Risk teamster.org ...Paratransit services in Cook and DuPage counties are in danger of being suspended due to a possible work stoppage because of Cook DuPage Transport’s bad faith bargaining for a first contract...
Trade
Activists In Washington Protest Against TPP Public Citizen ...An hour of loud chanting and noisemakers ensured that chief negotiators involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks on Tuesday were aware of growing US public opposition to the TPP and the dim prospects that US President Barack Obama will obtain Fast Track trade authority, Public Citizen said...
TPP Negotiators Come to DC and are Met By People Telling Them ‘Fast Track’ Is Dead and Make the TPP Text Public Popular Resistance ...On Monday morning members of Popular Resistance held a ‘Sit-in to End the Secrecy’ on the front steps of the USTR office . As Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators and USTR staff arrived for their first day of meetings this week, demonstrators demanded that they stop hiding the text of the trade agreement and instead make it available to the public telling them “secret negotiations are anti-democratic.”...
House Democrats vow to block Obama on Asia trade pact Washington Post ...House Democrats from the nation's manufacturing heartland are vowing to fight President Obama's push for a major trade deal in the Asia Pacific, saying the pact will harm U.S. jobs and charging that the administration has not been transparent with Congress in its negotiations...
Obama Ready To Defy Base In Order To Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership MintPress News ...In a speech before CEOs of major U.S. corporations, Obama indicates he's ready to go head-to-head with Democrats, labor unions, and environmentalists on trade deals...
Growing Trans-Pacific Trade Deficits Set the Stage for Growing Trade-Related Job Displacement Economic Policy Institute ...The United States has a large and growing trade deficit with the 11 other countries in the proposed TPP. This deficit has increased from $110.3 billion in 1997 to an estimated $261.7 billion in 2014, as shown in the figure below. With trade deficits already on the rise, it makes no sense to sign a deal that would exacerbate them further...
Hardship On Mexico's Farms, A Bounty For U.S. Tables Los Angeles Times ...for thousands of farm laborers south of the border, the export boom is a story of exploitation and extreme hardship...
United States To Investigate Potential Steel Dumping NWI Times ...The U.S. International Trade Commission voted 6-0 last week to investigate an estimated $601 million in annual Korean and Turkish imports of carbon and alloy welded API line pipe, which is used in oil and gas pipelines. The agency will look into whether the steel products are being sold at less than fair value, if it's hurting domestic steelmakers and if duties should be imposed...
State Battles
Our view: Right-to-work not the right priority (opinion) LaCrosse Tribune ...It’s apparently so important that Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald announced Thursday that he will put the issue on the fast track and a bill addressing the issue will be brought forth in the Assembly...
More than 3,800 state workers paid under federal poverty level Richmond Times-Dispatch ...The jobs of the state employees in the poverty zone include hospital food service workers and housekeepers, school security officers, mental health workers, deputy sheriffs, corrections workers, secretaries, researchers and associate professors. In some respects, their plight is not surprising, given the number of state workers who are dependent on federal assistance. That number has increased more than 150 percent — from 892 in 2011 to 2,287 in 2013, according to statistics compiled by the state Department of Human Resources Management...
NC education department used Koch-funded group for proposed history lessons Charlotte News Observer ...State high school social studies teachers would be encouraged to use curriculum materials prepared by an institute funded by the conservative Koch family, under a proposal the Department of Public Instruction presented...
ALEC Fumes: Transparency Threatens Corporate Free Speech! Center for Media and Democracy ...After spending hundreds of millions of undisclosed funds on state and federal elections, the corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council are demanding that state legislators preserve their "right" to anonymously spend money on politics and curry favor with elected officials, and to thwart shareholder efforts to hold the corporations they own accountable...
More Corporations Flee as ALEC Rolls Out Its Legislative Agenda Center for Media and Democracy ...Only nine funders of the American Legislative Exchange Council's annual winter meeting in Washington, DC, are listed on ALEC's conference brochure this year...
