TEAMSTERS
Revised NY-NJ clean-trucks plan stirs up controversy JOC ...The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week criticized the port authority for lifting a Jan. 1, 2017 deadline that would have forced 70 percent of the port’s trucks to be replaced or refitted with newer, less-polluting engines. Consolidation of the port’s fragmented drayage industry into fewer, stronger companies that use employee drivers has been a longtime goal of the Teamsters union, which is part of the Coalition for Healthy Ports and claims many owner-operators are misclassified as independent contractors...
10,000 needy families, hospitalized kids aided by Teamsters Joint Council 13 volunteers, friends, family Labor Tribune ...More than 10,000 needy families and their children and dozens of children who had to be in the hospital over the holidays had a brighter Christmas this past season as a result of the generosity and hearts of Teamsters throughout the region, all members of Teamsters Joint Council 13. In three separate programs supported by the Teamsters, food and toys were provided to the less fortunate and the working poor...
Teamsters and Freight; building up America Mandan News ...As many as three million heavy-duty trucks run on the highways, bringing freight to destination terminals from where smaller delivery trucks further carry the products to their destinations. The trucking industry reminds us that “Without trucks, America stops.” Another adage proclaims, “If you bought it, a truck brought it.” Truck drivers and other associated occupations can find membership in a large organization named the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Union retirees fearing pension cuts The Examiner ...The president of the Missouri-Kansas-Nebraska Conference of Teamsters, Jim Kabell, outlined troubles in the union’s pension fund to a full house at American Legion Post 21. Many wore T-shirts reading, “Stop the rush to pension cuts!” He also took aim at Congress for actions he said made things worse and for not acting on needed solutions, and he urged Teamsters to get active to address that...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Kia Workers OK Wage Deal After 5 Strike-Free Months Wards Auto ...Kia workers represented by the Korean Metal Workers Union sign a new wage agreement with the automaker Jan. 12, ending negotiations that dragged on for five months. Both sides had agreed when talks began Aug. 11 to conduct all sessions with a total news blackout. A tentative agreement was reached Jan. 6 and a ratification vote was held Jan. 10...
Private sector workers to go on strike on Feb 4 Ekathimerini ...Greece’s biggest private sector union, GSEE, decided on Friday to call a 24-hour strike for Thursday, February 4, in protest at government reforms and particularly a contentious overhaul of the social security system. Meeting in Athens, GSEE’s executive committee decided to ramp up the pressure against the government’s proposal and to join forces with other unions...
Luas workers in Ireland to go on strike Irish News ...Commuters face travel chaos after Luas staff announced plans to stage two 48 hour strikes next month. Workers will down tools on February 11 and 12 and again on February 18 and 19. The Siptu trade union confirmed three of four groups of workers, who balloted overwhelmingly to take industrial action, preferred to strike for 48 hours at meetings this week. Luas operator Transdev released figures claiming drivers are seeking a massive pay rise of almost 54pc...
Morocco Government Assaults Spur Sit-in Solidarity Center ...About four thousand workers staged a sit-in outside parliament in Rabat yesterday in a show of popular protest against socioeconomic policies that are economically harmful to working people, among them planned pension reforms, a freeze on talks with civil society groups and ongoing violations of worker rights–including the government’s refusal to negotiate with trade unions on wages and working conditions for public service workers...
Business leaders doubt trade vote happens before elections The Hill ...Business leaders on Thursday expressed doubt that a sweeping Pacific Rim trade agreement will come up for a vote in Congress before the November elections. Bruce Josten, the top lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that there are several significant factors in play that will determine whether lawmakers will be ready to vote on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by this summer...
Time for negotiations is finished for Trans-Pacific Partnership: trade minister Global News ...A renegotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is not possible even though serious concerns may be raised during public consultations, Canada’s trade minister said Thursday. “The negotiations are finished and for Canadians it’s important to understand that it’s a decision of yes or no,” Chrystia Freeland told reporters Thursday after receiving varied feedback at a meeting at the University of Montreal...
TTIP: what can we expect from 2016? Open Democracy ...TTIP negotiations continue, as the two sides failed to meet their goal of concluding talks by the end of 2015. EU and US negotiators now hope to reach a final political settlement by the end of Obama’s presidency in January 2017, thus making the next 12 months vitally important in the fight to derail the talks. The next round of negotiations is set to take place in Brussels at the end of February...
Protesters rally against Trans-Pacific Partnership WFMZ ...Protesters gathered outside Congressman Charlie Dent's office in Allentown Wednesday, rallying against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The partnership is a multi-national trade agreement that was reached in October after years of negotiations. The protest was organized by the Pennsylvania Fair Trade Coalition. Protesters want Congressman Dent to vote against the partnership when it reaches the house this spring...
How to Make the Trans-Pacific Partnership Work for Workers and Communities The Nation ... Allowing victimized workers and communities to use dispute-settlement mechanisms in trade agreements provides some measure of re-balance Nothing prevents the United States from going back to its TPP partners to negotiate a supplemental protocol creating a CIDS system to address all stakeholders’ concerns, not just the special interests of investors...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
WVU right-to-work study disputed as Legislature considers bill Gazette Mail ...Just as the West Virginia Legislature began considering “right-to-work” legislation Thursday, a new economic analysis has alleged that the intellectual backbone behind the Republican proposal, a West Virginia University study of the issue, made basic mistakes and “is fraught with several problems.” In November, the WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research unveiled a study of right-to-work laws that was requested and funded by the Republican-led Legislature...
Senate fast tracks ‘Right-to-Work’ legislation Daily Telegraph ...Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee spent hours Thursday sparring over the provisions of a Right to Work law, slowing if only momentarily its fast-track passage to the floor of the Senate. SB1, which Republicans have renamed “Workplace Freedom,” is the first of the GOP agenda bills...
West Virginia unions protest right-to-work News Center ...Union groups have hit the Capitol for events opposing the right-to-work push introduced by the Republican-led Legislature. At a West Virginia AFL-CIO event Wednesday morning, workers shared negative experiences from Oklahoma and Virginia, both right-to-work states. Americans for Prosperity, a well-heeled conservative group fueled by the industrialist Koch brothers, also announced online and direct mail advertising in favor of right-to-work...
Prevailing Wage Passes Kentucky Senate State Journal ...Unlike the hugely bipartisan support of the bourbon, winery and microbrewing industry in the state, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate stood diametrically opposed to a prevailing wage bill that passed Thursday to the House. Republican Sen. Wil Schroder of Wilder sponsored the bill exempting public school projects of $250,000 or more from the state’s requirement for the prevailing wage cost to workers...
Oregon governor asks for huge minimum wage hikes CNN ...Gov. Kate Brown is pushing a new, two-tiered system that would increases wages in Portland to $15.52 over the next six years, while other areas would have a minimum of $13.50. The state's current minimum wage is $9.25. If approved by state legislators, Oregon would join a growing list of states that are boosting minimum-wage paychecks. Thirteen states, including California, Nebraska and Vermont, are set to bolster their minimum wages in 2016...
Minimum Wage Workers Plan Strike In Charleston Ahead Of Democratic Debate BuzzFeed ...Low-wage workers will strike and protest in Charleston, South Carolina in the lead-up to the Democratic debate there Sunday night, according to the Fight for 15, the union-backed movement to raise the minimum wage. Hundreds of fast-food, home care, child care and other low-wage employees will converge on the city, according to Fight for 15 Organizing Director Kendall Fells...
The Plot Against Paul LePage The Atlantic ...On Thursday, a group of state legislators in Maine will introduce a measure to impeach LePage. “People have really had enough, all across the state,” Representative Ben Chipman of Portland, the lead sponsor, told me Wednesday. “They’re tired of the governor’s behavior and they’re tired of the legislature not doing anything about it." The impeachment order would create an investigative committee to look into allegations against LePage and then bring back articles of impeachment...
U.S. LABOR
Los Angeles Charter Teachers Say Their Administration Is Aggresively Trying To Bust Their Union In These Times ...A formerly low-profile union organizing campaign by teachers at the largest charter school operation in Los Angeles is emerging into the public spotlight as the charter operator is ramping up its effort to defeat the organizing effort, teachers say. The school operator, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, has been so aggressive against the union that a local judge issued an injunction December 3 against the operator’s apparent labor law violations...
Ski Patrols Seek to Unionize U.S. Slopes as Wealth Gap Grows Bloomberg ...The snowiest peaks in the U.S. are the latest site of pitched union battles, a result of the growing corporatization of the $11 billion ski industry and a widening wealth divide between those who own resorts and those who keep them running. Labor’s promise of better compensation and job security has proved particularly enticing to ski patrollers...
Charged with Firing Teachers for Organizing, a Chicago Charter Network Settles American Prospect ...The National Labor Relations Board finalized a settlement agreement this week between Urban Prep Academies, an all-male charter network in Chicago, and more than a dozen Urban Prep teachers who were fired abruptly back in June. The firings came less than a month after a majority of teachers at Urban Prep voted to unionize with the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (ChiACTS)...
NLRB rejects McDonalds’ request to treat joint employer cases separately People's World ... Over the dissent of its remaining Republican member, the National Labor Relations Board has rejected McDonalds' request to split its "joint employer" cases into 31 separate cases involving 161 restaurants nationwide. The board's early-January decision allows the massive case of McDonald's labor law-breaking to go forward as one unified case...
With public sector unions on the rocks, middle class may take another hit Washington Post ...For all his talk about "middle class economics" in recent years, it might have seemed odd that President Obama didn't mention the "middle class" once during his nearly hour-long speech to Congress. Instead, he talked about "working families." Those phrases aren't interchangeable anymore — so many working people have exited the middle class that it's no longer the demographic majority...
What Do Unions Do for the Middle Class? Center for American Progress ...The United States has long called itself a middle-class nation. But that statement is less true today than it was 30 years ago.
The most widely used barometer of the financial health of the middle class—real median household income as published by the U.S. Census Bureau—has barely grown over the last thirty years. At the same time, the middle class has been hollowed out as incomes have polarized...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
U.S. justices consider taking Obama appeal on immigration action Reuters ...The nine U.S. Supreme Court justices were due to meet privately on Friday to discuss whether to hear President Barack Obama's bid to revive his plan to shield more than 4 million immigrants from deportation, a move that bypassed the Republican-led Congress. The court could make an announcement as soon as Friday afternoon on whether it will take up the dispute, which would become one of the centerpiece cases of its current term...
As Federal Government Launches New Deportation Raids, Churches Vow To Take In Immigrants Think Progress ...Churches across the country are gearing up to defy the federal government’s deportation efforts, preparing to offer Central American asylum-seekers sanctuary in their churches and protect them from an aggressive new wave of federal raids. Shortly after New Year’s Day 2016, the Obama administration launched a barrage of highly publicized raids primarily intended to detain and deport Central American immigrants...
More Than Half of Americans Reportedly Have Less Than $1,000 to Their Name Esquire ...In a recent survey, 56 percent of Americans said they have less than $1,000 in their checking and savings accounts combined, Forbes reports. Nearly a quarter (24.8 percent) have less than $100 to their name. Meanwhile, 38 percent said they would pay less than their full credit card balance this month, and 11 percent said they would make the minimum payment...
Residents Of Flint Are Being Billed For Poisoned Water And Threatened With Shutoffs If They Don’t Pay Think Progress ...Last week Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) declared a state of emergency over the level of lead being found in Flint’s tap water, and this week he activated the state National Guard to help provide residents with bottled water, filters, and lead testing kits.
But even in the midst of this crisis, city residents aren’t just being charged for their poisoned tap water — they’re being threatened with shutoffs if they don’t quickly pay their bills...
Chicago Releases Another Video Of A Police Officer Killing An Unarmed Teenager Think Progress ...The city of Chicago released a video of another police officer killing an unarmed black teenager three years ago, after giving up a lengthy legal battle to keep it from the public eye. This time, the teenager’s name was not Laquan McDonald but Cedrick Chatman. The grainy video shows the 17-year-old Chatman fleeing the police before he is shot by Officer Kevin Fry...
Showing posts with label cwa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cwa. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2016
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.17.15
TEAMSTERS
NC Legislators, Community Turn Up Heat on Miller/Coors Teamster.org ...Hundreds of community members joined Teamsters and state legislators at a rally yesterday to protest Miller/Coors plan to close their Eden, NC, facility. "Our rally yesterday brought state legislators and community members together with our members and retirees to show support for the workers here at the Miller/Coors facility," said Vernon Gammon, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 391...
Seattle Teamsters local to organize Uber, Lyft drivers after city council vote People's World ... Teamsters Local 117 in Seattle will step up its efforts to unionize Uber and Lyft drivers - who are already working with it on an organizing campaign - after the city council's unanimous vote to give those drivers workers' rights. The ordinance, passed 8-0 on Dec. 14, says the drivers, whom the ride-sharing services call "independent contractors" are, in Seattle, have the right to organize...
Lockport Town Board ratifies agreements with Teamsters, CSEA Buffalo News ...The Town Board on Wednesday ratified a seven-year contract with the Teamsters union, as well as a health insurance agreement with the Civil Service Employees Association. The deal with the 18 Teamsters members is retroactive to the start of 2014 and offers annual raises of 2 to 2.5 percent, depending on a worker’s job title and position on the pay scale...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Spain's rail workers to stage 23-hour strike on Friday The Local ...People making their way home for Christmas on Friday could be facing serious delays as workers stage an all-day strike to protest privitization plans. The strike, called by the CGT union, will take place from midnight to 11pm on Friday, December 18th, assuring a day of travel chaos for people heading home for Christmas...
Bangladesh tea workers strike against land acquisition USA News ...For the fourth consecutive day, about 15,000 Bangladeshi tea workers have continued an indefinite strike against a government plan to acquire hundreds of hectares of land that would adversely affect their lives and livelihood. Workers and family members from four tea estates in Habiganj district of northeastern Sylhet division are demanding the government scrap plans for a special 207-hectare economic zone...
Canada taking its time to ratify TPP deal Globe and Mail ...Canada is set to hold back on ratifying a key Asia-Pacific trade treaty, a move that would assuage critics but might hamper Washington’s bid to build domestic support for the deal, according to sources close to the talks. Canada is one of 12 countries that initialled the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in early October, agreeing in principle to create a trade zone covering 40 per cent of the world’s economy...
The GOP’s Growing Rift on Trade National Journal ...The Republican Party has split anew on one of its core tenets—free trade—and the question is how long the war will last. While the GOP has largely supported free trade for over three decades, its top-tier presidential candidates are split on the recently-struck Pacific trade accord, the most significant in a generation. And Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, has been labeled by The Wall Street Journal as potentially the most protectionist nominee since Herbert Hoover...
And Just Like That, "Free Trade" Pact Trounces US Law Common Dreams ...Claims that trade pacts like the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will not trump public health and environmental policies were revealed to be fiction on Tuesday after Congress, bending to the will of the World Trade Organization, killed the popular country-of-origin label (COOL) law...
Trade deal will lock in high drug prices, hurt seniors (opinion) The Hill ... If implemented, TPP will maintain high drug prices for America’s seniors and undermine the sustainability of public health programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The TPP would enact unprecedented protections for Big Pharma. It would lock in patent exclusivity for biologics - specialty drugs used to treat diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis...
Saginaw County Board calls on Congress to oppose Trans-Pacific Partnership MLive ...Saginaw County's elected officials are asking members of the U.S. Congress to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement involving 12 Pacific Rim countries including the United States. The county's Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Dec. 15, approved a resolution in opposition of the deal "and any similar trade deals if they fail to restructure the misguided and failed policies of the past"...
Does Lexmark Strike Signal New Labor Rights Movement in Mexico? Common Dreams ...Support is growing for over a hundred workers who were fired en masse after asking for pay raises and organizing rights at a Juarez plant operated by U.S.-based Fortune 500 company Lexmark International. Some 700 workers launched a strike last week at their Juarez plant calling for the company to increase pay for long-term employees from 114 to 120 pesos a day—a raise of roughly 35 cents—while others attempted to unionize...
Greece approves new austerity bill changing loan rules Yahoo ...Greek lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation granting the right to sell bad business loans from local banks to overseas funds as part of a new austerity bill demanded by bailout lenders from the rest of the eurozone. Labor unions, which oppose the reforms, staged two separate, peaceful protest marches in central Athens late Tuesday...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Owner of Arciuolo’s Shoe Store in Milford touts benefits of offering employees paid sick leave NH Register ...Connecticut became one of the first states to pass a Family and Medical Leave Bill, ensuring workers can’t be fired for taking leave, but she said it fails to cover many workers and because it doesn’t require them to be paid, many can’t afford the leave. The new bill establishes a paid family and medical leave compensation program administered by the state’s Labor Department...
New media campaign against House Republicans who opposed "right to work" STLToday ...A new ad campaign was unleashed this week targeting 20 Missouri House Republicans who helped defeat a "right-to-work" measure barring companies from requiring union membership or dues. The Committee for Accountable Government in Missouri, funded by more than $1 million in donations from the Joplin-based Humphreys family, announced a series of radio, television, digital and billboard ads...
Business group files suit challenging minimum wage initiative Review-Journal ...A coalition of business groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an initiative that seeks to gradually raise Nevada's minimum wage. The suit filed by the Committee to Preserve Nevada Jobs, a coalition of three chambers of commerce, argues the proposed constitutional amendment goes beyond changing the minimum wage and will impose new regulations and penalties harmful to employers...
Hedge Funds Deepen Puerto Rico's Debt, Ravaging Island and Impoverishing People Alternet ...“This is a distress call from a ship of 3.5 million American citizens that have been lost at sea,” Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla said on December 1, begging the Senate Judiciary Committee to help protect his homeland from an unspooling disaster. After issuing bonds for over a decade on everything not nailed down, Puerto Rico now carries $73 billion in debt...
Florida gave about $70 million to charter schools that later closed; state recouped little Miami Herald ...Charter schools, which are public schools run by private groups, have received more than $760 million from state taxpayers since 2000 according to an Associated Press analysis of state Department of Education records. Schools can use the money for construction costs, rent payments, buses and even property insurance. Yet charter schools in 30 districts have wound up closing after receiving as much as $70 million...
U.S. LABOR
Kohler employees OK new contract, end 32-day strike Journal Sentinel ...Kohler Co. workers overwhelmingly approved a new labor contract Wednesday evening, ending a 32-day strike and returning to their jobs with what they and their leaders said is a significantly better deal. With 91% of the vote, members of United Auto Workers Local 833 ratified a four-year pact that boosts wages, minimizes rising health care costs and improves pension benefits...
SEIU 32BJ Raucous Rally Packs Essex Gym as Union Leader Brown Heads to Negotiations PolitickerNJ ...Janitor members of SEIU 32BJ – 7,000 strong, who clean office buildings in more than 500 office buildings around New1216151659a Jersey – tonight voted to strike if they can’t reach an agreement before Dec. 31st. As he heads back into negotiations tomorrow with the New Jersey Contractors Association, 32BJ Vice President and NJ State Director Kevin Brown wants everyone at $15 an hour...
UAW contract vote at Nexteer latest chapter in company's century-old story MLive ...As United Auto Workers Local 699 members begin voting on a new labor contract with Nexteer Automotive, it marks the latest chapter for a Saginaw County company that dates back more than a century. UAW members began casting ballots Thursday, Dec. 17, and voting continues through 10 p.m. Friday. They are voting on a new labor contract stretching to 2020...
Sanders wins Communications Workers of America endorsement CNN ...The Communications Workers of America will endorse Bernie Sanders in Washington on Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the endorsement. Despite a long record of supporting unions and marching on picket lines, Sanders has struggled to lock down national union endorsements. With 700,000 members, the Communications Workers of America is the largest union to endorse the Vermont senator...
What It’s Like To Fight For A Union When Your Boss Is Donald Trump Think Progress ...When the management at the Trump hotel caught wind of the union drive last year, they hired the “union avoidance” consulting firm Lupe Cruz and Associates. That company, which has busted union campaigns at American Apparel, the trucking company Conway, and some Hilton hotels, boasts on its website that it can help clients in “preserving a union free work place”...
U.S. To Increase Worker Protection From Deadly Silica Dust for First Time in More Than 40 Years In These Times ...For the first time in 45 years, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is poised to increase safety standards for worker exposure to the silica dust that can cause deadly and incurable lung disease. A rule that would cut in half the amount of silica dust to which most workers could be exposed—and limit levels further for construction and maritime workers—is expected to be finalized in February...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Fed Raises Interest Rates The Atlantic ...On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The committee’s two-day meeting concluded with Fed officials voting unanimously in favor of the raise; the target range for the federal funds rate will move from between 0 percent and 0.25 percent to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent. Although this is “lift-off” from near-zero rates, these interest rates are still low by historical standards...
Villainous Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Has Been Arrested for Securities Fraud Slate ...Martin Shkreli, the widely loathed young pharma executive known for drastically hiking the price of a life-saving medication used by AIDS and cancer patients earlier this year, was arrested by federal authorities on charges of securities fraud Thursday morning, according to Bloomberg. Shkreli is currently the chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which this Summer purchased the rights to Daraprim...
Hung Jury Results in Declaration of Mistrial in Freddie Gray Case Common Dreams ...A judge in Baltimore on Wednesday declared a mistrial after jurors said they could not agree on the guilt or innocence of Baltimore Police Officer William G. Porter, charged on four separate counts related to the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. The jury deliberated the case for three days before coming to the conclusion they were hopelessly deadlocked and would not be able to reach an unanimous verdict...
How Flint, Michigan, Saved Money and Poisoned Its Children: City Declares Water Emergency Democracy Now ...The mayor of Flint, Michigan, has declared a state of emergency to address lead poisoning in the city’s water supply. Last year, the city’s unelected emergency manager switched the city’s water source from the Detroit system to the long-polluted Flint River in an attempt to save money...
The Market Has Spoken: Funders Flee "Free-Market" Climate Denial Group Truthout ...Funding for climate change denial is drying up. The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a US climate change denial group that espouses the "free-market," has lost more than two thirds of its funding in the past two years, according to tax filings reviewed by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD)...
Observers Slam CNN for Aiding and Abetting Hate Speech in GOP Debate Common Dreams ...From calls to ban non-American Muslims to pledges to carpet bomb densely-populated cities, the rise of hateful rhetoric among 2016 presidential candidates—and the real, violent consequences for those communities targeted—has raised widespread concern. But also on display during the fifth GOP debate on "national security" was the role of corporate media outlets such as CNN in stoking racist and dangerous rhetoric...
NC Legislators, Community Turn Up Heat on Miller/Coors Teamster.org ...Hundreds of community members joined Teamsters and state legislators at a rally yesterday to protest Miller/Coors plan to close their Eden, NC, facility. "Our rally yesterday brought state legislators and community members together with our members and retirees to show support for the workers here at the Miller/Coors facility," said Vernon Gammon, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 391...
Seattle Teamsters local to organize Uber, Lyft drivers after city council vote People's World ... Teamsters Local 117 in Seattle will step up its efforts to unionize Uber and Lyft drivers - who are already working with it on an organizing campaign - after the city council's unanimous vote to give those drivers workers' rights. The ordinance, passed 8-0 on Dec. 14, says the drivers, whom the ride-sharing services call "independent contractors" are, in Seattle, have the right to organize...
Lockport Town Board ratifies agreements with Teamsters, CSEA Buffalo News ...The Town Board on Wednesday ratified a seven-year contract with the Teamsters union, as well as a health insurance agreement with the Civil Service Employees Association. The deal with the 18 Teamsters members is retroactive to the start of 2014 and offers annual raises of 2 to 2.5 percent, depending on a worker’s job title and position on the pay scale...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Spain's rail workers to stage 23-hour strike on Friday The Local ...People making their way home for Christmas on Friday could be facing serious delays as workers stage an all-day strike to protest privitization plans. The strike, called by the CGT union, will take place from midnight to 11pm on Friday, December 18th, assuring a day of travel chaos for people heading home for Christmas...
Bangladesh tea workers strike against land acquisition USA News ...For the fourth consecutive day, about 15,000 Bangladeshi tea workers have continued an indefinite strike against a government plan to acquire hundreds of hectares of land that would adversely affect their lives and livelihood. Workers and family members from four tea estates in Habiganj district of northeastern Sylhet division are demanding the government scrap plans for a special 207-hectare economic zone...
Canada taking its time to ratify TPP deal Globe and Mail ...Canada is set to hold back on ratifying a key Asia-Pacific trade treaty, a move that would assuage critics but might hamper Washington’s bid to build domestic support for the deal, according to sources close to the talks. Canada is one of 12 countries that initialled the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in early October, agreeing in principle to create a trade zone covering 40 per cent of the world’s economy...
The GOP’s Growing Rift on Trade National Journal ...The Republican Party has split anew on one of its core tenets—free trade—and the question is how long the war will last. While the GOP has largely supported free trade for over three decades, its top-tier presidential candidates are split on the recently-struck Pacific trade accord, the most significant in a generation. And Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, has been labeled by The Wall Street Journal as potentially the most protectionist nominee since Herbert Hoover...
And Just Like That, "Free Trade" Pact Trounces US Law Common Dreams ...Claims that trade pacts like the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will not trump public health and environmental policies were revealed to be fiction on Tuesday after Congress, bending to the will of the World Trade Organization, killed the popular country-of-origin label (COOL) law...
Trade deal will lock in high drug prices, hurt seniors (opinion) The Hill ... If implemented, TPP will maintain high drug prices for America’s seniors and undermine the sustainability of public health programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The TPP would enact unprecedented protections for Big Pharma. It would lock in patent exclusivity for biologics - specialty drugs used to treat diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis...
Saginaw County Board calls on Congress to oppose Trans-Pacific Partnership MLive ...Saginaw County's elected officials are asking members of the U.S. Congress to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement involving 12 Pacific Rim countries including the United States. The county's Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Dec. 15, approved a resolution in opposition of the deal "and any similar trade deals if they fail to restructure the misguided and failed policies of the past"...
Does Lexmark Strike Signal New Labor Rights Movement in Mexico? Common Dreams ...Support is growing for over a hundred workers who were fired en masse after asking for pay raises and organizing rights at a Juarez plant operated by U.S.-based Fortune 500 company Lexmark International. Some 700 workers launched a strike last week at their Juarez plant calling for the company to increase pay for long-term employees from 114 to 120 pesos a day—a raise of roughly 35 cents—while others attempted to unionize...
Greece approves new austerity bill changing loan rules Yahoo ...Greek lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation granting the right to sell bad business loans from local banks to overseas funds as part of a new austerity bill demanded by bailout lenders from the rest of the eurozone. Labor unions, which oppose the reforms, staged two separate, peaceful protest marches in central Athens late Tuesday...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Owner of Arciuolo’s Shoe Store in Milford touts benefits of offering employees paid sick leave NH Register ...Connecticut became one of the first states to pass a Family and Medical Leave Bill, ensuring workers can’t be fired for taking leave, but she said it fails to cover many workers and because it doesn’t require them to be paid, many can’t afford the leave. The new bill establishes a paid family and medical leave compensation program administered by the state’s Labor Department...
New media campaign against House Republicans who opposed "right to work" STLToday ...A new ad campaign was unleashed this week targeting 20 Missouri House Republicans who helped defeat a "right-to-work" measure barring companies from requiring union membership or dues. The Committee for Accountable Government in Missouri, funded by more than $1 million in donations from the Joplin-based Humphreys family, announced a series of radio, television, digital and billboard ads...
Business group files suit challenging minimum wage initiative Review-Journal ...A coalition of business groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an initiative that seeks to gradually raise Nevada's minimum wage. The suit filed by the Committee to Preserve Nevada Jobs, a coalition of three chambers of commerce, argues the proposed constitutional amendment goes beyond changing the minimum wage and will impose new regulations and penalties harmful to employers...
Hedge Funds Deepen Puerto Rico's Debt, Ravaging Island and Impoverishing People Alternet ...“This is a distress call from a ship of 3.5 million American citizens that have been lost at sea,” Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla said on December 1, begging the Senate Judiciary Committee to help protect his homeland from an unspooling disaster. After issuing bonds for over a decade on everything not nailed down, Puerto Rico now carries $73 billion in debt...
Florida gave about $70 million to charter schools that later closed; state recouped little Miami Herald ...Charter schools, which are public schools run by private groups, have received more than $760 million from state taxpayers since 2000 according to an Associated Press analysis of state Department of Education records. Schools can use the money for construction costs, rent payments, buses and even property insurance. Yet charter schools in 30 districts have wound up closing after receiving as much as $70 million...
Kohler employees OK new contract, end 32-day strike Journal Sentinel ...Kohler Co. workers overwhelmingly approved a new labor contract Wednesday evening, ending a 32-day strike and returning to their jobs with what they and their leaders said is a significantly better deal. With 91% of the vote, members of United Auto Workers Local 833 ratified a four-year pact that boosts wages, minimizes rising health care costs and improves pension benefits...
SEIU 32BJ Raucous Rally Packs Essex Gym as Union Leader Brown Heads to Negotiations PolitickerNJ ...Janitor members of SEIU 32BJ – 7,000 strong, who clean office buildings in more than 500 office buildings around New1216151659a Jersey – tonight voted to strike if they can’t reach an agreement before Dec. 31st. As he heads back into negotiations tomorrow with the New Jersey Contractors Association, 32BJ Vice President and NJ State Director Kevin Brown wants everyone at $15 an hour...
UAW contract vote at Nexteer latest chapter in company's century-old story MLive ...As United Auto Workers Local 699 members begin voting on a new labor contract with Nexteer Automotive, it marks the latest chapter for a Saginaw County company that dates back more than a century. UAW members began casting ballots Thursday, Dec. 17, and voting continues through 10 p.m. Friday. They are voting on a new labor contract stretching to 2020...