Economist: Jobs Regained In Kansas Not The Same Ones Lost In Recession Wichita Eagle ...it has gained back only 600 of approximately 29,000 manufacturing jobs it lost, said Tyler Tenbrink, a senior labor economist with the Department of Labor...
War on Workers
Judge Calls Cablevision’s Raises an Anti-Union Act New York Times ...A judge with the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Cablevision’s chief executive officer, James L. Dolan, gave raises illegally to company technicians in the Bronx to improperly sway them to vote against unionizing...
Oil Falls to 5-Year Low, and Energy Companies Start to Retrench New York Times ...The price of crude oil continued to collapse on Monday, plunging to a five-year low, as oil giants began to scale back their drilling ambitions and pare the ranks of their workers...
Inside the Koch data mine Politico ...The Koch brothers and their allies are pumping tens of millions of dollars into a data company that’s developing detailed, state-of-the-art profiles of 250 million Americans, giving the brothers’ political operation all the earmarks of a national party...
Worker dies in accident at Henderson plastics factory KVVU-TV ...Initial reports indicate a large object fell on the victim. The death is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
Worker dies from injuries in Boeing accident Associated Press ...A worker for a Boeing supplier has died, weeks after sustaining injuries while working on a passenger seat inside a Boeing 777 passenger jet...
Mexico Identifies Remains Of 1 Of 43 Missing Students Time ...Officials have identified the remains of one of 43 missing Mexican students whose disappearance in September sparked worldwide outrage over the country’s drug violence and corruption...
Horse carriage ban introduced in City Council, sparks dueling rallies New York Daily News ...Supporters and opponents of banning the city’s horse drawn carriages battled at dueling rallies Monday as the bill was finally introduced in the City Council - and more Council members came out against the controversial ban. A dozen unions joined horse carriage drivers on the City Hall steps to blast the proposal they say will kill the livelihoods of 300 drivers...
City Councilman Who Previously Agreed To Support Ban On Horse Carriages Flips Sides New York Daily News ...A city councilman who was endorsed by the animal rights group NYCLASS and agreed to back a ban on horse-drawn carriages under certain conditions has come out against Mayor de Blasio’s bill to outlaw the carriage industry...
Horse Nonsense From City Hall (opinion) New York Times ...Why wipe out a well-loved, well-regulated, law-abiding part of the tourist economy? So many tough questions. One simple answer: Dump the bill. Keep the horses...
Franklin Park Public Works Employees Ratify First Teamsters Contract teamster.org …Public works employees in the Village of Franklin Park, Ill., ratified their first Teamsters contract after unanimously voting to join the Teamsters...
Cook DuPage Transport Puts Paratransit Services, Teamsters Local 727 Members at Risk teamster.org ...Paratransit services in Cook and DuPage counties are in danger of being suspended due to a possible work stoppage because of Cook DuPage Transport’s bad faith bargaining for a first contract...
Trade
Activists In Washington Protest Against TPP Public Citizen ...An hour of loud chanting and noisemakers ensured that chief negotiators involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks on Tuesday were aware of growing US public opposition to the TPP and the dim prospects that US President Barack Obama will obtain Fast Track trade authority, Public Citizen said...
TPP Negotiators Come to DC and are Met By People Telling Them ‘Fast Track’ Is Dead and Make the TPP Text Public Popular Resistance ...On Monday morning members of Popular Resistance held a ‘Sit-in to End the Secrecy’ on the front steps of the USTR office . As Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators and USTR staff arrived for their first day of meetings this week, demonstrators demanded that they stop hiding the text of the trade agreement and instead make it available to the public telling them “secret negotiations are anti-democratic.”...
House Democrats vow to block Obama on Asia trade pact Washington Post ...House Democrats from the nation's manufacturing heartland are vowing to fight President Obama's push for a major trade deal in the Asia Pacific, saying the pact will harm U.S. jobs and charging that the administration has not been transparent with Congress in its negotiations...
Obama Ready To Defy Base In Order To Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership MintPress News ...In a speech before CEOs of major U.S. corporations, Obama indicates he's ready to go head-to-head with Democrats, labor unions, and environmentalists on trade deals...