Sanders wins Communications Workers of America endorsement CNN ...The Communications Workers of America will endorse Bernie Sanders in Washington on Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the endorsement. Despite a long record of supporting unions and marching on picket lines, Sanders has struggled to lock down national union endorsements. With 700,000 members, the Communications Workers of America is the largest union to endorse the Vermont senator...
What It’s Like To Fight For A Union When Your Boss Is Donald Trump Think Progress ...When the management at the Trump hotel caught wind of the union drive last year, they hired the “union avoidance” consulting firm Lupe Cruz and Associates. That company, which has busted union campaigns at American Apparel, the trucking company Conway, and some Hilton hotels, boasts on its website that it can help clients in “preserving a union free work place”...
U.S. To Increase Worker Protection From Deadly Silica Dust for First Time in More Than 40 Years In These Times ...For the first time in 45 years, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is poised to increase safety standards for worker exposure to the silica dust that can cause deadly and incurable lung disease. A rule that would cut in half the amount of silica dust to which most workers could be exposed—and limit levels further for construction and maritime workers—is expected to be finalized in February...
The Fed Raises Interest Rates The Atlantic ...On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The committee’s two-day meeting concluded with Fed officials voting unanimously in favor of the raise; the target range for the federal funds rate will move from between 0 percent and 0.25 percent to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent. Although this is “lift-off” from near-zero rates, these interest rates are still low by historical standards...
Villainous Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Has Been Arrested for Securities Fraud Slate ...Martin Shkreli, the widely loathed young pharma executive known for drastically hiking the price of a life-saving medication used by AIDS and cancer patients earlier this year, was arrested by federal authorities on charges of securities fraud Thursday morning, according to Bloomberg. Shkreli is currently the chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which this Summer purchased the rights to Daraprim...
Hung Jury Results in Declaration of Mistrial in Freddie Gray Case Common Dreams ...A judge in Baltimore on Wednesday declared a mistrial after jurors said they could not agree on the guilt or innocence of Baltimore Police Officer William G. Porter, charged on four separate counts related to the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. The jury deliberated the case for three days before coming to the conclusion they were hopelessly deadlocked and would not be able to reach an unanimous verdict...
How Flint, Michigan, Saved Money and Poisoned Its Children: City Declares Water Emergency Democracy Now ...The mayor of Flint, Michigan, has declared a state of emergency to address lead poisoning in the city’s water supply. Last year, the city’s unelected emergency manager switched the city’s water source from the Detroit system to the long-polluted Flint River in an attempt to save money...
The Market Has Spoken: Funders Flee "Free-Market" Climate Denial Group Truthout ...Funding for climate change denial is drying up. The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a US climate change denial group that espouses the "free-market," has lost more than two thirds of its funding in the past two years, according to tax filings reviewed by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD)...
Observers Slam CNN for Aiding and Abetting Hate Speech in GOP Debate Common Dreams ...From calls to ban non-American Muslims to pledges to carpet bomb densely-populated cities, the rise of hateful rhetoric among 2016 presidential candidates—and the real, violent consequences for those communities targeted—has raised widespread concern. But also on display during the fifth GOP debate on "national security" was the role of corporate media outlets such as CNN in stoking racist and dangerous rhetoric...
Monday, December 7, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.07.15
TEAMSTERS
Clark County School District Workers Vote to Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Clark County School District (CCSD) support workers have voted overwhelmingly to join the Teamsters Union, the Employee-Management Relations Board (EMRB) announced today. There are more than 11,000 support workers in the bargaining unit. The vote for Teamsters Local 14 was a decisive win over the current bargaining representative at CCSD, with nearly 82 percent of workers voting to join the Teamsters...
CCSD support staff ousts ESEA in favor of Teamsters union Review-Journal ...A decade-long fight to unseat the labor union that represents more than 11,000 bus drivers, custodians and support staff who work for the Clark County School District culminated Saturday in a landslide vote for Teamsters Local 14. Claiming 81 percent of 5, 339 ballots cast in a runoff election, Teamsters leaders and supporters credited their victory to a change in rules that govern union elections...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
U.S. car makers count among Pacific trade pact skeptics Yahoo ...U.S. auto makers are unlikely to win a much bigger share of the Japanese vehicle market despite a bid to break down trade barriers under a new Pacific trade pact, highlighting the difficulties ahead in winning votes for the deal through Congress. Car makers joined the tobacco industry, pharmaceutical companies and financial services in expressing reservations about parts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Vietnam Sees Record-High Foreign Investment on TPP, Eased Rules Bloomberg ...Vietnam expects disbursed foreign direct investment to reach a record high this year after the government eased business regulations, luring investors seeking to benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. The surge in the Southeast Asian country’s foreign investments comes as neighboring countries such as the Philippines report declines, reflecting overseas investors’ increasing attraction to Vietnam...
Drug prices expected to rise as result of TPP deal Globe and Mail ...The intellectual-property provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will drive up global drug prices and make it harder to treat diseases in developing countries, Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) says. A month after the final text of the TPP was released, the medical humanitarian organization has completed its analysis of the portions of the massive trade pact that will affect drug costs...
How the TPP Fulfills Big Ag's Wish List Alternet ...An initial review reveals that the agreement compromises food safety and public health, notably through measures pertaining to U.S. border inspection of food imports. The agreement limits food import inspections “to what is reasonable and necessary,” and—perhaps most alarming—requires border inspectors to notify food importers if a negative food safety check is issued so they can challenge the port inspection findings...
U.S. trade deficit rises 3.4% in October to $43.9 billion LA Times ...The U.S. trade deficit widened in October, the Commerce Department said Friday, as exports of U.S. goods fell to the lowest level in more than four years, a reflection of the impact of a weak global economy and stronger dollar. The trade deficit, the difference between exports and imports, widened 3.4% in October to $43.9 billion, compared to a revised $42.5 billion deficit in September...
Greek parliament narrowly approves 2016 austerity budget Euronews ...The Greek parliament has narrowly approved a 2016 budget which includes sharp cuts in spending and some tax increases. The measures were conditions set by the country’s international lenders when Athens signed up to a third rescue package from euro zone governments in August worth up to 84 billion euros. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said it was difficult for a government that wants to promote social justice...
To Lift Quality of Life and Economy, Finland Champions Universal Basic Income Common Dreams ...As a way to improve living standards and boosts its economy, the nation of Finland is moving closer towards offering all of its adult citizens a basic permanent income of approximately 800 euros per month. The monthly allotment would replace other existing social benefits, but is an idea long advocated for by progressive-minded social scientists and economists as a solution—counter-intuitive as it may first appear at first—that actually decreases government expenditures...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Pre-filed bill targets prevailing wage in disaster areas Missouri Times ...One of the shorter pre-filed bills submitted so far calls for a prohibition on prevailing hourly wage to be paid for a tax credit funded project in a disaster area. Rep. Bill White, R-Joplin, filed HB 1406, which “prohibits the Missouri Housing Development Commission from requiring a prevailing hourly wage to be paid to a contractor on a project for a housing tax credit if it is in a Governor-declared disaster area”...
Rauner: Right to work off the table “for now” Capitol Fax ...Gov. Rauner has long said he is not pushing a “right-to-work” agenda for Illinois, but when speaking to a friendly crowd Friday at the Illinois Manufacturers Association’s annual luncheon, Rauner said the idea was only off the table “for now.” “Our labor regulations, while all the states around us have gone right-to-work, that’s killing a lot of employers,” Rauner said. “I’ve taken that off the table, for now anyway, in the spirit of trying to get a deal”...
Oregon union fight heats up Statesman Journal ...The Northwest Accountability Project has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service asking to have the Freedom Foundation's tax-exempt charity status revoked. The complaint is intensifying the battle over public unions in Oregon and Washington, and was co-signed by 18 organizations including labor unions and left-leaning activist groups. The Northwest Accountability Project is working to counter the Freedom Foundation's campaign to have home-care workers opt out of paying union dues...
Right to Work is DOA in Ohio for fear of a Senate Bill 5 reprise (opinion) Cleveland.com ...Bystanders can unbunch their Dockers: Right to Work isn't going anywhere in Ohio anytime soon, if ever, because the last thing key Republicans want is another Senate Bill 5. True, an Ohio House committee gave a proposed Right to Work (for Less) plan, House Bill 377, a hearing last week. House rules require every House bill to get at least one hearing...
When It Comes to Female Apprenticeship Numbers, Oregon is Blowing Other States Away We Party Patriots ...In Oregon, outreach efforts to ensure women have apprenticeship opportunities were rewarded at a ceremony earlier this month, during which elected officials and union leaders touted the state’s leadership and celebrated the receipt of a $3 million federal grant to develop such programs. According to the numbers, Oregon has more than double the number of women in apprenticeships (6.9 percent) than the national average (3.2 percent)...
Paul Ryan Just Accidentally Made a Great Case for Raising the Minimum Wage The Nation ... While Ryan pushed many of his favorite myths about the safety net, he also inadvertently made one of the strongest cases to date for raising the minimum wage and investing in policies to help people balance work and caregiving. Indeed, in his grand finale, Ryan called on Congress to: “Push wages up. Push the cost of living down. Get people off the sidelines. I could think of no better way to restore confidence in the American economy”...
U.S. LABOR
UAW wins historic victory in U.S. South with vote at VW plant Reuters ...The United Auto Workers union won its first organizing vote at a foreign-owned auto assembly plant in the U.S. South on Friday, in a groundbreaking victory after decades of failed attempts. About 71 percent of skilled trades workers who cast ballots at Volkswagen AG's factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted to join the UAW, according to the company and the union. The skilled trades workers account for about 11 percent of the 1,450 hourly employees at the plant...
Communications Workers of America Ratify Agreements Covering AT&T Southeast Wireline Employees Fierce Telecom ...AT&T today announced that employees represented by the Communications Workers of America have voted to ratify a four-year contract with AT&T Southeast wireline operations. Employees also voted to ratify tentative agreements on two southeast regional contracts covering AT&T Billing Southeast and Southeast Utility Operations. The contracts cover about 24,000 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee...
Nexteer UAW workers reject proposed contract by a landslide MLive ...Nexteer Automotive workers represented by UAW Local 699 rejected a proposed contract in a landslide vote, according to the group. UAW Local 699 on Monday, Dec. 7 posted the tentative results of the vote on its Facebook page. The outcome was 399 "no" votes to 8 "yes" votes for trade workers, and 2,704 "no" votes to 72 "yes" votes for production workers...
The single ugliest myth the rich perpetuate about the poor Salon ...Many wealthy white conservative males believe they deserve their good fortunes, and that the poor are taking handouts. But on average little of the money of the wealthiest Americans is spent on productive job-creating ventures. Based on the evidence, the very people demeaned by the rich as ‘lazy’ are generally the hardest workers. 73 percent of public support recipients are members of working families...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Activists Stage Paris Sit-In To Protest Role of Corporate Polluters in Climate Talks Democracy Now ...Despite restrictions on protests following the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people, activists attempted to stage a mass sit-in at the Grand Palais in Paris today to protest corporate sponsors pushing for so-called "solutions" to climate change that include genetically modified foods, privatized water and biofuels...
Chicago Cover-Up Deepens as 80 Minutes of Footage Confirmed Missing Common Dreams ...Chicago's cover-up scandal is deepening after city officials were forced to release additional surveillance footage of the deadly shooting of 17-year-old African American Laquan McDonald by a white officer—and it showed an unexplained 80-minute gap covering the time the teenager was killed...
Hunger-Striking Asylum Seekers Bring Their Case to Clinton’s Front Door The Nation ...Immigration activists brought the current fight over immigrant detention to Hillary Clinton’s doorstep Thursday. Two dozen activists protested outside Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters to push the Democratic presidential front-runner and Bernie Sanders to respond to #Freedomgiving—the name activists gave to a week-long hunger strike that began the day before Thanksgiving...
Clark County School District Workers Vote to Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...Clark County School District (CCSD) support workers have voted overwhelmingly to join the Teamsters Union, the Employee-Management Relations Board (EMRB) announced today. There are more than 11,000 support workers in the bargaining unit. The vote for Teamsters Local 14 was a decisive win over the current bargaining representative at CCSD, with nearly 82 percent of workers voting to join the Teamsters...
CCSD support staff ousts ESEA in favor of Teamsters union Review-Journal ...A decade-long fight to unseat the labor union that represents more than 11,000 bus drivers, custodians and support staff who work for the Clark County School District culminated Saturday in a landslide vote for Teamsters Local 14. Claiming 81 percent of 5, 339 ballots cast in a runoff election, Teamsters leaders and supporters credited their victory to a change in rules that govern union elections...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
U.S. car makers count among Pacific trade pact skeptics Yahoo ...U.S. auto makers are unlikely to win a much bigger share of the Japanese vehicle market despite a bid to break down trade barriers under a new Pacific trade pact, highlighting the difficulties ahead in winning votes for the deal through Congress. Car makers joined the tobacco industry, pharmaceutical companies and financial services in expressing reservations about parts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Vietnam Sees Record-High Foreign Investment on TPP, Eased Rules Bloomberg ...Vietnam expects disbursed foreign direct investment to reach a record high this year after the government eased business regulations, luring investors seeking to benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. The surge in the Southeast Asian country’s foreign investments comes as neighboring countries such as the Philippines report declines, reflecting overseas investors’ increasing attraction to Vietnam...
Drug prices expected to rise as result of TPP deal Globe and Mail ...The intellectual-property provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will drive up global drug prices and make it harder to treat diseases in developing countries, Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) says. A month after the final text of the TPP was released, the medical humanitarian organization has completed its analysis of the portions of the massive trade pact that will affect drug costs...
How the TPP Fulfills Big Ag's Wish List Alternet ...An initial review reveals that the agreement compromises food safety and public health, notably through measures pertaining to U.S. border inspection of food imports. The agreement limits food import inspections “to what is reasonable and necessary,” and—perhaps most alarming—requires border inspectors to notify food importers if a negative food safety check is issued so they can challenge the port inspection findings...
U.S. trade deficit rises 3.4% in October to $43.9 billion LA Times ...The U.S. trade deficit widened in October, the Commerce Department said Friday, as exports of U.S. goods fell to the lowest level in more than four years, a reflection of the impact of a weak global economy and stronger dollar. The trade deficit, the difference between exports and imports, widened 3.4% in October to $43.9 billion, compared to a revised $42.5 billion deficit in September...
Greek parliament narrowly approves 2016 austerity budget Euronews ...The Greek parliament has narrowly approved a 2016 budget which includes sharp cuts in spending and some tax increases. The measures were conditions set by the country’s international lenders when Athens signed up to a third rescue package from euro zone governments in August worth up to 84 billion euros. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said it was difficult for a government that wants to promote social justice...
To Lift Quality of Life and Economy, Finland Champions Universal Basic Income Common Dreams ...As a way to improve living standards and boosts its economy, the nation of Finland is moving closer towards offering all of its adult citizens a basic permanent income of approximately 800 euros per month. The monthly allotment would replace other existing social benefits, but is an idea long advocated for by progressive-minded social scientists and economists as a solution—counter-intuitive as it may first appear at first—that actually decreases government expenditures...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Pre-filed bill targets prevailing wage in disaster areas Missouri Times ...One of the shorter pre-filed bills submitted so far calls for a prohibition on prevailing hourly wage to be paid for a tax credit funded project in a disaster area. Rep. Bill White, R-Joplin, filed HB 1406, which “prohibits the Missouri Housing Development Commission from requiring a prevailing hourly wage to be paid to a contractor on a project for a housing tax credit if it is in a Governor-declared disaster area”...
Rauner: Right to work off the table “for now” Capitol Fax ...Gov. Rauner has long said he is not pushing a “right-to-work” agenda for Illinois, but when speaking to a friendly crowd Friday at the Illinois Manufacturers Association’s annual luncheon, Rauner said the idea was only off the table “for now.” “Our labor regulations, while all the states around us have gone right-to-work, that’s killing a lot of employers,” Rauner said. “I’ve taken that off the table, for now anyway, in the spirit of trying to get a deal”...
Oregon union fight heats up Statesman Journal ...The Northwest Accountability Project has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service asking to have the Freedom Foundation's tax-exempt charity status revoked. The complaint is intensifying the battle over public unions in Oregon and Washington, and was co-signed by 18 organizations including labor unions and left-leaning activist groups. The Northwest Accountability Project is working to counter the Freedom Foundation's campaign to have home-care workers opt out of paying union dues...
Right to Work is DOA in Ohio for fear of a Senate Bill 5 reprise (opinion) Cleveland.com ...Bystanders can unbunch their Dockers: Right to Work isn't going anywhere in Ohio anytime soon, if ever, because the last thing key Republicans want is another Senate Bill 5. True, an Ohio House committee gave a proposed Right to Work (for Less) plan, House Bill 377, a hearing last week. House rules require every House bill to get at least one hearing...
When It Comes to Female Apprenticeship Numbers, Oregon is Blowing Other States Away We Party Patriots ...In Oregon, outreach efforts to ensure women have apprenticeship opportunities were rewarded at a ceremony earlier this month, during which elected officials and union leaders touted the state’s leadership and celebrated the receipt of a $3 million federal grant to develop such programs. According to the numbers, Oregon has more than double the number of women in apprenticeships (6.9 percent) than the national average (3.2 percent)...
Paul Ryan Just Accidentally Made a Great Case for Raising the Minimum Wage The Nation ... While Ryan pushed many of his favorite myths about the safety net, he also inadvertently made one of the strongest cases to date for raising the minimum wage and investing in policies to help people balance work and caregiving. Indeed, in his grand finale, Ryan called on Congress to: “Push wages up. Push the cost of living down. Get people off the sidelines. I could think of no better way to restore confidence in the American economy”...
U.S. LABOR
UAW wins historic victory in U.S. South with vote at VW plant Reuters ...The United Auto Workers union won its first organizing vote at a foreign-owned auto assembly plant in the U.S. South on Friday, in a groundbreaking victory after decades of failed attempts. About 71 percent of skilled trades workers who cast ballots at Volkswagen AG's factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted to join the UAW, according to the company and the union. The skilled trades workers account for about 11 percent of the 1,450 hourly employees at the plant...
Communications Workers of America Ratify Agreements Covering AT&T Southeast Wireline Employees Fierce Telecom ...AT&T today announced that employees represented by the Communications Workers of America have voted to ratify a four-year contract with AT&T Southeast wireline operations. Employees also voted to ratify tentative agreements on two southeast regional contracts covering AT&T Billing Southeast and Southeast Utility Operations. The contracts cover about 24,000 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee...
Nexteer UAW workers reject proposed contract by a landslide MLive ...Nexteer Automotive workers represented by UAW Local 699 rejected a proposed contract in a landslide vote, according to the group. UAW Local 699 on Monday, Dec. 7 posted the tentative results of the vote on its Facebook page. The outcome was 399 "no" votes to 8 "yes" votes for trade workers, and 2,704 "no" votes to 72 "yes" votes for production workers...
The single ugliest myth the rich perpetuate about the poor Salon ...Many wealthy white conservative males believe they deserve their good fortunes, and that the poor are taking handouts. But on average little of the money of the wealthiest Americans is spent on productive job-creating ventures. Based on the evidence, the very people demeaned by the rich as ‘lazy’ are generally the hardest workers. 73 percent of public support recipients are members of working families...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Activists Stage Paris Sit-In To Protest Role of Corporate Polluters in Climate Talks Democracy Now ...Despite restrictions on protests following the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people, activists attempted to stage a mass sit-in at the Grand Palais in Paris today to protest corporate sponsors pushing for so-called "solutions" to climate change that include genetically modified foods, privatized water and biofuels...
Chicago Cover-Up Deepens as 80 Minutes of Footage Confirmed Missing Common Dreams ...Chicago's cover-up scandal is deepening after city officials were forced to release additional surveillance footage of the deadly shooting of 17-year-old African American Laquan McDonald by a white officer—and it showed an unexplained 80-minute gap covering the time the teenager was killed...
Hunger-Striking Asylum Seekers Bring Their Case to Clinton’s Front Door The Nation ...Immigration activists brought the current fight over immigrant detention to Hillary Clinton’s doorstep Thursday. Two dozen activists protested outside Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters to push the Democratic presidential front-runner and Bernie Sanders to respond to #Freedomgiving—the name activists gave to a week-long hunger strike that began the day before Thanksgiving...
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.2.15
TEAMSTERS
San Bernardino County Public Employees Ratify Teamster Contract Teamster.org ...San Bernardino County employees, who are members of Teamsters Local 1932, ratified their first collective bargaining agreement yesterday. The agreement, ratified by over 80 percent of the votes cast, supported improvements in wages and benefits for the 11,000 workers who provide critical services to the residents of California’s largest county. “This is another big win for working families in Southern California,” said Randy Cammack, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42...
American Airlines Workers with Teamsters, CWA Ratify Groundbreaking Agreement Teamster.org ...Passenger service workers with American Airlines, who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Association, have voted to ratify a groundbreaking five-year agreement.The contract covering nearly 15,000 workers provides for initial average wage increases of 30 percent and improved benefits, among a number of other industry-leading gains...
American Air reservations agents approve contract with pay raises USA Today ...American Airlines reservations agents have voted to ratify a 5-year contract that gives pay raises to about 14,500 airline employees. The Communications Workers of America and the Teamsters said Monday that about 9,500 workers voted, with 73% voting to ratify the contract. According to the unions, workers will get immediate raises averaging 30%, putting them above pay levels for comparable workers at Delta Air Lines...
First Transit Agrees to Meet Again After Paratransit Drivers Unanimously Reject Contract Offer Local 727 ...First Transit management has agreed to meet again with the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee after drivers at the DuPage paratransit facility unanimously rejected the company’s unreasonable last, best and final contract offer on Nov. 24. The offer included meager wages and benefits far below the industry standards. “Over and over, we told the company that this offer was unacceptable and that they needed to do better, but they refused to listen,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727...
Coca-Cola Teamsters Demand Respect as Final Day of New Contract Negotiations Begins Local 727 ...The Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee and Coca-Cola Refreshments met for more than 14 hours on Nov. 30 to try to come to terms on a new contract. After bargaining late into the night and early morning hours, both sides have returned to the table on Tuesday, Dec. 1 for what is expected to be another marathon session of negotiations. Coca-Cola Teamsters overwhelmingly voted on Sunday to authorize an unfair labor practice strike...
Teamsters oppose longer tractor-trailers on roadways Tire Business ...The U.S. Senate on Nov. 18 removed language from a spending bill that would force states to allow an increase in the length of tractor trailers. Previously, the Senate had instructed the chamber’s negotiators on the long-term highway bill to oppose any federal mandate that would require states to accept twin 33-foot trailers on their roadways, according to the Teamsters, which noted that the trailers are currently outlawed in 39 states — with UPS and Fed Ex among companies pushing the policy change...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
In South Korea, a Dictator’s Daughter Cracks Down on Labor The Nation ...Following in the footsteps of her dictator father, South Korea’s President, Park Geun-hye, is cracking down on labor and citizens groups opposed to the increasingly authoritarian policies of her ruling “New Frontier” party known as Saenuri. The situation could reach a critical point this weekend, when tens of thousands of workers organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) join forces with farmers, students, and other civic organizations...
At Paris climate summit, environmentalists lobby against Trans-Pacific trade deal Washington Post ...Environmental activists are traveling to Paris this week, using the global climate conference as a platform to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal they say undermines the summit’s goals. Representatives and lobbyists for the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade plan to meet with delegates and host strategy sessions and other public events at the Paris conference to voice their opposition to the trade deal...
On World AIDS Day, Here Are 12 Reasons TPP Is Bad for People with AIDS AFLCIO ...December 1 is World AIDS Day, a day described as "an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died." The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a complex trade deal that we're still trying to figure out all the ramifications of. Here are 12 ways TPP could be bad for people with AIDS...
The TPP State of Play: How We Defeat the Largest Trade Deal in History EFF ...The official release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on November 5 not only confirmed our fears about how it would threaten our rights online and over our digital devices, but also kicked off a 90-day countdown to President Obama signing the deal. A few days later, the White House formally requested the International Trade Commission (ITC) to begin its study of the impacts of the TPP on the U.S. economy...
Vancouver city council considering officially opposing TPP deal Globe and Mail ...Vancouver city councilors, concerned about whether the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact will put the city at risk from lawsuits by global corporations, say they’ll decide next month whether to become the first Canadian city to officially oppose the deal. Councillors asked city staff on Tuesday to examine concerns that the TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement provision – also known as ISDS – will compromise the city’s authority...
Greece Media Workers Go on Anti-Austerity Strike – Trade Unions Sputnik News ...Greek journalists protest on Wednesday against austerity measures adopted by Athens, several trade unions announced in a joint statement. "Media workers, together with all the working people of the country, call for retaining social security (basic and supplementary pensions), social benefits, health care," the unions stated...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New public-sector ‘right-to-work’ measure filed in Oregon NW Labor Press ...On Nov. 20, anti-union attorney Jill Gibson turned in the first batch of 1,432 signatures on a new Oregon ballot measure, aimed at November 2016, that would eliminate any requirement for public employees to pay union dues or “fair share” fees to cover the costs of union representation. Gibson submitted four other versions of the same measure in March, but withdrew them in April and October after she determined that the measures would do poorly among voters...
State Gives Back Government Money To Study Paid Leave, Says Leave Isn’t About Caregiving Think Progress ...In September, the federal Department of Labor announced that it had awarded $1.55 million in grant money to help states and cities research the need and design for potential paid family leave programs. Tennessee was one of the five lucky states to win money. But just two months later, the commission abruptly announced it was giving back the money it had itself applied for...
ALEC Invites Politicians to "Plan Your 2016 Agenda" at ALEC Confab in Scottsdale Truthout ...ALEC's Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force has been the source of a slew of anti-worker bills including attacks on organized labor, attacks on higher wages, and efforts to limit benefits for workers. In Arizona, legislators will get an update on the success of these efforts to crush the only representative of working families in the workplace entitled: "From Right-to-Work to Paycheck Protection, An Update on State Labor Issues"...
Fight against Voter ID law continues Daily Tarheel ...To chants of “Sí, se puede,” people of different ages, races and genders held posters with phrases like “Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears” at an N.C. NAACP press conference Tuesday. The news conference marked exactly 60 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. The conference announced the new “It’s Our Time, It’s Our Vote” campaign, with one of its goals to push voter registration for 80 days until registration cutoff for the spring primary elections...
Judge dismisses attempt to raise state minimum wage Daily Cardinal ...A Dane County judge dismissed Tuesday a 2014 lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker’s administration that attempted to raise the state’s minimum wage. The lawsuit, brought by liberal labor group Wisconsin Jobs Now, alleged the state was “failing to secure reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency, and moral well being,” according to the original petition...
Scott Walker Boots 15,000 People Off Food Stamps In Three Months Think Progress ...In just three months, 15,000 people in Wisconsin have already lost food stamps thanks to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) decision to enforce full work requirements for the program in Milwaukee despite economic conditions dire enough to trigger a federal reprieve. Walker’s administration made the policy change in April. The 15,000 bumped from the rolls from May to July is only half the number the state predicts will ultimately lose food stamps...
Ohio House Republicans to proceed carefully on 'right-to-work' bill Cleveland ...Ohio House Republicans say they expect a lengthy discussion on a so-called "right-to-work" bill, though they hesitate to say whether they will ultimately pass it. A number of Republican leaders say they personally support House Bill 377, which would prohibit private-sector labor union membership as a condition of employment...
Submitting to Wall Street Vultures, Puerto Rico Narrowly Avoids Massive Default Common Dreams ...Debt-choked Puerto Rico on Tuesday "narrowly avoided" economic default by scrounging together an 11th-hour payment toward its $354 million debt to Wall Street vulture funds, an unexpected move likely resulting from the island's submission to austerity cuts and other drastic government measures. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), speaking after a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning with Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, said the commonwealth had "narrowly avoided a complete default"...
California Cities Build Momentum on Minimum Wage Boosts KQED ...In the last three years, 15 of the 30 cities and counties nationwide that have voted to increase the minimum wage have been in California, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “California is a state that has made it very clear to cities and counties that they have the authority to pass a higher minimum wage,” said Laura Huizar, staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project...
Walmart Threatens City Council For Considering Minimum Wage Increase Think Progress ...A California city is experiencing a tactic Walmart has become known for: threats over a minimum wage hike. The city of Desert Hot Springs, California is considering a minimum wage increase to boost residents’ incomes and therefore help attract more retailers. But the proposal has drawn the protests of the country’s largest retailer, Walmart...
U.S. LABOR
UAW circulates 'scab' list in Kohler strike Sheboygan Press ...United Auto Workers Local 833 leaders have begun circulating a list of union members who have crossed picket lines in the now 2-week-old Kohler Co. strike, though they insist the individuals will be left alone. The list, which was obtained by the Sheboygan Press and verified by UAW Local 833 leaders, includes 13 circled names with the heading, “No longer our union brothers or sisters.” It goes on to state, “A scab is a scab”...
NLRB could impound VW ballots after Chattanooga union vote Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board could impound ballots cast Thursday and Friday after the union election at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant pending a review of an appeal by the automaker. Jessica Kahanek, an NLRB spokeswoman, said Tuesday she couldn't say for sure that will be the case after the VW election in which 164 maintenance workers will vote on whether they want the United Auto Workers to represent them for collective bargaining purposes...
Cool Job: For IBEW official, Circle of Lights is a labor of love IndyStar ...Around Thanksgiving, many Central Indiana families look forward to another beloved local holiday tradition when the Circle of Lights, presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and Electrical Workers of IBEW No. 481, illuminates Monument Circle. Steve Menser, the business manager/financial secretary of the union local, has assisted with installing the Circle of Lights decorations for the past 26 years...