Growing Trans-Pacific Trade Deficits Set the Stage for Growing Trade-Related Job Displacement Economic Policy Institute ...The United States has a large and growing trade deficit with the 11 other countries in the proposed TPP. This deficit has increased from $110.3 billion in 1997 to an estimated $261.7 billion in 2014, as shown in the figure below. With trade deficits already on the rise, it makes no sense to sign a deal that would exacerbate them further...
Hardship On Mexico's Farms, A Bounty For U.S. Tables Los Angeles Times ...for thousands of farm laborers south of the border, the export boom is a story of exploitation and extreme hardship...
United States To Investigate Potential Steel Dumping NWI Times ...The U.S. International Trade Commission voted 6-0 last week to investigate an estimated $601 million in annual Korean and Turkish imports of carbon and alloy welded API line pipe, which is used in oil and gas pipelines. The agency will look into whether the steel products are being sold at less than fair value, if it's hurting domestic steelmakers and if duties should be imposed...
State Battles
Our view: Right-to-work not the right priority (opinion) LaCrosse Tribune ...It’s apparently so important that Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald announced Thursday that he will put the issue on the fast track and a bill addressing the issue will be brought forth in the Assembly...
More than 3,800 state workers paid under federal poverty level Richmond Times-Dispatch ...The jobs of the state employees in the poverty zone include hospital food service workers and housekeepers, school security officers, mental health workers, deputy sheriffs, corrections workers, secretaries, researchers and associate professors. In some respects, their plight is not surprising, given the number of state workers who are dependent on federal assistance. That number has increased more than 150 percent — from 892 in 2011 to 2,287 in 2013, according to statistics compiled by the state Department of Human Resources Management...
NC education department used Koch-funded group for proposed history lessons Charlotte News Observer ...State high school social studies teachers would be encouraged to use curriculum materials prepared by an institute funded by the conservative Koch family, under a proposal the Department of Public Instruction presented...
ALEC Fumes: Transparency Threatens Corporate Free Speech! Center for Media and Democracy ...After spending hundreds of millions of undisclosed funds on state and federal elections, the corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council are demanding that state legislators preserve their "right" to anonymously spend money on politics and curry favor with elected officials, and to thwart shareholder efforts to hold the corporations they own accountable...
More Corporations Flee as ALEC Rolls Out Its Legislative Agenda Center for Media and Democracy ...Only nine funders of the American Legislative Exchange Council's annual winter meeting in Washington, DC, are listed on ALEC's conference brochure this year...
Economist: Jobs Regained In Kansas Not The Same Ones Lost In Recession Wichita Eagle ...it has gained back only 600 of approximately 29,000 manufacturing jobs it lost, said Tyler Tenbrink, a senior labor economist with the Department of Labor...
War on Workers
Judge Calls Cablevision’s Raises an Anti-Union Act New York Times ...A judge with the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Cablevision’s chief executive officer, James L. Dolan, gave raises illegally to company technicians in the Bronx to improperly sway them to vote against unionizing...
Oil Falls to 5-Year Low, and Energy Companies Start to Retrench New York Times ...The price of crude oil continued to collapse on Monday, plunging to a five-year low, as oil giants began to scale back their drilling ambitions and pare the ranks of their workers...
Inside the Koch data mine Politico ...The Koch brothers and their allies are pumping tens of millions of dollars into a data company that’s developing detailed, state-of-the-art profiles of 250 million Americans, giving the brothers’ political operation all the earmarks of a national party...
Worker dies in accident at Henderson plastics factory KVVU-TV ...Initial reports indicate a large object fell on the victim. The death is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
Worker dies from injuries in Boeing accident Associated Press ...A worker for a Boeing supplier has died, weeks after sustaining injuries while working on a passenger seat inside a Boeing 777 passenger jet...
Mexico Identifies Remains Of 1 Of 43 Missing Students Time ...Officials have identified the remains of one of 43 missing Mexican students whose disappearance in September sparked worldwide outrage over the country’s drug violence and corruption...
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