Dead, White, and Blue: The Great Die-Off of America's Blue Collar Whites Alternet ...While the lifespan of affluent whites continues to lengthen, the lifespan of poor whites has been shrinking. As a result, in just the last four years, the gap between poor white men and wealthier ones has widened by up to four years. The New York Times summed up the Deaton and Case study with this headline: “Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap”...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Congress reaches deal on 5-year highway bill Politico ...Lawmakers are on track to clear a massive transportation infrastructure bill as soon as this week, a legislative coup a decade in the making that will give new House Speaker Paul Ryan something to crow about. Negotiators from both chambers of Congress tasked with hashing out a final deal are set to announce an agreement Tuesday afternoon after a majority of conferees signed off on the package...
Supreme Court timetable gives President Obama an opening on immigration USA Today ...The Supreme Court moved President Obama a step closer Tuesday to getting a final verdict before leaving office on his plan to protect more than 4 million undocumented immigrants from threatened deportation. The justices turned down Texas' request for an additional month to respond to the Justice Department's request for a high court hearing, leaving open the chance for a spring showdown over the controversial executive action...
The Deadliest County for Police Killings in America The Atlantic ...While attempting to track every police killing in the United States during 2015, journalists at The Guardian discovered that cops in Kern County aren’t just the deadliest force in the state relative to the population, they are the deadliest in the nation. “In all, 13 people have been killed so far this year by law enforcement officers in Kern County, which has a population of just under 875,000”...
Police Officer Who Killed Tamir Rice Says He Shouted Warnings Before Shooting Slate ...The police officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland just over a year ago said he “continuously” shouted “show me your hands” in the moments before he decided to fire at Rice. Security footage of the park where Rice was shot on Nov. 22, 2014, showed that Officer Timothy Loehmann opened fire about 1.7 seconds after jumping out of the police cruise...
San Bernardino County Public Employees Ratify Teamster Contract Teamster.org ...San Bernardino County employees, who are members of Teamsters Local 1932, ratified their first collective bargaining agreement yesterday. The agreement, ratified by over 80 percent of the votes cast, supported improvements in wages and benefits for the 11,000 workers who provide critical services to the residents of California’s largest county. “This is another big win for working families in Southern California,” said Randy Cammack, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42...
American Airlines Workers with Teamsters, CWA Ratify Groundbreaking Agreement Teamster.org ...Passenger service workers with American Airlines, who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Association, have voted to ratify a groundbreaking five-year agreement.The contract covering nearly 15,000 workers provides for initial average wage increases of 30 percent and improved benefits, among a number of other industry-leading gains...
American Air reservations agents approve contract with pay raises USA Today ...American Airlines reservations agents have voted to ratify a 5-year contract that gives pay raises to about 14,500 airline employees. The Communications Workers of America and the Teamsters said Monday that about 9,500 workers voted, with 73% voting to ratify the contract. According to the unions, workers will get immediate raises averaging 30%, putting them above pay levels for comparable workers at Delta Air Lines...
First Transit Agrees to Meet Again After Paratransit Drivers Unanimously Reject Contract Offer Local 727 ...First Transit management has agreed to meet again with the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee after drivers at the DuPage paratransit facility unanimously rejected the company’s unreasonable last, best and final contract offer on Nov. 24. The offer included meager wages and benefits far below the industry standards. “Over and over, we told the company that this offer was unacceptable and that they needed to do better, but they refused to listen,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727...
Coca-Cola Teamsters Demand Respect as Final Day of New Contract Negotiations Begins Local 727 ...The Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee and Coca-Cola Refreshments met for more than 14 hours on Nov. 30 to try to come to terms on a new contract. After bargaining late into the night and early morning hours, both sides have returned to the table on Tuesday, Dec. 1 for what is expected to be another marathon session of negotiations. Coca-Cola Teamsters overwhelmingly voted on Sunday to authorize an unfair labor practice strike...
Teamsters oppose longer tractor-trailers on roadways Tire Business ...The U.S. Senate on Nov. 18 removed language from a spending bill that would force states to allow an increase in the length of tractor trailers. Previously, the Senate had instructed the chamber’s negotiators on the long-term highway bill to oppose any federal mandate that would require states to accept twin 33-foot trailers on their roadways, according to the Teamsters, which noted that the trailers are currently outlawed in 39 states — with UPS and Fed Ex among companies pushing the policy change...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
In South Korea, a Dictator’s Daughter Cracks Down on Labor The Nation ...Following in the footsteps of her dictator father, South Korea’s President, Park Geun-hye, is cracking down on labor and citizens groups opposed to the increasingly authoritarian policies of her ruling “New Frontier” party known as Saenuri. The situation could reach a critical point this weekend, when tens of thousands of workers organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) join forces with farmers, students, and other civic organizations...
At Paris climate summit, environmentalists lobby against Trans-Pacific trade deal Washington Post ...Environmental activists are traveling to Paris this week, using the global climate conference as a platform to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal they say undermines the summit’s goals. Representatives and lobbyists for the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade plan to meet with delegates and host strategy sessions and other public events at the Paris conference to voice their opposition to the trade deal...
On World AIDS Day, Here Are 12 Reasons TPP Is Bad for People with AIDS AFLCIO ...December 1 is World AIDS Day, a day described as "an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died." The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a complex trade deal that we're still trying to figure out all the ramifications of. Here are 12 ways TPP could be bad for people with AIDS...
The TPP State of Play: How We Defeat the Largest Trade Deal in History EFF ...The official release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on November 5 not only confirmed our fears about how it would threaten our rights online and over our digital devices, but also kicked off a 90-day countdown to President Obama signing the deal. A few days later, the White House formally requested the International Trade Commission (ITC) to begin its study of the impacts of the TPP on the U.S. economy...
Vancouver city council considering officially opposing TPP deal Globe and Mail ...Vancouver city councilors, concerned about whether the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact will put the city at risk from lawsuits by global corporations, say they’ll decide next month whether to become the first Canadian city to officially oppose the deal. Councillors asked city staff on Tuesday to examine concerns that the TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement provision – also known as ISDS – will compromise the city’s authority...
Greece Media Workers Go on Anti-Austerity Strike – Trade Unions Sputnik News ...Greek journalists protest on Wednesday against austerity measures adopted by Athens, several trade unions announced in a joint statement. "Media workers, together with all the working people of the country, call for retaining social security (basic and supplementary pensions), social benefits, health care," the unions stated...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New public-sector ‘right-to-work’ measure filed in Oregon NW Labor Press ...On Nov. 20, anti-union attorney Jill Gibson turned in the first batch of 1,432 signatures on a new Oregon ballot measure, aimed at November 2016, that would eliminate any requirement for public employees to pay union dues or “fair share” fees to cover the costs of union representation. Gibson submitted four other versions of the same measure in March, but withdrew them in April and October after she determined that the measures would do poorly among voters...
State Gives Back Government Money To Study Paid Leave, Says Leave Isn’t About Caregiving Think Progress ...In September, the federal Department of Labor announced that it had awarded $1.55 million in grant money to help states and cities research the need and design for potential paid family leave programs. Tennessee was one of the five lucky states to win money. But just two months later, the commission abruptly announced it was giving back the money it had itself applied for...
ALEC Invites Politicians to "Plan Your 2016 Agenda" at ALEC Confab in Scottsdale Truthout ...ALEC's Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force has been the source of a slew of anti-worker bills including attacks on organized labor, attacks on higher wages, and efforts to limit benefits for workers. In Arizona, legislators will get an update on the success of these efforts to crush the only representative of working families in the workplace entitled: "From Right-to-Work to Paycheck Protection, An Update on State Labor Issues"...
Fight against Voter ID law continues Daily Tarheel ...To chants of “Sí, se puede,” people of different ages, races and genders held posters with phrases like “Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears” at an N.C. NAACP press conference Tuesday. The news conference marked exactly 60 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. The conference announced the new “It’s Our Time, It’s Our Vote” campaign, with one of its goals to push voter registration for 80 days until registration cutoff for the spring primary elections...
Judge dismisses attempt to raise state minimum wage Daily Cardinal ...A Dane County judge dismissed Tuesday a 2014 lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker’s administration that attempted to raise the state’s minimum wage. The lawsuit, brought by liberal labor group Wisconsin Jobs Now, alleged the state was “failing to secure reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency, and moral well being,” according to the original petition...
Scott Walker Boots 15,000 People Off Food Stamps In Three Months Think Progress ...In just three months, 15,000 people in Wisconsin have already lost food stamps thanks to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) decision to enforce full work requirements for the program in Milwaukee despite economic conditions dire enough to trigger a federal reprieve. Walker’s administration made the policy change in April. The 15,000 bumped from the rolls from May to July is only half the number the state predicts will ultimately lose food stamps...
Ohio House Republicans to proceed carefully on 'right-to-work' bill Cleveland ...Ohio House Republicans say they expect a lengthy discussion on a so-called "right-to-work" bill, though they hesitate to say whether they will ultimately pass it. A number of Republican leaders say they personally support House Bill 377, which would prohibit private-sector labor union membership as a condition of employment...
Submitting to Wall Street Vultures, Puerto Rico Narrowly Avoids Massive Default Common Dreams ...Debt-choked Puerto Rico on Tuesday "narrowly avoided" economic default by scrounging together an 11th-hour payment toward its $354 million debt to Wall Street vulture funds, an unexpected move likely resulting from the island's submission to austerity cuts and other drastic government measures. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), speaking after a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning with Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, said the commonwealth had "narrowly avoided a complete default"...
California Cities Build Momentum on Minimum Wage Boosts KQED ...In the last three years, 15 of the 30 cities and counties nationwide that have voted to increase the minimum wage have been in California, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “California is a state that has made it very clear to cities and counties that they have the authority to pass a higher minimum wage,” said Laura Huizar, staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project...
Walmart Threatens City Council For Considering Minimum Wage Increase Think Progress ...A California city is experiencing a tactic Walmart has become known for: threats over a minimum wage hike. The city of Desert Hot Springs, California is considering a minimum wage increase to boost residents’ incomes and therefore help attract more retailers. But the proposal has drawn the protests of the country’s largest retailer, Walmart...
U.S. LABOR
UAW circulates 'scab' list in Kohler strike Sheboygan Press ...United Auto Workers Local 833 leaders have begun circulating a list of union members who have crossed picket lines in the now 2-week-old Kohler Co. strike, though they insist the individuals will be left alone. The list, which was obtained by the Sheboygan Press and verified by UAW Local 833 leaders, includes 13 circled names with the heading, “No longer our union brothers or sisters.” It goes on to state, “A scab is a scab”...
NLRB could impound VW ballots after Chattanooga union vote Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board could impound ballots cast Thursday and Friday after the union election at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant pending a review of an appeal by the automaker. Jessica Kahanek, an NLRB spokeswoman, said Tuesday she couldn't say for sure that will be the case after the VW election in which 164 maintenance workers will vote on whether they want the United Auto Workers to represent them for collective bargaining purposes...
Cool Job: For IBEW official, Circle of Lights is a labor of love IndyStar ...Around Thanksgiving, many Central Indiana families look forward to another beloved local holiday tradition when the Circle of Lights, presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and Electrical Workers of IBEW No. 481, illuminates Monument Circle. Steve Menser, the business manager/financial secretary of the union local, has assisted with installing the Circle of Lights decorations for the past 26 years...
Dead, White, and Blue: The Great Die-Off of America's Blue Collar Whites Alternet ...While the lifespan of affluent whites continues to lengthen, the lifespan of poor whites has been shrinking. As a result, in just the last four years, the gap between poor white men and wealthier ones has widened by up to four years. The New York Times summed up the Deaton and Case study with this headline: “Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap”...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Congress reaches deal on 5-year highway bill Politico ...Lawmakers are on track to clear a massive transportation infrastructure bill as soon as this week, a legislative coup a decade in the making that will give new House Speaker Paul Ryan something to crow about. Negotiators from both chambers of Congress tasked with hashing out a final deal are set to announce an agreement Tuesday afternoon after a majority of conferees signed off on the package...
Supreme Court timetable gives President Obama an opening on immigration USA Today ...The Supreme Court moved President Obama a step closer Tuesday to getting a final verdict before leaving office on his plan to protect more than 4 million undocumented immigrants from threatened deportation. The justices turned down Texas' request for an additional month to respond to the Justice Department's request for a high court hearing, leaving open the chance for a spring showdown over the controversial executive action...
The Deadliest County for Police Killings in America The Atlantic ...While attempting to track every police killing in the United States during 2015, journalists at The Guardian discovered that cops in Kern County aren’t just the deadliest force in the state relative to the population, they are the deadliest in the nation. “In all, 13 people have been killed so far this year by law enforcement officers in Kern County, which has a population of just under 875,000”...
Police Officer Who Killed Tamir Rice Says He Shouted Warnings Before Shooting Slate ...The police officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland just over a year ago said he “continuously” shouted “show me your hands” in the moments before he decided to fire at Rice. Security footage of the park where Rice was shot on Nov. 22, 2014, showed that Officer Timothy Loehmann opened fire about 1.7 seconds after jumping out of the police cruise...
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.01.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters at Coca-Cola Refreshments Authorize Unfair Labor Practice Strike Teamster.org ...More than 225 Coca-Cola Refreshments workers represented by Teamsters Local 727 voted Sun., Nov. 29, to authorize an unfair labor practice strike against the beverage industry behemoth. The Teamsters voted by a 10-to-1 margin to authorize the strike after Local 727 filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against the company in a fight for a new contract...
Coca-Cola workers authorize strike at plants in Niles, Alsip Chicago Tribune ...Workers at two Chicago-area Coca-Cola plants have voted to authorize a strike against the beverage giant to protest unfair labor practices in the final days of negotiations for a new three-year contract. Members of Teamsters Local 727 could head to the picket line as early as Wednesday morning after their contract with Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Refreshments expires at midnight Tuesday...
Portland’s General Distributors Inc., at Odds with Teamsters Union Brewbound ...A federal mediator is slated to oversee negotiations this Wednesday between Portland, Oregon’s Teamsters Local 162 and General Distributors, Inc (GDI), a beer wholesaler responsible for getting brands like Corona, Coors, Sierra Nevada and a number of craft products to market. The strike left some local craft brewers without a route to market as replacement workers struggled to distribute beer in time for the Thanksgiving holiday...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
More Than 30 Trade Unionists Have Been Killed in Honduras Since 2009 The Nation ...Honduras’s products and people are entangled in a social crisis driving international pressure for an independent investigation into our Central American “trade partner’s” Banana Republic–style anti-labor tactics. Several trade unionists have reportedly faced death threats in recent months amid rising labor and political tumult...
Truckers to picket container company, but inks contract with six others Vancouver Sun ...Container truck drivers put strike plans into gear Sunday to pressure a company they allege is shorting its drivers on retroactive pay. The truckers planned to picket Harbour Link’s main yard in Delta early Monday to spur it into honouring the terms of the deal that ended last year’s one-month port strike, said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s B.C. area director...
Furnace workers of imitation jewellery units on strike Times of India ...Around 500 furnace workers of the city's famed imitation jewellery business have gone on a strike to demand better wages. This is the first time that the imitation jewellery market of Rajkot, one of the biggest in India, has witnessed a strike...
Big Oil, TTIP and the Scramble for Europe Counterpunch ...If sanctioned, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would be the biggest trade deal ever seen. Yet the public continue to be kept in the dark about it. Large corporations have been granted privileged access to officials and have been allowed to shape the talks agenda from the outset. Throughout the process, organisations representing the public and civil society have been sidelined...
Domestic Manufacturers Launch New Anti-TPP Currency Ad Blitz on Capitol Hill American Economic Alert ...The U.S. Business and Industry Council (USBIC) announced today the start of a media campaign to highlight the lack of enforceable currency provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The group, which represents domestic manufacturers, many seriously hurt by currency cheating, has initiated a series of print ads appearing in major media serving Capitol Hill...
Wisconsin lawmakers split — not on party lines — on Trans-Pacific Partnership Wisconsin State Journal ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal seven years in the making before it was unveiled this month, has quickly moved into the sights of some on Capitol Hill — including a vocal cadre of Wisconsin Democrats. The partnership is a proposed free-trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 other nations bordering the Pacific Ocean. After being negotiated in secret, the deal was finalized last month...
Portugal divided by austerity FT.com ...The real-life repercussions of the austerity debate that has gripped the west in the wake of the global financial crisis are experienced daily in Portuguese homes, hospitals, schools, job centres, companies and cafés, with almost every aspect of people’s lives having been affected by severe cuts and tough reforms. For the past four years the country has been held up by EU commissioners and international creditors as a model of how to behave in the face of a sovereign debt crisis...
2 arrested at anti-austerity march CBC News ...Two people were arrested following a protest Monday night that turned violent and involved rocks being thrown at police cars and officers. The anti-austerity and anti-capitalist march, organized by students at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, began at 8 p.m. at Philipps Square. No itinerary was given to police, and the march was declared illegal. Police say mischief was reported shortly after the march began...
Economist Has Convincing Theory on How Extreme Inequality Creates Extremist Violence Common Dreams ...Influential French economist Thomas Piketty is raising important questions this week after positing a theory that the rise of the Islamic State (or ISIS) can be attributed, at least in part, to extreme regional inequality in the Middle East fueled largely by oil wealth. Piketty argues in a column published Le Monde last week and translated by the Washington Post on Monday that the concentration of wealth in the hands of just a few petro-monarchies has made the region the "most unequal on the planet"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Ohio House panel to hear testimony on right-to-work bill WOWK ...A state legislative panel in Ohio plans to hear testimony on a proposal that would bar private employers from requiring workers to join or pay dues to a labor organization. Such right-to-work laws have been enacted in 25 states. Ohio's bill is slated to get its first hearing Tuesday afternoon before the House Commerce and Labor Committee. Right-to-work proposals have not gained traction in the Ohio Legislature...
A Wealthy Governor and His Friends Are Remaking Illinois New York Times ...The rich families remaking Illinois are among a small group around the country who have channeled their extraordinary wealth into political power, taking advantage of regulatory, legal and cultural shifts that have carved new paths for infusing money into campaigns. Economic winners in an age of rising inequality, operating largely out of public view, they are reshaping government with fortunes so large as to defy the ordinary financial scale of politics...
Tennessee seeks to dismiss voter ID lawsuit The Tennessean ...A lawsuit that contends age discrimination was written into Tennessee's voter identification law because it does not allow use of student IDs has stalled as a federal judge considers whether it is a valid case. Lawyers for a group of students and those for the state disagree on how to interpret the 44-year-old constitutional amendment...
Teamsters at Coca-Cola Refreshments Authorize Unfair Labor Practice Strike Teamster.org ...More than 225 Coca-Cola Refreshments workers represented by Teamsters Local 727 voted Sun., Nov. 29, to authorize an unfair labor practice strike against the beverage industry behemoth. The Teamsters voted by a 10-to-1 margin to authorize the strike after Local 727 filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against the company in a fight for a new contract...
Coca-Cola workers authorize strike at plants in Niles, Alsip Chicago Tribune ...Workers at two Chicago-area Coca-Cola plants have voted to authorize a strike against the beverage giant to protest unfair labor practices in the final days of negotiations for a new three-year contract. Members of Teamsters Local 727 could head to the picket line as early as Wednesday morning after their contract with Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Refreshments expires at midnight Tuesday...
Portland’s General Distributors Inc., at Odds with Teamsters Union Brewbound ...A federal mediator is slated to oversee negotiations this Wednesday between Portland, Oregon’s Teamsters Local 162 and General Distributors, Inc (GDI), a beer wholesaler responsible for getting brands like Corona, Coors, Sierra Nevada and a number of craft products to market. The strike left some local craft brewers without a route to market as replacement workers struggled to distribute beer in time for the Thanksgiving holiday...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
More Than 30 Trade Unionists Have Been Killed in Honduras Since 2009 The Nation ...Honduras’s products and people are entangled in a social crisis driving international pressure for an independent investigation into our Central American “trade partner’s” Banana Republic–style anti-labor tactics. Several trade unionists have reportedly faced death threats in recent months amid rising labor and political tumult...
Truckers to picket container company, but inks contract with six others Vancouver Sun ...Container truck drivers put strike plans into gear Sunday to pressure a company they allege is shorting its drivers on retroactive pay. The truckers planned to picket Harbour Link’s main yard in Delta early Monday to spur it into honouring the terms of the deal that ended last year’s one-month port strike, said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s B.C. area director...
Furnace workers of imitation jewellery units on strike Times of India ...Around 500 furnace workers of the city's famed imitation jewellery business have gone on a strike to demand better wages. This is the first time that the imitation jewellery market of Rajkot, one of the biggest in India, has witnessed a strike...
Big Oil, TTIP and the Scramble for Europe Counterpunch ...If sanctioned, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would be the biggest trade deal ever seen. Yet the public continue to be kept in the dark about it. Large corporations have been granted privileged access to officials and have been allowed to shape the talks agenda from the outset. Throughout the process, organisations representing the public and civil society have been sidelined...
Domestic Manufacturers Launch New Anti-TPP Currency Ad Blitz on Capitol Hill American Economic Alert ...The U.S. Business and Industry Council (USBIC) announced today the start of a media campaign to highlight the lack of enforceable currency provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The group, which represents domestic manufacturers, many seriously hurt by currency cheating, has initiated a series of print ads appearing in major media serving Capitol Hill...
Wisconsin lawmakers split — not on party lines — on Trans-Pacific Partnership Wisconsin State Journal ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal seven years in the making before it was unveiled this month, has quickly moved into the sights of some on Capitol Hill — including a vocal cadre of Wisconsin Democrats. The partnership is a proposed free-trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 other nations bordering the Pacific Ocean. After being negotiated in secret, the deal was finalized last month...
Portugal divided by austerity FT.com ...The real-life repercussions of the austerity debate that has gripped the west in the wake of the global financial crisis are experienced daily in Portuguese homes, hospitals, schools, job centres, companies and cafés, with almost every aspect of people’s lives having been affected by severe cuts and tough reforms. For the past four years the country has been held up by EU commissioners and international creditors as a model of how to behave in the face of a sovereign debt crisis...
2 arrested at anti-austerity march CBC News ...Two people were arrested following a protest Monday night that turned violent and involved rocks being thrown at police cars and officers. The anti-austerity and anti-capitalist march, organized by students at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, began at 8 p.m. at Philipps Square. No itinerary was given to police, and the march was declared illegal. Police say mischief was reported shortly after the march began...
Economist Has Convincing Theory on How Extreme Inequality Creates Extremist Violence Common Dreams ...Influential French economist Thomas Piketty is raising important questions this week after positing a theory that the rise of the Islamic State (or ISIS) can be attributed, at least in part, to extreme regional inequality in the Middle East fueled largely by oil wealth. Piketty argues in a column published Le Monde last week and translated by the Washington Post on Monday that the concentration of wealth in the hands of just a few petro-monarchies has made the region the "most unequal on the planet"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Ohio House panel to hear testimony on right-to-work bill WOWK ...A state legislative panel in Ohio plans to hear testimony on a proposal that would bar private employers from requiring workers to join or pay dues to a labor organization. Such right-to-work laws have been enacted in 25 states. Ohio's bill is slated to get its first hearing Tuesday afternoon before the House Commerce and Labor Committee. Right-to-work proposals have not gained traction in the Ohio Legislature...
A Wealthy Governor and His Friends Are Remaking Illinois New York Times ...The rich families remaking Illinois are among a small group around the country who have channeled their extraordinary wealth into political power, taking advantage of regulatory, legal and cultural shifts that have carved new paths for infusing money into campaigns. Economic winners in an age of rising inequality, operating largely out of public view, they are reshaping government with fortunes so large as to defy the ordinary financial scale of politics...
Tennessee seeks to dismiss voter ID lawsuit The Tennessean ...A lawsuit that contends age discrimination was written into Tennessee's voter identification law because it does not allow use of student IDs has stalled as a federal judge considers whether it is a valid case. Lawyers for a group of students and those for the state disagree on how to interpret the 44-year-old constitutional amendment...
Del. lawmaker calls for $15 / hour minimum wage Delaware 105.9 ...Delaware's minimum wage would rise to $15.05 an hour by 2023, under an amendment to legislation filed in the General Assembly. State Senator Robert Marshall, D- Wilmington West, cites the increasing numbers of people with low-wage jobs as well as a rising rate of poverty as the reasons for his measure. The minimum wage increase would be phased in on June 1st of each year...
How One City Is Making Sure Bosses Comply With Wage Theft and Paid Sick Leave Laws In These Times ...Over the past five years, Seattle has implemented sweeping labor laws, instituting paid sick leave, discouraging discrimination against those with prison records, incrementally raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2017 and strengthening wage-theft protections. But these new laws can’t enforce themselves...
Bangor’s minimum wage debate could be decided in two weeks Bangor ...The City Council could finally bring closure to the months-long debate over whether the city should raise the local minimum wage during a meeting in two weeks. Councilors and city officials met Monday night for a workshop to hash through some of the concerns that have made this an issue of contention for months...
U.S. LABOR
American Passenger-Service Workers Approve 5-Year Contract Bloomberg ...American Airlines Group Inc. said a union representing 14,500 reservation agents and airport passenger-service workers approved a five-year contract that included “significant” pay raises. The agreement provides an average initial increase of 30 percent, 2 percent raises at the end of the first and second years and 2.5 percent in each of the following two years, according to a statement on the Communications Workers of America website...
Health care remains sticking point in USW contract talks NWI.com ...Negotiations with steelmakers broke off for the Thanksgiving holiday but resumed Monday. The United Steelworkers union is fighting efforts by ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel to slash health care insurance benefits, which the union says could cost steelworkers and retirees as much as $6,300 more a year in out-of-pocket expenses. Steelworkers would suffer an effective pay cut as a result...
Kohler Strike Continues, Union Seeking Donations WHBL ...United Auto Workers Local 833 have now spent two full weeks on the picket line after they and the Kohler Company failed to reach an agreement on a new contract earlier this month. With the strike now entering its third week, the union is focusing some attention on helping its members get through the impact of being on strike...
NLRB strikes down two more companies' class action waivers Reuters ...The U.S. National Labor Relations Board last week continued to expand its rule prohibiting class and collective action waivers in employment agreements, upholding rulings by two administrative judges who struck down such provisions, including one that was voluntary. The board rejected a bid by California grocery store chain Bristol Farms to approve a proposed settlement with an NLRB regional director that would have allowed its workers to opt out of signing the waivers...
SEIU claims court victory on health insurance Capitol Fax ...The St. Clair County Circuit Court has ruled in favor of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, which was granted a temporary restraining order against Gov. Bruce Rauner and Comptroller Leslie Munger. The ruling issued late Wednesday protects health insurance for nearly 5,000 low-wage home healthcare workers in Illinois. The home healthcare workers serve adults with disabilities in Illinois’ Home Services Program...
Stronger Together: Envoy Agents Vote for CWA Representation CWA-union.org ...Nearly 5,000 Envoy Air agents (formerly American Eagle) joined together and overwhelmingly voted for representation by the Communications Workers of America in an election conducted by the National Mediation Board. The agents work at 102 stations nationwide and have a broad range of responsibilities for passenger service and fleet service work. Envoy is owned by American Airlines Group...
Collective Action Stops Retaliation Against Cal Cartage Warehouse Workers Labor Press ...Warehouse Workers at California Cartage in the Los Angeles port neighborhood of Wilmington faced retaliation from their employer after temporary workers joined direct hires in a pair of three-day strikes in September and October. The strikers were calling for 15$ an hour minimum wage, a safe work environment, a lunch area free of rats and cockroaches and an end to wage theft...
Robert Reich: Why the High-Tech 'Sharing Economy' Is All About Impoverishing Workers Alternet ...The so-called “share economy” includes independent contractors, temporary workers, the self-employed, part-timers, freelancers, and free agents. Most file 1099s rather than W2s, for tax purposes. It’s estimated that in five years over 40 percent of the American labor force will be in such uncertain work; in a decade, most of us. This trend shifts all economic risks onto workers.
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Behind Hillary Clinton’s $250 Billion Infrastructure Plan Think Progress ...Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced on Monday her plan to spend $250 billion over five years to improve the nation’s infrastructure. The plan — which includes proposals to improve roads and bridges, transit systems, energy systems, and electric grids — is the first phase of Clinton’s month-long focus on jobs. In March, Senate Republicans defeated a Democratic amendment to the proposed 2016 budget which was offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders and called for $478 billion in new spending. Sanders has proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan...
Hillary Clinton's Modest Infrastructure Proposal The Atlantic ...It’s hard to call a plan that spends $275 billion in taxpayer dollars over five years “modest” and keep a straight face. But that may be the best way to describe the proposal Hillary Clinton unveiled on Monday to upgrade the nation’s ailing infrastructure. The reaction from advocates of more robust infrastructure spending has been less than enthusiastic, a nod to the fact that the size of the Clinton plan falls well short of what studies have shown the country needs...
Why Do Former Goldman Sachs Bankers Keep Landing Top Slots at the Federal Reserve? The Nation ...During the last year, three vacancies have opened up to head regional Federal Reserve banks around the country. One by one, all three of the spots have gone to former insiders from Goldman Sachs. First, Goldman Sachs trustee Patrick Harker essentially picked himself to lead the Philadelphia Fed, stepping down as chair of the Philadelphia Fed Board of Directors to allow for his own selection...
White Collar Whistleblower Sentenced To Prison While The Criminals He Exposed Are Free Think Progress ...Over the holiday weekend, the man who’s done more to expose the financial crimes of the rich and powerful than almost anyone else in the 21st century was sentenced to five years in a Swiss prison. The harsh punishment to protect bank secrecy comes amid a comparatively lax pursuit of justice for in cases where the public has been wronged by banking industry actors...
Defying the 'Shock Doctrine' in Paris as Thousands March Despite Protest Ban Common Dreams ...It was people power versus "shock doctrine" on the streets of Paris on Sunday as thousands dared to defy the French government's ban on protests during the much-anticipated global climate summit. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators linked arms in a human chain along the 3 kilometer cancelled march route—joining the millions worldwide who took to the streets to demand that the assembled world leaders commit to bold action to confront the growing threat of climate change...
Two Expert Reports Slam Cleveland Cops for "Reckless" Killing of Tamir Rice Mother Jones ...On Saturday, attorneys for the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy who was shot to death by a Cleveland cop last November, released two new reports concluding that the actions of the two officers involved, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, were "reckless" and "objectively unreasonable" by legal and professional standards. The reports were authored by Roger Clark, a former Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, and by Jeffrey Noble, a former deputy police chief for Irvine, California...
How One City Is Making Sure Bosses Comply With Wage Theft and Paid Sick Leave Laws In These Times ...Over the past five years, Seattle has implemented sweeping labor laws, instituting paid sick leave, discouraging discrimination against those with prison records, incrementally raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2017 and strengthening wage-theft protections. But these new laws can’t enforce themselves...
Bangor’s minimum wage debate could be decided in two weeks Bangor ...The City Council could finally bring closure to the months-long debate over whether the city should raise the local minimum wage during a meeting in two weeks. Councilors and city officials met Monday night for a workshop to hash through some of the concerns that have made this an issue of contention for months...
U.S. LABOR
American Passenger-Service Workers Approve 5-Year Contract Bloomberg ...American Airlines Group Inc. said a union representing 14,500 reservation agents and airport passenger-service workers approved a five-year contract that included “significant” pay raises. The agreement provides an average initial increase of 30 percent, 2 percent raises at the end of the first and second years and 2.5 percent in each of the following two years, according to a statement on the Communications Workers of America website...
Health care remains sticking point in USW contract talks NWI.com ...Negotiations with steelmakers broke off for the Thanksgiving holiday but resumed Monday. The United Steelworkers union is fighting efforts by ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel to slash health care insurance benefits, which the union says could cost steelworkers and retirees as much as $6,300 more a year in out-of-pocket expenses. Steelworkers would suffer an effective pay cut as a result...
Kohler Strike Continues, Union Seeking Donations WHBL ...United Auto Workers Local 833 have now spent two full weeks on the picket line after they and the Kohler Company failed to reach an agreement on a new contract earlier this month. With the strike now entering its third week, the union is focusing some attention on helping its members get through the impact of being on strike...
NLRB strikes down two more companies' class action waivers Reuters ...The U.S. National Labor Relations Board last week continued to expand its rule prohibiting class and collective action waivers in employment agreements, upholding rulings by two administrative judges who struck down such provisions, including one that was voluntary. The board rejected a bid by California grocery store chain Bristol Farms to approve a proposed settlement with an NLRB regional director that would have allowed its workers to opt out of signing the waivers...
SEIU claims court victory on health insurance Capitol Fax ...The St. Clair County Circuit Court has ruled in favor of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, which was granted a temporary restraining order against Gov. Bruce Rauner and Comptroller Leslie Munger. The ruling issued late Wednesday protects health insurance for nearly 5,000 low-wage home healthcare workers in Illinois. The home healthcare workers serve adults with disabilities in Illinois’ Home Services Program...
Stronger Together: Envoy Agents Vote for CWA Representation CWA-union.org ...Nearly 5,000 Envoy Air agents (formerly American Eagle) joined together and overwhelmingly voted for representation by the Communications Workers of America in an election conducted by the National Mediation Board. The agents work at 102 stations nationwide and have a broad range of responsibilities for passenger service and fleet service work. Envoy is owned by American Airlines Group...
Collective Action Stops Retaliation Against Cal Cartage Warehouse Workers Labor Press ...Warehouse Workers at California Cartage in the Los Angeles port neighborhood of Wilmington faced retaliation from their employer after temporary workers joined direct hires in a pair of three-day strikes in September and October. The strikers were calling for 15$ an hour minimum wage, a safe work environment, a lunch area free of rats and cockroaches and an end to wage theft...
Robert Reich: Why the High-Tech 'Sharing Economy' Is All About Impoverishing Workers Alternet ...The so-called “share economy” includes independent contractors, temporary workers, the self-employed, part-timers, freelancers, and free agents. Most file 1099s rather than W2s, for tax purposes. It’s estimated that in five years over 40 percent of the American labor force will be in such uncertain work; in a decade, most of us. This trend shifts all economic risks onto workers.
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Behind Hillary Clinton’s $250 Billion Infrastructure Plan Think Progress ...Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced on Monday her plan to spend $250 billion over five years to improve the nation’s infrastructure. The plan — which includes proposals to improve roads and bridges, transit systems, energy systems, and electric grids — is the first phase of Clinton’s month-long focus on jobs. In March, Senate Republicans defeated a Democratic amendment to the proposed 2016 budget which was offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders and called for $478 billion in new spending. Sanders has proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan...
Hillary Clinton's Modest Infrastructure Proposal The Atlantic ...It’s hard to call a plan that spends $275 billion in taxpayer dollars over five years “modest” and keep a straight face. But that may be the best way to describe the proposal Hillary Clinton unveiled on Monday to upgrade the nation’s ailing infrastructure. The reaction from advocates of more robust infrastructure spending has been less than enthusiastic, a nod to the fact that the size of the Clinton plan falls well short of what studies have shown the country needs...
Why Do Former Goldman Sachs Bankers Keep Landing Top Slots at the Federal Reserve? The Nation ...During the last year, three vacancies have opened up to head regional Federal Reserve banks around the country. One by one, all three of the spots have gone to former insiders from Goldman Sachs. First, Goldman Sachs trustee Patrick Harker essentially picked himself to lead the Philadelphia Fed, stepping down as chair of the Philadelphia Fed Board of Directors to allow for his own selection...
White Collar Whistleblower Sentenced To Prison While The Criminals He Exposed Are Free Think Progress ...Over the holiday weekend, the man who’s done more to expose the financial crimes of the rich and powerful than almost anyone else in the 21st century was sentenced to five years in a Swiss prison. The harsh punishment to protect bank secrecy comes amid a comparatively lax pursuit of justice for in cases where the public has been wronged by banking industry actors...
Defying the 'Shock Doctrine' in Paris as Thousands March Despite Protest Ban Common Dreams ...It was people power versus "shock doctrine" on the streets of Paris on Sunday as thousands dared to defy the French government's ban on protests during the much-anticipated global climate summit. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators linked arms in a human chain along the 3 kilometer cancelled march route—joining the millions worldwide who took to the streets to demand that the assembled world leaders commit to bold action to confront the growing threat of climate change...
Two Expert Reports Slam Cleveland Cops for "Reckless" Killing of Tamir Rice Mother Jones ...On Saturday, attorneys for the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy who was shot to death by a Cleveland cop last November, released two new reports concluding that the actions of the two officers involved, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, were "reckless" and "objectively unreasonable" by legal and professional standards. The reports were authored by Roger Clark, a former Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, and by Jeffrey Noble, a former deputy police chief for Irvine, California...
Monday, November 23, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.23.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamster Silicon Valley Drivers Vote Overwhelmingly in Favor of Contract Teamster.org ...Shuttle drivers for seven major Silicon Valley companies voted by an overwhelming 95 percent today to approve a first contract that provides for industry-leading wages and benefits. The nearly 200 drivers, who are members of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., work for Compass Transportation, contractor to Apple, eBay, PayPal, Yahoo, Evernote, Genentech and Amtrak...
Labor deal for more Silicon Valley tech shuttle drivers USA Today ...Shuttle drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay and several other Silicon Valley companies overwhelmingly voted Sunday to accept a contract that will increase wages and benefits and give them their first paid Thanksgiving holiday. The drivers for those companies, as well as Amtrak, Evernote, Genentech and Paypal, voted to unionize with Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., back in February...
Teamsters, Employer Group Reconvene for Carhaul Negotiations Teamster.org ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) met this week with the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division to begin negotiating a revised national carhaul contract. This week’s negotiations come after carhaulers voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements earlier this year...
Local 727 Reaches Tentative Agreement on New 4-Year Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Contract Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 reached tentative agreement on a new four-year contract for 600 members at Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola. Final negotiations stretched late into the night on Nov. 19 as the Bargaining Committee hammered out final details for strong wage increases, important benefits and fortified rights for drivers, bulk, merchandisers, laborers and all other Reyes Teamsters...
BMWED To Conduct Research On Occupational Risk Reduction Teamster.org ...The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes' (BMWED) President Freddie N. Simpson, with the full support of the BMWED National Division Officers, has approved a Brotherhood-wide research study to address the long-standing absence of high quality data reflecting the nature, frequency, severity and socio-economic consequences of occupational risk and its impact on BMWED members. BMWED members are a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference...
Teamsters Join with Business, Community to Host N.Y. Job Fair Teamster.org ...Sunset Park is home to some of the last sections of working waterfront in the city, and a job fair held Tuesday night aims to employ neighborhood residents in some of the good jobs on the waterfront. Manhattan Beer Distributors partnered with Teamsters Local 812, City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, and community organization UPROSE...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
The Maquiladora Workers of Juárez Find Their Voice The Nation ... After more than a decade of silence, maquiladora workers in Ciudad Juárez have found their voice. The city, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is now the center of a growing rebellion of laborers in the border factories. At the gates to four plants, including a huge 5,000-worker Foxconn complex, they have set up encampments, or plantons, demanding recognition of independent unions, and protesting firings and reprisals...
Lufthansa cabin crew to strike Thursday, Friday Globe and Mail ...Lufthansa cabin crew have been called to another round of strikes starting Thursday and Friday, the head of trade union UFO, Nicoley Baublies, told Reuters on Monday. The cabin crew union staged a week of strikes earlier this month, costing the company tens of millions of euros and forcing the cancellation of about 4,700 flights...
U.S. trade czar confident of 2016 Congress vote on TPP STL Today ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Thursday he expected Congress to vote on a 12-nation Pacific Rim free-trade deal early next year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which aims to liberalize trade for 40 percent of the global economy, must be ratified by U.S. Congress but opposition from many Democrats and some Republicans could mean a vote is unlikely before President Barack Obama leaves office...
Obama promotes TPP, says it is 'more than just a trade pact' The Sun Daily ...United States President Barack Obama, in his strong bid to promote the TPP to Asean member countries, said it is more than just a trade pact as it will build cooperation among nations. Acknowledging that the debates on TPP in many countries and skepticism on previously failed trade deals, Obama admitted that TPP deal is a “tough sell”...
As Obama heads to Malaysia, human trafficking stance questioned Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia on Friday for a Southeast Asia leaders’ summit comes amid allegations by U.S. lawmakers and rights groups that his administration ignored Malaysia’s abuse of trafficking victims such as Baser to secure the country’s help sealing a high-profile trade deal and strengthen ties to offset China’s growing political clout...
EFF Joins Broad Coalition of Groups to Protest the TPP in Washington D.C. (opinion) EFF ...Contained within these 6,000-plus pages of the completed TPP text are a series of provisions that empower multinational corporations and private interest groups at the expense of the public interest. Civil society groups represent diverse concerns, so while we may disagree on our specific concerns about the TPP, we commonly recognize that this is a toxic, undemocratic deal that must be stopped at all costs...
Trade laws undo local progress on food systems (opinion) IATP.org ...Careful examination of the recently released text for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is already revealing new risks for our food system. Those findings also tell us what to watch out for in the other big pending trade deal—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union...
Greek economy stagnates under austerity and capital controls ABC ...This is the reality in Greece these days, as the latest austerity cuts a swathe through consumer spending and capital controls — measures to limit withdrawals from banks — stagnate the already downtrodden Greek economy. In what is now a damaging consumer cycle, the damaging of cuts to pensions means grandparents have less money in their wallets and no longer spend up as the dote on their grandchildren — sometimes with handcrafted shoes from France and Italy...
Bangladesh: ‘An Effective Union Can Ensure Fire Safety’ Solidarity Center ...Bilkish Begum says she and other workers at a garment factory in Bangladesh could not discuss implementing fire safety measures with their employer—even after the deadly blaze at Tazreen Fashions factory killed 112 workers three years ago next week. Only when they formed a union, which provides workers with protection against retaliation for seeking to improve their workplace conditions, could they take steps to help ensure their safety...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Louisiana votes for Medicaid expansion Daily Kos ...The monumental David Vitter loss in Louisiana Saturday promises to be a big win for Louisiana. While it was Vitter's past scandals that dominated the election, it's Democratic Governor-elect John Bel Edwards' main policy promise that's the big news, and likely means health care for some 242,000 Louisiana residents in the coming year...
Advocates Dispute Dire Predictions of $15 Minimum Wage Study Public News Service ...A report released this week by a business group predicting dire consequences if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour doesn't reflect reality, fair-wage advocates say. According to the report by the Long Island Association, more than 23,000 Long Island jobs would be lost. Advocates for raising the wage say businesses would benefit from the increased spending...
Exposing North Carolina's shell game of electoral apartheid Daily Kos ...This fall, Daily Kos community member Bill Busa exposed North Carolina's sneaky new voter suppression tool in which county boards of elections in the state closed almost one-third of the state’s early voting polling places in 2014, replacing them with polls at new locations. The result of moving those early voting locations: African American voters found themselves 350,000 miles farther away from their nearest early voting sites...
Strangers Raise Money For Walmart Worker Fired For Picking Up Cans Think Progress ...When a parking lot attendant dared to recycle trash he picked up outside an upstate New York Walmart, the store fired him. Now generous strangers are trying to help cushion his sudden fall. Thomas Smith, 52, had been earning $9 an hour at an upstate New York Walmart for less than three months when his manager terminated him over the cans...
California cities embracing higher minimum wage SGV Tribune ...Surrounded by city and union officials at a Labor Day rally in South Los Angeles last year, Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed raising the city’s minimum wage to $13.25 per hour by the end of the decade — a plan he said would significantly help low-income workers in Los Angeles while placing minimal burden on employers. Nine months later, Garcetti signed an ordinance that is more progressive than he proposed — a citywide wage hike to $15 an hour by 2021...
U.S. LABOR
UAW reaches end of winding road with Detroit automakers Detroit Free Press ...Detroit’s once-every-four-years ritual of UAW negotiations and ratification is finally over. The final two companies: General Motors and Ford, ratified their agreements late Friday after months of grueling talks. There are as many opinions about who won and who came up short as the 140,000 workers whose pay and benefits for the next four years were set in the contracts...
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, The Case To Push Right To Work Nationally NH Labor News ...The Supreme Court is about to hear a case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association that could overturn a nearly forty-year decision that allows unions to negotiate “fair-share” fees for non-union members who benefit from the union’s contract. “We are disappointed that at a time when big corporations and the wealthy few are rewriting the rules in their favor, the Supreme Court has chosen to take a case that threatens the fundamental promise of America"...
CWA accuses Alcatel-Lucent of stealing Lucent retirees' health care funds Fierce Telecom ...The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union has filed a request with the U.S. District Court in New Jersey to get a temporary restraining order against Alcatel-Lucent over claims that the French company plans to use money for retirees' health care to cover its own pension funding obligations. Under the proposed plan, CWA said that Alcatel-Lucent will move 20,000 retirees and an additional $1.2 billion...
Verizon workers rally for contract Godanriver.com ...Verizon workers across the East Coast, including Danville, rallied over contract negotiations Thursday evening. A small group of regional workers gathered at the 141 Trade St. garage where most of the technicians that service Verizon lines in Danville base their operation. The previous contract expired on Aug. 1. Verizon employees have been working without a contract since then...
The U.S. Is Beaten By 27 Other Countries When It Comes To Women’s Equality Think Progress ...While the world has made progress closing the gap between women and men in health, education, economic participation, and political empowerment over the last decade, the United States is not keeping up. The World Economic Forum (WEF) just released its 2015 Global Gender Gap report, which showed that the gap has dropped by 4 percent in the last ten years...
Heat kills California farmworkers, but the state won't always admit it Daily Kos ...Agricultural workers have fewer job protections than most other workers even as they do physically grueling labor for low pay. It’s a vicious circle—most of the people who work in the fields come from vulnerable groups, and the low wages and lack of protections keep them vulnerable. California’s heat is one significant source of illness and even death for farmworkers. But you might not know that from the state’s official statistics...
When Temp Workers Die While Being Taken to the Job, Who’s Responsible? In These Times ...Since the Great Recession, the temporary staffing industry has boomed, and temp employment has accounted for significant portions of rebounding job growth. Temps—who are employed by agencies and whose labor is simply rented out by third-party businesses—have become seen as some of America’s most vulnerable workers. Labor advocates say that, in treating workers as replaceable units of labor, the temp industry can overlook workers’ most basic human needs...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Many Americans Have Criminal Records as College Diplomas Truthout ...The number of Americans with a criminal history has risen sharply over the past three decades. Today, nearly one-third of the adult working age population has a criminal record. In fact, so many Americans have a criminal record that counting them all is nearly impossible...
How Prison Reform Could Turn the Prison-Industrial Complex Into the Treatment-Industrial Complex The Nation ... many of the dollars expected to be “saved” from shuttering prisons may simply be funneled into privatized “alternatives to incarceration” like parole programs and halfway houses. These operations are often run by the household names of the prison business—they’re simply moving from behind bars to the so-called “treatment-industrial complex”...
Wall Street's Reprieve Expires The Atlantic ...Financial-regulation legislation—or efforts to stop it—ranks among the trickiest political knots that the White House and Congress have to unravel if they want to keep with their October budget compromise and fund the government. Democrats and Republicans in Congress—though not in the country at large—still line up on opposite sides of the fence...
Trump Supporters Punch, Kick Black Lives Matter Protester at Rally Slate ...Several people taking part in a rally for Donald Trump in Birmingham, Alabama pushed down, kicked, and punched a black protester. At least six Trump supporters shoved and tackled the protester, while one man punched the demonstrator and a woman kicked him while he was on the ground, according to CNN. One even attempted to choke the protester...
France Asks UN to Back 'Merciless' Military Response to Paris Attacks Common Dreams ...Just days after French President François Hollande vowed a "merciless" response to the Paris attacks, his government on Thursday submitted a resolution for the United Nations Security Council to "take all necessary measures" against ISIS. The French proposal, which could face a vote as early as Friday, competes with a separate one re-submitted by Russia this week...
Teamster Silicon Valley Drivers Vote Overwhelmingly in Favor of Contract Teamster.org ...Shuttle drivers for seven major Silicon Valley companies voted by an overwhelming 95 percent today to approve a first contract that provides for industry-leading wages and benefits. The nearly 200 drivers, who are members of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., work for Compass Transportation, contractor to Apple, eBay, PayPal, Yahoo, Evernote, Genentech and Amtrak...
Labor deal for more Silicon Valley tech shuttle drivers USA Today ...Shuttle drivers for Apple, Yahoo, eBay and several other Silicon Valley companies overwhelmingly voted Sunday to accept a contract that will increase wages and benefits and give them their first paid Thanksgiving holiday. The drivers for those companies, as well as Amtrak, Evernote, Genentech and Paypal, voted to unionize with Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., back in February...
Teamsters, Employer Group Reconvene for Carhaul Negotiations Teamster.org ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) met this week with the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division to begin negotiating a revised national carhaul contract. This week’s negotiations come after carhaulers voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements earlier this year...
Local 727 Reaches Tentative Agreement on New 4-Year Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola Contract Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 reached tentative agreement on a new four-year contract for 600 members at Reyes/Great Lakes Coca-Cola. Final negotiations stretched late into the night on Nov. 19 as the Bargaining Committee hammered out final details for strong wage increases, important benefits and fortified rights for drivers, bulk, merchandisers, laborers and all other Reyes Teamsters...
BMWED To Conduct Research On Occupational Risk Reduction Teamster.org ...The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes' (BMWED) President Freddie N. Simpson, with the full support of the BMWED National Division Officers, has approved a Brotherhood-wide research study to address the long-standing absence of high quality data reflecting the nature, frequency, severity and socio-economic consequences of occupational risk and its impact on BMWED members. BMWED members are a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference...
Teamsters Join with Business, Community to Host N.Y. Job Fair Teamster.org ...Sunset Park is home to some of the last sections of working waterfront in the city, and a job fair held Tuesday night aims to employ neighborhood residents in some of the good jobs on the waterfront. Manhattan Beer Distributors partnered with Teamsters Local 812, City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, and community organization UPROSE...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
The Maquiladora Workers of Juárez Find Their Voice The Nation ... After more than a decade of silence, maquiladora workers in Ciudad Juárez have found their voice. The city, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is now the center of a growing rebellion of laborers in the border factories. At the gates to four plants, including a huge 5,000-worker Foxconn complex, they have set up encampments, or plantons, demanding recognition of independent unions, and protesting firings and reprisals...
Lufthansa cabin crew to strike Thursday, Friday Globe and Mail ...Lufthansa cabin crew have been called to another round of strikes starting Thursday and Friday, the head of trade union UFO, Nicoley Baublies, told Reuters on Monday. The cabin crew union staged a week of strikes earlier this month, costing the company tens of millions of euros and forcing the cancellation of about 4,700 flights...
U.S. trade czar confident of 2016 Congress vote on TPP STL Today ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Thursday he expected Congress to vote on a 12-nation Pacific Rim free-trade deal early next year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which aims to liberalize trade for 40 percent of the global economy, must be ratified by U.S. Congress but opposition from many Democrats and some Republicans could mean a vote is unlikely before President Barack Obama leaves office...
Obama promotes TPP, says it is 'more than just a trade pact' The Sun Daily ...United States President Barack Obama, in his strong bid to promote the TPP to Asean member countries, said it is more than just a trade pact as it will build cooperation among nations. Acknowledging that the debates on TPP in many countries and skepticism on previously failed trade deals, Obama admitted that TPP deal is a “tough sell”...
As Obama heads to Malaysia, human trafficking stance questioned Reuters ...U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia on Friday for a Southeast Asia leaders’ summit comes amid allegations by U.S. lawmakers and rights groups that his administration ignored Malaysia’s abuse of trafficking victims such as Baser to secure the country’s help sealing a high-profile trade deal and strengthen ties to offset China’s growing political clout...
EFF Joins Broad Coalition of Groups to Protest the TPP in Washington D.C. (opinion) EFF ...Contained within these 6,000-plus pages of the completed TPP text are a series of provisions that empower multinational corporations and private interest groups at the expense of the public interest. Civil society groups represent diverse concerns, so while we may disagree on our specific concerns about the TPP, we commonly recognize that this is a toxic, undemocratic deal that must be stopped at all costs...
Trade laws undo local progress on food systems (opinion) IATP.org ...Careful examination of the recently released text for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is already revealing new risks for our food system. Those findings also tell us what to watch out for in the other big pending trade deal—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union...
Greek economy stagnates under austerity and capital controls ABC ...This is the reality in Greece these days, as the latest austerity cuts a swathe through consumer spending and capital controls — measures to limit withdrawals from banks — stagnate the already downtrodden Greek economy. In what is now a damaging consumer cycle, the damaging of cuts to pensions means grandparents have less money in their wallets and no longer spend up as the dote on their grandchildren — sometimes with handcrafted shoes from France and Italy...
Bangladesh: ‘An Effective Union Can Ensure Fire Safety’ Solidarity Center ...Bilkish Begum says she and other workers at a garment factory in Bangladesh could not discuss implementing fire safety measures with their employer—even after the deadly blaze at Tazreen Fashions factory killed 112 workers three years ago next week. Only when they formed a union, which provides workers with protection against retaliation for seeking to improve their workplace conditions, could they take steps to help ensure their safety...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Louisiana votes for Medicaid expansion Daily Kos ...The monumental David Vitter loss in Louisiana Saturday promises to be a big win for Louisiana. While it was Vitter's past scandals that dominated the election, it's Democratic Governor-elect John Bel Edwards' main policy promise that's the big news, and likely means health care for some 242,000 Louisiana residents in the coming year...
Advocates Dispute Dire Predictions of $15 Minimum Wage Study Public News Service ...A report released this week by a business group predicting dire consequences if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour doesn't reflect reality, fair-wage advocates say. According to the report by the Long Island Association, more than 23,000 Long Island jobs would be lost. Advocates for raising the wage say businesses would benefit from the increased spending...
Exposing North Carolina's shell game of electoral apartheid Daily Kos ...This fall, Daily Kos community member Bill Busa exposed North Carolina's sneaky new voter suppression tool in which county boards of elections in the state closed almost one-third of the state’s early voting polling places in 2014, replacing them with polls at new locations. The result of moving those early voting locations: African American voters found themselves 350,000 miles farther away from their nearest early voting sites...
Strangers Raise Money For Walmart Worker Fired For Picking Up Cans Think Progress ...When a parking lot attendant dared to recycle trash he picked up outside an upstate New York Walmart, the store fired him. Now generous strangers are trying to help cushion his sudden fall. Thomas Smith, 52, had been earning $9 an hour at an upstate New York Walmart for less than three months when his manager terminated him over the cans...
California cities embracing higher minimum wage SGV Tribune ...Surrounded by city and union officials at a Labor Day rally in South Los Angeles last year, Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed raising the city’s minimum wage to $13.25 per hour by the end of the decade — a plan he said would significantly help low-income workers in Los Angeles while placing minimal burden on employers. Nine months later, Garcetti signed an ordinance that is more progressive than he proposed — a citywide wage hike to $15 an hour by 2021...
U.S. LABOR
UAW reaches end of winding road with Detroit automakers Detroit Free Press ...Detroit’s once-every-four-years ritual of UAW negotiations and ratification is finally over. The final two companies: General Motors and Ford, ratified their agreements late Friday after months of grueling talks. There are as many opinions about who won and who came up short as the 140,000 workers whose pay and benefits for the next four years were set in the contracts...
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, The Case To Push Right To Work Nationally NH Labor News ...The Supreme Court is about to hear a case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association that could overturn a nearly forty-year decision that allows unions to negotiate “fair-share” fees for non-union members who benefit from the union’s contract. “We are disappointed that at a time when big corporations and the wealthy few are rewriting the rules in their favor, the Supreme Court has chosen to take a case that threatens the fundamental promise of America"...
CWA accuses Alcatel-Lucent of stealing Lucent retirees' health care funds Fierce Telecom ...The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union has filed a request with the U.S. District Court in New Jersey to get a temporary restraining order against Alcatel-Lucent over claims that the French company plans to use money for retirees' health care to cover its own pension funding obligations. Under the proposed plan, CWA said that Alcatel-Lucent will move 20,000 retirees and an additional $1.2 billion...
Verizon workers rally for contract Godanriver.com ...Verizon workers across the East Coast, including Danville, rallied over contract negotiations Thursday evening. A small group of regional workers gathered at the 141 Trade St. garage where most of the technicians that service Verizon lines in Danville base their operation. The previous contract expired on Aug. 1. Verizon employees have been working without a contract since then...
The U.S. Is Beaten By 27 Other Countries When It Comes To Women’s Equality Think Progress ...While the world has made progress closing the gap between women and men in health, education, economic participation, and political empowerment over the last decade, the United States is not keeping up. The World Economic Forum (WEF) just released its 2015 Global Gender Gap report, which showed that the gap has dropped by 4 percent in the last ten years...
Heat kills California farmworkers, but the state won't always admit it Daily Kos ...Agricultural workers have fewer job protections than most other workers even as they do physically grueling labor for low pay. It’s a vicious circle—most of the people who work in the fields come from vulnerable groups, and the low wages and lack of protections keep them vulnerable. California’s heat is one significant source of illness and even death for farmworkers. But you might not know that from the state’s official statistics...
When Temp Workers Die While Being Taken to the Job, Who’s Responsible? In These Times ...Since the Great Recession, the temporary staffing industry has boomed, and temp employment has accounted for significant portions of rebounding job growth. Temps—who are employed by agencies and whose labor is simply rented out by third-party businesses—have become seen as some of America’s most vulnerable workers. Labor advocates say that, in treating workers as replaceable units of labor, the temp industry can overlook workers’ most basic human needs...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Many Americans Have Criminal Records as College Diplomas Truthout ...The number of Americans with a criminal history has risen sharply over the past three decades. Today, nearly one-third of the adult working age population has a criminal record. In fact, so many Americans have a criminal record that counting them all is nearly impossible...
How Prison Reform Could Turn the Prison-Industrial Complex Into the Treatment-Industrial Complex The Nation ... many of the dollars expected to be “saved” from shuttering prisons may simply be funneled into privatized “alternatives to incarceration” like parole programs and halfway houses. These operations are often run by the household names of the prison business—they’re simply moving from behind bars to the so-called “treatment-industrial complex”...
Wall Street's Reprieve Expires The Atlantic ...Financial-regulation legislation—or efforts to stop it—ranks among the trickiest political knots that the White House and Congress have to unravel if they want to keep with their October budget compromise and fund the government. Democrats and Republicans in Congress—though not in the country at large—still line up on opposite sides of the fence...
Trump Supporters Punch, Kick Black Lives Matter Protester at Rally Slate ...Several people taking part in a rally for Donald Trump in Birmingham, Alabama pushed down, kicked, and punched a black protester. At least six Trump supporters shoved and tackled the protester, while one man punched the demonstrator and a woman kicked him while he was on the ground, according to CNN. One even attempted to choke the protester...
France Asks UN to Back 'Merciless' Military Response to Paris Attacks Common Dreams ...Just days after French President François Hollande vowed a "merciless" response to the Paris attacks, his government on Thursday submitted a resolution for the United Nations Security Council to "take all necessary measures" against ISIS. The French proposal, which could face a vote as early as Friday, competes with a separate one re-submitted by Russia this week...
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